Natural Health Blog

We humans have a choice in life: Healthy Diet and Lifestyle, or Expensive Repairs?

Sep 3, 2010, Did You Know...?

Did you know that what is marketed as 1% and 2% milk actually contains 13% and 23% fat?

When you subtract the water, 13-23% of the solids are milk fat. The milk solids are all that counts, anyway.

Amazing, huh? I learned this at Dr. McDougall's Web site, which has lots of useful vegan dietary info.

See the link below for more about Anti-aging.

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Aug 31, 2010, Thoughts On Foodie Porn (a slight re-run)

One of the subjects I haven't had a lot of time to research is the demonization of grains as a food source by the Paleo Diet people. (I realize that some folks are allergic to gluten, but there are other grains without gluten.)

I was thinking of the Paleo-diet clan when I came up with the title of this post.

Like the late Dr. Atkins' Diet, the Primal Blueprint(tm) gives the public what they want -- a nice, comfortable rationalization for doing pretty much what they wanted to do, anyway, which is eat meat and kill animals, fish, mollusks and whatever they can find. (Or pay someone else to do the hunting, while they work in their air-conditioned cubicles.)

In this time of uncertainty and increasingly cataclysmic financial/social change, it must be reassuring to imagine yourself as a hunter-gatherer, roaming the aisles of the local supermarket, collecting slices of buffalo and free-range emu for dinner.

What puzzles me is the Paleo advocates' hatred for something that I find so wholesome: whole grains.

Without settled cultivation of vegetables, tubers, and yes, grains, we could spend 90% of our time hunting for animals, and the rare bits of vegetable matter to sustain us. There would be almost no time or energy left for any of the higher intellectual pursuits that humanity can excel in.

It just seems to me to be insane to idolize (and merchandise) this kill-to-live mentality in a world armed with nuclear weapons.

Anyone with the insensitivity to kill gentle farm animals for food -- or pay someone else to do it -- can easily be talked into supporting war, it seems to me. We see proof of his daily in the news.

It is obviously popular and profitable to give a large segment of the public a vision that justifies meat eating. To their credit, Paleo Diet advocates also promote positive concepts about the importance of cultivating a strong, fit body and the general avoidance of pharmaceutical drugs, but this is secondary to the advocacy of becoming a tribe of hunters and wild food gatherers.

Like porn, it sells, but I wouldn't say it is healthy for us. We need to evolve as individuals and as a society beyond raising and killing animals for food. It's not good for the animals, for us, or for our environment

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Aug 31, 2010, Books, CDs, and DVDs

Books, CDs, and DVDs to help you adopt a Healthy Diet Plan.

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Aug 30, 2010, Some Interesting News Items

There are, as usual, some very key stories on NaturalNews.com today that help me make a point for my readers.

One, is an article ("Fatty Foods Should Carry Official Health Warnings") that shows the folks in the UK are also officially realizing that their citizen's diet and lifestyle are going to bankrupt their national health care system. Low-quality processed foods and a less-active lifestyle are creating for them a snowballing epidemic of diabetes for them, as they are for us in the USA.

My take on the whole mess is that we all need to personally find better ways to feed ourselves than to rely on the junk that gets peddled to us on TV, magazines, and in fast food joints. Don't wait for the government to put a warning label on it.

Here in the USA, our gov't regulators are fully infiltrated by consultants and policy board members who have financial ties to the giant milk and meat and processed food industries. So, it's hard to get them to officially say our popular foods are crap in plain language.

Nevertheless, the spectre of government bankruptcy, which will give these career bureaucrats a pink slip, is causing them to question their loyalty to a food industry that is killing millions of unquestioning ignorant food consumers.

The second article I'd like you to read is about our centralized agriculture industry and its dependence on dwindling resources like oil and potash. If we continue our highly wasteful -- and unhealthy -- meat and dairy-based diet, control of these substances will determine who will eat and who will go hungry on a massive scale.

