Moving Strongly Forward

I Am Done Being Nice!

The number of scams that Big Pharma uses to plague and kill people is beyond appalling. Big Pharma leaders should be in JAIL.

Osteopenia

Listen to this outstanding story on NPR regarding the development of the disease Osteopenia: How A Bone Disease Grew To Fit The Prescription. Osteopenia is manufactured by Big Pharma to sell its bone building/bone breaking drugs. The nasty, strong arm tactics used are sickening.

I am especially interested in this story, as I was diagnosed with Osteopenia at age 30, well before most women. While my bone condition was a concern due to my very young age, the hyperbole of the initial diagnosis played out as dictated by Big Pharma in the NPR interview. A poorly calibrated and inaccurate machine was used to determine that I had “the bones of an 80 year old.” Even though I could bench press 120 pounds and run 10 miles, that diagnosis showed how the Standard American Diet of processed food was tearing me apart. Thank goodness the medical professionals knew that their diagnostic equipment sucked, as discussed in the NPR story, and they sent me for a more thorough exam. That exam showed that my bones were not yet osteoporosis quality.

The doctor said that there was no hope in reversing the damage and that someday I would probably be taking Fosamax, the drug described in the NPR interview. Well guess what?!? The Dr. couldn’t be more wrong. My bones and teeth are strengthening thanks to food, and I will have the test results to prove it next year. See this blog post regarding my journey to healthy bones and teeth: Visual Proof That Food Heals.

High Cholesterol

A young father I know has cholesterol of 190. His doctor says that his level is too high, which it isn’t, and has placed him on cholesterol lowering medication. This father works for Big Pharma and totally buys into the game. I wish I could photograph him every three or four months over the next couple of years to watch his musculature deteriorate. As the deterioration becomes visible, hopefully it will occur to him that the same deterioration is occurring to his most important muscle, his heart. Cholesterol meds kill. Change the way you eat, heal your body, and ditch the meds!

Swine Flu

Here is a great FOX News video with an Infectious Disease expert who is an MD talking about Swine Flu, how it is losing its potency, and how he would not give the vaccine to his kids because it is too dangerous http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/758.html. Big Pharma still managed to make gazillions of dollars injecting dangerous poisons into people. I will NEVER understand how the United States Government protects Big Pharma from prosecution and actually permits and encourages them to poison and kill people. The average citizen would go to jail or face the death penalty, but Big Pharma is protected and encouraged to profit.

What You Can Do

You can take responsibility for your health. Feed your body well, eliminate the toxic personal care and household cleaning products you use, and exercise. If most people take these simple actions, Big Pharma will fade away, the need for doctors will decline, personal savings will increase, and the health care crisis will end. The only crisis in health care will be the many newly unemployed who formerly worked for Big Pharma.

Here is how to start:

Food: Purchase Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and cook based on the principles and recipes in this book. Visit: The Weston A. Price Foundation. To buy good food, find a local source: Local Harvest

Personal Care and Cleaning Products: For a great overview of many issues with these products, visit EWG Home | Environmental Working Group. To search for toxic information regarding specific products visit: Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Database.

Retaking control of your health and regaining your freedom will help to reenergize America and so that we can retake our freedoms and strengthen our country (see Inspirational – David McCullough on America’s Founders and You). Literally all of it is up to you. No pressure.

Inspirational – David McCullough on America’s Founders and You

I heard an amazing lecture by David McCullough, one of my favorite authors http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot1223abc09.mp3/view. National Public Radio describes it:

Author David McCullough, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, writes about American history. He says that, today, Americans know less and less about that history and he worries that our ignorance may soon be costly. The author of “1776” and “John Adams,” among other books, addresses an audience in Greensboro as part of the Guilford College Bryan Series. His lecture is called "Reflections on 1776 and Nathanael Greene."

Mr. McCullough’s lecture provides strong and profound context for where we find our country and ourselves. Because I have read his works several times, the lecture added an even greater richness, understanding and appreciation for our founding fathers and mothers and a renewed and reenergized vision for my family’s future. It is worth 60 minutes of everyone’s time.

The inspirations that Ryan and I took from the lecture were many, and I am sure you will find inspirations unique to you.

