Why Romaine Lettuce and Spinach Keep Trying To Kill Us, and What We Can Do About It

Last week the news told us to throw out your romaine lettuce. Food-safety investigators traced the recent romaine lettuce E. coli outbreak to growing fields in California, but regulators still say it’s unsafe to eat the leafy green in 10 states including New York. As a result of this, the FDA is interested in creating a new labeling standard that would require companies to show where their lettuce comes from. Let’s take a look at Food Poisoning and its link to factory farming, and then we’ll go over supplements that can kill food born pathogens.

E. Coli, Salmonella, and Other Foodborne Illnesses

The foodborne agents causing death the majority of deaths are Salmonella (31%), Listeria (28%), Toxoplasma (21%), Norwalklike Virus (7%), Campylobacter (6%), and STEC E. coli (4%) (Meade 1999).”

For most of these agents, the clinical case fatality rate from foodborne infection is less than 1% but note that for Listeria and Toxoplasma the clinical case fatality rate is 20%. Note also that these averages obscure strong relationships between important factors, such as age and co-morbidity, and disease risk. – John M. Gay

Not all E. coli is bad. You probably have more than one kind of E. coli in your gut right now. It’s a normal part of our healthy bacteria, and they help us digest food, amongst other things. E. coli O157:H7, on the other hand, is pathogenic and can cause bloody diarrhea, sometimes cause kidney failure, and even death.

Recommended: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

E. coli cause disease when the bacteria produces a toxin called Shiga toxin. These bacteria are called “Shiga toxin-producing E. coli,” or STEC for short. O157 is the most common STEC identified in the U.S.

When you hear news reports about outbreaks of E. coli infections, they are usually talking about E. coli O157.” – CDC

The CDC estimates that STEC causes 265,000 illness, 3,600 hospitalizations, and 30 deaths yearly in the U.S.

Trump’s FDA, responding to pressure from the farm industry, delayed the water-testing rules for at least four more years.

E. coli O157:H7 is believed to have evolved from E. coli O55:H7. That strain is also resistant to antibiotics and acidity and can be pathogenic, but O157 is more antibiotic resistant, more able to resist acidity, and more likely to make us sick. Antibiotic resistance allows the bacteria to not just survive, but to thrive in an environment where antibiotics are being administered. The reason for this is when you wipe out competing microbes, the few survivors can proliferate. Factory farming is likely to blame for much the E. coli in our lettuce, and it’s possible that the O157 variant wouldn’t even exist without factory farming.

E. Coli O157:H7 doesn’t always make us sick, but people with weaker immune systems are much more susceptible.

And there’s also the well-known bacteria, salmonella, which is said to be the most common cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. There are actually more than 2,000 different types of salmonella bacteria and these bacteria can cause several types of infection. Most often, these bacteria cause gastroenteritis, but they can also cause typhoid fever, a more serious infection.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium subtype DT104 appears to be the most likely Salmonella to give us serious trouble, It’s drug-resistant and becoming more and more widespread both in the U.S. and internationally. Again, we have factory farming to blame.

The CDC says that Salmonella is responsible for approximately 1.2 million illnesses a year in the United States, with 23,000 hospitalizations and 450 deaths. Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps. The illness typically runs for 4 to 7 days, and most recover without treatment. Stomach acid tends to destroy Salmonella. One must consume a large amount of the bacteria for an infection to develop unless people have a deficiency of stomach acid. This makes those on acid-indigestion medications more susceptible.

We also have factory farming to thank for many of the Campylobacter outbreaks. Though it’s not commonly reported, Campylobacter bacteria infects an estimated 2.4 million people yearly, making it one of the most common foodborne illnesses, according to the CDC. It’s generally mild and often unnoticed but it can occasionally kill those with weak immune systems. Campylobacter lives in the intestinal tract of birds and can be transmitted from bird to bird through common drinking water and feces contact.

Norovirus, Toxoplasmosis, and Listeria round out the five most common culprits of food poisoning in America. Noroviruses and Toxoplasmosis aren’t infections that can be tied to factory farming. Listeria doesn’t have a mutated cousin that we can blame factory farming for, but just like with other foodborne infections, poor food handling, and poor animal welfare standards do play a large part, and factory farming is often responsible for contaminating produce with Listeria.

When medical researchers at the University of Minnesota took more than 1,000 food samples from multiple retail markets, they found evidence of fecal contamination in 69% of the pork and beef and 92% of the poultry samples. Nine out of ten chicken carcasses in the store may be contaminated with fecal matter. And half of the poultry samples were contaminated with the UTI-causing E. coli bacteria.” – Dr. Michael Greger

How Factory Farming Is Poisoning Our Vegetables

We believe that raw fruits, vegetables, and herbs are absolutely critical to achieving great health, especially when one is attempting to heal from disease. But the CDC reports that around half of all foodborne illnesses are actually caused by raw produce. How does this happen?

Cattle, pig, and poultry factories dump millions of gallons of putrefying waste into massive open-air cesspools, which leak and contaminate nearby water sources used for irrigating crops. That’s one of the most common ways that a deadly fecal pathogen like Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 can end up contaminating our spinach.

Produce farmers weren’t required to test their irrigation water for pathogens like E. coli or Salmonella. But in 2011, after several high-profile disease outbreaks, Congress ordered a program requiring produce growers to begin testing their water under rules crafted by the Obama administration’s Food and Drug Administration. The program was just about to go into effect when Trump’s FDA, responding to pressure from the farm industry, delayed the water-testing rules for at least four more years. This decision was made six months ago.

On November 26th, the FDA announced that it had traced an E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce back to growing regions in parts of central and northern California. A previous outbreak was traced back to Yuma farms in California, which were voluntarily testing their water for pathogens. Most of California’s farmers are now testing for pathogens in their water sources. It’s likely that the most recent contamination comes from a farm or farms that have been testing their water.

Villaneva and Gary Waugaman said the monthly testing is not foolproof; it minimizes, but doesn’t eliminate, the risks. Also, pathogens from livestock and other animals can get into crops from wind, dust and other means.” – Dirty Farm Water Is making Us Sick

It appears that even when the water is clean, local animals may be picking up pathogens from animal farms and depositing them into the produce farms.

How To Avoid Food Poisoning

Smaller farms are usually a safer bet but by no means is this a guarantee against foodborne pathogens. We recommend getting to know your local farmers at your local farmer’s markets. Ask questions.

Take steps to avoid cross-contamination. This is likely to be one of the biggest reasons people get sick from food pathogens. For example, researchers at the University of Arizona found more fecal bacteria in household kitchens than they found swabbing the toilets. The bacteria was found in dish towels, rags, sponges, and on the sink drains and cutting boards.

Many of the experts are recommending that everyone be sure to cook all of their vegetables and herbs. This may increase safety but it ignores long-term health. We don’t have an easy answer for this issue. We advise, first and foremost, to stay healthy! A healthy gut has a wide array of bacteria that can make it very difficult for pathogens to take over. A healthy gut provides the entire body with beneficial bacteria that work as part of our immune system, which limits pathogenic activity throughout the entire body. Strong stomach acid makes it very hard for salmonella and many other pathogens to even get to the gut. You need a healthy digestive system to fend off pathogens. And the way one develops a robust, healthy digestive system is, in large part, by eating a lot of raw fresh vegetables and herbs. Therein lies the catch. It’s almost as is Big Pharma designed factory farms. That’s not the case, but it is too convenient that the government entities telling us how to eat are basically bought off by the drug companies while they make recommendations that don’t take our long-term health into consideration.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

Supplements For Food Poisoning

I recommend 100% pure cranberry juice to have on hand at all times. For anything kidney related, real unadulterated cranberry juice is a godsend. Cranberry juice can help alleviate UTIs, cramping, and diarrhea.

