Breakfast Cereals in Boxes Are Dead

Several years ago I spoke with a PhD at one of the major organic cereal companies. He told me what I already suspected — boxed breakfast cereals, even if branded as “healthier,” are just dead foods.

He said that they are cooked, baked and fried until there is no nutritional value left. Knowing this, they infuse a powdered chemical into the cereal that contains a host of synthetic vitamins and minerals. Too bad that so many millions of people rely on these cereals to start their day.

What’s a healthier alternative?

You’re better off making your own granola-type cereal. You can get several different kinds of nuts, some Coconut Butter, and some oatmeal then grind it up in a food processor for a couple of seconds.

Add some fresh fruit — all organic — and some organic half-and-half milk and there you go — a thousand times healthier than the boxed variety.

Skip the Juice — It’s Just Sugar

One more thing — skip the glass of juice because it’s just sugar water to your body. Instead, drink some coffee, tea, milk or water and get your vitamin C from FlavoC.

Flavo-C is chock full of bioflavonoids – powerful antioxidants which restore oxygen to our bodies – and Vitamin C making it a powerful formula for repairing and preventing cellular damage as well as slowing down the aging process.

Click here to learn more about Flavo C >>

Garlic is great for the Immune System

People are more aware of the importance of their immune systems than ever before. But most do not know how to nourish their immune systems. No problem. Here are three key ways to give yourself a boost in this department.

1) Feed your flora.

The intestines are one of the main lines of defense in your body, so taking a good probiotic supplement is a great course of action.

You can find probiotics in the refrigerated section of your health food store. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health tell us that probiotic supplementation, especially with lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, can reduce risk and severity of allergic disease, particular atopic dermatitis. (source)

2) Eat Chinese astragalus.

Researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center tell us:

“Astragalus may help protect the body from diseases such as cancer and diabetes. It contains antioxidants, which protect cells against damage caused by free radicals, byproducts of cellular energy. Astragalus is used to protect and support the immune system, for preventing colds and upper respiratory infections, to lower blood pressure, to treat diabetes, and to protect the liver.” (source)

3) Guzzle down Garlic.

This tasty, versatile food is powerful in its ability to fight infections and even battle cancer cells.

The Harvard Medical Center reports that one 2006 study that looked at rates for certain cancers and garlic and onion consumption in southern European populations found an association between the frequency of use of garlic and onions and a lower risk of some common cancers. (source)

Get a boost with Immune Support

Immune Support is a superior, unique supplement containing many important immune system boosters, including Chinese astragalus, garlic, echinacea and more.

Click here to order Immune Support now >>

POTASSIUM AND SODIUM BALANCE

Potassium has a positive charge and works on energy-production inside of cells, while sodium works on the outside. In balance, they carry on nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction and heart function. If potassium levels are low, however, and out of balance with sodium, depending on degree, you may experience fatigue, muscle weakness and intestinal problems. (source)

Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health say that most Americans eat far too much sodium and not enough potassium. (source)

WATCH WHAT YOU EAT

The biggest source of sodium (salt) is consumed in processed foods. It’s in everything, from crackers to potato chips to muffins.

Potassium-rich foods include vegetables and fruits, especially green vegetables (Green Nutrients) like parsley, spinach and collards. It’s also in sweet potato, oranges, grapefruits and dried beans.

UNNATURAL BALANCE IN THE MODERN DIET

“Our diet is remarkably different from what we evolved on,” says Lawrence Appel, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore who has examined potassium’s importance in the human diet. “We evolved on a low-sodium, high-potassium diet. Now we eat a high-sodium, low-potassium diet. This flip may be in part responsible for many of the [health] problems that are commonplace today.”  (source)

Extreme imbalance can increase risk of dying from heart attack or other causes. (source)

GREAT SOURCE OF POTASSIUM

A great source of potassium can be found in our Green Nutrients formula which is packed with green vegetables.

To learn more about Green Nutrients click here >>

Sometimes, a good cup of tea really can clear your head and help you think more clearly.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have been studying how green tea influences brain function and boosts memory. Now Chinese researchers have confirmed findings that Green tea favorably affects the generation of brain cells and provides benefits for memory and spatial learning. (source)

The main ingredient in green tea responsible for the benefits is a chemical called epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG). It’s an antioxidant that improves cognitive function by promoting neuron (nerve) cells in the brain. (source)

In addition, green tea helps combat degenerative diseases related to aging, as well as memory loss. (source)

You can find Green Tea in our Immune Support formula.

