If I were called in
To construct a religion
I should make use of water.
-English poet Philip Larkin
Mount Vernon Springs, NC
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Did Somebody Say Cookies?
"Good health isn't all or nothing."
-Ronald Schmid, Traditional Foods are your Best Medicine
Make a batch of your world - famous chocolate chip cookies. Only this time, bake with the highest quality ingredients you can find - farm fresh eggs from happy chickens, rich spring butter from pastured cows, organic and fair trade dark chocolate, rapadura (unrefined, unbleached whole cane sugar), and organic unbleached flour. Add a quarter cup of strong coffee to the batter for a bit more intensity and a thinner cookie.
Oh, go ahead, lick the beater. You know you want to.
-Ronald Schmid, Traditional Foods are your Best Medicine
Oh, go ahead, lick the beater. You know you want to.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
What's Your Fuel?
The Scenario:
Let's say you're cooking a meal in a box, maybe something meaty from Banquet, something fishy from Gorton's, or something microwaveable from Healthy Choice. You've added a side of instant mashed potatoes or Kraft mac and cheese, and some canned peas for green. But wait. You open a packet of pre-made gravy because it's easy, it tastes as good as homemade, and the potatoes need it. You bake off a can of Pillsbury biscuits, and slather them with Country Crock because you've heard butter's bad for you. Let's say you chase that meal with a 20 ounce soft drink, or a couple of tall glasses of sweet tea.
What Happens Next: Your bored digestive system kicks back in a lazy boy with a remote control, watching the internal equivalent of reality TV. See, a machine in a factory somewhere has already done the body's job; there's no digestive work to do because this food is already processed. Bummer. It's the rerun your body's tired of watching.
Why This Matters: When you eat a diet of processed food, your metabolism goes on strike, and your body's 100 trillion little energy factories (that's right, 100 trillion - they're called mitochrondia, pronounced my-toe-CON-dree -ah) start laying off workers because the jobs are all gone. Insulin - your body's hospitality director - totally wigs out and calls for the union boss (that would be you) to help negotiate order and balance, but the union boss is hungry again and slopping cold gravy on a leftover biscuit. See, you're not satisfied because you just ate a plateful of evil, wicked, mean and nasty chemical-laden crap pretending to be food, and it's traveling fast through the pipe, looting your body as it goes. There's too much of everything, and not enough of anything. Too much, not enough.
And You Wonder Why Your Head Hurts as you Reach For a Prilosec: You're on fire inside because your body is waging war against the foreign invaders and carpetbaggers you put in your mouth. An army of unhappy cells sets up camp in your body's every crack, crevice, and organ - preparing you for a lifetime of painful joints, reflux, chronic fatigue, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. You're depressed, and can't sleep; you're irritated at the world. You gnaw through a pack of nabs and a diet coke to make it through the morning; you grab a quick salad with bacon, cheese, and ranch for lunch, quaff another diet drink in the afternoon, and can't imagine how your co-workers have energy to go to the gym. All you can manage is a drive-thru on the way to your kids' softball practice.
Problem Not Solved: You call the doctor, get a prescription or two for pain, depression, anxiety, or reflux, and you're never asked this simple question: "What type of fuel do you put in your body?"
Be the boss! Fire the interlopers! Sure, life gets complicated sometimes. But it'll be a whole lot less complicated when you give the job of digestion back to your gut.
Let's say you're cooking a meal in a box, maybe something meaty from Banquet, something fishy from Gorton's, or something microwaveable from Healthy Choice. You've added a side of instant mashed potatoes or Kraft mac and cheese, and some canned peas for green. But wait. You open a packet of pre-made gravy because it's easy, it tastes as good as homemade, and the potatoes need it. You bake off a can of Pillsbury biscuits, and slather them with Country Crock because you've heard butter's bad for you. Let's say you chase that meal with a 20 ounce soft drink, or a couple of tall glasses of sweet tea.
What Happens Next: Your bored digestive system kicks back in a lazy boy with a remote control, watching the internal equivalent of reality TV. See, a machine in a factory somewhere has already done the body's job; there's no digestive work to do because this food is already processed. Bummer. It's the rerun your body's tired of watching.
Why This Matters: When you eat a diet of processed food, your metabolism goes on strike, and your body's 100 trillion little energy factories (that's right, 100 trillion - they're called mitochrondia, pronounced my-toe-CON-dree -ah) start laying off workers because the jobs are all gone. Insulin - your body's hospitality director - totally wigs out and calls for the union boss (that would be you) to help negotiate order and balance, but the union boss is hungry again and slopping cold gravy on a leftover biscuit. See, you're not satisfied because you just ate a plateful of evil, wicked, mean and nasty chemical-laden crap pretending to be food, and it's traveling fast through the pipe, looting your body as it goes. There's too much of everything, and not enough of anything. Too much, not enough.
And You Wonder Why Your Head Hurts as you Reach For a Prilosec: You're on fire inside because your body is waging war against the foreign invaders and carpetbaggers you put in your mouth. An army of unhappy cells sets up camp in your body's every crack, crevice, and organ - preparing you for a lifetime of painful joints, reflux, chronic fatigue, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. You're depressed, and can't sleep; you're irritated at the world. You gnaw through a pack of nabs and a diet coke to make it through the morning; you grab a quick salad with bacon, cheese, and ranch for lunch, quaff another diet drink in the afternoon, and can't imagine how your co-workers have energy to go to the gym. All you can manage is a drive-thru on the way to your kids' softball practice.