My favorite antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antiviral supplement is Berberine. Many studies show how potent this herb is, and there have even been a few studies regarding its efficacy on foodborne pathogens, and it looks promising. I have taken it, personally, when I had minor food poisoning and it seemed to get rid of it quickly. I took ten of the 500mg capsules. My friend, who also ate at the same restaurant and suffered the same gastroenteritis did not opt for the naturopathic approach and did not fare so well. But, I also had a healthier gut to begin with.

Other options, which should be in every natural-based medicine cabinet, include activated charcoal (I recommend this Intestinal Detox which has activated charcoal in it), oil of oregano, and a mushroom complex (the first one on that list is my favorite). It’s also a good idea to take a probiotic before and after eating at restaurants or anytime you could catch a foodborne pathogen. Activated charcoal is also used in hospitals for food poisoning. It will attach to toxins and allow your body to flush them out easily. oil of oregano and the mushroom complex are strong antimicrobials, though Berberine is even stronger. A probiotic can help digest food and make it much more difficult for pathogens to colonize.

Takeaways

The most important thing we can do is stay healthy (or get healthy), and vote with our wallets. Get to know your local farmer’s markets, get to know the farmers, and START GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD! If you don’t have any space for a garden, start growing sprouts.

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Common and Unexpected Causes of Candida Overgrowth

There are more microbial cells than human cells in our bodies. Collectively the microbes are called the microbiome. Many different kinds of bacterial and non-bacterial organisms make up this microbiome. We breathe in and swallow some of them, but most are produced in our gut based on the foods we eat. Most of these microbes are in our gut, but they also reside almost everywhere else in the body. Our gut supplies our body with these microbes. In other words, even a healthy gut leaks. Beneficial microbes crowd out pathogens and help keep infections from setting in all over the body. A gut teeming with pathogenic activity supplies the body with pathogens. It’s imperative that the gut houses a diverse, healthy microbiome for the body’s immune system to function properly.

Candida resides in a healthy human gut, in the yeast form. A healthy gut colony will keep this yeast in check. In an unhealthy gut, yeast is allowed to flourish. It converts into its fungal form, grows filamentous, burrows into the gut lining, and then deposits yeast spores into the bloodstream. This also causes the gut to become “leaky”, which is to say it’s much more porous than it is supposed to be, and consequently, undigested proteins and pathogens leak into the bloodstream. This causes an immune response. If we didn’t live in such an antibacterial world with such an incredible abundance of sugars, candida would not thrive like this, but it is a tremendously versatile and opportunistic pathogen when left unchecked.

If candida is allowed to take over the gut and form its own biofilm, it becomes incredibly difficult to kill. The spores produced are nearly impossible to kill. For more on this, check Why is Candida So Hard To Kill. It’s freaky what these microbes can do!

Inflammation

An abundance of candida in the body is known to cause chronic inflammation, but what’s less common knowledge is the feedback loop this creates.

Pathogens feed off of sugars, starches, and fats (lipids). Our cells are made up of sugars, starches, and fats. Some pathogens prefer one over the other. For instance, Lyme bacteria want starches, and candida loves sugars.

Pathogens flourish in a damaged body and the presence of these pathogens causes more inflammation. When cells die, they also trigger an inflammatory response. Chronic inflammation also causes more cellular damage, leading to more cellular die-off. A chronically inflamed body is a damaged body with a lot of damaged and decaying cells that are feeding pathogens creating a positive feedback loop.

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Alcohol

Alcohol kills beneficial bacteria in the gut. It can kill fungi too, but candida spores are virtually indestructible and its biofilm can protect the microbe from alcohol as well. In other words, you’re disrupting your beneficial bacteria which allows candida to flourish. Alcohol can also raise your blood sugar which can feed candida and other pathogens through the body.

Alcohol also damages cells.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics kill bacteria, leaving fungal infections to flourish. Some antibiotics also kill fungi including candida, but nothing adequately kills fungal spores. And even if something did, they’ll be back faster than a healthy bacterial ecosystem could develop to curtail the candida and other pathogens.

Vaccines

Research has shown us that some vaccines will disrupt the gut’s microbiota. In addition to that, one’s gut microbiota affects how the host interacts with vaccines. A less healthy bacterial colony in the gut is more likely to lead to an immune response with inflammation throughout the body, which in turn can also, eventually disrupt the gut microbiota. Intestinal injuries caused by the rotavirus vaccine have been added to the government compensation program for adverse events. With the recent findings of how vaccines are more likely to cause damage with an undeveloped gut microbiome, scientists are very interested in how gut bacteria and vaccinations interact. We should see a lot more scientific discoveries about this issue in the near future.

Amalgam Fillings

When dental amalgam fillings are in the mouth, tiny particles break free and mercury vapor is released, inhaled, and swallowed. Incidentally, the mercury release is 50 times higher for those who have mercury fillings capped with gold. For a multitude of reasons, the body can’t get rid of mercury easily.

Mercury suppresses the immune system and creates an environment that is not friendly for beneficial bacteria, but candida doesn’t mind it. In fact, candida and many other fungi love toxic heavy metals and actually thrive with mercury present.

“Mercury fed Candida become more and more virulent and eventually penetrates the intestinal walls and invades the cells. These fungal microorganisms become quite at home in the cell, and can easily be considered a principle characteristic of cancer.” – Dr. Mark Sircus

Antiacids

Many people are under the mistaken impression that all disease needs acidity to thrive. This is not true. It depends on the disease. Candida likes alkalinity. The presence of candida can help to make the body very acidic, but the areas where fungal candida thrives will be less acidic. Antacids raise the PH (less acidic) of the entire digestive tract. This can cause candida to infect the stomach, which is normally far too acidic for it.

All Pharmaceuticals

Virtually all pharmaceuticals, from vaccines to Aspirin, have toxic properties which cause cellular damage that pathogens including candida will feed off of.

Smoking

Sugar is added to tobacco products. We’re not sure if inhaling the smoke from burning sugar can feed Candida or other pathogens, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it does. Regardless, the toxicity of tobacco products causes other problems that promote Candida overgrowth (and other pathogenic activity).

Smoking adds a plethora of toxic heavy metals into the body, and yeast, as mentioned above, likes toxic heavy metals. Smoking and the use of other tobacco products also affect liver function.

Every time you light a cigarette, nicotine triggers the liver to dump a large amount of glycogen into the blood stream. The blood sugar level is brought up too high, so the body calls on the pancreas to bring it back down.” – Cynthia Perkins, Holstic Help

Smoking affects the entire body, not just the liver and lungs. Smoking damages cells and causes inflammation and constriction everywhere. It also inflames and constricts the intestinal tract (if you smoke, you may notice the need to have a bowel movement after smoking). Some confuse this with “relaxing the bowels” but the truth is there is less room for digestion and so the stool is evacuated before digestion is complete. Smoking also causes rectal discharge. And smoking constricts and inflames the kidneys as well, which has the opposite effect compared to the intestinal tract. Kidneys process fluid at a slower rate and fluids can become rancid and infectious.

