WE LOVE EVERY NEW FAD.  IT’S LIKE THE PROVERBIAL “EATING AN ELEPHANT?”

How do you eat an elephant?

“One bite at a time,” as they say.

LATEST NEW TREND, DETOXING, IS LIKE THE PROVERBIAL EATING AN ELEPHANT

Grab the newest fad.   If it’s a new thing it looks exciting.  Not one bite at a time.  Let’s just do it!

We get excited about a new trend and go to it, no piecemeal for us.   If it’s a new fad we jump on the bandwagon NOW!

NEW PROJECT SOUNDS EXCITING, MAKE A TEAM

Empty the schedule, make calendar/Day Timer note, “Elephant eating,” get supply box with big knife, forks, water bottle…  Get a team.

First of the week.  Gather the team, and supplies.  Begin, one bite at a time.

Going great at first:  “It’s great to have a goal.  Finally got up courage to do this.” “Glad you guys are with me, part of something big!”

EXCITEMENT WANES AS WE SEE THE SIZE OF THE PROJECT

But…after 4-5 days, half of the team doesn’t show.  Excuses,  last-minute appointments, car breaks down, lost the big knife, mother-in-law getting married….

Elephant eating is a big job.  “It’s not as though I don’t have a million other things that take my time,”  “How big is an elephant?” “How many days…”

It’s not easy sticking with a project, especially one that will take a long, loong time.

WE ALL LOVE EXCITING NEW TRENDS AND FADS

We love fads as long as they don’t last too long.

In that way a fast/cleanse/detox is like eating an elephant.   The proverbial “40 days and 40 nights,” of lemon, water, and juices.

Master cleanses are like that.  BIG ELEPHANTS.  Fads everywhere.  T.V. advertising, the World Wide Web  Master  Cleanses,  Detox Programs.

We jump on the latest great idea, the magic health cure without taking our stressful schedules into account.   It’s just life, but every minute of every day is packed with activity.   We think it’s no big deal to add a detox.   We have little respect for what our body is required to do.

Problem is, we start and because we’re not educated about what is involved we don’t stick with the program.  Healthy living is about little changes to the daily routine, changes that, over time, support true health.  Habits that remain part of everyday life.

TOXIN BUILDUP SLOWS BODY SYSTEMS

Don’t get me wrong. I’m in favor of regular cleanse/detox.  John and I do a cleanse on a regular basis.

Toxins slow normal actions of our organs.  Cleanse systems (liver, kidneys, colon, skin, and lungs) don’t function 100% when sludge keeps them from working smoothly.   We gain weight, especially around the middle,  when our bodies can’t clean out toxins.  So, yes, do a detox/cleanse.

But pick a detox you can fit into your already busy, stressful life.  Begin slowly if you intend to take this regular habit into your healthy routine.

INCLUDE PROTEIN TO RETAIN LEAN MUSCLE

A few tips for your journey:

• Always include protein when you’re cleansing.  During a detox you’re restricting calories, so your body might interpret that restriction as famine and lower your metabolism.  Without protein along with your detox drink, your body may take calories from lean muscle, not from stored fat.  Snacks can include boiled egg and a small green salad with lemon juice dressing, a handful of raw almonds, or celery sticks. This should go without saying, but avoid all processed foods which are mostly carbohydrate-based, and have no essential nutrients.

• When you’re not eating normal meals, you’re allowing your body to switch from digesting food to cleansing.  Respect and support your internal wisdom. Don’t ask your body to support heavy exercise.  You won’t profit from your detox.

• Cut back on exercise. An extended cleanse/detox can, if you allow your inner wisdom to guide, bring you to a “different” reality.  You might want to let that happen.  Some have noticed a more introspective, a more “spiritual” mood.  Respect that and take time to assess your life.  Instead of vigorous exercise, take a walk outside, in the fresh air noticing the natural world.

• Keep a journal.  If you’re serious about a healthy lifestyle, and if you believe your body has internal wisdom, you want to learn from yourself, and you’ll want a record of that learning, during this experience.

• Do not do any detox or cleanse if you have health problems, such as diabetes, unless you’re under the direct care of a physician.   This is very important.  Check with your doctor first.

