The one thing that has cluttered my life more than anything else involves food. My lack of self-control and the resulting health frustrations have taken over my life on many occasions, costing time, money, and countless hours spent in places where only the sick should go.

Many of us turn to food when we’re angry, sad, lonely, bored, anxious, depressed, fearful, or a host of other emotions. We’ve never learned to control our feelings, especially in the midst of the more powerful ones we don’t understand.

If we call this kind of eating “emotional eating,” it will begin to make sense.

Eating gives us something to focus on besides the feelings. But then we choose foods that are bad for us — foods high in sugars and salt, low in quality proteins and fats. It is well known that the brain produces chemicals that make us high — the runner’s high for instance. Certain foods set off these chemicals too. They make you feel better even when your life is in a shambles.

Eating these types of foods, the ones that make us “high,” is addictive. This type of addiction is difficult to break, but it is possible. With alcohol or other drugs you can abstain completely. And you can stop everything related to them, including friends who do these things with you. But you can’t just stop eating.

Emotional eating usually includes an addiction to junk foods.

You can train yourself to make different choices about food. But these choices won’t happen when you’re trapped in a cycle of automatically reaching for addictive foods when you want to feel differently.

However, you can abstain from all junk foods. And many people have broken from this bondage by doing just that. If junk foods are not nearby, or if you’ve seriously chosen to deny yourself of all foods that are even slightly not perfect, you might just be successful. Many people have. Hermits, especially. But it’s hard to live a social life without being around junk foods, sweets, salty snacks, and other enticements.

Personally, I don’t believe the Creator of the universe, the One who made the bees that make honey and told us to eat it, means for us to live as hermits in a cave somewhere with no celebrations just because our particular culture has endorsed junk food. In fact, the Bible is full of celebrations we are commanded to observe.

So what is going on?

Instead of dealing with our feelings, we medicate with food to avoid them.

And instead of turning to God with our problems that cause these feelings, we turn to food.

That’s idolatry.

“Those who turn to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8 NIV

A lot of people get grace and mercy confused. Here’s a short version of my favorite explanation:

You were driving too fast and are pulled over by the highway patrol. You were speeding, so you deserve a ticket. If you are given a warning, you just received mercy — you were forgiven and not punished for the crime you committed. However, if instead of a ticket, you were given $1000.00, then you’ve received grace.

Mercy is not receiving the punishment you deserved. Grace is getting a benefit you don’t deserve. We need both. (loosely taken from page 19 of Grace…The Power to Reign by Harold R. Eberle. http://www.worldcastministries.com/)

We attempt to control our feelings by eating. But once we start eating to control ourselves, we lose control of our eating.

We live a nightmare of food controlling us because we’ve given it power through the sin of idolatry.

We need mercy (not receiving the punishment we deserve) through forgiveness.

And we need grace (an undeserved blessing) to get out of this mess.

How do you stop?

The following is an abbreviated example of Terraforming (www.Terra4ming.com) used to help find the root of the problem and bring healing and freedom.

1) Ask the Lord to reveal the beginning of your eating problem.

I had several problems — I was a typical stick-skinny kid with multiple food allergies (undiagnosed) who was force-fed well beyond the point of pain because a lot of common foods made me nauseous. That was traumatic, and my response was anger, fear, bitterness, and attempts to escape the constant nagging to eat more.

The overeating began when my older sibling left home, which transferred the brunt of the family abuse onto me. At the same time my stomach issues got worse and I could no longer feel my stomach. I ate three to four times a normal amount of food at every meal and still didn’t feel like I had eaten. I was diagnosed with ulcers, but they did nothing back then to heal ulcers. They drugged me with Valium. I was in the tenth grade, had ulcers, was on three different drugs that altered the way I behaved, but nothing addressed my symptoms.

Since then I’ve noticed that in the beginning of a virus I tend to overeat because I can’t feel my stomach. Curious.

2) Forgive those parts of you that were left behind by the traumas.

First I forgave the young me that reacted in anger and bitterness when force fed and criticized for food behaviors. Then I moved on to forgive the teen-aged me who turned to food for comfort and couldn’t tell when she was full. And as I worked deeper into my past on a daily basis, I forgave a lot of abuse, neglect, abandonment, and betrayal that happened too.

3) Repent of the behavior.

The people who should have protected me were the ones I needed protection from. I repented of anger, hatred, denial, bitterness, judgment, fear, and wishing the deaths of those who tormented me. I also repented for the idolatry — turning to food for comfort instead of to God. And I repented for eating myself into frequent states of illness and disease, not to mention obesity.

