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Tag: Disease - Organic Lifestyle Magazine Tag: Disease - Organic Lifestyle Magazine

How to Detoxify Bad Estrogens

Aging and high levels of physical, chemical, and emotional stress are associated with the loss of progesterone in women and testosterone in men.  When these key hormones are depleted, it causes a state of estrogen dominance.  This state of estrogen dominance is one of the major factors associated with degenerative disease processes.

“As a species, we`re on a fast track to extinction,” says Ori Hofmekler, author of The Anti-Estrogenic Diet. “In the past few decades, men have lost 50% of their sperm count and within only one generation, the average man’s sperm count and testosterone have dropped by 20%. Women are no better. Staggering figures show that most women today are suffering from female disorders and three out of ten women between the ages of 35 to 60 will develop breast cancer.”

Xenoestrogenic Chemicals

Most conventional food products and modern lifestyle habits are estrogenic in nature. The over reliance on highly processed, chemically-laden industry based goods and products seems to be the major culprit.  Xenoestrogens are artificially made compounds produced by industry. These differ chemically from archiestrogens (naturally occurring) produced by living organisms.

Xenoestrogens mimic the effects of true estrogen and interact with cellular receptor sites. This process contributes to estrogen excess and blocks the effects of true estrogen. To make matters worse, these endocrine disruptors lodge in fat cells where they are resistant to breakdown. Many of these chemicals will act in a synergistic effect when combined with other endocrine disrupters. This synergistic process exponentially enhances their effects within the body causing major problems at the cellular level.

Overburdened Liver

This excessive bombardment of artificial hormones taxes the liver, which desperately tries to break down the excess to effectively eliminate it from the body.  Over time, the hormone is stored in fat cells.  Chronic liver stress causes severe problems with toxicity, digestion, metabolism, and inflammation among other things.  The symptoms of this include high cholesterol as well as lowered energy and immunity.

Poor liver function causes an inadequate breakdown of older hormones, allowing them back into the bloodstream in an even more toxic form than when they originally entered the liver.  The toxic form of estrogen dramatically increases the risk for breast cancer, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, cervical dysplasia, prostate issues, menopause, andropause (male menopause) and thyroiddisorders.

Estrogenic Foods & Environmental Sources

Certain foods are full of estrogenic molecules and chemicals.  These include conventional meat and dairy, which are loaded with hormones and antibiotics from animals that were also fed a diet rich in estrogenic grains.  Soy isoflavinoids are highly estrogenic as are sugars, additives, preservatives, and processed foods and beverages.  Grains and beer (fermented barley) are highly estrogenic as well.

Major environmental sources of estrogenic substances include plastics and canned goods.  Personal care products, oral contraceptives, pharmaceuticals, Styrofoam products, pesticides, and herbicides are highly estrogenic.  Be sure to avoid typical laundry and dishwashing detergents, household cleaners, and air fresheners which are all loaded with estrogenic chemicals.

Anti-Estrogenic Foods

There are many great foods that help the body detoxify estrogen.  Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts , and cabbage contain several powerful nutrients that detoxify bad estrogenic molecules.  These nutrients include Indole-3 Acetate, Indole-3 Carbonyl and Diindolylmethane.  These cruciferous veggies also include sulfur, containing nutrients such as Sulfuraphane and Phenyl Isothiocyanates that enhance liver detoxification processes and destroy cancer cell formation.

Anti-inflammatory foods that are rich in saturated and omega-3 fatty acids such as 100% organic, grass-fed beef and dairy, organic poultry, wild-caught salmon, and wild game are anti-estrogenic.  Plant based fats such as avocados, coconut oil, and olive oil are all powerful anti-estrogenic superfoods.  Raw nuts and seeds such as almonds, pecans, walnuts, chia, and hemp seeds are rich in anti-estrogenic plant sterols.

Anti-Estrogenic Herbs

Onions, garlic, and scallions are rich in sulfur containing amino acids and the powerful anti-oxidant quercetin that both help the liver detoxify at a higher level and reduce the production of estrogen.  Herbs such as oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, and turmeric are loaded with volatile oils that promote liver detoxification.  Turmeric has a potent ability to destroy estrogen receptor positive cancer cells which are the most commonly found cells in breast, uterine, ovarian, and prostate cancer.

Using organic acids is an advanced strategy for liver and gut health that enhances the body’s ability to remove these unwanted estrogenic molecules.  Squeeze fresh lemon, which is rich in citric acid, in water and on salads, veggies, meats, and other dishes.  Apple Cider Vinegar contains acetic acid; fermented raw dairy from grass-fed cows contains lactic acid.  There are other products that contain fermented superherbs in an organic acid base that are extraordinarily powerful for enhancing detoxification processes and neutralizing bad estrogen metabolites.

Sources For This Article Include:




What Makes Us Sick?

Common Lifestyle Choices That Cripple Our Immune System

There are many common things people do in our society that cripple the immune system and make us more susceptible to illness.  When people get sick, they often act as though they are a poor victim of a vicious assault by a pathogen.  What they don’t realize is that their lifestyle provided the proper environment for the pathogen to do what it was created to do.

The job of any pathogen is to “break down decaying matter.”  Our job is to avoid being  “decaying matter” by keeping our bodies functioning and adapting at their peak potential.

Here are five major choices that promote illness:

1.       Eating Sugar

When we consume sugar it feeds parasites within our bodies and depletes our system of critical immune boosting nutrients such as vitamin C, glutathione, zinc, etc.  Sugar also feeds the development of abnormal tissue and cancerous growth.   When sugar and starch is metabolized in our body it breaks down into a simple molecule called glucose that is used for energy production.

In the 1970’s, Dr. John Ely discovered the Glucose-Ascorbate-Antagonism (GAA) theory.  Glucose and vitamin C (ascorbate) have a very similar chemical makeup.  This theory proposes that elevated glucose levels compete and effectively restrict vitamin C from entering cells.  Both glucose and vitamin C depend upon the pancreatic hormone insulin and its signaling effects in order to get into cells.

There is an important receptor called the Glut-1 receptor that activates in response to insulin to allow both glucose and vitamin C to enter the cell.  However, glucose has a greater affinity for the insulin receptor.  This means that the greater the content of circulating blood sugar the less vitamin C will enter the cell.

White blood cells have more insulin pumps than any other type of cell and may contain 20 times the amount of vitamin C as other cells.  They also need 50 times more vitamin C inside the cell than the blood plasma in order to handle the oxidative stress that occurs when they encounter a pathogenic substance.

When white blood cells encounter pathogenic bacteria and viruses they must ingest or phagocytize these organisms in order to neutralize them.  The phagocytic index measures how effective a particular white blood cell is at destroying viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells.  Elevated blood sugar impairs this phagocytic index.  In fact, a blood sugar of 120 reduces the phagocytic index by 75%.

2.     Sleep Deprivation

Quality sleep is fundamental for optimal performance. Sleep deprivation creates a heightened stress response within the body that disrupts normal healing and tissue rejuvenation processes.  When the body has a heightened stress response it lowers immune coordination and increases the inflammatory processes.

3.     Drinking Tap Water

Municipal water is extraordinarily toxic to the body; it destroys the immune system.  This water is loaded with environmental toxins such as chlorine, DBP’s, arsenic, heavy metals ,and fluoride.  Proper water filtration is essential to remove these chemical agents.

High quality reverse osmosis systems are one of the very few water systems that are able to effectively remove fluoride.  Add back a pinch of pink salt (1/4 teaspoon per gallon) to replace any lost minerals from the reverse osmosis process.  Teach your children not to use municipal water fountains but instead to carry bottled water in either glass or stainless steel bottles.

4.   Staying Indoors

We spend as much as 90% of our lives indoors nowadays and researchers are investigating our exposure to indoor pollutants as contributing causes to the rise in chronic illness in our society.  According to the EPA, our indoor environment is two to five times more toxic than our outdoor environment, and in some cases, the air measurements indoors have been found to be 100 times more polluted.