John and I have what I think is a great routine.  We take 1/4 cup of Isagenix “Cleanse for Life” drink every night just before bed (2 hours without food between dinner and bedtime).

That way we’re cleansing all night as we sleep!   Regular cleansing routine is easy, and over time we’ve lost a lot of that bulge around the middle.

SHARE YOUR PRODUCTS AND IDEAS WITH US BELOW

Whatever product you use and either love/hate share your thoughts in the “Comments” section below and let’s learn from each other.   It’s much easier to find a routine and stick to it when you’re talking to others and sharing ideas.

Hope to “see” you below soon!

Previous Article/Video

Tweet This Post

DETOX HELPS BODY CLEAN OUT TOXINS, CHEMICALS

People call it “detox,”  or “cleanse,” but the basic purpose is the same, to clean toxins.

Usually the detox/cleanse drink is made up of natural herbs that encourage the body to excrete substances it can’t use.  Our bodies have wonderful, built-in systems to remove chemical poisons, dangerous toxins, and impurities it can’t burn as fuel.

TOXINS SLOW BODY FUNCTIONS

In today’s toxic-laden world it’s important to give your body a break from digesting food so it can shift energy to built-in cleansing systems: liver, kidneys, colon, skin, and lungs.

OUR BODIES CRAVE SUN, FRESH FOOD IN SPRING

It’s a century-old practice in many cultures throughout the world.  Detox teas brewed from traditional plants “wake up” cells after the long, sluggish winter.

Even though our culture has abandoned the spring cleanse our bodies still demand that spring ritual.  Drive around town on one of the first warm spring days and what do you see?

Folks out jogging, bicycles everywhere, people walking dogs, throwing frisbees, lying on the lawn in the sun.  Anything, just to be out in the sun in spring.

At the first sign of a warm day I lie on my front porch (break from computer work downstairs in my home office) in the sun loving sensuous heat on bare skin.

Our bodies sluggish from indoor bundling up, crave fresh spring air and hot sun.   Spring rejuvenation, and our bodies follow the sun.

Internal organs need spring stimulation, too, after months of limited fresh food, higher calories, and heavy meals.

In the spring, traditional cultures brought the sun inside with teas and pot liquors of burdock, spring greens, collards, beets, and dandelion greens, aloe vera, lemongrass, peppermint, high in essential minerals.

WE CAN DETOX TODAY IF WE UNDERSTAND

But today!  Where to start?  Can we cleanse in today’s world?  Do we need to? Many want to, but have questions. Does it have to be difficult?  Is it safe?  Is it hard on the body?

These questions encourage a comparison of our lives today with those of traditional cultures in the past who made a regular practice of detoxing.

IS IT SAFE TO DETOX TODAY AS THEY DID YEARS AGO?

How is your life today different from life even 50 years ago when a spring tonic cleanse was commonplace?  Think through your lifestyle today before you hop into a detox.

Here are a few thoughts to get you started:

• We live different lives from traditional cultures of yesterday.  A 10-day fast using juices and water might have been easier for them but more difficult for us today.  Why?  Is there anything more we should know to support our bodies today?

• We live fast-paced, stressful lives without much relaxation. How can that affect our detox?

• Living healthy beyond fifty demands we clean out accumulated impurities.  How is our cleanse different from what we would have done years ago, when really young!

• If we eat anything processed our body will accumulate “sludge.” Frankenfood (food that’s not really food, no nutrition, empty calories that clog bodily systems.)

• We have, oh, so many more toxins in our environment.  Bodily systems work hard every day today and may need more support than was true in the past.

• Most of us know close to nothing about detoxing.

• Many of us don’t get as much sleep as we need.  Why is that important when we’re cleansing?

I’d like to talk through each issue one by one, and I’d like your input.  Whatever product you’re using or thinking of using, feel free to share with all of us your experience.

John and I routinely use “Cleanse for Life,” an Isagenix product, but whatever you use let us all know about it.  Results, bad experiences.  Was your cleanse hard?  How hungry did you get?  Did you continue to exercise while you were cleansing?  How long a detox did you do?

We can talk about all that.  So, until next time, do a little research and share with all of us!

