The gut of most disease... NOT what you think!

[Conchis]

I've read a lot about wheat recently (also thanks to this article.) Part of the riddle of wheat comes from the yeasts that were developed to make wheat easier to deal with for bakers. The rapid yeasts (and we're talking about nearly all of the available ones) don't actually have enough time to neutralize phytins in wheat that lock up the availability of some of the nutrients found in wheat. The old sourdough yeasts which takes hours and hours to work on wheat to make breads and so forth have the time it takes to neutralize the phytins and make the wheat easier to assimilate. I do suspect that there is a lot of folks out there that have developed a wheat intolerance as they've cited above, but I wonder how much of it is the result of eating wheat day in and day out that have these phytins contained within it.

[Hervé]

Hi Conchis!

In your readings about wheat you may have run into this article, if not, it is worth the reading time: http://maninisglutenfreeblog.com/2011/07/05/the-history-of-how-wheat-became-toxic/

[Conchis]

Nice article Amzer Zo! I hadn't read that one, but it does address my question. It appears that there may be a link. Thanks for finding that.

[pugwash84]

http://www.autismtoday.com/can%20clay%20baths%20cure%20autism.htm

I have bought some calcium bentonite clay I will keep you posted if there is any change lol other than lovely soft skin.

[Dawn]

Storing kefir grains: I just did a 'test' of the best way to store kefir grains. I left town for 9 days and decided to divide my grains into 4 containers to see what worked the best for storing kefir while I was out of town. Here are the results:

1) Freezing: (recommended by several sites online)
This was the WORST way to preserve the kefir grains! Although the thawed out grains make a sour milk similar in texture to modern commercial yogurt, there is no fizz happening and the grains do not rise to the top while they are fermenting. I believe the freezing process killed the yeast portion of the culture. I have carefully strained out the grains and fed them with new milk twice now with the same result. I'm going to try to revive them for another few days and then throw them away if nothing changes. Don't freeze the grains!

2) Refrigeration storage I fed the grains fresh milk and refrigerated the culturing bottle for 9 days. When I returned, I found the grains had reduced in size, and I could not strain the mixture while retaining the grains. I used a spoon to scoop out the top of the culture and save it. I added fresh milk to these small grains and got great results. I think the grains would have disappeared if they had been refrigerated longer and portions of the symbiotic culture would have died completely. This is in line with online recommendations from several sites, where they say that refrigeration will eventually kill the kefir culture. Mine were very active and aggressive when I fed them new milk and put them on my counter upon my return.

3) Room temperature storage: I took a rounded tablespoon of grains and added 1 cup fresh milk. I left this in the cupboard with a tight lid at room temperature while I traveled. The resulting 9 day old kefir was extremely sour, but did not smell or taste spoiled. I decided to consume it and had no ill effects. The kefir grains had grown about 5 times their original size from when I started the culture jar. When I strained these and added fresh milk they immediately and aggressively began to ferment it. I don't know how this would have worked for a longer time

4) Traveling with kefir: This was a wonderful idea and used in the 'old days' to provide nourishing food while traveling. I just carried a jar and a wooden spoon on my vacation. I wasn't able to find raw milk in my travels, but I did find pasteurized organic milk most days and fed my grains with this. When I couldn't find milk I let them ferment a little longer or I scooped off the grains and let them be on a 'fast' without food for a day. I also enjoyed a jar of kefir to begin my day every morning. I used the wooden spoon to scoop off the top 1.5 inches in the jar and restarted the next day's culture from this. It was easy, inexpensive, and kept me healthy while traveling.



wegge: I think i need some troubleshooting.

I got my kefir grains 2 days ago. They are enough for turning 500ml milk into kefir. I used one liter milk instead, but waited around 1,5 days. When i opened the glass today, half of it was water and the other half a kefir like mass, but it also didn´t form the kefir "mother". Has anyone an idea what happenend and what should I do?

Hi weggie, I wouldn't worry too much about the grains. When you first get them they have usually been in the mail for a few days and it might take a week or more for them to get over the shock of traveling and being on a fast. In the beginning with new grains I recommend that people feed them fresh milk and do not disturb them for 3-5 days. This gives them time to grow in size before they are handled and strained. If they are very tiny or very soft you can use a wooden spoon to scoop them off the top of the fermented milk. If you get some non-grain fermented culture mixed in, this will still be useful in your next batch. My grains like to be left for a bit longer (like 2 days) in order to increase in size. Perhaps this is because I am fairly rough on them when I strain them and probably this breaks up the grains into smaller sizes as I work. No worries... it sounds like you are successful.

[The Truth Is In There]

@dawn re 3) - i don't think the kefir can actually spoil even if kept for a longer time (provided it's made with raw milk). the lactic acid that is produced most likely prevents any spoiling organisms from taking hold. i haven't tried it yet and can't say what happens to the protein part of the milk after long term storage but i'm fairly sure the whole brew won't go bad even if stored for months. i'll probably try it when i have enough grains for experiments.

[leavesoftrees]

@dawn re 3) - i don't think the kefir can actually spoil even if kept for a longer time (provided it's made with raw milk). the lactic acid that is produced most likely prevents any spoiling organisms from taking hold. i haven't tried it yet and can't say what happens to the protein part of the milk after long term storage but i'm fairly sure the whole brew won't go bad even if stored for months. i'll probably try it when i have enough grains for experiments.

I kept my kefir in the back of the fridge for at least 6 months without touching them. I finally dug them out and thought I'd get back into drinking kefir. I just washed the grains, fed them milk and started the cycle. They have been fine ever since. I was amazed

[Hervé]

From: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/15/dr-don-huber-interview-part-2.aspx


[...]

Are Genetically Engineered Foods Affecting Your Mood and Behavior?

Dr. Huber recently spent some time in Australia, where he had the opportunity to review an ongoing study into genetically engineered foods.

"It's a continuation of a study that was conducted in Iowa with pigs and cattle. The [Australians] are doing it with mice so that they can define what the toxins are... They're using these one or two-pound, big, white rats that some people call pet rats... You can reach in to the non-GMO-fed rat cage and pull one out. Put it on your lap and it can be patted just like a cat.

But try and reach in to the cage where the rats are being fed the genetically engineered feed. Here they have limited it to one [rat per cage]. The rats are irritated. They don't get along together. They always go off into their own little world. They do backflips. They crawl up and run around the cage. They can't get any peace; can't settle down. That is very typical of what you'd see with autism. Then you start looking and say, "Well, are there any other similarities?"
Dr. Huber also recently met with a doctor in Germany who specializes in working with autistic children. Interestingly, there appear to be many correlations between the rats fed genetically modified feed and autistic children.

"[When] you look at the stomachs of the GMO-fed [animals], they have all of the severe allergy responses, the inflammation and the reddening... When they looked at the intestine, they said that the intestinal lining is deteriorating... The smell of the intestinal contents is very rank. The biology has been drastically changed.

This [German] doctor said, "That's exactly what we're seeing with our children with autism.

We need more research, but certainly, the indicators are there. The research up until very recently hasn't been done, and those who wanted to do it have been prohibited from publishing, or from doing that research. We see those that have dared to come out and raised some concerns have been very severely impacted professionally, as well as in their own personal lives, in that persecution that they've had to endure.

We've got to change.

We've got to recognize that what we have now isn't normal. We got to get back to safe, sufficient, and sustainable production and health for our agriculture community, if we're going to be healthy in that process also."
[...]


Full article: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/15/dr-don-huber-interview-part-2.aspx (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/15/dr-don-huber-interview-part-2.aspx)

[Dawn]

Amer Zo quoting Dr. Huber: "We've got to change.

We've got to recognize that what we have now isn't normal. We got to get back to safe, sufficient, and sustainable production and health for our agriculture community, if we're going to be healthy in that process also."

I couldn't agree more. There is so much of this type of thing (poisoned food and water) that it is very clear to me there is an intention for population reduction by starvation and poisoning. It is not that this is not recognized, it is that this is intentional. So, what is an aware person to do? There are still choices for us to make about what we eat and how we eat. That is what this thread is all about.

Those of us willing to learn, pay attention, and act on our knowledge are left to continue life. The rest of the population is doomed to increasing dis-ease and decreasing fertility. I stopped being upset about this some years back. I have realized that I am not going to change our culture, force people to face what is happening, or force them to make different choices. This thread is one of my answers about how to live in an insane world.

I always remember the Serinity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr:


God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

Sometimes in Avalon the focus is on what we cannot change. I always try to focus on what I CAN change and apply myself in that direction.

So, here we are talking about kefir, fermented vegetables, and raw foods.... we are sharing our knowledge on how to stay alive in the face of an effort to exterminate us. We are the brave and the wise who have chosen a different path.

PS: after reading the article at the link ( posted by Mu2143: http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html) I have added Magnesium Oxide to my kefir today to see if the grains will increase in size as the article says. This should give me a little extra magnesium in my diet as well, which is always a good thing.

[Hervé]

In that same vein, I posted this in another thread (I copied it to avoid getting into troubles with the link):


http://projectavalon.net/forum4/images/icons/icon1.png Re: Forks Over Knives - Full Movie here! Link to Post #31 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50477-Forks-Over-Knives-Full-Movie-here-&p=568480&viewfull=1#post568480)

For those interested in diet and nutrition, here is a book I find fascinatingly interesting as most of it seems to be excerpts from something written in the earlier 1/2 part of the last century:

http://barefootherbalistmh.com/attac...OOK[1].pdf (http://barefootherbalistmh.com/attachments/File/FIRST_20SCHOOL_20BOOK[1].pdf)

It's the North American equivalent to McBride's "Gut And Psychology Syndrome" (GAPS) as found in Dawn's thread: " The gut of most disease... NOT what you think! (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?43548-The-gut-of-most-disease...-NOT-what-you-think-)"

To complete the picture around agenda 21, quotes I ran into in another forum:



I know this is an old message here, but this statement:


"Modern medicine was developed for a reason, because the older/traditional remedies weren't effective enough or couldn't cure...therefore people were in constant pain or died earlier than they should have."


is absolutely, positively FALSE. The only reason we use the ALLOPATHIC method is because the Rockefellers supported the research. It was purely political.

Homeopathy was the leading source of medical treatment until the Rockefellers got involved. Then the Allopathic believers and supporters, got the government to certify ONLY their Schools and later made rules that if an Allopathic trained doctor used any other method of treatment (like natural, homeopathy or ANYTHING else) they would lose their license to practice medicine. SOOOOO The ONLY REASON WE USE THE TYPE OF MEDICAL PRACTICE THAT WE USE TODAY IS POLITICAL!!! NOT because it was better, but because of money and power.



I am 28 years old, male and only currently taking zoloft.

>> Wean yourself off Zoloft promptly. Do not stop cold-turkey but wean. I will not get conspiratorial here but anti-depressants are auto-genocide chemical weapons. In other words: population reduction.

There are 3 levels of understanding this:

Level 1: The modern medical and psychological and psychiatric industry are top-of-the-line science. There may be minor corruption, but for the most part they are trying to help people as best as they know how.

Level 2: There is a very great amount of corruption in the medical/psychological/psychiatric fields. The motive is making as much money as possible, even if that means unsafe drugs. As long as money is made by big pharma, that is what matters. (The average person is at Level 2 still.)

Level 3: The medical/psychological/psychiatric fields were built by design ages ago to both control the population and/or reduce the population over a long period of time. It is not about money, that is a front. There is no "corruption" because they were designed in this manner in the first place. They are accomplishing exactly what they were designed to accomplish.

I included the above because, like McBride, the author of the excerpts in the book I linked to, also managed to revert so-called "psychiatrlc cases" to happy living beings with nutrition alone!

[The Truth Is In There]

for those who haven't watched it yet, paul posted an excellent interview by dr. mercola and dr. woodrow monte about the dangers and science behind aspartame.

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?50819-An-important-toxin-in-our-diet-methanol-from-aspartame-canned-juices-...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS_gCcevZqY&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS_gCcevZqY&feature=player_embedded

i encourage everyone to watch it. among other things, dr. monte provides information that i haven't heard or read elsewhere yet about the exact metabolism of aspartame, methyl alcohol, formaldehyde and why a small amount of ethyl alcohol daily, which has always been claimed to be healthy, is indeed healthy because it prevents a certain enzyme to metabolize methyl alcohol (by preferentially metabolizing ethyl alcohol first) that may have been ingested (hidden in various foods like canned fruits, smoked foods, foods with artificial sweeteners, etc.). we know that ethyl alcohol is produced by yeasts during anaerobic fermentation such as in kefir (very small amounts), so here we have another reason why consuming kefir on a daily basis is very beneficial.

[Hervé]

Oh, well... propaganda at its utmost:

Kid Suspended, Interrogated by Cop For Healthy Kombucha Drink In Lunch Box (http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/kid-suspended-interrogated-by-cop-for.html)

Ignorance, terror, and fear abound in the Public Fool System...


http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FKsUJlQEcOQ/0.jpg (http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FKsUJlQEcOQ/0.jpg)

Heather Callaghan, Activist Post (http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/kid-suspended-interrogated-by-cop-for.html)

Having worked in a school system, there is an inordinate pressure to see terrorism and drugs behind every tray and box, at least in some districts, and a civic duty to act like a surrogate cop, confiscate and report such acts of terror to the proper authorities. This is so unfortunate because school staff can be some of the kindest, most giving people you've ever met; but the pressure and fear comes from on high.

We see kids' lunches called non-nutritious and replaced with pink-slime (http://www.activistpost.com/2012/03/activist-outrage-causes-major.html) nuggets or a child arrested for a plastic knife (http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2009/june09/zero-tolerance-states.html). Something similar happened this week in Newport, California when the lunch brigade noticed a boy's glass bottle (safely inside a foam sleeve) and confiscated his healthy Kombucha beverage which is comparable to apple cider.

The next day he was required to visit the Vice Principal's office where a uniformed cop was waiting there to give him the third degree. The administration claimed the drink violated the no-drugs-and-alcohol policy. The officer wrongly told the child that Kombucha was illegal and dangerous to mix with medicines or antibiotics - then asked him if and what medications he was taking.

He was interrogated and detained in the office the entire day - all the while without parental notification or representation. It gets worse . . . .

But first . . . Kombucha is nothing more than a fermented tea with benefits of probiotics, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, and more. Many say it is detoxifying, energizing, and can prevent and help with cancer. It's slightly fizzy, tart and can be fruit flavored and sweet. Many, including more restaurants (http://live.wsj.com/video/kombucha-healthier-beer-alternative/1D148D30-212B-493C-8288-D7BF021ABC8E.html#%211D148D30-212B-493C-8288-D7BF021ABC8E), enjoy it as a healthy alternative to beer and wine with one missing element - the alcohol!

While it can contain 0.5% ethanol alcohol (classified as non-alcoholic), the alcohol that would be produced gets fermented into acetic acid, which keeps the alcohol down and the healthy benefits up. You may remember the FDA recalling or calling for the removal (http://andrewskis.hubpages.com/hub/Kombucha-Gets-Yanked-by-Whole-Foods) of Kombucha from store shelves claiming alcohol content. This was a standard FDA M.O. of creating a scare to kick healthy beverage companies in the pocket book and, no doubt, why "Officer Daft" incorrectly claimed it was illegal - Kombucha is back on grocery shelves and can be purchased by any kid in America. You can even make this stuff cheaply at home; an easy recipe appears in Sally Fallon's (Weston A. Price) recipe book Nourishing Traditions (http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350147839&sr=1-1&keywords=nourishing+traditions).

There seems to be a bias against healthy, fermented products - this brings the war on drugs and schools' no-alcohol policy to an absurd level. Should school officials confiscate apple cider . . . sour kraut . . . yogurt? Someone get Jamie Lee Curtis on the horn! They don't want this kid to have a healthy intestinal tract!*

Continuing - hats off to Sarah from The Healthy Home Economist (http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/child-suspended-from-school-for-kombucha-in-lunchbox/) blog for not only writing the story after the boy's mother contacted her, but for also getting involved and calling the Vice Principal, who acted like nothing at all significant happened. She writes:

Most outrageously, the Vice Principal told the boy that he may have to transfer out of that school and that she was looking into it. She even tried to enroll him in an alcoholics class for teens! The boy ended up spending the entire day in the school office and then was suspended for 5 days for violating the school’s drug and alcohol policy. The issue was also reported to the Newport-Mesa School District. Lest the school or the district deny the child was suspended or try to spin the story, the boy did indeed SIGN a 5 day suspension form.
She notes that he was assumed guilty and punished without anyone testing for actual alcohol content. While the Principal finally retracted the suspension (without an apology), this will never undo the overreaction, emotional upheaval, humiliation, false accusation and mistreatment without parental contact. Plus, since the school quickly reported the incident to Newport-Mesa School District, the buck was passed, which means the parents and child can face further harassment even though the Principal is done with the affair.

Many parents cannot or choose not to have an alternative education lifestyle for their kids, nor should they be forced to. When children are enrolled in the public school system they are sadly, considered human resources (http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/).

But, if they are indeed considered wards of the State, then authorities should be held accountable to the fullest extent for children's treatment and safety - the burden of proof and responsibility falls on them and should be adamantly demanded if another educational experience is not possible. Of course, we can expect just the opposite.

Please consider discussing with your child these types of scenarios and what to do, so that they are not knocked off guard by abusive, ignorant authorities without any representation. School officials need to figure out that we care - we are watching, and if they shame the little ones, threaten their well-being and frighten them into oblivion, that we will shine the light on their shame, possibly at the expense of their jobs.

* There is no evidence that Kombucha can harm you while on medications. It is probiotic and at worst, would simply cancel out the effects of antibiotics - that's why doctors say to avoid yogurt while on them, but to eat plenty afterward to restore the healthy gut bacteria destroyed by antibiotics. The Officer had NO business questioning the child about personal medications, especially without a parent present.

Full article: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/kid-suspended-interrogated-by-cop-for.html

[Eram]

My girlfriend and me started with liver flushes some time ago.
You take these every 3th week and one week prior to it, you have to have a week without diary products, which means that you don't drink kefir for a week.
Also, we haven't been able to get our kids to love it, so... we thought about changing to water kefir as an experiment.

Well........ we love it... and out kids too!

we make it with raw cane sugar and one or two figs for taste.

It feels easier to digest as milk kefir and our body agrees with it very much.

Here is an excellent website (http://www.waterkefir.net/bereiding.html) with lots of information and good recipes for water kefir. Just change the settings to English on the bottom of the page for easy reading :)

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRI_QQeqfaFUO9pXcZD8AYiO2VFoIm0QEHDiX83OG6Jf93l3DN6


http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv169/solidghost_2013/honey_water_kefir_2.jpg

[Dawn]

I just got some information today that is worth passing along. It is from Dr. Mercola's site, however it is not a result of my membership in anything, so I am not violating any agreement by sharing it here. The link below contains an interview about the GAPS diet and a new recipe for creating fermented vegetables to cleanse your body in just 4-5 days. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/15/caroline-barringer-interview.aspx?e_cid=20121215_DNL_art_1

Here is a quote from this link containing just the recipe:

Although you can use a crock pot, Caroline recommends culturing your veggies directly in the glass Mason jars, which eliminates the need for a crock pot and eliminates a transfer step in the process. This also allows you to make smaller batches, and it eliminates the presence of wild yeasts which can occur when using a crock. These yeasts tend to give the food a cheesy sort of flavor, which many find unpalatable.

Here's a quick summary of Caroline's recipe for how to make your own fermented veggies:

Shred and cut your chosen veggies
Juice some celery. This is used as the brine, as it contains natural sodium and keeps the vegetables anaerobic. This eliminates the need for sea salt, which prevents growth of pathogenic bacteria
Pack the veggies and celery juice along with the inoculants (starter culture, such as kefir grains, whey, or commercial starter powder like our Complete Probiotics, all of which can be used for vegetables) into a 32 ounce wide-mouthed canning jar. A kraut pounder tool can be helpful to pack the jar and eliminate any air pockets. We hope to have our new starter culture which is optimized with strains of bacteria that will make high doses of vitamin K2 sometime in early 2013 assuming our testing goes well.
Top with a cabbage leaf, tucking it down the sides. Make sure the veggies are completely covered with celery juice and that the juice is all the way to the top of the jar to eliminate trapped air
Seal the jar store in a warm, slightly moist place for 24 to 96 hours, depending on the food being cultured. Ideal temperature range is 68-75 degrees Fahrenheit; 85 degrees max. Remember, heat kills the microbes!
When done, store in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process

Here are a few of Caroline's suggestion for how to store the jars for optimal fermentation. (Remember, they don't require a heated environment and only need to be kept around 72 degrees):

"Simply put the jars into a [portable] cooler and place the cooler OFF the floor (the floor is usually too cold due to heat rising away from it). Wrap the jars inside the cooler in an old towel and place an additional jar of HOT water into the cooler to make the environment warm. You can replace the hot water jar when you "think" about it - no need to obsess.

You can also place the jars in a casserole dish or baking dish and wrap them in a towel and place them in your oven with the oven heat OFF of course, but switch the oven light on. The heat emitting from the appliance bulb will keep the veggies warm.

Another option is to place as many jars as possible into a dehydrator and set it to the lowest temperature setting, but most dehydrators only accommodate a couple of jars max. It's best to prepare many jars at one time due to the given fact that making veggies is a labor intensive process. I like the cooler or oven incubation processes best. They work well every time."

Last but not least, resist the temptation to eat out of the jar! This can introduce organisms from your mouth into the jar. Instead, always use a clean spoon to take out what you're going to eat, then, making sure the remaining veggies are covered with the brine solution, recap the jar.

[onawah]

Here is the video that came with the article from Dr. Mercola at:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/15/caroline-barringer-interview.aspx?e_cid=20121215_DNL_art_1
hy87TnyNCPk

Another article that just came to my attention today is from Dr. Sircus, about using baking soda as a medicine.
This is a bit off topic, but it has to do with keeping the body alkaline as a preventative.
Baking soda is most certainly effective as a preventative, but there are precautions to be aware of as well.
See the article at:
http://drsircus.com/medicine/sodium-bicarbonate-baking-soda/mark-pagel-sodium-bicarbonate-precautions-treating-cancer-tumors
Here is a quote:

It is known from pre-clinical studies and mathematical oncology modeling that too much baking soda, and/or baking soda treatment that is continued for too long, will be harmful to normal tissues, especially kidney and bladder tissues. The problem is that the level that is “too much” and the time that is “too long” is unknown, and probably differs for different people (for example, older patients with limited kidney function are likely more sensitive to baking soda treatment). Therefore, there is a real concern that too much baking soda applied for too long may harm a patient.

[Dawn]

In focusing on healing myself by paying attention to my 'gut' and its friendly residents I have come into contact with an amazing modality, dry fasting. I just put up a post with links to information about it here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?34696-Breatharianism-and-living-on-Prana-a-how-to-guide&p=604402&viewfull=1#post604402

It is well worth taking some time to both understand and actually do this.

I recently did a 3 day dry fast. I was able to be in a beautiful retreat type setting. I spent some time daily during the fast in a deep Japanese soaking tub. The experience was easy and pleasant. Although I did experience some thirst, it was generally mild and only lasted about 15-30 minutes each time. My results were wonderful and I plan to repeat the process.

[Eram]

Kefir and detoxification... how does it actually work?

about 7 months ago, inspired by this thread... we started to make milk kefir.
After about 2 weeks, my girlfriend began to suspect that she had detoxification symptoms. Loss of hair, swollen legs, feet and hands and discomfort in the gut, to name the most important ones.
She then decided to build it up slowly and eventually this worked for her. At the end, somewhere in September she was able to drink more then a glass full every day and felt great with it.

Now that we switched to waterkefir, she is having the same symptoms all over again.
This is puzzling to us... we don't understand how this is possible, because one should expect that her body was already detoxified from the milk kefir. She switched back to drinking only a little amount a day, but still she doesn't feel all that well.

What's going on here?

I haven't been able to find information about kefir and these kind of symptoms.

Also, the reappearance of these symptoms after switching to waterkefir does create some questions as to what it exactly is that she is reacting to. Are these indeed detoxification symptoms, or is there something else in play?

Our kids and myself react very good to the kefir. Our skin feels wonderful smooth ans silky since we drink it and especially the digestion of the kids has improved.

Any one here who has a clue?

[Shade]

Did you change the type of culture you were using to make the kefir as in the batch? She could be reacting to the new yeasts and bacterias in her system as they establish themselves over the old cultures and her systems become imbalanced in the swap over?
Allergies and immune responses to fungi is common. In the first instance that could have been what she was experiencing.

[Dawn]

WakyTweaky: Now that we switched to waterkefir, she is having the same symptoms all over again.
This is puzzling to us... we don't understand how this is possible, because one should expect that her body was already detoxified from the milk kefir. She switched back to drinking only a little amount a day, but still she doesn't feel all that well.

What's going on here?

It sure sounds like a Herxheimer/detox reaction to me. The toxins that have been caught in our bodies are always a surprise.

Perhaps Shade has a point also....Question... does she have a lot of allergies? If so, this is thought to be due to a weakened immune system. And if so, a 3+ day dry fast or radiation hormesis are the best ways I know to reset your immune system and become free of allergies of all kinds.

[Dawn]

Here's another reason to keep culturing and eating your own kefir- vitamin K2. It is very important for a healthy heart and bones, and most of us are lacking it in our diet.

Dr Mercola: Are You Getting Enough Vitamin K2 to Protect Your Heart?

The optimal amounts of vitamin K2 are still under investigation, but it seems likely that 180 to 200 micrograms of vitamin K2 should be enough to activate your body's K2-dependent proteins to shuttle the calcium where it needs to be, and remove it from the places where it shouldn't.

As I've discussed on numerous occasions, vitamin D is a critical nutrient for optimal health and is best obtained from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed. However, many are taking oral vitamin D, which can actually be problematic unless you're also getting sufficient amounts of vitamin K2. In fact, this is a really crucial point that has not been emphasized enough in the past: If you opt for oral vitamin D, you need to also consume in your food or take supplemental vitamin K2.

Why?

Because when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins — the proteins that help move the calcium around in your body. But you need vitamin K2 to activate those proteins. If they're not activated, the calcium in your body will not be properly distributed and can lead to weaker bones and hardened arteries.

In short, vitamin K2 ensures the calcium is deposited and removed from the appropriate areas. By taking vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. And vitamin D and K2 work together to strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-_2prVhp5cU



Article worth reading about kefir's nutritional content, including vitamin K2, calcium, and potassium: http://chriskresser.com/kefir-the-not-quite-paleo-superfood

[Eram]

Did you change the type of culture you were using to make the kefir as in the batch? She could be reacting to the new yeasts and bacterias in her system as they establish themselves over the old cultures and her systems become imbalanced in the swap over?
Allergies and immune responses to fungi is common. In the first instance that could have been what she was experiencing.

I'm not sure that I fully understand what you mean if you talk about changing the culture as in the batch. :unsure:
We switched from milk kefir to water kefir, so there is a switch in culture then.
This new water kefir has never been changed.... it grows of course and we give away what we have extra or we get rid of it.

We had thought about a reaction to the yeast too. This would not be a detoxification reaction then I guess, but a intolerance reaction, which would indeed imply what Dawn points to... that her immune system is weakened.
There are more signs that point to that, so she will certainly look into that.



It sure sounds like a Herxheimer/detox reaction to me. The toxins that have been caught in our bodies are always a surprise.

Perhaps Shade has a point also....Question... does she have a lot of allergies? If so, this is thought to be due to a weakened immune system. And if so, a 3+ day dry fast or radiation hormesis are the best ways I know to reset your immune system and become free of allergies of all kinds.

If it is indeed the Herxheimer/detox reaction, then I do not understand why it happens with the water kefir as well.
I have never found any info that indicated that water kefir gets rid of other toxins, fungi and yeast , parasites etc as milk kefir.
After the reaction to the milk kefir was over, one should expect that there would be no reaction to the water kefir then.

She does indeed has lots of allergies... to dust anyway and it is a big problem for her.
Actually, since she uses the Chi-machine she never had an allergic episode, but it is still in the body probably.
As I mentioned above, there are other signs to a weakened immune system as well, so she will look into your suggestions to the 3+ day dry fast and the radiation therapy. We were reading the thread about the radiation therapy yesterday as it so happens (and we laughed our asses of when reading the comments under the container of radio active material on amazon :P).
She is doing liver cleanses too at the moment and these also promise to get rid of all parasites and other misery in the gut.

Earlier in the thread, I talked about us getting started with the Gaps diet, but we never started in the end.
We have 2 children who would benefit dearly from it, but it is so difficult to find a way to keep them away from sweets. Especially the oldest (5 year). He is so hooked on sweets and chocolate that he manipulates his friends at school to donate him large quantities of what their parents give them to school (we don't give him sweets to school). It's just an hurdle we find impossible to take, sad to say.

Thank you both for your input!

[Dawn]

WakyTweaky: Earlier in the thread, I talked about us getting started with the Gaps diet, but we never started in the end.
We have 2 children who would benefit dearly from it, but it is so difficult to find a way to keep them away from sweets. Especially the oldest (5 year). He is so hooked on sweets and chocolate that he manipulates his friends at school to donate him large quantities of what their parents give them to school (we don't give him sweets to school).

My child the evil twin of your son! I sent her to school with healthy food for lunch, and she traded it for all kinds of commercial psuedo-food that the other children brought with them. I didn't realize how bad it was until I accompanied her class on a field trip and watched as she dined on Hostess Ding Dongs for her meal.

Adding kefir to their present diet will do a lot. The real concern with sugar cravings is that they are caused by an overgrowth of candida. When the candida population dies off, the cravings for sugar vanish. I wonder if something as simple as adding Radiation Hormesis water to your family's life would correct this. It is supposed to be especially good at eliminating fungus, which is what candida turns into when it is fully colonizes the body. Well, anyway... it is worth a try.

[Shade]

I'm not sure that I fully understand what you mean if you talk about changing the culture as in the batch. :unsure:


You are making your own kefir right? So you have a starter culture that you use for it? Did you use the same starter culture for the milk and the water kefir was what I was asking.
It could be a candida infection as well. That can cause swelling. Bakers that work around yeast get horrible infections. When I was younger I has a boyfriend who was a baker and he used to get bad candida infections just from being around it a lot. I have not seen feet like it before or since, thankfully.

[The Truth Is In There]

Kefir and detoxification... how does it actually work?

about 7 months ago, inspired by this thread... we started to make milk kefir.
After about 2 weeks, my girlfriend began to suspect that she had detoxification symptoms. Loss of hair, swollen legs, feet and hands and discomfort in the gut, to name the most important ones.
She then decided to build it up slowly and eventually this worked for her. At the end, somewhere in September she was able to drink more then a glass full every day and felt great with it.

Now that we switched to waterkefir, she is having the same symptoms all over again.
This is puzzling to us... we don't understand how this is possible, because one should expect that her body was already detoxified from the milk kefir. She switched back to drinking only a little amount a day, but still she doesn't feel all that well.

What's going on here?

I haven't been able to find information about kefir and these kind of symptoms.

Also, the reappearance of these symptoms after switching to waterkefir does create some questions as to what it exactly is that she is reacting to. Are these indeed detoxification symptoms, or is there something else in play?

Our kids and myself react very good to the kefir. Our skin feels wonderful smooth ans silky since we drink it and especially the digestion of the kids has improved.