How does Mr. McCullough’s lecture apply to food and health? It reenergizes my mission to help people take back their health and personal freedom. Large numbers of Americans have become so controlled by the food and health destruction industries (processed, drugged food and pharmaceuticals) that they cannot function without their deadly poisons. American’s energy and vitality continue to wane, their brains are dulled, and they are repeatedly taken advantage of by corporate America, to become poorer physically, mentally, emotionally and financially.

The Founders of America made immense and unimaginable personal sacrifices to create a free country. Today’s “tough times” pale in comparison, and America is a shadow of the country they created. They did not do it for financial gain or to maintain a privileged way of life. They did it because it was the right thing to do. They were visionary, brave and they persevered beyond what most would ever consider. Bringing ourselves, and ultimately our country, back to greatness requires a revolution with the individual first.

Colson Wants Christmas Cookies, Darn It!

The day has finally arrived. Colson WANTS Christmas cookies (DEMANDS them, actually), and nut flour and honey cookies aren’t going to do it for him. Only cookies with sugar and flour will suffice. Thank goodness his fallback is Rapadura sugar (the least processed of all cane sugars and it contains some nutrients), which we haven’t eaten in almost 2 years.

The final straw for Colson was a friend, who is an awesome, rockin’ six year old, asked him to make gingerbread cookies. His friend has only had pineapple out of a can until eating fresh at our house, and her popcorn only comes out of the microwave (see Popcorn Poisoning and Other Reasons to Cook Your Own Food). Colson’s friend couldn’t stand our stove popped popcorn with real butter, so we struck out twice in one afternoon! Much of her family’s food comes out of a can, jar or box, which is anathema to us, and made us concerned about his eating the cookies. After much wailing, we were beaten down and decided he could have two or three cookies, but that was it! His super cool friend volunteered not to make the cookies when she saw he was upset, but the genie was out of the bottle. In the end the gingerbread cookies weren’t an issue, as the kids played too hard and didn’t get around to making them.

All of this led to Colson’s demands that we make cookies with real flour and Rapadura sugar. Luckily, Rapadura is his idea of an acceptable fallback. We are off to the store today to get some Rapadura and spelt flour, but I have no clue what to make. I think I will throw a post out to the Holistic Moms Network and get some ideas.

Popcorn Poisoning and Other Reasons to Cook Your Own Food

I used to eat microwave popcorn up until about 14 years ago. I never liked the strange taste and feel of the flavoring. Little did I know how dangerous it was and still is. A disease called “Popcorn Lung” actually exists thanks to the fake flavorings used in microwave popcorn. Extreme illness and in some cases lung transplants and death result from being around too much microwave popcorn. Who would have thought?

The deadly chemicals causing popcorn lung are also found in baking mixes. If you are taking a baking shortcut and using a mix, you could be chemically poisoning your family and friends with deadly compounds in addition to the general terrible health caused by such processed foods.

Here is an article discussing the popcorn and baking mix poisoning problems: http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/toxic-chemical-diacetyl-still-finding-its-way-into-microwave-popcorn/19273632.

What is this need for speed? Why do people not have ten minutes to pop the corn in a pan and actually top it with real butter? If you want to take popcorn to work (I used to eat the microwaved corn at work), pop it ahead of time and take it with you. I am not a proponent of popcorn because it promotes inflammation of the body, but we do eat organic, homemade popcorn (popped in coconut oil) occasionally and it tastes great! So much better than the nacky fake flavor of microwave popcorn. Read this post regarding the need for organic foods, particularly popcorn: Movie Popcorn and the Coconut Oil Scandal (and some GMO too)

Back to this speed question and people’s need to eat the fast food that destroys them. What are people rushing toward? A date with the TV? I understand the need for escape. We watch the occasional rented movie, and that is great fun (unless we pick a dud). But many people watch every night or almost every night for hours. If people need that much escape, it is time to reflect for a moment on what you want from life and, more importantly, are you going to get it by watching TV?

There are many reasons to escape, and I am not going to get into them. Imagine a possibility, though, of cooking real food, healing your body, feeling better, living vibrantly, adventuring, and watching less TV because your own adventures are better. The “food” that most people eat has dulled their bodies and minds. They are left with a vague sense of uneasiness which they try to satisfy by watching other people’s television lives.

Where do I get the time to cook my family’s food, given that I:

• homeschool Colson and have to work around his semi-busy schedule

• work

• am starting a business

• am helping my family navigate through seven months of a our current layoff (preceded by six months of a previous layoff)?