By spending so much time indoors ,we are also missing out on the protective factors inherent in nature.  When outside we are exposed to low levels of natural pathogens and our immune system is able to gently adapt to these.  Being outside also offers the benefit of fresh air, sunlight, and vitamin D3 and if you take off your shoes the electrons from the ground.

 5.    Chronic Dehydration

All life began in water; even the developing fetus is surrounded by water. A water rationing system takes effect immediately in response to any form of dehydration. A neurotransmitter named Histamine becomes active and redistributes water throughout the body. Some areas of the body are obviously more important than others. The order of circulatory priority (an inborn triage system) is the brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, and glands. Of least importance are the muscles, bones, and skin.

Histamine’s responsibility is to ensure that these vital organs have enough water to function properly during times of dehydration. If the dehydration issues become chronic, then water must be taken from major regions within the body. Additionally, chronic dehydration can cause histamine to become excessively active leading to symptoms that are often mistaken for other disorders. The most common symptoms associated with dehydration and elevated histamine include allergies, asthma, dyspepsia, colitis, constipation, rheumatoid arthritis, migraine headaches and chronic pain.

Sources For This Article Include:




Upgrade Your Food Choices

You’re slightly confused. You are not sure who to believe. You are ready to start, but not ready to commit to the whole enchilada. You wonder how you can possibly obtain some free nuggets that will help set you on a track to health, without breaking the bank. I will tell you what you can do. You can learn how to get healthy, and stay on track, by transitioning your food to better options, that don’t insult your taste buds and your account manager.

So how do you get healthy without falling off the wagon?

You stop ingesting toxic ingredients and transition to higher quality foods you can enjoy, so you can stay the course and continue to upgrade your health as you you continue to be empowered on how to get healthy.

Let’s get started.

Ingredients To Avoid

ingredientsThere are several toxic ingredients that are hidden in packaged foods that you have no idea are causing you harm.  How would you know if you either don’t read labels closely or don’t know what you are looking for?

Well, a lot of the confusion has been taken out of what ingredients to avoid, from this A to Z list. This list is very comprehensive, and I would suggest you avoid these ingredients as much as possible, to slow down and ultimately stop the ingestion of toxic ingredients that are damaging your body.

So now that you are aware of what ingredients to avoid in order to get healthy, let’s look at some transition foods.

Grains & Starches

gluten freeWe love wheat.  So much that we typically have it in every meal.  From our toast, cereal, bagel, pop tart, whatever…to our sandwich, pasta, pizza, and wraps.  Not to mention plenty of of other places it shows up.

If it’s not wheat, its potatoes. Easy to grow, cheap, and fill the stomach.  The North American dream meal!

The problem with wheat aside from gluten intolerances is that we ingest it in incredibly large amounts, in an non-organic form, and leave it to be assimilated by a digestive system void of a healthy ecosystem, which in turn results in large, undigested particles that eventually render themselves toxic.

Potatoes are difficult to assimilate as well and often have a nice dose of chemicals on them, including fungicide. Rice is often not much better.

So what transition ‘grains’ should you consider as an upgrade?

  • Try quinoa (keen-wa), an ancient grain with lots of protein.  Easy on the palate and easier on the stomach (rinse, then soak in clean water first for at least 2 hours first).
  • If you need to make a crust, bread, or cookie, try alternate flours like quinoa, amaranth, kamut, coconut, and almond. They don’t alter the taste much, and are generally easier on the stomach.
  • If you want potatoes, eat the red skinned kind and make sure they are as organic as possible. Even better, try sweet potatoes which offer much more nutrition.

Animal Protein

People will sometimes tell you to get healthy you are basically stuck with fruits and vegetables.  Although this has merit, it’s not entirely true.

The problem is with what they call ‘meat’ (like hot dogs for example), the cleanliness of it, and eating too much.

The only real meat you should avoid altogether is anything that comes from a swine. It’s not sanitary and the human body lacks the enzyme to actually digest it. You should avoid it at all costs if you want to get healthy.

So what transition ‘meats’ should you consider as an upgrade?

  •  Your best choice is grass fed organic beef (to avoid intaking the grains for reasons mentioned above) as it contains many more nutrients and is easier on the body.
  • Your next best choice is fish, caught from an unpolluted source that is not chock full of mercury.
  • Finally, organic free range chickens (vegetable fed) are a better choice than the caged, heavily inoculated kind.

If you think your hormones are out of balance (mood swings, stubborn weight), a lot of it can occur from hormones and other toxins injected into the meat you consume, which in turn puts yours out of balance. You can’t get healthy be eating these types of meats.

Dairy

Cow’s milk is such a favourite.  We’ve been led to believe it is the purest and only form of calcium on the planet, and if we don’t eat it we are all doomed to broken bones, osteoporosis, and can never get healthy.

The truth is, conventional dairy is very harmful to the digestive system as it is mucous forming, mostly pasteurized, full of hormones, and is actually acidic in nature.  That’s no way to get healthy.

Another ‘dairy’ product people enjoy is margarine.  Margarine became a popular alternative to butter when it got the bad rap, but since then, we have realized margarine is one molecule removed from plastic and largely undigestible.

Finally, lets not forget cheese, the add on to everything.  Hard cheese is another mucous forming food that causes digestive upset.

So what transition ‘dairy’ should you consider as an upgrade?

  • Coconut milk, almond milk, or hemp milk, preferably organic.  Check out these recipes.
  • Raw organic cows milk if you can handle it.
  • Choose organic butter, unpasteurized if you can, as it is way better than margarine.
  • Choose raw cheeses that contain bacterial cultures and are more digestible than their counterpart, hard cheese.

Note I did NOT include soy milk.  Even though it was touted as THE alternative source, it’s widely known in health circles that soy is ONLY healthy if its organic, non-GMO, and fermented.  I don’t know of any widely available soy milk that has any of these characteristics to date, so you can’t get healthy drinking it.

Fats 

Fats have received a bad rap, but as with any essential nutrient, it’s the form of it that’s the issue.

Most fats you are ingesting are trans or hydrogenated fats, which are damaging to many parts of your body, including your cardiovascular system.  These are found mostly in processed and packaged foods due to their extended shelf life.

Good fats help with many functions, including the brain’s.  Want to get smarter? Increase your beneficial fat intake.

So what transition fats should you consider as an upgrade?

  • Coconut oil is BY FAR the all around healthiest fat you can take.  It is anti-bacterial and extremely healing. Try it for cooking, in smoothies, and even baking in place of margarine or conventional butter.
  • Olive oil is also a good fat to ingest, with antibacterial qualities as well. But you need to navigate between the good and the bad.
  • Also try hemp oil and avocado oil which are loaded with healthy fats.

Sugar

The darling of the masses…everything is sweeter with sugar!

It’s not that sugar in and of itself is ‘bad’, it’s just that we eat too much of it in a bastardized form and it feeds Candida, an issue for 80% of the population. Not only that, it has caused other health issues like obesity and diabetes.

When choosing sugar, limit your intake.  Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) or any corn syrup for that matter, and limit your intake of the white refined stuff. You can’t get healthy by eating refined sugar.

So what transition ‘sugars’ should you consider to upgrade?

  • Try stevia or xylitol (non-GMO from birch), natural sweeteners with no glycemic index value. They work well in smoothies, teas, and some baking.
  • Use coconut sugar, a sugar with a malty taste that is very low on the glycemic index.
  • Consider yacon or lakanto.
  • Lastly, try raw cane sugar in place of white sugar as another alternative.

Salt

Salt has become the obsession with people starting to take care of their health, and all the talk is about how to reduce it.  The fact is, you require salt and its nutrients for many of your body’s processes to take place and to get healthy.

