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Which Vitamins to Buy?

May 17th, 2011 by

Choices, Choices, Choices

When it comes to choosing which vitamins to take, it is pretty confusing out there. Our first choice is where we buy our vitamins. We can go to the drug store, the health food store, buying clubs like Costco or through direct sales/internet where they are delivered to our homes. After we make that choice, there are dozens of the same type of vitamins to choose from. What criteria should we use? Most people think price. But when it comes to quality, price is not the standard to go by.

Most people do not realize that there are three main ways of manufacturing vitamins on the market. So to the untrained eye, these vitamins all look the same except for the price point. So here are some pointers to help you choose more wisely.

Typically if you are shopping in a drug store or some buying clubs, you are going to find the synthetic type (test tube type) of vitamins.

Features of Synthetic Vitamins:

  • Use man-made, inorganic substances, chemically derived, often petroleum-based products
  • Often contain sugar & unnatural flavours, colours, fillers, binders, preservatives, sweeteners
  • Chemical, high-heat or high-pressure processing destroys active ingredients & enzymes
  • Very poor dissolve-ability
  • Very poor bio-availability
  • Do not build long-term health
  • May act as a stimulant (temporarily feel ‘better’)
  • May have negative side effects in some people
  • Unrecognized by body, not found in nature, ‘unnatural’ to self

When vitamins are made synthetically, it costs very little and that is passed along to the consumer. But when you think about it, are you really saving money when the money you just spent is not being utilized in your body? To me that is a waste of money.

If you are shopping in a typical health food store and some direct sales companies, you are going to find natural isolates using the extraction method.

Features of Extracted Vitamins:

  • Isolated nutrient; no co-factors present; poorly balanced formula
  • ‘Natural’ sourced – only a small portion must be natural, according to government labeling regulations
  • May contain questionable fillers, binders, etc.
  • Processing methods questionable; active ingredients & enzymes often destroyed
  • Often poor dissolve-ability
  • Often poor to fair bio-availability
  • Better than synthetics, but do not build true long-term health
  • Portions recognizable by body but have to steal co-factors from your body for true absorption; so gives to you and steals from you.

When you are buying the extracted version, it is a toss-up whether you are getting ahead or not as it depends on how much your body needs to “spend” in order to get the extracted vitamin metabolized. So the potential for losing money is there if your body does not have adequate stores of nutrients to help with the processing of the extracted version.

If you are shopping through some direct sales companies or getting your vitamins from a practitioner of some kind, then you are probably getting whole food, nutrient dense concentrates.

Features of Whole Food, Nutrient Dense Concentrates:

  • Nature’s balance; high potency; nature’s co-factors present
  • High quality, pure, organically sourced raw materials
  • Low heat or no heat, low pressure processing ensures active ingredients and high enzymatic activity
  • No harsh binders, fillers
  • No refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, colours, flavours
  • Ideal, effective dissolve-ability, available when & where needed
  • Ideal, effective bio-availability, easily utilized by cells
  • Body recognizes as ‘belonging to self’ or ‘natural’, highly usable
  • Builds long-term health by supporting body’s innate wisdom

When you compare whole food concentrates with real food, you see that you save money while being nourished. For example, one of my Vitamin C tablets costs me 22 cents and it is equal to my buying 7 and half oranges. My body feels the difference when I nourish it properly which is my biggest saving.  Since the food values have decreased due to food becoming a business and the soils being depleted, my body loves the whole food nutrient dense concentrates to supplement what I am missing from my diet.

Bottom line; when it comes to choosing your vitamins, you get what you pay for. If you are interested in exploring this further, I have a list of scientific questions that will help you confirm whether or not you are getting your money’s worth when buying vitamins. Contact me and I will send you this list.

I’d love to hear from you or answer any questions.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you.

To your good health!

Charlene Day

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Posted in Alternative Health, Food, Health | Comments 7

Earth Day – What We Can do in Crisis

Apr 19th, 2011 by

Everything is interconnected. Our environment is really an extension of us. What we do to planet earth, we do to ourselves. When we look at what is happening in the world right now, we see that we are in crisis. With Earth Day around the corner, let’s examine what we can do in this crisis.

What is Crisis?

On the outer physical realm it looks like tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear crisis, hurricanes, tornadoes, destructive fires, extensive heat waves and droughts, melting glaciers, raising sea levels and icebergs the size of small states breaking away from ice caps. There are breakdowns in all aspects of reality these days.

The dictionary says a crisis is: any event that is, or expected to lead to, an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, community or whole society.

When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.  John F. Kennedy said this in one of his speeches on April 12, 1959.

I believe most crises provide an opening for growth, no matter how fearful the circumstances, because crises stop the treadmill we are on and force us to look at what really matters. We can grow emotionally and spiritually from crisis if we choose to.

Paradigms

Paradigm shift was the term used in the influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (1962) to describe a change in the basic assumptions, or paradigms, within the ruling theory of science. Paradigms are also referred to as thought patterns.

Being in a crisis can speed up the changing of paradigms or basic assumptions that are no longer working in our world.

Our Response to Crisis

We can respond on the physical level and that is a wise thing to do. I’m sure you have read many articles at this point (including some of my earlier blogs) on what we can change and how to protect Mother Earth. There is much to read and much to do on the physical realm. There are ways we can help the earth and make a difference.  You can refer back to Awakening the Dreamer, 3 Common Household Chemicals Killing The Great Lakes, Making Intelligent Environmental Choices Inside Our Homes, 7 Questions to Ask To Help Protect our Planet to see some ideas and maybe change some paradigms.