P.S. Next time: Juices, lemon, water for “40 days and 40 nights?”  How’s that going to fit today’s schedule for most of us?

Previous Article/Video Next Article/Video

Tweet This Post

We’re making Christmas cookies!    These are Peanut blossoms.

I suppose most families have traditional foods this time of year.  John’s family was famous for Christmas cookies: green spritz wreaths decorated with tiny red berries–real works of art, powdered-sugar snowy Mexican wedding cakes, red-sprinkled shortbread, peanut blossoms, and tangy lemon bars. 

Mexican Wedding Cakes

Made with butter!

I don’t bake as much as I used to, but when I take time to make holiday cookies I use butter.  None of the chemical concoctions manipulated to taste like butter.  I use the real thing or I don’t bother. 

Since this is a blog devoted to healthy living, (Healthylivingbeyondfifty.com/) why, you might ask, am I devoting an article to baking Christmas cookies with butter?  Actually butter is something we should talk about.

A couple of Michael Pollan’s rules for healthy eating, “In Defense of Food,” are

• Eat Food.  ”Avoid food products containing ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number…”
• “Avoid food products that make health claims.”

(You know Michael Pollan…”The Botany of Desire,” “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and “In Defense of Food.”)

Pollan means you should eat things your body recognizes as food, not chemical concoctions stirred up in a lab by white-coats who have never touched a cow, let alone milked one.  Processed foods make your liver work overtime trying to break up and excrete the toxins they contain.

Your body recognizes butter.  It knows what to do with it.  It’s just butter, and, hopefully, it’s organic without antibiotics or hormones which very often are part of the cow’s food and which are, once again, toxic to our bodies.

What about Pollan’s second point: health claims?  What’s wrong with health claims? 

Whole foods don’t come with written health claims. There’s no list of health benefits on the side of an orange or apple, ribe eye steak,  or an onion.

If it’s packaged with health claims on the side of the box it’s probably processed.  If it’s processed most nutritional value has been removed because nutrients are the part of food that spoils and shortens “shelf-life.”  Shorter shelf life means lower corporate profits.

Look at a package of breakfast cereal.  Natural, essential-for-good-health nutrients are removed so the cereal can sit forever on the shelf.  To sell you on buying it, though, the sides of the box will be plastered with health claims for the few chemical vitamins that have been added back to replace lost nutrients.

Some mis-guided advice tells us to avoid butter because it’s a saturated fat that will raise “bad” blood cholesterol and also cause weight gain. According to Dr. Mercola butter slashes heart attack risk in  half.

Gaining weight?  You’re more likely to gain weight on simple carbohydrate foods, processed foods containing simple carbs, and toxins your liver can’t break down for excretion. 

Natural saturated fats such as coconut and butter are stable.  Some vegetable oils, on the other hand, turn into unstable compounds that aren’t good for your body. 

Butter is especially good when it comes from cows eating green grass because it contains a compound that helps build muscle rather than store fat, and it has an excellent ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids.  It contains many fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, K) and essential minerals difficult to get in our depleted western diet.  I always buy organic butter (Organic Valley brand) because it doesn’t contain those antibiotics and hormones.

Holiday baking is one of the fun things we do.  John is in the kitchen right now perpetuating the family tradition.  I think it’s lemon bars today.  Our two grandsons will be here next week, and they check out the cookie area where we stack the tins.  Father Daniel parses out the cookies or they’d finish them all in one fell swoop, I’m sure.

Have fun baking and sharing with friends and family. 

P.S.  Oh.  If you want to check out Dr. Mercola’s article on butter here’s the link.  More nutritional information that I quoted here.  http://bit.ly/hC84kQ

Tweet This Post

The World’s Toxic.  Is Your Body Toxic, Too?

All of us are aware of poisons and toxins in our environment.  We hear about factory waste, car exhaust, polluted water, polluted oceans.  Not just T.V. and Radio.  It’s common knowledge for us who live in the 21st century.  It’s one of those ubiquitous facts of our lives.  Unavoidable.  Even children know.

What Exists in Our Environment Exists in Our Bodies

Many see the environment as separate, “out there.”  They don’t realize that what’s “out there” is also “in here,” inside our bodies, a part of every cell.