However, the majority of people are consuming processed table salt, that has been stripped of its spectrum of nutrients and has added chemicals in the process. This salt has little benefits, and you should limit your intake of it until you don’t consume it at all.

So what transition ‘salts’ should you consider to upgrade?

  • Use a full spectrum sea salt (pink himalayan sea salt is a good choice) that still contains all the essential nutrients of salt, so you can apply liberally to your food as you would table salt so you can get the taste AND the minerals.

Snacks

Snacks…the focal point of our gluttony.  The snack industry has capitalized on our desire to graze, but has generally made us fatter and more unhealthy than ever before.  This is one of the primary stumbling blocks when trying to get healthy.

The problem with most snacks is that they are full of hydrogenated oils, harmful salt, MSG, HFCS, GMO’s, dyes and colours, wax, and non-organic grains and starches. It’s a digestive nightmare and a dead end road if you want to get healthy.

Some newer “healthier” snacks have come to the forefront, but many of them in fact are not much better than their counterparts.  It’s important to read the top ingredients to avoid above, to understand what is in your snack food and what it is doing to your health.

So what transition “snacks: should you consider to upgrade?

  • The only snack that I have found that you could truly enjoy the taste and still feel great about the ingredients is Way Better Snacks which offers a largely organic and sprouted snack that tastes delicious.

Beverages

Two beverages that are crippling our nation can both be made much healthier – soda and coffee.

People are consuming soda at an alarming rate, with little to no idea of how it is slowly destroying multiple areas of the body. Coffee is a 1-5 cup a day habit that is not going away and as a result we are more high strung, anxious, and jittery. You can’t get healthy drinking either conventional versions.

However, both offer alternatives that can allow you to transition to a much better habit.

So what transition “beverages” should you consider for an upgrade?

  • If you really need to wean yourself off soda, or replace it with a better habit, try Zevia.  It’s sweetened with stevia and the ingredients are much less harmful than regular soda.
  • If you love the taste of coffee, but realize that the side effects are much more damaging than you would like to admit, try SereniGy healthy coffee which gives you your coffee, without the side effects.

Transition is Important

There is a lot of information out there on what to avoid, what to eat, and which are the best products out there. This can be very overwhelming and lead people to give up before they even really start.

The purpose of this article is to provide you with some easy transitions that will keep you on the wagon until you are ready to introduce a higher level of nutrition that involves considerably more fruits and vegetables, super foods, high quality herbs and supplements, and processes that improve the digestibility and nutrients of everything (like fermenting).

Until then, transition as many of the above categories you can, preferably the ones you consume the most, and get ready to progress to the next level when you are ready to feel even better!




Healing Barriers – Top 5

Bring up the subject of being able to heal yourself and you often will get looked at like you are either clinically insane or have just been dropped off by Alf. People are not yet ready to believe that the body is indeed capable of healing itself, which shows a complete lack of gratitude for the infinite intelligence it contains and the daily actions it completes for us. You know, the heart beating, lungs breathing, organs functioning, muscles twitching, neurotransmitters firing…all those things we don’t need to know how to do because our body takes care of it. So how can the body complete all these tasks, but not be able to heal itself? The answer lies between your ears, and it’s time for some rewiring. To be clear, I’m referring to your beliefs. The things that guide your actions, bring about your reality, and are backed up by your opinions. Sometimes we need to question our beliefs, in order to grow and expand. This is an opportunity to do just that.

#1 – Belief You Are Healthy (when you are not)

As long are you have the belief that you are already healthy, you will NEVER be able to heal.

Since definitions will vary, for the sake of this article, let’s assume that healthy is a body free of any disease or discord. Disease includes chronic lack of energy, sleep, aches, pains, headaches, digestion issues, skin issues, libido problems, and nagging coughs, colds, flu’s, sore throats, and general stomach upset. Unfortunately, this eliminates 97% of the population.

Even if you have managed to stop the disease process, and have eliminated toxins from your diet and are eating clean and healthy food, you still have to uproot the deep seated challenges that are holding you back from true health. Otherwise, your body is still circulating contaminants often rooted in your digestive system through blood circulation that ends up infecting your organs, muscles, tissues, and bones on a daily basis.

In other words, you may have cleaned up your engine and are using premium fuel, but as long as really old, dirty oil keeps circulating through it, your vehicles performance will always be compromised.

I have seen many people claim that they are healthy, but their actions, body signals, and general appearance often say the opposite. This is not to say that these people are not doing a great job of currently feeding their system and that they are very passionate about their health (which I applaud), But if we do truly want to be healthy we need to look in the mirror and be straight with ourselves (and not stress out about it) and evaluate our true level of health.

Once we have done this, and we realize that we are indeed not as healthy as we would like, then the door opens and allows the right information to flow in as the body anxiously awaits for you to feed it the potent nutrition and right mindset to uproot your deeply seated challenges.

Until that moment, you will put a block on any healing process.

#2 – Belief in the Conventional Medical System

Another major stumbling block to healing is the belief that the answers lie within the conventional wisdom of doctors, scientists, and pharmaceutical companies.

The painful truth, which is self evident by the state of people’s health, is that they have done a poor job of increasing people’s vitality and removing the root cause of any disease process already present in the body. What they have done a good job of is diagnosing, labelling, enslaving, and managing people’s symptoms which creates lifelong customers, but unhappy ones at best.

Only in a system where you feel you have no other choice would people keep coming back to it. This is the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The stark reality of our current system is that it is a sickcare system, not a healthcare system. It does not promote healing…it promotes hiding, managing, and applying bloody bandages on a day-to-day basis to the sores that do not get better.

The conventional medical system is good at critical care and life threatening situations. It’s terrible at promoting quality of life and a healthy lifestyle.

So if you still believe in the conventional medical system in that it can create a reasonable quality of life and have largely shunned all other possibilities, you have created a permanent barrier to healing.

#3 – Belief in the Industrialized Food System

Swine FarmOur food system is not what it was 50 years ago, and if you believe you can heal yourself through it, you are in for a rude awakening.

The current mode of production and distribution has helped eliminate a large amount of nutrients in our food, and to add insult to injury, has laced them with toxic chemicals to leave them a fraction of the nutrient value that they would be coming from your own garden, or someone else’s who has made it a priority to produce clean food in gently tilled, nutrient rich soils.

Perhaps you need a refresher on how our food is produced, why it is harming you, and can rarely if ever heal you. This article is a great start.

The industrialized food system will provide some sustenance and nutrients for your body, but it can’t reverse any damage incurred over your lifetime. To do that, you require potent nutrition and supplementation so the body is given the power to heal itself.

As long as you believe that the current food system is good enough to help you become truly healthy, you will always have a barrier to healing.

#4 – Disbelief Your Body Can Be Healed

I understand, everyone’s situation is different. You have tried everything and nothing works. You’ve lost hope or have completely blocked the idea that your body is capable of becoming healthy again. Don’t continue tell your mind or body that. That is counterproductive.

Realizing that all situations are more acute than others, I can boldly say that healing is always possible. Now, this doesn’t mean it won’t be extremely difficult for some of you, and it doesn’t mean that the answers and protocols are easy to find, but I can say that whatever the body creates, it can eliminate.

I empathize with those who have found themselves in precarious situations. It’s not enjoyable, nor is it easy. I know this from personal experience…having gone through debilitating pain, doctors visits, and prescriptions that solved nothing.

However, the one thing they couldn’t take away from me was my faith. I believed that the answers were somewhere and that I just needed to keep moving forward until my persistence paid off and I found them. Fortunately, I did find these answers and put them in place over a period of 8 years, until I managed to give my body what it needed to completely heal itself (and the reason why I can now help others do it in a mere fraction of the time).

So if you don’t believe you can be healed, you are sure to not find the answers to true healing.