Of course, for organic gardeners, these are non-problems. It is only when you have millions of city-dwellers depending on only a few farmers to produce their absurdly rich diet that this stupid dependence on oil and potash becomes an issue.

I write to warn intelligent individuals that we must arrange our lives to protect ourselves from these predictable shortages, higher prices, and increasing resource wars caused by our national preference for unhealthy diets of processed foods.

Here is a quote that is refreshing to read: "Wealthier countries seem disinclined to adopt a more balanced, mainly vegetarian diet. In highly populated, fast-developing China, sudden unaffordability of food could cause a biblical catastrophe."

There is no space here to deal with the big issues of world population and starvation. For now, I just wanted to bring these developments -- that health care systems will be overwhelmed by caring for the obesity-related diseases caused by our ignorance of healthy diet and exercise habits and that "the squeeze is on" to produce these cheap unhealthy foods with diminishing supplies of petroleum and potash.

Protect yourself and your loved ones from the coming health and food crises by growing your own foods organically. The writing is on the wall, as we say.

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Aug 27, 2010, "Let Food Be Your Medicine"

When Hippocrates, a Greek known as the Father of Medicine said "Let food be your medicine," food was real, not synthetic and laced with chemicals.

What modern people in industrialized nations consider "food" is a monstrosity! It is polluted in so many ways and at so many levels now. You have to become an amateur scientist just to protect yourself from the poisons that are purposely and accidentally slipped into what we eat.

A lot of people don't care, don't want to be bothered, and/or don't believe the long-term dangers of the micro-ingredients of the "foods" they consume. That is their right, if they choose to stay uninformed.

My guess is they will be weeded out of the gene pool by dying or becoming so obese or otherwise diseased that they will not reproduce. (Sterility is becoming a real problem for about 25% of college-age men, I have read.)

Unfortunately, those who are consuming -- knowingly or purposefully -- a long list of pharmaceuticals, excitotoxins, preservatives, genetically-modified-organisms, industrial pollutants, etc. -- may be producing a new generation of damaged children. Who knows what problems they will develop as they mature and contribute to the gene pool?

The answer is to learn what you can to protect yourself from hidden additives in food and to prepare your own food from organic ingredients whenever possible. Growing your own food is a wonderful hobby and can be a lucrative home business with significant tax advantages. (If you want a good manual on organic gardening in limited space, visit our "Books, CDs, DVD's" page and pick up Brett Markham's "Mini Gardening".)

I wanted you to see a video that hit on a danger I hadn't considered about aspartame. It is linked below (it's toward the bottom of the linked article). Check it out.

Wishing you a healthy day!

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Aug 26, 2010, An Adult Energy Drink

The adult energy drink is created for health and the sensibilities of discerning consumers.

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Aug 23, 2010, Teens, Booze, and Energy Drinks

My insider sources tell me the new thing to use energy drinks for is to mix them with booze in the evening, at parties. I must confess, I've never done it.

I will admit that -- many years ago -- we used to mix other stimulating herbal derivatives with drinking with devastating effects. It is a miracle I'm here to tell about it, no thanks to the booze.

It is hard to be a teenager. They often don't trust adult wisdom, so they must find their own way through trial-and-error. Alcohol is one of the biggest challenges for anyone to learn to handle -- and, when you combine booze with stimulants, rational judgement goes out the window while self-confidence soars.

Like the old adage, ("What do you get when you pour black coffee into a drunk? Answer: A wide-awake drunk!"), energy drinks make drinkers feel like they are being smarter than they are, with their judgement functions impaired by alcohol.

It is hard enough to control the stupid things one might do when heavily under the influence of alcohol. Booze does some terrible things to your insides -- that's why we get hangovers as a reminder not to do that again.

One fact about booze that deserves consideration is that, at some level, it is fatal. When your teenager mixes too much booze with their already raging hormones, they might be passing over the threshold to that "Big Party in the Sky".

Obviously, you don't want that to happen. Hopefully, you have already developed an open line of communication with your teen (if you have one around the house)so you can, perhaps, give them some of your hard-earned wisdom on his difficult subject. If not, well...Good Luck!