4) Forgive those who trespassed against you.

I forgave my parents and siblings, and anyone looking on who didn’t see the truth and try to stop the abuse. And the doctors and nurses who made some bad decisions. And my grandparents who raised my mother to believe that forcing a child to eat is okay. And anyone else who contributed to or encouraged this sin against me. And I forgave my dad for allowing my mother to run everything in our family.

Then I prayed a sample prayer (Sample Prayer: Person) from www.Terra4ming.com on the “media” page. You can download the sample prayers and print them. It especially helped with taking authority over the situation.

5) Reset behaviors, get someone to help if needed.

I asked the Lord for guidance about future eating. I knew how to eat right, but I didn’t do it very often. It is sometimes best to stay away from entire groups of foods such as grains, sweets, dairy products, fast foods, or packaged snack foods for a set period of time and then test the water carefully to see if you’re ready to eat responsibly and without compulsion. Or sometimes it’s best to stop eating foods that are harmful for a longer period of time. There is a lot of information out there about “trigger foods” that may be helpful — the idea is that eating a specific class of foods (white flour products with cheese for instance) will set you off course into an eating binge. Explore why that happens — what memories come up when you think about macaroni and cheese?

Eating for health is quite a departure from living to eat.

It can take a few weeks to get used to it. I’d suggest making out a sample menu of healthy foods, with some back-ups in case you’re really hungry. But when you’re really hungry you’re probably burning fat.

It is also important to sit down to eat regular meals. If you graze all day, or eat while preparing foods, you’re not as aware and can frequently eat more than you want to. Put the food on the plate, determine if it’s the right balance of protein, fat, and carbohydrates and if the food quality is high. If it’s not, fix it before you begin eating. If you still feel hungry when you’re finished, stop and think a bit to see which food group you need more of or if you just underestimated your need for food at this meal.

Some people prefer their largest meal of the day for breakfast, others at mid-day. Most people who succeed at losing weight do NOT eat a large meal at the end of the day.

6) Don’t give in to fear, anger, cravings, or pity parties.

First I was afraid that I wouldn’t have enough food to eat. I had plenty of food in the house! Then I was afraid that I wouldn’t have the kind of foods I craved.

Cravings come in two forms — the good cravings that guide us into eating better, and the bad cravings that lead us to eat worse. More on Cravings.

I checked out the kitchen and decided that, too, was a lie. I had the right kind of foods ready to eat: apples on the table, carrots in the fridge, and plenty of other food. I was afraid of not being able to eat the foods I really liked. But I realized that when I was eating those foods they weren’t really that tasty. Then I was afraid that I would lose control and eat too much.

Be ready for the lies. Analyze them, find the truth, and stop believing the lies. Yes, you probably will go through a bit of detoxification. Yes, you’ll have more gas as your body cleans out. Yes, you’ll feel better. Yes, you’ll want to exercise more. Yes, the lies will continue for a while. Yes, you can argue with them. And sometimes those lies will give you insight into another part of you that needs to be dealt with. Start at #1 again to find the root and forgive, forgive, forgive.

7) Go and sin no more.

I had a dream many years ago. It was so graphic, so violent, and so demented that I remember it as if it had happened this morning. The message was clear: if we continue to turn to satan for comfort we’re giving him more power over us. He is our greatest enemy, the guy who wants to kill us! Why would we continue to do what he wants?

My prayer is that the God of all the universe would open your eyes so you would see what is really going on to keep you in bondage to food, or anything else.

Receive the Father’s love so you can break free and live the life He created you to live.

The key rules to remember with small round things:

1) They don’t cross over at the nose, navel and knees

2) They tend to be related to other small round things on that same side of your body

So if you have eye problems in only one eye, it could be your kidney on the same side is having problems.

And if you have problems with both eyes, chances are pretty good that both of your kidneys are having problems. You should check using Leg and Arm Lifts and Rescue Remedies for more information to narrow down the problems.

A cataract is a flat skin tag on the eye.

These can be reabsorbed as the body balances and heals. Cataracts are usually based on cadmium toxicity and sometimes cadmium can affect both kidneys.

Cadmium toxicity affects the right kidney with copper toxicity and zinc deficiency. It affects the left kidney with aluminum toxicity and calcium deficiency.

Taking zinc or calcium supplements usually will not help with a deficiency based on cadmium toxicity. Instead, you need to eat plant foods to assist in the removal of cadmium and to replenish the minerals you need.

Tannins are a major factor in eye problems of any kind.

Tannins are naturally high in cadmium. You cannot stabilize the adrenals and kidneys without eliminating sources of cadmium. How do you get it out?