Problem Not Solved: You call the doctor, get a prescription or two for pain, depression, anxiety, or reflux, and you're never asked this simple question: "What type of fuel do you put in your body?"
Be the boss! Fire the interlopers! Sure, life gets complicated sometimes. But it'll be a whole lot less complicated when you give the job of digestion back to your gut.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Water Fact #1
Not Mountain Dew. Not coffee.
Not water poisoned by Crystal Lite, but plain, good water.
Feeling foggy?
Drink water; your brain needs it!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Walking is Magical...
"Walking should not be seen as exercise but rather as a necessity. You ancestors walked all day everyday."
- Naturopathic Doctors Jade and Keoni Teta
- Naturopathic Doctors Jade and Keoni Teta
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Chemistry, Peace, and Vitamin C: What's the Connection?
Linus Pauling!
The body's need for vitamin and mineral supplementation is nothing new; in 1986, Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994), one of the world's most respected scientists, advocated a regimen so progressive that most modern scientists are just now catching up. In his 1986 book "Live Longer and Feel Better," Pauling, a Nobel Prize recipient in two categories (Chemistry and Peace) offered this advice about vitamin C: "Take vitamin C every day, 6 grams to 18 grams (6,000 to 18,000 milligrams) or more. Do not miss a single day." To read a stellar and current review of Pauling's book, click here
"The measures that you take to improve your health and prolong your life should not be so burdensome and disagreeable as to interfere seriously with the quality of your life and make it difficult for you to continue with this regimen day after day, year after year." - Linus Pauling, How to Live Longer and Feel Better
VITAMIN C FACT SHEET
Vitamin C plays a widespread role in maintaining and restoring optimum health, from warding off the common cold to fighting cancer and other debilitating diseases.
Functions
Scurvy is the classic deficiency disease for vitamin C; symptoms of scurvy include the following:
A one cup serving of the following fresh organic fruits and vegetables provide an excellent source of natural vitamin C:
Reference
Lieberman, S. and N. Bruning: The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book, 4th ed. (New York: Penguin , 2007)
The body's need for vitamin and mineral supplementation is nothing new; in 1986, Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994), one of the world's most respected scientists, advocated a regimen so progressive that most modern scientists are just now catching up. In his 1986 book "Live Longer and Feel Better," Pauling, a Nobel Prize recipient in two categories (Chemistry and Peace) offered this advice about vitamin C: "Take vitamin C every day, 6 grams to 18 grams (6,000 to 18,000 milligrams) or more. Do not miss a single day." To read a stellar and current review of Pauling's book, click here
"The measures that you take to improve your health and prolong your life should not be so burdensome and disagreeable as to interfere seriously with the quality of your life and make it difficult for you to continue with this regimen day after day, year after year." - Linus Pauling, How to Live Longer and Feel Better
VITAMIN C FACT SHEET
Vitamin C plays a widespread role in maintaining and restoring optimum health, from warding off the common cold to fighting cancer and other debilitating diseases.
Functions
- anti-aging vitamin; it helps prevent your body from rusting like an old Chevy
- clears the body of harmful cells; vitamin C bats cleanup
- helps build your immune system
- decreases the symptoms and duration of a cold
- helps the body synthesize and regulate hormones
- accelerates healing and recovery from injury or surgery
- lowers the debilitating effects of physical and mental stress
- helps maintain visual acuity (keeps your eyeballs working)
- helps maintain healthy gums and lungs
- acts as an anti-histamine for allergy sufferers
- increases our ability to convert and absorb other necessary nutrients, including vitamins A and E
Scurvy is the classic deficiency disease for vitamin C; symptoms of scurvy include the following:
- listlessness, extreme fatigue, and weakness
- irritability
- vague muscle and joint pain
- unexplained weight loss
- bleeding gums
- gingivitis
- loosening of the teeth
- chronic lung infections
- smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke
- low intake of fresh fruits and vegetables
- excessive exposure to environmental toxins
- excessive alcohol consumption
- Mild stomach upset or diarrhea sometimes accompanies high doses; choose buffered vitamin C if you have stomach problems
- chewable or powdered vitamin C can be damaging to tooth enamel
- vitamin C is safe (non-toxic) at any level; you can't die from it, or be sick because of it
A one cup serving of the following fresh organic fruits and vegetables provide an excellent source of natural vitamin C:
- bell peppers, broccoli, strawberries, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cantaloupe, cabbage, tomatoes, Swiss chard, collard greens, raspberries, asparagus, celery, spinach, pineapple, green beans, summer squash, and Romaine lettuce (2 cups)
- citrus fruits, kiwifruit, parsley, and papaya are also excellent sources of vitamin C
- Children age 11 - 14: 150 to 1,200 mg per day
- Teens and young adults 15 - 24: 200 - 2,000 mg per day
- Adults 25 and over: 1,000 - 2,000 mg per day, unless you adopt Linus Pauling's protocol
- Smokers: 6 grams - 18 grams per day (that's GRAMS), at least
- For constipation: take 3 or 4 grams of vitamin C on an empty stomach
Reference
Lieberman, S. and N. Bruning: The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book, 4th ed. (New York: Penguin , 2007)
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