What about our other responses – our mental, emotional and spiritual responses?  We tend to think that our five senses is all we have. So we tend to think that what is physically apparent is all there is. But now with quantum physics, we know that there is a lot going on in the invisible realms. Remember everything vibrates and those unseen energies are just as important as our physical endeavors.

How Important Are The Other Realms?

If we think about something before it becomes physical, then our thinking mind is very important.  If we need emotion to strengthen the attraction factor, then that becomes important too. Emotions are also a compass to tell us if we are on the right track or not. If we are feeling good, we know are going in the right direction with what we are thinking. If we are not feeling good, that is a sign to stop or examine what is going on. Our spiritual response is the recognition of a multi-dimensional universe that is still a mystery in many senses. It is the response that connects us all as we are all one with this realm.

Our mental, emotional and spiritual responses are what is needed in this particular crisis. There still may need to be some paradigms shifts here with these responses, but they are where our power resides.

We need new thinking and the emotions of love, compassion, gratitude, peace, joy, harmony, trust, hope, etc. to abound while realizing that everything is connected to one source.  If we, as the people of planet earth, come together in thought, emotion and spirit, we would be able to change the physical realm very quickly. The power and the potential to reverse this crisis is within our grasp.

Get involved with community efforts in your location. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.“ Margaret Mead

Contact me if you want to join our group working to make a difference. Happy Earth Day!

I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Until next time,

Charlene

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Raw Food – Benefits to You and the Environment

Mar 15th, 2011 by

For my daughter’s birthday, I decided to hire a raw food chef to prepare a totally raw gourmet dinner. I knew it would be a completely new experience for the whole family, except me, who has eaten this way before.  Not only was this a healthy gift, consuming a diet of raw food has a healthy impact on the environment as well. Read on to find out how.

I consulted with both Alexi Bracey (the raw food chef) and my daughter and came up with a menu that would suit most of the varying taste buds within our family. What we came up with was a choice of soups; Sweet and Spicy Red Pepper or Borscht, Lasagna and Coleslaw for the main course and Carrot Cake or Lemon Tart in Pecan Crust for desert.

The choices were good as we covered most of the family taste buds that way. During the dinner, there were tons of questions about ingredients and how it was made and most of the family enjoyed the meal.

The resounding response was that the meal was extremely filling and there was no snacking after the meal and during our evening conversation. Everyone felt very nourished and very full. So I felt that I had given a very healthy gift not only to my daughter but to the rest of the family as well. The grandkids will grow into it as they mature, but they at least tried everything.

So why raw food?

The raw food diet is one of the best kept secrets to creating optimal health, emotional balance and spiritual transformation. I find when I eat more raw, my energy changes. I am more alive and have more energy. I also notice a difference in my vibration. It is not as dense. In terms of the environment, it reconnects me again to Nature and Mother Earth.

Raw foods are alive with their enzymes intact. Processed food has valuable but fragile vitamins, enzymes, phytochemicals and probably other things as well, destroyed during cooking and processing.

Raw and living foodists eat all fruits, vegetables, seaweed, sea vegetables, roots, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, sea vegetables and other organic/natural foods that have not been processed, such as fresh fruit or vegetable juices, sweeteners, fresh herbs, raw spices, young coconut milk, fresh nut milks, purified water and oil.

There are special ways to prepare the foods by soaking, sprouting, juicing, dehydrating, pickling, and blending. This involves equipment like:

  • containers for soaking the seeds, grains and beans
  • a dehydrator (a piece of equipment that can blow air through food at low temperatures)
  • a juicer, blender, food processor, and a sprouter

There are other pieces of equipment you may need when you get into the gourmet aspects of preparation, but these are the essential ones.

There are numerous health benefits to eating this way:

  • increased energy,
  • clearer skin,
  • illness prevention,
  • slowed aging,
  • a naturally detoxed body,
  • reduced risk of disease, etc.

In addition, raw food is rich in fiber, more flavorful, you can eat as much as you want and still maintain a healthy weight, it is easier to digest and it takes less time to prepare in most cases, easier to clean up, and there is more nutritional value in the food.

Let us not overlook the effect on the overall environment.  Eating raw is also environmentally sound. Think about it: with humanity on a diet of raw foods, the food industry would close up shop and take up organic gardening. What a concept! This would save us enormous amounts of natural resources used to produce power for these industries. Also, think of the forests we’d save, when we wouldn’t need the paper and plastics used in packaging our processed foods. There would also be less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere when all the cooking stopped.  More oxygen would be produced from all the new orchards and gardens. I know this whole idea might seem improbable, but if all of us made a few changes bit by bit, it would add up to help save Mother Earth.

I know we are not anywhere near this little dream of mine, but it is good to dream and throw around these ideas. I want our future generations to enjoy this planet as much as we have. Slowly more and more people are getting back in touch with themselves and with nature. So you never know what the future holds.

If you want to start eating raw, it’s a good idea to begin with a detoxified body. Cleansing the colon
with fiber is a great way to rid your body of residual wastes and toxins so you can absorb the maximum
amount of nutrients from your healthy new diet. Choose Dr. Natura with powerful psyllium fiber husks to detoxify the colon gently yet thoroughly.

I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

To your good health!

Charlene

 

 

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Chemical Artificial Sweeteners

Mar 1st, 2011 by

A sugar substitute is a food additive that duplicates the effect of sugar in taste, usually with less food energy. In this third blog about sweeteners, we will cover the chemical artificial sweeteners.