#5 – Disbelief You Can Find Someone Who Can Help Your Body Heal

If you do overcome the disbelief that your body can heal itself, then you need to overcome what is often the biggest trap of all, the belief you cannot find someone who can help your body heal.

Now, no one should describe themselves as a healer. The only thing that can take credit for healing is the body. It in the only thing that has the infinite intelligence required to govern effective healing, and actually put the processes into action that will ultimately lead to real healing.

A healer should be thought of more as a broker or facilitator. They recommend or provide the tools, the advice, and in some cases broker the kind of energy required for the body to overcome its disease through direct contact. Regardless of the method, they understand how to ‘translate’ the body’s signals and provide the things it requires to take care of itself.

However, if you are inherently skeptical about finding this type of person, one will never come into your midst, as you have created a monumental barrier to your own healing.

Your Beliefs Are Most important

Sure, there are plenty of other barriers to healing, like improper food and supplementation choices, doing things at the wrong time and in the wrong order, and ingesting toxic ingredients. However, the most debilitating barrier is a closed mind, because it leads to nothing but closed doors. This will never lead to an opportunity to heal the body.

Don’t make the mistaken assumption your body is not intelligent enough to heal itself. It could be the most costly mistake you ever make.




Mushrooms Boost Your Immunity

Nature provides an amazing array of resources to improve our health and boost our immunity.  Mushrooms are a type of fungus that are enjoyed by people all over the world and renowned for their nutritional benefits.  These have used in tonics, soups, teas, prepared foods, and herbal formulas to promote health and longevity.  In recent years, scientists have studied the medicinal benefits of mushrooms on the immune system.

There are thousands of different types of mushrooms with a small percentage being poisonous if consumed.  Most mushrooms are edible and include white mushrooms, morels, truffles, portabellas, chanterelle, shiitake, maitake, agaricus, reishi, oyster, and enoki.  While all of these mushrooms have nutritional benefits, some are far denser in unique immune stimulating compounds than others.

The most common nutrients found in the majority of mushrooms include thiamin (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (B3), folate (B9), phosphorus, iron, panthothenic acid (B5), zinc, potassium, copper, magnesium, pyridoxine (B6), zinc, potassium, copper, and selenium.  All edible mushrooms are healthy for the body but some contain high levels of beta glucans, which are an extraordinary molecule that scientists are just beginning to understand.

Beta Glucan and the Immune System

Beta glucan is a powerful immune stimulating compound found in several mushrooms, yeasts, and other foods.  Beta glucan is a polysaccharide that is made up of multiple sugar molecules linked together.  The different types of beta glucan include 1,3-D glucan and Beta 1,6-D glucan,

Beta glucans are known by scientists as “biological response modifiers” that bind to the surface of innate immune cells, which allows the cells to have better coordination in their attack.  This reduces the tendency towards auto-immune reactions and hyperinflamatory activity when the body is under attack. This compound activates certain immune cells such as key T-cells, macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells and the cytokines interleukin (IL) 1 and 2.  Studies have shown that it inhibits the growth of cancer and strengthens the immune response to microbial invaders.

Beta glucans have been studied for their ability to mitigate cancer cell growth and reduce the symptoms of the common cold.  In one report by the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism they studied firefighters and tracked their cold/flu symptoms.   Firefighters have very physically and emotionally stressful positions that demand a lot out of them. The results of the study showed that those who took beta glucan instead of the placebo had a 23% reduction in upper respiratory tract infections.  “These results are consistent with previous clinical research involving marathoners, individuals with high stress lifestyles and the general population,” wrote Brent C. Rudy, the director of the Montana Center for Work Physiology and Exercise Metabolism.

Maitake Mushrooms  

Maitake means “dancing mushroom” in Japanese. It is said that people danced for joy when they found these mushrooms because they were worth their weight in silver for their remarkable healing properties.  Maitake has been found to contain high levels of the immune modulating molecule Beta 1,6-D glucan.

Agaricus Blazei Murill Mushroom

This mushroom commonly referred to as the ABM mushroom is grown in the rain forest of Brazil and is nicknamed “The Mushroom of God.”  Studies have revealed that the ABM mushroom has the greatest density of beta glucan in the world.  When human subjects were given ABM in their diet, they saw a 3000% increase in NK cells in the blood within 2-4 days.

Reishi Mushroom:

Reishi is rich in Beta1,3-D glucan which boosts macrophages, T cells, and cytokinetic activity.   Reishi is especially good at increasing the production of tumor inhibiting cytokines IL-1and IL-2.  Reishi has powerful analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-microbial affects in the body.  It also acts to protect the liver and detoxify the body of ionizing radiation.

Sources For This Article Include:




How to Lose Weight Healthy

A Step-by-Step Guide to Losing Weight the Healthy Way

I eat too much. I love food. I have my demons, and I’ve been fighting to be or stay in good shape my whole life. The way I stay in decent shape is by eating high quality food and exercising. For more on that, check out My Eating Disorder.

There are thousands of articles on the Internet on how to lose weight. Obviously, an Organic Lifestyle Magazine article will have a more natural slant than most articles, but this article is also a very conscious and clear, step-by-step guide that anyone can use.

When I was fat, I found myself overwhelmed with information on how to lose weight. Let me assure you, if you are obese, this article comes from a man who knows the battle we wage in our head as much as anyone. But like everything else you will learn about improving your health in Organic Lifestyle Magazine, weight loss is not a quick fix. Being healthy and thin is a lifestyle; it’s a journey. And you can actually lose weight very quickly in a healthy way when you do it right. But keeping it off means doing it right for the rest of your life.

The Healthy Mindset

Pleasure is short term. It comes in spades with happiness, but it comes at a price with consumption. And often that price exceeds the number on the price tag.

First and foremost, if our mind isn’t right, our diet isn’t right either. Allow me to be very blunt, dispel some myths, and then note some hard truths:

  • If you are overweight, you eat too much
  • If you are overweight, it’s not your thyroid, your genetics, or your spouse who cooks too well that is the problem
  • If you’re overweight, you do not exercise the right way often enough
  • If you’re overweight, there is no pill that is going to fix your weight without serious consequences
  • If you’re overweight, there is no temporary diet that will allow you to lose weight and then go back to your old lifestyle
  • If you’re overweight buying supplements, essential oils, or any fitness products on a late night infomercial isn’t going to take off the weight (though I do recommend B vitamins, vitamin D, and a nutrition powder)
  • If you’re overweight, it is your fault

The world is a much, much better place when you’re in shape. People treat you better and take you more seriously when you’re thin. Everything is easier. Life feels better. It’s a massive difference. I used to believe that I was never going to be thin, that I was going to be stuck being fat my whole life. And I believed that people should treat me with the same amount of respect regardless. But while I have mixed emotions about this now, the fact is, everything becomes easier when you’re thin, from getting a promotion, to getting a date, to getting up the stairs. Everything.

I used to say my thyroid was slow, and this is why I was fat. My thyroid was slow. It was slow because I was eating too much, eating crap, and not seriously exercising.

I used to tell people that my whole family was fat, and it was just genetics. I knew that was a lie because my dad was skinny as a rail, but even if your whole family is overweight that’s due to learned behavior not genetics.

The mindset of a healthy person that struggled with weight loss is this:

I need to burn more calories then I consume to lose weight.

If your thyroid is slow, it’s going to be harder. If you smoke, it’s going to be harder. If your liver is toxic, it’s going to be harder. But it is still the same rule. It’s science. And while there are some variables, the bottom line is that to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume.

And if you’re like me, a binge eater, a stress eater, an “I don’t need an excuse to stuff my face sick” eater, than eat mindfully. Don’t go into that zone where you’re just stuffing your face. Stay in the moment, mindful and aware.

For Those Who Don’t Have Food Issues

There are plenty of people who don’t binge eat (or rarely do) and don’t even eat very much and still cannot seem to get into the skinny jeans no matter what they do. These people need exercise and they need more produce in their diet. And, in many cases, a liver detox.