Teaching children to be responsible about drinking is the best insurance policy you can have against disaster. Prohibiting things probably will backfire -- in today's world, teens can get what they want one way or the other.

The best thing you can do, IMHO, is to teach your children a respect for the miracle of a healthy body -- and to consider very carefully what they put into it. Learning moderation or total abstinence is more important than ever with temptations like energy drinks like "Sparks" and "Tilt" easily available to your children.

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Aug 21, 2010, Trying to Reason With Cavemen

Yesterday, I decided to find out more about the latest diet/fitness craze, the Paleo Diet made popular by author Mark Sisson.

It was like stumbling onto a group of Neanderthals sitting around the fire after a hunt! But I thought they should hear another point of view about about kindness to animals and the spiritual aspects of vegetarian living.

Ha! they weren't having any of it!

In a way, the Primal Diet strikes me as a new-and-improved Atkins Diet with a large component of physical fitness incorporated with it. One quote from a happy subscriber to this philosophy tells a lot about its appeal: "I can eat meat, and fat, and eggs in butter without the fear of getting fat again. I can be free… free to eat, to run, to breathe, to live Primally."

I appreciate Sisson's success and there are some good things coming out of this Paleo movement that are very similar to what I am trying to accomplish. Getting people off medications, getting them involved in preparing and even growing their own food, and adding a substantial fitness component to their lives are all good things that are very positive.

Doing it while feeding on animals without concern for their lives is missing a lot of what separates us from our cave-dwelling ancestors.

As I told them in one of my posts to their blog community, They are going against the flow of evolution toward a higher consciousness.

But higher consciousness obviously is not of interest to cavemen. They flamed me pretty good! It was fun.

Interestingly, Mark Sisson placed fourth in the Hawaiian Ironman triathlon, but a vegan Dave Scott won that same event six times. So this tells me that not eating animal products is no limiting factor in athletic excellence.

In any event, it is interesting to find someone who shares some of the same interests and beliefs that I do, but who has diverged so radically from what I believe is the optimum diet for still-evolving humanity.

Take a look at the discussion we had yesterday on his blog and make a comment, if you like.

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Aug 19, 2010, The Cause of Prostate Cancer

Knowing the true cause of prostate cancer is critical to choosing the best treatment option.

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Aug 17, 2010, Cancer Most Costly Disease

An article in USAToday points out that cancer, in terms of lost productivity, is the world's most costly disease. The UN prescription for dealing with this appears to be more money for treatment.

"Tobacco use and obesity are fueling a rise in chronic diseases," says the article.

"Lung and related cancers account for $180 billion of the $895 billion total. Smokers die an average of 15 years earlier than nonsmokers, the report says."

Of course, the focus here is mainly on more money for treatment after the cancer has become noticeable. This is when it is most expensive to treat and least likely to have a happy ending.

There is no mention in the article on preventing the disease by public education. The medical profession would be left out of the funding, if that were the case.

It must be frustrating to be in the profession of public health when -- on the one hand, you have the tobacco and junk food industries pushing these dangerous habits on people with their monstrous ad budgets -- and on the other hand, most of the public health money goes to "treating" the diseases thus caused.

To me, it seems totally crazy -- one group is making their big profits by causing disease and the other group is using the most clumsy and expensive ways to make their huge profits by treating the disease, after it is well along.

And then those of us who try to point out how easy it is to avoid these self-inflicted diseases can get in big trouble if we say any nutrient can prevent disease, even when it is a proven fact!

I know I am "preaching to the choir" when I say that the easy way to avoid lung cancer is to never take up smoking and to live where the air is clean. Likewise, a plant-based diet with a moderate level of healthy exercise, makes it so easy to avoid obesity.

Would you please help me get the word out to people who care about their health? Prevention is so easy and so much more enjoyable than living with obesity and lung cancer, etc.

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Aug 13, 2010, Just A Quick Post Today

The link below will take you to a very thought-provoking video about the direction our food supply is taking us.