In the United States, six intensely-sweet sugar substitutes have been approved for use. They are stevia, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, neotame, saccharin and sucralose. Cyclamates are  approved in Canada. There is some ongoing controversy over whether artificial sweetener usage poses health risks. The US Food and Drug Administration regulates artificial sweeteners as food additives. Food additives must be approved by the FDA, which publishes a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) list of additives. To date, the FDA has not been presented with scientific information that would support a change in conclusions about the safety of these approved high-intensity sweeteners (with the exception of Stevia [see my last blog post] which is exempt under FDA’s GRAS policy due to its being a natural substance in wide use well before 1958, and has been approved by FDA).

So let’s take a look at these chemicals.

ASPARTAME

It is sold under the trademarked names “NutraSweet” and “Equal”. It is an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener. It is still the king of artificial sweeteners, and is 200 times sweeter than natural sugar.

It has a long history of controversy with some authors calling it the most dangerous substance on the market. Aspartame causes over 75% of the adverse reactions from food additives reported. There are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame poisoning such as seizures, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, weakness, abdominal pain, muscle pain, shooting pains, disorientation, visual defects, dry eyes, dry mouth, joint pains, confusion, memory loss and difficulty wearing contacts due to decreased tears and even coma and death in extreme cases as dieters.

Aspartame consists of aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. When ingested, aspartame breaks down into three amino acids as well as methanol, a poison known as wood alcohol. The continuing digestive process then converts this methanol into formic acid and formaldehyde, which is a well-known neuro-toxin and carcinogen; it interferes with DNA replication.

Researchers and physicians report that many chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by aspartame. These include brain tumours, multiple sclerosis, lupus, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, mental retardation, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, memory loss, hormonal imbalance, hearing loss, AIDS dementia, brain lesions,  uterine polyps, abnormal cholesterol levels, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, diabetes, hypoglycemia, neuro-endrocrinological problems and brain neurotransmitter imbalances.

“Equal, NutraSweet”, and “Canderel” are ingredients of approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide, including diet sodas and other soft drinks, instant breakfasts, breath mints, cereals, sugar-free chewing gum, cocoa mixes, frozen desserts, gelatin desserts, juices, laxatives, chewable vitamins supplements, milk drinks, pharmaceutical drugs and supplements, shake mixes, tabletop sweeteners, teas, instant coffees, topping mixes, wine coolers and yogurt.

ACESULFAME K (acesulfame potassium)

Sold under the brand names “Sweet One, Sunette”.  This is a synthetic compound containing the mineral sulfur, nitrogen and potassium. Like saccharin, it has a slightly bitter aftertaste, especially at high concentrations.

Acesulfame K is stable under heat, allowing it to be used in baking, or in products that require a long shelf life. In carbonated drinks, it is almost always used in conjunction with another sweetener, such as aspartame or sucralose. It is also used as a sweetener in protein shakes and pharmaceutical products especially chewable and liquid medications, where it can make the active ingredients more palatable.

As with other artificial sweeteners, there is concern over the safety of acesulfame potassium. Critics say acesulfame potassium has not been studied adequately and may be carcinogenic.

CYCLAMATES

Sodium cyclamate is an artificial sweetener. It is often used synergistically with other artificial sweeteners, especially saccharin; the mixture of 10 parts cyclamate to 1 part saccharin is common and masks the off-tastes of both sweeteners.

The FDA (USA) banned these in 1970 due to their association with bladder cancer, effects on heart and blood pressure and capacity to cause cell changes – but not in Canada where, seemingly people do not get cancer from them.

In Canada sweeteners produced by “Sweet’N Low” and “Sugar Twin” contain cyclamate.

NEOTAME

Neotame is an artificial sweetener that is moderately heat stable and extremely potent. It has the characteristic aftertaste common to artificial sweeteners.

Neotame, simply a modified version of aspartame, contains all the same elements found in aspartame and more. See above for more info on the controversy relating to aspartame

SACCHARINE (ortho-sulfamido-benzonic acid)

Saccharin is an artificial sweetener processed from petroleum. The basic substance, benzoic sulfilimine, has an unpleasant bitter or metallic aftertaste. It is used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, biscuits, medicines, and toothpaste.

Saccharin is often used together with aspartame in diet soda, so that some sweetness remains should the fountain syrup be stored beyond aspartame’s relatively short shelf life.

Saccharine was banned in the USA due to its link with cancer. In a 2010 release, the EPA stated that saccharin is no longer considered a potential hazard to human health. In Canada, it is only available from pharmacists and dispense it to anyone who asks. Canada is considering lifting their previous ban of it as a food additive.

SUCRALOSE

Sold under the “Splenda,” trademark in Canada and “Kaltame SucraPlus, Candys, Cukren,” and “Nevella” elsewhere.

This is an artificial sweetener is produced from sucrose when three chlorine atoms replace three hydroxyl groups. It is used in beverages, frozen desserts, chewing gum, baked goods, and more than 4,500 food and beverage products. It is stable when heated and can therefore be used in baked and fried goods.

It was banned by the FDA (USA) in 1970 due to the association with cancer but then was reapproved in 1998.  Also some concern has been raised about the effect of sucralose on the thymus. Sucralose was first approved for use in Canada in 1991.

“Splenda” is increasingly found in restaurants, including McDonald’s, Tim Hortons and Starbucks, in yellow packets, in contrast to the blue packets commonly used by aspartame and the pink packets used by those containing saccharin sweeteners; though in Canada, yellow packets are also associated with the “SugarTwin” brand of cyclamate sweetener.

These artificial sweeteners have been deemed safe for human consumption by government authorities but based on what you just read, you be the judge of whether you want to ingest them or not. Listen to your body, it wants food not chemicals.

