1. Have your Total Nutrition (click here for recipe to make your own), Udo’s Oil, and one or two raw, organic eggs every day (I call this the Green Dragon Recipe). This “highest grade fuel” gives your body the necessary building blocks so that it will start correcting itself. It will help you create and maintain excellent health.
2. Keep your intestines cleansed and purified. Intestinal cleansing will not only detoxify your body, it will also ensure there are no stoppages in the surrounding organs.  It is important to keep your body’s flows moving efficiently, and the place to start is the bowel. This is vital.
3. Eat only organic foods, especially when it comes to meats. Commercial meats are loaded full of hormones, antibiotics, and steroids. Commercial vegetables are saturated with pesticides and due to modern day fertilizing and growing practices have very little nutrition in them. Use only organic body care products on your skin and hair.
4. When it comes to grains, seeds, nuts, and beans, eat only those products that have been sprouted!  All other methods of preparation leave you with enzyme inhibitors that will make you fat and unhealthy. Stay away from all soy. Until this industry cleans up its act, it is best to drop it from your diet altogether.
5. If you don’t own a juicer, buy one and use it daily. Juicing is an excellent tool to aid in detoxing and for putting concentrated nutrition into your body. Get a slow juicer.
6. While keeping all the above in, and until you reach a state of excellent health, you should do my entire Total Body Cleanse Program at least twice a year. Three times is best if you can manage it.
7. Exercise every day! The best exercise I know of is running (Running Without Knee Pain). The next best is rebounding on a mini trampoline. Both of these workouts will exercise every cell in your body. This is absolutely essential to keeping the flows going. Start off with walking if that’s all you can handle, but eventually work up to a minimum of forty-five minutes of hard exercise each day. Work up a real sweat.
8. Stop watching television and reading newspapers. You don’t eat garbage. Why allow it into your  mind? TV is one of the main causes of juvenile delinquency and low personal production.
9. Wear cotton, silk, hemp, and other all-natural fibers. Synthetic clothes can prevent your skin from breathing properly and can toxify your body.
10. Cook your food only in stainless steel, cast iron, or glass. Never cook in aluminum!
11. Drink only distilled water or purified water from a top notch purifier.
12. Start each day by acknowledging to yourself what a great person you are.
13. Help someone else every day. Help a child.
14. Do your part. Take responsibility for the earth by helping to keep it clean and toxin free. Recycle!
15. Create a garden and grow some flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Plant a tree once a month.
16. Put all your possessions in order and permanently get rid of those things you don’t need or want. Do a complete cleaning and reorganization of your living space so that it is neat and orderly.
17. Connect with your favorite groups and get involved. Continue learning new things and expanding your horizons. Make some new friends.
18. Laugh and have fun.
19. And last, but not least, LOVE!

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases
• Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid
• How to Cure Lyme Disease, and Virtually Any Other Bacterial Infection, Naturally

If you shop at a typical supermarket, the prices on organic produce might be enough to convince you that only the rich can afford an organic diet. But you, too, can afford to eat organic. 

The first step is to educate yourself. Right now, we are spending money on being sick (health insurance, co-pays, medication) instead of spending money on being healthy. Your health begins with eating good food loaded with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Whenever possible, that means buying an organic product over a regular one. But it doesn’t always need to be labeled USDA Organic to be a better choice. Did you know the Certified Naturally Grown label also certifies food as organically grown?

Locally grown fruit and vegetables bought at a vegetable stand on the side of the road may have been grown organically. Many small farmers don’t go to the expense of certification. Ask them about pesticide use and crop rotation and do your best to support these small organic farms. Their food has more vitamins, minerals, and enzymes than the organic food farmed by the big agriculture companies (due to a lack of crop rotation).

