The first time we read the term, we were researching this article.  On the site, Center for Science in the Public Interest, the publishers proclaim:  “Shopping was easy when most food came from farms. Now, factory-made foods have made chemical additives a significant part of our diet.”

In previous articles, we discussed the Balanced Diet:  what it is, how it affects your health, your heath care and the fact that the people are consuming a “Balanced Diet” is  an illusion.  The publishers at the Center for Science in the Public interest drive the point home on their site.

To start the analysis, and If you are interested, here is a listing, from the FDA, of all the additives (3,000 in all) the FDA knows are in the NEW Standard American Diet: Chemcuisine.

The following analysis is a synopsis of our research on the subject of what most people, and their children, are consuming each day.  

Processed, Junk, and Fake Foods

Processed food is made from real food that has been put through devitalizing chemical processes and is infused with chemicals and preservatives. Beef jerky, canned tea, jam, hot dogs, and low-fat yogurt with sugar or aspartame are a few examples of processed food.

Junk foods contain very little real food. They’re made of devitalized processed food, hydrogenated fats, chemicals, and preservatives, and include anything made with refined white flour. Canned breakfast drinks, cold/sugary cereals, doughnuts, drive-through foods, and soda are examples of junk foods.

Fake foods are made primarily of chemicals, and often contain gums and sugar fillers. Examples include bacon bits, bottled salad dressing, dehydrated soups, and instant coffee.

The Energy Output Exceeds Nutritional Input.  These non-foods have one thing in common; it costs your body a great deal more to digest, absorb, and eliminate them than they offer your body in nutritional value – an extremely poor return on your investment that leaves your body sluggish and depleted.

Toxins, Poisons, Processed Food – And The Body

Our ancestors preserved foods naturally, using salt, fermentation, and sun drying. Food processing has evolved away from these simple practices into more complicated and dubious methods.

Today, food companies use nearly three thousand known additives and chemicals to process our food. Many of them can have a devastating effect on our health.

It is important to note that additives and preservatives cannot always be painted with a negative brush. The addition of vitamins to bread and milk has helped to stamp out diseases such as pellagra and rickets.

Unfortunately, the good intentions that characterized the processed food industry during the early days have now de-evolved to finding ways to cheaply process food and manipulate buyers, regardless of the detrimental affects on the health of Americans.

Today, many additives and preservatives are harmful toxic chemicals that are as problematic as the decay they are used to prevent.

Preservatives

 Perservatives are a type of additive used to help stop food from spoiling.

Nitrates and nitrites are used to preserve meats such as ham and bacon, but are known to cause asthma, nausea, vomiting, and headaches in some people in addition to allergic reactions.

The same is true for sulfites (sulfur dioxide, metabisulfites, and others, which are commonly used to prevent fungal spoilage, as well as the browning of peeled fruits and vegetables.

Sodium nitrite in some foods is capable of being converted to nitrous acid when ingested by humans. While animal testing showed that nitrous acid caused high rates of cancer, it is still in use.

Sulfur dioxide is a toxin used in dried fruits and molasses as well as to prevent brown spots on peeled fresh foods such as potatoes and apples. Sulfur dioxide bleaches out rot, hiding inferior fruits and vegetables. In the process, it destroys the vitamin B contained in produce.

Antioxidants

While antioxidants such as alpha-carotene are recommended by health specialists to prevent premature aging, some of the antioxidants used as food preservatives may be unhealthy. Contained in nearly every processed food on the market, antioxidants prevent fatty foods from spoiling when exposed to oxygen.

For example, BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) and BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) are two of the most widely used, yet controversial of all antioxidants. So alarming were the results of BHT and BHA in animal testing, that a number of countries have severely restricted their use.

Some people have difficulty metabolizing these chemicals, which is thought to result in health and behavioral problems, and hyperactivity. They cause allergic reactions, may also contribute to the development of tumors and cancer, as well as be toxic to the nervous system and liver.

In spite of these findings, the use of BHT and BHA has increased, rather than decreased, in the U.S.A.

Coloring

Each year, the American food industry uses three thousand tons of food color. Many coloring agents are derived from coal tar, and nearly all coloring is synthetic. Norway has a total ban on all products containing coal tar.