Juicing

Juicing has lots of benefits, but that carrot, beet, apple juice can do more harm than good for some people with an abundance of Candida in their gut. Juicing removes the fiber and other nutrients from the fruits and vegetables, and these nutrients are needed to feed a healthy gut microbiome. What’s left are sugars. If you’re just juicing kale, turmeric, lemons, collards, and garlic, or something like that, feel free to keep on juicing. But if you’re sweetening your juices with sweet fruits or carrots or beets, it doesn’t take much to make candida happy.

Fruit

We’re not saying that fruit is bad, but anyone who is suffering from an over-abundance of candida needs to lay off the fruit (not including lemons, limes, cranberries, granny smith apples, and other non-sweet fruits). Fruit is much sweeter than it used to be. Even on an all-natural, unrefined, raw food diet, we have way more access to sugar than our paleolithic ancestors did. Google wild bananas and check out what watermelon used to look like. Not only was fruit seasonal and harder to come by, but it was also much more fibrous and mealy, and much less “fruity.”

Condiments

Many condiments including salad dressings, mustards, ketchup, and hot sauces have sweeteners in them. Even without sweeteners, they are typically refined and processed with the addition of too many unnecessary ingredients. Read the ingredient labels. Better yet, make your own condiments, and use more herbs and better cooking methods to add flavor to your meals.

Organic Junk Food

Refind and processed foods fed pathogens including candida. Let’s take chips for instance. Chips often have sugar in them, including the organic varieties, but even those sugar-free brown rice and bean chips can still feed candida. Brown rice is ok for most people who aren’t very ill. When digesting brown rice, provided the gut has enough bacterial activity to do the job properly, fiber-loving gut microbes get to eat and proliferate first, before the sugar and starch molecules are exposed. But if you grind brown rice into a flour to make chips or pasta with it, you’re exposing the sugars and starches. The digestive process is altered. This is why it’s better to eat, cook with, and chew your own whole foods. Looking at those same chips as an example, the bean flour used is laden with enzyme inhibitors (unless the corporation making the food soaked and sprouted those beans properly, which is doubtful!) Enzyme inhibitors disrupt healthy gut microbiome, inhibit nutrient assimilation, and damage the digestive system. Similar examples exist for almost every single pre-packaged, processed food item in your organic health-food store.

Conclusion

When you’re chronically ill, forget the store-bought cereal, boxed nut milk, nut butters, chips, “healthy” chocolates, and food bars. To build up healthy bacterial colonies in the gut, you a variety of need whole foods. Nothing helps to grow a healthy microbiome like huge, diverse salads. Check out this article, Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting for a recipe for gut-healing salads and be sure to read How To Heal Your Gut.

Fungal Supplement Stack – Knock Out Yeast, Candida, Mold, Fungus

The first three should be plenty for most people, but for really prominent fungal issues or for impatient people with a bigger budget I’d recommend all of these:

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Chemotherapy Detox

Chemotherapy drugs kill pathogens and beneficial bacteria, and they add a heavy toxic burden to the body. The circulatory system, endocrine system, lymphatic system, and every other system will be overwhelmed with toxins after using chemotherapy drugs, and soon the body will be inundated with pathogenic fungi. While chemotherapy will likely kill fungus, the fungal spores survive. And when there is nothing left to keep them in check, the spores will turn fungal and flourish. We recommend healing the gut and detoxifying the liver to recover from chemotherapy. Diet is crucial to this program, and we recommend continuing on with this diet to avoid another cancer diagnosis.

Gut Health 102

Gut bacteria defines your health. Science is in the process of figuring this out. One big reason gut bacteria is paramount to good health is that your gut bacteria do not stay in your gut. Our microbes that proliferate in our gut reside throughout our whole body. A healthy gut pushes healthy microbes into the bloodstream. It follows that an unhealthy gut ecosystem will leak unhealthy (pathogenic) microbes into the body.

They say that your gut comprises 80% of your immune system. That’s sort of true. A healthy gut has thousands of different bacteria that live in harmony. A less healthy gut has fewer kinds of bacteria inside. Fungi and other pathogens will easily flourish in such a gut. When there is an injury in the body pathogens and beneficial bacteria do the same thing; they feed off of the sugars and starches of the dead and decaying cells. Pathogens cause more damage to the area, beneficial bacteria do not. Because of how beneficial bacteria works, they make it difficult for pathogens to flourish. A healthy gut feeds the body a colony of beneficial microbes that help keep pathogenic activity from proliferating.

Diet

Beneficial bacteria like healthy food. Pathogens like unhealthy food. Your diet should primarily consist of the healthiest foods, lots of raw vegetables and herbs. We recommend 80% raw vegetables and 20% cooked vegetables and healthy whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, amaranth, and millet. Raw produce is high in fiber, which is essential for gut health. Fiber not only moves toxins through the bowels, but it also provides the perfect environment for healthy bacteria to thrive. Buy organic whenever possible, but small farms at your local farmer’s market may have organic food that they don’t certify (certification can be expensive).

Choose a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods. Eat huge salads every day with at least 12 different vegetables and a few fresh herbs. Pack your gut with raw vegetables and herbs every day and your gut will produce a variety of beneficial bacteria. There is no shortcut to this!

If you eat meat, make sure you choose organic meat. You do not want to eat meat from diseased animals fed hormones and antibiotics. Avoid processed foods, and do not eat any foods with artificial flavorings, colorings, preservatives, MSG, or trans fats. Avoid all GMOs. And do not let anyone cook your food for you. No rice cakes, no organic chips, no restaurant food, get completely well before you splurge. We also recommend cranberry lemonade made with stevia to help detoxify the kidneys and the liver. Check out Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included and Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet for more on diet.

Supplements To Kill and Prevent Yeast, Candida, Mold, Fungus

Chemotherapy will leave a body ripe for fungal infections, but a body with cancer was a body that was probably already dealing with fungal issues. The supplements below will help properly balance the gut’s ecosystem. SF722 kills all fungi, and it works amazingly well. Berberine is a potent antimicrobial. The Candida Complex and the Microdefense are two good supplement complexes that eliminate pathogens as well. Syntol and Abzorb are probiotics. In the past doctors have warned against using probiotics during chemo treatments but now well-informed doctors are recommending that probiotics should be taken a few hours after chemotherapy drug administrations for better treatment outcomes. Abzorb also has a systemic enzyme that will help break down Candida along with many other benefits.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

Liver Cleanse

The cranberry lemonade recipe mentioned in Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting is very beneficial for the liver and kidneys. If money is tight, put the money towards food first, and just get the SF722 and the Abzorb, above. But if it’s affordable, we also recommend a liver detox with  Shillington’s Blood Detox Tea, (and/or formula) Shillington’s Liver & Gallbladder Tea (and/or formula), and Mother Earth Organic Root Cider – Barrier Island Organics.

Enhanced Golden Milk Tea Recipe

This is a new twist on an ancient way of experiencing the benefits of turmeric. Ideally, use all fresh, unadulterated herbs whenever available. This will help detoxify the body, and it feels really good.