When trying to find the cheapest possible food, you should look at the amount of nutrition you are getting for your money. Instead of focusing on getting full, focus on getting nourished. Instead of relying on microwave dinners or Top Ramen, buy some brown rice and kale and throw them in a slow cooker or toss whole wheat pasta enriched with fiber into a pot of water. It takes no more effort than heating up your mac ‘n cheese but the health benefits are much greater. Think about what you are buying. You could spend $10 on a cooked chicken from the grocery store, or you could spend $6 on organic, naturally raised chicken legs, $2 on sweet potatoes, and $2 on broccoli. See how you can manage eating well on a budget?

When you stop buying processed foods, including processed “health foods,” your budget will benefit. When you lower your consumption of protein and buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season, your food expenditures will go down.
Author David Hennessey, in  How to Buy Organic Food Inexpensively, says his family ate organic for the five months they lived on welfare. You can go organic without having to be rich!

Here are some more tips for shopping healthy even when money is tight:

• Compare the price of organic fruits and vegetables at your local farmers market or health food store to your local grocery store. You might be very surprised at the difference. And get to know your prices – sometimes organic products are less than regular items or the same price.
• Check online to see if your area has a real farmers market. Sometimes areas have a “parking lot” farmers market on the weekends. The food is often grown naturally (without pesticides) and is so much fresher than something that was shipped across the country a week or two ago – and usually at about the same price you’d pay at the grocery store. If you go to the market, you’ll get the bonus of enjoying your area’s bounty while supporting local farmers and their families. Get to know the person that grew your food – you won’t believe what a difference it makes!
• Take the amount of what you normally spend on groceries – say it’s $150 every 2 weeks – and see where that money is going. Is any of it going to impulse buys, junk food or unnecessary items?  If so, allocate that money to investing in healthier choices.
• Invest in buying those items that are worth going organic for, like peaches, apples and sweet bell peppers. When grown commercially, these foods are extremely high in pesticides. You can get a full list in the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce from the Environmental Working Group Website –   www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php
• If you need to buy some conventionally grown foods, buy onions, avocadoes, and pineapple, as these have the fewest pesticides. Use that extra money to buy organic meat and grains. (Remember, you should always buy organic meats. When you eat off the top of the food chain, you are eating everything that animal ate include growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides.)
• Those free circulars and magazines at natural and health food stores often have coupons or deals for organic products. Sometime you can even email for a free sample. This is a great way to try something new.
• Buy dry goods, such as beans and rice, in bulk.
• Consider growing your own organic vegetables. They will taste better than anything you buy and will cost a few cents as opposed to a few dollars.
• Remember, some farmers cannot afford the cost of being organically certified but follow the same practices as those who are. Enquire at your local health and natural food stores. You might be surprised to learn that you’ve been buying “organic” all along!
• Is it worth a little extra time and energy to learn more about organic food?  Absolutely!  Not only are you and your family benefitting from a healthier lifestyle, you are helping the planet too.

Halloween has been totally hijacked by ecologically damaging consumerism. From the expensive shop-bought costumes made from petroleum based materials and the plastic pumpkins to the chemical-laden sweets and the toxic face paints, we spend our money on things that damage our children’s health and our planet. I know, so far I sound like a party pooper. But with a little thought, you can have a Halloween that doesn’t cost the earth, your health, or your pocket. And you’ll have a lot more fun.

Fabulously freaky costumes can be created from clothing found at thrift stores or the back of your wardrobe. Is there an old sheet dying to be a ghost? A dark shawl? A black paper hat and a branch saved from the bonfire would make a fine witch. With a few ribbons, some feathers, safety pins, or even recycled tin foil, you and your children are all set for a creative afternoon’s work! You will feed their imaginations, and their sense of achievement will far exceed any “perfect” off-the-peg creation.

Use cardboard from old boxes, paint, and decorations to make masks. If you choose to use face paint, there are some lovely natural, plant-based versions on the market. Try Lyra face paints, which come in pencil, crayon, or paint.

Next comes the Halloween centre piece: the pumpkin. Think of how many fields were devoted to growing pumpkins this year, most of them sprayed with pesticides. An organic pumpkin, especially at this time of year, will barely cost you more. Not only will your choice make a statement to the growers, you’ll have all the scrapings from inside your pumpkin for a yummy meal after trick-or -treating.