Though some artificial food dyes have been banned because they are believed to cause cancer, most dyes used today are of the artificial variety. They are also linked to allergies, asthmas, and hyperactivity.

The long list of foods and beverages in which color is altered includes butter, margarine, the skins of oranges and potatoes, popcorn, maraschino cherries, hot dogs, jellies, jellybeans, carbonated beverages, and canned strawberries and peas.

Even the chicken feed on large-scale egg farms is colored so that chickens will lay golden-yolk eggs similar to those laid by free-range chickens.

Sweeteners

Most processed foods contain sweeteners, many of which are artificial sugar substitutes containing no natural sugars, such as saccharine and aspartame.

Artificial sweeteners are linked to behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and allergies. Because saccharin was shown to increase the incidence of bladder cancer in animal testing, all foods containing this sugar substitute are required to carry a warning label.

Emulsifiers, Stabilizers, and Thickeners

These additives alter the texture of foods. Emulsifiers, for example, prevent ingredients from separating into unappealing globs in food such as mayonnaise and ice cream.

A first cousin to anti-freeze, propylene glycol is a synthetic solvent used as an emulsifier in foods. Although it is recognized as toxic to the skin and other senses, and is considered a neurological toxicant, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed it generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

Flavorings

The most common food additive, flavorings – of which there are over 2000 in use – may be natural or artificial, and are usually comprised of a large number of chemicals.

Artificial flavors are linked to allergic and behavioral reactions, yet these ingredients are not required to be listed in detail as they’re generally recognized as safe.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is a common flavor enhancer. Found to cause damage in laboratory mice, it has been banned from use in baby foods, but is still used in numerous others. It causes common allergic and behavioral reactions including headaches, dizziness, chest pains, depression, and mood swings, and is also a possible neurotoxin.

Refining

Refined flour has had the brown husk of the grain stripped away, leaving the white, refined starch that is found in white bread, white rice, pasta, cookies, and numerous other junk foods.

Without the fibrous husk, refined starches are broken down quickly into sugar and absorbed immediately into the bloodstream causing glucose levels to rise, and increasing the risk of obesity, diabetes and a host of other “not so nice” health complaints.

In contrast, whole grains – such as whole grain bread and cereals, brown rice, and barley – retain the bran surrounding the starch, so they’re absorbed more slowly into the bloodstream than refined starches. This slows sugar absorption from the intestine, and reduces the risk of consuming refined food.

Refining Destroys and Devitalizes Most of Foods’ Goodness

Healthy unsaturated fatty acids – high in food value – are lost during the milling process. Half the vitamin E is destroyed when the wheat germ and bran are removed. Refining wheat into white flour removes between 50 and 93 percent of wheat’s magnesium, zinc, chromium, manganese, and cobalt.²

Additionally, approximately 50 percent of calcium, 70 percent of phosphorus, 80 percent of iron, 50 percent of potassium, 65 percent of copper, 80 percent of thiamin, 60 percent of riboflavin, 75 percent of niacin, 50 percent of pantothenic acid, and about 50 percent of pyridoxine is lost.³

Refining sugar cane into white sugar depletes it of 99 percent of its magnesium and 93 percent of its chromium. Polishing rice removes 75 percent of its zinc and chromium.  Refined table salt has had most of the trace minerals removed during processing. It contains no sodium chloride, sugar as filler, and may even contain aluminum.⁵

Bleaching

Part of the process wheat undergoes to become the white flour in popular baked goods involves bleaching. Various chemical bleaching agents are used including oxide of nitrogen, chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl, and benzoyl peroxide mixed with a variety of chemical salts.

Chloride oxide – which catalyzes a chemical reaction that destroys beta cells in the pancreas is now being linked to diabetes.  This toxic effect is common scientific knowledge in the research community. In spite of this, the FDA still allows companies to use chloride oxide in processed food.

A Healthier Lifestyle

Eradicating every guilty pleasure in life is not the end goal here, nor is it a particularly realistic approach to making changes because everyone enjoys the occasional cheeseburger, order of fries, or bag of chips.

