The Road to Optimal Health Begins with One Step

If I could start over again, I would have eaten much cleaner as a kid, teenager and young adult. And I certainly would have fed my kids differently from birth. 'Cause old habits die hard . . .and even harder by the time you reach middle age when the repercussions of an unhealthy lifestyle begin to surface.

Healthy, clean food make healthy clean bodies, along with movement and other good habits. As I've studied a bit of the science behind nutrition and holistic practices as they apply to healing over the past couple of years, it has become even more frustrating that the medical establishment as a whole doesn't promote/push optimal nutrition, specific exercise regimes and mind/body management - also known as Integrative Medicine (see the wheel) - as preventative measures against disease.

Instead, too many doctors eagerly write scripts for antidepressants, sleep aids and other pills as a band-aid to underlying problems that could without question  be remedied by diet, exercise and spiritual/relaxation practices. Even with the superior medical team of mine at Scott and White, not one of those doctors stressed good nutrition or stress management while undergoing cancer treatment. It might have been mentioned as an after thought but I clearly remember them telling me to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. And I remember saying, "You're kidding me, right?" 

And with that, I took it upon myself to help better educate my doctors with reputable statistics on the importance of good nutrition (ie juicing,) relaxation and even regular exercise during cancer treatment. And I still take them little snippets of the latest studies (the most recent was regarding acupuncture) each time I go for follow-up. They always nod with a deer-in-the-headlights look, but as with similar to 'preaching' to my kids, I'm hopeful that some of it will stick.

As consumers/patients, it is up to us to encourage/insist/demand changes in our health care. I have read that some of the top medical schools are incorporating more holistic curriculums in the future, which is great. For our grand kids.  But what about NOW?


Freedictionary.com defines holistic medicine as:

A term used to describe therapies that attempt to treat the patient as a whole person. That is, instead of treating an illness, as in orthodox allopathy, holistic medicine looks at an individual's overall physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing before recommending treatment. 

A practitioner with a holistic approach treats the symptoms of illness as well as looking for the underlying cause of the illness. Holistic medicine also attempts to prevent illness by placing a greater emphasis on optimizing health. 

The body's systems are seen as interdependent parts of the person's whole being. Its natural state is one of health, and an illness or disease is an imbalance in the body's systems. Holistic therapies tend to emphasize proper nutrition and avoidance of substances—such as chemicals—that pollute the body. Their techniques are non-invasive.

We can always conduct our own little interview our healthcare providers with specific questions regarding their ideas toward holistic practices.(After all, WE are the 'customer.') Instead of just readily accepting a prescription for, say, high blood pressure, we can firmly state that we'd rather try a lifestyle change if feasible, or if not at least let them know that we are committed to weaning ourselves off of medication with sound and immediate lifestyle changes.

By addressing it, we're letting our physicians know that it is important to us, and therefore, if they want a thriving practice, it should be important to them. Doctor surveys that most clinics send after office visits are an ideal tool to get your message across emphasizing your need for an integrative approach to medicine.

But . . .BUT . . . this means we have to actually DO something and take responsibility for ourselves.  We have to become an active partner with our doctors when addressing our own health.

Breaking the cycle of poor habits and insisting on better health care takes dedication and motivation. And when I really get down to the meat and bones of why it's so important to me, it's not so much about how better it makes me feel (a difference of night and day) or how much longer I have on this earth, or even how much it has enlightened me spiritually. It's about acknowledging that there is a much better way.  It's about improving the quality of life for everyone.  It's about the example I set and the legacy I leave my kids. "Our" kids. And the generations that follow.

HDT says . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Me thinks that the moment my legs began to move, my thoughts began to flow."            ~ Henry David Thoreau

AWAKE ~ Seven Minute Mornings

Mornings can be one of the most hectic times of the day as we shower, dress, feed and and steer ourselves, our children and any other beloveds (in my case Frio the cat and my husband, Bruce,) out the door to work or to school (or in Frio's case, the backyard.). Even though mornings may not be the most optimal time to squeeze in an hour, or even a thirty minute workout, most everyone can manage seven sweet minutes before the chaos begins, to center ourselves, connect with our higher power, become aware of our bodies, and set the tone for taking care of ourselves for the rest of the day..

I've discovered a couple of super simple 5-10 minute morning routines, one Pilates and the other yoga, that offer a complete body stretch. Add two more minutes for focused deep breathing, and you're set to face your day.

Once you've done either of these routines a few times, you won't be as dependent on the video(s), and THAT'S when you'll really start to reap the benefits, by focusing inward. And don't forget the breathing routine at the bottom of the page, which could be even more important to subscribe to on a daily basis.

Pilates

Yoga

In order to breathe properly you need to breathe deeply into your abdomen not just your chest. Even in the old Greek and Roman times the doctors recommended deep breathing, the voluntary holding of air in the lungs, believing that this exercise cleansed the system of impurities and gave strength. This certainly is of great value to you in your work in the world. Breathing exercises should be deep, slow, rhythmic, and through the nose, not through the mouth. The most important parts of deep breathing has to be regulating your breaths three to four seconds in, and three to four seconds out.

1. Inhale through your nose, expanding your belly, then fill your chest. Counting to 5
2. Hold and Count to 3. Feel all your cells filled with golden, healing, balancing Sun light energy.
3. Exhale fully from slightly parted mouth and Feel all your cells releasing waste and emptying all old energy. Counting to 5.

