I grew up eating everything. My parents placed absolutely no restrictions at all on what we ate. There was plenty of meat, lots of cake and cookies, soft fizzy drinks to accompany every meal (we never drank water), heavily salted and seasoned food and snacks, sweets and other confectionery, dairy products, the finest and softest white bread – you name it, we ate it.

My parents didn’t know any better then. They believed they were giving us the very best. If we couldn’t finish everything on the dining table, we were told to leave the vegetables behind and just finish the meat. Years later, practically all of us found ourselves suffering from a host of sicknesses. Out of six siblings, three of us had cancer. There was also high blood pressure, respiratory illnesses, diabetes, arthritis, various aches and pains, heart ailments, stroke, and so on. Add to that cavities in our teeth, bad skin and excess flab.

I had to teach myself how to drink plain water when I was an adolescent. My mum loved to brew pots of thick coffee and tea, into which she spooned generous quantities of sugar. Sometimes, she’d serve these beverages with lots of sweetened condensed milk. With every meal, we had soft, fizzy beverages. Even today, one of my elder sisters has continued this habit, and she’s also brought her children up in the same way. Guess who has a host of health problems?

The foundation years are so important. My diet has improved tremendously since I started educating myself about healthy living but, unfortunately, a lot of damage has already been done.

Some years ago, I read an article by George Malkmus which listed what I call five white assassins which threaten health and even life. He told the story of Dr. Frank Logsdon, former pastor of the famous Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, who had cancer and – rather then going the medical route – had consulted the Page Institute in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Logsdon was advised to eliminate five white foods from his diet and adopt a raw vegetarian / fruitarian diet. He did so, and his cancer disappeared.

When Malkmus developed colon cancer himself at age 42, he banished the same five white assassins from his diet, and switched to a raw vegetarian / fruitarian diet. For one year, he ate no cooked food at all. Within that year, not only did the colon cancer vanish, but so did every other health problem he had been suffering from, including high blood pressure, sinus and allergy ailments, headaches, dandruff, hemorrhoids, hypoglycemia, teeth and gum problems, frequent colds, low energy, pimples and even body odor! Isn’t this amazing?

What are these five white foods which research has shown to cause most health disorders? They are:

Meat
Meat is saturated with animal fat (which is white in color) which is loaded with bad cholesterol which clogs the arteries and causes strokes and heart attacks. It contributes to cancer, gout, arthritis, diabetes and innumerable other ailments and diseases. Modern commercial farming methods has also produced meat which is contaminated by antibiotics, hormones, pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Animals are also prone to often fatal diseases like swine flu, mad cow disease and bird or avian flu. There are so many healthy and delicious alternatives to animal protein, so why endanger your health by eating meat?

Dairy
A white assassin found in many forms. We are told that consumption of dairy products is essential for calcium, but this is total nonsense. Calcium can be obtained from green leafy vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, seeds and even blackstrap molasses. There is as much, or even more, calcium in four ounces of firm tofu or 3/4 cup of collard greens as there is in one cup of cow’s milk!

Animal products, which includes dairy, is the only source of bad cholesterol. It also feeds diseases like cancer. Commercially-bred dairy animals are also exposed to the same harmful chemicals and contaminants that animals raised for meat are. In nature, no animal drinks the milk of another animal, nor does it ever drink milk after the age of weaning. Why do you think this is the case?

Table Salt
The body needs sodium, but it must be in an organic form in order to be usable by the body. Table salt, sodium chloride, is an inorganic sodium compound made by combining sodium and chlorine. This is extremely toxic to the body, causing it to retain fluid in an effort to keep this protoplasmic poison in suspension and out of the cells. Excessive salt also raises blood pressure.

Sugar
Just 10 teaspoons (approximately the amount found in one soft drink) will immobilize the immune system by about 33 percent. Thirty teaspoons of sugar (the equivalent of three soft drinks) will shut down the immune system for a whole day. Excessive sugar consumption can also cause diabetes, obesity, dental problems, feed cancer, affect emotions and moods etc.

Like dairy, sugar comes in many forms and is found in a wide variety of foods, especially processed foods. Take the trouble to read labels, and you’ll find that sugar is added to a large array of foods. If you need to use a sweetener, something natural, unprocessed and organic is best, like raw honey. Personally, I like Manuka honey, with its high enzyme activity.

White Flour
Grain is processed until it is devoid of goodness like bran and wheatgerm. Then it is bleached with a chemical to create a white-looking flour. Ironically, it is often ‘enriched’ thereafter with artificial vitamins and minerals. The result is an artificial, chemical-laden white food, which is used to make breads, cake, biscuits, cookies, pasta, noodles, dumplings, desserts, pancakes, snacks and assorted convenience foods. White flour is also used as a thickener and in batter. It’s everywhere!

If you indulge in foods which use white flour, you are also putting other harmful substances into your body (sugar, salt, deep fried oil, flavor enhancers, artificial coloring, MSG, preservatives etc.). They tend to come as a package

Remember, you are what you eat. Garbage in, garbage out.

Posted: May 21st, 2009 under Cancer, Diet, Enemies To Health, Healing Foods.
Comments: none

What are free radicals? When I first heard the term in my early adulthood, when the worst thing I ever caught was a cold, I thought that free radicals were free-spirited, unconventional, fun-loving people. I didn’t bother to find out more then, as youth makes you feel invincible.