The time is always there. At first, preparing healing, delicious, decadent food and cleaning up the dishes was drudgery. I kept at it, though, because I knew it was good for Colson. Then Ryan and I began to heal and change our lives. Because our incredible healing journeys became noticeable and measurable, I looked at cooking differently. It took about two years of deprogramming for cooking itself to become meditative, entertaining and healing. We were excelling and continue to do so, reinforcing that healing food is the key to a vibrant and adventurous life.

I do prepare meals ahead and freeze them in anticipation of busy days. They are almost always broth based meals, the most nourishing and healing of all. See Remember to Save Those Turkey Bones!, Amino Acids in Bone Broth and How They Help You, Broth – Hydroxyproline: Critical for Healthy Skin, Bones, Teeth, Joints and More, and Amino Acids in Bone Broth – Glutamic Acid to get some insight into the power of broth. What if I forget to defrost a meal? There is always eggs (from my favorite local farmer) fried in butter, coconut oil, or bacon grease (from truly free range pigs that are hormone free and antibiotic free.)

The Tarahumara Indians

There is a native people in Mexico, the Tarahumara Indians, that I have heard about. I haven’t had the chance to read about them yet in Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, but these people are amazing! Eighty and 90 year old people happily running 50 to 100 miles through the mountains, non-stop!! They are isolated, preventing the deadly processed foods and high tech gadgets from infecting them. You can read about the book and an interview with McDougall here: Amazon.com: Born to Run (9780739383728): Christopher McDougall ... There are also interviews with McDougall that you can watch on the Internet.

My Dr. of Oriental Medicine says that if I am not feeling better every year of my life I am doing something wrong…and just wait to see what the next few years brings. What a great way of looking at life. When I put his paradigm in the context of the Tarahumara Indians, that means that at age 43 I am only half way on my journey to being able to run 50 miles at age 90. How cool is that?!

What do you want to bring to your life?

Eating Healthy While Traveling

These questions were recently referred to me: How to eat healthy while traveling? It is not always possible to pack your own food. How to find reasonably healthy restaurant?

Eating healthy has many definitions, and an Internet search will find a “healthy” restaurant that meets your needs. Local Harvest provides contacts for “healthy” restaurants, stores, and more around the United States.

When a healthy restaurant is not convenient, I recommend eating the least processed food possible, which would include smaller wild caught fish (such as salmon) with vegetables and real butter or salad with oil and vinegar dressing. Smaller fish are preferred because exposure to mercury is lessened, and wild caught fish are preferred because fish farmed in a self-contained system are treated with antibiotics and chemicals. Never eat shrimp from a foreign country, as they are farmed and treated with antibiotics and chemicals that are illegal in the United States Shrimp and Your Health — Food & Water Watch. Unless eating at an organic restaurant, any meats will have hormones and antibiotics, which raise numerous health concerns and should be avoided. Of all meats, conventional hamburger (as opposed to organic, free-range) should be absolutely avoided. The New York Times reported in depth regarding hamburger concerns, and hamburger recalls almost a monthly event. Please read Another Hamburger Scare.

What is healthy eating? Again, that is a subjective idea. For my family it is eating to heal. Food has freed us from ADHD, premenopause, exhaustion, memory loss, debilitating seasonal allergies, osteopenia, aches and pains and more, as discussed throughout my blog.

What does healthy eating mean to you?

Amino Acids in Bone Broth – Glutamic Acid

Glutamic Acid, or Glutamate, is the amino acid with the fourth highest concentration in bone broth. You can read about the first three amino acids here: Amino Acids in Bone Broth and How They Help You and Broth – Hydroxyproline: Critical for Healthy Skin, Bones, Teeth, Joints and More.

My Internet search has led me to the consensus that Glutamic Acid is one of the few nutrients that crosses the blood/brain barrier and is a major player in brain/neural function. It is an excitatory amino acid, causing an increase in neural activity. The National Institute of Health is conducting a study of the role of Glutamic Acid in reducing nerve damage in certain cancer patients who are being treated: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00369564. My search also shows that Glutamic Acid is used to treat patients suffering from depression, ADD, ADHD, fatigue and chronic fatigue, alcoholism, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, mental retardation, and schizophrenia. Glutamic Acid does appear to be helpful in maintaining heart health and prostate health. That said, for sufferers of stroke, the brain has too much Glutamic Acid, causing nerve cells to die from overstimulation, so doctors medically suppress it.