Any one here that has a clue?

may be detox or may be a toxic reaction. some vegan-gone-paleo author of a book a read last year called detoxification a "quasi-mythical state", an excuse vegetarians or vegans often bring up if health deteriorates and they don't want to accept the fact that their diet not good for them.

i'm mentioning this only because it may actually be a sign that she doesn't digest the kefir very well and that the symptoms get less because the body somehow finds a way to deal with the kefir, similar to when somebody who's got celiac disease hasn't eaten wheat in a while and then tries it again. at first the symptoms flare up again and then lessen eventually because the body adapts to the toxic substance...as much as it is possible, anyway.

which blood type is your gf, btw? if she's O or A and you and your kids are B then there's your explanation why she's got problems and you don't, at least as far as milk kefir is concerned. it could be some other substance the kefir itself produces to which she's allergic if it also happens with water kefir.

[Dawn]

WhakyTweaky: about 7 months ago, inspired by this thread... we started to make milk kefir.
After about 2 weeks, my girlfriend began to suspect that she had detoxification symptoms. Loss of hair, swollen legs, feet and hands and discomfort in the gut, to name the most important ones.
She then decided to build it up slowly and eventually this worked for her. At the end, somewhere in September she was able to drink more then a glass full every day and felt great with it.

Now that we switched to waterkefir, she is having the same symptoms all over again.
This is puzzling to us... we don't understand how this is possible, because one should expect that her body was already detoxified from the milk kefir. She switched back to drinking only a little amount a day, but still she doesn't feel all that well.

What's going on here?

I haven't been able to find information about kefir and these kind of symptoms.
The Truth is In There: may be detox or may be a toxic reaction. some vegan-gone-paleo author of a book a read last year called detoxification a "quasi-mythical state", an excuse vegetarians or vegans often bring up if health deteriorates and they don't want to accept the fact that their diet not good for them.

i'm mentioning this only because it may actually be a sign that she doesn't digest the kefir very well and that the symptoms get less because the body somehow finds a way to deal with the kefir, similar to when somebody who's got celiac disease hasn't eaten wheat in a while and then tries it again. at first the symptoms flare up again and then lessen eventually because the body adapts to the toxic substance...as much as it is possible, anyway.


Actually I have heard of all of these symptoms. Healing crisis (Herxheimer Reactions) are VERY common with ingesting kefir. These fermented foods cleanse the liver with the lactic acid they contain, so it is always recommended that you begin s-l-o-w-l-y. In fact, the GAPS book mentioned in the first post of this thread, suggests that everyone start with ONE teaspoon daily and build up. It is said to take 2 years on the GAPS diet to heal this situation in the body! And it somewhat depends on how long you leave your kefirs to ferment because they digest the sugars in their cultures very slowly. If you drink your kefir before it is fully fermented it can be quite sugary... which can play havoc with your body if you have a candida infection.

HOWEVER do NOT forget fermented vegetables! If you have any concerns about allergies to keifer then use LIVING sauerkraut or other LIVING fermented vegetables with every meal. In order to do this you must either be a careful shopper, or ferment these things yourself, because most are sold in stores after being boiled and canned.... which is no help to your body at all (they are dead food at that point). A word of caution: sauerkraut is even MORE cleansing than kefir. Because of this the Dr. McBride recommends starting with kefir for a month or more before adding fermented vegetables into the diet. And, start with VERY tiny amounts of these in order not to trigger a healing crisis you cannot handle.

[kyleannmontana]

I have just gotten a healthy gut pass from my naturopath for the first time in years. I agree that the gut is the source of most modern illnesses. Good luck to everyone who reads this and is inspired to make diet changes.

[Billy]

Noting thread. I will return.

Billyji

[Marianne]

I found a recipe for kefir made with coconut milk. I haven't tried it yet, but plan to. If you don't do dairy, this might be a good alternative.

Here's the link:
http://just-making-noise.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-make-coconut-kefir.html

I'd love to hear if anyone else makes it, and how it turns out.

[onawah]

Synchronicity happens! I was just looking at recipes for coconut milk kefir yesterday.
There are some on youtube that also demonstrate how to open the coconuts.
A friend has asked if I would be interested in going in with her on regular orders of green coconuts.
I have been looking for an alternative base to make kefir with since my raw milk source dried up, and coconuts seem like a very good option.
I am a little confused about the recipe I saw, which called for sealing the milk with kefir grains in an airtight lidded mason jar while it ferments, because I thought the culture needed oxygen to proliferate, and that is how I did it with cow's milk.
Maybe I'll try it both ways and see what happens.
I also wasn't clear if the same reusable grains used to make kefir with cow's or goat's milk can be used with coconut milk, but according to one of the sources I saw yesterday, they can.
I don't have the coconuts yet, but I'll let you know when I do, Marianne, and how it turns out.

[onawah]

About fermenting vegetables.
I cannot abide the sourness of saurkraut, though I might try it just for the health benefits.
But what I am wondering is if some of my favorite vegies such as bell peppers, cauliflower and onions could be fermented without using cayenne or anything in the hot pepper family.
I can tolerate garlic, but cayenne, etc. always gives me acid reflux.
Can garlic be used instead?
Thanks.

[Marianne]

About fermenting vegetables.
I cannot abide the sourness of saurkraut, though I might try it just for the health benefits.
But what I am wondering is if some of my favorite vegies such as bell peppers, cauliflower and onions could be fermented without using cayenne or anything in the hot pepper family.
I can tolerate garlic, but cayenne, etc. always gives me acid reflux.
Can garlic be used instead?
Thanks.

I don't think cayenne is necessary. My grandmother never used cayenne to make her fresh sauerkraut.

The recipe in Nourishing Traditions doesn't use it. Here's a link to that recipe, if anyone wants it: http://thenourishingcook.com/sauerkraut-winters-miracle-vegetable-salad/

Note caraway seed is optional in the NT recipe. It is traditionally used with cabbage as a carminative (to prevent/relieve gas) as well as a flavoring. But to my knowledge, the only thing you really need is salt.

I'll bet garlic would be very good, and nutritious in a fermented vegetable recipe. Garlic pickles are great.

Let us know if you try it, Onawah, and how it comes out!

[Dawn]

Onawah: I am a little confused about the recipe I saw, which called for sealing the milk with kefir grains in an airtight lidded mason jar while it ferments, because I thought the culture needed oxygen to proliferate, and that is how I did it with cow's milk.
Maybe I'll try it both ways and see what happens.
I also wasn't clear if the same reusable grains used to make kefir with cow's or goat's milk can be used with coconut milk, but according to one of the sources I saw yesterday, they can.

Hi Onawah, I've read a little on both accounts about your questions.

Making Kefir 'Campaign'
Sealed container vs open container fermentation of kefir: You can do this either way and make excellent kefir. 'Open' methods usually include a cloth or paper towel over the kefir to prevent dust from falling into the culture. The main difference is in the effervescence of the final product. When a tight lid is used (which I prefer) the effect is a kefir which releases bubbles in your mouth as you drink it. It reminds me of the way campaign tingles in my mouth.

Coconut Kefir Culture:
I've read that either water kefir or milk kefir can be used with coconut water. The difference is that the milk kefir grains will get smaller and smaller with each succeeding batch until eventually they disappear. Water kefir has no such difficulty in coconut. I don't have any direct experience with this so I hope you share your experience with us.

Growing Large Kefir Grains:
I did do some personal research on how to grow large kefir grains. I found various opinions but the one that seemed to hold the most weight based on experience was from 'the kefir lady' who said that fermenting kefir at a 65 degree farenheight temperature resulted in large grains. She is definitely correct! It is winter in my little town and our average temperature in the house is 65 degrees. As a result we now have a whole bunch of kefir grains that are between 1/2 and 3/4 inches in size. During the hot days of late summer they shrunk to about 1/4 inch and I was afraid I was going to loose them through the colander when I strained the culture daily.

Bouncing Your Kefir or for fun and ease
My partner discovered this 'trick'. I used to pour the kefir into a collander and use a wooden spoon to stir and press the kefir through the holes while retaining the grains. Now I use the 'bounce' method of sieving. This method reminds me of bouncing a tennis ball on a racquet. As you shake the mixture up and down, the grains will form a loose ball which begins to bound up and down with your movements. This results in a very clean sieving which does not damage the grains and removes all the ripe kefir.

[Dennis Leahy]

Oh my Source, this is an incredibly information-packed thread! I have been bad about visiting here (maybe because I get pulled-in for hours!)

:~)

Without going back through this thread, I don't remember if someone gave this info in this thread, or if I stumbled upon it elsewhere. : Is anyone interested in a Facebook group of individuals (no one commercial) who trade or give kefir grains? I have not done it yet (I don't know why), but this appears to be people who are just a bunch of awesome souls that are reaching out lovingly.

Again, no sales, no one commercial may post in the Facebook Group, and the actual transactions are handled one-on-one (not posted.) If any money is involved, it may not be more than postage. I know there are water kefir grains as well as dairy kefir grains.

Here it is:


Share and Find (worldwide!) kefir grains, kombucha, Jun, filmjok, sourdough, seeds & more... ! ❤ NO SELLING - NO BUYING FREE OR POSTAGE/TRADE ONLY! ooops, that group no longer appears. Dammit. But I found another. (It is a "closed" group and you have to ask to join)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/501515779859001/

(This group is more than kefir - other fermented starters too.)

Dennis

[Eram]

Did you change the type of culture you were using to make the kefir as in the batch? She could be reacting to the new yeasts and bacterias in her system as they establish themselves over the old cultures and her systems become imbalanced in the swap over?
Allergies and immune responses to fungi is common. In the first instance that could have been what she was experiencing.



may be detox or may be a toxic reaction.
[...



Actually I have heard of all of these symptoms. Healing crisis (Herxheimer Reactions) are VERY common with ingesting kefir.
[...]

HOWEVER do NOT forget fermented vegetables! If you have any concerns about allergies to keifer then use LIVING sauerkraut or other LIVING fermented vegetables with every meal. [...

Thank you al once again for your valuable input.

Your mentioning of live sauerkraut did bring me the idea of a test Dawn.
We had some stored bottles of sauerkraut juice so Marieke switched from drinking Kefir to live saurkraut juice.
Whitin 2 days all her symptomes were gone.
Then she started with water kefir again and very soon the symptomes came back.

I think it is safe to say that there is something in the Kefir that she doesn't tollerate that well (probably the yeast) and that it is not the Herxheimer Reaction that she suffered from.

This test and the proof of her intollerance to Kefir did awake our wish for home made fermented vegetables so we are now (finally) in the process of buying preservation jars and the other accessories.

In the mean time Marieke drinks fermented vegetable juice from our wholefood store.

On the bright side of water kefir....
Our daughter (2 years old) suffers from eczema and we never have been able to cure it so far.
Now that she drinks water kefir... the eczema has eased down a lot. To the point even that we can take her to the swimming pool. She used to get a severe eczema attack every time we brought her there, so we stopped that for some time, but now her skin is in such a good condition that she can go again,.... much to her delight :)

For myself... I used to get very painful cleaves in the tips of my fingers during the dry days in the winter and that too has stopped. My fingers are fine now for the first time in about 15 years.

Hey Ho for water kefir and vermented food/juice in general.

Now I am also preparing for making Combucha.
The fermentation proces of Combucha is much slower as water kefir and it is said that this is beneficial for the quality of all the goodies in there.
After watching some videos as to how I can make it, I think I will go for the double fermentation process as this is said to be better tasting.
Probably I'll try every form out... it is so much fun to experiment with this stuff.

I actually like the making of kefir.
It is one of few duties that I always look forward to.

[meat suit]

Wakey,

me and my kids drink goats milk to control eczema, not huge amounts, couple of glasses a day...... and any eczema that gets past that, we kill with colloidal silver applied onto skin...

[Eram]

Wakey,

me and my kids drink goats milk to control eczema, not huge amounts, couple of glasses a day...... and any eczema that gets past that, we kill with colloidal silver applied onto skin...

How odd...
We searched for answers regarding eczema in different places and I can't recall anyone ever mentioning goats milk.
I just searched for references to goatsmilk and eczema and the internet is packe with them... how could I have missed it? :confused:
We wil certainly try it out... I have a good feeling about it.

I still have some reservations about Colloidal silver, but aplied on the skin doesn't sound as frightening as taking it orally.

Thanks Meat Suit!

.....I'll keep you posted

[Marianne]

Oh my Source, this is an incredibly information-packed thread! I have been bad about visiting here (maybe because I get pulled-in for hours!)

:~)

Without going back through this thread, I don't remember if someone gave this info in this thread, or if I stumbled upon it elsewhere. : Is anyone interested in a Facebook group of individuals (no one commercial) who trade or give kefir grains? I have not done it yet (I don't know why), but this appears to be people who are just a bunch of awesome souls that are reaching out lovingly.

Again, no sales, no one commercial may post in the Facebook Group, and the actual transactions are handled one-on-one (not posted.) If any money is involved, it may not be more than postage. I know there are water kefir grains as well as dairy kefir grains.

Here it is:


Share and Find (worldwide!) kefir grains, kombucha, Jun, filmjok, sourdough, seeds & more... ! ❤ NO SELLING - NO BUYING FREE OR POSTAGE/TRADE ONLY! ooops, that group no longer appears. Dammit. But I found another. (It is a "closed" group and you have to ask to join)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/501515779859001/

(This group is more than kefir - other fermented starters too.)

Dennis

Thank you Dennis! I'm going to see about joining. Sounds like just what we need. I haven't gotten quality kefir either, and I don't know why! But I love it, so easy to use in smoothies.

[Twelvestrand]

Thank you Dawn for this empowering info...it couldn't have appeared on my computer screen at a better time. My girl friend and I have been struggling with health issues for the past few years and I believe this info should put us on the right path :)


I am totally with you Dawn. Go for it, take responsibility and empower your body.

I just want to remind you of the next step.
Once your body is strong enough to stand up, the next step is to cleanse the emotional traumas and debilitating behavior patterns . These trauma are the underlying cause to most of our physical ailments.
If you look into ancient medicine practice, you will find always emotional clearing.
So we want to clear the base reason for our ailments with forgiveness and acceptance to ourselves first. That requires courage and strength to face through our trauma and fears.

Good luck, and power in your healing path.
Joy and happiness
PathWalker

Hi PathWalker,

Would you be able to recommend any sources or methods for cleansing those emotional traumas and debilitating behavior patterns? I know some of RLH's original work deals with that and have some of that info already. Wondering if there are other approaches that are equally if not more effective and accelerated? I really need to put my foot down and start clearing myself as Ive been putting it off for the past few years....too many distractions. Thanks in advance :)

[leavesoftrees]

Thank you Dawn for this empowering info...it couldn't have appeared on my computer screen at a better time. My girl friend and I have been struggling with health issues for the past few years and I believe this info should put us on the right path :)


I am totally with you Dawn. Go for it, take responsibility and empower your body.

I just want to remind you of the next step.
Once your body is strong enough to stand up, the next step is to cleanse the emotional traumas and debilitating behavior patterns . These trauma are the underlying cause to most of our physical ailments.
If you look into ancient medicine practice, you will find always emotional clearing.
So we want to clear the base reason for our ailments with forgiveness and acceptance to ourselves first. That requires courage and strength to face through our trauma and fears.

Good luck, and power in your healing path.
Joy and happiness
PathWalker

Hi PathWalker,

Would you be able to recommend any sources or methods for cleansing those emotional traumas and debilitating behavior patterns? I know some of RLH's original work deals with that and have some of that info already. Wondering if there are other approaches that are equally if not more effective and accelerated? I really need to put my foot down and start clearing myself as Ive been putting it off for the past few years....too many distractions. Thanks in advance :)

You could start by trying the technique mentioned in Roman's thread

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?54427-My-Friend-Lester-Levenson

[onawah]

Thanks for the Facebook links. I have some good kefir grains, but I have been wanting to try making sourdough bread.
I made my first batch of coconut kefir the other day, and it seems to have turned out quite well.
I bought 2 coconuts at the local grocer which were already scored, making them easier to break open.
But the first coconut was dried out to the extent that it was very difficult to remove the meat from the shell, and the thin layer of skin surrounding the meat.
The second one was much easier, but all in all, the struggle with the first one made it quite a labor intensive chore.
I don't know if there is any way of telling the age of a coconut, or if it is possible to buy them already shelled and peeled, but I will ask my grocer.
Anyway, once I got all the meat extracted, I blended it with the coconut water, put it all in a glass jar and added the kefir grains.
I left the jar uncovered at room temperature for about 20 hours.
It had kind of a strange sour odor but that went away after I refrigerated it.
It has a slightly sour taste, but if a little honey and vanilla is added, it makes a delicious pudding-like desert, and mixed in easily with my morning aloe smoothie.
I would still prefer raw goat or cow milk kefir, but since I don't have a source of raw milk now, this will do nicely!
I can't help but think I probably would have been able to avoid coming down with the flu if I hadn't had that kefir-less interval of several months, but now that I have my backup source of fresh coconut, I will continue to keep myself supplied.
I'm thinking it might be possible, if the extraction process continues to be problematic, I might try just mixing the coconut water with a jar of raw coconut butter and make the kefir with that.

[Dawn]

Onawah: I bought 2 coconuts at the local grocer which were already scored, making them easier to break open.
But the first coconut was dried out to the extent that it was very difficult to remove the meat from the shell, and the thin layer of skin surrounding the meat.
The second one was much easier, but all in all, the struggle with the first one made it quite a labor intensive chore.
I don't know if there is any way of telling the age of a coconut, or if it is possible to buy them already shelled and peeled, but I will ask my grocer.
Anyway, once I got all the meat extracted, I blended it with the coconut water, put it all in a glass jar and added the kefir grains.

Hi Onawah, It sounds like you got an 'older' coconut. I know what you are talking about with the nut being 'scored'. I bought some 'scored' coconuts this year to try and they are not at all what I like due to their age and the toughness of the meat inside. I didn't even like the flavor of the coconut water inside,

Young Thai Coconuts Are Best!
The best coconuts are known as 'young Thai coconuts'. These have a portion of the outside husk cut off and are wrapped in plastic to keep them from drying out. They can be a little hard to get into, so I use an electric drill with a wide bit on mine. There is a 'hand tool' you can drill them with, but I have found it hard to locate where I live. Inside these young coconuts is the most delicious slightly sweet coconut water! After draining the water through the drilled holes you can use a large knife to cut the top off the top. Use the drilled holes as a place to start with the tip of the knife and just slice the top of the coconut off. Inside there is a thin layer of meat that will be close to the consistency of pudding. This pudding blends beautifully in the blender to a coconut cream which you can use in many ways or stir back into your coconut water for a drink that is rich and full of good fats.

Where to get Young Thai Coconuts:
Here in California these are often carried in health food stores in the produce section. However to get the best prices check with a grocery store that caters to the Asian Community. I just checked online and there are many sites which offer delivery of these as well. Here is one example: http://www.24hourbestbuy.com/yothcoforsa.html Young Thai coconuts will remain fresh without refrigeration for quite a while... even 2 months! However they do not last that long at our house.

Coconut water has the same specific gravity and mineral content as our blood plasma and I've been told that it can be used as a blood substitute intravenously in surgery if necessary. (Yuch!- NOT the way I would like to have mine delivered!) The water is an excellent way to get minerals in absorb able form.

Happy coconut hunting!

[Dawn]

After posting the above about young coconuts I went on a bit of an internet hunt for information. I just can't resist posting a link to a wonderful article about them here : http://www.coconutresearchcenter.com/hwnl_8-4.htm

This article puts to rest the misinformation which has been passed around saying that commercial coconuts may contain formaldehyde due to the way they're processed. That's good news because it turns out that rumor is not based in fact. Hmmmm, I wonder who or what would benefit from scaring the public into NOT eating a great health food which 'cures' many diseases, reduces obesity, and prolongs lifespan? Where have I heard that there is a move to limit population, lifespan, and IQ among the population?

But if you're worried about your coconuts being organic I even found sites that will ship you organic coconuts online.

[onawah]

I just saw your last 3 posts here, Dawn, and again, many thanks for your input.
I had some young Thai coconut in the past, I think when I was living in Santa Cruz, Ca., and I certainly do remember what that creamy pudding-like center tasted like!
That was one of the best things I've ever tasted, and I can't think now why I didn't start buying them myself at that time.
A friend found a source that would ship here, but it was very expensive, so I think she started buying the coconuts from the grocery store too, but I will check with her again.
That's very good info about preserving kefir grains. Thanks again!
I will probably see about getting some water kefir grains, so I won't have the problem with shrinkage.
And maybe I will just forget about trying to find a new raw milk source and stick with the coconuts, if I can find a good source that isn't too expensive.

[onawah]

Five Strategies for a Healthier Gut in 2013
By Jeff Leach
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/24/healthy-microbiome.aspx?e_cid=20130124_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130124
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In the summer of 2008, a 26-year-old man from Shanxi Province walked into a lab at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and 23 weeks later walked out 113 pounds lighter.

He had not participated in a clinical trial of some new secret weight loss pill, or signed up for a punishing Biggest Loser-style exercise program, nor had he been fussed over by behavioral scientists who made his plates and drinking cups smaller with each passing week.

The researchers, who were microbiologists, had simply put the man’s gut microbes on a diet.

One of the huge mysteries in studies of diet and exercise is the difference between people who get the same treatment but have remarkably different outcomes. Inevitably, some people in a study show little improvement despite weeks or even months of following what might seem like draconian changes in their normal diet and lifestyle.

Other people apparently drop weight just by getting out of bed in the morning, and also improve their circulating triglycerides, total cholesterol, and biomarkers of inflammation with apparent ease. We all know someone like this in our daily life.

But why are there such extreme differences between people?

Is your DNA to blame?

Our human genes may be involved in some cases but we generally share more than 99 percent genetic similarity with other people; more interestingly, the huge differences in peoples weight gain/loss may be driven more by the different bacteria in our intestines, which can be more than 90 percent different between one person and the next.

In addition to the familiar human genome that we inherit from our moms and dads, each of us also has hundreds of trillions of microbial symbionts, each with their own genomes. Research programs such as the Human Microbiome Project1 have revolutionized our understanding of our microbial bodies, which outnumber our human cells 10 to one, and account for more than two pounds of your body weight. We know microbes in your gut can change profoundly throughout life, and that you can change them through diet, medications, and hygiene, for example.

We also know that how you enter this world – C-section versus vaginal birth – can impact your initial “seeding” of microbes,2 which further change during breast- or formula-feeding, and what you eat later in life also affects your gut microbes and even how healthy you are as a senior citizen.3 We know that people in more traditional societies have different microbes than those in more Westernized populations,4 and that diet can play a role in these differences. You can also change the health prospects of a mouse overnight by changing its diet and thus its microbes.

The American Gut Project Seeks Valuable Answers

Advances in bioinformatics (fancy word for data analysis) and refinements of DNA techniques – not to mention a significant increase in computing power – is changing everything. The evidence that life events and diet can shape our gut microbes is increasing, but which direction should we nudge them? What is a healthy or optimal mix of gut microbes?

The honest answer is nobody knows (yet), but projects are underway – that you can participate in – to help us to better understand the role bacteria play in our health and lifestyle. The American Gut Project5 is one of the most ambitious of these projects, and I encourage you to join, to learn more about your own gut, and how it’s affecting your health. The deadline is February 2. To learn more, and for instructions on how to participate, please see Dr. Mercola’s article: “American Gut” - One of the Most Important Health Projects of the 21st Century.

The project is crowdfunded, meaning it’s funded by volunteer donations. In return, you get certain “Perks,” which include:

A list of the dominant microbes in your gut
Visualizations showing how you compare to the general population
Charts showing the dominant kinds of microbes along with descriptions of what they are most associated with
If your donation covers multiple sample kits, you may be able to see how your microbes change over time (if all the samples are from you), or how your microbes compare to those in your family members, for example

Here’s a summary of how many sampling kits you receive with your donation (The entire cost below goes directly to the Project). Kits will be mailed out starting in February, 2013:

$99 — One kit, which can be used for either a stool, skin or oral sample
$180 — Receive two kits, which can be used by yourself, either by sending in two different types of samples (stool and oral sample, for example), or by sending them in at different times to see how your microbes change over time. Or the kits can be used to send in one type of sample from two different people
$260 — Receive three kits
$320 — Receive four kits
For donations of $500 and over, please see the American Gut Project IndieGoGo website

The kits contain pre-labeled test tubes and instructions for how to properly collect your samples. Each sample must be mailed to the University of Colorado within 48 hours of collection. (You will be responsible for the postage: $1.95 per sample.)

TO MAKE A DONATION GO TO:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...paign=20130124

Five Strategies to Improve Your Gut Health

In the meantime, as you contemplate your New Year’s resolution to join the gym (again), lose weight, improve your diet, or to purchase the latest gizmo to track your every move, you might want to consider whether your microbes will support your decision. After all, they’re in control. Below are five suggestions on how you might improve the health of your gut microbes (and some other microbes in your life) in 2013.

Avoid antibiotics. It’s a familiar story by now: overzealous use of antibiotics are driving antibiotic resistance among microbes at an alarming rate. But it gets worse: the average child in the developed world will likely receive 10-20 courses of antibiotics before his or her 18th birthday. This, coupled with the low therapeutic doses in animal feed – and ipso facto food, may be shifting our gut microbes into an unhealthy state and possibly contributing to the metabolic disease of obesity.6

It’s also well documented that following a course of broad-spectrum antibiotics, it could take weeks, months or even years for your gut microbial community to bounce back – if at all. During this period of imbalance, opportunistic pathogens can set up shop. Or worse. While antibiotics are clearly needed in some scenarios, ask more questions in 2013 before downing them without a care.
Open a window. For 99.99 percent of human history the outside was always part of the inside, and at no moment during our day were we ever really separated from nature. Today, a National Activity Survey7 found that between enclosed buildings and vehicles, modern humans spend a whopping 90 percent of their lives indoors.

Though keeping the outside out does have its advantages – protection from the elements and decreasing your chances of being eaten by a zombie – it has also changed the microbiome of your home. Studies8 show that opening a window and increasing natural airflow can improve the diversity and health of the microbes in your home, which in turn benefit the inhabitants. In the not-so-distant future, building codes will likely reflect the biological benefits of rewilding our living and workspaces. Never hurts to get a head start.
Adopt an ecological perspective. In 2013, familiarize yourself with the writings of Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and other important and interesting – past and present – naturalists and ecologists. The human-microbial superorganism is a vast ecological system, subject to the same rules of resistance, resilience, and balance as any ecosystem on the planet. The sooner you learn to tend your microbial garden, the sooner you will understand how human ecology and your health is nothing more than understanding our history and place in the larger biosphere.9
Eat more plants. This is not a hard one. I don’t mean to give up meat, but I mean to eat a greater diversity and quantity of whole plants. This is the single most important (in my opinion) dietary strategy for improving the diversity and health of your gut microbiome. In short, your gut microbes thrive on a diversity of fermentable substrates (aka dietary fiber). But not all fiber is the same (physically or chemically), so consuming a diversity of whole plants will assure as steady flow of substrates for your resident microbes.

And make 2013 the year you eat more of the whole plant, not just the soft and tasty parts. Consume the entire asparagus, not just the tip; consume the trunk of the broccoli, not just the crown; consume all of the greens at the top of the leek, not just the bulb. By doing so, you will guarantee that the harder-to-digest portions of the plant will extend the metabolic activity of your microbiome deep into your bowels. Also track how many species of plants you eat in a week – shoot for 30-40, or more.
Get your hands dirty. More to the point: start a garden. Getting your hands dirty and covering more of your body (and food) with mother nature’s blanket will help you not only connect with the natural world we have tried so hard to remove ourselves, but will reacquaint your immune system with the trillions of microorganisms on the plants and in the soil. The loss of this interface with the terra firma of our evolutionary past – body to soil, body to nature – is where the wheels came off the wagon.

As people of the world move from poverty to middle class, they also move from the gritty reality of our ancestral life to the promise of modern development and its triple-washed produce and squeaky-clean surroundings. Reconnecting with ecosystems, through gardening or some other ‘outside’ means, will allow you to understand and manage your inner-ecosystem. There is no better way.

About the Author

Jeff Leach is the Founder of the Human Food Project and the author of Honor Thy Symbionts. His opinions on health and nutrition have appeared as Op-ed articles in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sydney Morning Herald and his peer-reviewed research has been published in the British Journal of Nutrition, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, BioScience and Microflora, Journal of Archaeological Science, Public Health Nutrition and many others. He splits time between New Orleans and Africa.

[Hervé]

Stock vs Broth – Are You Confused?
by Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist on October 8, 2012
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/stock-vs-broth-are-you-confused/


By Kim Schuette, CN, Certified GAPS Practitioner, founder BioDynamic Wellness (http://www.biodynamicwellness.com/) and GAPSInfo.com (http://www.gapsinfo.com/)


[GAPS = Gut And Psychology Syndrome (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0954852028?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0954852028&linkCode=xm2&tag=theheahomec0a-20)]

French chefs have a term fonds de cuisine, which translates to “the foundation and working capital of the kitchen.”

Bone and meat stock provide just that, the foundation of both the kitchen and ultimately one’s physical health. One of the most common questions that those individuals embarking upon the GAPS Diet have is “Do I make broth or stock?” What is the difference between the two?

The two words are often used interchangeably by the most educated of chefs. However, for purposes of the GAPS Diet (http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/heal-your-autoimmune-disease-now/), a temporary diet to heal/seal the gut wall and resolve autoimmune issues, Natasha Campbell‐McBride MD uses the terms “meat stock” and “bone stock.” In this article, I will use “stock” when referencing meat stock and “broth” for bone stock.


Start with Meat Stock When Healing The Gut
Stock is used in the beginning stages of the GAPS Diet, especially during the Introduction Diet where the primary focus is in healing the gut. Broth is ideal for consuming once gut healing has taken place.

The significant difference is that the stock (meat stock) is not cooked as long as broth (bone stock).

Stock is especially rich in gelatin and free amino acids, like proline and glycine. These amino acids along with the gelatinous protein from the meat and connective tissue are particularly beneficial in healing and strengthening connective tissue. These nutrients are pulled out of the meat and connective tissue during the first several hours of cooking meaty fish, poultry, beef and lamb. The larger the bones, the longer the cooking time.

In Gut And Psychology Syndrome (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0954852028?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0954852028&linkCode=xm2&tag=theheahomec0a-20), Dr. Campbell‐McBride explains how to prepare stock (meat stock) to be used during the early stages of the GAPS Diet. Her recipe can also be found at the end of this article.

Stock prepared in this way supports good digestion, as well as promotes proper secretion of hydrochloric acid, which is needed for breaking down proteins in the stomach. Lack of adequate hydrochloric acid can lead to a myriad of symptoms including acid reflux, skin disorders, anemia, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, vitiligo, asthma, food allergies and more. Gelatin, a major component of meat stock, also assists in the proper digestion of proteins ensuring optimal growth in infants and children. Gelatin improves the integrity of collagen, which is reflected in the improved appearance of the skin as well as in the lessening of digestive tract inflammation.

Additionally, gelatin enhances the digestibility of grains and legumes cooked in it. Both grains and legumes are eliminated in the beginning of the GAPS Diet, with grains avoided completely until one is ready to transition off the GAPS Diet. Once gut healing is complete and the digestive tract function is restored, properly prepared grains and legumes will be best enjoyed prepared using meat stock or bone broth.


When to Introduce Bone Broth
Broth or bone stock is introduced after the Introduction Diet as gut healing has advanced. Some with longstanding gut issues find that if they introduce broth (bone stock) early prior to the sealing of the gut, they have reactions to the free glutamates that result from the longer cooked gelatin. Those who are sensitive to MSG will generally be sensitive to these free glutamates until their guts are healed.