Is it a conspiracy, or just the result of dumb greed by a lot of very wealthy corporations? Either way, the results for those who eat this modern Western diet are the same -- obesity, illness, and premature aging.

Check it out and see what you think!

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Aug 13, 2010, The Strongest Energy Drink

Searching for the strongest energy drink is like holding out for the most beautiful mate.

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Aug 12, 2010, Conversation with a Carnivore

I had a conversation about vegan diet at the checkout stand of my local natural foods store the other day. Looking back on it, there is much more I would like to have said.

Two women behind me in line offered their comments on the necessity of eating animal foods. One, in particular, was in her Fifties and on the heavy side, told me with smug conviction that we should enjoy our food.

I told her that I enjoy my food very much, but that didn't stop her condescending attitude that she knew better what I should be eating.

Thinking back to it, I was struck by the assumed superiority that -- even though she would never have to kill the animal herself -- she had the right to take that cow or chicken's life to maintain her health (or so she believes).

Interesting!

I know that Dr. Mercola, whose views I usually respect, advocates the "Eat Right for Your Blood Type" thesis. I even took his free online test to determine which type of foods I should be eating and it recommended a high animal-protein diet for me!

Just as a funny aside, I noticed on the recommended meats list, Mercola's test suggested I should be augmenting my diet by eating "peasant". (Has it come to that for high-income carnivores?)

Looking back, it was obvious my smug omnivore didn't care much about what raising her animal foods was doing to either the animals or to the environment. As they say, "Ignorance is bliss".

The young woman who runs the store took her turn at lecturing me on the need for some people to eat meat because she knew a doctor in a nearby city who did blood analysis that "proved" it.

It may be true that some of the human race have adapted to eating a diet high in animal-sourced foods, but 1) I am not one of them, thankfully; and 2) I am not sure that this was a positive step in their evolution. I'll have more to say about this later.

Finally, the fat and happy carnivore suggested I should read about Weston Price and what he learned in his search in the 1930s for the ideal diet. This appears to be the source of her self-satisfied attitude about meat-eating.

I found this article that explains how the Weston Price message has been twisted over the years. See the link below.

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Aug 9, 2010, Fosamax Warnings

Fosamax warnings about many long-term users having bones spontaneously breaking should concern the public.

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Aug 9, 2010, Which Way To Go?

Often it seems we are buffeted by conflicting winds as we try to sail toward a healthier future. The status quo -- which the processed food industry wishes to maintain -- benefits from keeping us confused because for most people it leads to continued inaction.

I saw a hopeful article recently that hinted that the new official recommendation for the USDA food pyramid diet would be for a move in the direction of a plant-based diet. Today, wouldn't you know, I can't locate that article.

Sometimes I think I rant too much about the corruption of the FDA and the USDA, but when you read many of their official positions on their Web sites, they are clear in reminding Americans that we should be eating more vegetables, fruit, and whole grains and less animal protein.

The problem is, most people don't even go that far. They are led around by the sweet messages of advertisers and the addictive cravings fostered by the MSG-laced foods themselves.

It is hard to talk sense into an addict, as you may know. My belief is, they are not going to come around (if ever) until they are ready. My job, as I see it, is to reach as many as possible when they are ready to find a better way to eat and live.

You can give the average processed food addict reasons for vegetarianism all day long, but until they are ready, they just won't care.

Climate change, animal welfare, toxins in our foods, mad cow disease -- you name it, until something in them clicks they won't listen.

But now, even the U.S. government may be beginning to realize that they had better start heading off the epidemic of diabetes they see coming. It will bankrupt them and they know it.

A lot of factors are working in the favor of those of us who care about our health and that of our neighbors and the planet. The continuing downturn in the global economy, shortages in water, drought in Europe and Russia causing shortfalls of grain harvests -- all this may cause more influential people to look at what a waste it is to grow grains to fatten animals at a net loss of protein!

Check out this article from VegSource.com, a fascinating site packed with supportive information:

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