No matter how much we exercise, wash, shower, eat organic fruits and vegetables, our bodies absorb pollution because toxins are everywhere. 

In the bathroom, showering, fixing breakfast in the kitchen, driving to the grocery in the car, mopping, vacuuming, dusting the house. Every activity takes place in our toxic 21st century environment.  Poisons that surround us are also within us. 

Possible 116 Chemical Toxins in the Human Body

We’re walking, talking toxin carriers.  Toxins. We’ve got lots of them.  Some estimates put the toxic load in each one of us at over 116 chemical compounds. 

Toxins Are Present in Every Activity 

We wake in the morning wash face, shower, apply makeup and shave, brush teeth, drink water, and brush hair.

Unless you carefully read labels of personal products before you buy you’re exposing your body to toxins proven to increase cancer:

Parabens, PTH, pthalates, chlorine, mercury, aluminum, and fluoride in water, toothpaste, shaving cream, cleansing products, cosmetics, fingernail polish, and hair spray. 

Processed Food, Cleaning Compounds Dangerous to Health

Preparing breakfast you’ll encounter PaH PCBS, and nitrates in bacon and sausage, and antibiotics and hormones in meat and milk.

Cleaning the kitchen you’re using manmade chemicals DECA, BDE, PBDES, Phenols, Chlorine, Ammonia, and Formaldehyde which make up common cleaning solutions.  Many chemicals are impossible for the liver to break down and send to kidneys, skin, lungs, and colon for excretion.  They accumulate in the body in fat and water deposits

Products containing flame retardants, lead, heavy metals, Disphenols, Pthalates, PDBE, and BDE, all of which increase cancer risk, can be found throughout the house in furniture, paint, bedding, pajamas.

Driving the car, you’ll run into Triclocarbans, bisphenols, phthalates, phenol, and more chlorine, ammonia, and formaldehyde.

Fruits, vegetables, meat, soda, desserts add pesticides, herbicides, Dioxins, BHA, BHT, Phosphoric Acid, Bisphenol A (BPA), Preservatives, and Coloring Agents toxins to the load.

                   l

That’s you and your children.

Share with me and others in the comments below what YOU do to avoid toxic compounds.  What products do you buy? I have a few suggestions which I’ll share in a future post.

Tweet This Post

Know where your food comes from?

When I grew up in the 50s we knew.  The back yard garden, the back pasture, the neighbor next door who had a few chickens.

Now, it’s not so easy.

AMERICA’S FOOD, CONTROLLED BY ONLY FOUR CORPORATIONS

Food is big business. Hogs, chickens, and beef production is controlled by only four (4) corporations.  These four corporations control the animals, the buildings, the feed, the feedlots, and the distribution centers that supply meat to American grocers.

Controlled Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) control most of our egg supply, too.  Unless you buy eggs from a local small farm!

I found a great website just yesterday.
Amy Goodman, “Democracy Now!” interviewed Kirby about his book, “Animal Factory.” (check the 8/25 blog post).  Here’s his website. It’s a good one. http://animalfactorybook.com/

And, here’s a video from his website:

POLLUTION MACHINES=INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE

“These factory farms, known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” or CAFOs, confine thousands of pigs, dairy and beef cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under stressful conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins.”

DISEASE FACTORIES

Kirby: “Swine flu. MRSA. Unusual concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Massive fish kills from algal blooms and flesh-eating parasites. Recalls of meats, vegetables, and fruits because of deadly E-coli bacteria contamination, salmonella and 380 million eggs…

Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market.”

NOT SO EASY TO TELL WHAT’S REAL FOOD

It’s not not so easy today to tell what’s really food.  But, there are still a few tell tale guidelines.

Michael Pollan (In “Defense of Food”) lists five.

• Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
• Avoid food containing ingredients that are a: unfamiliar, b: unpronounceable, c: more than five in number, or that include d: high fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid food products that make health claims.
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.

Know where your food comes from?

It’s the responsibility of the consumer now.  Read labels.  What else do you do?
Food is big business today. Corporations aren’t concerned with your health; they’re money-making machines.  Each of us must take responsibility.

