The sense of taste, in its higher, more refined state, is capable of discerning what the body most needs at any given time. However, when blunted or debased, it discerns not what is wholesome in a given moment, but what is tasty, or even what will feed a health-undermining craving.
A de-based sense of taste can be redeemed, returned to its higher purpose.
There are different times of the day when the body craves different elements. It varies with each individual, but there is also a general pattern.
In the morning, the body most craves whole grain; at noon raw vegetables; in the evening lightly cooked vegetables, with greens as a staple nutrient-bearer.
The more �live� a vegetable or fruit is, the more enhanced is its etheric energy, the life force of the plant world. However, predominantly raw food diets are met best by a healthy etheric force in the individual eating them. If one�s etheric is depleted, by either illness or exhaustion, lightly cooked foods are easier to assimilate. For most people a balance of raw and cooked works best.
Experiments with live foods (raw, sprouted, and such) show that graying hair can be reversed. Also, there are numerous accounts of the reversal of debilitating illnesses.
Plants can be looked at as the inverse of the human form.
Root - head
Stem, leaves, - rhythmic system
Flowers, fruits - metabolic
If a person is suffering from an ailment that resides principally in the head region - headaches, etc - then the body will benefit from ingesting more root vegetables. If the lungs or heart are an issue, then more of leafy and stem parts of the plant. And if the issue entails the metabolic organs, or limb system, then the body can benefit from more fruits and �flower� vegetable portions - such as broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
The potato is not a root, but a tuber. Roots are far more optimal for nutrient needs.
The potato feeds a part of the brain that causes one to become more materialistic in one�s thinking. Further, potatoes are debilitating in a general way, and also specifically debilitating for eyesight. One would make out better if one ate the skins of potatoes and threw away the white portions - but unfortunately, the other way around is the usual custom.
Mass meat products, including �prison-raised� chickens, pigs, beef, and other crowded and abused species, carry negative karma for those engaged in the trade, support, or consumption. Is it really worth it to buy such products on the basis of �it�s cheaper�?
Further, the �cheaper� turns out to be quite the opposite - when one considers overall costs to health and shortfall of nutrients per volume purchased.
In the end, both the karmic price and the health price is exponentially higher than the monetary price.
The same is true for most non-organically raised food of all kinds. Do we want to contribute to depletion of the Earth, or sustain and amend the Earth? Even when one frames the issue purely in terms of self-interest, one only needs to consider the masses of overweight people who are continually stuffing themselves, yet always hungry - they are not getting the nutrients the body needs, so they keep eating, caught in a vicious cycle.
A further note on the meat industry: beef has been linked to the onset of Alzheimer�s disease. Because of the spongiform condition (Mad Cow related) created by both foolish cattle feed practices and long term debilitating animal husbandry, consumption of beef could be creating the spongiform condition in the human brain, a condition that may not show up for many years.
Better options include bison, wild game, organic poultry, or fish. In the case of fish, the smaller the better, as toxins augment in the food chain (which means the lowly sardine is now king). Some tins of tuna now contain the maximum level of mercury recommended to ingest in a year (in a single tin!).
Even better than the above, go with the leading edge of evolution and make your diet increasingly vegetarian. Vegetarian diets require forty times less acreage than meat-eating diets, and the leading edge of human evolution is becoming more responsible in the arena of animal-human relationships.
Certain food habits create layers of waste in the intestines that act to block transfer of nutrients. White grains are akin to glue - rice, flour, all white grains. As well, the widespread habit of combining milk or cream with coffee or tea creates a substance that is equal to leather, it is indigestible and adds to the layers of �skins� that line the intestines. Colonics, and other cleansing practices, can re-establish a clear intestinal tract. Once clear, the amount of food required to meet nutritional needs drops, thus saving money and resources.
A big factor of the current world food crisis (2008) is due to the white grain issue. The vast majority of people in the world consume these watered down versions of grain. A person can eat three times as much white grain as whole grain, and still does not feel fed. Less nutrients, plus blockage, equals a wider net of starvation and illness.
Many foods are actually not ingested, but are reproduced, or �copied� by the bodily forces in the digestive tract. For example, when protein is eaten:
one) the body can only assimilate about 1/4 to 1/3 of a pound at a time - if more is consumed it is not only wasted, but can create a barrier to assimilation as it lies rotting in the intestines. And,
two) the forces of assimilation actually �copy� the protein that is passing by on the other side of the intestinal wall (versus assimilating it across the intestinal tract). The blood stream reproduces the protein molecules out of various components taken in else-wise (e.g, nitrogen and oxygen brought in through the lungs, hydrogen through drinking water, etc.). But because �memory� forces don�t inhabit the assimilation process, it has to have the protein passing through on a daily basis (unless the body learns to manifest memory forces in the assimilation process, that is. Voila! The breatharians! - so that�s how they do that. . . ).