1) Stop putting it in

2) Eat greens – chlorophyll will bind with it for removal

Cadmium is found in metal tooth fillings (amalgams), coffee, tea, chocolate, colored sodas (the brown color in colas and root beer), all tobacco products, galvanized pipe, copper pipe, stainless steel cookware and gasoline (when they removed lead from gasoline they added cadmium).

Macular Degeneration is related to a diabetic pattern.

There is usually a specific protein you are not digesting. Follow recommendations for LL, cutting down on proteins, adding lemon to help you digest proteins, and eliminate those you don’t tolerate well. Keeping a record of what you eat and how you feel will help you determine which protein is bothering you.

Translation:

If you have problems in your right eye, you need more natural red pigments (beets, red fruits, red chard, tomatoes, cranberries or cayenne) and good quality vinegar marinating your veggies.

If you have problems in your left eye, you need more dark colored greens, preferably Marinated Greens. Eat something high in chlorophyll and calcium at each meal.

Stop eating and drinking tannins — coffee, tea, chocolate, colas, root beer, all tobacco products, and any other foods that are significantly brown except natural cinnamon (not usually found in grocery stores).

If you have problems in both eyes, be strict about the tannins.

When your health begins to fail, this is the usual progression:

1) Hearing

2) Kidneys, which affect your vision

3) Heart

Chiropractic theory is based on triangles. If your foot isn’t walking straight, your knee will have to accommodate. And if you knee isn’t walking straight your hip and pelvis will have to accommodate. And then your shoulders and the way you carry your head. That’s the problem moving up the body. In the same way if you deliberately tilt your head to one side when you walk, it will affect the way you swing your arms, which affects the way your shoulders and pelvis move, which affects the way your knees and ankles align, which affects the arches in your feet.

Structurally, your body is made up of triangles, arches, and small round things. Think of the way your bones work together to form your pelvic structure, or your rib cage, or your feet. Lots of triangles, arches and small round things. Your spinal column is a set of arches. Your feet and hands have multiple arches, which is why they can be so small, yet so strong.

This is important because when you are having a problem, sometimes you can ease the situation by massage in the opposite area of that particular triangle. For instance, if you have pain in your neck on the left side, try massaging the right side. Your head tends to tilt toward whichever side you are massaging, so this would stretch the opposite side a bit, which is where the muscles are tense. And when the pain is so intense that you can’t massage that area, rubbing the opposite area might be just what you need.

Another example: if you walk hunched over — slumped — the muscles on the front of your upper chest are tight and pulling you forward. Massage your front and then your back will be able to keep you upright better.

Here’s the tricky part.

Because we’re made out of all these triangles and arches and small round things, we can use Stickman (illustration to the right) to figure out other places that might be causing the pain you feel.

For instance, if I’m having a problem in my right foot in a yellow area on stickman, I could also be having a problem in any other area of my body that is yellow. And because they switch sides at the nose, navel and knees, it could be my left elbow that has pain. Or maybe it’s my left elbow that is causing the pain in my right foot. Or maybe it’s my ascending colon, which is also in the yellow section.

So it’s not unusual to have pain elsewhere from where the problem really is.

The triangles and arches tend to alternate according to the illustration above — yellow areas are affected, or green areas are affected. But small round things stay on the same side. For instance, if your right eye isn’t working right, your right kidney or ovary might be the cause. Or if your left heel is painful, perhaps your left kidney is the problem. This goes for all the small round joints we have, the eyes, kidneys, gonads, breasts, and the temporomandibular (jaw) joint.

And if that’s not complicated enough, add in the tooth meridians and you can begin to understand how so much of our pain can be deflected from somewhere else in our bodies.

Another tip: when your neck hurts on both sides, push your hand against your forehead while pushing forward with your head. It tightens the opposite muscles to relax your neck muscles.

And yet another: if you have flat feet, which means your arches aren’t arched like they should be, it’s usually a liver and adrenal problem — so LO and 4C’s.

And just about anything on both sides at the same time would be 4C’s — kidneys and adrenals.

If you need a refresher course on which goes with what and what to do with it: Left Lemon System.

And how to walk through it:

Case Study: John

Study: Sue’s Skin

I hope you’ve had the chance to watch the documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. It’s available almost anywhere as a DVD rental or streaming. Not only is it well made and entertaining, but it lets you know just how far juicing can go toward revitalizing your digestive system and your health.

It’s sent quite a few people over the edge when it comes to juicing. Including my husband, who is known as the vegetarian who doesn’t like vegetables. He now has juice for one meal every day.