Quick Weight Loss

It is totally possible to lose weight quickly and stay healthy. Forget the experts who tell you it is unhealthy to lose weight too quickly. It is unhealthy to lose weight in an unhealthy manner. If you’re eating healthy, and you’re not taking drugs to assist in weight loss, and you aren’t killing yourself in the gym, and if you’re getting enough sleep, it doesn’t matter if you’re losing 10 pounds a week or 2. Healthy is healthy.

If you follow the following steps strictly, you will achieve very quick and very healthy weight loss.

Healthy Weight Loss Plan

Step 1 – Start a Journal

Write down everything you’re eating. People kid themselves. People outright lie to themselves. People forget. Write it all down and hold yourself accountable.

Step 2 – Get a Scale and Measuring Tape

Every morning, at the same time, write down your weight and your measurements in your journal. In my experience and with those I’ve helped, the day you stop measuring and checking your weight is the day you’re off the wagon and back to gaining weight.

It is important to weigh yourself at the same time in the morning, nude. A common mistake to make when weighing oneself is to weight yourself one morning when you wake up and then the next morning after you’ve used the restroom, or had a glass of water, or had a bowel movement, etc. You can lose and gain a surprising amount of weight with these regular morning activities. For me, I always have a bowel movement in the morning, and I weigh myself at my lightest, which is before I eat or drink anything but after I use the bathroom. That’s how I keep it consistent.

Do not weigh yourself multiple times throughout the day! That’s just asking for drama.

And please, if you’re one of those people who think they’re fat when they are not, like when everyone tells you that you look great but you “know” you’re fat, you need to do just the opposite and throw away your scale!

Step 3 – Learn Proper Breathing

Proper breathing will help with stress relief, detoxification, and weight loss. For that information, check out How to Breathe. Do not skip this. Do not doubt its importance. This is life changing.

Step 4 – Exercise

Start exercising every single morning, and every single night, before bed. Exercise at least twice a day. Turn your body into a high metabolism fat burning machine that has no choice but to build muscle and burn fat.

Exercise for Weight Lose

exercise-wimpHere is an example of a plan that I recommend, and it’s one I’ve implemented with great results.

In the morning do squats and pushups, and pull-ups if possible. If you can’t squat, stand up from a chair and sit back down many times. If you can squat, squat all the way down. Check out good form and practice it. If you can’t do pushups, do them on your knees. If you can get to some sort of pull-up bar but are unable to do pull-ups, set it up so you can stand up, and then use your arms as much as possible to let yourself go down.

With all the cheats, the idea is to progress more and more until you can do it the conventional way. And progression is key. If you did five squats yesterday, do five today. If you’re sore, do five anyways. When we are focused on weight loss, especially for people who have struggled with it their whole life, routine is key. The idea is to try not to get too sore the first day so you can keep slowly progressing every day, without taking a day off. Not taking a day off has two benefits. It tells both your mind and your body that you are an active person who lives a physically active lifestyle and it also keeps one day off from becoming two and then more.

At night, I like yoga to relieve the stress accumulated from the day and to help me sleep. You can also do more bodyweight exercises. But most importantly, stretch.

After two weeks of doing these bodyweight exercises it’s time to add some other exercise. Take 20 minutes to break a sweat every morning and every night. Breathe heavily. Exercise hard. An example, depending on your fitness level, would be 25 jump squats, 15 pushups, 5 pull-ups, and then 15 minutes of sprints. Make it intense, and make it build muscle and endurance.

Step 5 – Take Up an Active Lifestyle

If you like to go to the gym, got to the gym. This is in addition to the aforementioned workout program. If you have stairs and an elevator to choose from at work, take the stairs. If you sit at a desk all day, get out of the chair and bust out 20 squats when you’re feeling lethargic. Sit on a Swiss ball instead of a chair at work. Go hiking on the weekends with friends. Park as far away as possible from the entrance of the building. Walk faster than everyone else. Get a stress-ball to play with at work.

Step 6 – Eat Right

Eat Produce. Raw, fresh produce. Not just fruit, eat salads. Eat lots of salads. Read How to Be Healthy. Live, eat, and breathe a healthy lifestyle with lots and lots of produce. And don’t skip breakfast. My weight loss diet goes as follows:

  • Pre-breakfast – 1 apple and a glass of stevia sweetened cranberry lemonade
  • Breakfast – (after a workout) Large salad with a low-fat (or non-fat) homemade dressing
  • Snack -1 Fruit
  • Lunch – A smoothie with organic berries, leafy greens, and coconut water, and coconut oil
  • Snack – A small salad or watermelon
  • Diner – Brown rice and beans, or a quinoa stir fry with veggies

Breakfast is my largest meal; it keeps me full for hours and sets the tone for healthy eating all day. Dinner is smaller than breakfast or lunch. I also recommend coconut oil, pineapple, and avocados to anyone trying to lose weight.

Step 7 – Get More Nutrition

I don’t think people looking to lose weight should go out and buy a bunch of supplements and exercise equipment the first day. If you have the discipline to stick with the aforementioned routine, supplements are going to be much more beneficial. Plus, you may find you have a better idea of which supplements you need.

Almost anyone can benefit from Vitamin D, a B vitamin Complex, and Total Nutrition Formula. If you don’t get it from our sister site, Green Lifestyle Market, just make sure you’re getting very high quality supplements. They are not all created equal. And most supplements are actually counterproductive and toxic. Unfortunately, it’s a dirty business. Choose wisely.

Step 8 – Detox

All of the other previous steps can be taken one step out a time, either waiting one day, or one week to start the next. They can also be started all together on the first day. What works for you is what works for you. If you have the discipline to jump right in and start doing everything right, then go for it all on the first day. But if you are struggling with obesity and you do not suffer from any serious health problems at the moment, I recommend you wait and detox after a few weeks of living a healthy and physically active lifestyle.

I usually recommend starting a detox when you reach a plateau on your weight loss regimen.  This is also a good time to go ahead and get some supplements. While I so recommend supplementation, I don’t like to push it on people who aren’t ready to get healthy.  If you’ve stuck to the program for a few weeks, and you’re serious about losing weight, it might be the perfect time to choose a supplement wisely. You’ll be less likely to waste your money.  For a list of detox plans along with some supplement recommendations, check out Cheap and Easy Detox.

On the other hand, if you have serious health issues that should be addressed immediately, or you are someone who is totally and completely addicted to junk food, it might be best to fast with detoxification first.

If your liver is severely toxic, addressing liver toxicity will help speed up your weight loss. Your liver processes fats. A clean and healthy liver helps you deal with fats properly.

And finally, if your thyroid is slow, supplementation will be helpful with that, too. But I don’t recommend anyone get on thyroid supplements until after they have been exercising and living an active lifestyle for some time, unless their thyroid is so dead that getting out of bed is too difficult, and exercising is impossible. But for those who are hoping to find motivation in a bottle, it’s not that easy.

If you have any questions, or you need to talk about struggling with obesity, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment here or message me on Facebook.




How To Be Healthy

A Complete, Step-By-Step Guide to Restoring Your Health and/or Staying Healthy

It’s simple. But in today’s world, it certainly isn’t easy. The hardest part about being healthy is learning how simple it can be. Simplifying one’s life can be very complicated.

Start Listening

Listen to your body. When you eat crap food there is an itch in your throat. That’s infection feeding off of the sugars and the damaged cells caused by one soda or one cookie. Headaches, skin itching, brain fogginess, fatigue, and aches and pains can usually be traced back to something you ate. If you are not yet in tune with your body, pay attention.

Don’t take painkillers. They make it too easy to continue the poor behavior. Healthy people, the truly healthy ones, deal with a headache naturally. They ask themselves what they did to get this headache so they don’t get it again, and they use natural means to remedy the pain. They don’t cover it up, causing other problems in the long run.