For a quick delicious soup, just add water, milk, and nutmeg to the pulp. Heat and blend. Even the seeds are great roasted with some Eco-friendly Costume soy sauce or salt. Younger children love to rinse the slimy seeds in a colander. You could even create a longer-term project with the kids by saving a handful of seeds, drying them in paper bag in a warm dry place, and planting them in the spring for next year.

Conventional pumpkins will probably be hybrids, with seeds that won’t reproduce properly if they grow at all.

Halloween was originally a festival to mark the end of the growing season and the beginning of the dark, ‘dead’ months ahead. So surround yourself with the last of the year’s bright outdoor colours! To decorate your house, take a walk in the woods. Fallen tree boughs, moss, bright fall leaves, and apples will look wonderful. So will paper garlands cut in ghoulish shapes, made from paper scraps you have saved.

You can even cut your electric costs for the night by turning off the lights and filling the room with candles. Choose deliciously scented beeswax candles rather than petroleum-based ones. Just keep them safe from the children and all those lovingly-made paper garlands!

Last but certainly not least, come the candies and treats. Most of today’s Halloween candy comes heavily packaged. Some of it is made with genetically modified foods, and most of it is full of artificial colours, flavorings, and preservatives. But there are plenty of great alternatives nowadays, available in natural food supermarkets or online. My favorite is Yummy Earth’s organic candies, which come in so many fantastic, natural flavors. You could also try your hand at homemade candy apples for some sticky fun. Roasted nuts are a great

I don’t live a perfect organic lifestyle. I don’t always eat exactly what I should. I miss workouts. Sometimes I drink alcohol, though I don’t believe even one glass of red wine is good for me. But I am careful with my health. I never get sick. Not at all. I don’t have allergies. And while I’m not in perfect condition, I do balance out my poor health choices with good ones. 

A lot of people get so focused on one thing, they get stuck and miss the big picture. Even health care practitioners are guilty of this. One feels that the most important thing is to make sure your body is slightly alkaline. Another says that if you cut out all of the refined sugar in your diet all of your health problems will be solved. Yet another is only concerned with essential fatty acids. This isn’t a balanced outlook on health. 

On the other hand, you could get radical. You could move out of the toxic box we all call home and build an eco-friendly toxin free house in the country. You could breathe clean air and (if you’re lucky) drink clean water. You could avoid all plastics, synthetics, chemicals, and fragrances. You could grow all of your own food. 

Or you can do your best to live a balanced lifestyle, learn the truth about health, and be healthier than anyone you know. 

You can rid your body of allergies, disease, aches and pains, and most other ailments. You can clear your head. You can increase your energy. You could learn how to eat perfectly and try each day to meet that goal. You could be balanced. Even if you aren’t perfect, you could achieve a level of health our modern medical profession thinks to be impossible. 

OLM may appear to be a radical magazine to some, but it’s not. Although I believe in everything OLM says about health, as I said, I don’t live a perfect organic lifestyle. I don’t know how far I will take it, but I make healthier choices each day. I am healthy, happy, and full of energy.

What are your goals? Do you want to improve the quality of your life? Do you want to live to be 100 or more without aches, pains, or disease? It’s possible—challenging in today’s modern society, but it can be done.    

A diet consisting of 80% raw fresh fruits and vegetables (or more) may seem unusual, but it’s really just a basic foundation for health. Making sure your diet is alkaline, rich in the right balance of essential fatty acids, and low in toxins is much easier when you focus on raw, fresh, organic produce.

You have to find what works for and your lifestyle. Learn everything you can, radical or not. Knowledge is power, and your health will always be your responsibility—no one else’s. 

I can promise you that each step you take on the path to an organic lifestyle will improve your health. Identify your goals. Incorporate what you can. But above all, find your balance.

Sincerely,

Michael Edwards

Editor in Chief

Trade in your car for a moped; and take public transportation whenever possible. Better yet, get a bicycle! Car pool to work and walk everywhere else. When you do need to drive, following ten tips can save you gas, and money.