But if you understand the consequences of making what ought to be an occasional treat into the mainstay of your diet, you can begin to make wise choices about how many of these things you are willing to eat.

When it comes to avoiding many of the questionable – and possibly deadly – additives contained in processed foods, you’re only human after all so, taking baby steps toward change is usually the best approach.

If you can accomplish just one of these 10 steps, you’re moving in the right direction.

Try implementing one change a month …

1. As a general rule, if you don’t recognize – or can’t pronounce – the words on a label, don’t buy it, or eat it. Instead choose the real thing!

2. Avoid products containing

• Nitrates and nitrites (including sodium nitrite)
• Sulfites (including metabisulfites)
• Sulfur dioxide
• Benzoic acid (aka sodium benzoate)
• BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene)
• BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
• Coloring
• Coal tar
• Propylene glycol
• MSG (monosodium glutamate)
• Refined or bleached flour (i.e. whitened using chloride oxide)

3. Don’t eat partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated trans fats

4. Don’t eat products containing sugar substitutes such as saccharine and aspartame.

5. Avoid products with a long shelf life – the better they do on the shelf, the worse they are for your body.

6. Avoid products that have been “enriched“. They have been completely devitalized during processing.

7. Avoid food that has been genetically modified or engineered. Nearly all processed food contains GMOs.

8. Avoid products made with ingredients euphemistically described as “natural flavoring” or “natural coloring.”

9. Avoid products with added sugar – watch for words with “-ose” endings, such as fructose.

10. Incorporate a high quality multi-vitamin into your health regimen.

If you’ve had a history of eating products high in sugar and are concerned about diabetes, incorporate disease-fighting foods such as garlic, onion and quality Aloe vera juice into your diet. Natural phytonutrient supplements can also protect your body from the harmful effects of eating refined products that have been bleached with chloride oxide.

As you begin to eliminate processed food from your diet, and start to enjoy eating real food that has not been processed to death, you will be on your way to optimizing your health, making an investment in your body’s future and, ultimately, feeling better.

Processing Food Facts

In addition to the more than three thousand chemicals and additives in our food, preserving processes have changed beyond recognition from the simple use of vinegar, salt, and sunshine. Many processed foods are stripped bare, rendering them of little or no nutritional value.

Worse, foods are deliberately tampered with to create the desire for more. And the health effects of certain processing methods – such as the very controversial irradiation – are not yet known.

Irradiation

Irradiation is the use of x-rays or gamma radiation on food to kill bacteria mold, viruses and parasites. Unfortunately, its effects are also harmful to test animals. Those fed a diet of irradiated wheat developed increased numbers of cells with chromosome abnormalities. As well, there were unexplained stillbirths in the offspring of test rats.

So unpleasant is the mere sound of the word “irradiation” that euphemisms such as “Cold Pasteurization” and “Picowaved For Your Protection” are being used on labels because food companies fear that using the term “irradiation” may hurt sales.

Junk Food

Junk food – high in fat and sugar – is one of the leading causes for the soaring number of cases of type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and tooth decay. It is also linked to hypoglycemia and yeast overgrowth.

Did you know that cravings for processed foods are initiated by eating processed food? It’s a vicious, addictive cycle.

Food scientists know that it is necessary for certain nutrients to be present in the blood stream in order to feel full. While it is not fully understood how this process works, food companies know enough to use this knowledge to manipulate consumers into eating more by subtracting various nutrients, and adding others such as fat, sugar, and salt.

This manipulation creates a desire for processed foods – one that can never be satisfied – no matter how much of it you consume.

Natural Flavoring

“Natural flavoring” can be just about anything, from the cells of yeast extract and nucleic acid from cell chromosomes, to waste bi-products from cattle. Some reports suggest that the ingredients in so-called “natural colors” have been known to contain products as unlikely as monkey intestines; others note that some “artificial flavors” are comprised of ingredients as unappealing as minced cat.

How is it possible to determine exactly what “flavorings” are comprised of when the list of items from which they are concocted often includes a long ramble of unrecognizable chemicals?

Here is an example from the ingredient list for the strawberry flavoring in one popular fast food outlet’s strawberry milk shake.