For more information, please visit my last blog posts called The Truth About Refined Sugar and  Unraveling The Mystery of Carbohydrate Sweeteners.

I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

To your good health!

Charlene

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Posted in Alternative Health, Food, Health | Comments 2

Unraveling The Mystery of Carbohydrate Sweeteners

Feb 22nd, 2011 by

Let’s continue to unravel the confusion around the types of sweeteners on the market today, starting with the carbohydrate sugars.  There is one exception in the list, stevia has no carbohydrates. These are the more common ones we see on packaging and they are listed in alphabetical order. (A quick pointer on terms – monosaccharides are the simple sugars like glucose and fructose.  Disaccharides (double sugars) are two monosaccharides joined together i.e. sucrose which is glucose and fructose.)

Amazake: A natural disaccharide sweetener made from brown rice with similar characteristics to honey and rice syrup.

Agave Nectar: A natural liquid sweetener that is less viscous than honey, agave nectar comes in three grades: Light, medium and amber. Light agave is sweet but neutral. The flavor of agave becomes more intense and earthy with the darker grades. Agave is extracted from the agave plant, and is low on the glycemic index.

Brown Sugar: This is ordinary table sugar that is coated with small amounts of molasses.

Barley Malt: Dark, sticky and boldly flavored, barley malt sugar is neither as assertive as blackstrap molasses nor as sweet as honey. Primarily maltose, it is a complex sugar that enters the bloodstream slowly. This sweetener offers trace amounts of eight vitamins and several minerals.

Birch syrup: is a sweetener made from the sap of birch trees, and used in much the same way as maple syrup.

Chicolin: This is a soluble fiber called Inulin, derived from the tubers of the chicory or dahlia flower plant. This soluble fiber is found in numerous roots in various amounts such as dahlia flower tubers, chicory roots, dandelion roots, burdock roots, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus, and onions.

Corn Syrup: It contains anywhere from 43-90% fructose, the rest is glucose (the sugar our body burns as fuel) and a small amount of other sugars such as maltose.

Date Sugar: Not actually a sugar in the conventional sense, date sugar is ground from dehydrated dates. Dates are high in fiber, and rich in a wide variety of vitamins and minerals, including iron. It does not dissolve when added to liquids.

Demerara, Turbinado and Raw Sugar: These are various grades of granulated dark brown sugar obtained from the evaporation of sugar cane juice leaving the molasses.

Dextrose: This is the “right handed” variation of glucose. It is usually made from corn or grape sugar. It is a monosaccharide.

D-Mannose: A simple sugar derived from cranberries, blueberries, peaches, oranges, apples and pineapples, which does not interfere with blood sugar regulation.

Fruit Juice: A common sweetener used for many health-store-packaged cereals, cookies, etc.  It contains some vitamins and minerals.

Fruit Juice Concentrates: Made from the juice of fruit that has been reduced about one quarter by slow cooking. Note that some commercial fruit juice concentrates have been stripped of flavor and nutritional value.

Fructooligosaccharides (FOS): These are sucrose molecules linked in sequence with fructose. They are found naturally in many vegetables, grains and fruits. FOS promotes the growth of the beneficial gut bacteria (lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidus) and prevents fungal (Candida) overgrowth. Good natural sources of FOS include Jerusalem artichoke flour, asparagus, onion, leek, garlic, dahlia inulin, chicory and burdock.

Fructose: This is a monosaccharide found naturally in most fruits and some vegetables. Apples, raisins, kiwis, grapes, green beans, cabbages, cucumbers, eggplants, and tomatoes are some of the best sources of fructose.  It can also be produced through the conversion of corn syrup starches. It is generally believed that fructose doesn’t disturb the blood sugar level as much as sucrose.

Glucose: Glucose is a monosaccharide found in fruit, vegetables and honey. It is also commercially produced from cornstarch that has been treated with heat, acids and enzymes. All natural sugars are converted by the body to glucose, which is rapidly absorbed into the blood stream and used for fuel.

Granulated Cane Juice : It is whole cane sugar with the water removed, which makes it slightly healthier than refined sugar. It contains small amounts of vitamins and minerals, which offset the deleterious effects of sugar.

Granular Fruit Sweeteners: White grape juice and grain sweeteners that have been dehydrated and granulated.

Honey: A whole food made by bees from flower nectar. Raw, unpasteurized honey is a good sugar alternative because it is considerable sweeter and people tend to use less of it. It contains small amounts of vitamins and trace minerals. Manuka honey from New Zealand has been proven therapeutic for peptic ulcer disease.

Invert Sugar: This is simply sucrose that has been subjected to “hydrolysis” which breaks the disaccharide sucrose into its constituent sugars, glucose and fructose.

Lactose: This is sugar found in milk.

Licorice Root: It can be used as a natural sweetener in small amounts without serious adverse reactions.

Maltose: Sprouted grains and cooked rice, heated and fermented until starch turns to sugar.

Maple Syrup: Boiled-down sap of maple trees. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. Maple syrup has twice as much calcium as milk. Not all maple syrup is pure; some contains traces of formaldehyde, a carcinogen, so it is best to buy organic maple syrup. This is a natural occurring sweetener, which is at best, 65% sucrose. It is basically a sugar equivalent with a similar biochemical effect as raw, unpasteurized honey. Maple Sugar: Maple sugar is what is left when all of the liquid had been cooked out of maple syrup. Maple sugar has a wonderful, maple and earthy flavor that lends depth to baking and cooking.