The timing on when a GAPS person is ready to progress from meat stock to bone broth is individual. Those children who are autistic or ADD/ADHD and who are suffering from seizures or tics are among the people who should avoid free glutamates until their guts are healed. Free glutamates include not only MSG but glutamine and glutamic acid. These are excitoxins and can have a damaging effect on neurons. This is why I do not recommend using nutritional formulas containing glutamine in cases of the above mentioned conditions as well as Crohn’s or Leaky Gut Syndrome. Excitotoxins encourage inflammation in the gut and brain, the exact situations we are trying to heal.

Uncomfortable die off reactions, as well as symptoms of nervous system agitation, are signs that your digestive tract is best served staying with the meat stock. Die off reactions can include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, constipation and skin eruptions or rashes. Making the transition gradually from stock (meat stock) to broth (bone stock) is advisable. Cooking broth at a very low temperature (slow simmer) will minimize the formation of free glutamates.

Excellent broth (bone stock) recipes can be found in Sally Fallon Morell’s Nourishing Traditions Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0967089735?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0967089735&linkCode=xm2&tag=theheahomec0a-20). This timeless cookbook should be in every kitchen. Broth is an invaluable addition to the diet of young children and all who desire optimal health. Broth is rich in all the minerals necessary to build strong teeth and bones. Broth serves as an excellent replacement for milk in the diet of those who are lactose intolerant.

However, in most cases we find that once the gut is healed, raw milk is well digested. Regardless, once homemade broth is introduced, it will be a welcomed staple to your diet. Both stock and broth can be made from the same bones. It is simple to begin your stock and after cooking for several hours, remove the carcass for deboning. Reserve the meat for eating and then return the bones to the pot with fresh water. Continue cooking for 6 to 48 hours, depending upon the type of bones. Stock and broth can be stored in the refrigerator for several days with the layer of fat on top to prevent oxidation or frozen in the freezer for several months. Unused stock or broth in the refrigerator may be reheated, cooled and returned to the refrigerator for several more days before consuming.


Fish Meat Stock
Ingredients
2 medium non‐oily fish, such as sole or snapper
4 or more quarts of purified water
2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar


Assortment of vegetables, as desired

1‐2 medium yellow onions
2‐4 carrots
3‐4 celery stalks
Bouquet garni (tie together using cooking twine)

Fresh bay leaf
Fresh thyme, rosemary, sage
Celtic Sea Salt, 1‐2 teaspoons, to be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking
Parsley, to be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking

Instructions
Rinse fish in purified water. Remove meat from the fish and reserve for cooking. Place bones, fins, tails, skin and heads in the pot. Add remaining ingredients. Fill pot with purified water. Allow the pot and its contents to stand for 30 minutes, giving the raw apple cider vinegar time to draw minerals out of the bones. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Add parsley and salt during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove the fish bones and other large parts. Strain the stock. Set aside remaining ingredients for preparing fish broth (fish bone stock).


Chicken, Pheasant or Turkey Meat Stock
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, pheasant or turkey
2‐4 chicken, pheasant or turkey feet, optional
1‐2 chicken, pheasant or turkey heads, optional
4 or more quarts of purified water
2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar


Assortment of vegetables, as desired

1‐2 medium yellow onions
2‐4 carrots
3‐4 celery stalks
Bouquet garni (tie together using cooking twine)

Fresh bay leaf
Fresh thyme, rosemary, sage
Celtic sea salt, 1‐2 teaspoons, to be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking
Parsley, to be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking

Instructions
Rinse chicken, feet and heads in purified water. Cut whole chicken in half down the middle lengthwise. Place these in the pot. Add remaining ingredients. Fill pot with purified water. Allow the pot and its contents to stand for 30 minutes, giving the raw apple cider vinegar time to draw minerals out of the bones. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Add parsley and salt during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove the chicken and other large parts. Debone and reserve the meat for eating. It will be delicious. Strain the stock. Set aside remaining ingredients for preparing chicken bone broth (chicken bone stock).


Beef or Lamb Meat Stock
Ingredients
4‐5 pounds of bone marrow and knuckle bones
3 pounds of meaty ribs or neck bones
1 calf’s foot, if available, cut into pieces (optional)
4 or more quarts of purified water
2 teaspoons Celtic sea salt
4 ounces raw apple cider vinegar


Assortment of vegetables, as desired

1‐2 medium yellow onions
2‐4 carrots
3‐4 celery stalks
1 teaspoon dried peppercorns, crushed



Bouquet garni (tie together using cooking twine)

Fresh bay leaf
Fresh thyme, rosemary, sage
Parsley, to be added in the last 10 minutes of cooking

Instructions
Place the bones, meat and joints into a large pot. You may roast the meaty bones in a pan in an oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You may roast the meaty bones in a roasting pan until well browned, for extra flavor. Place these in the pot. Add remaining ingredients. Fill pot with purified water. Allow the pot and its contents to stand for 60 minutes, giving the raw apple cider vinegar time to draw minerals out of the bones. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 3 to 4 hours.

Add parsley during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Remove the beef and other large parts. Debone and reserve the meat for eating. It will be delicious. Strain the stock. Set aside remaining ingredients for preparing beef or lamb bone broth. Additional ingredients to consider for variety would be garlic, ginger and lemon rind, to name a few. Avoid adding starchy vegetables to your stock.


Bone Broth (Bone Stock) Recipes

To make bone stock (broth) you may follow the above recipes and after deboning, add additional purified water and continue cooking according to these recommendations:

Fish Bone Broth – simmer for 4 hours.
Chicken, Pheasant or Turkey Bone Broth – simmer for 12 to 24 hours.
Beef or Lamb Bone Broth – simmer for 36 to 48 hours.
Bon appétit!

[Arrowwind]

Would you be able to recommend any sources or methods for cleansing those emotional traumas and debilitating behavior patterns? I know some of RLH's original work deals with that and have some of that info already. Wondering if there are other approaches that are equally if not more effective and accelerated? I really need to put my foot down and start clearing myself as Ive been putting it off for the past few years....too many distractions. Thanks in advance :)

Since pathwalker didnt respond to your question I may be able to give some insight being that I have done some work in this area both personally for self and for others.

Two methods have worked for me so I went on to provide these methods to others. Regarding acceleration in the process. You can only so so fast. Do a work. take some time to integrate yourself after then go again if you are not done.


Rebirthing has been highly effective for identifying trauma and releasing it. It detoxes intra- cellularly and it is within the cell that many emotional issues are stored, as well as drugs, metals and other toxins. I have seen people's body structure change after rebirthing as well as their consciousness to have become more fully empowered. A close to rebirthing is Reichian therapy, which is strongly connected to breath work also. Ive saw one woman literally blind have their vision restored right in front of me after clearling negativity, and in this case specifically anger, stored in and around the eyes. The biggest difference between rebirthing and Reichian therapy is that with Reichian therapy focus of intent with breath is taken to very specific body parts to get in touch with the emotion that may be lodged there causing disease or discomfort. After a lot of breathing and a a lot of screaming the release comes. Its not always screaming but so often the emotion associated is incredible terror or anger that screaming is appropriate. Sometimes its just sadness expressed. With rebirthing the goal is to remember birth trauma and release it but I have seen so many other things transpire in a rebirthing session when the birth was never even remembered.. for instance I was rebirthing a woman once who during the session we ended up focusing on her lungs, as she was really directing where her healing was needed. With the breathing an incredible stench filled the room, I had to go open windows and doors for air so I could stick by her. When she was done she said the the smell was the smell and taste of a drug she had been given during the birth of her daughter via a breathing mask. She reported a feeling of openness in her lungs and heart chakra afterwards. The very next moring her daughter called. They had been estranged for years. The release was on mulitlevels and they were then able to repair their relatonship... all done through the eithers so to speak with the release of the drug and the emotions she had lodged within her breathing mechinisms. Many negative emotions are stored in repressed breathing patterens so rebirthing and or reichian therapy can get them out.

Past life regression is another form that is helpful to people. In a regression you can actually recall birth truama also but I think this particular aspect is better done in rebirthing and the intense breathwork that comes with that process. With past life regression you are guided back through hypnotherapy to recall events not only that transpired early in this life but in previous lives. With the connect of memory recall to events that have hurt us or damaged us or that stimulated feeling say perhaps of guilt or shame or whatever, with their recall people are sometimes able to gain enough self-reflection to shift out of negative patterns that has been controlling the from prevous life events. Release of emotional bondage often brings an associated physical healing. Massage therapy can also bring emotional release. Many emotions are stored as I said, cellularly, and that can translate to muscle complexes or in actual fascia. Working these tissues can bring about an emotional release and sometimes an intellectual understanding as well of what occured to create the blockage. One of my experiences with this was the release of a huge amount of sadness when a Chiropractor was working on me along my spine with some deep massage that was quite painful I would add, when I was about 20 years old. The pain i processed with my breathing. Finally just one day I broke down and I just laid there sobbing on his table as he worked on points over my heart chakra. I was much better able to deal with family issues after that, I didn't have any physical illnesses associated with that muscle memory.. just a lot of sadness and grief. If it had persisted over the years though it could have developed into much more.


Other methods are in the more shamanic levels of therapy. You can journey to become connected with your spirit guide or animal and that is extremely helpful for some people. I did this long ago and although my animals periodically change there are a couple what have guided me though some very complex learning. It was also through journey work that I connected with what I call my higest high self. This being, which I believe to be a part of me, and has told me that it is so, has advised me on crucial life decisions over the years. This being is still accessible to me when I seek him out. Other aspects of journey work can provide for you soul retrieval that is generally gone by someone who has been specifically trained for this work. I cant comment personally on this as I have been advised by those who know that it is not an issue for me, I have not had the work done and I have not helped others to do this.. but I think past life regression covers some of this in some cases in a profound but different way. But it seems that loss of part of ones soul is an event that brings lots of emotional problems to people and it interferes with their best judgements and potential for functioning in a balanced way in life. Then there is the down right exorcisms done by shamans, priests and other that can bring an emotional release for if you are controlled in part or totally by another entity it must be delt with in order to advance on one's own path. Ive never facilitates this but I have been to several as a support to the woman doing the work. She liked to have people with her that she trusted to pray and to hold the energy.. as some of these spirits are tough trouble. In my own self I cast out a demon who tried to enter my body, It was a battle through the night, He never really got fully in and it was through my own power and the grace of god and my instinctive ability to call upon the correct force for help that I got though it. Ive never been bothered since. Although I have had incidences of being stalked by people since then, Ive always won the battle. Ive never since experienced any psychic attacks or people pulling on my emotional body in a very very long time. I have been trained in how to cut vampires from my energetic field and that state of being that is requried is a natual sheild that one can learn to carry or to actually be.

so there are many ways to do emotional release. some people benefit from very simple ceremony such as a flowering tree ceremony, calling upon the plant world to help them find their release but I suspect that this will not due for some of the more ingrained or potent problems.

I hope you find this helpful, if perhaps it was not really the correct thread for this topic, the question was asked and it is the root of many diseases... but not all.

[onawah]

An Inspiring Visual Journey of Personal Healing
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/02/fat-sick-nearly-dead-documentary.aspx?e_cid=20130202_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130202
YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE LINK TO WATCH THE INSPIRING DOCUMENTARY VIDEO, UNLESS THE MODS KNOW HOW TO EMBED IT HERE.

By Dr. Mercola

A number of fascinating and well-produced documentaries about health have emerged over the past few years, and this one is no exception. Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, the award-winning film by Australian entrepreneur Joe Cross, offers an inspiring glimpse into the journey of self-healing with food.

With two-thirds of Americans overweight or obese, one-in-four being pre-diabetic or diabetic, and heart disease and cancer topping the mortality charts, the issue of how to achieve good health has never been more pertinent to more people.

The film also features Phil Staples, a morbidly obese truck driver who, like Joe, suffers from a debilitating autoimmune disease.

"As Joe is recovering his health, Phil begins his own epic journey to get well. What emerges is nothing short of amazing – an inspiring tale of healing and human connection.

Part road trip, part self-help manifesto, FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD defies the traditional documentary format to present an unconventional and uplifting story of two men from different worlds who each realize that the only person who can save them is themselves."1

The film offers powerful testament to the profound healing ability of your body – if only you will give it a chance. Nutrition is to your body what fuel is for your car.

You cannot expect a Lamborghini to run on diesel. Likewise, stuffing yourself with denatured, wholly “dead” processed foods laden with unnatural and oftentimes toxic chemicals is bound to have consequences.

Obesity and related health problems are directly attributable to flawed diet – a diet too high in carbs and poor-quality proteins, and too low in healthy fats. First and foremost, a healthy diet is based on fresh whole, preferably organic foods, and foods that have been minimally processed.

A Personal Journey of Healing

Joe, while an Australian, is in terms of health very much a stereotypical American. And, like so many others, came to realize that without your health, nothing else much matters.

By the time he hit 40, he was “professionally successful but physically bankrupt,” tipping the scales at 300 pounds and taking multiple medications for an autoimmune disease doctors could not find the root cause of. His weight, his mysterious medical condition, and side effects from the drugs were sapping his life away and destroying his quality of life.

“When I turned 40, I realized that I had been all talk and no action for years,saying that someday I would change my life and do something to reclaim the robust health I had enjoyed as a younger man,” he says.2

“It was a sobering realization – I had focused my capacity for action, determination and discipline on nothing but creating wealth. It was time to harness those skills to create health.

It occurred to me that I was not alone. Yes, my disease was very rare – but lots of people are sick. And you certainly don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that most of us in the developed world are unhealthily fat. Like lots of people, I had been outsourcing my health problems to doctors, but no one had been able to fix what ailed me. What if I could take control of the problem, and my own role in creating the situation?”

Shunning his steady diet of processed food for real, whole foods – the stuff that grows in the ground and on trees and is sold without a nutrition label – was the logical place to start. For the first 60 days, he juiced his way across the United States with film crew in tow, talking to people about their diets along the way. Says Joe:

“Making this movie changed my life, opened my eyes and re-focused my mission on something that is startling simple and utterly effective: helping people reclaim their health and vitality as I did by consuming more fruits and vegetables... It is amazing what can happen. I can vouch for this by first-hand experience. After 60 days of juice and another 70 days of eating just fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans and seeds I was 100 lbs lighter and off all medication. I've been that way ever since.”

8 Things Your Grandparents Did That Could Save Your Life

A recent article in Mind Body Green3 offers some pertinent advice. In it, Dr. Alejandra Carrasco lists eight forgotten wisdoms your grandparents adhered to that could quite literally save your life. To learn more, please follow the hyperlinks provided:
Grow your own food Get back in the kitchen and learn to cook from scratch
Make your own cleaning products Learn some home remedies
Discover the power of broth Ferment your own foods
Firm up your social network and close friendships Spend time outside / Go barefoot

Take Control of Your Health and Embrace Real Food

If you're at all concerned about your health – whether you want to gain health or maintain it – nutrition is paramount. In fact, your diet accounts for about 80 percent of the health benefits reaped from a healthy lifestyle, with the remaining 20 percent from exercise.

First and foremost, a healthy diet is based on fresh whole, preferably organic foods, and foods that have been minimally processed. These are the signs of high-quality, health-promoting foods you'll want to look for when grocery shopping. If the food meets these criteria, it is most likely a wise choice, and would fall under the designation of "real food," which is the very foundation of good health:

It's grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
It's not genetically engineered
It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
It does not contain any artificial ingredients, including chemical preservatives
It is fresh (keep in mind that if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may be the better option)
It did not come from a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO)
It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

How to Find Locally-Grown Foods

Additionally, here are some great resources to obtain wholesome, farm-fresh food that supports not only you but also the environment:

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Farmers' Markets – A national listing of farmers' markets.
Local Harvest – This Web site will help you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals – The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) – CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
FoodRoutes – The FoodRoutes "Find Good Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you.

[onawah]

Another great article (with video) from Dr. Mercola, this one about the importance of good dental health, including info about the importance of diet, particularly pro-biotics and fermented foods, as well as the use of baking soda.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/03/minimally-invasive-dentistry.aspx?e_cid=20130203_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130203
g0bQtI4XD-0


By Dr. Mercola
It’s very difficult to achieve high-level physical health if your dental health isn’t effectively addressed. I’ve been involved with alternatives to regular dentistry for quite some time. I think many people fail to appreciate how important dentistry is to our total health.

Most tend to separate these two components, but both need to be considered as working in tandem.

Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;” creating an endless loop of revisits and retreating the same tooth again and again.

Instead, by using dietary prevention to create a healthy cavity-fighting bioflora in your mouth; dental prophylaxis such as brushing and irrigating with baking soda, and oil pulling; combined with minimally invasive restorations starting as early as possible, you can prevent about 80 percent of future dental problems.

Minimally Invasive Dentistry — A Valuable Aspect of Biological Dentistry

Dr. Tim Rainey is a true pioneer in biological dentistry, and is a big proponent of and leader in what’s termed “minimally invasive dentistry.”

“Basically, I knew that the way that we were preparing teeth back then was dead wrong; that you couldn’t go in and justify destroying massive amounts of tooth structure,” Dr. Rainey says. “...We need to be much more conservative.”

After dental school, the training and dogma of which he rebelled against, he began investigating alternatives to the standard “drill and fill” dogma. After reading a hallmark article by a Japanese researcher back in 1977, he began to put everything together:

How tooth decay actually occurs, what the tooth looks like on the inside, how the decay looks like, and finally, what could be done to minimize the damage being done to the tooth while trying to restore it.

“It took me about until 1983 to really understand what was really going on within the teeth. I’m talking several years there. I’m talking about dissecting hundreds, if not thousands, of teeth...

I realized two things. Number one, we did not even have a rudimentary understanding of the decay process in the teeth. Number two, everything that we’ve been taught about tooth structure and anatomy was just dead wrong.

By 1985, I had actually published the article on how to address 80 percent of all decay, which is in the chewing surface of the back teeth. That’s where most decay starts. We had a rather crude rudimentary way of going in and treating these teeth,” he says.

Minimally Invasive Restorations Can Last a Lifetime

The first patient he used his newly devised procedure on was the daughter of one of his class mates from dental school. The girl received these minimally invasive restorations in 1983 or ’84. Today, she is Dr. Rainey’s lead hygienist, and those restorations are still there, and those teeth have never decayed or broken down.

This is in stark contrast to what happens with most conventional fillings, especially if the dentist uses amalgam (about half of which is mercury, despite being deceptively referred to as “silver filling”). When you drill into the tooth with a high speed drill, and then stuff amalgam or other incompatible material in there, you can be almost certain that you will need additional work on that tooth down the road as the tooth begins to crack and the tooth structure fails.

“The average is somewhere around 14 to 15 years before the breakdown of the first restoration in the tooth and then somewhere around eight years for the second restoration,” Dr. Rainey says.

“Then you’re into the tooth has fractured, you start getting decay in between the teeth. That’s the root. That will destruct your teeth. Decay starts breaking down the teeth, and then you start getting into crowns and root canals. Here you have a whole series of manmade iatrogenic (dentistry-caused) 'disasters,' which fuels the future generations of dentists. It also fuels 80 percent of what all dental practice is about, that is repairing previous dentistry.”

By using early diagnosis and early intervention with minimally invasive dentistry, Dr. Rainey and other dentists trained in his techniques have eliminated 80 percent of future dentistry on the vast majority of their patients who are privileged to grow up in a practice such as theirs. As someone who has struggled with my own dental health, this sounds absolutely extraordinary. That equates to phenomenal savings in terms of money, pain, and emotional anguish, if you happen to be afraid of the dentist chair.

“Remember, there are several other people throughout the world who are now doing this. It has a very profound effect. We’re talking about something that the evidence of information has been out there approaching 30 years – three decades. Dental patients found out about it like they did in alternative medicine... They seek me out from all over. We have patients coming in from Canada. We haven’t even counted the number of states; I would say something around 30 states,” Dr. Rainey says.

“Of course, there are easier and simpler ways to do dentistry! You start these kids off very early. You eliminate the decay... and guess what? They don’t have much decay later on. We call it bulletproofing the teeth; where we go in, identify the defective pit, fissures, and grooves in the teeth, and clean those out.

There are several different types of materials that we can use. My preference is for glass ionomer cement... Not only do those chewing surfaces on those teeth never decay, but the interproximal areas are gaining some degree of protection because you’re removing the nidus of the infection, which is the bacteria within the teeth that are causing decay. You don’t have that bolus of xbowel bioactivity there to lead off into decay.”

Understanding Tooth Structure

The tooth is covered with a layer of lipoprotein, laden with calcium phosphate that comes and goes — eating and drinking, especially acidic foodstuffs and beverages, remove it, while saliva puts it back. Beneath that is an extremely hard and dense layer of enamel, which is about 0.2 millimeters, or 200-400 microns thick. Inside of that hard layer, the tooth structure becomes much softer. These parts all form the structural integrity of the tooth.

When you bite down on the tooth, the stress is transferred through the entire tooth down into the root, which deforms slightly. This is part of its natural stress-relieving mechanism. During the formation of the tooth can form little pits, fissures and grooves that may be hypocalcific — a defect that causes the enamel to be softer than normal and susceptible to decay.

“In the ideal world, you do not have decay start down in these pits and fissures, because you have a natural oil-based organic plug that seals that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains. “However, in the real world what happens is as these teeth are finalizing development, you’ll get what we call 'hypocalcified enamel.' Now, if you put acid in that area, then you start getting a calcium deficit. That’s the beginning of decay in teeth.”

He identifies those areas, and using a miniature air abrasion tip that is very precise and focused, cleans out those pits, fissures and grooves. This removes the initial decay. Then he seals it with glass ionomer. The end result is that those teeth tend to not decay in the future.

Why Decay Occurs

Tooth decay is primarily driven by the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and acidity, which creates a pathogenic bioflora in your mouth. If you’re continually lowering the pH in your mouth, you start losing calcium, which is necessary for strong healthy teeth. Calcium deficiency leads to porosity in the teeth, which allows plaque that has turned pathogenic to attack the tooth more thoroughly. Once certain types of bacteria are able to penetrate the enamel, they put out enzymes that begin to break down the collagen of the inner structure of the tooth.

“That’s where you get cavitation, which is the loss of tooth structure to the point where you have a hole in that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains.

One of the most important things Dr. Rainey instructs his patients to do is to use nothing but baking soda on their teeth at night.

“The pathogenic bacteria must have an acidic environment. Then you have the bacteria – the probiotic bacteria – that live in a neutral environment. You’re going to have X number of bacteria regardless of what you do. So, why not promote the non-pathogenic bacteria by neutralizing the acidity with baking soda at night, which has profound effects on the overall oral health of the individual?” Dr. Rainey says.

You can brush with it, use it as a mouth rinse, and even dissolve a little in the water you use in your WaterPik or HydroFloss.

To brush: Wet your toothbrush and dip it into the baking soda. Brush as usual. Your teeth should feel smooth when finished
To rinse: About a teaspoon in a small glass of water is sufficient. Just swish it around in your mouth and spit out
To floss: Dissolve a small amount of baking soda in water and fill your irrigation instrument. Make sure not to let it dry inside your water pik as it will cause buildup and eventually render the tool useless. So, always keep water in your irrigation tool, and instead of storing it standing up, store it upside-down in a glass of baking soda and water, as the baking soda will prevent harmful bacteria from proliferating. Once a week, drain it all out and rinse it thoroughly with water

In the mornings, you could use toothpaste containing calcium and phosphate salts, or even hydroxyapatite, which can help remineralize your teeth.

“Since the Pro-Enamel [toothpaste], I’ve believed that almost all of the toothpastes out there now have calcium of some form in them. The magic is the calcium phosphate. You want those present, so they can precipitate back into the teeth as amorphous hydroxyapatite... You’re rebuilding an amorphous crystal of enamel, because of all the interactions of the enzymes, calcium, phosphate, and everything else that goes on within your mouth.

Where you really mess this up is by getting it too acidic. That’s where the baking soda comes in.

We use it in our cancer patients, where they have a real deficit of calcium and phosphate in their saliva – people who have problems. The brand name of it, as a prescription item, is called Caphoso®. You actually get it in a calcium solution, a phosphate salt solution. You mix those together, and then you rinse with them.” That;s the building block of enamel, and what it takes to remineralize enamel.

Promote Beneficial Oral Bacteria with Fermented Foods

To promote a beneficial oral bioflora he also recommends taking Evora tablets while you’re trying to change the bacterial balance in your mouth. Eating fermented foods, such as cultured yoghurt made from raw organic milk (AVOID store-bought yoghurts as they are worthless in terms of probiotics. Most are loaded with sugars and other detrimental ingredients, and all of them are pasteurized), or fermented vegetables, which you can easily and inexpensively make at home.

According to Dr. Rainey, any type of probiotics will naturally help get rid of harmful Strep mutans. This includes Lactobacillus and bacteria that are bioactive in high concentrations of lactic acid.

To Pull or Not to Pull...

Another interesting technique that can help improve your oral health is oil pulling. The technique is thousands of years old, and it’s an ancient Ayurvedic Indian tradition. To perform it, you vigorously swish an oil in your mouth, “pulling” it between your teeth for 20-30 minutes. You can use a number of oils for this, but sesame, sunflower or coconut oil are commonly used. Dr. Rainey is also working extensively with ozonated oils.

Oil pulling is thought to remove pathogenic bacteria, improve oral hygiene, and help detoxify your system. Dr. Rainey agrees the technique can be beneficial. A drawback is that it is time consuming. You need to go at it for quite some time in order to get results. It’s not like swishing with mouthwash for 30 seconds. Ideally, you’ll want to reach close to 30 minutes.

The Three Main Components of Minimally Invasive Dentistry

Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;” creating an endless loop of revisits and fixing old dental work until there’s nothing left to work with. It comprises three main components:

Dietary prevention (creating a healthy bioflora in your mouth and body)
Dental prophylaxis (baking soda; oil pulling)
Minimally invasive restorations

As for dental prophylaxis, the simplest thing is just adding baking soda to your nightly oral hygiene. Ideally, add it to your dental irrigator, and brush with it. You can also use oil pulling in conjunction with this. They’re not mutually exclusive. You can combine the two, because it will provide a sort of organic matrix plug, which helps combat dental decay. And ultimately, you want to change the bioflora in your mouth, which is done through your diet. Fermented foods are key. A high-quality probiotic supplement may suffice if you really cannot stand fermented foods. I urge you to at least try some fermented veggies though, as they are, for most people, the most palatable. I think they’re delicious!

The next step, (where, ideally, you’d start your kids off) would be to see a dentist trained in minimally invasive dentistry. Kids treated with the NovaMin or baking soda air abrasion process to clean the pits and fissures and then seal them with glass ionomer, receive significant protection against future decay.

How to Find a Biological and Minimally Invasive Dentist

At present, there are a number of dentists trained in Dr. Rainey’s techniques. Several of them are in California and Florida. There’s also one in Beirut, Lebanon, and in New Zealand. To locate a qualified dentist, you can contact Dr. Rainey’s office at www.jtimrainey.com, or call 361-526-4695.

If there’s no minimally invasive dentistry practice in your area, or within reasonable travel distance, the following links can help you to find a mercury-free, biological dentist. These may not be trained in Dr. Rainey’s minimally invasive dentistry technique, but are trained to treat your oral and physical health as a cohesive whole. If you’re considering removing amalgam, you also need to make sure it’s done by biological dentist that’s been properly trained to do it safely, as removing amalgam can lead to severe and acute mercury poisoning:

Consumers for Dental Choice
International Academy of Biological Dentistry & Medicine (IABDM)
Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS). E-mail them at: dams@usfamily.net or call 651-644-4572 for an information packet
Huggins Applied Healing. You’ll need to fill out a form and they will connect with you to find a suitable dentist in your area
Holistic Dental Association
International Association of Mercury Safe Dentists

[lookbeyond]

Another great article (with video) from Dr. Mercola, this one about the importance of good dental health, including info about the importance of diet, particularly pro-biotics and fermented foods, as well as the use of baking soda.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/03/minimally-invasive-dentistry.aspx?e_cid=20130203_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130203
g0bQtI4XD-0


By Dr. Mercola
It’s very difficult to achieve high-level physical health if your dental health isn’t effectively addressed. I’ve been involved with alternatives to regular dentistry for quite some time. I think many people fail to appreciate how important dentistry is to our total health.

Most tend to separate these two components, but both need to be considered as working in tandem.

Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;” creating an endless loop of revisits and retreating the same tooth again and again.

Instead, by using dietary prevention to create a healthy cavity-fighting bioflora in your mouth; dental prophylaxis such as brushing and irrigating with baking soda, and oil pulling; combined with minimally invasive restorations starting as early as possible, you can prevent about 80 percent of future dental problems.

Minimally Invasive Dentistry — A Valuable Aspect of Biological Dentistry

Dr. Tim Rainey is a true pioneer in biological dentistry, and is a big proponent of and leader in what’s termed “minimally invasive dentistry.”

“Basically, I knew that the way that we were preparing teeth back then was dead wrong; that you couldn’t go in and justify destroying massive amounts of tooth structure,” Dr. Rainey says. “...We need to be much more conservative.”

After dental school, the training and dogma of which he rebelled against, he began investigating alternatives to the standard “drill and fill” dogma. After reading a hallmark article by a Japanese researcher back in 1977, he began to put everything together:

How tooth decay actually occurs, what the tooth looks like on the inside, how the decay looks like, and finally, what could be done to minimize the damage being done to the tooth while trying to restore it.

“It took me about until 1983 to really understand what was really going on within the teeth. I’m talking several years there. I’m talking about dissecting hundreds, if not thousands, of teeth...

I realized two things. Number one, we did not even have a rudimentary understanding of the decay process in the teeth. Number two, everything that we’ve been taught about tooth structure and anatomy was just dead wrong.

By 1985, I had actually published the article on how to address 80 percent of all decay, which is in the chewing surface of the back teeth. That’s where most decay starts. We had a rather crude rudimentary way of going in and treating these teeth,” he says.

Minimally Invasive Restorations Can Last a Lifetime

The first patient he used his newly devised procedure on was the daughter of one of his class mates from dental school. The girl received these minimally invasive restorations in 1983 or ’84. Today, she is Dr. Rainey’s lead hygienist, and those restorations are still there, and those teeth have never decayed or broken down.

This is in stark contrast to what happens with most conventional fillings, especially if the dentist uses amalgam (about half of which is mercury, despite being deceptively referred to as “silver filling”). When you drill into the tooth with a high speed drill, and then stuff amalgam or other incompatible material in there, you can be almost certain that you will need additional work on that tooth down the road as the tooth begins to crack and the tooth structure fails.

“The average is somewhere around 14 to 15 years before the breakdown of the first restoration in the tooth and then somewhere around eight years for the second restoration,” Dr. Rainey says.

“Then you’re into the tooth has fractured, you start getting decay in between the teeth. That’s the root. That will destruct your teeth. Decay starts breaking down the teeth, and then you start getting into crowns and root canals. Here you have a whole series of manmade iatrogenic (dentistry-caused) 'disasters,' which fuels the future generations of dentists. It also fuels 80 percent of what all dental practice is about, that is repairing previous dentistry.”

By using early diagnosis and early intervention with minimally invasive dentistry, Dr. Rainey and other dentists trained in his techniques have eliminated 80 percent of future dentistry on the vast majority of their patients who are privileged to grow up in a practice such as theirs. As someone who has struggled with my own dental health, this sounds absolutely extraordinary. That equates to phenomenal savings in terms of money, pain, and emotional anguish, if you happen to be afraid of the dentist chair.