Because the body can only assimilate1/4 to 1/3 pound of protein at a time, and the rest remains as waste, straining and toxifying the body, the notion of needing more protein when living a more active lifestyle may be partially true, but is over-rated. Even when a body is very active, working hard day by day, the1/4 to 1/3 pound limit still applies - it just means that instead of protein input once or twice a day, it calls for an extra serving.
A tomato picked ripe off the vine has significant life-enhancing forces, especially when eaten in tandem with other raw vegetables, as in a salad - the vitality of the other vegetables is synergistically enhanced. However, if picked green and allowed to ripen off the vine, the tomato�s forces are reversed, so that it becomes debilitating to the human system.
Yet, again, if subsequently cooked, it�s forces become neutralized, so that it is safe (although not the nutrient-enhancer of the fully vine-ripened tomato).
Raisins, and other dried fruit, soaked for 24 hours attain a higher level of etheric energy, become enhanced in vitality.
Fruits are �eliminants,� or cleansers, and are meant to be eaten alone, between meals, as most other food works in the opposite arena to eliminations - that is, as a binder.
When grain is �exploded� - as in puffed rice, wheat, etc - most of its nutrients are destroyed.
There is such a thing as getting too fussy with one�s food. A test study of blemishes on members of the brassica plant family (cabbage, broccoli, kale, etc.) revealed anti-cancer agents, and immune system boosting elements.
Wheat has, by and large, been ruined as a food. The original DNA chain on wheat was a basic 8-link chain. But because of excessive hybridization over decades for so many factors - drought, productivity, disease resistance, etc - wheat�s DNA has been stretched to a complex 30-something chain - too convoluted for the human body to digest without complications. Whether aware of it or not, most people are allergic to this product.
At this time, there are many good alternatives - spelt, kamut, and even rye is still fairly decent. Most other grains are fine, too, if grown organically (biodynamic is even better) and eaten in whole form.
Different grains have different influences on the human body. There is a continuum of effects on the quality of energy that runs through the various grains. On one end, there is rice, which has a light, airy, somewhat �ungrounding� effect, while the more bread-type grains � spelt, kamut, rye, have more of a grounding effect. Oats, barley and millet lie midway along the continuum. Every individual has to sense for themselves what combination of grains is optimal for their own system.
Alcohol once served a purpose in human evolution. Now it is largely pass�. Alcohol sends the spirit out of the body, in effect, takes the place of spirit. (notice how hard liquor is referred to as �spirits�!) That�s one reason why it is so prevalent in a social fabric such as ours, with its materialistic bent, to the point of being considered a norm.
There are those who laud alcohol - �a drink a day prolongs life.� But there is �life� and there is life. These kinds of drinker�s codes serve to enable the habit. There are plenty of alternatives to substances that will effectively prolong one�s life - Qi-gong, for one (and it has numerous other benefits to boot - see Enhancing Etheric Energy). Beware the remedy-popping/substance quaffing route - think, rather, in terms of attaining one�s optimal state as a result of one�s own efforts and disciplined practices.
As to longevity, Mozart lived to age 34, but his life was worth more than a thousand alcohol-soused lives living until age 94!
Give me life while I�m living, not some long-stretching stupor. . . .
Chi/prana/etheric energy - now lives in the thinking. Using the mind to enhance the subtle energy field that radiates through the chakras, one can direct freely-accessible universal energy to pour in and augment one�s own limited resource. When used with movement exercises, the practice brings the astral element into play, harmonizing the etheric and astral interweave, integrating, and enhancing.
Closing notes:
Periods of hunger through the day are beneficial for health. When in a state of hunger, the body creates white blood cells, boosting the immune system. It is known that overweight dogs have a greater incidence of tumors than lean dogs.
Opting for organic foods is actually cheaper in the long run, not more expensive. One needs less food, receives more nutrients. As well, there is less of a weight problem - people who eat substandard food are always hungry, eat all the time, but are not fed. Organic food has more nutrients. A person who buys unprocessed food saves money, too. Over 80% of the items in supermarkets are pointless, money-draining products.
Eating organic means less need to spend money on remedies for one�s health. More energy and well-being translate into more income at one�s work.
Also, karmic wealth builds as one goes more organic - caring for the land, the Earth, pays spiritual dividends.
As Steiner pointed out, to paraphrase, all healthy processes are natural, and all diseased processes are natural.
Here in northern California, allergies are a significant health problem leading to fatigue, sick days from work and school, and secondary infections. Allergic rhinitis is a reaction to seasonal airborne allergens. It affects about 7 percent of the population of North America and is a risk factor for 88 percent of asthma patients. We have some excellent prescription medications for treating this, and there are many over-the-counter medications available also. However, BEWARE of the sedating effects of those nonprescription medications!!! Recent studies have shown that an individual on a therapeutic dose of diphenhydramine (Benedryl) is a more dangerous driver than one who is legally drunk on alcohol.