Click here to learn more about Immune Support »

Specifically, grape seed extract damages cancer cells’ DNA (via increased reactive oxygen species) and stops the pathways that allow repair. Grape seed extract offers “a rather dramatic effect,” according to Rajesh Agarwal, PhD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

Researchers are impressed  by how grape seed extract kills cancer cells but not healthy cells. ”I think the whole point is that cancer cells have a lot of defective pathways and they are very vulnerable if you target those pathways. The same is not true of healthy cells,” Agarwal says.

Grape seed extract is a main ingredient in our SuperGreens and VasCor supplements.

Learn more about Supergreens – click here »
Learn more about VasCor – click here »

The study found that eating at least three servings of blueberries and strawberries per week tended to be associated with a 1/3 decrease in risk of heart attack in women.

Blueberries and strawberries have high levels of flavonoids (also found in grapes, eggplant and wine) that have cardiovascular benefits.

Among the highest flavonoid foods is grape seeds, which are featured in SuperGreens and VasCor. This is why we recommend these supplements for heart support.

Read more about SuperGreens here »
Read more about VasCor here »

According to a study done by the Mayo clinic, Grape Seed Extract has been shown as a viable natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy for women without any of the dangerous side effects. (source)

Grape Seed Extract is found in our SuperGreens supplement.
Click here to learn more about SuperGreens »

Research by investigators at Harvard’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published in online in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) has led to a strategy for preventing thrombosis (blood clotting) — feeding rutin to patients.

“It’s not always fully appreciated that the majority of Americans will die as the result of a blood clot in either their heart or their brain,” says senior author Robert Flaumenhaft, MD, PhD, an investigator in the Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Approximately half of all morbidity and mortality in the United States can be attributed to heart attack or stroke.”

Foods high in rutin can help prevent blood clots
Among the more than 5,000 compounds that were screened by researchers,, quercetin-3-rutinoside (rutin) emerged as the most potent agent to prevent blood clots.

“Rutin proved to be the most potently anti-thrombotic compound that we ever tested in this model,” said Flaumenhaft. Rutin was shown to inhibit both platelet accumulation and fibrin generation during thrombus formation.

Which foods contain rutin?
Rutin can be found in a variety of real whole foods. Buckwheat supplies a good amount, but when I was working on a whole food supplement formula many years ago I discovered wild pansy thanks to advice from herbalist James Duke, PhD. He also told me that one of the added benefits is that rutin lowers blood vessel pressure in the eye.

If you like to juice, throw in the rinds of citrus such as oranges, grapefruit, limes and lemons because these also contain rutin. Berries and asparagus are also good sources.

High rutin whole food supplement: FlavoC

Most Americans have read about the Salem witch trials in their history classes. Outside of religious beliefs that led to hysteria, it is difficult to imagine what might have sparked the insanity of 1692 as transplants from Puritan England fought to survive in a foreign and often inhospitable land. But there are a few researchers who have come up with a possible cause — ergot poisoning.

When religious beliefs spark a deadly explosion
Certainly people of the 17th Century were familiar with madness, but to the unenlightened, mental and emotional problems were linked to an evil force possessing the soul.In 1692, scientific thinking was only recognized by scholars and not by the superstitious and poorly educated settlers who huddled in fear at the thought of evil spirits holding sway over their lives. If they had been open-minded enough then perhaps they would have made a connection between the symptoms and the effects of eating tainted food.

Tainted food, tainted ideas
The year 1692 was hardly situated in an era of sound thinking. With the Age of Reason far off in the future, the Puritan settlers strongly believed in religious notions of devils, witches, spells, and possessed souls. As a result, nineteen men and women were convicted of witchcraft in Salem and marched to Gallows Hill for public hanging. Plus there were scores of tortures including one of a man more than eighty years old who was crushed to death under heavy stones for refusing to admit he was guilty of practicing witchcraft. The madness spread throughout New England. And it was madness it was in the greater sense of the word.

Ergot poisoning leads to acting like a witch
In 1976 psychologist Linnda Caporael suggested, based on compelling evidence, that the witch scare in New England followed an outbreak of rye ergot. Over the years there has been a debate over the validity of Caporael’s conclusions, but in a careful analysis appearing in the journal American Scientist in the summer of 1982, researcher Mary Matossian substantiated the theory.