“Remember, there are several other people throughout the world who are now doing this. It has a very profound effect. We’re talking about something that the evidence of information has been out there approaching 30 years – three decades. Dental patients found out about it like they did in alternative medicine... They seek me out from all over. We have patients coming in from Canada. We haven’t even counted the number of states; I would say something around 30 states,” Dr. Rainey says.

“Of course, there are easier and simpler ways to do dentistry! You start these kids off very early. You eliminate the decay... and guess what? They don’t have much decay later on. We call it bulletproofing the teeth; where we go in, identify the defective pit, fissures, and grooves in the teeth, and clean those out.

There are several different types of materials that we can use. My preference is for glass ionomer cement... Not only do those chewing surfaces on those teeth never decay, but the interproximal areas are gaining some degree of protection because you’re removing the nidus of the infection, which is the bacteria within the teeth that are causing decay. You don’t have that bolus of xbowel bioactivity there to lead off into decay.”

Understanding Tooth Structure

The tooth is covered with a layer of lipoprotein, laden with calcium phosphate that comes and goes — eating and drinking, especially acidic foodstuffs and beverages, remove it, while saliva puts it back. Beneath that is an extremely hard and dense layer of enamel, which is about 0.2 millimeters, or 200-400 microns thick. Inside of that hard layer, the tooth structure becomes much softer. These parts all form the structural integrity of the tooth.

When you bite down on the tooth, the stress is transferred through the entire tooth down into the root, which deforms slightly. This is part of its natural stress-relieving mechanism. During the formation of the tooth can form little pits, fissures and grooves that may be hypocalcific — a defect that causes the enamel to be softer than normal and susceptible to decay.

“In the ideal world, you do not have decay start down in these pits and fissures, because you have a natural oil-based organic plug that seals that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains. “However, in the real world what happens is as these teeth are finalizing development, you’ll get what we call 'hypocalcified enamel.' Now, if you put acid in that area, then you start getting a calcium deficit. That’s the beginning of decay in teeth.”

He identifies those areas, and using a miniature air abrasion tip that is very precise and focused, cleans out those pits, fissures and grooves. This removes the initial decay. Then he seals it with glass ionomer. The end result is that those teeth tend to not decay in the future.

Why Decay Occurs

Tooth decay is primarily driven by the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and acidity, which creates a pathogenic bioflora in your mouth. If you’re continually lowering the pH in your mouth, you start losing calcium, which is necessary for strong healthy teeth. Calcium deficiency leads to porosity in the teeth, which allows plaque that has turned pathogenic to attack the tooth more thoroughly. Once certain types of bacteria are able to penetrate the enamel, they put out enzymes that begin to break down the collagen of the inner structure of the tooth.

“That’s where you get cavitation, which is the loss of tooth structure to the point where you have a hole in that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains.

One of the most important things Dr. Rainey instructs his patients to do is to use nothing but baking soda on their teeth at night.

“The pathogenic bacteria must have an acidic environment. Then you have the bacteria – the probiotic bacteria – that live in a neutral environment. You’re going to have X number of bacteria regardless of what you do. So, why not promote the non-pathogenic bacteria by neutralizing the acidity with baking soda at night, which has profound effects on the overall oral health of the individual?” Dr. Rainey says.

You can brush with it, use it as a mouth rinse, and even dissolve a little in the water you use in your WaterPik or HydroFloss.

To brush: Wet your toothbrush and dip it into the baking soda. Brush as usual. Your teeth should feel smooth when finished
To rinse: About a teaspoon in a small glass of water is sufficient. Just swish it around in your mouth and spit out
To floss: Dissolve a small amount of baking soda in water and fill your irrigation instrument. Make sure not to let it dry inside your water pik as it will cause buildup and eventually render the tool useless. So, always keep water in your irrigation tool, and instead of storing it standing up, store it upside-down in a glass of baking soda and water, as the baking soda will prevent harmful bacteria from proliferating. Once a week, drain it all out and rinse it thoroughly with water

In the mornings, you could use toothpaste containing calcium and phosphate salts, or even hydroxyapatite, which can help remineralize your teeth.

“Since the Pro-Enamel [toothpaste], I’ve believed that almost all of the toothpastes out there now have calcium of some form in them. The magic is the calcium phosphate. You want those present, so they can precipitate back into the teeth as amorphous hydroxyapatite... You’re rebuilding an amorphous crystal of enamel, because of all the interactions of the enzymes, calcium, phosphate, and everything else that goes on within your mouth.

Where you really mess this up is by getting it too acidic. That’s where the baking soda comes in.

We use it in our cancer patients, where they have a real deficit of calcium and phosphate in their saliva – people who have problems. The brand name of it, as a prescription item, is called Caphoso®. You actually get it in a calcium solution, a phosphate salt solution. You mix those together, and then you rinse with them.” That;s the building block of enamel, and what it takes to remineralize enamel.

Promote Beneficial Oral Bacteria with Fermented Foods

To promote a beneficial oral bioflora he also recommends taking Evora tablets while you’re trying to change the bacterial balance in your mouth. Eating fermented foods, such as cultured yoghurt made from raw organic milk (AVOID store-bought yoghurts as they are worthless in terms of probiotics. Most are loaded with sugars and other detrimental ingredients, and all of them are pasteurized), or fermented vegetables, which you can easily and inexpensively make at home.

According to Dr. Rainey, any type of probiotics will naturally help get rid of harmful Strep mutans. This includes Lactobacillus and bacteria that are bioactive in high concentrations of lactic acid.

To Pull or Not to Pull...

Another interesting technique that can help improve your oral health is oil pulling. The technique is thousands of years old, and it’s an ancient Ayurvedic Indian tradition. To perform it, you vigorously swish an oil in your mouth, “pulling” it between your teeth for 20-30 minutes. You can use a number of oils for this, but sesame, sunflower or coconut oil are commonly used. Dr. Rainey is also working extensively with ozonated oils.

Oil pulling is thought to remove pathogenic bacteria, improve oral hygiene, and help detoxify your system. Dr. Rainey agrees the technique can be beneficial. A drawback is that it is time consuming. You need to go at it for quite some time in order to get results. It’s not like swishing with mouthwash for 30 seconds. Ideally, you’ll want to reach close to 30 minutes.

The Three Main Components of Minimally Invasive Dentistry

Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry, like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;” creating an endless loop of revisits and fixing old dental work until there’s nothing left to work with. It comprises three main components:

Dietary prevention (creating a healthy bioflora in your mouth and body)
Dental prophylaxis (baking soda; oil pulling)
Minimally invasive restorations

As for dental prophylaxis, the simplest thing is just adding baking soda to your nightly oral hygiene. Ideally, add it to your dental irrigator, and brush with it. You can also use oil pulling in conjunction with this. They’re not mutually exclusive. You can combine the two, because it will provide a sort of organic matrix plug, which helps combat dental decay. And ultimately, you want to change the bioflora in your mouth, which is done through your diet. Fermented foods are key. A high-quality probiotic supplement may suffice if you really cannot stand fermented foods. I urge you to at least try some fermented veggies though, as they are, for most people, the most palatable. I think they’re delicious!

The next step, (where, ideally, you’d start your kids off) would be to see a dentist trained in minimally invasive dentistry. Kids treated with the NovaMin or baking soda air abrasion process to clean the pits and fissures and then seal them with glass ionomer, receive significant protection against future decay.

How to Find a Biological and Minimally Invasive Dentist

At present, there are a number of dentists trained in Dr. Rainey’s techniques. Several of them are in California and Florida. There’s also one in Beirut, Lebanon, and in New Zealand. To locate a qualified dentist, you can contact Dr. Rainey’s office at www.jtimrainey.com, or call 361-526-4695.

If there’s no minimally invasive dentistry practice in your area, or within reasonable travel distance, the following links can help you to find a mercury-free, biological dentist. These may not be trained in Dr. Rainey’s minimally invasive dentistry technique, but are trained to treat your oral and physical health as a cohesive whole. If you’re considering removing amalgam, you also need to make sure it’s done by biological dentist that’s been properly trained to do it safely, as removing amalgam can lead to severe and acute mercury poisoning:

Consumers for Dental Choice
International Academy of Biological Dentistry & Medicine (IABDM)
Dental Amalgam Mercury Solutions (DAMS). E-mail them at: dams@usfamily.net or call 651-644-4572 for an information packet
Huggins Applied Healing. You’ll need to fill out a form and they will connect with you to find a suitable dentist in your area
Holistic Dental Association
International Association of Mercury Safe Dentists





Hi , i followed the link above to see what sort of preventative dentistry Dr Rainey offers and he includes flouride treatments as part of his recommendations. Now regular dentists do this routinely, is there something that is a healthier option?

Any comments appreciated-lookbeyond

[lookbeyond]

Hi im bumping my own question re fluoride treatments and what people do instead,apart from brushing and flossing, the reason im asking is in my above post- any replies appreciated

[Dawn]

LookBeyond: Teeth are actually a HUGE issue in health. And... in general people don't realize how big a deal they are. Each tooth connects to a meridian in your body and any problems in your mouth can effect everything in that meridian. I nearly died from toxic dentistry about a year ago. I was very seriously ill and am still in a rebuilding phase of my health after my current dentist removed the dangerous metal needle which has been permanently inserted into my skull to hold in an old root canal. Anyway... your concern is well placed.

I started a thread some time ago about all of this and you will find it very interesting. It turns out that toothpaste actually CAUSES decay! Unbelievable but true!!! Here's the link:


http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?29298-Healthy-Teeth-Or-How-Toothpaste-Causes-Most-Dental-Problems

I actually enjoyed the article you posted, but I do not and will not use toothpaste with the knowledge I have about it. I do brush my teeth with baking soda nightly.

[Dawn]

AmerZo: Start with Meat Stock When Healing The Gut
Stock is used in the beginning stages of the GAPS Diet, especially during the Introduction Diet where the primary focus is in healing the gut. Broth is ideal for consuming once gut healing has taken place.

The significant difference is that the stock (meat stock) is not cooked as long as broth (bone stock).

Stock is especially rich in gelatin and free amino acids, like proline and glycine. These amino acids along with the gelatinous protein from the meat and connective tissue are particularly beneficial in healing and strengthening connective tissue. These nutrients are pulled out of the meat and connective tissue during the first several hours of cooking meaty fish, poultry, beef and lamb. The larger the bones, the longer the cooking time.

In Gut And Psychology Syndrome, Dr. Campbell‐McBride explains how to prepare stock (meat stock) to be used during the early stages of the GAPS Diet.

Amer Zo, thank you for bringing this up. I confess that I haven't really gotten into broth ... until I got reminded about this from your contribution. Thank You!

I went right out the day after I read your post and bought some beef neck bones. I usually don't follow recipes except as a general guideline and this was true with my bone and meat broth as well. I put in perhaps a cup of apple cider vinegar to my 2 quart sauce pan of water and bones. I added various herbs from the winter garden (lemon thyme, rosemary, Mexican oregano, and culinary oregano) and some onions I chopped and dried. I cooked it for about 8 hours and have had 5 meals from it so far. It is marvelous!!! Adding anything to it as it heats in the evening makes it amazing. Personally I like adding a variety of vegetables, some brewers yeast, and I scoop some sour kefir cream on top when it is served. Delicious and filling! Also easy to digest.

The total cost of all 5 meals was about $2.00 daily for the broth and then the cost of added vegetables.

[lookbeyond]

Hi, i reposted the article because when i read it the minimally invasive dentist recommended fluoride treatments which i thought most would have issue with here.I am looking for a possible replacement to this which is routinely done at childrens 6 monthly checkups here in Australia.You see i have younger children and i want to do all i can for them,apart from brushing and flossing i wondered was there anything extra recommended.I have contacted a holistic dentist and am yet to see what they do differently for children, the cost is huge.All comments appreciated-lb

[lookbeyond]

Hi im again bumping this thread as i am wanting opinions re alternatives to traditional dentists 6 monthly fluoride treatments for childrens teeth, any suggestions appreciated-lb

[Flash]

even if i had forbidden fluoride treatment on my daughter's teeth, for many reasons and explained to the dentist that she had neurological impairment and fluoride would be harmful, he still did it when I was not around, 3 times. This was hampering thousands of dollars of natural treatments she was receiving.
I was furious, demanded to be refunded the treatments, and went in his office, in front of customers, asking why he would give fluoride treatments while he knew very well they are at least innefective, and most probably dangerous for health.
As a university professor in dentistry, I said, you know very well these treatments are useless, it is proven.

They all put their heads down and said nothing. Then, one of the young dentist, at another appointment, ask me what fluoride could do to the nervous system. I explained and told him never to give that crap to children. He listened and ended up telling me he never take any fluoride treatment himself, with a wide sarcastic smile added "but it is not because of health but because of wanting a nice smile".

They litterally do it for money.

[lookbeyond]

Thanks Flash, would you mind if i asked you if apart from this incident if afterwards you continued to allow dentist to clean teeth,check up at 6 monthly interval, did you allow any fissure sealing to prevent cavity?, this is popular in Australia,but they use fluoride in the cement- lasts for years, thanks lb

[onawah]

I did not realize the dentist in that video I posted on the last page used fluoride.
Unbelievable.
My apologies for not researching that more before I posted it.
The mix of toxic chemicals that is passing as a substitute for natural fluoride now is incredibly toxic, and the whole fluoridated water thing is such a scam.

[HORIZONS]

Great thread :bump2: I will be back.

So very true - and the truth shall make you free :)

What a concept... we are dying and sickening because we have used the energy of kill and sterilize in our approach to health. Our energy would have been so much better spent focusing on life, and enhancing the health of our internal gardens.

[Gekko]

I've been making my way through this thread and I'm intrigued by the parts I understand.

I was born via C-section and had at least a few rounds of antibiotics in my first two or three years. My mother says I had frequent ear infections and had to have tubes at one point to drain the fluid. Looking at a summary of my medical record from 1995, I see that it lists "Dev delays in Expressive Language", meaning that although I had good comprehension, it took me longer to begin speaking. What's interesting is that today I still have notable problems with expressing myself verbally. I'm much better in writing.

"Transient hypogammaglobulinemia of infancy - outgrown age 2 1/2 years", which I'm told means that I had lower levels of antibodies than usual, but it eventually corrected itself.

Pneumovax vaccine for bacterial pneumonia on March of '92. Six months later I developed pneumonia, though I don't know if it was viral or bacterial.

I was diagnosed with an unknown type of Muscular Dystrophy at the end of '92. I finally got genetic testing last year and the result was Bethlem Myopathy, an exceedingly rare type, though mild in relation to Duchenne's.

Tested positive for latent Tuberculosis in 2009 and underwent a 6-month round of antibiotics. Had a comprehensive and renewed round of vaccines in 2011.

I've had problems with mental fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, etc. for at least four years now. Had sleep studies done, got my thyroid checked... nothing was found to be wrong. I also have regular bloating. Sometimes it gets harder to breathe when sitting down, whether because of the pressure of the stomach against the lungs or because of lung weakness from the muscular dystrophy... my pulmonologist has no clear answers here.

I loved my cereal as a teen and often ate it for breakfast and lunch every day. I was overweight (165 lbs at 16 years of age, at a height of 5'5") and spent most of my time at the computer. Since then I've lost 40 pounds and been walking a lot more. I still tend to keep a lot of my weight at the waistline. Haven't been tested for insulin resistance, but it may be worth my while at some point considering my symptoms and the fact that my father is prediabetic. Although, my blood pressure is usually pretty low and sometimes even approaches 90/50...

Not drawing any definite conclusions at this point from all of this, but it still may be useful to make connections.

I've been struggling with chronic depression and anxiety since my early teens. Was on Effexor and Klonopin (very strong drug) for five years from 2006 until 2011 when I weaned myself off of both. Now I'm looking for other ways to manage my health. I've been pescetarian for seven months with an eye towards going vegan at some point, though this thread makes me consider that it might be good to try a complete probiotic diet (reintroducing poultry) for a few years before going there. I'm new to preparing food for myself, much less special diets, so I still have a lot to learn here.

I do notice that there seems to be a considerable amount of tension between those who advocate a plant-based, high-carb diet versus those who advocate an omnivorous, high-fat diet. It's very confusing and I can only surmise that "one man's food is another man's poison"; different things work for different people... the one thing they do seem to agree on is the problems with wheat/gluten.

I've been reading The Ultramind Solution by Mark Hyman; it has a lot of gimmicky language but it seems to point at a lot of the same issues I've seen mentioned in this thread - buildup of toxins, poor gut function, leading to food allergies, etc. I've ordered the GAPS book and will be taking a closer look at that...

It's a big puzzle.

[Dawn]

GeKko: I was born via C-section and had at least a few rounds of antibiotics in my first two or three years.

You are a classic case for the GAPS program.... and your life sounds a lot like my first 35 years. I was diagnosed with so many serious illnesses and I was simply never well for all those years. My mom took antibiotics before and during her pregnancy while carrying me... not to mention all the antibiotics given to me for all the continuous infections and fevers I had.

All I can say is that you are in the right place. The GAPS book is excellent! And, unlike many other diet fads, it has documented success in helping people like you and me get well and stay that way.

My advice... start with small amounts of kefir and/or living sauerkraut right away. Eliminate the foods that are known to bother people with allergies (you can add most of them back in if you desire after you heal your internal garden). Make meat broth and bone broth frequently... and educate yourself.

Welcome to this thread! I'm so glad you found it!

[Gekko]

Welcome to this thread! I'm so glad you found it!

So am I :)

I'll try making some sauerkraut ASAP. Gonna get my hands on some mason jars and nice organic cabbage. I'm having trouble getting my roommates to smoke outside, so I'll probably do it at my parents' house until that changes... I'm not sure how that would affect the fermentation (besides the obvious hindrance to detox and healing in general by secondhand smoke). Getting a true-HEPA air purifier, but that'll still leave the smallest particles hanging around.

Dr. Hyman's book lists these food allergies as the most common (maybe in order of frequency, but I'm not sure):

- Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, triticale, kamut)
- Dairy (milk, cheese, butter, yogurt)
- Corn
- Eggs
- Soy
- Nuts
- Nightshades (tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, eggplant)
- Citrus
- Yeast (baker's yeast, brewer's yeast, and fermented products like vinegar)

Seems like you'd be in a bit of a fix if you were allergic to yeast?

I'm in the process of eliminating gluten and cutting way back on dairy. Not sure what else I want to eliminate right now. Been having cravings for pizza (which I used to eat once a week). Last night I substituted with mozzarella and tomatoes. Been green juicing regularly with kale, cucumber, celery, lemon, ginger, spinach and sometimes apple. In any case, if I follow this GAPS approach I'll ease slowly into things. If I'm understanding correctly, all fruits, beans, rice, etc have to go at some point. Gotta figure out where to get my calories then, because rice and beans has been a staple of mine. :p

I'm pretty much a teetotalist in the drug department so I don't have to go through those withdrawals... alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, etc. I smoke small amounts of marijuana maybe 2-3 times a year.

One question about kefir for future reference... does it need to be made with raw milk, or is organic milk ok? Only problem I foresee there is the ultra-pasteurization.

I have a jack a s s bitters tonic (yes that's what it's called) lying around somewhere that I bought last year with the idea of cleaning out any candida that may be in my system. I'll probably leave that alone for now.

[Gekko]

I don't recall if these videos have been posted already.

Homemade toothpaste with Zeolites and essential oils:

-CqR8UmAvZQ

Other dental regimens:

7NcfadJ9vx4

I ordered very fine Zeolites (less than 11 microns; the smallest 'mesh' size of -400 is 44 microns) and some peppermint essential oil to make the toothpaste with. I've been using a fluoride-free tooth powder called Eco-Dent, but it would be nice to have that extra detoxification. I've also been consuming a tablespoon of food grade diatomaceous earth dissolved in water every day.

[onawah]

I just made the most delicious desert!
I blended up the water and custardy filling from some young green Thai coconuts with honey, vanilla and some organic sour cream to thicken it
(soaked, blended almonds or other nuts could be used instead of sour cream.)
Divided it into two portions, leaving one half plain vanilla
Added cacao powder to the other half
Froze all in ice cube trays
Then put the cubes in the food processor to mix to an ice cream consistency
It tastes just like frozen custard, one of my favorite guiltiest treats, but this is natural, healthy and not nearly as fattening
Next time I will culture it first into kefir, but I was too impatient to do the test run this time.
I will buy some ice cream cones and...
NOM!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NRh4hRmckx0/R5s5lKwL4sI/AAAAAAAAADI/k5hl8L6I5Es/s400/custard.jpg

[onawah]

I just saw this article from Natural News which recommends chicken soup for building the immune system

http://www.naturalnews.com/039552_immunity_strengthening_food_choice.html


2) Homemade chicken soup. Arguably one of the most effective, and delicious, natural remedies for preventing and treating viral infections, homemade chicken soup made from whole, pasture-raised chickens is loaded with disease-fighting nutrients such as cysteine, an amino acid released during the cooking of chicken that, according to Prevention.com resembles the bronchitis drug acetylcysteine. Real chicken broth made from whole chickens, bones and all, also contains a host of beneficial fats, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that support vibrant immunity.

Gelatin, for instance, which is naturally formed in chicken broth, is a food substance composed of both essential and non-essential amino acids that is critical for regulating immunity, promoting healthy digestion, improving liver function, and strengthening bones. Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, Ph.D., C.C.N., writing for the Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), explains in further detail how the gelatin found in natural chicken broth is essential for health. You can read her paper here:
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/why-broth-is-beautiful

You can also learn how to make your own immune-boosting stocks and soups at home by visiting the following recipe page put together by Healthy Home Economist and WAPF Chapter Leader Sarah Pope: http://www.westonaprice.org

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039552_immunity_strengthening_food_choice.html#ixzz2Nxj10Zl2

[Hervé]

More about the GAPS diet from http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/autism-anorexia-its-all-about-gut:



From Autism to Anorexia, It's All About the Gut


Posted on: Sunday, March 17th 2013 at 5:00 am

Written By: Margie King, Health Coach (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/gmi-blogs/mmking)

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/sites/default/files/ckeditor/sayerji/images/autism_digesion_gaps.jpg

Whether you suffer with a chronic illness, psychiatric disorder or psychological condition, the first thing to check is your belly. "All diseases begin in the gut," says Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, M.D. (http://www.behealthy.org.uk/), a leading expert on the subject of autism as well as other learning disabilities and digestive disorders. In her work, she heals both mind and body by focusing on the health of the belly.

At her Cambridge Nutrition Clinic established in England in 1998, Dr. Campbell-McBride traces the connection between neurology and nutrition as well as digestion and the functioning of the rest of the body. "The digestive system holds the root of our health," she says pointing out the extensive role that gut flora plays in disease prevention, including protecting us from invading pathogens, detoxification, facilitating the digestion of food as well as the absorption of vitamins and minerals like calcium and zinc, and actually producing B vitamins. In addition, between 84-88% of the immune system is housed in the gut lining, she says, which would equal the size of a tennis court if opened up and laid flat .

"There cannot be cancer in the digestive tract if the gut flora is healthy," asserts Dr. Campbell-McBride, a medical doctor with postgraduate degrees in both neurology and human nutrition. But in today's society, many people are walking around with impaired gut flora due to steroids, prescription medications, alcohol, stress, a poor diet of processed foods and sugar (which actually feed abnormal gut flora), disease, age, bottle feeding of infants, toxic chemicals, pollution and radiation.


How Antibiotics Can Lead to Mercury Poisoning

A major cause of impaired gut flora are antibiotics and she worries about teenagers being treated for up to two years with acne drugs (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/tea-tree-oil-ameliorates-acne-fewer-side-effects-drug-benzoyl-peroxide), leaving them with serious damage.

Dr. Campbell-McBride points to a study showing that rats treated with antibiotics succumb to mercury poisoning (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/product/downloadable-document-mercury-poisoning) while those with untreated gut flora do not. She believes the same is true of humans and that, while the government warns against eating fish because of mercury and PCB contamination, a healthy gut should be able to tolerate the exposure and get the health benefits of eating fish.


Gut Health and the Autism Epidemic

According to Dr. Campbell-McBride, as a population we are degrading healthy gut flora more and more every generation. Mothers who have been on the Pill or antibiotics or a poor diet for long periods develop abnormal gut flora and pass it on to their children. This, she believes, has led to an epidemic of eczema and autism (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/disease/autism), noting that 20 years ago the autism rate was 1 in 10,000 children and today is 1 in 88.

When children are born with their mothers' unhealthy gut, they have immune compromised systems, develop ear and chest infections and are treated with antibiotics. All this creates more damage to their systems. As the gut wall suffers more damage, it becomes "leaky" (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/all-disease-and-health-begins-gut) and allows undigested food to enter the blood stream resulting in more prevalent food allergies, such as to peanuts.

As their systems become more and more damaged, these immune compromised children are subjected to multiple vaccines (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/there-positive-association-between-autism-prevalence-and-childhood-vaccination-uptake-across) designed for children with healthy immunity. But with impaired immune systems, she contends, these children suffer mental and developmental disabilities.

A poorly functioning gut can give rise to a wide range of seemingly unrelated problems, some of them very surprising. According to Dr. Campbell-McBride, a bad gut can manifest as asthma, allergies, eczema, chronic cystitis, bed wetting, sinusitis, post-nasal drip, rhinitis, gingivitis or vaginitis.

It can also lead to a variety of auto-immune conditions in which the immune system produces antibodies to attack its own tissues. In Type 1 diabetes, she says, the pancreas is attacked, in celiac disease (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/celiac-disease-emerging-global-problem) the small intestine is attacked and in multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia, it is the nervous system. Other conditions that can arise are arthritis, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.

In childhood, a compromised gut can lead to autism; ADHD/ADD; dyslexia; dyspraxia (a developmental co-ordination disorder); learning, behavior and social problems; and epilepsy. As these children enter their adult years, it can lead to substance abuse, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, manic depression and schizophrenia.


The Link Between Vegetarianism and Anorexia

Even eating disorders, which are typically treated as psychiatric or psychological conditions, says Dr. Campbell-McBride, can start with nutritional deficiencies very often arising from vegetarianism in young girls. She believes that as girls progress from vegetarianism to veganism, they cut more and more healthy fats out of their diets, especially vitamins A and D, and are left with a compromised immune system. They then develop mononucleosis or scarlet fever, and are treated with antibiotics, further damaging their gut. Eventually, she says, this leads to an altered sense of self-perception and anorexia (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/disease/anorexia).

Dr. Campbell-McBride's treatment is to provide low calorie beef broth and vegetable soup with a regimen of supplements, including high doses of amino acids, B vitamins, vitamins A and D, zinc (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/zinc-supplementation-may-be-clinical-benefit-patiens-anorexia-nervosa) and essential fatty acids. In her experience, it takes about two to four weeks for the patient's neurotransmitters to restore self-perception. Dr. Campbell-McBride calls this "Bingo Day," when a patient can finally see herself as emaciated instead of fat.


The GAPS Diet for Gut Health

The good news is that Dr. Campbell-McBride has designed a GAPS Diet (http://www.gapsdiet.com/Home_Page.html) to heal all of these conditions. "There is no irreversible damage in the body. The body can heal anything," she says. Healing comes through the GAPS Diet in her book, "Gut and Psychology Syndrome (http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Psychology-Syndrome-Natasha-Campbell-McBride/dp/0954852001?&linkCode=wss&tag=markinheacoa-20)," which she designed to reverse both psychological and physiologic conditions. The diet shuns dairy, soy, wheat and sugar among other things, and provides for vitamin supplementation, probiotics, pancreatic enzymes and detoxification agents. It is a complicated process but has brought relief to many people throughout the world.

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/author_byline/sites/default/files/writer/mail.google.com_.jpg (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/gmi-blogs/mmking)
Margie King is a holistic health coach and graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition®. A Wharton M.B.A. and practicing corporate attorney for 20 years, Margie left the world of business to pursue her passion for all things nutritious. She now works with midlife women and busy professionals to improve their health, energy and happiness through individual and group coaching, as well as webinars, workshops and cooking classes. She is also a professional copywriter and prolific health and nutrition writer whose work appears as the National Nutrition Examiner. To contact Margie, visit www.NourishingMenopause.com (http://www.NourishingMenopause.com).


Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

[onawah]

A video about "oil pulling" using coconut oil to prevent infections, decay, maintain tooth and gum health.

1pUzbJhvigY


Published on Mar 19, 2013

http://www.naturalhealth365.com presents Jonathan Landsman and Dr. Bruce Fife, an expert in the health benefits of coconut oil. This video shows you how to save your teeth and avoid gum disease by "oil pulling".

Simply brushing your teeth or rinsing your mouth with mouthwash is NOT enough to prevent tooth decay or gum disease. Discover a simple way to naturally kill the bacteria that develop under the gumline.

To hear this entire interview - subscribe to the NaturalNews Inner Circle.

Simple use the link below:
http://www.naturalnews.com/NaturalNew...

[Dawn]

Amer-Zo, what a wonderful post (#315)! So glad you are bringing back in-depth information to this post!
Onawah, thanks for bringing in the wonderful idea or using coconut oil for oil pulling!


GEkko: Dr. Hyman's book lists these food allergies as the most common (maybe in order of frequency, but I'm not sure):

- Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, triticale, kamut)
- Dairy (milk, cheese, butter, yogurt)
- Corn
- Eggs
- Soy
- Nuts
- Nightshades (tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, eggplant)
- Citrus
- Yeast (baker's yeast, brewer's yeast, and fermented products like vinegar)

Seems like you'd be in a bit of a fix if you were allergic to yeast?

I'm in the process of eliminating gluten and cutting way back on dairy. Not sure what else I want to eliminate right now. Been having cravings for pizza (which I used to eat once a week). Last night I substituted with mozzarella and tomatoes. Been green juicing regularly with kale, cucumber, celery, lemon, ginger, spinach and sometimes apple. In any case, if I follow this GAPS approach I'll ease slowly into things. If I'm understanding correctly, all fruits, beans, rice, etc have to go at some point. Gotta figure out where to get my calories then, because rice and beans has been a staple of mine.

Gekko, it is nice to see you on this thread! I just wanted to let you know that almost all of the allergens listed here and how you describe your current health condition can be linked directly to leaky gut syndrome. As soon as you rebuild your gut flora you will loose all of your food allergies (or 95% of them at least). The interesting thing about this is that as you do this you will loose your cravings for unhealthy foods such as sugar and bread.

To get to this point however, you will need to remain on your elimination diet and add in lots of fermented vegetables and kefir. Most who are allergic to dairy are not allergic to kefir for all the reasons discussed in this thread. As you restock your digestive system with friendly flora and fauna your taste for food will change. I think this is because it is the pathogenic flora and fauna present in a dis-biotic gut lining which drive us to crave the foods they thrive on... and if your gut lining is this way your body is being starved and poisoned by these wee critters.

I was allergic to nearly everything and always felt sick. I ate in a very healthy way because I had educated my mind about what to eat. However I craved sweet foods constantly. After a year on the GAPS program I finally have a healthier gut. Now I can eat nearly anything without an allergy reaction, though I am not really interested in sweets or unhealthy foods any more. I really never re-aquired a taste for grains again. I get plenty of nutrition from vegetables, broths, coconut water, kefir, and sour fermented veges. I am never really hungry any more, probably because the friends in my gut lining are making vitamins and other wonderful things to feed my body all time. I don't even crave fruit much anymore, though I have a couple of pieces weekly.