Accept the Fact That Your Health Is Up to You

Learn the absolute truth that your health is your responsibility and totally in your hands. A doctor cannot make you healthy. Neither can this article. Your health is totally and completely dependent upon your actions. There are very few people reading this article who don’t have the choice to be healthy. Most people think that their sickness is out of their control–a hand dealt by fate, bad genes, etc. This is so rarely true. Every single ailment has a natural cure. An absolute cure. And none of them work well without a very healthy diet as the foundation of one’s lifestyle.

And the truth is that a healthy diet cures most problems by itself. But there are those who are so sick, so toxic, that they need targeted nutrition.

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

Forget the magic pill. Almost everyone who comes to me asking what they can do to be well is looking for a shortcut. They’re looking for a few natural “tricks” that will allow them to keep smoking, or drinking soda, or eating fast food. And I know them. I know tons of them. And they work – for a little while. You can take an Advil for a headache, or you can take enough high quality Boswallia, but being healthy means avoiding behaviors that cause headaches and not blaming them on stress and/or genetics. When the body is healthy, I mean really healthy, it is amazing how well it can handle stress, allergens, and even environmental toxins without negative physical reactions.

Genetics are a predisposition. If your father died of a heart attack at 50 years old, that does not mean that you have to die at 50. It simply may mean that if you don’t take care of yourself your heart may be one of the first organs to go. That’s how genetics work.

It’s a hard truth for most to accept. It’s hard because it takes away the excuses and makes it much more difficult to live life in the conventional way, the way most have been raised believing is “normal.”

How To Eat Healthy

Cut Out All the Crap. No soda, coffee, smoking (anything), drugs (over the counter and prescription), alcohol, pre-packaged processed foods, fast foods, microwaving, and restaurants.

That last one is tough, I know. And that includes restaurants that claim to be healthy. They aren’t. Of the 65 restaurants I know of that claim to be healthy, two of them are. Even the healthiest options from the other 63 are prepared by cutting corners that render the food much less beneficial than if it was prepared by you at home. I do eat out. But I don’t do it often, and I know how to order healthy when I do. And every now and then I splurge. But I spent a lot of time eating perfectly, detoxifying, and learning to listen to my body. I also worked in a few restaurants that were supposed to be healthy, and know what to avoid. For the purposes of this article, it’s better to just give up restaurants for a month at least. If you want to be truly healthy, it’s time to prepare your own food. It’s time to learn raw food recipes. It’s time to cook with quinoa and brown rice. No more refined foods. Almost everything should be unadulterated. The few exceptions are certain foods that can or should be fermented, but that’s another article.

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

No More Drugs

Smoking marijuana is not healthy. It’s got a ton of benefits, and there are way worse things you can do to your body that are totally legal. But smoking, smoking anything, introduces tons of carbon and free radicals into your body. And if the marijuana isn’t the pure high quality stuff, who knows what else you’re burning into your lungs. There are better ways to get all of the benefits that marijuana can provide.

As written above, no more over the counter medication. It’s not a small thing. One aspirin is not inconsequential. It does damage. I have yet to see anything at all healthy that is sold at a pharmacy, believe it or not. Everything in there is toxic! That is, unless you know of one that sells some organic produce. I haven’t found that drug store yet. Give up cough medicine, throat lozenges, and antacids; nothing you would buy at pharmacy is good for you or your health.

There is a catch that I am well aware of–birth control. Other than condoms, birth control is absolutely terrible for you. Pills, shots, IUDs, they are all absolutely terrible for your health and I have yet to find a natural birth control that works. I recommend condoms and/or spermicide. But I do understand that sometimes those aren’t the best options and we all have to figure out what works best for us. But I do not know of a way artificial hormones can be healthy. And IUDs have serious problems associated with them as well.

Another tough problem to deal with is the prescription drugs for serious issues such as mental illness or diabetes, or other conditions with dangerous consequences if/when we quit taking them. In most cases there is a way off of them. But it’s a long road, and it takes time, patience, and diligence. And while I feel everyone should take health into his or her own hands, this is an exception. Most people on medications such as these should have guidance; someone should be watching and making sure things are going well.

It can be very tough to find a professional who knows enough about health and knows how, or has the desire, to get someone off drugs. If you suffer from a physical health issue, take things slowly. And consider getting help if possible. If it’s a mental condition, and it would be dangerous to be off the medication, I do believe there is a way to get off of the pharmaceuticals and be healthy, but it will take a lot of time and a lot of help, and a lot of discipline for the rest of your life. There are a few cases were I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to take this route. The risks are so high.

No More Processed Foods

I know a lot of vegans. I only know two who are healthy. The rest are junk food vegans.

I know a lot of health nuts. It’s my field; it’s my circle. And while many of them don’t want to hear this, I only know of a handful that are really, truly healthy. Most choose to be “healthier.”

Understanding the difference between healthy and healthier is imperative. Cliff Bars are healthier than a Snickers bar. The latest raw food spirulina bar sweetened with dates and apple juice is healthier than the cliff bar. But what’s healthy is raw whole dates and apples. I haven’t found a mass marketed food bar that is actually healthy. I’ve only seen healthier. The few that I have seen that I would consider to truly be healthy are made by very small companies and sold at smaller individually owned health food stores. And still, the other 19 out of 20 of those sold at these places would fall under the “healthier” category.

Prepare your own food. Take the time. Health is taking time for yourself and your family. Enjoy cooking or preparing raw foods from scratch with your family, instead of choosing a lifestyle that demands quick and cheap meals.

I can cook most meals as fast as other people can cook out of a box. It takes practice, lots of time and energy put towards learning the skill. But there is nothing more important to one’s health than preparing one’s own meals.

Drink

Don’t drink coffee. It’s acidic. It’s not good for you. The caffeine wreaks havoc on your thyroid. It causes a lot of other problems. Soda should come with a warning label as serious as a pack of cigarettes. Don’t touch the stuff. Diet soda is worse. Artificial sweeteners are an absolute no. Truvia is bad too. No soda. No flavored water. No store bought juice.

Limit the fruit juice even when it’s fresh and pressed. It’s still refined and processed because you are removing the fiber. Fruit juice, at its best, is still a concentrated refined sugar product. Green apples are an exception, and can be mixed with vegetables, but juice green apples, beets, and carrots sparingly because of the sugar content.

No alcohol. Humans weren’t meant to ingest alcohol. A glass of red wine has benefits, but those benefits can be had with better choices. Drink water. And make sure it is filtered and toxin free whenever possible. Don’t worry about drinking “enough” if you’re eating right. More on that in a moment.

Exercise

When someone tells me that they don’t have time to eat right or to exercise, I ask them if they ever watch television, and if they have a Facebook or a Twitter account, and if they ever go out drinking with their friends. People are so addicted to convenience and pleasure that it all ends up being very inconvenient. I try to remember that what is convenient today may have a high price to pay, and I also try not to confuse pleasure with happiness.

The truth is exercise pays you back with time in more ways than one. I’m not just talking about the idea that you live longer. And exercise alone does not necessarily help one to live longer when their diet is poor. Exercise for 20 minutes in the morning and once your body becomes accustomed to it you get back much more than 20 minutes in that day. You get that time with mental clarity and the ability to handle stress more effectively. We are more efficient, more productive, and see things in a more positive way when fitness is a part of our lifestyle.

And 20 minutes done right is all I believe anyone needs. I workout for longer than 20 minutes on most days, but the benefits of 20 minutes of very intense ass-kicking exercise are massive. And while one could argue that 30 minutes would be better, I find that on a busy day when I feel that my time is limited, 20 minutes offers me the best return on my investment. I am a firm believer in HIIT training. High Intensity Interval Training. Google it if you’re unfamiliar. I also do yoga, I ride bicycles, I weight lift, I do exercise that last for hours and I do very short and intense circuit training. I mix it up. There are different benefits to all. That said, for anyone short on time, nothing beats HIIT.