It contains:  Amyl acetate, Amyl butyrate, Amyl valerate, Anethol, Anisyl formate, Benzyl acetate, Benzyl isobutyrate, Butyric acid, Cinnamyl isobutyrate, Cinnamyl valerate, Cognac essential oil, Diacetyl, Dipropyl ketone, Ethyl butyrate, Ethyl cinnamate, Ethyl heptanoate, Ethyl lactate, Ethyl methylphenylglycidate, Ethyl Nitrate, Ethyl propionate, Ethyl valerbate, Heliotropin, Hydroxyphrenyl-2butanone (10% solution in alcohol), A-Ionone, Isobutyl anthranilate, Isobutyl butrate, Lemon essential oil, Maltol, 4-Methylacetophenone, Methyl anthranilate, Methyl benzoate, Methyl cinnamate, Methyl heptine carbonate, Methyl naphthyl ketone, Methyl salicylate, Mint essential oil, Neroli essential oil, Nerolin, Neryl isobutyrate, Orris butter, Phenethyl alcohol, Rose, Rum ether, G-Undecalactone, Vanillin, Solvent!

And this is just the stuff in the flavoring.

 Do you want to know what’s in the “milk” part of this so-called milk shake? 

It contains:  Milk fat and nonfat milk, Sugar, Sweet whey, High-fructose corn syrup, Guar gum, Monoglycerides and diglycerides, Cellulose gum, Sodium phosphate, Carrageenan, Citric acid, E129, Artificial strawberry flavor.

MMM, MMMM!  yummy and so good for you – NOT!

Packaging

There are also concerns regarding the materials used to coat and package foods.³ The protective wax on produce such as cucumbers, peppers, and apples may trigger allergies, and can contain pesticides, fungicide sprays, or animal byproducts. Further, the plastic (vinyl chloride) some food is wrapped in is considered carcinogenic, and has been linked to immune reactions and lung shock.

Dioxin

A by-product of whitening, especially of food containers, Dioxin has become a health concern. It has been reported, for example, that certain ice creams contain high levels of dioxins, reportedly leaked into the product through the whitening used in its containers.

A known carcinogen, dioxin is associated with genetic and reproductive defects as well as learning disabilities.⁴ Dioxin exposure is a possible cause of endometriosis – a painful condition that can result in fertility problems and/or hysterectomy, as well as chronic pelvic pain and other conditions.

Conclusion

After reading this, one could conclude that the situation is hopeless.

Quite the opposite is true – because knowledge is power.  Simply use this knowledge to make different choices. 

 It makes good sense to pay attention to the food you are buying, especially if it has been processed. One thing is for certain – most of these added ingredients have nothing to do with nutrition and everything to do with increasing food sales by keeping addicted, depleted consumers coming back for more.

Besides adequate rest and moderate exercise, the fundamental nutritional thresholds must be consumed, if you have any expectation for staying healthy.  Your body needs copious amounts of: (in descending order) clean water, protein from vegetables with a limited quantity from animals, minerals, carbohydrates from whole grain, healthy fat from fish and a smattering of vitamins to stay healthy.  You can choose to consume them or take fundamental supplements to fill the gaps in your diet.

If you are experiences any of the likely complaints associated with failing to meet these thresholds, you may want to consider choosing supplements help you address your specific needs to expedite your restoration.

We’re all in this together – I’m pulling for you. (Sorry Red Green, I left out the attribution)

Notes:
1. Hanley, J.L., M.D. and Deville, N., Tired of Being Tired, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 2001. (p. 66)
2. Wilson, Lawrence, M.D., F.I.C.B., Why Take Nutritional Supplements, article on www.drlwilson.com.
3. Hull, Janet, M.D., Bleaching agent in flour linked to diabetes, from The Idaho Observer, July 2005, cited on www.detoxprogram.net.
4. Wilson, Lawrence, M.D., F.I.C.B., Why Take Nutritional Supplements, article on www.drlwilson.com.
5. Hanley, J.L., M.D. and Deville, N., Tired of Being Tired, Berkley Publishing Group, NY, 2001. (p. 220)
6. Hull, Janet, M.D., Bleaching agent in flour linked to diabetes, from The Idaho Observer, July 2005, cited on www.detoxprogram.net.
7. Chek, Paul, excerpted from the CD/Workbook Program: You Are What You Eat! at www.chekinstitute.com.
8. The New York Nerd: Eat Fast, Die Young, April 24, 2006, at www.nynerd.com.
9. Hass, Elson M., M.D., Food Additives and Human Health, excerpted from Staying Healthy Shopper’s Guide: Feed Your Family Safely, cited on www.healthychild.com.
10. Hass, Elson M., M.D., Food Additives and Human Health, excerpted from Staying Healthy Shopper’s Guide: Feed Your Family Safely, cited on www.healthychild.com.