Juicing performs two functions:

1. it removes most of the cellulose
2. it breaks open the cells

These two operations make what comes out of your juicer a great addition for health. No cellulose means there’s nothing there slowing things down, and the cells broken open means it takes less digestion on your part. It does much more than just eating dark green leaves, it chews them better than we ever could!

The goal of juicing is to re-establish the digestive process.

There are plenty of juicing recipes, plenty of guidelines for best practices, and plenty of opinions. So I asked Dr. Max what he has seen in his years of working with people. Seeing as how inflammation is a huge problem, he has found that people reduce inflammation much better when they follow two simple rules:

1. keep it simple — use a maximum of four different items
2. separate into color groups — the cools and the warms

Keep It Simple

Using more than four different fruits or veggies confuses the body and causes inflammation. We want to use this juice to heal, not to confuse. So keeping it to two, three, or four items works a lot better. It’s like using too many different types of herbal tea. Instead of it making you healthier, it just makes you confused.

Use either cool colors or warm colors

The cool colors are blues, greens, and purples. Like purple cabbage, kale, green apples (not yellow ones), green pears, limes, celery, dark green leaves, that sort of thing.

The warm colors are reds, yellows, and oranges. Like grapefruit, lemons, carrots, beets, red bell peppers, and tomatoes.

If you have a slow juicer

You have to run something hard through it all through the process in order to clean off the screen. Carrots work fine for that in the warm colored veggies, and hard green pears work perfectly for the cool colors. A lemon or lime, unpeeled and cut in half lengthwise, does the same thing.

Preparing your produce

Wash in water with a bit of vinegar and some edible clay if you happen to have some. These two will remove just about anything, and the water will drown what’s left. Drain it in a colander, or shake the excess water off your greens.

I set up a cutting board next to my juicer, then the colander on the other side of the cutting board. I cut the veggies and toss them in to juice. Make sure you clean up right way, as dried veggie pulp is hard to get off all the parts. It’s better to allow your juicer parts to air dry before putting it back together again.

A few favorite recipes

Use some fruit to sweeten it a bit, but don’t make it too sweet.

Carrots, grapefruit, tomatoes, garlic.

Green pears, leafy greens, limes, celery.

Blueberries, cucumber, kale, green pears.

Beets, lemon, carrots.

When trees and shrubs are releasing pollen in the spring, this pollen eventually falls to the ground and the earth deals with it. It’s kind of a cleansing of the system resulting in a lot of radiation leaving the tree and being washed into the ground where it doesn’t affect us, or the trees, so much.

The second time is when trees and shrubs shed their leaves in the fall. The same thing happens: things fall to the earth, rain washes it into the ground, and all is well.

These are the best times to cleanse your body as well — fasting, juice fasting, or eating a mucus-less diet. At the very least, cut down on animal products and eat more raw foods during these times. You can make your life much easier if you cut down on all animal foods during pollen season. Pollen is a protein, and your body can be easily overloaded by proteins during this time.

The earth washes fallout from man-made radiation into the earth and it is dealt with in the same way as natural radiation. Yes, it comes back up as radon gas, but you can avoid this with proper construction techniques or fixes to reduce the amount coming into your home.

There are several things you can do to prevent uptake, or to detox afterwards:

• make tea from local trees and herbs: cedar, juniper (new growth or their berries), and sage (1/2 cup per day, or double if flexibility problems)
• seaweed in just about any form
• iodine — can be applied to skin in a small patch, then watch to see how long it takes to be absorbed, then reapply (this protects the thyroid glands)
• if iodine is not available, use black walnut tincture, which is high in natural iodine
• wash clothing with borax added to the wash water and don’t hang outside to dry
• drink ground water (from a well) instead of surface water
• if you only have surface water (from rivers or streams), filter with carbon with a sprig of new growth from local cedar or juniper tree, or their berries
• eat lots of greens! This includes seaweeds and algae, but collards, kale, and anything else with natural intense green color is good.

When your body is cleaning out — which it will do because you’ve begun to feed it better — it can become more sensitive. There are some foods your body won’t want anymore, especially junk foods, animal products and sweets. Sometimes you feel bad during a cleanse, and sometimes you crave the very food you are eliminating. The key is to not give in to these kinds of cravings.

Rule of the Fast

The goal is restoration of the whole being: body, mind and spirit. Choose a fast that will separate you from offensive behaviors and foods so you can begin to see what they do to you, and to those around you.

Rule of Rest

Rest is another important factor in health. God rested on the seventh day and He created us with the need to rest, providing darkness at night to encourage us to rest. Then He commanded us to take a day off each week to devote to Him.