If there is no time or money for the gym, that’s fine, because the best exercises in the world are bodyweight exercise! From yoga to squats to sprints, the variety is endless. I believe that squats are the most important exercise anyone can do, and you don’t need weight. If you’re too out of shape to squat all the way down, try what I call “get ups.” You lay down and you stand up (alternating between what side you get up on each and every time is very important). When one ‘s health is too poor do “get ups” then sit down and get up as many times as possible from a seat. As soon as the soreness goes away, try for at least one more than you did before.

Be careful not to do it if you’re out of shape, especially for those with issues that affect muscles and joints like fibromyalgia. It is very easy to get very sore when you’re out of shape, and a toxic body takes so long to heal that a tough workout can be counterproductive.

And while this is one area that I do not heed my own advice with often enough, I recommend everyone take up yoga. An intense 20 minute exercise routine that builds endurance and strength is essential, but yoga is a close second. I don’t make enough time for it, but I will, as it improves one’s life immensely when practiced regularly.

Fast and Detoxify

You can fast without detoxifying. You can detox without fasting. And you can fast and detox while getting lots of nutrition, too. I recommend the latter. A calorie fast is a great way to reduce and eliminate the urge to eat junk food and to eat too much. It helps to reset the taste buds so that fresh raw produce tastes as it should. It can eliminate addictions. And when one is looking to lose weight, the initial results from a fast can help inspire those to start eating well afterwards. But it can also be the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. Coming off the fast gently and slowly with raw and healthy produce is the proper way to ease off. For a few choices on affordable fasting and detoxifying check out Fast and Easy Detox. You can also add a high quality nutrition supplement to the detox and insure you are getting plenty of nutrition. I am a fan of calorie fasting, but not nutrition fasting.

Get Educated

Read all about natural health. The key phrases for Google are: natural health, alternative health, natural remedies, home remedies, holistic health, and alternative medicine. I will warn you, like everything else, most of the information on these topics is crap. But almost all of the information is better than conventional medicine, and even most of the lousy information on natural healing has a higher success rate than conventional medicine, believe it or not. Seriously, the statistics on conventional medicine are scary!

It takes time to get educated. You get better and better at weeding out the B.S. It needs to become a hobby. Health and the knowledge of it should be one of everyone’s favorite hobbies. Doesn’t that make sense?

A lot of people who go through a traumatic health experience dabble in alternative medicine. Then they say, “I tried everything.” The truth in many of these cases is that the person tried 19 conventional medical treatments and one or two alternative medical treatments, none of which included patience and the most important aspect of holistic healing, a lifestyle change. True natural health takes time, patience, and discipline. But once you find it, that magical balance when you are totally in tune with your body, it’s easy and surprisingly simple.

If you’re looking for alternative medicine to compliment conventional treatments, I firmly believe you are wasting your time. As I’ve stated, the only alternative medicine that works in the long run includes a nutrient dense, toxin free (or as close to it as possible) diet, which cannot possibly be very effective if one is consuming the incredibly toxic substances that pharmaceutical companies call medicine.

Take Supplements

There are two reasons I recommend people take supplements. One is that our food, even the organic produce, is grown in depleted soil using conventional farming practices. We have spent a long time developing our agriculture practices to grow food that looks good and lasts a long time on the shelves, without a care for the nutrition content or taste of the produce (and the two usually go hand and hand). For this reason I recommend a nutritional supplement like Total Nutrition Formula. I like to make my own. This article shows you how to make your own Total Nutrition Formula. I also recommend vitamin D, a B vitamin complex (a whole and complete B vitamin complex), and Body Balance. You can also easily make Body Balance yourself, if you are so inclined.

Some people need more nutrition than others. For instance, when someone’s thyroid is weak, which is very common with our lifestyle, there are a lot of supplements to choose from based on their specific needs.

The other reason I recommend supplements is to eliminate parasites and fungi. If you’re familiar with Candida, you know that it’s yeast, a fungus, that when left unchecked causes series problems. And almost everyone you know living the modern conventional lifestyle can contribute every single one of his or her health conditions, at least to some degree, to Candida. Many different kinds of parasites also affect many people in many ways.

And what most people don’t know is that Candida can grow anywhere. Yeast infections are not just vaginal. Athletes foot, sore throats, ear infections. Most infections are actually in part, if not completely, caused by Candida.

How to Know If You Have Candida

If you are prone to any kind of fungal infection (including athletes foot), if your tongue is white, if you regularly drink alcohol (which turns into simple refined sugar in the bloodstream feeding all the bad bugs), and if you have taken antibiotics recently and not addressed Candida, you have Candida overgrowth.

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

Kill The Parasites

What do bacteria, virus, yeast, and parasites hate? Garlic, Oil of Oregano, Clove, and a healthy body. In addition, nothing is better at killing Candida than SF722.

Anyone who is getting started with natural health, and/or detoxifying, needs to take Oil of Oregano, a parasite cleaning supplement with clove, and SF722 for at least the first month. And most should continue with lots of garlic and SF722 thereon after if they are typically going to “cheat” and eat sweets every now and then. This is why I always have SF722 ready. I do “cheat” every now and then. You don’t have to always be perfect to be healthy, but most people have to be perfect for at least a month or two (in many cases more) before cheating doesn’t set them back as if they never cleaned up their diet in the first place.

The Most Important Supplement

Blood Detox. I believe everyone should take this. It’s one of the (if not, the) most powerful tinctures there is. Thick, sludgy, toxic blood comes with an unhealthy body. It contributes to all health issues. Thick and gross blood makes it harder to rid the body of any and all infection.

The Mindset

I think this is the hardest part. The healthy mindset sets apart those who are “healthier” and those who are truly healthy. People who will never get cancer, people who will never die in a nursing home, people who will have their cognitive abilities until the day they pass on, all understand that every aspect of our health in almost every single case is under our complete control.

Now comes the information that even most of my close friends who are health advocates will disagree with me on, but I know that the following is absolutely true. If you’re pregnant and have morning sickness, you’re not eating right. If you are nursing a baby who gets diaper rashes, you’re not eating right. If your nails break easily, you’re not eating right. If you have allergies, you’re not eating right. If you get headaches, you’re not eating right. If you have body odor and need to mask it with deodorant or perfumes, you’re not eating right. If you wake up in a fog, sore and achy, you are not eating right.  If you have ADHD or you are not sleeping well, chances are you are also not eating right. If you get cavities, you are not eating right. If you need any medication that is not for an emergency situation, you’re not eating right. The bottom line is, if you have health issues, you either are not eating right, or did not eat right for a significant period of time.

There are so few exceptions. Genetics is very rarely one of these exceptions. In almost every case, genetics are simply a predisposition, not a curse.

There are a very few people who try eating right but are so infected with Candida and various parasites that it seems as though there is nothing they can do to their diet to get healthy. That’s where the nutritional support listed above comes in.

A Truly Healthy Diet

The most important part of this whole article is the diet. Nothing else alone will get anyone to a healthy state, but for many, especially younger people, the right diet can be followed and everything else ignored to get one to a healthy physical condition.

Stop Feeding the Bad Guys – No Sugar, No other Crap

Candida makes everything worse. And it is fed by sugars, rancid fats, and damaged cells. It doesn’t take much! Even a little bit of sugar feeds it and keeps Candida thriving. It is hard to kill, and it comes back so easily. The reason Candida is so pervasive is that humans were not meant to eat refined sugar. This includes agave, fruit juice, sugar in the raw, and date powder. It’s all refined sugars (even “raw sugar” is a refined sugar). Even the seemingly healthiest health-nuts typically eat way too much sugar. This is the number one reason why so many of my health-food loving friends still have health issues. They cannot get away from sugar.