 

Newscasts, Talk Shows and the newest craze, “TV Doctors”, happily share their disdain for “those expensive, unnecessary concoctions” based on this idiom.

 Whether it is your doctor, your mother or your friend, who is advising you that “You’re wasting your money on those things, your food gives you everything you need. ” says so, because this paradigm is a commonly held belief.

 So, what exactly is this balanced diet that these people assume you’re eating?

Do you know?

The USDA (United State Department of Agriculture) reports it is: My Plate.  Harvard School of Public Health reports it is: The Nutrition Source.  The University of Michigan Integrative Medicine Department reports it is: The Healing Food Pyramid.

 Still confused?

I subscribe to a version of “the balanced diet”, too.  It is eating 5-7 servings of differently color, fresh vegetables, that grow above the ground, 2 – non tropical fruits, drinking 8 to10 – 8 ounce glasses of water each day, consuming a deck of cards sized serving of oily fish 3 times per week, of chicken 3 times per week and of red meat, once a week.

 Do you eat like that?

In fact, “consuming a balanced diet” is a mythical construct. – hardly anyone eats a balanced diet.  And, because this false paradigm is so prevalent, what you are eating is the last thing anyone, including doctors, ever considers when someone’s health begins to slip away.

 A recent study, reported in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, concludes that:  “ … use of supplements significantly improved the status of several vitamins in elderly people. Due to age-related problems concerning the intake and digestion of nutrients, a moderate, regular supplementation might be a useful option for older people who are otherwise unable to satisfy their micronutrient requirements.”

 In people-speak, the study shows that if you aren’t consuming the nutrients your body needs, taking supplements can fill the gap.  The study was well constructed, peer-review and duly reported in a professional journal.

 Did you get the memo?  … No?
Did you hear a peep from the talking heads?  … No?
And, I’ll bet your _________ (doctor, friend, mother) didn’t read it either!

 Here what the memo should say:

 “If you’re not eating enough vegetables, fruit, chicken, fish, meat and drinking enough water to satisfy the minimum nutritional needs of your body or taking supplements to fill the gaps in your diet – you will get fat; and sick; and grow old too fast.”  And, regardless of your age, if you’re neglecting to feed your body properly, ditto!

 There are epidemics of degenerative diseases that:

• Threaten to overwhelm the finances of the industrialized world
• Overwhelming people and families with expense, heartache and suffering

 There are:  Telethons, Drives, Walks, Runs; Gold-Ribbon Panels; academic and pharmaceutical research and … , orgainized to:

“Wipe Out  fill in the blank
(obesity, cancer, diabetes, stroke, heart disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease or …)
In Our Lifetime” 

And yet, the numbers keep growing.

 Composing or Decomposing

The body (and all living things for that matter) possesses an orderly process that replaces worn out cells, the ability to accelerate repairs to damaged tissue (due to accidents or otherwise), to ward off infection, infestation and to energize itself.

 The process is wholly dependent on the raw materials that are garnered from the environment.   Those raw materials are the nutrients in the food you are consuming.

 This Isn’t Brain Surgery

• The raw materials are there, or they’re not. 
• The process works or it doesn’t.
• The body composes or it decomposes.

What you eat controls the equation, and you know what you’re consuming.

 The revelation of the study, reported in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, says it all:

Do the best you can with your diet, then take fundamental supplements to fill in the gaps and, if need be, support them with supplements for any specific needs.

Conclusion

 So the next time you hear someone say, “You can get every thing you need from your food.” you know what that really means:  you should probably be taking supplements.