Our body repairs and rebuilds during sleep, and we require more rest and sleep during an illness or time of recovery. Ignoring this need for additional rest, or ignoring the need to rest at all, leads quickly into a cycle of disease and ill health.

Our current system of requiring notes from a doctor in order to excuse an absence at work or school prevents people from resting. It also forces them into close contact with other people who are sick and exposes them to more diseases while they are weak. Substituting medications for rest in order to diminish the symptoms only brings about more distress.

If you do not rest during illness, your body will bring about the same illness the next time it cycles through that particular organ or system, and you will continue to experience it until you’ve allowed healing to occur.

See Energy Cycles.

def: the quality or state of being mature; especially : full development*

Mature: 1) based on slow careful consideration <a mature judgment>*

2) having attained a final or desired state <mature wine>*

Love

The kind of love I’m talking about is the kind that cares enough to do some pretty rash things. Mature love.

Mature love does not compromise because there are no longer two sides. Mature love has a common goal and therefore any conflicts can be resolved by getting back on track to the common goal.

Like stop feeding your favorite body fast foods and snack foods so you’ll function better.

Like exercise your favorite body so it feels better.

Like look the other way when you see something that is enticing but bad for your favorite body.

Yup, self love. The kind that cares enough for you so you’ll stop driving yourself into an early grave. Slowly. Painfully. Dead before your time.

That kind of love isn’t easy… we work ourselves to exhaustion, vegetate in front of an electronic tube, play games into the wee hours of the night, and eat and drink to distraction. Mind-altering behaviors to ease the pain of the life we’re living, or the body that isn’t functioning right.

And the arguments inside our heads! “Oh no, you shouldn’t drink that now, it’ll keep you awake too late!” “But I want it, it tastes so good!” “I can handle it!”

What we need is consensus. Agreement. A common goal. Find the voice inside you that cares about your health in a non-judgmental way and stay there. Tell all the other voices to shut up. With a common goal of health, you’re much better able to see your needs and to move toward health.

Start by forgiving yourself. Yeah, we’ve all put stuff into our mouths that was only suitable for a trash can. A sane person would not eat that kind of thing. That was then. We’re not going to live that way anymore.

Their end is destruction

their god is their belly

and they glory in their shame,

with minds set on earthly things.

Ephesians 3:18

“Earthly things” in the Bible aren’t trees and rocks and mountains and flowers — those are called “creation.” Earthly things means those enticing things that we know are wrong but we want to do them anyway. Things that harm us, either immediately, or in the long run. And it all begins in the mind.

Compromise does not bring unity. If part of you wants something special and the rest of you compromises with a “Well, just this once.” — it’s not gonna work. If the consensus is health, then find a healthy alternative. If you can’t think of one, google it: “healthy alternative to coffee.” Results: About 8,410,000 results (0.35 seconds).

My personal favorites:

• fresh lemon juice, raw local honey, hot water, cayenne or paprika to taste
• organic chai with raw milk
• hot raw milk with maple syrup

Not all of these are good for everyone, but they’re hot, not overly destructive, and yummy! Some people can’t tolerate dairy products until they’re healthier. Use water, or try nut milks. Stay away from anything overly processed or decaffeinated. It takes a whole lot of chemicals to remove caffeine from things and those chemicals don’t leave with the caffeine.

Maturity is revealed in the choices we make every day. It’s not a destination. Maturity is not something we work toward, it’s what we’re doing right now. Stop worrying about yesterday or tomorrow. If you make the right choices now, the rest will come.

You’ll find yourself writing things like lemons and kale on your grocery list. You’ll reach for clean water to drink. You’ll buy real cranberry juice and sweeten it to taste with natural sweeteners like raw honey or maple syrup and add some lemon to give it sparkle. You’ll stop paying conglomerate food companies to poison you and your family. You’ll stop putting money into drink and snack machines. You’ll start wondering what all those center aisles in the grocery store are for but glad you don’t go there anymore.

And you’ll discover the glow of health. Because that’s what maturity does for a person. One day at a time.

* definitions taken from merriam-webster.com

I was watching a YouTube video the other day and almost everyone in it was of normal weight. There was one person who was maybe 40# overweight, and another about 20# over. These weren’t actors — but people fleeing a flood. I believe this was filmed in France, and yes, I am familiar with the French Paradox and how they are healthier than Americans yet consume more alcohol and fat. They also consume more fresh vegetables and by “fresh” they mean it came out of the ground this morning.