Free radicals are dangerous little buggers because they are the common cause of tissue damage. In fact, thousands of scientific studies have linked them to every known disease. They are damaged molecules which have become unstable because they have lost an electron. When that happens, they attack healthy cells nearby and steal electrons from them. Those cells then become unstable as well and end up attacking and stealing electrons from other nearby cells. Incidentally, these radicals are ‘free’ because they float around until they stabilise.

Unless something is done to stop the process, the instability spreads in a chain reaction, healthy cells quickly become damaged, and sickness or disease results. The signs of aging also begin to show. In fact, free radical damage accumulates with age.

More than a thousand different families of free radicals attack our bodies everyday. The onslaught is relentless, as free radicals are found everywhere, in food and drink, in the air, in chemicals like pesticides, in tobacco smoke, and countless other pollutants. Free radicals can also result from emotional and physical stress, overexposure to the sun, and over consumption of fats and alcohol.

Can anything be done to fight free radical damage? Making healthy lifestyle choices will certainly help. At the very least:
• Eat foods which are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and other health-giving and protective qualities. Modern farming methods, though, have resulted in over-farming, and nutritionally-depleted and contaminated crops. Meat and even fish are often corrupted with harmful chemicals. Choose organic where possible.
• Quit bad habits like smoking and drinking too much alcohol (wine in moderation, however, can be beneficial)
• Exercise regularly, but be careful not to overstrain your body. Weekend warriors – who are mostly sedentary but exercise vigorously when they get around to it – may actually be doing themselves more harm than good.
• Get plenty of rest. Don’t compromise on sleep.
• Enjoy some sunshine everyday. It helps to manufacture Vitamin D, a powerful antioxidant.
• Stay peaceful. Avoid conflict, and don’t allow anything or anyone to stress you out or upset you. Don’t hold grudges, but let it go. Forgive. Do things which make you happy and help to calm you, like listening to music, enjoying a nice walk, spending some time with people who encourage you and build you up, and going to church.
• Avoid harmful personal care products and household products. Make sure everything you use is absolutely safe and free from carcinogens and other harmful ingredients. Learn to read labels.
• Take antioxidant supplements. Antioxidants neutralise free radicals. Supplements which combine a wide variety of antioxidants are best, as free radicals are also very varied. Be sure that your antioxidant supplements have high ORAC values. ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity and measures how well the food or antioxidant supplement combats health conditions like heart disease and cancer. It’s also important to ensure that your supplements have high bio-availability (easily absorbed and assimilated right up to cell level). Otherwise, you’re just wasting your money.

Posted: May 16th, 2009 under Antioxidants, Enemies To Health, Health Basics 101, Toxins & Pollutants.
Comments: 1

In women who are still menstruating, estrogen and progesterone are the two main hormones produced each month by the ovaries. When there is too much estrogen in relation to progesterone, you have a situation called estrogen dominance, where progesterone cannot reach the optimum 20 – 25 mg. during the final two weeks of a woman’s monthly cycle. This allows estrogen to go unopposed the entire month and upsets the normal progesterone/estrogen balance.

Estrogen dominance can create problems like breast tenderness, bloating, water retention, and depression. For those at risk of breast cancer, estrogen dominance can have serious consequences, because it suppresses progesterone’s protective function against breast cancer. The same applies to uterine cancer. For men, there is an increased risk of prostate cancer. Other disorders associated with estrogen dominance are autoimmune diseases such as lupus, allergies like asthma, hives, and sinus congestion,

Many people do not realise that that estrogen and estrogen-mimics are widely found in food and the environment. Synthetic hormones like synthetic estrogens are commonly fed to animals in industrialised countries, and found also in pesticides and herbicides, and these end up on our dinner plates. Stay away from meats and dairy products produced by such commercial farming methods, and canned foods too. There is good reason why organic foods are gaining in popularity, even though they may seem to cost more.

Watch out also for xenoestrogens, chemical compounds with a hormone-like effect on the body. These substances are usually petrochemical-based, and most of them mimic estrogen. Xenoestrogens lurk in everyday items like personal care products / toiletries (soap, artificial fragrances like perfumes and air fresheners, cosmetics etc.), plastics (plastic food wrap, plastic bottles, styrofoam food containers), car exhaust, carpeting, furniture, panelling, paints, solvents and lacquers, household cleaners like detergents, and even medicine.

Xenoestrogens were relatively recently introduced into the environment, produced by industrial, agricultural, and chemical companies. Industrial waste products are loaded with these estrogen mimics.

Then there are phytoestrogens, plants with an estrogen like effect, such as soya and flaxseed.

You may not be able to rid yourself of all estrogen influences in your food, personal care products, household cleaners, and the environment, but you can certainly eliminate as much as possible. It starts with a step in the right direction, choosing to use only safe personal care and home cleaning products, using only safe cooking and food storage products, and not eating unsafe foods. Sickness and disease can be prevented. Choose to protect yourself and your loved ones by making smart lifestyle choices.

Posted: May 15th, 2009 under Cancer, Enemies To Health, Hormone Health, Immune System Health.
Comments: 1