Quoting Red Green:  “We’re all in this together, I’m pulling for you.”

 P.S.  Please, read our BAM (Blatant Advertising Message):  NUPRO Nutraceutical Products – Advancing Beyond Vitamins™

 

Could I have become a Luddite on the subject?

Could my appreciation for the cause and affect, for declining or failing health, and associated natural remedies have so colored my thinking that I failed to grasp the possibility that technology had turned me into a dinosaur?

I was compelled to reexamine “new fashioned thinking” and to consider all of the advances in the technologies of medicine, laboratory techniques, drugs and food processing.  There have been many advances during the 40 years that I have actually been paying attention, so I won’t bore you with the details.

I Reached a Verdict – Not Guilty!

My accuser missed the most important fact of all: There is no Version 2 of the human body.  In all of time, the body’s needs haven’t changed.  The human body still requires nourishing food, clean water and rest to protect itself from infection, repair damage and to regenerate itself. 

In Fact, My Accuser is Guilty.

Guilty of promoting the lie that new technology can replace the basic characteristics of your body.

Guilty of repeating the deceptions surrounding manufactured food, exaggerations from researchers, laboratory “hair-splitting” and the medical and pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

Guilty of repeating all of the “stuff” that communications experts demand to ply their reporting and advertising trade.

Old School – Indeed

Regardless of the technologies that automakers build into their new cars, there are three things that never change – a fuel gauge, a temperature gauge and an oil gauge – for obvious reasons.  Wouldn’t it be nice if your body had gauges?  Alas, it doesn’t.  Maybe it will when Version 2 is completed.

The body is, to a point, adaptable.  It can compensate for the lack of nourishing food, fresh water and rest until the deficiencies become so profound as to cause functional failure – the process that leads declining health culminating in sickness.

Despite all of the bravado to the contrary, this almost imperceptible decline in health is predictable - but not inevitable.  Continuing on the car metaphor, the lesson is:  if you keep the fuel tank full, the engine cool and lubricated, you won’t find yourself stranded on the side of the road.

My job is simple:  to help you keep the tank full – to help you fill the gap, with supplements, when the food in your diet fails to meet your body’s threshold for sustaining your health.

One Final Thought

Choosing and using supplements is like filling the fuel tank in your car, toping of the fluids and keeping air in the tires.  This analogy should make perfect sense unless you want to trade cars every time it runs out of fuel, gets a flat tire or “dies” from neglected basic maintenance .

Unlike your car, your body is resilient – it can, in many cases, heal itself.  So, don’t despair if you find yourself on the side of the road.  It is possible that time and attentiveness could get you “back on the road.”  But, that’s your choice.

So Accuser, go ahead, call me old fashioned if you want.  But, until the introduction Version 2 of the Human Body, I’m sticking to my guns – Healthy People Don’t Get Sick.

P.S.  If you’re interested, there is a Free Health Test to help you evaluate “how you’re doing” – take the test and see.

 

Those of you who have been following our blog understand our deep appreciation for how remarkably the human body is created.

Our position regarding health is straight forward – if you take care of your body, it will take care of you.

Caring for the body is more than keeping the outside clean – it is treating the body kindly, with respect and attending to the nutritional needs that support the efficient functioning of the body that manifests in health.

 Health is path one follows; it is not a quest for a procedure, potion, lotion or pill that you initiated once your health begins to decline or falter.

Living has an inevitable end – death.  One hopes life ends in a peaceful repose; however, that is, often, not the case.

To that end, we have prepared a commentary, Keep Life Simple, for your examination, and, if you desire, links to further readings to help put you on a path that allows you to prosper in the bounty of health.

Enjoy

 

The fact that weight loss products continue to lead the dietary supplement industry in gross sales is testament to public interest.  Thanks to all of you who have purchased our new weight management systems.  Be sure to collect your tips.  You will find them helpful during the process of remodeling your body. 

 If you missed the announcement, our new weight loss systems are on sale for a limited time. 

 Changing subjects: 

we have been clarifying our view of natural healing.  In particular, we have been investigating the work of an early microbiologist, Antoine Bechamp and a scientist, Claude Bernard.   The two theories:  Pleomorphism and Internal Melieu are intriguing. 