Fortunately, there are also some effective alternative therapies for allergic rhinitis.
Remember: no matter what method you use to treat your allergies, nasal rinsing to clear the mucus membranes of trapped allergens is essential. It only takes about 30 seconds, doesn't hurt a bit when done correctly, and makes all the difference. I recommend Nasopure®, a product developed by Dr. Hana Solomon, a pediatrician who has put together in one simple kit all you need for successful nasal rinsing. There is an excellent article about this on the Nasopure website (www.nasopure.com). If you are regularly using your Nasopure®, and still having difficulties, you can try some of the following remedies without significant side effects.
Vitamin and mineral supplements:
* Vitamin A - 10,000 IU/day
* Vitamin B6 - 50-100 mg/day
* Vitamin B5 - 50-75 mg/day
* Vitamin C - 1,000 mg/day in 3 divided doses
* Vitamin E - 400 IU/day
* Zinc - 20-30 mg/day
In addition some herbs and nutrients can help:
Quercetin has anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory effects if you take it 250mg two or three times a day.
Freeze-dried stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) can relieve symptoms of allergic rhinitis at a dosage of 300mg twice a day.
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), also called fish oil, can help asthma patients with allergies by stabilizing the airways. They come in capsules and the total dose of the combination should be 2-4 g/day.
Acupuncture has given many patients significant relief. The Chinese medicine paradigm is very different than Western medicine, so I can not explain the mechanism of action. But I know that it is effective!
See your doctor about allergy symptoms if you are unable to manage them on your own - the nonsedating antihistamines and anti-inflammatory nasal sprays available today are excellent in treating this significant health problem!
As we age, one of the functions that can often deteriorate dramatically is our mental function - our brain power, if you will. The good news is, researchers may have discovered a way to prevent this kind of decline: Eat more berries.
That's right. According to research published in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, eating more blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and other berry fruits may help prevent age-related memory loss and other mental status changes.
In the journal article, Dr. Barbara Shukitt-Hale, PhD, and Marshall G. Miller note that as we live longer on average, there are increasing concerns about the social and monetary costs of treating Alzheimer 's disease and other forms of mental decline. That concern will only grow as the U.S. population continues to age.
Keep your brain healthy and functioning as you age
According to the research, eating more berries can have benefits for the aging brains. "To analyze the strength of the evidence about berry fruits, they extensively reviewed cellular, animal and human studies on the topic," said a press release from the ACS.
A review of the data found that there was strong scientific evidence that berry fruits help the brain remain healthy in a number of ways. For example, berry fruits contain high levels of antioxidants, "compounds that protect cells from damage by harmful free radicals." In addition, research shows that berry fruits alter the manner in which neurons in the brain communicate.
"These changes in signaling can prevent inflammation in the brain that contribute to neuronal damage and improve both motor control and cognition," said ACS, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress.
"They suggest that further research will show whether these benefits are a result of individual compounds shared between berry fruits or whether the unique combinations of chemicals in each berry fruit simply have similar effects."
'Berry' good benefits
The ACS research isn't the first to suggest that antioxidants in berry fruits are beneficial to your overall health. The Global Healing Center also says berries are high in antioxidants and "have been shown to be some of the healthiest foods on the planet."
The antioxidants in berries and other fruits act as "scavengers" of free radicals, which create a destructive process on the cellular level, causing molecules within cells to become unstable, according to Dr. Edward Group.
"They may even be a big player in the formation of cancerous cells by a 'chain-reaction' effect, causing other cells to become damaged," he writes. "Because of the inherent instability of free-radicals, they try to attack other healthy cells to get stable themselves. This then causes the once-healthy cells to react in the same way, attacking others in [a] never-ending attempt for cellular stability."
But just like with everything else, some scientists and researchers say you should be careful not to overindulge in antioxidants.
Spring is upon us, and the concept of "spring cleaning" our domiciles comes to mind. It can apply to the health conscious as well for cleaning out the body's master cleanser, the liver, while increasing supportive nourishment.
Coincidentally, Chinese medicine associates spring with the liver and gall bladder; both work together as blood cleansers. It's like they've worked to keep our other organs and blood relatively free of toxins all winter, now it's time to clean them out so they can function to their fullest. Liver dysfunction leads to chronic poor health, disease and death.
The symptoms of a sluggish liver can be vague, but chronic fatigue and/or increased irritability may be indicators. Mainstream medical liver tests only spot major problems such as hepatitis, sclerosis and fatty liver. Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine practitioners are better at diagnosing troublesome liver problems in their early phases.