The other interesting thing is my constant state of vitality and energy. This is also part of the GAPS promise. I think it may be due to the continuous B vitamins and CoQ10 that are manufactured and fed to your body by lactose-bacillus and other friendly flora and fauna. You will not go hungry or without if you are diligent in healing your gut.

All of this being said... I am now experiencing fungus releasing from my body. With my colon lining mostly healed (Dr McBride says it takes 2 years minimum- more if you have had an issue for years- so I another year+ before I will have a really healed gut lining) my body can now work on healing deep fungus conditions. I'm doing this with the help of radiation hormesis. Having a human body... what an amazing experience!

[Kimberley]

I am wondering does pickled herring work? Is it on the list? I love it! It might be considered big fish instead of big meat? What are your thoughts?

I have made my way through this thread and am on my way to add it to my radiation hormesis and Distilled water regimen :-)

Thank you All!! Much love!

[Dawn]

Hi Kimberly, I just tried to find an online link to a wonderful in-depth look at eating raw fish. I know it came from Aaajonus Vonderplanatz, and I think it is from his book 'We Want To Live'. In it he makes a case for why eating big fish is not dangerous if RAW. If large fish are cooked our bodies cannot release the heavy metals they contain and can become toxic. Sorry I can't be more specific in this moment... maybe someone else here on Avalon can? Anyway, if you aren't familiar with this interesting man here is a link to a talk between him and Dr Mercola: http://www.thelivinlowcarbshow.com/shownotes/4204/481-aajonus-vonderplanitz-on-raw-paleo-and-dr-joseph-mercola-on-intermittent-fasting/

PS: I love raw pickled herring however the type I buy isn't pickled with a live culture I don't think...?

[Ol' Roy]

Hey dawn,
The canned sauerkruart, I buy in the store.It is not the saurkruat that you are processing in your kitchen is it? I love sauerkruat. But haven't been able to eat it because of allergies. I am highly allergic to vinegar. How about organic apple cider vinegar found in health food stores? Is it processed diferently!

As far as one of the posts above. It lists all the things you shouldn't eat. Guess what, I love them all! Crap!
I want to thank Gekko post #311(welcome)!, Amzer Zo # 315. and of course Dawn. ALL posts
are imprtant!

Dawn, you have gotten some heay hitters on here lately ie. Dennis Leahy and Paula. Maybe they can spread the word about your threads. All of them are good and leave a positive message!

[RunningDeer]

Hey dawn,
The canned sauerkruart, I buy in the store.It is not the saurkruat that you are processing in your kitchen is it? I love sauerkruat. But haven't been able to eat it because of allergies. I am highly allergic to vinegar. How about organic apple cider vinegar found in health food stores? Is it processed diferently!
Hello Roy, Hello Dawn :wave:

Talk about timing. I just had some of my first batch of homemade sauerkraut today. No kidding. Here's the post from the other site. I didn't use vinegar. Sea salt and water was the brine. I got Daniel Vitalis' name from Dawn's thread.

Dawn, I've been referencing your thread. I've learned a lot. I'm eating fermented vegetables, water and milk kefir, too. Thank you.

And thank you to Marianne who got me to research about these foods and referred your site, as well.



Paula: Thanks for the info and the link to the video. Super easy. I never made these, but I have had them and know how good they are for us. I am going to start adding to my diet as another health aid.

Hi Willow26,

Thanks to Onawah’s reminder, I’ve been reading Dawn’s thread, “The gut of most disease... NOT what you think! (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?43548-The-gut-of-most-disease...-NOT-what-you-think-)” Lots of information there, too.

A great big thanks to Marianne, who told me about lacto-fermentation and kefir.
And a great big thanks to White Feather for this valuable and informative thread.

I wasn’t sure if you were talking about the video on kefir or lacto-fermentation. Which is good because it gives me a chance to add a bit more here.

I make both the milk and water kefir. I forgot where I saw it, but the author said not to put cultured products close together while fermenting because they’ll cross pollinate. (I hope I’m saying that right.) Today, I experimented with mixing milk kefir with water kefir that’s flavored with lemon juice and vanilla. They go nice together.

After researching all the benefits from Lacto-Fermentation and making a batch of 4 1/2 gallons of veggies, I sprung for a fermenting crock pot. One thing I had planned to do differently with the glass jars was to mix the veggies all together, rather than layering them. Lot less work.

This is the video from Dawn’s site and a couple of others from YouTube that shows how to use the pot:


Fermenting Sauerkraut with Daniel Vitalis, Part 1
UDdZJNsIC3E

Fermenting Sauerkraut with Daniel Vitalis, Part 2
jjfvP4pAUuY

[lookbeyond]

Hi Paula, are you noticing a benefit to your health? I am eating mostly "live " foods (uncooked) and feel more "alive" tho i still eat eggs and yoghurt for protein,

lookbeyond

[RunningDeer]

Hi Paula, are you noticing a benefit to your health? I am eating mostly "live " foods (uncooked) and feel more "alive" tho i still eat eggs and yoghurt for protein,

lookbeyond

Hi LookBeyond,

I feel wonderful. As for noticing a benefit from milk & water kefir, and fermented veggies, I’d say yes. The biggest one is I’d get heartburn every night and used over the counter medications. Another benefit is less and less craving for Ben & Jerry’s.

I’ve eaten macrobiotic since the 1970‘s, i.e., grains, sea vegetables, pressed vegetables, beans, nuts & seeds. I don’t eat eggs often, I get hives if I eat them a couple of days in a row. Next month will be a year that I added distilled water, and juicing about six months ago.

Peace,
Paula

UPDATE: The most important thing is for me to be open to it all. I don't want to get locked into one way. As I change, so does every thing else including foods.

[RunningDeer]

Hi Dawn, I don't want to go off topic adding these reposts. I'll remove if you'd like. Some of the information came from your/Dawn's sources.

You don't need a crock-pot to make sauerkraut or other fermented vegetables. Below is a link to a six minute video. It's really easy.


What are Lacto-Fermented Vegetables?

Health Benefits of Lacto-Fermentation, by Susan Godfrey of “Real Food, Real Frugal (http://realfoodrealfrugal.com/2012/11/22/health-benefits-of-lacto-fermentation/)”

“...Lacto-fermentation is a natural process to preserve foods and stops the growth of bacteria that causes foods to go bad. Unlike modern preservation methods which kills all the good stuff in food, lacto-fermentation make nutrients more absorbable and provides the intestines with friendly bacteria. The heating process of commercial fermented foods destroys the enzymes and friendly bacteria. The process of lacto-fermentation turns sugars and starches into helpful acids, mainly lactic acid. Lactic acid breaks down the proteins and helps the body absorb them. It also aids in the absorption of iron. Lactic acid does not cause the body to become over acidic. Lacto-fermented foods help to normalize the acidity of our stomach.

Foods that have been lacto-fermented contain many vitamins, friendly bacteria and enzymes that our bodies need. They contain B vitamins, omega 3 fatty acids, digestive enzymes, lactase, lactic acid and probiotics. Traditionally foods that have been lacto-fermented include sauerkraut, sour dough bread, tamari, chutney, yogurt, kefir, and kimchi. It supports our immune systems, reduces cholesterol, acts as and anti-biotic and anti-carcinogen.

Lacto-fermented foods promote the growth of friendly intestinal bacteria and aids in digestion. It strengthens the digestive system and increases the vitamin levels in our bodies because we are able to absorb them more readily. Lacto-fermentation neutralizes phytic acid, an unhealthy chemicals in grains and beans. Phytic acid blocks the absorption of calcium, iron, phosphorus and zinc, which leads to mineral deficiencies and bone loss. It also acts as an enzyme inhibitor. Lacto-fermentation neutralizes the phytic acid and helps break down gluten and sugar. Lacto-fermentation of dairy makes it more digestible and adds lactase to the dairy products. Soybeans are extremely high in phytic acid and must always be eaten fermented, preferably naturally by lacto-fermentation....”



How to Make Lacto-Fermented Vegetables
This is link has a great 6 minute vid (http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2012/02/how-to-make-lacto-fermented-vegetables.html), a reference and ideas section. It takes about a week to ferment and then you refrigerate. They keep for months.

Here’s my first batch:

beet, carrot, red pepper, red onion, garlic & herbs and spices.
broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, red pepper, red onion, garlic & herbs and spices


http://avalonlibrary.net/paula/Recovered/Fermented_zps60bae9c5.JPG

[RunningDeer]

"How to Make Water Kefir"
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Kefir explained and it’s benefits from from kefir.net


What is Kefir? (http://www.kefir.net/what-is-kefir/)

“Kefir’s tart and refreshing flavor is similar to a drinking-style yogurt, but it contains beneficial yeast as well as friendly ‘probiotic’ bacteria found in yogurt. The naturally occurring bacteria and yeast in kefir combine symbiotically to give superior health benefits when consumed regularly. It is loaded with valuable vitamins and minerals and contains easily digestible complete proteins.

For the lactose intolerant, kefir’s abundance of beneficial yeast and bacteria provide lactase, an enzyme which consumes most of the lactose left after the culturing process.”


What are the benefits of Kefir? (http://www.kefir.net/kefir-benefits/)

“Easily digested, it cleanses the intestines, provides beneficial bacteria and yeast, vitamins and minerals, and complete proteins. Because kefir is such a balanced and nourishing food, it contributes to a healthy immune system and has been used to help patients suffering from AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, herpes, and cancer. Its tranquilizing effect on the nervous system has benefited many who suffer from sleep disorders, depression, and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

The regular use of kefir can help relieve all intestinal disorders, promote bowel movement, reduce flatulence and create a healthier digestive system. In addition, its cleansing effect on the whole body helps to establish a balanced inner ecosystem for optimum health and longevity.

Kefir can also help eliminate unhealthy food cravings by making the body more nourished and balanced. Its excellent nutritional content offers healing and health-maintenance benefits to people in every type of condition.”


“CulturesforHealth.com”

How to Video on CulturesforHealth.com (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/how-to-videos)

YouTube Videos from Cultures for Health (http://www.youtube.com/user/CulturesforHealth)

Information and supplies offered: starter cultures, how to, suppplies, books, gift certificates, recipes, YouTube videos, blogs, etc.

Free newsletters and eBooks (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/free-ebooks-fermented-cultured-foods)

Shipping information: US (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/flat-rate-shipping) - $3.99 flat rate shipping any where in the US; International shipping
(http://www.culturesforhealth.com/where-to-buy)

Products presented


Yogurt
Sourdough
Kefir (both dairy and non-dairy)
Kombucha
Cheese Making
Cultured Vegetables
Buttermilk
Cultured Soy
Seed Sprouting

[Gekko]

Got my first batch of sauerkraut in the 'cooker' ;)

20954

It was kinda fun to make. I did it following this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00S2UoCNCDw), throwing in some caraway seeds and dill. I wasn't able to get enough liquid from the cabbage alone, so I added about half a cup of salt water.

Also received the GAPS book; it's a smooth read written in layman's terms. I might have to read it a few times to absorb enough understanding, but I think it will be a pleasure.


The most important thing is for me to be open to it all. I don't want to get locked into one way. As I change, so does every thing else including foods.

Paula, I think that's key. Being willing to change and adapt; to be able to look at things as a wholistic, evolving process rather than relying on the silver bullet or holy grail.

[RunningDeer]

Got my first batch of sauerkraut in the 'cooker' ;)

20954

It was kinda fun to make. I did it following this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00S2UoCNCDw), throwing in some caraway seeds and dill. I wasn't able to get enough liquid from the cabbage alone, so I added about half a cup of salt water.

Also received the GAPS book; it's a smooth read written in layman's terms. I might have to read it a few times to absorb enough understanding, but I think it will be a pleasure.


The most important thing is for me to be open to it all. I don't want to get locked into one way. As I change, so does every thing else including foods.

Paula, I think that's key. Being willing to change and adapt; to be able to look at things as a wholistic, evolving process rather than relying on the silver bullet or holy grail.

Hi Gekko,

That was a good video. I agree with her simple philosophy. I use the same knife that she does. (Shhh, I also talk to my veggies, and thank them.)

A quick story about simple tools vs food processors: I had a chance to attend a macrobiotic cooking class. My teacher shared that she and others prepared foods for their friend’s wedding. They used simple utensils, but in the eleventh hour they used electric equipment. What they discovered was a comparable difference. Over the course of the wedding day, the foods prepared with the electric tools didn’t retain the freshness in taste and appearance, and that it spoiled faster.

Admittedly, what went through my head was in order to compare, you’d have to have half and half of the same item and prepared at the same time. Even though, it was a non-scientific experiment, it was enough for me to consider the implications.

Most people have time constraints. Whatever allows someone to prepare wholesome foods either with equipment or knife, that’s the way to go. For me, what’s most important is to have loving intention and gratitude. It’s a meditation.

[onawah]

I'm in the process of making fruity water kefir, but I'm using raspberries, which may be too acidic.
It tastes good, but it's not bubbling.
It may take another day or so to bubble, so I will wait and see.
I bought some cherries for the next batch, which were recommended, so it will be interesting to see if there is a big difference in how the process proceeds.

[RunningDeer]

I'm in the process of making fruity water kefir, but I'm using raspberries, which may be too acidic.
It tastes good, but it's not bubbling.
It may take another day or so to bubble, so I will wait and see.
I bought some cherries for the next batch, which were recommended, so it will be interesting to see if there is a big difference in how the process proceeds.

Hi Onawah,

I've added the vid where Julie explains how to get more fizz @ 3:05 minutes. I like it without so I've never tried it. My favorite is to add after the 24 hours fermentation process to one quart: 1/3 c of "ReaLemon, 100% lemon juice from concentrate" and 1/2 t of pure vanilla extract.


5mcQ5XNUAa0

[onawah]

Thanks Paula.
I followed these directions for making fizzy fruity kefir water:


How to Make Water Kefir Soda
by Wellness Mama
Its a probiotic… its a carbonated drink… its Water Kefir!

I started making this as part of my mission to get more probiotics in our diet and it has worked like a charm! The kids love it and ask for it each morning.
It’s also been fun to experiment with the different flavors and variations you can make!
Equipment:
Glass Jar (1 quart or half gallon)
Wooden spoon for stirring (avoid metal)
Towel, cheesecloth or coffee filter to cover jar
Rubber band

Ingredients
3 TBSP (or more) of hydrated Water Kefir Grains (If you buy them dehydrated, they come with instructions for re hydrating)
¼ cup sugar per quart of water (I like organic unprocessed Rapadura sugar) Do not use honey!!
Non-chlorinated filtered water (If you use reverse osmosis, consider adding a few drops of trace minerals back in or sticking a rinsed pastured egg shell in for minerals) If you just have tap water, boil it to remove chlorine and cool before using
Instructions
1.Dissolve the sugar in small amount of hot water.
2.When sugar is dissolved, fill the rest of the jar with cool filtered water and make sure the water is not warm- it must be at room temp!
3.Add the hydrated water kefir grains
4.Cover with towel, cheesecloth, or coffee filter and rubber band to keep out insects or small children.
5.Leave on the counter (preferably at 70-75 degrees) for 24-48 hours. The longer you leave it, the more sugar ferments out, so if you ware limiting carbs, I recommend 48 hours. Don’t leave longer than this! It can starve the grains!
6.After 48 hours, strain the water kefir grains through a bamboo or mesh strainer (don’t use metal if you can help it!) pouring the liquid into another container. I use a half gallon jar for the first process and strain into two quart size jars.
7.Restart the process by dissolving more sugar in water, adding cool water and adding Water Kefir Grains.
8.To make the Water Kefir carbonated, pour a couple ounces of fruit juice into the strained water kefir you just strained. I’ve found Grape, Pomegranate, Apple and Cherry to work the best. I don’t recommend citrus for this part, as it makes stringy yeast like things that are not tasty!
9.Once you’ve added the juice, cover the jars tightly with an air tight lid and leave on the counter an additional 1-3 days before drinking or refrigerating.
10.Repeat the process!
My Favorite Variations:
After the first fermentation, cap the water kefir without adding any juice. After two days, put in fridge and add vanilla extract before drinking- tastes like cream soda!
Adding lemon juice and drinking right after the first fermentation- tastes like lemonade!
Doing the second fermentation with grape, apple, cherry or pomegranate for a fizzy fruit flavored soda.
Adding raisins or prune juice for the second fermentation- tastes like Dr. Pepper.
Making a grape or berry flavored second fermentation and mixing with iced herbal tea for a carbonated fruity iced tea drink.
Add pineapple juice after the first fermentation, but drink right away- don’t allow to ferment or it gets slimy!
http://wellnessmama.com/2261/how-to-make-water-kefir-soda/

So I'm not sure what to do now, as the directions aren't quite the same as in the video.
But since my raspberry water kefir isn't fizzy yet, I think I will leave it out a while longer to see if it will fizz, and then refrigerate.
I used organic sucanet which I dissolved in hot water, as directed, before adding to the kefir water, let that sit out for a couple of days before adding the fresh raspberries, and they've been fermenting for almost 2 days now.
It tastes very good, but just isn't fizzy yet.
Hopefully refrigeration won't prevent it from fizzing if it hasn't done so by the time I put it in the fridge.
I prefer using fresh or frozen fruit rather than bottled, as the nutrients are destroyed by heating in bottled juices.

My second batch of fermented vegies are in their 6th day now of fermenting and I will probably start using the first of 4 quart jars tomorrow.
I used cabbage, red bell pepper, beet, vidalia onion, kale and garlic in this batch and it smells great.
I used up my last batch by adding a couple of tablespoons to my evening vegie juice and blending it, and it added a nice boost of flavor.
I was hesitant to let that first batch ferment for more than a couple of days because I was afraid it would get moldy, but it was fine, so I've gotten more daring with this second batch.
I think I will leave the remaining 3 jars out at least until I've finished off the first jar, as I think they are doing just fine, and the longer they ferment, the more probiotics there will be.

The only time these processes have felt like work was when I was using the mature brown coconuts to make coconut kefir, but since I've switched to the young green Thai coconuts, it's been fairly easy, and very much worth the time it takes.
The only problem I'm having is refraining from right away eating up the coconut dessert that tastes like healthy frozen custard because it's so yummy, but once I get used to having it around, that probably won't be a problem.

Though I wonder if the kefir probiotics remain active after they've been frozen.
Does anyone know?

Thanks again! Great thread!

[onawah]

My raspberry water kefir never did fizz, but it still tastes yummy.
I froze it in ice cube trays to make slushies.
I will use maple syrup next time, as the boiled sucanet triggered some candida problems.
And I will use cherries, which I think are less acidic than raspberries, so hopefully it will fizz.

[The Lawnman]

Dawn, I'm all ears.

A new book (new to me) Victoria Boutenko's Green for Life has been my latest attempt to gain a new level of health. Somewhere along the line, I developed a war in my intestines that has lasted for about 18 years. It is possible that t started from a round of very powerful antibiotics that I took, to kill a (presumed) mycoplasma pneumonia-like infection that kicked my ass for over 6 weeks. I have had antibiotics only twice in the last 2 decades. Once was as mentioned, and a decade later, after a lot of research, I allowed myself to take a round of antibiotics (Rifaximin) that were supposed to kill-off the intestinal flora overgrowth, and allow me to start fresh with new intestinal flora. It didn't work. (I still have "IBS-D" symptoms.)

More later. Gotta run (pun intended.) Dennis

Yes, Dennis... same type of thing in my life. I was put on daily antibiotics for a 20 (!!!) year kidney infection. I finally left medical treatment for good when I was informed that I was to be put on a transplant list for new kidneys. Without the poison of antibiotics I became free of this infection within 10 days of taking a combination of herbs at last. However permanent damage had been done to my system which I have fought all of my adult life.

Dr. Campbell-McBride points out that after a round of antibiotics there is a 2 week window when our beneficial bacteria are mostly wiped out. This is when pathogenic bacteria and viruses can breach the barriers that are normally in place, entering the body directly or taking up permanent residence in our digestive tract. Once this happens, they flood our system with continuous toxins, and exchange their genetic material with our cells. That is when our immune system begins to attack our own cells, because of the pathogenic components and DNA they now contain.

On top of all of this we begin to starve slowly. This is because the beneficial flora and fauna normally manufacture all our vitamins for us as well as break down our food in other ways that allows our bodies to use it. So our bodies weaken from starvation, at the same time they are being flooded with toxins, and the pathogens are changing our cellular DNA.

It appears the main reason to eat is to feed these beneficial bacteria. Without them we sicken and die.

What a concept... we are dying and sickening because we have used the energy of kill and sterilize in our approach to health. Our energy would have been so much better spent focusing on life, and enhancing the health of our internal gardens.

Well Dennis, all I can say to you is that I have normal digestion for the first time in many years. However I am still experiencing die off symptoms on a daily basis. These are not severe now, as they were for the first 2 months. Instead I am now experiencing fuzzy eyesight and bouts of sudden sleepiness which come and go, as the pathogenic organisms flood my system with opiate like poisons while they are dying off. It is clear to me that this cleanse is going deeper than any I have done and is actually working. I have tried 20 or 30 cleanses previously... but they did not get at the root of my health issues like this one is doing.

Thanks to some of the comments about liver cleansing that have been mentioned on this thread. I have done sooo many liver cleanses and flushes in the past. My body has released a lot of stones but any health changes have been none or very temporary. I probably should consider another one soon, however after 2 solid months of having severe diarrhea at the beginning of this cleanse, I just can't face a deliberate creation of this symptom to cleanse my liver at this moment. LOL.

Check out this video - Dr. R E Tent provides some insight as to what you can do to rebuild your renal system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIbBevkfc-k (He begins talking at 1hr 7 min. 45 sec. about the importance of "protomorphogens" and how they help rebuild any of your organs.)

[Dawn]

Onawah: Though I wonder if the kefir probiotics remain active after they've been frozen.
Does anyone know?

Last summer I went on vacation and tried 4 methods of saving kefir (not water kefer however). The only one that was an utter failure was to freeze it (as recommended on one online kefir site). That one failed because the yeast portion of the culture all died out. So, although some of the organisms were active, the yeast which fermented and produced bubbles were not. I ended up throwing the surviving organisms away. Thank goodness I had also tried several other methods.

If you need to store your water kefir I would recommend simply leaving it at room temp on a batch of sugar water. I know from experience that it will store for at least 2 months just fine. When you strain the liquid out it will taste like beer.... and the kefir grains will still be very healthy and robust.

PS: Lawnman, I just found your post above about rebuilding the renal system and I am all ears. THANK YOU! I am now going to spend some time soaking up the information.

[onawah]

How Gut Bacteria Affects Your Weight, and Why CAFO Meats Promote Antibiotic-Resistant Disease

About hidden antibiotics in meat

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/04/10/gut-bacteria.aspx?e_cid=20130410_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130410

By Dr. Mercola

Recent studies have repeatedly demonstrated that the makeup of your intestinal flora can have an impact on your weight, and your propensity to gain or lose weight.

Most recently, research1 also suggests that as much as 20 percent of the substantial weight loss achieved from gastric bypass, a popular weight loss surgery, is actually due to shifts in the balance of bacteria in your digestive tract. According to co-author Dr. Lee M. Kaplan:2

“The findings mean that eventually, treatments that adjust the microbe levels, or 'microbiota,' in the gut may be developed to help people lose weight without surgery.”

Gut Microbes May Be Behind Weight Loss After Gastric Bypass

To investigate the potential link between gastric bypass surgery and alterations in gut flora, fattened-up mice were divided into two groups. The test group underwent gastric bypass surgery while the control group received sham surgery. After the sham surgery, the controls were further divided into two groups: One received a fatty diet; the other a weight-loss diet.

In the test group, the microbial populations quickly changed following surgery, and the mice lost weight. In the control group, the gut flora didn’t change much, regardless of their diet. After the bypass surgery, the test group was found to have more of certain types of microbes,3 including:

Gammaproteobacteria, particularly Escherichia species, which can help prevent inflammation and maintain intestinal health, although some species of Escherichia are pathogenic
Akkermansia bacteria, which can feed on mucus found in your intestines

According to the featured article:4

“Next, the researchers transferred intestinal contents from each of the groups into other mice, which lacked their own intestinal bacteria. The animals that received material from the bypass mice rapidly lost weight; stool from mice that had the sham operations had no effect.”

More Research Shows Your Gut Bacteria Impacts Your Weight

Previous research has also shown that lean people tend to have higher amounts of various healthy bacteria compared to obese people. For example, one 2011 study5 found that daily intake of a specific form of lactic acid bacteria could help prevent obesity and reduce low-level inflammation.

In this study, rats given the bacterium while in utero through adulthood put on significantly less weight than the control group, even though both groups of rats ate a similar high-calorie diet. They also had lower levels of minor inflammation, which has been associated with obesity.

Similarly, gut bacteria have also been shown to impact weight in human babies. One study6 found babies with high numbers of bifidobacteria and low numbers of Staphylococcus aureus -- which may cause low-grade inflammation in your body, contributing to obesity -- appeared to be protected from excess weight gain.

This may be one reason why breast-fed babies have a lower risk of obesity, as bifidobacteria flourish in the gut of breast-fed babies. Probiotics also appear beneficial in helping women lose weight after childbirth when taken from the first trimester through breastfeeding.

Two other studies found that obese individuals had about 20 percent more of a family of bacteria known as firmicutes, and almost 90 percent less of a bacteria called bacteroidetes than lean people. Firmicutes help your body to extract calories from complex sugars and deposit those calories in fat. When these microbes were transplanted into normal-weight mice, those mice started to gain twice as much fat. This is one explanation for how the microflora in your gut may affect your weight.

Yet another study from 20107 showed that obese people were able to reduce their abdominal fat by nearly five percent, and their subcutaneous fat by over three percent, just by drinking a probiotic-rich fermented milk beverage for 12 weeks. Given that the control group experienced no significant fat reductions at all during the study period, this is one more gold star for probiotics.

Probiotics have also been found to benefit metabolic syndrome, which often goes hand-in-hand with obesity. This makes sense since both are caused by a diet high in sugars, which leads to insulin resistance, fuels the growth of unhealthy bacteria, and packs on excess weight.

Diet and Environmental Factors Affect Your Gut Flora

I have long stated that it's generally a wise choice to "reseed" your body with good bacteria from time to time by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating non-pasteurized, traditionally fermented foods such as:

Fermented vegetables
Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Fermented milk, such as kefir
Natto (fermented soy)

One of the reasons why fermented foods are so beneficial is because they contain lactic acid bacteria, which of course has health benefits over and beyond any weight-loss benefits, as well as a wide variety of other beneficial bacteria. Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria. But eating fermented foods may not be enough if the rest of your diet is really poor. Your gut bacteria are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods, for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast. Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution

The Hidden Health Hazards of Antibiotics in Meat

A related news story highlights one hidden source of antibiotics that can have a significant and long-term impact on your gut flora and overall health. Writing for the New York Times,8 David A. Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1990 to 1997, warns that antibiotic-resistant pathogens in livestock are on the rise as a result of the fact that, in the US, antibiotics are routinely fed to livestock not only to fight infection, but to promote unhealthy (though profitable) weight gain.

“While the F.D.A. can see what kinds of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are coming out of livestock facilities, the agency doesn’t know enough about the antibiotics that are being fed to these animals,” he writes. “This is a major public health problem, because giving healthy livestock these drugs breeds superbugs that can infect people. We need to know more about the use of antibiotics in the production of our meat and poultry. The results could be a matter of life and death. ... It may sound counterintuitive, but feeding antibiotics to livestock at low levels may do the most harm.

When he accepted the Nobel Prize in 1945 for his discovery of penicillin, Alexander Fleming warned that 'there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.' He probably could not have imagined that, one day, we would be doing this to billions of animals in factory-like facilities.”

The link between antibiotic use in livestock and antibiotic-resistant disease is so clear that the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed has been banned in Europe since 2006.9 In sharp contrast, according to the first-ever report by the FDA10 on the topic, confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) used a whopping 29 million pounds of antibiotics in 2009, and according to Kessler, that number had further risen to nearly 30 million pounds in 2011, which represents about 80 percent of all reported antibiotic sales that year.

What’s more, on December 22, 2011, the FDA quietly posted a notice in the Federal Register11 that it was effectively reneging on its plan to reduce the use of antibiotics in agricultural animal feed – a plan it has been touting since 1977.

Instead, the agency decided it will continue to allow livestock producers to use the drugs in feed unabated. Only one class of antibiotics, cephalosporin, has been restricted from use in livestock.12 This class of antibiotics, which are regularly prescribed to humans, are implicated in the development and spread of drug-resistant bacteria among humans that work with, and/or eat, the animals. As of April 5, 2012, the antibiotics are no longer be allowed for use in preventing diseases in livestock, although they are still allowed for treatment of illness in livestock.

The Food and Drug Industries Don’t Want You to Know the Facts

As stated by Kessler, we have more than enough evidence that using antibiotics as growth promoters is threatening human health. Yet the drug and food industries are doing everything they can to block proposed legislation that would limit this practice, and both the FDA and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions aid and abet them. For example, the Committee took no action on a proposal from Senators Kirsten E. Gillibrand (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), which would require the FDA to report data on agricultural antibiotics that it already collects but does not disclose. According to Kessler:

“'In the House, Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Louise M. Slaughter of New York, also Democrats, have introduced a more comprehensive measure. It would not only authorize the FDA to collect more detailed data from drug companies, but would also require food producers to disclose how often they fed antibiotics to animals at low levels to make them grow faster and to offset poor conditions.

This information would be particularly valuable to the F.D.A., which asked drugmakers last April to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics for these purposes. The agency has said it would mandate such action if those practices persisted, but it has no data to determine whether the voluntary policy is working. The House bill would remedy this situation, though there are no Republican sponsors.' ...Lawmakers must let the public know how the drugs they need to stay well are being used to produce cheaper meat.”

How to Avoid Hidden Antibiotics in Your Food

This is one of the many reasons why I always recommend buying your meat, whether beef or poultry, from a local organic farmer rather than your local supermarket. The only way to avoid this hidden source of antibiotics is to make sure you’re only buying organic, grass-fed, free-range meats and organic pasture-raised chickens, as non-medical use of antibiotics is not permitted in organic farming.

If you live in an urban area, there are increasing numbers of community-supported agriculture programs available that offer access to healthy, locally grown foods even if you live in the heart of the city. Being able to find high-quality meat is such an important issue for me personally that I've made connections with sources I know provide high-quality organic grass-fed beef and bison, free-range chicken and ostrich, all of which you can find in my online store. The farms our supplier uses have three USDA inspectors on hand that regularly inspect the packaging facility. Additionally, all of the cattle are grass-fed on open pastures, and E. coli 0157 testing is performed daily. You can eliminate the shipping charges though if you find a trusted farmer right in your area.

The Weston Price Foundation has chapters all over the world and many of them are connected with buying clubs in which you can easily purchase these types of foods locally. Another resource you can try is Local Harvest, which you can use to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of safe, sustainably grown food in your area.

For Optimal Health, Tend to Your Gut

The micro-organisms living in your digestive tract form a very important "inner ecosystem" that influences countless aspects of health, including your weight. More specifically, the type and quantity of organisms in your gut interact with your body in ways that can either prevent or encourage the development of many diseases, including heart disease and diabetes, and may help dictate the ease with which you’re able to shed unwanted pounds.

Since virtually all of us are exposed to factors that destroy beneficial bacteria in the gut, such as antibiotics (whether you take them for an illness or get them from contaminated animal products), chlorinated water, antibacterial soap, agricultural chemicals and pollution, ensuring your gut bacteria remain balanced should be considered an ongoing process.