 Considering both men were working at the turn of the century, their work is admirable.

 Our penchant to address “symptoms” declining health, either medically or naturally, might be all wrong.

 According to Bechamp and Bernard, a decline in the life force of the body may be the source of the problem.Sounds pretty new age, doesn’t it?  But, if you think about it, the name, life force, that describes the intricate interplay between the various functions of the body, is spot on. 

 The complimentary theories of the two scientists, describe the possibility that the internal environment is the foundation for the efficient function of body.  Furthermore, changes in the internal environment will set off a cascade of dysfunctional events that lead to declining health and, ultimately, death.

 This approach suggests that, rather than focusing on particular symptoms of degenerating health, the first effort should be directed at returning the internal environment of the body to the state that supports efficient function.

 Heady stuff!

 The long and short of it is: our diet of processed, preserved, packaged, convenience food, replete with all the various additives, is throwing the body’s internal environment out of whack.  In turn, normal functions, due to the out of balance condition, fall into dysfunction.

 Next, the approach leads on to suggest that until the internal environment is restored, the various dysfunctions will continue.

Does this approach apply in all circumstances?  Certainly not.  What it points to is the importance of maintaining the general well-being of the body through diet, exercise and rest.  And, if for some reason, you can’t provide your body all of the nutrition it requires to maintain itself, dietary supplements can fill the gap on two levels:  restoring internal balance and rebuilding dysfunction(s).

 Do you think we might have stumbled into something?  It’s pretty neat when old becomes new again.  We just completed an analysis of the possibility that you might find interesting. 

Also, you might want to take this health test again.  It might help shed some light on your state of health.

 Thanks for all of your comments.  We read them.  And, thanks to all of you who have selected our Company to support your quest for health.

 

 Well … take it easy on me big fellas!

 If gym exercising is your deal, more power to you.  If you find solace in your time in the gym, or however you choose to “sweat”, knock yourself out!  If others choose to join you, more power to them, too.

But, you need to know that many of us don’t share your enthusiasm.

Gym exercise is not my thing.  My exercise of choice is riding horses.  For me, the experience is physical, mental and, because I compete in events with other like-minded people, social.  I particularly enjoy the therapeutic qualities of the partnership with my highly athletic partners – my quarter horses.

While there is a multitude of ways to manage weight – all of them must involve 3 things:

1. Better diet
2. Exercise that fits your schedule, ability and proclivity
3. Lifestyle choices including: sleep, rest and stress management

 When people have lost, or are losing, their ability to control their weight, one, two or all three of these components conspire to layer on the unwanted pounds and put their health at risk.

 The issue can be viewed as a balanced mathematical equation:  Diet + Moderate Exercise + Lifestyle = Healthy.

When any one, two or all of the pieces of the left side of the equation is out of balance, the result is “not healthy”.

 Of course you’ve heard or seen this before, because it is an unshakable truth with a predictable outcome.

That truth is:  the body will begin to decay when the health equation is out of balance.   The symptoms of decay, and the path they take, are predictable, too.

1. At first, it is weight gain
2. Followed by self-medicating with stimulants like caffeine and/or mood enhancers like comfort food and/or alcohol;
3. Followed by over the counter medications;
4. Followed by prescriptions for a condition that can’t be resolved – only managed;
5. Followed by a search for the “magic bullet”
6. Followed by the ultimate symptom of an imbalanced health equation – premature death.

 Of course, there’s always the issue of bad luck to consider.

People experience accidents and/or infections.  Depending on your overall health, the severity of the injury or infection and the competency of your medical doctor, accidents or infections may be bumps in the road, or not.  If you want more details regarding the conflict between Germ Theory and Pleomorphism, we have prepared a paper on the subject for your review.

 Personally, I believe that weight gain is a sign of decaying health; that this particular sign, weight gain, is brought on by disregarding the health-equation. 

And, while simply putting the equation back to balance will change things going forward, it will do little to change the systemic dysfunction caused by the prolonged imbalance.