So, what do you do?  I’ll take new ideas, your thoughts about food sources.  Let me know below

Next Article/Video

Tweet This Post

Part I

Cleansing has a different face today.  Different from even a few years ago.

Cleansing must be paired with nutrition today to support cellular health in an environment that is drastically different from that of even a few years ago.  

THE UNIVERSE, A LIVING SYSTEM, CONTINUALLY CHANGING

Change is the rule because the Universe is a living system, not a machine. 

Cultures rise and fall. Beliefs we lived with yesterday may not still be true today.  If we do not question our culture’s beliefs we continue to operate as though yesterday’s beliefs are still true.  Yesterday’s beliefs are impotent today. Living in yesterday’s paradigm will not bring health we’re looking for today.

TRADITIONAL CLEANSING METHODS DON’T FIT TODAY’S WORLD

As we cleanse to bring our bodies to a higher form of health we must operate from beliefs that we have tested personally, beliefs that are valid today, not beliefs from the past.

Cleansing today cannot take the same form as it did years ago in long-standing traditions.  We operate under beliefs different from those held by traditional cultures.

PAST CLEANSORS DIDN’T WORRY ABOUT POLLUTION

When tradional cultures cleansed (allowed the body to get rid of that which was not useful) it was unthinkable that food they ate might not be providing proper nutrition.  It didn’t occur to them that they might not be getting necessary nutrients.

In ages past there was no thought of pesticides, manmade chemicals, or toxins in/on produce.

No thought fruits and vegetables might not be nutrionally adequate because of depleted soil. 

People did not wonder whether water was pure and healthy.  They didn’t wonder about chlorine.  And they didn’t worry about stress. In ages past, those were unthinkable thoughts. 

 Navajos preparing ritual celebration

OUR BELIEFS ARE OUT-OF-DATE

We live in a different time.  We must adopt beliefs that serve today.

Today our soil is depleted.  People are under tremendous stress. Our water is polluted. 

Meat animals, in confined units, eat unnatural diets with added hormones and anti-biotics.  

Processed food has been robbed of nutrients. 

Drastic changes, so it’s no wonder many of us think cleansing is a good idea.  But the idea of cleansing must be paired with new beliefs about a polluted environment, not the same as in the past.

“IF WE JUST EAT GOOD FOOD WE’LL BE FINE,”

TODAY, AN OBSOLETE BELIEF

Many operate with the old belief that if we just eat good food we’ll be fine.  That belief is obsolete because our environment has changed.  It’s polluted. 

Many of us hold beliefs about CLEANSING that sound really good.

And many of us hold onto beliefs about FOOD that sound really good.

FOOD and CLEANSING must be seen as a package.  They must be seen together.  Refusing to accept a true view of the world today will keep us from discovering how food and cleansing work together.

Cleansing is a good idea, but it takes resources, and energy.  What if we don’t have those resources?  What if our bodies aren’t playing with a “full” nutritional deck?” What if organs aren’t healthy enough to process and digest food? 

What if cells, overloaded with toxins, are unable to deal with food? 

What if food is nutritionally depleted, lacking essential minerals and protein for healthy cells?

 CLEANSING AND HEALTHY FOOD IN THE PAST WENT TOGETHER NATURALLY

If you’ve tried cleansing perhaps that one reason it didn’t work as you expected.

Cleansing and replenishing with nutrients, produce results beyond what each can bring alone. To bring health today we need both. 

MISSING PIECE IN THE WELLNESS PUZZLE, NUTRITIONAL CLEANSING

Today’s missing piece in the wellness puzzle is nutritional cleansing: Cleansing paired with super nutrition to build health.  Cleansing at the cellular level in a matrix of complete nutrition.  Cleansing is not stand-alone; it must be paired with complete nutrition or results will not be optimum.

Part II next Blog entry!

Tweet This Post

Toxins Are Stealing Your Health and Energy

Environmental Toxins Linked To Most US Disease

There are 72 different insecticides, pesticides, and chemical poisons in our fruits and vegetables. Animals are injected with hormones, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals, and our air, filled with toxins. PAH toxins, from anything that burns (barbecues, cigarettes, automobiles, factories), are linked to the breakdown of immune mechanisms that protect us from breast cancer. Toxins in our environment are a serious problem, linked to most disease in the U.S. today.