Cultured foods like raw milk yogurt and kefir, some cheeses, and fermented vegetables are good sources of natural, healthy bacteria. So my strong recommendation would be to make cultured or fermented foods a regular part of your diet; this can be your primary strategy to optimize your body's good bacteria. If you do not eat fermented foods frequently, taking a high-quality probiotic supplement is definitely a wise move. In fact, this is one of the few supplements recommended for everyone. A probiotic supplement can be incredibly useful to help maintain a well-functioning digestive system when you stray from your healthy diet and consume excess grains or sugar, or if you have to take antibiotics.

[onawah]

Another good article with a demo from Dr.Mercola on fermented vegies at:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?43548-The-gut-of-most-disease...-NOT-what-you-think-

[onawah]

I've been making coconut kefir with my milk kefir grains and the raw milk from young green coconuts, and prefer it to the kefir I made with organic pasteurized milk. It's tastes great and seems to have a lot more life in it.
I no longer have a source of raw dairy milk, and raw coconut milk is a really healthy food, so it seemed like a good substitute.
Can anyone tell me how coconut milk compares with milk as a base in which the kefir bacteria can proliferate?
It certainly tastes good.
And the frozen dessert I've been making with it is delicious, though I'm not sure if the bacteria survives after the kefir is frozen, which is another question.
And I've found many sources for buying milk and water kefir grains online, but am not sure which ones are actually reliable, which is my third question.
Thanks for any helpful input!

[onawah]

Your Gut Bacteria Affects Your Brain Function, Study Confirms

More from Dr. Mercola on the importance of probiotics and gut health.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/20/gut-brain-connection.aspx?e_cid=20130620_DNL_ProdTest3_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130620ProdTest3


Your Gut Bacteria Affects Your Brain Function, Study Confirms
By Dr. Mercola

The bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that comprise your body’s microflora actually outnumber your body’s cells 10 to 1, and it’s now becoming increasingly clear that these tiny organisms play a MAJOR role in your health—both physical and mental.

The impact of your microflora on your brain function has again been confirmed by UCLA researchers who, in a proof-of-concept study, found that probiotics (beneficial bacteria) indeed altered the brain function in the participants.

As reported by UCLA:1

"Researchers have known that the brain sends signals to your gut, which is why stress and other emotions can contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms. This study shows what has been suspected but until now had been proved only in animal studies: that signals travel the opposite way as well.

'Time and time again, we hear from patients that they never felt depressed or anxious until they started experiencing problems with their gut,' [Dr. Kirsten] Tillisch said. 'Our study shows that the gut–brain connection is a two-way street.'"

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Gastroenterology,2 claims the discovery “carries significant implications for future research that could point the way toward dietary or drug interventions to improve brain function.” Naturally, I urge you to embrace dietary changes here, opposed to waiting for some “miracle drug” to do the work for you...

Yes, Your Diet Affects Your Brain Function

The study enlisted 36 women between the ages of 18 and 55 who were divided into three groups:

The treatment group ate yogurt containing several probiotics thought to have a beneficial impact on intestinal health, twice a day for one month
Another group ate a “sham” product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics
Control group ate no product at all

Before and after the four-week study, participants’ underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, both while in a state of rest, and in response to an “emotion-recognition task.” For the latter, the women were shown a series of pictures of people with angry or frightened faces, which they had to match to other faces showing the same emotions.

“This task, designed to measure the engagement of affective and cognitive brain regions in response to a visual stimulus, was chosen because previous research in animals had linked changes in gut flora to changes in affective behaviors,” UCLA explains.

Interestingly, compared to the controls, the women who consumed probiotic yogurt had decreased activity in two brain regions that control central processing of emotion and sensation:

The insular cortex (insula), which plays a role in functions typically linked to emotion (including perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience) and the regulation of your body's homeostasis, and
The somatosensory cortex, which plays a role in your body’s ability to interpret a wide variety of sensations

During the resting brain scan, the treatment group also showed greater connectivity between a region known as the “periaqueductal grey” and areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with cognition. In contrast, the control group showed greater connectivity of the periaqueductal grey to emotion- and sensation-related regions. According to UCLA:

“'The researchers were surprised to find that the brain effects could be seen in many areas, including those involved in sensory processing and not merely those associated with emotion,' Tillisch said...

'There are studies showing that what we eat can alter the composition and products of the gut flora — in particular, that people with high-vegetable, fiber-based diets have a different composition of their microbiota, or gut environment, than people who eat the more typical Western diet that is high in fat and carbohydrates,' [senior author Dr. Emeran] Mayer said. 'Now we know that this has an effect not only on the metabolism but also affects brain function.'"

What is really remarkable to me is that this study showed any improvement at all, since they used commercial yogurt preparations that are notoriously unhealthy foods loaded with artificial sweeteners, colors, flavorings, and sugar. Most importantly the vast majority have virtually clinically insignificant levels of beneficial bacteria. Clearly, you would be far better off making your own yogurt from raw milk.

Your Gut May Hold the Key to Better Brain Health

You may not be aware that you actually have two nervous systems:

Central nervous system, composed of your brain and spinal cord
Enteric nervous system, which is the intrinsic nervous system of your gastrointestinal tract

Both are created from identical tissue during fetal development—one part turns into your central nervous system while the other develops into your enteric nervous system. These two systems are connected via the vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem down to your abdomen. It is now well established that the vagus nerve is the primary route your gut bacteria use to transmit information to your brain.

While many think of their brain as the organ in charge, your gut actually sends far more information to your brain than your brain sends to your gut... To put this into more concrete terms, you've probably experienced the visceral sensation of butterflies in your stomach when you're nervous, or had an upset stomach when you were very angry or stressed. The flip side is also true, in that problems in your gut can directly impact your mental health, leading to issues like anxiety and depression.

For instance, in December 2011, the Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility3 reported the novel finding that the probiotic (good bacteria) known as Bifidobacterium longum NCC3001 has been shown to help normalize anxiety-like behavior in mice with infectious colitis. Separate research4 also found the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus had a marked effect on GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter that is significantly involved in regulating many physiological and psychological processes) levels in certain brain regions and lowered the stress-induced hormone corticosterone, resulting in reduced anxiety- and depression-related behavior.

Just as you have neurons in your brain, you also have neurons in your gut -- including neurons that produce neurotransmitters like serotonin, which is also found in your brain. In fact, the greatest concentration of serotonin, which is involved in mood control, depression and aggression, is found in your intestines, not your brain. It’s quite possible that this might be one reason why antidepressants, which raise serotonin levels in your brain, are often ineffective in treating depression, whereas proper dietary changes often help...

Your Gut Microbes Can Affect Your Health in Numerous Ways

In recent years, it’s become increasingly clear that the microbes in your gut play a much more vital role in your health than previously thought possible. In fact, probiotics, along with a host of other gut microorganisms, are so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to "a newly recognized organ." Besides research implicating gut bacteria in mental health and behavior, other research has shown that your microbiota also has an impact on:

Immune system function: Biologist Sarkis Mazmanian5 believes bacteria can train your immune system to distinguish between "foreign" microbes and those originating in your body. His work is laying the groundwork for new therapies using probiotics to treat a variety of diseases, particularly autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's.

Mazmanian and colleagues were recently awarded the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" for identifying an organism that originates in the human body (opposed to a fermented food) that has demonstrable health benefits in both animal and human cells. The organism has been named Bacteroides fragillis, and is found in 15-20 percent of humans. His group hopes to one day be able to test this body-originated bacteria in human clinical trials.
Gene expression: Researchers have discovered that the absence or presence of gut microorganisms during infancy permanently alters gene expression. Through gene profiling, they were able to discern that absence of gut bacteria altered genes and signaling pathways involved in learning, memory, and motor control. This suggests that gut bacteria are closely tied to early brain development and subsequent behavior. These behavioral changes could be reversed as long as the mice were exposed to normal microorganisms early in life. But once the germ-free mice had reached adulthood, colonizing them with bacteria did not influence their behavior.

In a similar way, probiotics have also been found to influence the activity of hundreds of your genes, helping them to express in a positive, disease-fighting manner.
Diabetes: Bacterial populations in the gut of diabetics6 differ from non-diabetics, according to a study from Denmark. In particular, diabetics had fewer Firmicutes and more plentiful amounts of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria, compared to non-diabetics. The study also found a positive correlation for the ratios of Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes and reduced glucose tolerance. The researchers concluded:

"The results of this study indicate that type 2 diabetes in humans is associated with compositional changes in intestinal microbiota."

Obesity: The make-up of gut bacteria tends to differ in lean vs. obese people. This is one of the strongest areas of probiotic research to date, and you can read about a handful of such studies here. The bottom line is that restoring your gut flora should be an important consideration if you're struggling to lose weight.
Autism: Establishment of normal gut flora in the first 20 days or so of life plays a crucial role in appropriate maturation of your baby's immune system. Hence, babies who develop abnormal gut flora are left with compromised immune systems and are particularly at risk for developing such disorders as ADHD, learning disabilities and autism, particularly if they are vaccinated before restoring balance to their gut flora.

To get a solid understanding of just how this connection works, I highly recommend reviewing the information shared by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in this previous interview.

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Download Interview Transcript:
http://mercola.fileburst.com/PDF/ExpertInterviewTranscripts/InterviewNatashaCampbell-McBrideGAPS.pdf

Your Gut Flora Is Constantly Under Attack

Your gut bacteria are vulnerable to your diet and lifestyle. If you eat a lot of sugar, refined grains, and genetically engineered foods (i.e. processed foods and beverages of all kinds, as they are typically loaded with high fructose corn syrup and/or soy, both of which are primary GE crops in the US), your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast. Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to and can be harmed by:
Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a probiotic supplement) Conventionally-raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plus genetically engineered grains, which have also been implicated in the destruction of gut flora Processed foods (as the excessive sugars, along with otherwise “dead” nutrients, feed pathogenic bacteria)
Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water Antibacterial soap Agricultural chemicals

How to Optimize Your Gut Flora

Considering the fact that an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, reseeding your gut with healthy bacteria is important for the prevention of virtually ALL diseases, from colds to cancer. To do so, I recommend the following strategies:

Avoid processed, refined foods in your diet.
Eat traditionally fermented, unpasteurized foods: Fermented foods are the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Some of the beneficial bacteria found in fermented foods are also excellent chelators of heavy metals and pesticides, which will also have a beneficial health effect by reducing your toxic load. Healthy choices include:
Fermented vegetables
Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Fermented milk, such as kefir
Natto (fermented soy)

Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria you’re consuming. Fermented vegetables, which are one of my new passions, are an excellent way to supply beneficial bacteria back into our gut. And, unlike some other fermented foods, they tend to be palatable, if not downright delicious, to most people.

As an added bonus, they can also be a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. We tested samples of high-quality fermented organic vegetables made with our specific starter culture, and a typical serving (about two to three ounces) contained not only 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, it also had 500 mcg of vitamin K2, which we now know is a vital co-nutrient to both vitamin D and calcium. Most high-quality probiotic supplements will only supply you with a fraction of the beneficial bacteria found in such homemade fermented veggies, so it’s your most economical route to optimal gut health as well.
Take a high-quality probiotic supplement. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics is an exception if you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis.

Nurturing Your Gut Flora Is One of the Foundations of Optimal Health

Mounting research indicates the bacterial colonies residing in your gut may play key roles in the development of cancer, asthma, allergies, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and even brain, behavioral and emotional problems like ADHD, autism and depression. When you consider the fact that the gut-brain connection is recognized as a basic tenet of physiology and medicine, and that there's no shortage of evidence of gastrointestinal involvement in a variety of neurological diseases, it's easy to see how the balance of gut bacteria can play a significant role in your psychology and behavior as well.

With this in mind, it should also be crystal clear that nourishing your gut flora is extremely important, from cradle to grave, because in a very real sense you have two brains, one inside your skull and one in your gut, and each needs its own vital nourishment. Eating fermented foods should be your primary strategy, but if you don't enjoy the taste of fermented foods, taking a probiotic supplement is definitely advised. I recommend looking for a probiotic supplement that fulfills the following criteria, to ensure quality and efficacy:

The bacteria strains in the product must be able to survive your stomach acid and bile, so that they reach your intestines alive in adequate numbers
The bacteria strains must have health-promoting features
The probiotic activity must be guaranteed throughout the entire production process, storage period and shelf life of the product

[bel]

This thread is so great!!! I've recently started getting into fermented foods...that interview Dr.Natasha is just brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing :-)

[Dennis Leahy]

... I use the same knife that she does. ....(Paula, can I ask what maker the santoku knife is? I bought one that was cheap and lousy, and see that some of them go for $100 or more. hoping this one is affordable...)

[ThePythonicCow]

... I use the same knife that she does. ....(Paula, can I ask what maker the santoku knife is? I bought one that was cheap and lousy, and see that some of them go for $100 or more. hoping this one is affordable...)

You know you want it (http://amzn.com/B004FKIAPS):
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519NXuQVnZL._SL1000_.jpg

[RunningDeer]

... I use the same knife that she does. ....(Paula, can I ask what maker the santoku knife is? I bought one that was cheap and lousy, and see that some of them go for $100 or more. hoping this one is affordable...)

Hi Dennis,

Mine is from 'The Pampered Chef'. It's made of German Cr Mo V Steel. (that's posted on the blade) It's about 10 years old and still going strong. 7" blade and $100ish back then. If I were to replace, I'd not consider cost because the knife is what I use instead of hi-tech equipment. Any speciality kitchen will carry this type of knife. Spring for quality, you are worth it. It's kitchen meditation that spreads outward in countless ways.

Peace,
Paula

[RunningDeer]

... I use the same knife that she does. ....(Paula, can I ask what maker the santoku knife is? I bought one that was cheap and lousy, and see that some of them go for $100 or more. hoping this one is affordable...)

You know you want it (http://amzn.com/B004FKIAPS):
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519NXuQVnZL._SL1000_.jpg
Wow about $250! That's the Mercedes of knives. I'd love one, but I'd be careful it doesn't catch on fire and blow your hand off down the street.

UPDATE: With so many false flags coming and going, this post may appear as a gruesome and tasteless joke. Apologies to those whom I may offend. :wave:

[Dennis Leahy]

That's so funny, because in my search, I found a number of examples of Damascus steel (the technique of layering 2 different types of steel with different composition) and the hand-hammered finish... and you're right, as someone who makes hand-made items, I do greatly appreciate handmade items... I want it. May have to wait for my NESARA check though.

And Paula's dead-on and timely (Mercedes) comment: priceless! :~)

Dennis

[bel]

This is interesting!!! http://www.thehealersjournal.com/2013/06/22/digestion-mood-brain-in-the-belly-neurotransmitters-digestive-tract/

[Dawn]

bell: This is interesting!!! http://www.thehealersjournal.com/201...gestive-tract/

What a wonderful article! Thank you so much. It is so great that I'd like to put a bit of it here so others will be sparked by it


In addition to an extensive network or neurons, the entire digestive tract is also lined with cells that produce and receive a variety of neuropeptides and neurochemicals, the same substances, in fact, that were previously thought to be found in the brain alone. These include serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and glutamate. Even more eye-opening is the fact that many hormones and chemicals previously thought to exist only in the gut were later found to be active in the brain. These included: insulin, cholecystokinin, vasoactive intestinal protein, motilin, gastrin, somato-statin, thyroptropin releasing hormone, neurostensin, secretin, substance P, glucagon and bombesin. - See more at: http://www.thehealersjournal.com/2013/06/22/digestion-mood-brain-in-the-belly-neurotransmitters-digestive-tract/#sthash.3KSextZd.dpuf

[Dawn]

Onawah: I've been making coconut kefir with my milk kefir grains and the raw milk from young green coconuts, and prefer it to the kefir I made with organic pasteurized milk. It's tastes great and seems to have a lot more life in it.
I no longer have a source of raw dairy milk, and raw coconut milk is a really healthy food, so it seemed like a good substitute.
Can anyone tell me how coconut milk compares with milk as a base in which the kefir bacteria can proliferate?
It certainly tastes good.
And the frozen dessert I've been making with it is delicious, though I'm not sure if the bacteria survives after the kefir is frozen, which is another question.
And I've found many sources for buying milk and water kefir grains online, but am not sure which ones are actually reliable, which is my third question.
Thanks for any helpful input!

I'd like to answer a couple of your questions based on my own experience and also on what I've read

1. I think coconut kefir is healthy in the extreme, as coconut itself is a super food! However, I've read that if you use the kefir you culture your milk with it will eventually die out. Apparently the grains become smaller and smaller until there aren't any left. It is recommended that you use only half of your kefir culture to make coconut kefir and keep the other half robust while feeding it milk daily. Then when the coconut kefir grains fade away, you can use your healthy grains from the milk culture. I have also read that if you use water kefir grains to ferment your coconut kefir they will continue to remain healthy without dying out

2. I think your frozen desert sounds fantastic and I'm sure it has lots of healthy bacteria still alive in it but you are correct in your fear that most of the culture dies when it is frozen. I tried an experiment with my kefir grains last summer when I went on vacation. I tried to preserve them in various ways while I was out of town. The only way that was unsuccessful was freezing the culture. The grains from that method died, and I was never able to make kefir with them again. So... freezing kills kefir microflora & fauna.

[onawah]

Thanks Dawn.
I think I've read that milk kefir grains make a more potent culture than water kefir grains, so I've been using my milk kefir grains for making coconut kefir with, but instead of putting the grains right in the coconut milk, I'm soaking them in water for 24-48 hours at room temperature, then adding the water to the coconut milk and letting that mixture sit for a few hours at room temperature before refrigerating, or making frozen dessert with it.
I am thickening it with organic sour cream or soaked, blended almonds.

I keep the kefir grains in water in the fridge when they're not being used, and they seem to be keeping OK that way.

But I just found out tonight that I have a new source for raw goat milk!
I'm so pleased!
So I will probably start making goat milk kefir too, and perhaps just use the coconut kefir for desserts.

I heard from Genevieve that she liked the yemoos.com's water kefir grains that she bought from them.

[Dawn]

Onawah: I keep the kefir grains in water in the fridge when they're not being used, and they seem to be keeping OK that way.


Really? Interesting! When I did my own personal research on how to keep milk kefir grains that was one I didn't try. I did find that refrigerating them was not the best way to keep them alive. Here's what I found when I stored my kefir for my 2 week trip:

1. Keeping them in milk on a shelf for 2 weeks was the best and the culture started right up with a roar when I returned + the aged kefir was delicious.

2. Refrigerating them was OK, however the culture lost some of its robust quality and it took about a week of daily milk feedings for it to come back fully

3. Freezing them killed part of the culture and it never made kefir again, though it made some sort of low grade fermentation with the milk, even after two weeks of daily feeding & care

4. Carrying it with me on my trip in a sealed jar and feeding it pasteurized milk when I could (every 1-2 days) worked the best and was easier than I thought + I had kefir on my trip

I have never even considered keeping my kefir in water! There was another person here on Avalon who rinsed the grains in chlorinated tap water every day before placing them in a batch of fresh milk and claimed that it worked well.

I keep mine in the main culture jar which I only wash about every 6 months or so. I let the culture build up on the walls of the jar making colonies there as well as the colonies in the grains, which I strain out and put back each day. The grains have a 'slimy coating' which I've read is a protein they make from milk. I think it is fascinating that yours lives in water in the refrigerator. Do they still have a slimy coating when kept in water?

Can I ask you if yours makes a strong kefir within 24 hours where the whey separates out from the curds in milk? Perhaps you aren't feeding it milk anymore?

Mine makes very strong kefir within 24 hours and I've learned to love the very sour flavor of the pure whey, which separates out on the bottom of the fermented kefir, as one of my daily drinks. Please do let us all know about yours.

I envy your goat milk. Laws being what they are in the US, raw milk is only available through hushed up secret routes. The supply I found this summer is drying up and I won't be able to get it again until next year. I am hunting for another goat source. I do find that my body has an easier time with goat kefir than with the raw holstein cow kefir. Back a few pages in this thread there is a link to info that holstein cows make a protein in their milk different that other cows... and most humans are allergic to it. I am no exception to the allergy... but I drink it anyway if I can't find another source of raw milk. Holstein cow milk is the only type that is commercially available ... and luck to find that as the dairy that produces is is the only supplier of raw milk for hundreds of miles around.

[gracieuse]

Hi everyone, since this thread is about healthy eating, I wanted to share some vital information that has been an eye opener for me and a start of a healing path of years of digestive problems and chronic disease. It's about trophology, the science of food combining. No matter how wholesome the food you're eating, if you're eating it in the wrong combinations, in the wrong times, you're still feeding parasite instead of your own body.

It's from the book "the tao of health, sex and longevity" by Daniel Reid, it's worth getting a copy:

pt 1

Trophology: The Science of Food Combining
Compared to Taoist concepts of balance, the Western notion of a ‘balanced diet’ is simplistic and superficial. Western physicians advise everyone to take ‘a little of everything at every meal,’ jumbling together such disparate ingredients as meat, milk, starch, fat and sugar. Such indiscriminate consumption of food is no different than pouring a combination of gas, oil, alcohol and sugar into the gas tank of a car. These blends will not burn efficiently, will provide little power and will quickly clog up the engine so badly that the entire system grinds to a halt. The advice given in the quote at the beginning of this chapter, from a book presented to the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty on the occasion of the author’s 100th birthday, clearly reflects the fact that the ancient Chinese were well aware of the importance of the science of food combining. This wisdom was once known to the West as well, as evidenced by Moses’ strict regulation that meat and milk must never be consumed at the same meal.
In plain English, the Yin and Yang of diet boils down to ‘trophology’, a term which you and no doubt your doctor have probably never heard before. Modern medical training in the West, especially in America, is notoriously deficient in nutritional science, although there are a few enlightened nutritional scientists in America and Europe today who, despite sneers from their peers in the medical establishment, are making great medical strides through the science of trophology.
The Western scientific equivalent of Yin/Yang balance in food combinations is something we all learned in elementary high school chemistry: acid/alkaline balance, or ‘pH’. We all know that if we did add a measure of alkaline to an equal measure of acid, the resulting chemical solution is as neutral as plain water. That’s the principle behind reaching for bicarbonate (a strong alkaline) to relieve ‘acid indigestion’.
It is an established scientific fact in Western medicine that, in order to initiate efficient digestion of any concentrated animal protein, the stomach must secrete pepsin. But it is also a well-known fact that pepsin can function only in a highly acidic medium, which must be maintained for several hours for complete digestion of proteins. It is an equally well-established fact of science that when we chew a piece of bread or potato or any other carbohydrate/starch, ptyalin and other alkaline juices are immediately secreted into the food by the saliva in the mouth. When swallowed, the alkalized starches require an alkaline medium in the stomach in order to complete their digestion.
Anyone should be able to figure out what therefore happens when you ingest protein and starch together. Acid and alkaline juices are secreted simultaneously in response to the incoming protein and starch, promptly neutralizing one another and leaving a weak, watery solution in the stomach that digests neither protein nor starch properly. Instead, the proteins putrefy and the starches ferment owing to the constant presence of bacteria in the digestive tract.
This putrefaction and fermentation are the primary cause of all sorts of digestive distress, including gas, heartburn, cramps, bloating, constipation, foul stools, bleeding piles, colitis, and so forth. Many so-called ‘allergies’ are also the direct result of improper food combinations: the bloodstream picks up toxins from the putrefied, fermented mess as it passes slowly through the intestines, and these toxins in turn cause rashes, hives, headaches, nausea and other symptoms commonly branded as ‘allergies’. The same foods that cause allergic reactions when improperly combined often have no ill side-effects whatsoever when consumed according to the rules of trophology. The final fact of the matter is this: when you immobilize your stomach and impair digestive functions by consuming foods in indiscriminate combinations, the bacteria in your alimentary canal have a field day. They get all the nutrients and thrive, while you get all the wastes and suffer.
According to a recent survey in America, the average American male today carries about 5 pounds of undigested, putrefied red meat in his gut. Leave 5 pounds of meat in a dark, warm, moist place for a few days and see for yourself the results of putrefaction. The severely septic condition of the human intestinal tract is unique in nature, yet Western physicians take it for granted and even insist that it is harmless to the rest of the system.
In fact, however, in order to protect itself from the chronic toxic irritation of improperly combined meals, the colon secretes large quantities of mucus to entrap toxic particles before they damage the colon’s sensitive lining. When this occurs at every meal, every day, every week, throughout the year - as is quite typical in modern Western diets - the colon ends up secreting a constant stream of mucus, which accumulates and gets impacted in the folds of the colon. This results in a narrowing of the passage through the colon and a constant seeping of toxins into the bloodstream by osmosis. When the impacting of toxic mucus in the colon reaches a critical pressure, it causes a pocket to balloon outward through the colon lining, causing a condition called diverticulosis. Colitis and cancer are the next stages of colon deterioration caused by these conditions.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

part 2 trophology:


Having correlated the Tao of diet with Western scientific terminology, let’s take a close look at the practical side of trophology with some concrete examples of food combining. The following categories of food combinations cover most of the ‘culinary crimes’ against nature committed daily throughout the world today. This list is based mainly on the work of Dr Herbert M. Shelton, one of America’s most distinguished nutritional therapists and author of the ‘bible’ of correct culinary combinations, Food Combining Made Easy:
• Protein and starch. This is the worst possible combination of foods to mix together at a single meal, and yet it is the mainstay of modern Western diets: meat and potatoes, hamburgers and fries, eggs and toast, etc. When one consumes protein and starch together, the alkaline enzyme ptyalin pours into the food as it’s chewed in the mouth. When the masticated food reaches the stomach, digestion of starch by alkaline enzymes continues unabated, thereby preventing the digestion of protein by pepsin and other acid secretions. The ever-present bacteria in the stomach are thus permitted to attack the protein and putrefaction commences, rendering nutrients in the protein food largely useless to you and producing toxic wastes and foul gases, including such poisons as indol, skatol, phenol, hydrogen sulphide, phenylpropionic acid, and others.
If that is the case, you may well wonder, then why does the stomach have no trouble handling foods that naturally contain both protein and starch, such as whole grains? As Dr Shelton points out, ‘There is a great difference between the digestion of a food, however complex its composition, and the digestion of a mixture of different foods. To a single article of food that is a starch-protein combination, the body can easily adjust its juices, both as to strength and timing, to the digestive requirements of the food. But when two foods are eaten with different, even opposite, digestive needs, this precise adjustment of juices to requirements becomes impossible.’
Rule: Eat concentrated proteins such as meat, fish, eggs and cheese separately from concentrated starches such as bread, potatoes and rice. For example, eat toast or eggs for breakfast, the hamburger patty or the bun for lunch, meat or potatoes for dinner.
• Protein and Protein. Different proteins have different digestive requirements. For example the strongest enzymatic action on milk occurs during the last hour of digestion, whereas on meat it occurs during the first hour and on eggs somewhere in between. It is instructive to recall the ancient dietary law which Moses imposed on his people, forbidding the simultaneous consumption of milk and flesh.
Two similar meats such as beef and lamb, or two types of fish such as salmon and shrimp, are not sufficiently different in nature to cause digestive conflict in the stomach and may thus be consumed together.
Rule: Eat only one major type of protein at a single meal. Avoid combinations such as meat and eggs, meat and milk, fish and cheese. Insure the assimilation of the full range of vital amino acids by varying the types of concentrated proteins taken at different meals.
• Starch and acid. Any acid food taken together with starch suspends secretion of ptyalin, a biochemical fact of life upon which all physicians agree. Therefore, if you consume oranges, lemons and other acid fruits, or acids such as vinegar, along with starch, no ptyalin is secreted in the mouth to initiate the first stage of starch digestion.
Consequently, the starch hits the stomach without the vital alkaline juices it needs to digest properly, permitting bacteria to ferment it instead. A single teaspoon of vinegar, or its equivalent in other acids, is all it takes entirely to suspend salivary digestion of starch in the mouth.
Rule: Eat starches and acids at separate meals. For example, if you eat toast or cereal for breakfast, skip the orange juice as well as eggs. If you’re eating a starch-based meal of noodles or rice, avoid vinegar as well as concentrated protein.
• Protein and acid. Since protein requires an acid medium for proper digestion, you’d think that acid foods would facilitate protein digestion, but that’s not the case. When acid foods enter the stomach, they inhibit the secretion of hydrochloric acid, and the protein-digesting enzyme pepsin can work only in the presence of hydrochloric acid, not just any acid. Therefore, orange juice inhibits the proper digestion of eggs, and a strong vinegar dressing on salad inhibits the digestion of a steak.
Rule: Avoid combining concentrated proteins and acids at the same meal.
• Protein and fat. In McLeod’s Physiology in Modern Medicine, we find a fact accepted by all physicians: ‘Fat has been shown to exert a distinct inhibiting influence on the secretion of gastric juice.’ For two to three hours after the ingestion of fat, the concentration of hydrochloric acid and pepsin in the stomach is sharply decreased. This delays digestion of any proteins taken together with the fat, which gives bacteria ample opportunity to putrefy the protein. That is why fatty meats such as bacon and ‘marbled’ steaks, or lean meats fried in fat, sit so heavily in the stomach for hours after eating them.
Rule: Eat concentrated proteins and fats at separate meals. When you cannot avoid mixing them, eat plenty of raw vegetables to assist their digestion and passage.
• Protein and sugar. All sugars, without exception, inhibit the secretion of gastric juices in the stomach. That’s because sugars are digested neither in the mouth nor in the stomach. Instead, they pass directly into the small intestine for digestion and assimilation. When consumed in combination with protein, such as cake after steak, not only do the sugars inhibit digestion of proteins by suppressing gastric secretions, the sugars themselves get trapped in the stomach instead of moving swiftly to the small intestine, and this delay permits bacteria to ferment the sugars, releasing noxious toxins and gases which further impair digestion.
Rule: Avoid consuming sugars and proteins at the same meal.
• Starch and sugar. It has been established that, when sugar enters the mouth along with starch, the saliva secreted during mastication contains no ptyalin, thereby sabatoging starch digestion before it reaches the stomach. Furthermore, such a combination blocks passage of sugar through the stomach until the starch is digested, causing it to ferment. The by-products of sugar fermentation are acidic, which in turn further inhibits digestion of starches, which require alkaline mediums for digestion. Bread (starch) and butter (fat) is a perfectly compatible combination, but when you spread a spoonful of honey or jam over it, you introduce sugars to the blend, which interfere with the digestion of the starch in bread. The same principle applies to breakfast cereal sprinkled with sugar, heavily frosted cakes, sweet pies, and so forth.
Rule. Eat starches and sugars separately.
• Melons. Melons are such a perfect food for humans that they require no digestion whatsoever in the stomach. Instead, they pass quickly through the stomach and move into the small intestine for digestion and assimilation. But this can happen only when the stomach is empty and melons are eaten alone, or in combination only with other fresh raw fruits. When consumed with or after other foods that require complex digestion in the stomach, melons cannot pass into the small intestine until the digestion of other foods in the stomach is complete. So they sit and stagnate instead, quickly fermenting and causing all sorts of gastric distress.
Rule: Eat melons alone or leave them alone.