Mannitol, Sorbitol, Xylitol: These compounds derived from fruits, vegetables and birchwood chips, are used in “sugar free “candies, mints and gums. They are absorbed more slowly into the blood stream and unlike sucrose, don’t cause a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. Xylitol helps prevent dental cavities.

Molasses: Unsulphured molasses is made from the juice of sun-ripened cane; sulfured molasses is a byproduct of refined sugar; blackstrap molasses is the residue of the cane syrup after the sugar crystals have been separated. It is rich in nutrients like B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, chromium, manganese, and zinc.

Natural and Organic Sugar: These sweeteners are minimally processed sugar cane. The syrup is dehydrated, and then milled into a powder.

Palm Sugar: Was originally made from the sugary sap of the date palm or sugar date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms. It is considered low glycemic and high in nutrient value.

Rice Syrup: A traditional Asian sweetener, brown rice syrup is made from rice starch converted into maltose, a complex sugar. Rice syrup is the mildest-flavored of the liquid sweeteners and contains trace amounts of B vitamins and minerals. It is full of the nutrients of unrefined brown rice.

Sorghum Syrup: This is nutritious sweet syrup made from a tall annual plant of the grass family, much like Indian corn. Sorghum is sometimes called Guinea Corn.  Sorghum cane juice is boiled to a syrup.

Stevia: (Contains no carbohyrdrates) This plant is a perennial shrub, the extracts of which have been used for centuries as a safe natural sweetener by people in Paraguay and Brazil. Stevia is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. It is virtually calorie free. It does not trigger a rise in blood sugar. It has anti-fungal properties, is a plaque retardant, and is beneficial in fat absorption, blood pressure regulation and prevention of cavities. It does increase energy. It improves digestion by stimulating the pancreas. As sweeteners go, it is quite expensive, though a little goes a very long way.

Sucrose: It is a disaccharide mixture composed of one molecule of glucose and one of fructose. It is table sugar derived from sugar beets or sugar cane that are crushed and dissolved in water. The raw syrup is boiled down to concentrate it to a point where some fraction crystallizes.

Sucanat: The trade name for this product stands for SUgar CAne NATural, and is made from evaporated sugar cane juice. It is then milled into granules much the same size as white sugar, but with a tawny hue. It is not bleached as white sugar is, only the water is removed. Sucanat is about 88% sucrose, but it retains more vitamins, minerals, and other trace nutrients found in sugar cane.

Sugar In The Raw: Semi refined sugar, which is 99 percent sucrose.

Yacón Syrup: A sweetening agent extracted from the tuberous roots of the yacón plant. It is a glucose-free sweetener and contains sugars that are complex enough to be medicinal.

Remember all carbohydrates, with the exception of cellulose, are converted to glucose (blood sugar) during the digestive process. Glucose provides the body with energy.  My hope is that with this list, you will be more informed to choose the sweeteners that are not going to deplete or harm your body in any way. The more unprocessed the sweetener is and the richer in nutrients it is, the more you can enjoy every mouthful. Your body will thank you.

For more information, please visit my last blog post called The Truth About Refined Sugar.

I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

To your good health!

Charlene

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Posted in Alternative Health, Food, Health | Comments 4

The Truth About Refined Sugar

Feb 15th, 2011 by

Sugary confections are now considered an essential and innocent aspect of holiday celebrations. I’m sure with Valentine’s Day this week, lots of you will be consuming some sort of sugary substance.

Sugar – there seems to be much confusion around this sweetener. Much of the confusion is around all the various types of sugar on the market today.

Let’s start with refined white sugar that is so prevalent in our food. In the processing of the sugar beets for our consumption, lime or carbon dioxide is added. Then bone-black (animal charcoal) is used as a filter to “purify” the mixture. The sugar is thoroughly heated twice and then it is brought to a boil. Bleach is next. A strong bleaching agent such as blue water is used to make it the white substance we are familiar with. Through this process, it becomes devitalized, de-mineralized and robbed of any life-giving qualities it once possessed.  It is empty calories with no nutritional value.

Sugar throws body chemistry into biochemical chaos lasting for six to eight hours after consumption. During this period, hormone, fat, carbohydrate and protein metabolism are greatly disrupted.

Using sugar promotes nutrient deficiencies. It must steal essential vitamins and minerals (chromium, magnesium, zinc and vitamins B and C) from our body in order to be metabolized. Sugar and vitamin C use the same transport mechanism. Excessive sugar intake overloads this transport system and causes vitamin C deficiencies. Sugar inhibits the release of omega 6 essential fatty acids from storage in fat tissues, thereby contributing to an essential fatty acid deficiency.

While sugar is being absorbed into the body, you may feel a quick pick-up as the adrenals are gathering every resource to deal with the sugar. The adrenals are concerned with keeping blood sugar levels up in the body. The pancreas is concerned with keeping the blood sugar levels down. This causes stress in the body. The glucose levels drop and you feel listless and tired or jumpy. Wanting another lift, most people eat more sugar. The adrenals end up worn out and eventually become damaged.  Adrenal exhaustion is now a common problem in the chronically ill.

Here’s the challenge: The human body was simply not designed to handle refined sugars. They are not whole food. They bring about a deadly combination of malnutrition and toxicity. Refined sugar is new to the human diet and people are eating an enormous amount of it — almost half a pound per day! Feeding refined sugar to a human body is similar to burning high-octane aircraft fuel in an automobile engine. Impressive amounts of energy, but after a while, you damage the engine.

Sugar was locked away in apothecary shops as a dangerous drug in the Middle Ages. It is a substance that breaks down the cells in the body, interferes with the chemistry of digestion, dulls the brain, clogs the system and hinders the working of the body. In my book, The Immune System Handbook, page 87, I talk about sugar as the single most underrated cause of immune impairment.