LIVER: THE BODY’S CLEANSING FACTORY

The liver is the body’s cleansing “laboratory.” It filters toxins from the blood, breaks them down, and sends them to the lungs, skin, kidneys, and colon for excretion.  It’s the liver’s job to disable toxins to isolate them from important organs.

WHY YOU HAVE A FAT STOMACH

Poisons the liver can’t break down must be stored away from important body organs.  They’re coated with fat and water and deposited.

There are no boundaries to man’s creativity, so there are manmade chemicals beyond the liver’s ability to disintegrate. To immobilize and hide them, the liver coats them with fat and water and stores them.

Heavy metal toxins, aluminum, lead, and mercury, from lipstick, anti-per spirants, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals, when absorbed, are stored in more fat and water. 

By-products of the petroleum industry in plastics, cosmetics, and shampoos are coated in fat and water and stored.

The result is an accumulation of fat and water in upper arms, thighs, and the belly.

THINK YOU’RE HEALTHY?  YOU’RE TOXIC

Fat buildup. Water Retention.  Fat Stomachs.

80% of us are overweight; 31% meet the criteria for “obese.”

We spend over $75,000,000,000 (billion) a year on weight–related diseases.

No matter how good you think your health is, toxins are part of your reality. Because of toxin buildup internal organs are sluggish and unable to function, and disease becomes part of life.

4 TIPS FOR FIGHTING TOXINS

• Become aware of cleaning products for house, and clothes.  Chlorine is a poison, so investigate natural cleaning and “green” laundry options. Use vinegar in a spray bottle, a non-toxic sanitizer/cleaner.

• Be aware of ingredients in personal care products. If you can’t read the name, it’s a toxic chemical.

Anti-per spirants contain heavy metal aluminum. Shampoos contain ingredients in auto anti-freeze.

• Eat Food, Whole Food, with natural packaging. Processed food has little or no nutrition, and many toxins.

• Eat food in its natural state. 

Read the labels on Twinkies, Cool-Whip, Sara Lee’s, Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread. (white bread, with the whole part of the wheat kernel removed, can be called whole grain?)

More than 5 ingredients=frankenfood, not real food. Avoid.

Michael Pollan’s, In Defense of Food, Penguin Press, 2008. 

SHOULD YOU CLEANSE TOXINS?

You can undertake a “cleanse,” to cooperate with your body. Some cleansing products on the market, recommend no solid food while cleansing.  “Fasting” should be with a physician’s guidance because our bodies, with today’s fast-paced lifestyle, need balanced fuel: carbohydrates, fat, and protein.

MUSCLE NEEDS HIGH-QUALITY PROTEIN

1. No solid food for many days won’t give the body fuel it needs to build and maintain lean muscle tissue.  Support muscle growth and maintenance with ample high-quality protein.  Your heart is a lean muscle.

2. Drink water, preferably filtered, to flush toxins.  No little plastic bottles, please, no chlorine, at least 100 oz. a day.  

To flush toxins your body needs plenty of water, not high-energy caffeine drinks. Energy drinks give you energy by pulling from the body and depleting the body’s reservoir.

BEGINNING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Take the few steps above. Become aware of toxins in your world, and take small steps to minimize impact.

As they’re flushed, fat and excess water will be released, and you will feel more energetic than in years. Your fat stomach will begin to shrink.

Built-in systems seek balance in your body. When you cooperate natural good health, your birthright becomes an easy companion.

Check the link in the upper left corner of this blog for  the “Cleansing for Better Health” free newsletter. 

Previous Article/Video Next Article/Video

Tweet This Post

AACK!!!

Toxins in the environment, in my food, in my shampoo. Mad Cow disease, e Coli, and Avian/swine/Spanish flu popping up in Africa and South America…

Panic time for my immune system. 

WHAT HAPPENS TO MY IMMUNE SYSTEM IF MY BODY IS OVERWHELMED WITH TOXINS?