Then I was reading a book that said the French wouldn’t even consider having food at a meeting. And snacks were for children only. They eat meals, they enjoy meals, and they have less health problems than Americans who tend to focus on fast food, flavored drinks, and snack foods.

Here in America we bribe people to come to meetings with the promise of food. Contemporary worship services mean they provide the coffee and doughnuts. No need to eat breakfast before worshiping — choose your poison as you walk in the door.

Add to that the information that high fructose corn syrup is so bad for us but it’s pretty much in everything processed. And how sodas will make you gain weight even without any calories because of the way they change the pH of your body. Or the chemicals food scientists pump into man-made foods to make them bypass your natural inclination to either not eat them at all or to limit their consumption.

If you think about it, sugar and fat do not occur together in nature. The highest fat fruit is an avocado and they’re not all that sweet. Yet most of the enticing foods marketed are high in bad fats and sugar. Or bad fats and salt.

Did you know that fried foods in restaurants are frequently fried twice? The first time is in a factory so as to absorb a lot of fat, and then they are frozen and fried again at the restaurant to absorb even more fat. And of course they’re double or triple breaded with salt and sugars. Don’t forget the sauce — more bad fats, chemicals, sugars and salt.

Why do they do that? Because they pour tons of money into research to find out what makes the ordinary Joe lose control and eat more than he should. And the quicker they can get Joe addicted to their products the less likely he’ll switch to another. You could call it mind control — make Joe act out a behavior without a true choice. Like sinning on auto-pilot.

And they are very brand-specific. See McDonald’s, eat McDonald’s. See Starbucks, get Starbucks.

The point?

It’s about choice.

You can choose to eat for health, or you can choose to eat against health.

I imagine you don’t think much about the electro-magnetic fields emitting from your computer, your television, your car, or the equipment you use. But some people experience weird symptoms, including elevated heart rates, when close to these whirling or magnetic gadgets. Even walking on an electric treadmill can affect people so badly that their blood sugar levels spike.

Of course this is controversial and plenty of medical authorities don’t believe this could happen. But if you’re one of those people who is overly sensitive to EMFs, what can you do?

First, keep all electronics away from your bed. Put your alarm clock across the room, don’t charge your cell phone next to your bed. Don’t run fans. Maybe even don’t sleep in the room where the power lines enter your home. Don’t sleep under an electric blanket or heating pad.

Second, reduce cell and portable phone exposure by using the speaker function, move away from operating machinery as much as possible, sit further away from the television or computer screen, and don’t use a microwave oven. A front-wheel drive car is better because the transmission is not under you. Substitute dust mops and fresh air for vacuum cleaners and hair dryers. Any way you can use less electricity next to your body is better.

The Center for Disease Control has recommendations for avoiding workplace EMFs, either proven to be dangerous or possibly dangerous.

And of course you can find all sorts of products out there claiming to protect you from harm. There might even be a few that actually help. I don’t know of any that have been independently tested to make sure they do what they claim. And some of them can actually increase the amount of harm done by an EMF.

How do you find EMFs?

Turn a battery-operated radio on and adjust it to a place where there is no radio station on the AM dial. Moving it in front of a TV, computer screen, or machine of almost any type will cause a lot of static. You can check around your bed for static and move whatever causes it further away from where you sleep.

How do you fix an EMF problem?

Grounding

Grounding.

Yup, just ground yourself every once in a while and it won’t affect you so much. Go outside barefoot and stand on the ground. Or on a sun warmed rock in the winter. Or sit on the ground while you’re reading, or pulling weeds, or playing. It takes less than half a minute to get the job done. The important part is to get back in touch with the earth.

You don’t have to buy crystals to wear around your neck, special grounding devices, or potions and pills. Just go outside barefoot. The earth has healing powers. That’s why it is so healing to walk barefoot on the beach.

There are three main causes of dental problems:

1. Inadequate or improper dental care
2. Infections in the gums, teeth, or jaw
3. Toxic elements installed into the teeth and jaw (fillings, crowns, root canals, and temporary items such as braces, retainers, and other hard or soft objects)

Infections can be sneaky.

You can have an infection in the root of a tooth for a decade and never notice anything besides a slight sensitivity to cold foods or drinks.  But over time, the acids produced by that infection eat away at the bone and leave de-mineralized places that can be seen in an X-ray.  Antibiotics don’t help much because it is difficult to get them from the blood stream into the bone.  The best way to deal with this is to clean up the diet, which allows your body to do what it was designed to do: kill off invaders.