  • 1 cup of warm Coconut Milk
  • 1 ounce of turmeric juice, or 1 tablespoon of freshly grated turmeric (both should be with skin)
  • 1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
  • 1 ounce of ginger juice or 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger (both should be with skin)
  • 1 pinch of black pepper
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper

Mix it all up and drink. For the drink to be warm, warm up the coconut milk only, but be careful not to cook the other ingredients. Add them in when the coconut milk is not too hot to drink so as to preserve enzymes and other fragile micronutrients.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Conclusion

It all comes down to gut health. We can’t harp on this enough. For healing from chemotherapy to preventing cancer, gut health is paramount. Don’t skip and don’t skimp on the salads. If you do nothing else from this article, we hope you’ll start eating large, diverse salads as often as possible. Salads change the gut ecology for the better. Nothing else makes as big of a difference.

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GMO Potatoes Are Here – How To Avoid Them

The genetically modified Innate potato was approved by the USDA in 2014. The “Innate” potato is a group of potato varieties that have had the same genetic alterations applied using a new form of genetic engineering known as RNA interference (RNAi). Five different potato varieties have been transformed, including the Ranger Russet, Russet Burbank, and Atlantic potatoes. Simplot also has two proprietary varieties. Simplot has designed the potato to reduce spotting, browning, and bruising by lowering certain enzymes and to reduce the amount of asparagine, a naturally occurring chemical that converts to acrylamide under heat, which is believed to be a cancer-causing carcinogen.

Simplot has also received approval for two other genetically modified (GMO) potato varieties which are resistant to late blight, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine. They also last longer in storage. As far as we know, the only GMO potatoes being sold for consumption are under the label “White Russet.” The Non-GMO Project is now classifying the Russet potato as “high risk.”

The potato has been added to the High-Risk list of the Non-GMO Project Standard because a GMO potato variety is now “widely commercially available” in the United States. To determine when a crop needs to be moved from the Monitored-Risk list to the High-Risk list, the Project uses an established set of criteria related to the likelihood of GMO contamination in the conventional and non-GMO supply chain. As a result of today’s move, products made with potato will now be subject to extra scrutiny before they can become Non-GMO Project Verified.” – The Non-GMO Project

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

How To Avoid the White Russet GMO Potato

For starters, avoid any potatoes labeled as “White Russet.” For now, in the produce section, they are being sold in  a bag labeled “White Russet Potatoes.” If history has taught us anything, contamination is likely to be an issue soon, so it may be best to avoid russet potatoes altogether unless they are organic or of the red russet variety. Another option is to check for spots. From the outside, these genetically modified potatoes look similar to their russet non-GMO counterpart except the White Russet should not have any of the common spottings you would see on a russet potato. If peeled or cut in half, a non-GMO Russet potato will begin to develop browning and dark spots within a minute or two. See the video below:

Related: How To Avoid GMO Apples

An easy way to avoid GMO potatoes is to make sure they are organic. This also ensures that your potatoes won’t be grown with as many pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Irradiation techniques are also not allowed with organic crops either.

Avoid processed foods with potato ingredients like frozen dinners with potatoes, powdered potatoes, canned soups with potatoes, and potato chips, unless the foods are labeled non-GMO. Of course, we also recommend avoiding processed foods, but if you must, buy organic or at least non-GMO.

Avoid russet potatoes when eating out unless you can get assurances that the potatoes used are non-GMO. We also recommend eating more sweet potatoes and growing your own potatoes. Also, check out How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering.



Artificial Sweeteners Can Harm Gut Bacteria and May Lead To Diabetes, Obesity, and Cardiovascular Disease

U.S. consumption of artificial sweeteners has risen substantially in the last 20 years. Soda likely comes to mind, but aspartame and sucralose are being put into more and more products from bread to toothpaste. As more studies are being done, artificial sweeteners seem to be connected to more and more negative health consequences. That’s probably because they’re poison.

Artificial Sweeteners May Harm Gut Bacteria

Ariel Kushmaro is a professor of microbial biotechnology at Ben-Gurion University. He told Business Insider, “My recommendation is to not use artificial sweeteners.” Kushmaro and his team performed a study with common artificial sweeteners and E. coli bacteria. Don’t confuse this bacteria with the kind that makes us sick; E. coli is a beneficial bacteria in healthy human intestines.

Factory farming is how we get the “superbug” variety of E. coli. The “superbug” variety of E. Coli can happen when a cow is fed a very acidic, glyphosate-heavy grain diet while being pumped full of antibiotics. Whatever doesn’t kill you…

Researchers exposed the E. coli to six artificial sweeteners including aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), sucralose (Splenda), and saccharin (Sweet’N Low). They also subjected the bacteria to various protein powders and flavoring packets that use artificial sweeteners.

After dosing the E. coli bacteria with artificial sweeteners ‘hundreds of times,’ Kushmaro concluded the sweeteners had a toxic, stressing effect, making it difficult for gut microbes to grow and reproduce. The researchers think that a couple of artificially sweetened sodas or coffees a day could be enough to have an influence on gut health —and could even make it tougher for the body to process regular sugar and other carbohydrates.” – Business Insider

Obviously, we need more testing. Fortunately, Kushmaro plans to run more of these kinds of experiments to see how artificial sweeteners alter the human gut microbiome.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

Artificial Sweeteners Won’t Reduce Appetite, or Satisfy Sugar Cravings

Sugar-sweetened foods trigger hormones throughout the body and chemicals in the brain that leaves us feeling satisfied after eating. The phenomenon, how it works, is similar to what happens with addiction to drugs. The satisfaction is short-lived, but it’s there. But artificial sweeteners don’t provide the sugar, or any calories for that matter, so scientists say the “food reward” system is never activated. This is probably why artificial sweeteners are shown to increase appetite, and sugar cravings as well.

Some researchers believe that artificial sweeteners do not satisfy our biological sugar cravings in the same manner as sugar, and could therefore lead to increased food intake. However, the evidence is mixed.” – Healthline

Related: Healthy Sugar Alternative and More

Artificial Sweeteners May Promote Obesity

In addition to promoting overeating, there are other mechanisms with which artificial sweeteners may promote weight gain. Sweet taste receptors are found not just in the mouth, but also in the bladder, the lungs, and our bones. Recent research looked at how artificial sweeteners affect our cells that make up our fat stores.

The new research, results of which were presented at ENDO 2018, the 100th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Chicago, looks at the effect that artificial sweeteners have on the cells that make up our fat stores. These cells have a glucose transporter (a protein that helps glucose get into a cell) called GLUT4 on their surface and, when we eat more sugar, the cells take up more glucose, accumulate more fat and become larger. The researchers in this latest study found that the artificial sweetener, sucralose, commonly found in diet foods and drinks, increases GLUT4 in these cells and promotes the accumulation of fat. These changes are associated with an increased risk of becoming obese.” – The Conversation

Artificial Sweeteners May Lead To Diabetes

Dr. Brian Hoffman, George Ronan, and Dhanush Haspula are the authors of a new study that found a link between consuming artificial sweeteners and changes in the blood that increases the prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Researchers found that acesulfame potassium, a sugar substitute, accumulated in the blood of rats tested. This accumulation of potassium harmed the cells that line blood vessels. The study indicates that artificial sweeteners can alter how the body processes fat and how we use energy at a cellular level. According to the authors, this vascular impairment may lead to diabetes (and obesity).