The evidence that sugar damages health is overwhelming. It has been associated with obesity, gout, atherosclerosis, heart attacks, increased triglyceride levels in the blood, high cholesterol levels and increase in blood pressure, liver enlargement, kidney disease, arthritis, stomach ulcers, mood swings or fluctuating energy levels and mental disorders, diabetes, hypoglycemia, tooth decay, bone loss, osteoporosis, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. In fact, the rise of chronic disease in modern societies has paralleled the rise in sugar consumption. Major health problems like hormonal imbalances and exhausted glands i.e. pancreases, adrenals, and thyroids are associated with the intake of sugar.

Dr. Abram Hoffer, a Canadian Doctor who is a two time Nobel laureate says, “Sugar causes addiction far stronger than what we see with heroin. It is the basic addictive substance from which all other addictions flow, including alcoholism.” Sugar has been found to be as powerful an addiction as alcohol, tobacco or drugs.

The bottom line; deficiency and toxicity are the two causes of disease and sugar is a leading contributor to both. This is why sugar is a major cause of our modern epidemic of chronic, degenerative diseases.

Let’s take this one step further and think about the energy of refined sugar.

If it is empty calories with no nutritional value, then the vibrational frequency will not be very high.

The vibration we are looking for is the one that keeps our energy high. So the more alive and untreated the food is, the more it will nourish us on all levels. In the next blog I will cover which complex sugars are more nutritious with a higher vibration and help cut through the confusion around all types of sugar on the market these days.

You can refer back to this Ideal Basic Diet chart from an earlier post for more ideas on good choices. The Immune System Handbook and the charts are available at www.healthysoul-utions.com

Health is a choice. If you want to vastly improve health, choosing whole food over adulterated food will do you the world of good.

Do you have a story to share? I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Stay tuned.

Charlene

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Posted in Food, Health | Comments 2

The Truth About Milk

Feb 1st, 2011 by

Nature Versus The Business Of Food

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Arthur Schopenhauer

From a marketing perspective, milk is often described as “Nature’s Perfect Food”.  It is recommended by traditional doctors, television ads and even our own mothers.  After all, milk builds strong bones and teeth, it’s natural, and it’s loaded with calcium. This is what many people still believe.

So the new truth is, we are the only species on earth to continue consuming milk past the age of weaning. If milk is such a good thing, why are thousands of North American women being diagnosed with osteoporosis? Cow’s milk and cow’s milk products are the highest mucous foods you can consume. They clog the blood and arteries leading to heart disease. The hormones in milk have been implicated in promoting fibrocystic breast disease and breast cancer. They are the leading cause of childhood ear infections, asthma, sinusitis, allergies, excess mucous, weight issues and behavioural disorders. What about the increase in childhood cancer and juvenile diabetes rates? The list goes on and on. Clearly it’s not as nature intended.

What did nature intend? Well, if we go back to times before food became a business, we see that cows were treated more humanely and not kept in stalls all their lives. We see that cows were in the pastures and were grass-fed. The animals were not treated with hormones, fed antibiotics, or other unnecessary drugs, so their products were healthy, wholesome and natural in every sense of the word.

Raising animals on pasture is better for the animals, the farmers, and the environment. Just as important, grass-fed products are better for your health. They are lower in total fat and calories but richer in “good” fats such as omega-3 fatty acids and the cancer-fighting fat, CLA. Conjugated linoleic acid or CLA has demonstrated a multitude of benefits in animal studies, including fat reduction, increase in lean muscle mass, reduced risk of diabetes, reversal of arteriosclerosis, and a marked reduction in tumor growth. Grass fed milk has up to 500% more CLA. In New Zealand today, all cattle are grass-fed, thus insuring a high nutrient content of their milk, butter, and meat.

So what happened when food became a business? Most of the meat, poultry, dairy products and eggs available in your grocery store come from animals that are raised in large confinement facilities where they are fed grain-based diets and treated with a variety of drugs. Today’s milk comes from cows that live in over-crowded conditions with limited space to move around. Disease spreads quickly and many antibiotics are used to treat the sick animals.

Hormones, chlorine, pasteurization, homogenization, added synthetic vitamins are all used in the production of milk. Cow’s milk, both regular and organic, contains up to 59 active hormones, high fat content and hundreds of allergens. And if these were not enough, milk contains high amounts of herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, blood, pus and a variety of bacteria and viruses.

Sure, homogenization and pasteurization can kill most of the bacteria, but not the toxins these bacteria create. These high heat processes also destroy the nutrients present in the raw milk. What is left behind is nothing more than a ‘dead beverage’ with a high amount of pesticides and other dangerous chemicals in it.

Pasteurization also changes the casein so that it combines with and immobilizes any calcium it comes in contact with. Therefore the casein binds the calcium in milk so the human body does not absorb it. There goes the notion that you are getting your calcium when you drink your milk. Better sources of calcium are green vegetables, sea vegetables (particularly Hijiki which contains 1400 mg calcium per l cup), fish, organic nuts, goat’s milk or cheese, molasses, grains, fruit and kefir. If you’re really concerned about calcium intake, use a high quality calcium/magnesium supplement like Shaklee’s Cal/Mag which has been tested for good absorption.

In addition, pesticide residues with estrogenic properties are consumed in the food that is given to these animals and are subsequently concentrated in the milk. These harmful estrogens are then deposited in our fatty tissues and on estrogen and progesterone cell receptor sites, where they are known to interfere in the proper utilization and production of progesterone and estrogen.