Meridians can help heal dental problems.  Determine which organ or system is connected to a problem tooth and support that particular function with better eating.  For instance, if tooth number 31 (second molar, bottom right) is in distress, the lungs and large intestine are related and you could be having problems there.  Knowing that dairy products affect both the lungs (more mucus) and large intestine (constipation), eat less dairy products until that tooth has healed.

To reverse this, if  you’re having problems with your lungs (congestion and increased intolerance to dairy products) and large intestine (pain, bloating, gas, constipation, pelleted stools), you can check associated teeth for problems by a) looking at it with a dental mirror and b) tapping on it with a non-metal object to determine if there is pain.  Sometimes a diseased tooth will discolor, or the gum tissue around it will swell or recede.

There are also meridians for every section of the colon, so there may be more pain in one section than another. And you could have problems with vision and ears at the same time.  Meridians can help you diagnose which organs and systems are stressed so you can adjust your eating to help them out.

Meridian Information.

For a printable meridian chart.

Toxins come from many sources.

The ones you can do the most about would include toothpaste, food and drink, dental procedures, and objects put in your mouth.

The most frequent non-removable toxins come from fillings, root canals, crowns, and other dental additions to your mouth.  Any metal in your mouth can cause problems, mainly from the mercury and nickel in them.  Stainless steel has nickel.  Gold has other metals added.  “Silver” fillings are half mercury.  Mercury is not considered toxic in the US if it is installed in your mouth.  But it is extremely toxic if you break a fluorescent light bulb, or if your dentist drops a bit on the floor.  All dental trash with “silver” or amalgam fillings is considered toxic waste and must be handled as such.  Now if someone could explain why it becomes suddenly healthy when installed into a mouth bathed with food acids and saliva and is busy chewing things . . .

An excellent way to detox the mouth is by oil pulling.

The pH of your saliva changes when you alter your diet.  People who eat the Standard American Diet high in sweets and processed grains, meats, and dairy products have more acidic saliva that can dissolve their enamel.  Enamel is the hard coating on your teeth that prevents decay.

A rather public doctor (who publishes articles online but makes it almost impossible to link to them) said he was having his teeth professionally cleaned every month until he finally accepted the connection between the rest of his body and mouth health. He started eating probiotic foods — marinated greens, some types of yogurt, kefir, naturally fermented foods — and now his teeth stay clean.

Recommendations:
Remove all metal from your mouth carefully, sequentially, slowly, and under the care of someone who is more educated than you on the topic and do a lot of research before doing this!  There are tests your dentist can order to determine which composite products to use in place of the metal fillings.  Many people who have been sickened by mercury and nickel in their mouths are more sensitive to other dental products. Some dentists use muscle testing to determine which materials to use.

And eat better.

LeftLemon.com

“Clean up your dental work first!”

I’m sure you’ve heard it from Dr. Max. He has seen so many people ignore that advice, spin their wheels, finally have that problem tooth fixed or removed, and their health suddenly comes back. Including himself. He had one root canal on the promise that recent materials are safe and could solve all problems with root canals. Not so. He played the guinea pig for us and it didn’t work. Last I heard he was scheduled to have it removed.

Getting the metal out of your mouth, or having root canals removed, or other teeth that just can’t seem to be healthy — is kind of scary. It can also be expensive. And you don’t want to give up your teeth! We are given a set of 32 by adulthood and every time one is removed is like, well, pulling teeth!

But the alternative is continuing in ill health for no other apparent reason. Struggling against all odds to achieve health but never finding it. Many people are good enough at muscle testing now, including some dentists, to tell you how hard it is on your body to leave a sick tooth alone. If drilling and filling it with a non-metal material won’t fix the problem, it may be time to take it out before it takes you out.

Sometimes teeth can heal themselves, but sometimes they’re too far gone.

Dental Health

When switching to a raw (or more raw) diet, don’t focus on fruits and/or fruit juices to satisfy your sweet tooth or you could end up with dental problems from the fruit acids.  A bit of fruit every day is a good thing, but attempting to eat a “cleaned up” Standard American Diet by substituting fruit for the usual over-consumption of sweets is not good.  Dried fruits are particularly sticky and need to be eaten cautiously, especially when just beginning.  It can take time for your teeth to respond to a healthy diet.

Brushing your teeth after each meal (two meals recommended daily if you’re fairly healthy, so this isn’t as difficult as it sounds), or at least rinsing your mouth after eating can help greatly.  Gum chewing, with artificial or natural sweeteners, is not a healthy practice.  The chemical dyes used in chewing gum confuse your body.