Ergot is a fungus blight that forms hallucinogenic substances in bread. Eating it can be a mind- and behavior-altering experience — LSD was originally isolated from this species of fungus and symptoms of ergotism have been recorded since the middle ages and possibly even as far back as ancient Greece. The development of ergot is favored by a severely cold winter followed by a cool, moist growing season: the cold winter weakens the rye plant and the spring moisture promotes the growth of the fungus. These conditions were present in the New England area in the year of 1692.

Made up of four groups of alkaloids, ergot produces a variety of symptoms. including giddiness, a feeling of frontal pressure in the head, fatigue, depression, nausea with or without vomiting and pains in the limbs and lower back. In more severe cases symptoms include formication (feeling that ants are crawling under the skin), coldness in the extremities, muscle twitching and tonic spasms of the limbs, tongue and facial muscles. Fits and convulsions are also present with more severe cases.1

The panic begins with symptoms
Consider what started the panic in the winter of 1692: “Young Betty Parris became strangely ill. She dashed about, dove under furniture, contorted in pain, and complained of fever. The cause of her symptoms may have been some combination of stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse, epilepsy, and delusional psychosis.”3

The symptoms and conditions sparked the fire of the witch hunt that was then fueled by mass hysteria and deeply rooted religious beliefs. The fact that people continued to eat the tainted grains perpetuated the outbreak of symptoms.

Flawed human thinking
If history is a good indicator (and it seems to be), human beings in social settings have a great propensity for jumping on the bandwagon and pointing fingers at one another. Genocide, race wars and a host of injustices develop quickly this way. As scores of individuals were experiencing symptoms of ergot poisoning in 1692, to the untrained and superstitious mind, the only plausible explanation was that somebody was doing the devil’s work and that somebody needed to pay the price.

Sources:
1. Matossian, Mary K., “Ergot and the Salem Witchcraft Affair,” American Scientist, Vol. 70, No.4, p.355, July-Aug 1982
2. Lienhard, John H. Rye Ergot and Witchs, No. 1037, University of Houston, uh.edu, Oct 2012
3. Linder, Douglas, The Witchcraft Trials in Salem: A Commentary, University of Missouri, http://law2.umkc.edu, Oct 2012

It’s an old debate — is weight loss all about limiting what you eat? The answer is not a definitive “yes.” In fact, there’s more evidence to the contrary.

It is clear that weight gain is not caused by what popular diet and health gurus say it is — eating too much fat, not exercising enough and eating too many calories. A recent study published in the journal PLOS Medicine has reported the rise of obesity in an Algerian refugee camp where people are not getting enough nutrition.

The simplest formula for obesity
Obesity is caused primarily by eating too many carbohydrate foods.

Consider the statement of Carlos Grijalva-Eternod, lead-author, UCL Institute of Child Health, regarding the obesity rate in this study of Sahrawi refugees based in four camps near Tindouf city in Algeria:

“A number of reasons may account for these trends. This traditionally nomadic population itself once favoured larger women, and has an excessive sugar consumption habit. However, other factors come into play, such a predominance of starchy foods, pulses and blended foods in food assistance packages, but with few, if any, fresh or dried vegetables and fruit. We need to find ways of boosting the supply of fresh produce to improve the adequacy and diversity of their diets.” (Obesity and under-nutrition prevalent in long-term refugees, University College of London, Oct 3, 2012)

Not an empty theory
So here we have a working model showing that high carbs and low vegetables lead to obesity. It’s what bestselling author Gary Taubes has been arguing with the experts, including the American Heart Association, until he’s blue in the face.

Why, then, does it seem that calorie-restricted and low-fat diets really work?Taubes explains:“Virtually any diet that significantly restricts the number of calories consumed, even a diet that is described as low-fat (because the subjects are instructed to reduce the proportion of fat calories they consume), will cut the total amount of carbohydrate calories consumed as well. This is just simple arithmetic. If we cut all the calories we consume by half, for instance, then we’re cutting the carbohydrates by half, too. And because these typically constitute the largest proportion of calories in our diet to begin with, these will see the greatest absolute reduction. If we preferentially try to cut fat calories, we’ll find it exceedingly difficult to cut more than 400 or 500 calories a day by reducing fat — depending on how much fat we were eating to begin with — and so we’ll have to eat fewer carbohydrates as well.”

“Put simply, low-fat diets that also cut significant calories will cut carbohydrates significantly as well, and often by more than they cut fat.” (Taubes, Gary, Calories, fat or carbohydrates? Why diets work (when they do), garytaubes.com, Dec 13, 2010.)