I do not recommend that people supplement their diets with Glutamic Acid – that is a completely personal decision after you conduct your own research. I do know that there is plenty of it in the foods we eat: meat, eggs, poultry and fish. And bone broth of course. It really is all about the food. People who eat nutrient dense, traditionally prepared foods experience robust health unfettered by the many medical problems suffered by those who follow the Standard American Diet (SAD).

I do know that ADD, fatigue, and chronic fatigue can all be cured by a diet which heals the gut. My family has done it, and bone broth has been a key part of our recovery. My reading has convinced me that depression, ADHD and other autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, bi-polar disease and others can also be cured by healing the gut, as discussed in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Dr. McBride’s work was the basis for our great health recovery. You can learn more at www.gapsdiet.com.

To learn how to prepare bone broth, visit these posts and videos on my blog: Remember to Save Those Turkey Bones!

MSG

Finally, Glutamic Acid is the foundation for monosodium glutamate, or MSG. As many people know, MSG is an illness and disease causing, human created thing stuck in “food” so that “food producers” do not have to spend more money making real food. People especially sensitive to MSG can suffer seizures, respiratory failure, brain lesions and many, many more problems.

MSG is everywhere. Perhaps its greatest threat is that it is the basis for aspartate, which is heavily used in the production of diet soft drinks. Dr. Marcelle Pick states: “According to Beverage Digest, overall sales of soda (sugar and diet) were 10.2 billion cases in 2005; that rounds out to be about 828 eight-ounce servings a year (or 2-½ servings per day) for every man woman and child” (see Diet soda — how healthy is it?). Aspartate and glutamate are excitotoxins that stimulate the neural cells to death. The more you drink or eat of this MSG and artificial sweeteners, the more of your brain you kill. As an added bonus, you increase your chances to invite and promote cancer. Here is an interview with Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D. giving greater details: http://www.naturalnews.com/020550_MSG_aspartame_cancer.html

MSG, aspartame and other flavor enhancers are clearly more examples that processed “foods” do destroy health.

Are You a Diabetes Statistic or About to Become One? New Study Shows Frightening Growth

The University of Chicago reports that “In the next 25 years, the number of Americans living with diabetes will nearly double, increasing from 23.7 million in 2009 to 44.1 million in 2034.” The article really highlights the tragedy of the Standard American Diet and the Standard American Lifestyle for that matter. The article goes on to state:

"If we don't change our diet and exercise habits or find new, more effective and less expensive ways to prevent and treat diabetes, we will find ourselves in a lot of trouble as a population," said the study's lead author Elbert Huang, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago.

"Without significant changes in public or private strategies," the authors wrote, "this population and cost growth are expected to add a significant strain to an overburdened health care system."

You can learn more about the study here: Diabetes cases to double and costs to triple by 2034 | The ...

If you are on your way to becoming another diabetes statistic, or you already have diabetes, what can you do to reverse it and become healthier?

• Start by getting rid of all of the processed food in your diet.

• Take the polyunsaturated vegetable oils out of your diet. They promote heart disease, diabetes, and so many other problems. And they are processed.

• Use Coconut Oil. It helps prevent diabetes and heal those who suffer from it. Here is a September 2009 Diabetes journal article regarding this: How Coconut Oil Could Help Reduce The Symptoms Of Type 2 Diabetes. Here is the link to the study: Diabetes.

• Make some broth and drink it. See Remember to Save Those Turkey Bones! for recipes and videos.

• Remove grains, sugar (small amounts of raw honey are ok), most beans (except navy, lima and green) and most dairy from your diet until you are healed.

• Read this blog.

• Read and follow Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS Diet) and use Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions for healing ways to prepare food and supplement Dr. McBride’s work.

• Get moving. How long is a 30 minute walk a day? There are 1440 minutes in a day, so a 30 minute walk is only 2 percent of your day. It takes only 2 percent of your day to begin to change your life! How many years will that add?

Our culture has brainwashed us to expect illness, to treat illness with illness causing drugs, and to live our lives in a stupor. It is what we are supposed to do. If you want to stop it, turn off your tv, stop eating in restaurants, and take responsibility for your health. Cook and walk. Life will become so much better!