Cleansing with glycerin-based toothpastes (read labels, even health food store tooth pastes have glycerin) leave your teeth sticky.  Why?  Developed in the mid-20th century, toothpastes were designed to make fluoride stick to your teeth better.  Unfortunately, this sticky residue prevents your own saliva from bathing your teeth, which is the main way of re-mineralizing teeth.  A lot of people stop having problems with dry mouth when they stop glycerine-based toothpastes.

I recently found a Neem oil toothpaste, and as Neem oil is very good for your mouth I tried it. My teeth were fuzzy every time I used it — they felt as though I had been eating only junk food and candy. All because of the glycerine. They felt fairly clean after brushing, but in just a couple of hours they were completely fuzzy. I suspect another reason they put it in there is maybe you’ll brush more often and use more toothpaste.

Another note about toothpastes: because they are not considered to be edible, manufacturers don’t have to list all ingredients on the label.  Despite a century of USDA investigations and the product being banned in some nations, saccharine can be, and is, added to many toothpastes.

You might want to try bentonite clay for brushing. You can mix it with baking soda in a salt shaker and sprinkle it into your hand for dipping. You’ll need to use more water than with plain soda. Or you can make a paste with oil and store it in a tiny jar. Bentonite clay is sold in several forms, the kind sold for internal use would be better for use with children because it can be swallowed.

Professional Cleaning

When metal tools meet tooth, damage can occur.  Yes, the gunk needs to be removed.  But if you’re not encouraging it to grow there, they won’t have to scrape it off.  Most dental hygienists will scrape all of your teeth at every cleaning visit.  You can request that they only scrape the ones that need it.

Last time I gave my theories on colds and flu, this time you get Dr. Max’s. This is kind of technical stuff, but wade on through it and you’ll know what to do next time a bug jumps on you.

Colds, flu, and diarrhea are histamine reactions to an intruder of some sort. A cold is histamine in the sinuses, throat, and nasal passages that sometimes goes into the lungs. “Flu” could either be vomiting or diarrhea and would either attack the stomach or the intestines. The reason your body reacts this way is to wash the offender out. However, this washing uses up a lot of energy that could be putting the immune system in gear. Your immune response will not happen while your body is producing so much histamine.

The Goal: calm down the histamine production so the immune system can fight the bad guys.

Citrus and chlorophyll will do that.

Nope, heading for the medicine cabinet can do you more harm than good. When you first get that post nasal drip that lets you know something is coming, the temptation is to reach for the anti-histamine. They’ll calm down the histamine response, but they don’t help your immune system to work. Instead they shut down your liver and you’re left with a disease that lasts even longer.

The oils in green leafy veggies, combined with fresh citrus juices (lemon, lime, or grapefruit — and fresh means you cut open the fruit and squeeze it yourself), will reset the histamine response.

How to get these?

Find these in your refrigerator:

• marinated greens made with lemon
• raw greens of any kind with lemon or lime juice added
• use cilantro, parsley, and spinach with some lemon

If you’re into juicing veggies:

• grapefruit and dark green leafy veggies
• fresh greens and lemon
• green lemonade: grapefruit, cilantro, fresh ginger

And eat no animal products until you’re healthy again.

If you’re like me, you’re wondering about other histamine reactions — like bug bites. I suspect that’s why people chew a few leaves of something and slap it onto the bug bite. Chewing just any leaf might not be a good thing, but you can learn a bit of local edible weed information.

In the article Dr. Mercola talks about the lack of evidence on the usefulness of flu shots, as well as the devastating side effects of vaccines in general — even death.

I’ve had exactly one flu shot, and yes, it was forced on me. If I didn’t submit to the flu shot I was out of the program and therefore out of a job. Of the 30 or so injected along with me that day, three had to drop out of the program due to intense and immediate physical illness (undiagnosable, of course — “they must have come in sick already”), and about 8 of us were sick enough to be miserable for the next four weeks of the training program. I didn’t get rid of that sickness for a long time, and then only through a lot of fasting and gut re-colonization.

There are theories out there about the flu, and I tend to believe one of them because it has proven itself true so many times: there is no such thing as the “flu.” It’s just food poisoning through a common food that most people in an area eat. And that same theory says that if you get a cold you’ve eaten something moldy.

The last time my family had the flu was in Kansas and driving back to SC. My daughter got sick while there and had stopped throwing up by the time we left, my husband (rumored to have a cast-iron stomach) began driving that morning with a bagel in his hand and started throwing up two hours into our 17 hour journey. That left me driving the rest of the way. Thank God for books on tape and a little bit of caffeine ingested very slowly.

What do you do if you feel a case of the “flu” coming on?