Gut ecology plays a huge role in disease, including diabetes, and medical science is at the forefront of realizing this. A potential new treatment hailed to be a likely medical breakthrough removed the mucous membrane of the small intestine to cure type 2 diabetes. The treatment inserts a balloon into the small intestine and inflates the balloon with hot water, hot enough to kill the gut’s mucous membrane. Within two weeks, if the patients eat well enough, a healthier membrane develops.

By destroying the mucous membrane in the small intestine and causing a new one to develop, scientists stabilized the blood sugar levels of people with type 2 diabetes. The results have been described as ‘spectacular’ – albeit unexpected – by the chief researchers involved. In the hourlong procedure, trialled on 50 patients in Amsterdam, a tube with a small balloon in its end is inserted through the mouth of the patient down to the small intestine.

“Even a year after the treatment, the disease was found to be stable in 90% of those treated. It is believed there is a link between nutrient absorption by the mucous membrane in the small intestine and the development of insulin resistance among people with type 2 diabetes.” – The Guardian

It stands to reason that if foods and chemicals like artificial sweeteners negatively influence our gut ecosystem, this damage may promote diabetes, as well as a host of other chronic illness.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Artificial Sweeteners May Contribute to Cardiovascular Disease and More

Researchers from the University of Manitoba’s George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation reviewed 37 trials that followed a total of more than 400,000 people for an average of 10 years. The study showed a link between artificial sweetener consumption and increased risk of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and other health issues.

Artificial Sweeteners Are Likely To Promote Candida

Modern health loves to compartmentalize everything. Natural health practitioners generally have a more holistic outlook. Our belief is and has been, that toxic chemicals do damage to the body in a myriad of ways, including damage to the gut microbiome. Damaging the gut’s ecosystem has long-lasting, far-reaching consequences to virtually every facet of health.

Damage feeds candida and other pathogens. Cells in the body are made up of sugars and starches. When these cells are damaged they can feed pathogens. A healthy gut feeds the body with healthy, beneficial bacteria (it’s a misnomer that all bacteria is supposed to stay in the gut). An unhealthy gut with pathogens feeds the whole body pathogens.

Toxic chemicals damage the gut’s ecosystem and they also do damage all over the body in various ways. This promotes pathogenic proliferation. Candida is a normal part of a healthy gut colony, but if beneficial bacteria is damaged enough candida is very likely to take over. If not candida, other another fungus is likely there ready and waiting. It’s nearly impossible to kill fungal spores. Once they proliferate it’s a challenge to get them under control, especially with our modern sugar and toxin-laden diets.

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections


How to Reverse Insulin Resistance: The Secret is Sensitive Cells

The relationship between your cells and your hormones determines, to a large extent, how healthy you are.

For example, when our cells are resistant to the effects of insulin (one of the main anabolic and energy-storage hormones in the body), we have a higher chance of developing metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

In contrast, insulin sensitive cells are able to efficiently and effectively respond to insulin in a way that allows us to carry out many of the vital mechanisms needed to maintain health and prevent disease.

Altogether, this biological phenomenon is known as insulin sensitivity, and it plays a significant role in fat loss, hormone balance, metabolic function, and disease prevention. When the majority of our cells aren’t insulin sensitive, this can lead to a condition called insulin resistance, which significantly increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Fortunately, you won’t be stuck at a specific level of insulin resistance for the rest of your life. In fact, there are several strategies you can use to increase your receptivity to insulin and reverse insulin resistance — but before we implement them, let’s take a closer look at insulin and insulin resistance.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

What is Insulin? The Lifesaving Effects of a Highly Misunderstood Hormone

Insulin is a protein-based hormone secreted by the pancreas in response to increases in blood sugar and certain amino acids. Insulin’s primary role is to regulate the nutrients you absorb from food, primarily carbohydrates.

When you eat and digest carbs, it increases how much sugar is in your bloodstream. This is detected by the cells in your pancreas which will then secrete insulin into the blood. Once the insulin is traveling in your bloodstream, it will start binding to your cells and stimulate them to take in and utilize the sugar.

The purpose of this action is to reduce the amount of sugar in your blood and trigger the cells to use it and/or store it. This is essential for our health because abnormally high amounts of sugar in the blood can cause harm throughout the body. In some cases, having high blood sugar levels can even cause major health issues and become fatal if not managed properly.

With that being said, everything about insulin isn’t “good.” In fact, this (not so) superhero hormone hinders the one key metabolic process that allows us to lose fat: Fat burning.

Insulin, Carbs, Weight Gain, and Fat Loss: What is the Real Cause of the Obesity Epidemic?

With the increasing popularity of low-carb diets and the belief that carbs make you fat, insulin and carbs have been demonized as the reason why we gain fat. Although there is some truth to this (because insulin tends to stimulate sugar use and shut down fat burning), the hypotheses that arose from this understanding are not supported by the evidence.

For example, one of the most popular explanations for the growing obesity epidemic in westernized countries is that our carb-heavy diets keep our insulin levels so high that it prevents us from burning stored fat. This is known as the “Carbohydrate-Insulin Hypothesis,” and it’s touted as the main reason for why low carb diets, like the ketogenic diet or the Atkin’s diet, are so effective at boosting fat loss.

Makes sense, right? Just cut the carbs to decrease insulin levels, and you will trigger fat burning and lose fat. This hypothesis is accurate in some aspects, but it neglects the bigger picture.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

If we consider the totality of the biochemistry and physiology of digestion and energy metabolism — without exaggerating insulin’s effects on fat cells — insulin is simply one piece of information that feeds into what the body decides to do.

Put in another way: insulin provides our cells with info regarding glucose availability and energy status, and our cells will integrate that information with all the other information they have about their own energy status, needs, and abilities to come up with the appropriate actions.

The ultimate result is that cells burn energy when they need fuel and stop burning energy when they don’t — insulin is just one of the hormones involved in the decision-making process of the cells. This means that your energy intake (i.e., calorie consumption) is the ultimate determining factor of whether you gain or lose weight. Insulin is but one of the multitude of factors that determines what you do with the calories you consume.

The Relationship between Insulin, Insulin Resistance, and Insulin Sensitivity

With this deeper understanding of the relationship between insulin and our cells, a much more accurate model of insulin resistance arises as well. Although carbs are the main reason why insulin is released, what is going in the cell is the ultimate determinant of how it will respond to that insulin.

Thus, the key to reversing insulin resistance as a whole is increasing the insulin sensitivity of each individual cell. Sounds simple enough, but how can accomplish such a solely cellular feat? To answer this question, we must develop a better sense of insulin sensitivity.

What is Insulin Sensitivity Exactly?

Insulin sensitivity is the term that we use to describe how the cells in our body respond to insulin. The more insulin sensitive your cells are, the more responsive they will be to insulin, and vice versa.

To measure this phenomenon objectively, we need to figure out how much insulin your body needs to produce to deposit a certain amount of glucose (sugar). You are considered insulin sensitive if your body only needs to secrete a small amount of insulin to deposit glucose into the cells, and you are considered insulin resistant when you need a higher than normal dose of insulin for the cells to respond.