Other issues with milk are that it is very difficult for humans to digest cow milk protein. Cow milk is produced for a calf, not a human. Calves double their weight in 47 days and grow to 300 pounds or more within a year. Cow milk contains protein molecules that are much larger than the protein in human milk and three times the amount of human milk. This shows up dramatically in children. Since the intestines are still forming, these large molecules poke holes in the wall of the intestine leading to what is referred to as “leaky gut” which leads to allergies.

Many people develop lactose intolerance, which is the inability to digest the milk sugar lactose. This is a result of the fact that after the age of four, their bodies stop producing the enzyme lactase, which is necessary to digest the lactose.

Cow’s milk and other dairy products are high in fat. The dairy industry has cleverly expressed fat content as a percentage of weight. Using this system, 2% milk, which is 87% water by weight, sounds like a low-fat product. Expressed as a percentage of total calories, 2% milk is in fact 35% fat. 1% is 23% fat. Whole milk is 49% fat. Yogurt is 49% fat, cheese is 40-77% fat and butter is 100% fat.

So the bottom line with milk consumption, is that we need to think whole food again. It is time for us to stop supporting the food business, which is not supporting our health. I believe that the diseases we are experiencing from consuming denatured products are a wakeup call. Personally, I will continue to avoid denatured products dairy or otherwise, and support products from New Zealand and whole foods. I encourage you to do the same. It is time for us to embrace and live in harmony with nature once again.

Do you have a story to share? I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

To your good health!

Charlene

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Posted in Alternative Health, environment, Food, Women's Health | Comments 3

Clearing Up Soy Confusion

Jan 18th, 2011 by

Quality Control Soy Check List

I picked up a December copy of the Chatelaine magazine in a waiting room the other day.  I saw an article on soy and decide to read it. This article was said it was going to dispel the rumours around soy.  It started off saying,  ”Soy. One minute it’s the answer to all our health problems, the next it’s a hidden hazard”. The author, Anna Cipollone, pored over the latest research to clear up the controversy. Unfortunately not all the research was accurate. In this article, I’ll discuss Anna’s findings and offer a quality control soy checklist to ensure you are purchasing the best quality product.

Why dispel the rumours around soy?

Soy products come from the soybean, a legume native to northern China. The protein in soy is a ”complete” protein – the most complete you can get from vegetable sources – and just as good nutritionally as animal protein. In fact, with animal protein there is usually more fat and water content. For example a T-bone steak is 19% protein, 43% fat, and 36% water. When you heat animal protein to temperature of 110 degrees over 50% of the bioactivity is lost and you can destroy over 50% of some of the amino acids. Soy is also easier on kidneys than animal protein.

Returning to the article, here are the points that Anna challenged.

1. Soy causes cancer specifically in the breast and prostate.

The part she had right here was to avoid heavily processed soy foods. What she didn’t find in her research was that not all soy foods are created equal. Processing makes a big difference; whenever you cook a food you de-nature it and make it into something different. Depending on the processing, some soy products have lots of isoflavones, some none at all.  Isoflavones are the phytoestrogen compounds that are considered antioxidants and prevent cancer.

Commercially processed soy is alcohol-washed leaving little nutrient value.  For instance, soy sauce and soy oil have no isoflavones left at all.  In order to make “textured vegetable protein – TVP for short”, it is put through a high temperature, high pressure steam process that causes the soy to become carcinogenic or cancer-causing. TVP is what is used in soy meat substitutes and should be avoided. Commercial soymilk, soy flour and soy cheese should also be avoided.  So if you are ingesting “overcooked” commercial soy, yes it will contribute to cancer cells being formed in the body.

The other soy is cold water washed and very few companies use this method as it is more expensive but leaves the nutrients intact.  If you are ingesting a soy product that was processed through a cold water extraction technique, you get the very best of the soybean and all of the positive things like the phytoestrogens which inhibit breast cancer and prostate cancer. The phytoestrogens in soy protect the cell receptor sites from the xenoestrogens and any unwanted estrogenic compounds.  So the bottom line is, it is important to ask how soy is processed before ingesting it if you want to prevent cancer.

2. Soy is not heart healthy.

Soy has been proven to reduce high cholesterol levels – often around 10 % – in many studies. Controlled clinical trials have found that 25 grams of soy in the diet daily can reduce levels of LDL cholesterol while maintaining HDL cholesterol. It also prevents plaque formation, slows growth of existing plaque, reduces risk of blood clot formation, lowers blood pressure, and increases elasticity of vessels. In November 2000, the American Heart Association recommended that soy protein be added to our daily diets to help reduce cholesterol and as part of a heart-healthy lifestyle.

3. Soy is genetically modified (GMO).

I know companies that are very picky about their soy protein.  They will not use any ingredients that are genetically engineered, though it would cost them less to do so. Call the company to verify if you do not see “non GMO” listed on the label.

4. Soy makes menopause worse.

Women who consume soy foods over a lifetime have fewer symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, according to studies published in Lancet (1997) and Obstetrics and Gynecology (1998).  In preliminary clinical studies, soy increased or maintained bone density in postmenopausal women and alleviated mood swings, reduced hot flashes, sleep problems, etc.

5 & 6.  Soy makes you fat and makes your man infertile and busty.

The bottom line here again, is the quality of the soy products you are ingesting. If you are ingesting commercial soy, then you run the risk of the health challenges listed above.

7. Fermented soy is best.

This claim is comparing fermented soy with commercially unfermented soy products.  Here is a quality control soy checklist that ensures you have a good quality soy product that will give you the same benefits and more of unfermented soy.