 Weight gain may have as many 5 factors:

1. Imbalance in calories (consuming more empty calories than you burn)
2. Imbalance in nutrition (satiety and/or cravings)
3. Dysfunction in daytime metabolism (sluggishness and or alertness) and/or nighttime metabolism (sleep and/or moodiness and anxiety)
4. Irregular bowel habits
5. Producing fat cells to wall off internal acids and other toxic substances

 The penchant for identifying one culprit for weight issues is the source for frustration, and often failure, for most people choosing to lose weight. 

Typically, being overweight or obese is a combination of several or all of the factors:  diet, moderate exercise and lifestyle.

 When you change the health equation you will change the situation, going forward.  And, when you support the dysfunctional bodily systems with high quality, well-crafted dietary supplements that support healing the dysfunction(s) of weight management, or health for that matter, the dysfunctions will begin to right themselves.

 The false paradigm – there is a quick fix to address the manifestations of a dysfunctional body – is an unfulfilling, and often risky, track to follow.

On the other hand, electing to balance your health equation will pay dividends.

 In the end, it’s your life – it’s your choice.  Choose wisely

 

Mother patiently showed me how to identify my expenses, label an envelope for each expense, divide my money between each expense and put it in the appropriate envelope.  She explained that when the expense came due, the money would be “tucked” away.  All I needed to do is take the money out of the envelope to pay the bill.

And, my mother explained, once my expenses were provided for, I needed to prioritize any remaining money between needs, wants and building a nest egg; then make choices. 

Choices like: wanting to go to the movies to have fun or needing to maintain my car.  Mother pointed out that the car would need tires, the oil changed and repairs; all of which, if not tended, would affect my ability to earn money.  The choice, and the consequence, would be mine.

It was like hearing Aesop’s fable about the grasshopper and the ants.  The grasshopper whiled away the summer – the ants worked to store away food for winter.  When, inevitably, winter came, the grasshopper starved and died – the ants did not.  The grasshoppler failed to budget.  The moral of Aesop’s fable is:  It is best to prepare for the days of necessity. 

The body is a marvel of engineering: joints, ligaments and muscles, working in synchrony to produce force and motion; cells, coordinating with one another, to produce energy, sensation and thought; systems for protection from external and internal agents that could disrupt the harmony that we describe as health; systems to repair damaged and injured cells and tissue.  The coup de gras is the miracle of regeneration that provides the ability for the body to completely rebuild itself, perfectly, every 7 years.

 With one exception, this miracle of life happens automatically.  The body converts food, using water as medium and catalyst, into building blocks that are reassembled to become part of a healthy body, the systems that support it and then, dispose of the waste.

What is the Exception?

The one, and only, thing your body cannot do for itself is select the quality and quantity of food that enters the system.  That is your job.  Making sure that you are “putting enough in the envelopes” to pay the bills when they come due – with something left over for emergencies. 

You can make 3 choices:

When you choose whole food: vegetables, fruit, whole grain, fish, poultry, lean red meat and water, your are meeting your health budget, with a little left over for emergencies.  These whole foods contain the building blocks on which your body relies: protein, essential fatty acids, complex carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins on which the body depends to flourish.  You will enjoy the bounty of health.

When you choose cans, boxes and bags of processed, packaged and preserved food, convenience and fast food, soda, artificial sweeteners, coffee and energy drinks, you are bankrupting your health budget.  The labels on these foods clearly proclaim that they contain flour, sugar and chemicals, the hyphenated words that you can’t pronounce, to enhance taste, color and shelf life.  None of which benefit your body.  If you aren’t sick, you soon will be.

When you choose a combination of the two, you are creating a deficit or, as my mother would say, “You are going broke slowly – ask for a raise or get a second job.”  Your body will do the best it can with what it has to work.  Lacking energy and endurance, obesity, frequent illnesses, declining quality of life and vulnerability to degenerative disease are all predictable outcomes.  You won’t be sick, but you aren’t healthy either.

Are you the grasshopper or are you the ant?

The grasshopper fiddled the summer away, while the ants spent time preparing for winter.  Enjoying a life- time of radiant health is truly a simple issue:  Are you investing in health or are you paying for sickness? 

Do you want to know?  Take the test.