Insulin sensitivity has turned into a widespread phenomenon in the weight loss industry because of the strong correlation between insulin sensitivity and body fat percentage. The research literature suggests that increasing your insulin sensitivity (which also means decreasing your insulin resistance)  will reduce your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and Alzheimer’s disease. In other words, if you want to lose fat and improve your overall health, it is probably best to optimize your insulin sensitivity.

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

What Determines How Insulin Resistant You Are?

Both modifiable and non-modifiable factors determine the degree to which you are insulin sensitive or insulin resistant.

Non-modifiable factors are factors that cannot be changed. Some examples of non-modifiable factors that decrease insulin sensitivity are:

  • Increasing age. Research has found increasing age to be associated with increased insulin resistance. However, it is possible to prevent this decline in insulin sensitivity with the lifestyle changes we will talk about later.
  • Genetics. Your genes can determine how sensitive certain cells are to insulin. For one example of what I mean by this, check out our article on polycystic ovary syndrome — a condition that is intimately linked with cells that were left vulnerable to insulin resistance by specific genes.
  • A family history of type 2 diabetes. The combination of genetic and environmental factors that come with your family history can leave you with a higher risk of developing insulin resistance.
  • Ethnic background. If you are of African-American, Asian-American, Latino/Hispanic-American, Native American, or Pacific Islander descent, you have a greater likelihood of developing insulin resistance.

In contrast, the modifiable factors (i.e., what you can actually do to increase your insulin sensitivity)  are

  • losing weight
  • reducing stress levels
  • maintaining a calorie deficit
  • decreasing caffeine consumption
  • eating less processed foods and sugar
  • exercising
  • getting adequate sleep
  • taking specific supplements and/or drugs that decrease insulin resistance
  • fasting/intermittent fasting
  • and many more that we will take a closer look at later in this article

By neglecting to use these modifiable risk factors to your advantage, you will steadily reduce your insulin sensitivity and set the stage for insulin resistance and the conditions that come with it.

The Big Picture — Insulin Sensitivity and Insulin Resistance

The physiology of insulin resistance is so complex that we aren’t even close to explaining it all. However, it is possible to distill our learnings into one simple concept that will help you understand what causes insulin resistance and increases insulin sensitivity for most people:

  • Increased energy status will cause your cells to become more insulin resistant and less insulin sensitive over time.
  • Decreased energy status will cause your cells to become less insulin resistant and more insulin sensitive over time.

By energy status, I mean the current state of your cells. Are they being bathed in energy molecules without any demand to use it up? This is “high energy status”, and it occurs when we are inactive and overeat.

In contrast, if your cells are in need of more energy to keep up with your body’s demands, then this indicates that you are in “low energy status.” As a result, your cells will increase their sensitivity to insulin so that they don’t miss out on the opportunity to get more fuel.

To further illustrate the big picture of insulin resistance, here is a graph from an article published in Comprehensive Physiology:

This graph depicts the relationships between insulin secretion and insulin sensitivity. Insulin secretion rises as insulin sensitivity falls when an individual goes from a state of exercise training/being physically active (point A) to inactivity/sedentary (point B).

Conversely, insulin secretion decreases as insulin sensitivity increases when a person goes from inactivity/sedentary (point B) to physically active (point A). This is what commonly occurs in healthy individuals.

However, when insulin secretion fails to compensate for a fall in insulin sensitivity, the person will progress to prediabetes (Point C). If no changes are made at this point, the disease will progress from point C to Point D (type 2 diabetes). The only way to prevent this from happening is by improving your insulin sensitivity.

Ten Ways to Reduce Insulin Resistance and Increase Insulin Sensitivity

Luckily, insulin resistance isn’t a fixed mechanism in the body (even if you have all of the non-modifiable factors). It can be drastically improved (and potentially reversed) with simple lifestyle modifications.

Here are ten proven strategies you can use to help you optimize your insulin sensitivity:

1. Follow a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet.

Simple sugar stimulates the most insulin release of all the macronutrients so, theoretically, removing carb-rich processed foods from your diet should decrease insulin levels and improve insulin sensitivity to some degree. This speculation is backed up by the research on how low carb diets affect patients with type 2 diabetes.

Also worth noting is the fact that whole foods are much more satiating and contain more fiber than processed foods. By increasing the satiety of our diet, we tend to eat fewer calories (decreasing the energy status of our cells), and the extra fiber helps slow carbohydrate and protein absorption, decreasing our insulin requirements and reducing insulin resistance.

2. Lose Fat.

Studies have shown that having high amounts of fat, especially around your midsection, can produce harmful chemicals and hormones responsible for increasing insulin resistance and inflammation.

Simply by losing excess fat, insulin sensitivity and metabolic function will improve significantly. More specifically, one study found that a weight loss of 5 percent is all obese patients need to experience some of the positive effects of fat loss on insulin sensitivity.

One of the most effective ways to lose fat is by replacing all the processed foods with high-quality whole foods.

3. Add Fasting and/or Intermittent Fasting to Your Lifestyle.

We learned earlier that low energy status increases insulin sensitivity. Although following a healthy diet is one of the best ways to achieve a lower energy status, sprinkling in some fasting and/or intermittent fasting throughout your diet plan can help as well.

A pilot study found that intermittent fasting for 2 weeks (with a 18-20 hour fasting window) helped to improve blood sugar levels with a trend toward improved insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetics.

The research on dietary interventions for type 2 diabetes also suggests that calorie restriction is one of the major factors that can help manage and potentially reverse the disease. One way to achieve this, which was confirmed by the pilot study on intermittent fasting, is by restricting your feeding window, so you eat fewer calories throughout the day.

By eating fewer calories, you decrease your energy status, which improves overall insulin sensitivity.

However, there is one caveat to fasting and intermittent fasting for people who have diabetes. Since both forms of fasting can cause significant changes in blood sugar levels, it is best to consult your doctor before adding them to your treatment plan.

4. Add Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise to Your Weekly Schedule.

Want to improve your insulin sensitivity as rapidly as possible? Start working out, right now.

Exercise draws upon our energy stores so much that many of the cells throughout our body have to make themselves sensitive to insulin to ensure that they will get the energy they need.

Fortunately, both aerobic and anaerobic exercise will reduce your insulin resistance in a variety of ways, so the type of exercise you do is entirely up to you.

Aerobic exercise involves any form of physical activity that requires you to exercise for a prolonged period of time without rest breaks. This includes jogging, swimming, or anything where you’re moving your body at a steady state for 30 minutes or longer.

Anaerobic exercise, such as lifting weights, sprinting, and intense rowing/cycling, can also drastically improve your insulin sensitivity.

In general, it is best to aim for five hours of exercise per week. Research suggests that this is the sweet spot for significantly improving your insulin sensitivity.
To get the best results, I recommend doing a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise throughout the week. Anaerobic exercise will help you build more muscle and burn through glycogen stores, which keeps your insulin sensitivity high, while aerobic exercise will ensure that your cells never have a chance to increase their insulin resistance to unhealthy levels.

5. Reduce Your Stress Levels.

Stress, physical or emotional, causes us to secrete cortisol.

When cortisol is circulating through the blood, it stimulates various mechanisms in your body that increase your blood sugar levels, providing you with the energy you need to handle the stressful situation. One way that cortisol does this is by increasing insulin resistance.