If my body is overwhelmed with toxins, my immune system is compromised, and I’m more likely to get sick.  My body is naturally designed to capture and destroy bacteria and other invaders, but if it’s already fighting hords of poisons from food, environment, and personal care products how can it do its job of warding off disease? 

How often do you think about your liver?

Probably not very often. 

Yet it’s probably one of the most complicated organs in our body.  It works silently, below awareness, to break toxins into pieces that can be excreted through the skin, kidneys, and colon.

I drink a lot of water during the day.  Almost a quart in the morning as I take my morning herbal drink and shake and vitamins. Through the day my trusty water bottle goes with me to town and downstairs as I work on the computer.

Water is the most important thing you can do to support detoxification. I filter mine even though we have water with no chlorine at our house. I don’t feel good drinking chorine.  It makes water supply in the U.S. safe by killing bacteria, but I don’t want to deliberately put a poison into my body. So I filter.

John and I eat lots of vegetables and local free-range meat (lamb, beef, chicken) and eggs. Animals in the industrial agricultural system are routinely fed various antibiotics and hormones to prevent infection and increase weight gain.

We get those vegetables from a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm. That’s new for us this year. We love getting healthy produce every week. In the process we support a farmer who is small–not part of the military-industrial complex that is U.S. agriculture today.

40% OF AMERICA’S FOOD GROWN TODAY IS NOT INTENDED FOR PEOPLE

Next week I’ll send you the trailer for “Fresh,” the movie. It’s all about what’s happened in just the last 50 years or so to America’s food supply. We all need to be aware how vulnerable our food supply is today.  Our food supply is controlled by only 4 companies, and 40% of food grown in the U.S. is not grown for human consumption.  Many conventional farmers today, subsidized by our government, grow nothing on their farms that is intended for humans.

More in a couple of days. In the meantime, do you buy “organic” at the store? Why is it important to you? Why not?
 
 

Previous Article/Video Next Article/Video

Tweet This Post

Cleansing is the answer to almost every health problem.  I don’t mean cleansing will cure every health problem.  Only the body cures.  Cleansing is an aid to the body’s natural healing. 

Our bodies have built-in systems to deal with disease, bacteria and viral invaders, and toxins.  Under all circumstances the body seeks to remain in homeostasis. According to Websters dictionary homeostasis is “the tendency to maintain normal stability in an organism by coordinated responses of the organ systems that automatically compensate for environmental changes, maintaining equilibrium.”

The liver is the great filtering system of the body.  Everything we eat goes through this organ and is broken down into usable “pieces,” which are carried to feed cells.  Toxins broken down into smaller components are sent to elimination organs skin, colon, and kidneys. 

When the liver encounters toxic substances that cannot be broken down (heavy metals aluminum, and mercury, artificial fertilizers, pesticides, compounds in plastics, for example) it sequesters/stores these substances in fat tissue that it manufactures to keep harmful substances away from vital organs.  Fat is deposited around the liver, on the stomach, upper arms, and thighs. It’s a protective mechanism, but we notice with annoyance flabby arms, fat stomach, and heavy thighs.

When toxin levels are continual and high the body becomes overwhelmed.  As a culture we don’t routinely cleanse with natural herbs and potions as our grandparents did.  Many cultures worldwide still do a cleanse when the seasons change, but we’ve given that up as old-fashioned folk medicine.

The body isn’t given time to cleanse itself.  Many of us eat too much, and this too, overloads protective systems.  When this goes on for some time we become used to the signals of distress our body sends us, and we ignore those signals, or worse yet, we cover up signals with pain pills, many of which damage the liver the very organ assigned to police the bloodstream.

Just the other day I’d read again that the sweetner xylitol is quite good for teeth.  I bought some gum with xylitol and through the day chewed 2-3 sticks.  Later that day I noticed a headache that stayed with me the rest of the day.  I rarely have headaches so I assumed it was something I’d eaten recently.  I checked ingredients on the gum package and, sure enough, an artificial sweetner was listed. 

I’m hoping there are other gums with xylitol that don’t also contain artificial sweetners.  Artificial sweetners are chemicals that act directly on the brain to fool the brain into sweetness. This one was toxic and my body let me know.