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part 3 trophology


• Milk. Now we come to one of the most controversial and misunderstood items in the Western diet. Orientals and Africans have traditionally avoided milk - except as a purgative. But in the Western world, people are told to drink milk every day throughout their lives.
If we look at nature, we see that the young feed exclusively on milk until weaned away from it with other foods. The natural disappearance of the milk-digesting enzyme lactase from the human system upon reaching maturity proves that adult humans have no more nutritional need for milk than adult tigers or chimpanzees. Though milk is a complete protein food when consumed raw, it also contains fat, which means that it combines poorly with any other food except itself. Yet adults today routinely ‘wash down’ other foods with cold milk. Milk curdles immediately upon entering the stomach, so if there is other food present the curds coagulate around other food particles and insulate them from exposure to gastric juices, delaying digestion long enough to permit the onset of putrefaction. Therefore, the first and foremost rule of milk consumption is, ‘Drink it alone or leave it alone.’
Today, milk is made even more indigestible by the universal practice of pasteurization, which destroys its natural enzymes and alters its delicate proteins. Raw milk contains the active enzymes lactase and lipase, which permit raw milk to digest itself. Pasteurized milk, which is devitalized of lactase and other active enzymes, simply cannot be properly digested by adult stomachs, and even infants have trouble with it, as evidenced by cholic, rashes, respiratory ailments, gas and other common ailments of bottle-fed babies. The lack of enzymes and alteration of vital proteins also renders the calcium and other mineral elements in milk largely unassimilable.
During the 1930s, Dr Francis M. Pottenger conducted a 10-year study on the relative effects of pasteurized and raw milk diets on 900 cats. One group received nothing but raw whole milk, while the other was fed nothing but pasteurized whole milk from the same source. The raw milk group thrived, remaining healthy, active and alert throughout their lives, but the group fed on pasteurized milk soon became listless, confused and highly vulnerable to a host of chronic degenerative ailments normally associated with humans, including heart disease, kidney failure, thyroid disfunction, respiratory ailments, loss of teeth, brittle bones, liver inflammation, etc. But what caught Dr Pottenger’s attention most was what happened to the second and third generations. The first offspring of the pasteurized milk group were all born with poor teeth and small, weak bones - a clear-cut sign of calcium deficiency, which indicated lack of calcium absorption from pasteurized milk. The offspring of the raw milk group remained as healthy as their parents. Many of the kittens in third generation of the pasteurized group were stillborn, while those that survived were all sterile and unable to reproduce. The experiment had to end there because there was no fourth generation of cats fed on pasteurized milk, although the raw milk group continued to breed and thrive indefinitely. If that is insufficient proof of the ill effects of pasteurized milk, take note of the fact that even newborn calves fed on pasteurized milk taken from their own mother cows usually die within six months, a fact which the commercial dairy industry is loathe to admit.
Despite such scientific evidence in favor of raw milk and against pasteurized milk, and despite the fact that until the early twentieth century the human species thrived on raw milk, it is actually illegal to sell raw milk to consumers in all but a few states in America today. It is far more profitableto the dairy industry to pasteurize milk to extend its shelf-life, though such denatured milk does nothing whatsoever to extend human life. Furthermore, pasteurization renders milk from sick cows in unsanitary dairies relatively ‘harmless’ by killing some, but not all, dangerous germs, and this too cuts costs for the dairy industry.
It required only three generations for Dr Pottenger’s pasteurized milk fed cats to become sterile and enfeebled. That’s about how many generations of Americans and Europeans have fed on pasteurized milk. Today, infertility has become a major problem for young American couples, while calcium deficiency has become so rampant that over 90 per cent of all American children suffer chronic tooth decay. To make things worse, milk is now routinely ‘homogenized’ to prevent the cream from separating from the milk. This involves the fragmentation and pulverization of the fat molecules to the point that they will not separate from the rest of the milk. But it also permits these tiny fragments of milk fat to easily pass through the villae of the small intestine, greatly increasing the amount of denatured fat and cholesterol absorbed by the body. In fact, you absorb more milk-fat from homogenized milk than you do from pure cream!
Women worried about osteoporosis should take note of these facts about pasteurized milk products. That such denatured milk does not deliver sufficient calcium to prevent this condition is abundantly evident from the fact that American women, who consume great quantities of various pasteurized milk products, suffer the world’s highest incidence of osteoporosis. Raw cabbage, for example, supplies far more assimilable calcium than any quantity of pasteurized milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, or any other denatured dairy product.
Recent studies at the Human Research Center in Grand Forks, North Dakota, indicates that the element boron is also an essential factor in absorbing calcium from food and utilizing it to build bones. Even more noteworthy, the level of estrogen in the blood of women given sufficient quantities of boron more than doubled, eliminating the need for estrogen replacement therapy, which is a common stopgap measure against osteoporosis in the West. And where do we find boron? In fresh fruits and vegetables, especially apples, pears, grapes, nuts, cabbage, and other leafy vegetables, where we also find calcium. Nature has already provided abundant sources of all the vital nutrients we need in synergistic form, but man insists on cooking and processing them to death, and then wonders why his diet doesn’t ‘work.’
Adults should seriously reconsider milk as a constituent of their daily diets, unless they are able to obtain raw certified milk, which is an excellent food. To stuff children with pasteurized milk in order to make them grow ‘strong and healthy’ is sheer folly, because they simply cannot assimilate the nutrients. Indeed men, women, and children alike should eliminate all pasteurized dairy products from their diets, for these denatured dairy products only gum up the intestines with layer upon layer of slimy sludge that interferes with the absorption of organic nutrients.
Rule: Eliminate pasteurized and homogenized milk entirely from your diet. If raw certified milk is available, consume it as a whole food in itself, not in combination with other foods.
• Desserts. One should avoid any sort of sweet dessert after a big meal, for this type of food combines poorly with everything. Even fresh fruit should be avoided right after a big meal, because it will back up in the stomach and ferment instead of digest. If you really have a ‘sweet tooth’ and crave cakes, pies and pastries, indulge your habit occasionally by making a whole meal of them. They are still not good for you, but at least taken alone they will not cause as much gastric distresss and toxic by-products as when taken after meals.
Rule: Avoid sweet starchy desserts, as well as fruits, after large meals of protein or carbohydrates.
Correctly combining foods makes all the difference in the world to proper digestion and metabolism. Without complete digestion, the nutrients in even the most wholesome food cannot be fully extracted and assimilated by the body. Moreover, incomplete digestion and inefficient metabolism are prime causes of fat and cholesterol accumulation in the body. A low-calorie diet of overcooked, processed and improperly combined foods will still make you fat and leave sticky deposits in your arteries, just as the wrong mix of fuels will leave carbon deposits on the spark plugs of an engine, clog the pistons, and create foul gaseous exhaust. On the other hand, if foods are properly combined for consumption, then regardless of how many calories or how much cholesterol they contain they will not make you fat or clog up your veins and organs, especially if at least half your daily food intake is taken raw.
If one follows the rules of trophology, there is no need to be a fanatic about controlling one’s diet, no need to count calories, and no need to worry about cholesterol. Note also that there is no such thing as a food that is 100 per cent protein or 100 per cent carbohydrate. What counts is whether protein or carbohydrate is the major nutritional element in any particular food. Generally speaking, if a food item contains 15 per cent or more protein, then it’s categorized as a ‘protein food’, while 20 per cent or more carbohydrate makes it a ‘carbohydrate food’. When combining different types of food in a single meal, it doesn’t matter much if a little bit of protein is added to a basically carbohydrate meal or vice versa, especially if plenty of raw vegetables are included to provide active enzymes and fibrous bulk. Appendix I at the end of this chapter lists a wide range of foods according to the categories of protein, starch, fats, fruits and vegetables. As this list clearly shows, there are plenty of wholesome foods from which to construct a healthy meal, without resorting to artificially refined, processed foods. Appendix II provides sample menus for a week.


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part 4 trophology:


Ideally, one should consume only one variety of food at a single sitting. A glance at nature proves this point. Carnivorous animals never consume starchy items with their meat, but they do supplement digestion and occasionally purge their bowels by chewing on wild weeds that have medicinal properties. It has also been observed by birdwatchers for centuries that birds eat bugs and worms at one time of day, seeds and berries at another, but never both together. What makes modern man think that his digestive tract is so different from all other species in nature?
Even though the traditional Chinese diet relies heavily on rice, a closer look at Chinese eating habits shows that, up until the mid-twentieth century, the rice was consumed according to the rules of trophology. For example, when Chinese families eat at home, their meals are usually heavy in fresh vegetables and beancurd products and very light in meats. When Chinese go out for a big banquet in a restaurant, rice is generally not served at all, specifically so that it does not interfere with the enjoyment and digestion of all the meat, fish and fowl that always appear on banquet menus. Today, however, modern lifestyles have eroded these healthy eating habits among urban Chinese, much to the detriment of their health and longevity.
Back in the 1920s, before the modern world had much impact on Chinese lifestyles, an extensive study was conducted in China by Western nutritional scientists to compare the typical eating habits of Chinese and Americans. The regions surveyed were located in central and coastal China, in rural areas where traditional lifestyles and eating habits had not changed much for many centuries, but where relative peace and prosperity gave local households the full range of choice in foods. The study revealed that the average Chinese derived over 90 per cent of their food energy from grains and grain products, with only 1 per cent coming from animal products and all the rest from fresh vegetable sources. A blend of 90 per cent carbohydrate and 1 per cent protein, supplemented with the enzymes and roughage of fresh fruits and vegetables, is about as close to a perfectly combined diet as is practically possible.
The same study then turned towards the eating habits of typical Americans, with most revealing results: 39 per cent of the average American’s food energy came from grains, 38 per cent from animal products, and most of the remaining 23 per cent came from refined sugars. Vegetables and fruits accounted for a miniscule portion of the American diet. One could hardly concoct a more poorly balanced diet from the point of view of trophology! According to the results of Dr Pottenger’s experiments with cats, the damage from such denatured diets can be transmitted to the next generation.
Let’s take a close trophological look at the ‘Great American Meal’, which is rapidly spreading digestive and metabolic malaise throughout the world via huge corporate fast-food chains. That all-American meal consists of a cheeseburger with French fries, washed down with a milk shake or sweet cola. A cheeseburger combines two different varieties of concentrated protein - meat and cheese. On top of that goes a big, fluffy bun of highly refined white flour - pure starch. Next comes a big bag of deep fried potatoes, thereby adding more concentrated starch, further fattened by deep-frying in stale oil, to the meal. Finally, this mess is washed down with a big frozen milk shake, adding pasteurized milk to the meat and the starch and the fat, plus several spoons of refined white sugar to thoroughly gum up the works. Breaking one or two rules of trophology at any given meal is bad enough, but the Great American Meal breaks at least six. Small wonder that in a recent nationwide health survey in America, reported in an Associated Press bulletin in July 1986, 49 per cent of the population reported chronic, daily stomach pain, gastrointestinal distress, constipation, and other ailments of the digestive tract.
The dietary situation in the Western world is far more serious than any government health authorities care to admit. This is largely because the food industry has become one of the largest, most powerful businesses in the Western world, especially in America, where the processed food industry is represented by one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which decides what foods may be sold in the market, is staffed primarily by professional bureaucrats, not nutritional scientists, and it conducts no scientific tests whatsoever. Instead, it relies on tests and reports submitted by the very corporations which want to get a new food product onto the market! Raw certified milk has become illegal in most states, and gone are the days when people could go down to a local open-air market to purchase fresh produce, as is still the custom in Asia and much of Europe. And so Americans continue to suffer among the world’s highest incidence of heart disease, cancer, digestive disorders and other deadly ailments.
Facts are facts, so have a look at the following startling facts about diet and malnutrition in America, compiled by American medical scientists and published in the March/April 1958 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. A careful comparative examination of the diets and health of beggars in India and apparently healthy young American teenagers revealed that in India the average daily calorie intake of the typical beggar amounted to less than half that of the typical American. Yet only 6.25 per cent of the beggars showed any signs of nutritional deficiency, while a staggering 75 per cent of the American teenagers showed signs of severe malnutrition. Only 1.25 per cent of the Indian beggars suffered dental cavities, compared with over 90 per cent of the young Americans. Conclusion: the typical beggar in India derives greater health from his meager diet than the average American teenager does from his ‘rich’ diet.
A similar study in Mexico found similar results. The September 1951 issue of Harper’s Magazine reports the results of a long-term study of the dietary habits of Mexican peasants, conducted by MIT’s Dr Robert Harris. States the report,
To the surprise of investigators, these poverty-stricken Mexicans showed less evidence of malnutrition deficiencies than did Michigan school children …
Analysis of all their foods by Dr. Harris’ group showed that the Otomis (Indians dwelling in the arid Mesquital Valley north of Mexico City), like the slum dwellers of Mexico City, were obtaining nearly adequate quantities of all nutrients except riboflavin. In fact, their nutrition was definitely superior to that of the average person living in the Boston and New York areas of the United States.

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And.. very important "drink your food and chew your beverage" :)

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There is a lot more vital information in this book, for example, about enzymes, so just get a copy to read the rest. :)

[gracieuse]

I also recognise a lot of Dawn's experience on what parasites can do to the body when they're being rooted out. Since I've started an intense process of cleansing and conscious eating two months ago, the parasites are causing cravings I haven;t had in years... sometimes I give in, and I end up exhausted and irritable. When I don't give in, I get extreme symptoms of "intoxication": fevers, debilitating weakness, diarrhea and sometimes even ulcers in several organs. I'm glad to finally understand some of these symptoms.

I've also developed my own method of recognising whether is a craving coming from a nutritional deficiency in the body, or from parasites: I imagine eating the product I get a craving for, and let my body tell how it would feel afterwards. The second test is simply observing carefully how I feel after eating a certain food. If it comes from parasites, I first feel agitated, nervous, and slightly high, as if I've taken coffee. Then I get a dip. If it comes from my body I simply feel a "aaaaah yes" and then feel great and happy.

My parasites have very subtle ways to claim even my healthy food. For example: ever since learning about trophology, I know my craving for something sweet after a balanced meal is not "mine": it's the parasite wanting my food to ferment...

By the way, I have a stock of good quality living kefir grains, a really strong and healthy culture. Let me know if you need some and I can see if I can sned them to you.

[gracieuse]

On keeping kefir:

- i never rinse my grains in water. i just let them drip off and let htem keep their thick coating
- if im out of milk, i can keep them fine in a layer of water that is enough to top them up, this works for several days, then they get too weak. this only works for me if I don't rinse them before with water
- if i leave for a week or more, i fill the jar with milk and let them sit in there inside the fridge, so the process of turning the milk into kefir is slowed down. i believe this works for 2-3 weeks.
- ive succesfully frozen my culture in the fridge, protected in their own "jacket" ie. not rinsed in water! but maybe this is different for each culture

[onawah]

I just got my first 2 gallons of raw milk, and I am in a very celebratory mood today! :party:

I've been using well water to store the kefir grains in since my tap water is chlorinated (God only knows what else is in there), and no, they don't have the slimy coating.
But now that I have a source of raw milk again, I will try storing them in that and see if it makes for any changes.
I thought it was good to give them a "rest", and so that was why I was keeping them in water, but I don't remember now who I got that from.

I have another question.
I read somewhere that raw honey will kill the milk kefir cultures, so I've been using maple sugar in my frozen kefir dessert instead of raw honey, which is what I normally use as a sweetener.
But I'm wondering if raw honey affects the water kefir cultures the same way.
Does anyone know?

I wish there was a natural, safe sweetener that didn't taste awful (stevia) that doesn't feed all those bad parasites like candida, which I definitely have a problem with.
If I could just get rid of my sweet tooth, I think half my health issues would disappear!
I thought Xylitol might be the answer, but I found out most of it now is being made from corn husks from China.
And the kind that is still made from tree bark is really expensive and not even very sweet, so you have to use a lot.
I haven't had time yet to read your long post, gracieuse, but I will soon.
Thanks so much for this thread!!
It's such a help. :dance::pray::wave::clap2::wub:

[gracieuse]

But I'm wondering if raw honey affects the water kefir cultures the same way.

Raw honey would definitely not kill the water kefir, as water kefir needs a sugary substance to grow on (and an acid). I looked it up for you on a website specialised in kefirs (not in english)

[gracieuse]

If I could just get rid of my sweet tooth, I think half my health issues would disappear!

No need to get rid of it imho, just find different ways of satiating your sweet tooth. I also have a terrible sweet tooth. I've found lately that satisfying this sweet tooth with concentrated sources of sugar, even fruits or dried fruits, gives me health problems, as I take them in excess amounts. However, I've also found that I feel more satisfied, and much better in general, when I satiate this craving with food sources that give off "slow" sugars. For example, wheat-germ bread (baked at a very low temp to keep the enzymes). Or, Ive invented a pie made from carrots and beetroots. Very simple,extract the juice from beetroots and carrots. Take the pulp, eliminate the peels. Mix with extra virgin coconut oil (slightly heated to turn it into a liquid), cinnamon, clove, sunflower and linnseed to taste. Put it in a cake form, and let it sit in the fridge so that it gets solid. And voila, you have a raw cake, it's fluffy, deliciously sweet without any added sugar. you do need a juice extractor to make it. Anyway, use your imaginations and find foods like these..

I have no idea if this fits into the diet that Dawn posted earlier, with eliminating foods that digest as sugars..

[Bubu]

Anyone can share recipe of coconut milk and coconut water kefir? has anyone tried adding fruits, such as mango to taste? You know kids won't touch if not good tasting.

thanks

[Bubu]

I never knew that the release of toxins has such a terrible effect. So this explains why I feel better whenever I perspire during fasting.
Think I have to go out and make some body water

[Dawn]

Onawah: If I could just get rid of my sweet tooth, I think half my health issues would disappear!
I thought Xylitol might be the answer, but I found out most of it now is being made from corn husks from China.
And the kind that is still made from tree bark is really expensive and not even very sweet, so you have to use a lot.

I've found that most of my sweet tooth is related to an overabundance of candida. If you want to loose it, may I suggest drinking tea with cinnamon in it. My favorite is CinnamonApple Tea with a dollop of cream, but you will find the one you like best. Cinnamon turns off our sweet craving. Some people just stir 2 teaspoons in water daily and that will do the trick.

As far as a good healthy sweetener. The best I've found that doesn't spike the blood sugar is evaporated coconut nectar. It is delicious, digests slowly, and tastes great... oh, and has many micronutrients as well.

But... if you are diligent about cutting out sugar, and replacing it with cinnamon, you can eliminate your cravings entirely within less than 90 days. As the candida in your body die off, you will find that sugar and sweet things taste really awful in fact!

[onawah]

Thanks Dawn, I will give those first suggestions a try, and perhaps they will lead me to the last.

[gracieuse]

[QUOTE]
I've found that most of my sweet tooth is related to an overabundance of candida. If you want to loose it, may I suggest drinking tea with cinnamon in it.

I always get so excited when something I do instinctively turns out to have an explanation like this. During one of my sweet cravings, not having anything in the house to satisfy it, I grabbed for a piece of unground cinnamon and started chewing it. I felt sooo good, that "aaaah yes" feeling, and the craving disappeared right away :D :peace:

See our bodies can tell us everything we need to know to get healthy, if we just learn to listen...

Flower teas, like camomille, or marigold, also help me, as they have subtle sweetness. Or fresh mint tea :)

[Dawn]

I am re-building my gut organisms-- again! I felt really good after a year of following the GAPS program to the best of my ability. However the infection in my skull bones from toxic dentistry practices has persisted and was causing me eye pain. So at the end of 2012 I moved into using radiation hormesis as well as the GAPS protocol. Part of that program involved the services of a medically trained parasitologist. He uses essential oils sequenced with moon phases to rid the body of specific pathogenic parasites which he diagnoses from stool and urine samples.

As I started this protocol 3.5 months ago I thought... Oh No! Here I go again... fighting with my internal micro organisms. I felt rather split between 2 camps of belief. On the one hand was the camp that said nurture the friendly organisms and they will fight your battles. And on the other hand was the camp who believed that deep cleanses are needed to rid the body of dangerous pathogens. My body is still fighting the damage done to it by a dentist who pounded a metal rod into my skull to hold an infected root canal in place (UGH!) without telling me what he was doing. The metal rod is gone... but a deep bone infection and electrical imbalances in my body persist. I thought the parasite cleanse might be a good support for recovering from this type of long term infection. So... I went through the worst of the 4 month protocol... I still have a couple of weeks to go on a reduced protocol that isn't nearly as severe.

This brings me to why I am making this post. I can tell that I am suffering from leaky bowl syndrome again after all of the essential oil treatments. I know exactly what to do, because I had so much success last year with the GAPS program. I've kept my kefir and sauerkraut consumption up daily... but now I am again preparing something beyond that for deep micro-organism replacement. I haven't mentioned this for many pages on this thread and it is easy for knowledge to get burried. It is worth bringing up this subject again.

So... kefir and sauerkraut fulfill the need for acidophillis and other friendly organisms... but they do not replenish friendly e-coli. This type of e-coli is difficult to replenish but worth the effort. It will protect your body from pathogenic e-coli and defend you from attack... yet commercial strains really don't pass through the digestive tract and remain lively enough to implant themselves in your lower colon again. There is a natural remedy. Well, there are 2 home remedies actually... but I just haven't gotten the courage to try the 2nd one.

I'm speaking of making your own 'high meat'. I started mine in advance of completing this protocol because I knew I'd benefit from it. It takes a full 30 days to make high meat so you need to plan ahead. This is an excellent source of natural supportive e-coli and can even cure colon cancer and heal other ailments of the digestive tract. Here are the benefits:
1) an effective and inexpensive probiotic
2) known as 'high' meat because you will be very happy for 3days to 10 days after consumption. Apparently the 'wee beasties' in it secrete happiness chemicals!

Here's how you do it. Buy some grass fed beef. I bought a smal filet mignon tri tip steak. Cut it into little 1/2 inch cubes and place in a clean jar with a tight fitting lid. Don't fill the jar more than 1/2 to 1/3 full so there is lots of room for air in the jar. Refrigerate your meat cubes. Every 3-4 days take your jar out and remove the lid... waive the jar around in the fresh outside air for a few minutes and put the lid back on. Refrigerate until it is time for the next 'outing'. Be sure to do this OUTSIDE(!) because it will begin to smell strongly after 10 days or so. After 30 days it is ready to eat... and it is good for at least a year... as long as you refrigerate it and air it out every few days. (note: if you go on vacation it will be OK... just air it out when you get home)

When I made my first 'High Meat' I was pretty scared to take that first bite. Strangely my body was not frightened at all. It actually smelled and tasted good to me and I would get cravings for it. In the beginning I craved it every few days, then that changed to weekly, and slowly the length of time between cravings grew. One day after about 5 months I realized I hadn't eaten any high meat for about a month... eventually I threw the left over high meat away.

So... now I am starting again. My mouth actually waters when I think of taking my first bite ... but I can't do that until July 17... it will be 30 days old then and safe to eat.

[onawah]

Wow, I think it would take some courage to do that one, and I can imagine what the other one might be.
Something to do with implants of fecal matter into the bowels? I've heard that is done in hospitals sometimes as a last resort.
But I thought urine therapy scary too, until I tried it.
Now it seems very natural.
But I may give high meat a try too.
I am currently dealing with a bad eye infection--lots of redness, itch and worst of all, pus.
There is constant discharge, and when I wake up, my eyes are partially glued shut. :(
I've been taking so many things--aloe vera gel, VIt C and D3, MMS, garlic, iodine, echinacea, propollis, colloidal silver, urine therapy.
I've been bathing my eyes in colloidal silver solution, aloe vera, water and RealSalt solution, and fresh urine.
I just wish I knew which remedies are the most appropriate ones.
I may have to break down and go have some kind of test done to find out what is causing the infection.
I think I got it from dust from scooping my kitty's litter box.
I'm going to get some goggles, though now I am putting a plastic bag over my head while scooping... :lol:
It was getting better yesterday, but now it's bad again, so I will start doing more of the protocols again.
It's a catch22 situation, since it's hard for me to sleep with my eyes so uncomfortable, but I need to rest them and sleep, of course, is the best way to do that.

Hopefully the new batch of raw goat milk kefir will help.
My kefir grains seem to be OK.
The milk curdled nicely, and the whey was just beginning to separate when I refrigerated it.
I am storing the kefir grains in a solution of raw goat milk and well water in the fridge.

I've had lots of problems with teeth as well--lots of root canals, though finally I just had them all pulled except for 5 lower teeth.
If I had known how bad root canals are, I probably would have had them all pulled to begin with, and gotten it over with, avoiding years of hidden infection and pain.
But better late then never.
Dawn, have you ever tried any kind of monoatomic product?
I was intrigued by Gio's farewell post #5439 here:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?3596-Up-At-The-Ranch-And-Beyond/page272
where he recommended a line of oxygenated water products that James Gilliland recommended to him.
I would like to try the Cobalt product described here:
http://www.langenburgwater.com/p/water/types
I've always wanted to try a monoatomic product, but wanted to wait until someone I know recommended one from experience.

[gracieuse]

Some brands of kitty litter have asbestos in them, maybe thats what your eyes are reacting to? make sure to get biodegradable kitty litter, they make them from pressed wood fibers, they dont give off any dust either... and maybe the remedies are clashing?

[onawah]

I'm using Pure Nature brand from Purina made from cedar, corn and pine.
I think it's the bacteria from my kitty's waste that is the problem.
It's very hot here now, in the 80s and 90s, so that's a factor too, as the bacteria is proliferating more rapidly.

Last night the salt solution began irritating my eyes, so I switched to urine therapy and using fresh urine and colloidal silver solution to bathe the eyes.
I slept well, and when I awoke, my eyes weren't glued shut, so I'm going to keep doing that.
Urine therapy is effective--I should do it more.
If you are not familiar with it, see:
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/UT/Urine.aspx
There is a long Avalon thread on the subject as well
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?1793-Taking-the-piss-Your-own-best-medicine...&highlight=urine+therapy

[Dawn]

onawah: I think it's the bacteria from my kitty's waste that is the problem.
It's very hot here now, in the 80s and 90s, so that's a factor too, as the bacteria is proliferating more rapidly.


Your intuition is likely correct. I was diagnosed with this problem and treated through radionics or frequencies. I noticed immediate relief within 5 minutes of treatment. Exposure to cats routinely causes eye infections. The problem is rampant within our culture, and doctors rarely look for it or diagnose it. Look at this link for more info to begin to understand it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasmosis

Or... Google toxoplasmosis

And thanks for this

I was intrigued by Gio's farewell post #5439 here:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...Beyond/page272
where he recommended a line of oxygenated water products that James Gilliland recommended to him.
I would like to try the Cobalt product described here:
http://www.langenburgwater.com/p/water/types
I've always wanted to try a monoatomic product, but wanted to wait until someone I know recommended one from experience.

I do know one friend who swears by the water he drinks. It is produced by a friend of his who makes many claims about it. Currently I use a 3 stage whole house filter, a 2 stage vortex arrangement, and a magnetic treatment of my water... that is before I ozonate and steam distill it. I just can't get back into expensive bottled water products again. I tried a number of them and just didn't see the results others were raving about. As you can see from my home set up I have done the research on water and am kind of phobic about it. Sigh.... how to live in a polluted world with questionable public water systems.

[onawah]

I was intrigued by the Cobalt water product because of the monoatomic properties in the glass.
As an all around healing and rejuvenating agent, I think ORMUS is probably very effective, but finding the right form is the challenge.
Bottled water doesn't interest me, but the cobalt blue bottle they are selling apparently has monoatomic properties which might recharge the water in the bottle each time it's refilled, which intrigued me.
(I've been reading Sir Laurence Gardner's work, and the subject of ORMUS and monoatomic gold often comes up in his books.)

I have a friend with well water who lets me fill my gallon bottles there.
I have about 35 plastic bottles which I take each trip.
I use about a gallon per day for drinking and cooking and for my kitty.
I have 4 glass bottles which I keep in the sun on my front porch, with little crystals in them.
I use the water from those bottles to fill my kitchen pitcher, and then refill the glass bottles from the plastic bottles, which are kept indoors.

I just heard Alex Jones on a Coast to Coast show with George Noory, and he was talking about a recent trip to Hot Springs, AR (another town famous for it's spring water).
There was a meeting of state district water managers there at the hotel where Alex was staying, and he said about 50 of them came up to him to shake his hand and thank him for his work.
They said they knew fluoridated water is a horrible idea, and they are not going to allow the mandate to go into effect.

[onawah]

New science confirms raw milk is remarkably safe

Tuesday, July 02, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer



http://www.naturalnews.com/041039_raw_milk_FDA_unpasteurized.html

(NaturalNews) All of those antiquated government talking points about the alleged dangers of drinking raw milk have once again been debunked, this time by a series of scientific risk assessments recently published in the Journal of Food Protection. A press release published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explains that, based on the results of three new quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRAs), as well as the review of dozens of other scholarly papers on the subject, raw milk is very clearly a low-risk food that is generally safe for everyone, including pregnant women and young children.

Presented at a recent meeting of the Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, the groundbreaking results of these QMRAs were offered up as some of the latest scientific evidence proving the safety of fresh milk during a presentation entitled Unpasteurized milk: myths and evidence. The main reviewer, Nadine Ijaz, M.S.c, divulged during this presentation how raw milk has been unfairly and wrongly categorized as a high-risk food since the 1930s when filthy, urban distillery dairies were churning out toxic "swill" milk that had to be pasteurized because it was causing people to become ill.

Distillery dairies were eventually decommissioned and replaced by real farm dairies, which eliminated virtually all the risks associated with raw milk, but the "science" behind milk pasteurization became crystallized into the American psyche thanks to tremendous pressures by many state departments of agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA, as many NaturalNews readers are well aware, still clings to the outmoded theory that all milk has to be pasteurized in order to be considered safe.

Leafy green vegetables more dangerous than raw milk, data shows
But when it is produced safely in accordance with accepted sanitary standards, raw milk is not at all the villain that the government continually claims it is. In fact, raw milk is among the safest foods a person can eat, ranking higher than other common foods like processed lunch meat, factory-produced chicken eggs, and even conventional vegetables. It may come as a shock, but the latest research shows that leafy green vegetables actually carry with them a higher food safety risk than raw milk.

"While it is clear that there remains some appreciable risk of food-borne illness from raw milk consumption, public health bodies should now update their policies and informational materials to reflect the most high-quality evidence, which characterizes this risk as low," said Ijaz during the presentation. "Raw milk producers should continue to use rigorous managements practices to minimize any possible remaining risk."

Naturally-occurring probiotic bacteria in raw milk protects it from deadly pathogens
Included within the peer-reviewed data sets that were used for the analyses was evidence showing that the pathogenic risk of raw milk is also particularly low. Contrary to popular belief, pathogens like Campylobacter, Shiga-toxin inducing E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus are not very common in raw milk, and this is due to the fact that raw milk contains its own beneficial, probiotic pathogens that generally prevent them from forming.

"The scientific papers cited at the BC Centre for Disease Control presentation demonstrated a low risk of illness from unpasteurized milk consumption for each of the pathogens," explains a press release about the finding. "This low risk profile applied to healthy adults as well as members of immunologically-susceptible groups: Pregnant women, children and the elderly."

To learn more about the health benefits of raw milk, and where to find some in your area, visit:
http://www.realmilk.com/

Also, be sure to check out the comprehensive blog The Complete Patient, which contains all sorts of pertinent information about raw milk, health freedom, and the political structures that interfere with humanity's access to clean food:
http://thecompletepatient.com/

Sources for this article include:

http://www.cornucopia.org

http://thebovine.wordpress.com

http://thecompletepatient.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041039_raw_milk_FDA_unpasteurized.html#ixzz2Xu76hEt9

[Dawn]

Onawah: Leafy green vegetables more dangerous than raw milk, data shows

Thank you Onawah. Great article. I've managed to find 2 sources for raw goat milk this past month. The sellers and I are 'pretending' that I am using it to make goat milk soap. As long as they are selling it for that purpose... or for raising an orphaned animal, it is not illegal. The way our governments are behaving shows that their original purpose, which was to work for and serve us, has gotten completely lost. I was looking online last night for areas which allow chickens.... not very many towns and cities do. What a sad situation... insane really.