There are several methods that can be utilized to cleanse and strengthen the liver and gall bladder system. Ten will be pointed out here with some links to give you details.
(1) Coffee enemas: There's no better assurance of efficacy and safety than knowing Max Gerson used coffee enemas to detox the liver while curing cancer. The Gerson health protocol uses it daily still, and so does Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez with his alternative cancer therapy based on Dr. William Donald Kelley's earlier groundbreaking cancer therapy.
If you're not dealing with cancer, the coffee enema can be used as infrequently or frequently as you wish. Here's how (http://www.naturalnews.com/022905_coffee_body_water.html).
(2) Liver-gall bladder flush: This one is controversial. Whether it actually eliminates gallstones or fatty globules is the issue. This link contains two different views with instructions for you to peruse and decide what's right for you (http://www.alternativehealth.co.nz/cancer/liverflush.htm).
(3) Alpha lipoic acid (ALA): ALA, especially R-ALA, has been used to treat serious liver diseases. Here's more (http://www.naturalnews.com/024513_liver_lipoic_acid_alpha.html).
(4) Glutathione: The master antioxidant. You must ingest precursors to synthesize glutathione in the liver because it can't get past the GI. Look for subhead "How to Increase GSH" in here (http://www.naturalnews.com/027114_glutathione_antioxidant_GSH.html).
(5) Milk thistle and dandelion root: These two natural herbs are commonly used to protect and cleanse the liver. Milk thistle is the protector, and dandelion root is the cleanser. They can be taken separately, but many liver supplements contain both. These herbs can be taken regularly over time with or without obvious liver issues.
(6) Vitamin C: Vitamin C is great for liver health. Earlier studies have shown large quantities of vitamin C flush out fats and repair liver damage. Here's how to make your own mega dose encapsulated orally consumed C, linked at bottom of this article's text (http://www.naturalnews.com).
(7) Lecithin: This helps the liver emulsify fats. You can use sunflower lecithin if want to avoid soy based lecithin, but non-GMO soy lecithin granules are used for encapsulating ascorbic acid in (6) above.
(8) B complex: All the Bs are helpful, especially B12, which has been used to help hepatitis patients. But you need the right type of B12 administered the right way separately from other B supplements. Find out here (http://www.naturalnews.com).
(9) Lemon water: Start out the day with a half glass of warm strong lemon or lime water without any sweetener. Chinese medicine promotes sour tasting food as conducive to liver health. The warm lemon/lime water stimulates a sluggish liver.
(10) Avoid or minimize alcohol and all over the counter and prescribed pain suppressant drugs containing acetaminophen, a known liver toxin.
(NaturalNews) There are many factors that affect weight loss, making the process more complicated than it may seem. The body produces different hormones in response to different types of foods and/or drinks. Losing weight is not only about calorie consumption but also about the types of foods and drinks consumed. Alcohol is one of the worst culprits when it comes to inhibiting weight loss because it disrupts the delicate balance of nutrition, fluid and hormones needed to lose fat.
Alcohol boosts cortisol, a fat-creating hormone
Drinking heavily or even occasionally increases the body's release of cortisol - the hormone that breaks down muscle and retains fat. This loss of muscle can mean a huge slowdown in one's metabolism, making it easier to gain weight. In addition, alcohol causes a drop in testosterone in men, a hormone which helps burn fat.
Alcohol also blocks the body from burning fat. Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that fat metabolism can be reduced by as much as 73 percent after only two drinks of vodka and lemonade in a one-hour time period. In effect, alcohol shuts down the body's ability to access fat stores for energy. The body needs to be well-hydrated in order to build muscle and burn fat. Alcohol has the effect of dehydrating the body.
Drinking often accompanies irresponsible eating
Because drinking often puts one in a relaxed party mood, it is easier to indulge in snacks, potato chips and other unhealthy party foods -- the more one drinks the less one seems to care.
Alcohol is a powerful appetizer. An aperitif is often offered in restaurants to stimulate the appetite. Research has shown that there is a definite correlation between the amount of alcohol consumed before a meal and the amount of food eaten and that people eat more when they have beer or wine with their meal. Since alcohol causes the brain to release dopamine, the pleasure and addiction hormone, the result is an often addictive desire for more alcohol and food. This means one is hit with a double whammy when it comes to gaining weight: excess calories come from both the alcohol and the extra food that is usually consumed as a result of a stimulated appetite.
Alcohol is high in calories
Alcohol comes with very little nutritional value but is very high in calories. It is very easy to knock back a 200ml glass of wine but that is equivalent, in calories, to eating 25ml (5 teaspoons) of butter. Seldom do people stop at one glass of wine or one beer, and mixing alcohol with sugary mixers such as lemonade means even morecalories as the drink now contains sugar and alcohol.