What foods do you know are toxic to you?  Gluten? Milk? Monosodium glutamate?  Share your experiences with us below in the comment box.

Our bodies are sensitive They do let us know when something is out-of-whack.  Our job is to listen to our bodies, take those messages seriously, and get to the source of the problem. 

Next Article/Video

Tweet This Post

Do you drink a meal replacement drink for breakfast?  A quick lunch?  A snack between meals?   

  WHAT KIND OF PROTEIN IS IN THERE… 

PROTEIN IS ESSENTIAL TO SUPPORT LEAN MUSCLE

One of the first ingredients in that drink should be the protein source.  Protein supports lean muscle–psst: your heart is lean muscle…

Do you want to loose a fat stomach?  How would it feel lying in bed, with your hands flat.  Wow.  That’s worth a lot.  To know your body is getting what it needs to build muscle in every organ, in your stomach, along your arms, down your legs, feeding your brain.

Give your body that every day. Don’t skimp on protein. Make it high-quality.

Protein builds muscle to support your immune system and every other bodily system.   Muscle does burn more calories than fat, by the way, so you’ll find with exercise your body will feel trimmer. Muscle supports internal organs and gives you energy to live your life.  

What you eat should mimic structure in nature.  Everything we eat in natural form contains a bit of the three components of food: carbohydrate, fat, and protein. With carbohydrate, fat, and protein at each meal or snack, digestion slows and blood sugar remains stable.

Carbohydrate alone and your blood sugar rises.  Insulin rushes to lower it.  More carbo, and it rises again, a recurring cycle which can cause the cells to become resistant to insulin, bringing further problems. 

When blood sugar rises too rapidly some extra fuel may be stored as fat, especially around the middle.  That can be one reason for a fat stomach.  Your body’s protective mechanism.

If you’re trying to loose fat and gain muscle make sure every snack or meal is balanced with protein, carbohydrate, and fat.  Whole foods do that naturally; you don’t need to check if all three are present.  Fruits and vegetables have all three components naturally.

Back to the meal replacement drink.

The most common protein used in meal replacement drinks is powdered denatured whey. 

WHAT IS DENATURED?

In the dictionary denatured is “a change the structure of a protein, change the nature of, to take natural qualities away from…”

When whey protein is denatured it is changed so it doesn’t go rancid, change color and flavor.  It stays on the shelf longer without degrading which makes for higher profit.

UNDENATURED WHEY IS A COMPLETE PROTEIN

Undenatured whey protein, however, is a whole food with complete protein. Complete protein means it contains all the essential amino acids.  Our bodies don’t make protein; we have to get protein in a complete form by combining various foods.  Meats are complete for the most part, but vegetables such as beans are incomplete and should be consumed with other proteins to include all the amino acids. 

Undenatured whey, though, is an excellent source for complete protein.  With undenatured whey you have a complete protein that your body can use right away to build muscle and organs and support body systems.  When science denatures whey protein the chemical structure of protein is changed from complete to incomplete.  It is a product different from the original.

TAKE IT EASY ON YOUR LIVER

Some meal replacement drinks use chemical derivatives of products rather than whole foods.  It may make the product less expensive to the consumer to include specific vitamins (C, D, A, for example) than to use whole herbs.  The product will also have a longer shelf life without whole foods because whole foods break down rapidly.

Everything you eat has to pass muster with your liver.  Toxic preservatives and chemicals are broken down by the liver and excreted from the body to protect important organs.  If a chemical cannot be broken down for excretion, it is taken out of circulation by the liver and stored in fat cells.

The real solution to permanent weight loss then is cleansing chemical toxins. Fat can then be released naturally.  As consumers and guardians of our health we want to avoid products with chemical additions and preservatives that tax the liver. 

FIND MEAL REPLCEMENTS WITH UNDENATURED WHEY PROTEIN AND NO PRESERVATIVES.

Your job, if you decide to take it, is to check labels, and read ingredients. 

You can find meal replacement drinks with undenatured whey protein and whole foods, without added preservatives and chemical vitamins.  They are on the market, but it may take time and persistence.  It’s worth the trouble if it means you’re building true health.

Tweet This Post