Andrew Weil, MD - A 'MUST VIEW' Regarding Fat in our Diets

Roasted Asparagus: As Delicious as it is Simple

We're roasting lots of vegetables at our house these days as a healthier alternative to high fat, processed snack food which, surprisingly enough, has been met with much acceptance from all, mostly set-in-their-ways, family members.

Roasted asparagus seems to be the overall favorite and although you can find many, many recipes out there, I have found that keeping it simple brings the best results.

First, you'll need one or two asparagus bundles.  If we're eating as a snack, rather than with a meal, I always use 2 bundles because they disappear so quickly.

Ingredients:

2 bundles of asparagus, thin spears, with tough ends chopped off
Good quality olive oil
Sea salt
Ground black pepper
Juice of half a lemon

Method:
Preheat oven to 450
Drizzle olive oil over asparagus spears and toss with your hands until well coated
Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss some more
Place in a single layer on cookie sheet and roast for about 10-15 minutes or until crisp tender and browned in places
Let cool for about 3-5 minutes and sprinkle with the lemon juice.

These are good enough to eat alone or you can always dip in a little homemade ranch dressing. (Recipe to come.)

Sooooooooooo, so good.

The Wheat Lobby Smokescreen

http://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2012/03/the-wheat-lobby-smokescreen/comment-page-1/#comments 

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Dr. Davis

The Wheat Lobby has been busy.

The Grain Foods Foundation, the Whole Grain Council, and other lobby/trade groups for the wheat industry are in panic mode. After all, a recent 4.5% reduction in bread sales for the year were just reported. While 4.5% is not a big percentage, it is a percentage of a huge number. This is big.

According to SymphonyIRI Group (a Chicago-based market research firm), unit sales of fresh bread declined 4.5% in the 52 weeks ended Jan. 22 [2012] . . . The one-year volume decline likely was the steepest in the history of sliced bread. [Emphasis mine.]
So the Wheat Lobby and trade groups have been organizing behind several counterarguments to maintain the “healthy whole grain” franchise, including:

“Wheat is not genetically-modified.”

Dr. Glenn Gaesser of the Grain Foods Foundation recently offered this “counterargument” on a TV interview I did. This statement has also cropped up a number of times in various articles and reports that aim to counter the claims I am making, suggesting that it is part of a concerted, planned defense.

They are correct: Wheat is not genetically-modified. In the language of geneticists, “genetic modification” or genetic engineering refers to the use of gene-splicing technology to insert or remove a gene. While wheat has indeed been extensively genetically-modified in laboratory settings, no genetically-modified strain of wheat is on the open market. And I never said it was.

But that does not mean that the genetics of wheat have not been changed. Its genetics, in fact, have been extensively changed using techniques that include hybridization, repeating backcrossing (to winnow out specific characteristics like short height or seed head size), embryo rescue (to rescue otherwise fatal mutations), and chemical, gamma ray, and x-ray mutagenesis (induction of mutations, used for instance to create the popular strain of wheat that is herbicide-resistant). These techniques, as any geneticist will tell you, are far less predictable, less controllable . . . far worse than the act of inserting or removing just one gene. But that is conveniently left out of the sound bites that come from the Wheat Lobby.

“Grains have been eaten by humans for thousands of years.”

Well, humans have been enslaved for thousands of years, children put to work and abused, the strong dominated the weak . . . but that doesn’t justify any of it.
Whole grains of 2012 are also not the whole grains of 1950, the 19th century, the Bible, or pre-biblical times. Modern wheat, in particular, is genetically distant from its predecessors, thanks to the extreme genetic changes (not genetic modification!) inflicted on wheat in the 1960s and 1970s in the name of increased yield-per-acre.

“Healthy whole grains have repeatedly been shown to reduce risk for diabetes, heart disease, and colon cancer.”

That’s is true . . . if whole grains are compared to processed white flour products. It is guilty of the kind of flawed logic that dominates nutritional thinking:

If something bad for you is replaced by something less bad and there is an apparent health benefit, then a whole bunch of the less bad thing is good for you???

This flawed logic is used to justify replacing high-glycemic index foods with low-glycemic index foods (more properly called less-high glycemic index foods), hydrogenated fats with polyunsaturates.
If “healthy whole grains” are compared to no grains, i.e, no wheat, then dramatic turnarounds in health are witnessed. The 1% of people with celiac disease are not the exception; they are the “canaries in the coal mine” telling us that wheat is inappropriate for any human to consume . . . especially the semi-dwarf strains made worse by geneticists.

Surely the experts know all this!

Nope. They are, to an incredible degree, ignorant. I recently debated a PhD Professor of Nutrition at a major university, who was also Director of Research at a major agricultural corporation, who offered up the usual defenses of wheat, while accusing me of ignoring the evidence. So, when I informed him that the wheat of today is a high-yield, semi-dwarf variant that stands around 2-feet tall, with marked changes in its genetic code, he answered with . . . silence. After a bit of hemming and hawing, he finally blurted, “Well, the farmers did that so they could see over the tops of the fields!” Farmers, of course, did not introduce these changes to create the dwarf strain of wheat. In other words, the fact that modern wheat is the markedly altered product of genetics research was entirely new to this “expert.”

Calm

"Always calm with Me. Calm is trust in action."  ~ Two Listeners