Once the body has taken care of the stress-inducing situation, cortisol will be broken down as insulin sensitivity is restored. This response to stress is healthy and normal — in the short term.
However, most people in modern society are typically stressed for the majority of the day. With every stressor comes more cortisol, decreased insulin sensitivity, and more stress. The only way to stop this cycle is by giving your body a chance to relax and recover from your daily stressors.

Here are some helpful strategies you can use reduce your stress levels and decrease insulin resistance:

  • Meditate
  • Take a short nap
  • Do yoga, tai chi, and/or qi gong
  • Quit smoking
  • Exercise regularly
  • Maintain a good sleep schedule
  • Use adaptogenic herbs like Rhodiola and Ashwagandha
  • Supplement with vitamins and minerals that you may be deficient in (magnesium and vitamins C, E, B, and D, in particular, can help with stress)

6. Get Adequate Sleep Every Night.

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body’s hunger hormone, ghrelin, begins to fluctuate, and your cortisol levels elevate. Simply put, losing sleep will cause you to feel hungrier than usual while simultaneously increasing your stress levels and insulin resistance (thanks to cortisol).

Altogether, these hormonal changes will typically cause you to eat more and struggle to regulate glucose effectively when you do have those extra calories. The best way to counteract this is by going to sleep at the same time every night and waking up at around the same time every day after getting at least 7 hours of sleep.

7. Consume More Soluble Fiber.

Of the two types of fiber, insoluble and soluble, soluble fiber is most notable when it comes to reducing insulin resistance. This is because soluble fibers slow down the movement of food through the small intestines, which helps reduce the amount of sugar that enters your blood, decrease appetite, and lower cholesterol levels.

Not sure how to get more soluble fiber? Here are some of the healthiest sources (as long as your digestive system can tolerate them):

  • Cruciferous vegetables
  • Leafy greens
  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Sunflower seeds
  • Legumes
  • Oats

8. Add More Fruits, Vegetables, Herbs, and Spices to Your Diet.

Many studies have found that a diet rich in plant compounds from fruits and vegetables is linked to reduced insulin resistance. The healthiest plants tend to be low-carb fruits and vegetables like wild berries, leafy greens, and cruciferous vegetables.

Herbs and spices have also shown promising results for boosting insulin sensitivity. Some of the most effective are:

  • Turmeric: This powerful herb contains a compound called curcumin, which has potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It can indirectly increase insulin sensitivity by reducing free fatty acids and sugar in the blood.
  • Ginger: This popular spice is linked to increased insulin sensitivity as well. Studies have found that its active component, gingerol, makes muscle cells more receptive to sugar.
  • Garlic: Garlic has antioxidant properties that may directly increase insulin sensitivity, according to animal studies.
  • Cinnamon: This popular spice is well-known for its ability to reduce blood sugar and increase insulin sensitivity. One meta-analysis found that consuming 1/2–3 teaspoons (1–6 grams) of cinnamon daily can significantly reduce short- and long-term blood sugar levels.

9. Drink Green Tea

Green tea an excellent choice for people who are struggling to manage their blood sugar levels. Several studies have found that drinking green tea can increase insulin sensitivity and reduce blood sugar levels.

The beneficial effects of green tea could be due to its powerful antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which many studies have found to increase insulin sensitivity on its own.

Supplementing with decaffeinated green tea extract may be the best option since caffeine has been found to increase insulin resistance.

10. Experiment with Supplements that Help Reduce Insulin Resistance.

There are many supplements that can help with insulin resistance, but let’s stick with the ones that are backed by research:

  • Resveratrol: This is a polyphenolic compound that can be found in red wine and is known for its antioxidant benefits. High-quality evidence indicates that resveratrol can boost glucose uptake significantly without increasing insulin needs.
  • Alpha Lipoic Acid: Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is an organosulfur compound that is essential for aerobic energy metabolism. Many studies have reported that supplementation with this compound can help reduce insulin resistance in subjects with type 2 diabetes.
  • Berberine. This is a plant alkaloid that has been shown to lower blood glucose in many cases. Some researchers have even found berberine to be as effective as the popular diabetes drug, metformin.
  • Chromium: Some evidence indicates that this essential trace element has the ability to indirectly increase insulin sensitivity.
  • Magnesium: This essential mineral is so crucial for proper insulin signaling that magnesium deficiency can worsen insulin sensitivity.
  • Gymnema Sylvestre: It lowers blood sugar and is also called gurmar, which means “destroyer of sugar” in Hindi.

How to Know If These Changes are Reversing Your Insulin Resistance

The quickest and safest way to find out if you are insulin resistant is to get a test done by your doctor. The most reliable test is called HOMA-IR, which makes an accurate guess regarding your body’s insulin resistance by tracking your blood sugar and insulin levels over time.

You can also measure your blood sugar fluctuations directly with an oral glucose tolerance test. This test consists of multiple blood tests and the ingestion of a glucose solution as a way to see how your body handles an increase in blood sugar levels.

Despite how helpful both of these tests are, they are inconvenient and unnecessary for most people. A more accessible way to track your level of insulin resistance is by seeing how your blood work and other key health indicators change as you make the appropriate dietary and lifestyle adjustments.

For example, if your blood sugar levels, blood lipids, and blood pressure reach healthier levels, then you are most likely improving your insulin sensitivity, reducing your insulin resistance, and optimizing your health. Furthermore, if you are losing inches off your waist, then you are almost certainly making your cells more sensitive and less resistant to insulin.

Sources:


How To Eliminate Morgellons

When Morgellons disease was first recognized most doctors believed it to be a delusional disorder, that it didn’t exist, that is was most likely a combination of delusional parasitosis and obsessive picking of the skin. Doctors told their patients that Morgellons was all in their head, except for the skin lesions caused by self-abuse. Fortunately, scientists did some research. Recent studies have shown that the filaments accompanying Morgellons are composed of keratin and collagen and that is caused by the proliferation of keratinocytes and fibroblasts in epithelial tissue. Some researchers believe that the cause of this disease is an infection from a tick bite.

The study proved that filaments are not cellulose as found in cotton, linen, or other plant-based textile fibers, or chitin which would indicate fungal cells or insect exoskeletons.

They are biofilaments of human cellular origin produced by epithelial cells and stem from deeper layers of the epidermis, the upper layers of the dermis, and the root sheath of hair follicles.” – NCBI

Though studies are showing that the disease is real, conventional medicine is, of course, slow to acknowledge the disease. Googling “what causes Morgellons disease” gets you this non-answer:

Morgellons disease is a delusional disorder that leads to the belief that one has parasites or foreign material moving in, or coming out of, the skin. Morgellons disease is a little-known disorder that is often associated with nonspecific skin, nerve, and psychiatric symptoms. Some refer to it as a fiber disease.” – MedicineNet.com

But, the next article is titled, Studies show that infections–not delusion–cause Morgellons disease.

Morgellons involves many symptoms common to auto-immune sufferers including:

  • chronic, severe fatigue
  • joint pain
  • neurological problems
  • memory and cognitive disruptions (including brain fog)
  • mood changes
  • crawling sensations on and under the skin
  • the sensation of itching or biting
  • skin eruptions or lesions with little black specks on or under the skin
  • filaments or threads under the skin and erupting from the skin

Morgellons and Lyme disease have a lot in common. Both were thought to be mostly psychosomatic. Both are thought to be transmitted from a tick bite. Both are autoimmune diseases that cause the first four symptoms listed above. Both may be caused by Borrelia spirochetes (corkscrew-shaped bacteria associated with tick-borne diseases). And both can be healed through the same means.