Do not purchase soy products and expect them to produce positive health results unless you know that the following “ESSENTIAL SEVEN” quality controls have been met by the manufacturer:

1.    The beans must be organically grown.

2.    The beans must NOT be genetically engineered.

3.    Each batch must be checked to confirm that it contains the 9 essential amino acids.

4.    In the manufacturing process to produce the soy isolate, the crushed soy flakes must be water washed (not alcohol washed).

5.    The anti-thyroid/anti-growth substance MUST be removed.

6.    The process must be without heat.

7. The soy isolate in protein powders must have calcium added (when the oil is removed it becomes an acidic food - when calcium is added it makes it neutral again).

Please contact me if you want to know what I use based on my research.

Do you have a story to share? I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

To your good health!

Charlene

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Posted in Alternative Health, Health | Comments 8

Things to do to Make 2011 Great!

Dec 30th, 2010 by

With the New Year upon us,  here is a list of things to do to make 2011 great!

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

4. When you wake up in the morning, complete the following statement, “My purpose is to___________ today.”

5. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.

6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

7. Dream more while you are awake.

8. Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

9. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat fewer foods that are manufactured in plants.

10. Drink plenty of water. Eat more fruit, vegetables, nuts & seeds.

11. What other people think of you is none of your business.

12. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

13. Clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.  Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

14. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

15. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the energy vampires away.

16. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

17. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

18. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

19. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

20. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

21. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”

22. Watch more movies, play more games and read more books than you did in 2010.

23. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

24. Burn the beautiful candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy clothes.  Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

25. Forgive everyone everything.

26. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

27. Have an attitude of gratitude.

28. Stay in touch with your friends and family.

29. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

30. Stay in the present moment!

31. The best is yet to come.

32. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: “I am thankful for __________.” Today I accomplished _________.

33. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

34. Enjoy the ride.

35. Life is precious.

I’m sure there are many more, but this is a great list to start with. The bottom line is that we need more interior time than what our busy schedules allow. More reflection time. The interesting thing is when we take it, life is much more enjoyable.

Do you have a story to share? I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Happy New Year!

Charlene

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Posted in New Year, Personal Development | Comments 2

Food, Vibration and Energy

Oct 19th, 2010 by

What is environment?

We generally think of the environment as being outside of ourselves. But just think about it for a moment. If we look at our planet from outer space and see the globe, we are part of that picture. Yes, we are too small to be seen by the physical eye but we are in that picture. So technically we are part of the environment not separate from it.

Our environment consists of land and water. There are many creatures both in the water and on the land. All connected in what we call the web of life. In this environment, the human creatures grow food from the land and drink the water that is potable.

What is food?

Food starts from a seed and that seed grows in the soil and we humans eat various parts of the end result, either the root or the above ground part. Humans also kill animals and fish for food as well. There is a whole cycle of life involved here.

Have you ever marveled at the miracle of the seed? Inside the seed is an imprint of a plant along with the initial nutrients needed to get the seedling stage. The seeds need some good soil, the right temperature, oxygen, water and sun in order to germinate. Each seed produces a life form with its own circulatory system and roots for assimilation of soil nutrients. Each seed knows every possible detail of the plant or tree it is to become. All that information is wrapped up in a tiny seed. Isn’t that amazing?

When we grow our food or we buy it from stores (who buy the food from food producers through a whole distribution channel), we get the results of the seed interacting with the environment. When we grow the food ourselves, we are in control of the kind of soil we use, the fertilizers and the growing conditions like where we place the seed.  We can choose not to spray any pesticides or herbicides and have everything organically grown. When we purchase from a store we have to be more careful of our choices. There is some organic produce available but it may take some extra effort to find it.

As the plants grow, they take in water and mineral elements from the soil through the root system. They absorb carbon dioxide from the air and through the action of light, directed by chlorophyll, liberate oxygen into the environment. This process is called photosynthesis and the chlorophyll makes more simple substances such as sugars, starch, cellulose, acids, lignin, tannins, amino acids, etc.  The living material of the plant is called protoplasm. Many plants have their own unique substances formed exclusive to that plant. So really plants are energy converters. This is truly a miracle when you think about it.

There are minerals in good rich soils that we can’t absorb until the plant takes them in through the root system and converts them through this whole process of photosynthesis. The energy in the earth comes through the plants and after we eat and absorb these plants, we get the kind of energy we need.

Energy vibrates.

Everything vibrates at different frequencies. Let’s think about what we are putting into our bodies.  Remember we are not only physical; we are also vibrating mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So when we nourish our bodies, we are nourishing all aspects of us. Every meal gives us a chance to energize physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

All the plants and all our food vibrate. If our food has been treated in any way, that changes the vibration.  There are too many factors that change the vibration to list, but bottom line, the more fake a food is, the more the vibration has been changed.

The vibration we are looking for is the one that keeps our energy high. So the more alive and untreated the food is, the more it will nourish us on all levels. So going back to we are the environment, what we do to our food, we do ourselves. What we do to our water, we do to ourselves. Everything is connected.

Our planet is in a state of disarray presently. I believe we are getting signals to remind us to go back to nature and everything natural. I hope that this blog made some connections for you. A gentle reminder to be more aware of what we are putting into our mouth if our desire is to be healthy.

Do you have a story to share? I’d love to get your feedback.  Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s great for all bloggers out there. If you leave a comment, you can provide a link back to your own blog.  But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment; I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Stay tuned for more on the vibrational effects of food.

Charlene

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Posted in environment, Health | Leave a comment

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