Bacteria, viruses, fungus, molds, and all manner of parasites love sugar and decaying cells. If you eat crap with sugar you feed these infectious organisms. If you eat crap food without sugar you damage your own cells, which feeds these organisms.

These organisms are not inherently bad. We need them. Our bodies and our planet need scavengers to take out the garbage. The trick is not to eat garbage causing our body’s cells to become garbage.

Avoid These Foods

Soy, pasteurized foods, homogenized foods, foods from conventional farms, prepared packaged snack foods, microwaveable foods, “ready-to-eat” foods besides fruits and vegetables, and foods in the health food section (because the real health food section is the produce section).

Also avoid MSG, GMOs, and anything refined that we wouldn’t normally eat wild in nature. I do make an exception for oils, not for health, but for taste. I use a very little bit in my salads and some of my cooking. I cook with high temperature oils, so I don’t eat spoiled rancid fats. I also get plenty of healthy fats from my diet. At times, when money is tight, and/or good produce is scarce, I do take a fat supplement. UDO’s Oil with DHA is my personal favorite. I also like the Nordic Naturals, Thorne, and Carlson brands for their commitment to quality.

If you choose to take a fat supplement, make sure it smells right. It should not smell rancid or fishy.

What to Buy

My diet, in order of what I eat most of to least of, when I can afford it is: fresh raw vegetables, fresh raw fruit, cooked vegetables, brown rice, various beans, quinoa, oatmeal, eggs, and fresh herbs and spices. With very few exceptions, this is my diet. The main difference between when I have a better income and when money is tight is that rice and beans move closer to the top of the list.

I don’t shop at Wal-Mart. I have in the past, but not anymore. There are plenty of great reasons to boycott Wal-Mart, but the point I am making here is their food is awful. I shopped there for groceries a long time ago before I knew better, and a few times since to prove a point. The produce is absolutely tasteless. There are few exceptions that come and go. For the most part, the produce at Wal-Mart is bland and nutritionally void.

Unfortunately, most grocery stores aren’t much better. A little, but not much. Find your local farmer’s markets. Buy produce at a supermarket as a last resort. And buy organic whenever possible, but don’t let that stop you from eating fresh raw produce as often as you can. The exception here is genetically modified foods. Read about GMOs here. Avoid them at almost any cost.

What’s better than buying food, if at all possible, is to grow your own food. It takes time to master the art. It’s not a quick and easy solution. It will likely take a few seasons to get things right, and most people who do grow much of their own food cannot grow everything they need to sustain a healthy diet with enough variety to get all of their nutritional needs meet. Though I do know a few people who forage with great success, but that’s another topic for another article.

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

Meat

If you do not want to be a vegetarian or a vegan, choose your meat carefully. Make sure it’s sourced from humane farms for ethical reasons and for good health. Chickens should be pasture raised and allowed to eat all kinds of bugs, grasses, and weeds. Cows should be free range too, grazing on grasses all day long. Healthy meat, from a healthy animal, cooked in a healthy manner, is not bad for you, contrary to what most vegans will tell you. But overcooked meat, meat that is cooked on too high a temperature, meat smothered in MSG and other toxic ingredients, and meat from unhealthy animals feed unhealthy unnatural diets is what most people eat. And that is how meat causes cancer.

How to Prepare Healthy Food

If you think my diet is bland, think again. I eat very well. People love my food. It’s really very good. And I am still learning. It’s fun. It takes time, but you get fast and you get good. I can make the most amazing rice and beans in a pressure cooker in 20 minutes. I do have to soak the beans first, and there is about 5 minutes of prep time chopping the onions and mincing the garlic, etc., but once the beans are cooking, I’m able to clean up the mess I made and relax well before it’s finished.

Make salads. Not your typical salads, but salads with lots of variety. My type of salads typically consist of spinach, arugula, collard greens, spring mix, shredded leeks, red onions, red cabbage, red bell pepper, rainbow chard, beet greens, grated beet root, graded carrots, grated zucchini, cucumbers, cilantro, pomegranate seeds, raisins, dried unsweetened cranberries, sesame seeds, and ground papaya seeds. A large salad with a wide variety of vegetables is the most important meal of every single day!

I mix it up. Sometimes I have other vegetables in there. Sometimes I shred an apple and throw it in. My dressing is a balsamic vinaigrette. For the recipe check out my article 80% Raw Food Diet.

You will find that when the bulk of your diet is made up of fresh raw produce, you don’t necessarily need to drink a lot of water. You get it from the produce. And your body will do a much better job than it used to of letting you know when you are thirsty.

When cooking foods, it is important to understand Advanced Glycated End Products. Don’t overcook your meat as this binds the proteins. Rare beef is not dangerous when it’s from a healthy cow.

I also love sprouts! They are super easy to make at home. Check out Five Reasons to Sprout.

Soaking and Sprouting

To be on the safe side, soak all dried beans for 24 hours. Soak all raw nuts for 24 hours as well, and then dry them before eating for taste if you want the familiar crunch. Don’t eat more than a handful of nuts a day except on special occasions. It is common for raw food enthusiasts to eat nuts with every meal. They make cashew cheeses and almond butters. Once you get the hang of these recipes, what you can make is simply incredible. But most raw food advocates eat too many nuts and I believe this is the most common cause of health issues for people who eat mostly or entirely raw. Raw junk food is much healthier than regular junk food, but it is still junk food.

Veganism

I wish everyone would eat vegan. I love animals. But I do not believe that meat is inherently bad for us. And I do know that most vegans are no more healthy (or only slightly healthier) than meat eaters. Junk food vegans, junk food vegetarians, and junk food health-nuts are people who eat prepackaged processed foods of the healthier variety. This isn’t healthy. At best, it’s healthier.

If you do choose to go vegan or vegetarian, you really don’t need nearly as much protein as we have been led to believe. And the protein you do need does not have to come from meat. There are plenty of all natural vegan bodybuilders. And a good protein supplement for those who do need more protein is the Nutrition Formula I also recommend as a multivitamin/mineral.

Get Enough Sleep

This can be very difficult to do when one’s health is poor. But the body needs to regenerate or else lots of health problems will remain and damaged cells feed the bad bugs. For more on sleep check out Ask OLM, Pure Sleep, and 10 Things You Can Do to Have More Energy. We have many articles.

No Shots

Vaccines and other shots are toxic. No matter how useful you think immunization are (and the reason they are crap is beyond the scope of hits article) they put toxic chemical preservatives in every single one of them. You cannot be as healthy as possible with that toxic crap in your system.

My Diet and Lifestyle

It’s simple. Eat like we would eat in nature’s most optimal conditions. If we were the very best, very fastest, very smartest humans before technology and alcohol were discovered, in the healthiest most abundant environment, how would we eat?

But like everyone else, I have my demons. I don’t eat perfectly. There are a few people I know who are healthier than I am. But only a few. And only two of all of the many doctors I know are healthier than I am. I find that when you focus your energy on healing other people all the time, it’s too easy to let your own health become secondary.

I rarely get enough sleep. This is my biggest issue. I spend much of my time trying to help people and trying to make the world a better place in the ways I believe I can, while giving my family as much of my time as possible. It’s a balancing act I am still getting the hang of. I know it’s difficult, balancing one’s life.

But our child is healthy. He’s progressing very quickly, without a single health issue or a cold or anything. At 7 months old he has not had one single health problem besides an occasional diaper rash when his mom’s diet has a little too much sugar (due to smoothies at work with sweetened almond milk or apple juice). Gabriel doesn’t get sick, I don’t get sick, and neither does his mother. We both wake up with energy and clarity. We can focus almost all day, every day. We are vibrant and full of energy. And we ride our bikes everywhere.

I still have a ways to go. I get better and better at practicing what I preach every day. Health is a journey, not a destination.

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