Like many of our readers, I first heard about Morgellons Disease back in 2015 when singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell was hospitalized for the disease. In 2010, she told the Los Angeles Times, “Fibers in a variety of colors protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral.”

We published an article about the disease in 2015 and then I received more than a dozen calls and emails asking for help within a couple of months. Within the last few years, I’ve helped teach more than twenty people how to regain their health and rid their body of all Morgellons symptoms. The good news is that every single person was able to eliminate the disease.

I suspected a Morgellons was a fungus. It looks like I was wrong about that. But, whether it’s Lyme, Morgellons, diabetes, cancer, or depression, the only treatment that works is holistic with primary emphasis on gut health. The reason for this is that an unhealthy gut overwhelms the immune system, whereas a healthy immune system (one that is not overwhelmed) can rid the body of almost any disease.

Below is a list of recommended supplements, but the right diet is absolutely imperative. Don’t skimp on the diet!

Morgellons Diet and Supplement Protocol

Here are three articles I put together on diet. This is indicative of how my family eats every single day.

We start off with cranberry lemonade and a huge salad every morning. For lunch, we sometimes do a smoothie or we snack on some nuts and/or fruit or we just finish our massive 11-cup salads. For dinner, we always cook from scratch, which takes preparation and time, but it gets easier. Rice and beans, quinoa, lentils, millet, oatmeal, and amaranth are common staples for our cooked meals. We add lots of raw vegetables and herbs to our dinners as well, for instance, the rice and beans go great with chopped tomatoes and avocado, diced onions and garlic, and shredded turmeric and ginger. Eat raw herbs and cooked herbs together for maximum health benefits.

This is truly a lifestyle, not a diet, and it’s one we live every day. You may not need to go to this extreme to rid your body of disease, but I find that most who are dealing with chronic illness need to take it this far, at least for a few months.

The salads are the most important part of this protocol! In fact, they are the most important part of all of my protocols. More than supplements, more than anything save getting enough water, the right kind of salads are imperative. Eat lots of salads with tons of different vegetables and herbs. Make sure they have at least 15 different vegetables and herbs. If you could see what packing your gut with salad does to your ecosystem under a microscope, you’d understand why I’m so passionate about salads. There is nothing more beneficially life-changing than developing a salad habit when the salads are big and diverse and homemade. They do more than any supplement or any other food to clean the intestinal walls of filth and develop a beneficial gut ecosystem. And that is the key to good health. A beneficial gut microbiome is a fortress against undigested proteins and unwanted pathogens. When the gut is not well these intestinal walls allow undigested proteins and pathogens to seep into the bloodstream wrecking havoc on the immune system. Salads feed the right gut microbes and the right microbes build a healthy microbiome.

The cranberry lemonade helps keep the kidneys and liver working optimally. These organs typically get sluggish quickly when lots of pathogens are killed. If salads are #1, this cranberry lemonade is #2, and supplements are a distant #3.

For those with very serious gut issues, legumes and grains will be a no-no for the first few weeks, but when enough salad has been consumed, the gut should be able to reap many benefits from cooked foods like the dinner meals aforementioned.

Sweet fruit should be severely limited, and for the very ill, avoided until the gut is working better. Grapefruit, cranberry, avocado, lime, and lemon do not fall under this category.

Drinking fruit juice, even fresh homemade fruit juice, is not much better for you than refined sugar, so don’t make the common mistake of thinking a fresh-juice fast is going to get you well. It has its benefits, but it doesn’t usually rid the body of chronic disease.

Now that diet is covered, here’s the supplement part:

Supplement Stack #1 – On an empty stomach, twice a day, early morning and late night

  • 2 Abzorb (this is a probiotic and a systemic enzyme)
  • 2 cups of cranberry lemonade
  • Optional: Add a serving of the MycoPhyto Complex
  • Optional: Additional systemic enzymes (systemic enzymes break down proteins that should not be in the body)

Supplement Stack #2 – With meals, three times a day:

Also, take absorb with any food that is difficult to digest.

If you can’t afford many supplements, or are overwhelmed by this information and don’t know where to begin, contact me. I don’t ever charge to talk to people.

Protocol

6am – Supplement Stack #1

Take two Abzorb with a big glass of cranberry lemonade. This is the right time to take systemic enzymes if you chose to take them.

9am – Supplement Stack #2

Salad time! The MycoPhyto Complex company recommends to take on an empty stomach, but I like to take it with salads and smoothies too.

12pm – Supplement Stack #2

Homemade Smoothie Time! If you’re extremely ill you may need to wait on the smoothies and just double up on the salads for the first week, but I’ve found that many people who were suffering from a plethora of ailments and having trouble recovering responded very well to pineapple smoothies. Pineapple smoothies (made with fresh pineapple), like the ones I have recipes for in the above link, pack a massive amount of enzymes and can help break down a lot of junk in the gut, while delivering large amounts of nutrition. But, fruit smoothies have plenty of sugar, so it’s a good time to repeat the supplements from 9am.

Use pineapple, coconut water, water, cranberry juice, or if you can withstand some sugar try granny smith apple juice, but don’t use sweet fruit juices for smoothies. Always use fresh pineapple when using pineapple. Always add as many vegetables and herbs as you can. I also suggest adding Total Nutrition Formula or something similar (here’s a recipe). If you want to make a smoothie without pineapple, I recommend coconut water as the liquid. Check out our smoothie article for more ideas.

3pm – Week 1 – Supplement Stack #2

3pm – Week 2 – Supplement Stack #1

6pm – Supplement Stack #2

Dinner time! Everything from scratch, nothing pre-made in any way, all whole food ingredients. See this article for more info and don’t hesitate to contact me.

9pm – Supplement Stack #1

Finish off the night with probiotic support and leave them alone for the night to do their thing.

Three More Supplements to Consider – Die-0ff, Heavy Metal Detox, & Bowel Movements

If a Herxheimer reaction is a concern (die-off) be sure to drink plenty of cranberry lemonade and I also recommend adding Total Nutrition Formula and the Intestinal Detox. Here’s a recipe to make your own Total Nutrition. This way you’ll get bentonite clay, charcoal, chlorella, spirulina, and more, which are all great for mitigating the die-off effects of a Candida detox, and they also chelate heavy metals.

You can take the Total Nutrition Formula with the smoothie or sprinkle it on the salad (or choke it down with water), and take the Intestinal Detox anytime throughout the day as directed.

If you’re not defecating easily and at least twice daily, I also highly recommend the Intestinal Cleanse. It kills parasites and moves the bowels better than anything else on the market that I know of, by far. I recommend taking it with the antimicrobials.

Conclusion

Morgellons is scary. It often causes otherwise social people to become unemployed shut-ins. Unless the doctor is abreast of the latest science, they will likely treat someone with Morgellons as if they’re mad. It’s a really hard thing to live with. Medical science does not yet really understand it, but understanding a disease doesn’t typically help big pharma to cure a disease. The good news is that every single person that I’ve worked with was able to completely eliminate all of the symptoms. It takes a few months, and a lot of discipline, but it’s very doable. The first step is to heal the gut.