The typical American diet is rich in calories, artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, sugar, artificial sweeteners, MSG, and trans fats. Let’s not forget pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. The media bombards us with information about a healthy diet, much of it contradictory, much of it complicated, and most of it wrong. So how should we eat?

Eliminating toxins, additives, and sugar is a no-brainer. But once that step is taken and organic foods are chosen, what is the next step? Whether you’re a meat-eater, a vegan, or a vegetarian, the key is balance. The right balance.

Alkalinity

For optimum health our bodies require a slightly alkaline PH, right about 7.365. A diet high in meats and grains, the typical Western diet, is acid producing. Chronic acidification wreaks havoc with all cellular activities and functions. Many naturopaths believe it to be the root cause of chronic or “incurable” diseases. So how do we maintain our PH balance short of memorizing the list of acidifying and alkaline foods? The simple way is to use the 80/20 principle; 80% of your diet should consist of fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables. That may sound extreme, and for some people and their lifestyles it may be difficult, but the closer one comes to this ratio the healthier one will be. And for many people there is not another lifestyle change they could make that would have as big an impact on your health.

In addition, most of us need to be conscious about increasing our consumption of the following:

Fiber

Fiber has many benefits. It feeds healthybacteria, which aids in digestion. It also helps slow the rate sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream, keeping blood sugar levels stable. Fiber also helps with regularity; it speeds up digestion as it scours your colon like a scrub brush.

Enzymes

Enzymes are responsible for nearly every facet of life and health. Without enzymes, food is not digested and nutrients are not absorbed. Enzyme rich, fresh, raw foods are easy for the body to digest. Processed and cooked foods have little or no enzymes. If enzymes are not present in the food we eat, the body creates them. But some doctors believe our bodies can create only a finite amount of enzymes in our lifetimes. So once again, a diet high in fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables, adhering to the 80/20 principle, will increase your consumption of natural enzymes.

Antioxidents

Free radicals, atoms or groups of atoms with an odd (unpaired) number of electrons, have been linked to aging and disease. They damage healthy cell membranes and DNA. Antioxidants neutralize free radicals. Again, a diet high in fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables is a diet rich in antioxidants.

Beneficial Bacteria

A normal, healthy gut is home to 400-500 beneficial bacteria, all working in harmony. Remember enzymes? Beneficial bacteria produce critical enzymes and control yeast. They help us digest our food and absorb nutrients. Just one dose of an antibiotic can decimate entire species of beneficial bacteria and wreak havoc with this delicate ecological balance.

Probiotics can help restore the natural balance. Many suggest taking them (or eating them) on a daily basis, and certainly this suggestion has merit to anyone coming to an organic lifestyle from a lifetime of poor nutrition and antibiotic use. But again, adhering to a good, balanced diet and the 80/20 principle of eating 80% fresh, raw, organic fruits and vegetables will feed beneficial bacteria and aid in maintaining proper balance.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Essential fatty acids, omega-6s and omega-3s, cannot be manufactured by our bodies. They must come from our diet. Our bodies need both omega-6s and omega 3s for a variety of metabolic processes including healing. The ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s should be nearly equal, but the typical American diet is high in omega 6s and low in omega 3s, with a ratio closer to 17:1. And we suffer for it—with inflammation, aching, poor healing and chronic illnesses such as lupus, fibromyalgia, and heart disease. To decrease omega 6s, avoid processed foods and conventional poultry, beef, and dairy and choose organic meats—grass fed beef, free range poultry, etc. To increase omega-3s, eat fatty fish, nuts, seeds, and unrefined whole grains (it is best to soak or sprout nuts and seeds to release enzyme inhibitors and change acidic nuts to alkaline). Flaxseed, cod liver oil, or other omega-3 rich oils can be added to our diet, but we must be sure they are fresh and not overly refined.

We will go into more depth about all aspects of a healthy diet and the dangers of additives, GMOs, and conventional farming in upcoming issues. In the meantime, eat healthy. Eat smart. Go organic.