[onawah]

Congratulations! I know how great a resource it is to have raw milk--especially goat milk!
That's a good strategy re the goat milk soap.
(I remember when I lived in California you used to be able to buy raw milk in the health food stores if it was labeled "pet food", though I doubt if anyone was really using it for that.)

There's been an ongoing debate in my little town about allowing chickens, but it hasn't been won yet.
Though thankfully, there are enough people just outside the town limits who have free range chickens and are offering chickens and eggs for sale at various venues such as the Farmer's Market and various stores.

I do proofreading for a journalist friend who writes a lot of articles about grass farming.
It's very encouraging to hear about how well grass farmers are doing in the US now, and how it's growing faster and faster.
It's very inspiring to hear about how well the partnership of farmer, crops and animals works, so cooperative and interdependent.
These farmers feel such a natural connection to their land, crops and animals and how it all works so efficiently, without the need for pesticides or commercial fertilizers.
And their relationships with their customers is so much more personal and friendly.
Something so healthy and fulfilling is not going to die out, I think, but will just continue to grow back again until corporate farming is a thing of the past.
And that will continue to happen with backyard gardeners and community gardens too.
Maybe the next step for community gardens will be to include goats and chickens, etc. as well.
I took a look at this site:
http://www.beaktime.com/chicken-laws.php
and you are right, there aren't many communities allowing backyard chickens as yet.
But there are a lot of good reasons listed for having them, and I couldn't agree more!

[Bubu]

Hello, can I transport kefir in a sealed container? how long?

Thanks

[onawah]

I'm wondering how to add what Dr. Mercola's product, the fermented vegetable starter contains, to make the fermented vegies more nutritious, without actually buying his product.
It says in the ad it contains L. Plantarum and other beneficial bacteria.
I wonder if I could just add a capsule of regular probiotics.

He's been praising the benefits of natto, and I've been taking a cap of that per day, but according to his latest article,
http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/07/05/bone-health.aspx?e_cid=20130705_DNL_JLY4DNOMIN_JLY4BAN_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130705JLY4DNOMIN
we need about twice what I've been taking daily.
Does anyone know if adding a cap of natto powder to a fermenting food would be a workable solution?
(I've heard that it tastes kind of nasty in the form that the Asians consume it--a form somewhat similar to tempeh, I think. )
Anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_APRUS6txkU

[onawah]

I got my 1 lb. bag of Wholesome brand low glycemic, organic coconut palm sugar UPSed from Vitacost today, and it is yummy.
It costs $5.49, which isn't bad at all.
I can't wait to try it in my next batch of coconut kefir frozen custard dessert! :hungry:

[Dawn]

Nature: Hello, can I transport kefir in a sealed container? how long?

Thanks

Great question nature. Kefir keeps well at room temp for at least 2 weeks without being fed, possibly longer... This is based on personal experience. The only issue with it is that it doesn't take really well to a sealed container because it manufactures natural gas, even without being fed so it builds up pressure in the container.

When I traveled last year, I took some in a quart jar and fed it milk every few days. It was a terrific travel companion... but I left LOTS of head room in the jar to allow for expansion. 1/2 jar of kefir in milk can easily grow to a jar that is 80% (or better) full. From there it can work itself under the jar lid and out of the jar. I think this might be the main reason it isn't sold in stores. Although you can find products marked KEFIR on store shelves it is NOT the real stuff and does not have the same health benefits.

So, if you plan to keep it in a jar for a prolonged period (more than 2 days) just be sure that you have only filled the jar 25% or less. And be sure you have a tight fitting (preferably NOT metal) lid.

[Dawn]

Onawah and I have been having an email discussion about cinnamon and I realized this info is very important and should be posted here. Back a few posts I mentioned that you can answer cravings for sweets with cinnamon tea. Well.... this is a much more important topic and ... cinnamon can be dangerous if you use the wrong type.

Turns out there are 2 kinds of cinnamon. One of them contains a poisonous toxin called 'coumarin' in high dosages. This poisonous cinnamon has been banned from import to Germany. But if you live somewhere else you need to pay attention to what kind of cinnamon you buy. You want CEYLON CINNAMON. And it has myriads of health benefits!

Poisonous Casia Cinnamon. Even 1 cinnamon cookie 4x week can overload your liver
http://www.ceylon-cinnamon.com/CeylonCinnmaonImages/Cassia.jpg

Wondourous Cure-All Ceylon Cinnamon with all kinds of health benefits
http://www.ceylon-cinnamon.com/CeylonCinnmaonImages/RealCinnamon.jpg

Here is a short list of some of the health benefits (courtesy of Onawa's email to me)

Great information!! Cinnamon and Honey...!Drug companies won't like this one getting around. Facts on Honey and Cinnamon:
It is found that a mix of honey and cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also note honey as very effective medicine for all kinds of diseases. Honey can be used without side effects which is also a plus.Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, when it is taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm even diabetic patients. Researched by western scientists:

HEART DISEASES: Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, put it on toast instead of jelly and jam and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol and could potentially save one from heart attack. Also, even if you have already had an attack studies show you could be kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of cinnamon honey strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as one ages the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and the veins.

ARTHRITIS: Arthritis patients can benefit by taking one cup of hot water with two tablespoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. When taken daily even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week (out of the 200 people so treated) practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain -- and within a month, most all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis now started walking without pain.

BLADDER INFECTIONS: Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder....who knew?

CHOLESTEROL: Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water given to a cholesterol patient was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. As mentioned for arthritic patients, when taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol-could be cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

COLDS: Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and, clear the sinuses, and it's delicious too!

UPSET STOMACH: Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also is said to clear stomach ulcers from its root.

GAS: According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that when Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

IMMUNE SYSTEM: Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacterial and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles (where DNA is contained) to fight bacterial and viral diseases.

INDIGESTION: Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food is eaten relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals

INFLUENZA: A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural 'Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.

LONGEVITY: Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Use four teaspoons of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of boiling water to make a tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans increase and even a 100 year old will start performing the chores of a 20-year-old.

If you want to go deeper into this information here are a couple of web sites filled with detailed information:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/choosing_the_right_cinnamon.aspx
http://www.indusorganics.com/camparison.html

If you have any difficulty finding the 'good' Ceylon Cinnamon here is where I have been purchasing it:
http://www.ceylon-cinnamon.com/Identify-Cinnamon.htm

[onawah]

I would like to add that commercial brands of spices in the US have all been irradiated! You have to buy organic spices to avoid the as yet unidentified substances that irradiation creates.
Frontier Herbs is one company that carries organic herbs and spices.
http://www.frontiercoop.com/
Most health food stores carry organic herbs and spices, but it's always wise to check.

Following is an article on healing your gut at:
http://www.naturalhealth365.com/natural_healing/digestive_problems.html

Heal digestive problems by balancing secretory IgA

Sun. July 14, 2013 by Dr. David Jockers

Digestive Solutions(NaturalHealth365) Are you interested in naturally eliminating digestive problems? If so, then let’s look at ways to boost your immune system by balancing secretory IgA – which protects you from infections.

Every mucosal membrane surface such as the eyes, nose, throat and intestinal system represent a large portal of entry for pathogenic bacteria, viruses and yeasts. The body’s immune system utilizes a combination attack through innate mechanisms and acquired adaptations.

The innate immune response includes mucus formation, lactoferrin, lysozymes and cytokinetic inflammatory activity. The acquired system produces anti-bodies with the primary mucosal antibody being secretory IgA.

This antibody response is one of the most critical component to protecting the body against parasitic dominance.

Secretory IgA is the secreted form of an antibody in the blood called IgA. IgA is produced in the blood, taken into the gut, secreted across the mucosal lining into that mucous layer that is the surface lining of our digestive tract. It is the mucosal immune barrier or first line immune defense.

SIgA lies within the mucosal membrane of the entire digestive tract as well as our lungs, sinuses, eyes, urethra and vagina. It plays a significant role in neutralizing various pathogens like viruses, Candida, bacteria, protozoa and hemoliths.

The health problems associated with low SIgA levels

When SIgA is elevated it indicates an acute immune reaction within the gut. This could indicate an acute bacterial or parasitic infection. When s IgA is low it indicates an overall deficiency of this immune chemical. When this is low on a stool test the individual will also express food allergens, have elevated Candida yeast and have dysbiosis or abnormal bacterial balance in their gut.

Individuals with chronic gut problems, IBS, Candida, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and autism typically have low SIgA. This is a sign of chronic stress in the body that has drained the immune system and the adrenals. Chronic infections, environmental toxins, poor lifestyle could all be the major causes behind this.

How to naturally balance your SIgA levels

The first step to increase (or decrease) SIgA naturally is to use an anti-inflammatory diet. The most common food allergens include all grains, pasteurized dairy, soy products, eggs, nuts and high-sugar fruits. Utilizing intermittent fasting strategies and going 18-20 hours of fasting with only clean water, herbal teas, organic broths and light fermented beverages each day is highly recommended.

An advanced bone broth fast with organic, grass-fed beef bones and loads of garlic and onions can be extremely effective at helping the gut to reseal and boost SIgA levels. This should be a 10-14 day fast if the levels are severely low and 3-7 day if they are more moderate.

It is important to provide the gut and the immune system with the key nutrients they need such as vitamin C, zinc, selenium, glutamine, choline, glycine, glutathione and essential fatty acids among other things. A whole food based multi-vitamin without any filling agents such as magnesium stearate is very helpful.

Using non-denatured whey protein from grass-fed cows will boost glutamine and glutathione levels and is easily absorbed into the body. It is highly recommended if the individual can tolerate it. If they have allergenic reactions to whey than use a hypoallergenic protein powder made up of sprouted hemp and pea protein.

Great ways to naturally raise your SIgA levels

There are a few things that boost Secretory IgA levels naturally. Colostrum is an immunoglobulin blast that is secreted from mom’s breast in the early stages of breast feeding. Colostrum is loaded with antibodies that stimulate SIgA levels. Fermented dairy from 100% grass-fed cows is loaded with acidophilus, bacillus and saccharomyces boulardii species of probiotics that all help to stimulate S IgA levels.

Beta Glucans are polysaccharide fibers that are considered biological response modifiers because of their ability to activate the immune system. They help boost the production of SIgA. These are found in the highest concentration in different types of mushrooms such as reishi, shiitake and maitake. Cayenne pepper also has the ability to stimulate B-lymphocytes into manufacturing more SIgA.

How can I naturally lower SIgA?

Elevated SIgA is a sign of an acute infection and the immune system is running on high. Using an anti-inflammatory diet that includes the bone broth fast described above is especially helpful. One can also take systemic enzymes and high dose probiotics to help modulate the immune system. Essential fats from a high quality fish oil and grass-fed meat products are extremely critical as well.

Fermented vegetables load the body up with enzymes, probiotics, organic acids and highly bioavailable nutrients that raise SIgA levels. Other herbs such as turmeric, basil, oregano, garlic and thyme are especially helpful. Fermented herbal botanicals, apple cider vinegar, coconut kefir and kombucha should be used as well.

How long does it take to boost SIgA?

Secretory IgA is generally an indication of the immune system in the gut which is our first line immune defense and it is called the mucosal barrier. When the gut is damaged and leaky it causes chronic stress and poor healing. The faster the chronic stressors are removed the faster the individual will get well. The average period is a good four to six month process for complete healing to take place.

In some cases, it may even take years to finally get SIgA levels up to normal.

The variable in all accounts is the individuals’ unique healing process. Many individuals have a severe leaky gut and are loaded with Candida, viral infections, worms and other parasites and also have heavy metals and industrial toxins as well as physical stressors such as poor posture and breathing habits. These individuals are challenging because they must correct each of these imbalances. The longer each of these challenges persists it will contribute to the formation of other stressors and keep the adrenals weak and tired.

The faster we can get the gut healed and restored and use a ketogenic style, anti-inflammatory diet that is loaded with fermented foods the faster the body will be able to detoxify and restore healthy function to the gut, liver and adrenals.

Please note: Intermittent water fasting is one of the best strategies for boosting our healing potential.

[onawah]

I discovered that coconut sugar is still too high glycemic ( or something) for me, but there's one more sweetener I want to try, which is
Erythritol. The following article is the most current I could find on this subject, which I figure is important since it's still a relatively new product, and it always takes some time before all the pros and cons become clear.
Has anyone tried this yet?
From:http://authoritynutrition.com/erythritol/

Erythritol – Like Sugar Without The Calories. Too Good to be True?
May 15, 2013 | by Kris Gunnars | 7,304 views | 32 Comments

Young Girl Looking at DoughnutThe low-calorie sweetener Erythritol may seem too good to be true.

It’s natural, doesn’t cause side effects and tastes almost exactly like sugar without the calories.

Basically, all the good stuff in regular sugar, with none of the bad stuff.

Since I’ve gotten several e-mails asking me about this trendy sweetener, I decided to do some research on it.
What is Erythritol?

Erythritol belongs to a class of compounds called sugar alcohols.

These molecules are like hybrids of a carbohydrate and an alcohol (it doesn’t contain any ethanol though… the stuff that gets you drunk).

There are many different sugar alcohols. They can be found in natural foods like fruits, but they’re also added to “sugar-free” products of all sorts.

The way these molecules are structured gives them the ability to stimulate the sweet taste receptors on our tongues.

Common sugar alcohols include xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, to name a few. But erythritol appears to be quite a bit different than the others.

To begin with, it contains much fewer calories:

Table sugar: 4 calories per gram.
Xylitol: 2.4 calories per gram.
Erythritol: 0.24 calories per gram.

With only 6% of the calories of sugar, it still has 70% of the sweetness.

Due to its unique chemical structure, our bodies don’t break it down.

It goes pretty much unchanged through our system, without causing any of the harmful metabolic effects of excess sugar… or the digestive issues associated with other sugar alcohols.

In large scale production, erythritol is created when a type of yeast ferments glucose. The final product looks something like this (photo source):

Erythritol in a Bowl
Erythritol Does Not Spike Blood Sugar or Insulin

Humans don’t have the enzymes to break down erythritol.

It gets absorbed into the bloodstream and is then excreted unchanged in the urine.

When healthy people are given erythritol, there is no change in blood sugar or insulin levels. There is also no effect on cholesterol, triglycerides or other biomarkers (1, 2).

For people who are overweight, with diabetes or other issues related to the metabolic syndrome, erythritol appears to be an excellent alternative to sugar.
Erythritol Does Not Feed Bacteria in The Mouth

Young Woman Smiling

One widely accepted side effect of sugar consumption is poor dental health… cavities and tooth decay.

The harmful bacteria in the mouth can use sugar for energy.

When these bacteria have plenty of energy, they grow, multiply and secrete acids that erode the enamel of the teeth.

Other sugar alcohols like Xylitol have found their way into “tooth-friendly” products, because bacteria can not digest them and use them for energy.

Multiple studies have examined the effects erythritol has on dental caries and the results are mixed. Some studies show a reduction in plaque and the harmful bacteria, while another study shows no actual reduction in caries (3, 4, 5).

I’m not totally convinced that erythritol is good for the teeth, it appears to be mostly benign. However, even though erythritol isn’t protective per se, replacing sugar (very bad) with Erythritol (benign) is likely to improve dental health.
What Happens to Erythritol in The Body?

Man With Sports Drink

There is one major caveat to most sugar alcohols… they can cause digestive issues.

Because the body can’t metabolize all of them, some travel to the intestine where they get fed to the bacteria.

But… again, erythritol is different.

Most of it gets absorbed into the body way before it gets to the colon, where most of the bacteria reside.

From the small intestine, it travels into the bloodstream.

There it circulates for a while, until it is eventually excreted unchanged in the urine. About 90% of erythritol gets excreted this way (6).

If you like to drink your own piss, then you are going to love erythritol as it should give your urine a sweet flavor. I haven’t tried it myself, but if you do then make sure to leave a comment below and share your experience.
Erythritol And The Digestive System

Doctor Pointing His Finger

Even though some amount of erythritol were to reach the intestinal bacteria, they can not digest it (7).

Feeding studies with up to 1 gram per kg (0,45 g per lb) of body weight show that it is very well tolerated (8, 9).

However, one study showed that 50 grams of erythritol in a single dose did increase nausea and stomach rumbling (10).

Unless you’re eating massive amounts of it at a time, then it’s unlikely to make you sick or have to run to the toilet.

Take this with a grain of salt however, as this can vary between people.

Overall, erythritol appears to be very safe. Multiple studies on metabolism and toxicity have been performed in test animals. Despite long-term feeding of high amounts of erythritol, no negative effects have been discovered (9, 10).
My Concerns About Low-Calorie Sweeteners in General

Vegetable Oils

I did not manage to find anything negative about erythritol in any of the studies I looked at.

But I am still not convinced that low-calorie sweeteners in general are totally harmless.

Even though these sweeteners don’t contain calories, they are still associated with obesity and diabetes in the long-term. This is well documented (11, 12, 13, 14).

This may be because the sweeteners increase the “reward value” of our foods, which can impact our brains and make us eat more subconsciously (15).

Some obesity researchers even believe the amount of processed super-rewarding foods in the food supply to be the true cause of the obesity epidemic.

Whether all of this applies to erythritol and not just artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, I do not know. Time will tell.
The Bottom Line

Overall, erythritol appears to be an excellent sweetener.

It contains almost no calories.
It has 70% of the sweetness of sugar.
It doesn’t raise blood sugar or insulin levels.
Human studies show very little side effects… mainly minor digestive issues in some people.
Studies where animals are fed massive amounts for long periods of time show no adverse effects.

I’ve often recommended that people who must have some sweetness in their lives replace it with Stevia or tiny amounts of honey.

However, honey is loaded with calories and fructose, while many people don’t appreciate the aftertaste of Stevia.

Erythritol appears to have the best of both worlds.

[Dawn]

Onawah: Overall, erythritol appears to be an excellent sweetener.

Thank you for the info above. I'm intrigued but at this point I am very cautious about all the new synthetic foods that have been developed recently. Most of the new 'alchohol sugars' are extremely toxic to the liver and the info about this issue didn't come out until some years from the date they were put on the market. Still... this sounds good.

I really don't crave sugar since I went cold turkey last year and ... recently after researching ceylon cinnamon... I've added a daily tablespoon of cinnamon mixed with coconut oil to my diet. It is delicious! My blood sugar seems evenly balanced all the time too, just as promised.

[onawah]

I still have to order some Ceylon cinnamon.
I am hopeful it will curb my sweet tooth, but I still want to find a safe sweetener, if there is such a thing.
If erythritol turns out not to be it, then I can deal with it.
My tastes are getting simpler as my healing journey progresses... it's just a matter of time.
And if it is toxic, I will probably feel it pretty quickly.
I am like a canary in a coal mine when it comes to that.

[gracieuse]

Hi dawn and others, I have some questions regarding high meat.

1. how would you know if your batch has fermented properly or if it's "spoilt"?

I have the same question regarding the ginger bug. I read your post about ginger bug just in time, since I had a batch of sugared ginger that had spontaneously fermented and I was about to throw it away. Fortunately I didnt, it was delicious and developed into ginger beer :p however, a new batch seemed to have failed (?), it tasted more like dishwashing detergent :( could it have been the difference between dried raw cane syrup and processed sugar to feed the ginger?

2. In europe, especially france, you can get different sausages that have been made from traditionally ripened meat. Would this be similar in value to high meat? Or does the salt used kill the beneficial micro-organisms?

3. Is a personal question: Im veggie but it seems my body is in need of some form of meat to rebuild tissues/nerves that have been damaged due to two serious accidents ive been involved in, in less than three years. I've been getting various signs/hints in this direction, my healing progress has been halted and my body shows signs of deficiencies. Would the high meat also solve this, or should I look towards the bone/marrow stock posted earlier in this thread. Does anyone have other tips/ideas?

4. How about pets (cats and dogs)? They have a different digestive track than we do. I have a cat that I adopted from a foreign country who was very, very ill when I got her. Most of her health problems were solved by giving her raw meat and chicken carcasses. She has also benefited a lot from kefir. However, she gets an occasional outbreak of what seems to be giardia, coupled with sneezing, gingivitis and bladder problems. This tells me it's a systematic problem. Would it also be her gut...?

5. For all the kefir lovers: you can make your own cheese (http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir_cheese.html#photos) out of it, and all you need is.... kefir :D
Making cream cheese/sour cream merely involved one night of straining it in a cheese cloth. My first mini cheese is building a beautiful yellow crust. So exciting!

[Dawn]

Onawah, "Canary in a coal mine" ... how well I understand that statement. I decided to hire a parasiteologist to do a work up on my body this January and that began a 4 month protochol with essential oils to 'cleanse' my body. I was in conflict the entire 4 months because the idea of cleansing by taking oral oils designed to kill off micro flora and fauna flies in the face of the focus of the GAPS program.

Turns out I was correct... there is a conflict. I felt pretty icky during most of the cleanse. Then, one day from the end of it.... My legs suddenly swelled like tree trunks and turned purple within 1 hour of taking a strong dose of 'cleansing oils'. It has been a month since then and I just re-remembered the strict anti-inflam diet recommended in GAPS thanks to your post Onawah

I'm on the 3rd day of this and so far there is a great deal of relief from the chronic inflammation that got totally out of hand during the parasite cleanse. My self prescribed protocol is
*bone broth,
*goat milk kefir,
*ceylon cinnamon mixed with coconut oil
*20 hours of fasting daily (all food eaten within a 4 hour window)

It is really clear to me that there are 2 divergent views of health. One is 'Slash and burn the dangerous pathogens and parasites'.... OR... WAR on internal flora and fauna. The other is 'support your inner eco system'.... OR.... PEACE AND LOVE.

Hmmm... sounds like the hippies of the 60s had it all right and I'm learning the depth of how profound their attitude is when taken to our own inner ecology.

[AutumnW]

The polio vaccine did tremendous damage to eco-system of the gut. It eliminated paralytic polio and in so doing created a niche that closely related viruses expanded into, causing chronic fatigue syndrome, for one. The batch of vaccine created in the late to mid fifties and early sixties was the most damaging.

[gracieuse]

It seems like there are essential benefits to be gained by mixing the (strained) kefir with flax seed oil, which can even cure cancer. Check this out!

http://www.cancertutor.com/Cancer/Budwig.html

[gracieuse]

Oh and Dawn, you wrote that there are two ways to get the friendly e. coli bacteria, one way being the high meat... what is the other way...?

[onawah]

Dawn, I am definitely a hippie from the 60s, :hippie: (in one aspect of this incarnation, at least) and I know what you mean!
Peace and Love is a mind set that is adaptable and can apply to all areas of life.
I'm so glad you are doing better now.

I had a friend when I lived in Santa Cruz who was a Canary indeed.
She had been struck by lightning and it threw her whole system out of whack.
She became so environmentally sensitive, she couldn't be around any kind of heavily scented chemicals or perfumes, etc. without passing out, and she could only eat very clean, organic food.
About the only place she was safe was in her tightly environmentally controlled and sealed house, or at the beach when it was mostly deserted.
You couldn't be around her unless you were completely scent-free, and for that reason alone, her social life was extremely restricted.
She got much better after finding a specialist in treating Environmental Illness who lived in L.A.
He used herbs for the most part, but also prescribed supplements.
He was famous in his field and was treating a lot of people, including some movie stars and politicians, etc. at the time.

She would hire someone to drive her to see him in L.A. a few times a year, taking along her oxygen, all her special dietary requirements, etc. and it was a real ordeal for her,(and her driver!) but she always said it was vastly worth it.
He was very intuitive, and relied as much on actually seeing her in person as well as taking samples of blood, urine, etc. for each visit.
I don't remember his name or if he is still in practice, but I know he was training others in his techniques.

Autumn W wrote
The polio vaccine did tremendous damage to eco-system of the gut. It eliminated paralytic polio and in so doing created a niche that closely related viruses expanded into, causing chronic fatigue syndrome, for one. The batch of vaccine created in the late to mid fifties and early sixties was the most damaging.

The SV40 polio vaccine is the one that has caused so many problems for me; though the one I got was in the early 50s, it was bad enough...
In my case, it resulted in Chronic Fatigue and fibromyalgia and lots of PTSD type emotional problems, partly because I was sensitive enough at the time to know full well there was something very wrong with that vaccine, and the fact that no adult would believe me resulted in severe trauma and many ongoing issues with Trust.
But I consider myself blessed in that I've survived, for many in my age group, even those who were taking care of themselves, crashed and burned with cancer and lupus, etc., when they hit their 40s, as I probably would have if I hadn't gotten into live foods, juicing and fresh aloe gel in particular.
Other children, upon receiving the SV40, became flat out psychotic.
I have a kind of freaky hair trigger temper that may be traceable to the SV40, too, as normally I am a very peaceful person.

I also attribute to the SV40 the exhaustion and emotional mess I was in by the early 70s, a direct cause for my near fatal encounter with a hit and run driver in 1972 which had me hospitalized for 5 months with multiple injuries and broken bones.

When I found out about the SV40 it was such a revelation, though I was in my 50s by that time.
I had suppressed for a long time the memories of what the vaccine had done to me, but they were finally able to surface for clearing much more effectively once I understood.

Intuitively, I've known that gut health is the thing to focus on now, and discovering the many benefits of kefir has been major in that journey.
My friends don't understand why I'm so passionate about it, but I can count on at least a few people here to understand, which is very validating! :nod: Thanks!
Fermented vegies is another great boon, I feel, and in addition, for inflammation, I have been putting turmeric and curcumin in my vegies, and taking my Krill oil along with, as I've read that turmeric and curcumin are assimilated much better if taken with oil.

But above all, the pound or so of fresh aloe vera gel is what I think has been keeping me alive.
If I have to go for a day or more without, I really feel the difference.

[Dawn]

Gracieuse: Oh and Dawn, you wrote that there are two ways to get the friendly e. coli bacteria, one way being the high meat... what is the other way...?

I almost hesitate to answer here in the forum because I can just imaging the mental barriers that must be broken in order to even admit the possibility that this is helpful. But... the other way is to eat feces. (Now, in hospitals, some enlightened doctors are inserting this into the colon... so you could probably also try a high colonic with this ingredient). This is also known to veterinary science and adding manure to drinking water of animals who have been given meds that tinker with their gut flora is recommended. According to Ajunus Vaanderplanz, any type of feces will do... but I always thought a healthy slender human might be the best source. I must admit, that although this sounds like it would work I just haven't been able to overcome my ick response to try it.

However, I have developed quite a taste for high meat and actually find it delicious. In fact I relish it, and even salivate when I think of it. I have a wise body I think.

Onawah, our ongoing discussions are interesting and enlightening. I did not know about the polio vaccine. I really don't know exactly when I got mine or which type it was. I think I remember getting it around age 5... which would have put me in the time window you are speaking of. How very interesting. I have gone through severe environmental allergies in the past and don't have nearly as many difficulties with them now. I 'got better' using radionic treatments. I've also had many difficulties with undiagnosable ongoing illnesses which acted like chronic fatigue or lupus or MS... depending on which doctor was looking at the situation. This might be the underlying reason. WOW

[gracieuse]

Mental barrier, yeah... though I must admit to having an aha moment:

1. dogs regularly eat sh*t I never understood this and found it disgusting, well now I get it!

2. I remember reading in an article about vitamin B12, how a group of vegans in Iran were not deficient in B12, after eating a vegan diet for many years, without supplements. Turned out their homegrown vegetables were "infected" with human feces, with they apparently used as manure. Since B12 is made by micro-organisms, I can imagine the e. coli...

However I for one thought of myself as quite heroic for getting onto urine therapy....

[onawah]

Me too!




However I for one thought of myself as quite heroic for getting onto urine therapy....

Dawn, I found out about the SV40 in two ways, through my doctor at the time, who was into Integrative Medicine (mixture of allopathic and alternative).
He did a lot of blood work for me and found mycoplasma, which seems to be an indicator, and along with the symptoms, my age, etc, he thought the "stealth viruses" in the SV40 were the cause of my ills.
Then a few years later when I was researching it online, I discovered some official documents which showed which states during what years were giving the infected vaccines, and sure enough, Denver, Colorado which was where I got my polio vaccine, was on the list.
I didn't do much more research after that, as that was really all the confirmation for my personal case that I required.
But I think if you contact NVIC or one of the other organizations who are anti-vaccine, they can probably guide you to finding out if you got the SV40 or not.
There's an article here I recommend reading.
http://www.projectcensored.org/12-millions-of-americans-received-contaminated-polio-vaccine-between-1955-and-1963/
You have my full sympathy!

[onawah]

There's a current thread re the SV40 vaccine here:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?61886-CDC-Admits-98-Million-Americans-Received-Polio-Vaccine-Contaminated-With-Cancer-Virus&p=709829#post709829

[onawah]

Cancer breakthrough: Probiotics may save patients from deadly chemotherapy; antibiotics may cause chemo to be fatal
http://www.naturalnews.com/041449_chemotherapy_probiotics_antibiotics.html
Thursday, August 01, 2013
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger




(NaturalNews) If you or someone you love is facing the possibility of cancer or chemotherapy, make sure they read this story. Breakthrough new science conducted at the University of Michigan and about to be published in the journal Nature reveals that intestinal health is the key to surviving chemotherapy.

The study itself is very difficult for laypeople to parse, however, so I'm going to translate into everyday language while also offering additional interpretations of the research that the original study author is likely unable to state due to the nutritional censorship of medical journals and universities, both of which have an anti-nutrition bias.

The upshot is this: A clinical study gave mice lethal injections of chemotherapy that would, pound for pound, kill most adult human beings, too. The study authors openly admit: "All tumors from different tissues and organs can be killed by high doses of chemotherapy and radiation, but the current challenge for treating the later-staged metastasized cancer is that you actually kill the [patient] before you kill the tumor." (See sources below.)

Chemotherapy is deadly. It is the No. 1 cause of death for cancer patients in America, and the No. 1 side effect of chemo is more cancer. But certain mice in the study managed to survive the lethal doses of chemo. How did they do that? They were injected with a molecule that your own body produces naturally. It's production is engineered right into your genes, and given the right gene expression in an environment of good nutrition (meaning the cellular environment), you can generate this substance all by yourself, 24 hours a day.

The substance is called "Rspo1" or "R-spondon1." It activates stem cell production within your own intestinal walls, and these stem cells are like super tissue regeneration machines that rebuild damaged tissues faster than the chemotherapy can destroy them, thereby allowing the patient to survive an otherwise deadly does of chemo poison.

As the study showed, 50 - 75 percent of the mice who were given R-spondon1 survived the fatal chemotherapy dose!

The cancer industry needs to find a way to stop killing all their customers
The problem with the cancer industry today is that all the conventional cancer treatments keep killing the patients. This is bad for business. So the purpose of research like the R-spondon1 research mentioned here -- which was funded by a government grant -- is to find ways to keep giving patients deadly doses of high-profit chemotherapy without actually killing them. You slap a patient with a dose of R-spondon1 (sold at $50,000 a dose as a patented "drug," of course), dose 'em up with a fatal injection of chemotherapy, and then thanks to the R-spondon1 you get a repeat cancer customers instead of a corpse.

That's called "good business practices" in the cancer industry, which is so far best known for turning patients into body bags rather than actually curing cancer.

(Yes, there is a reason why most oncologists would never undergo chemotherapy themselves. They know it doesn't work on 98% of all cancers.)

Probiotics are likely the key to generating your own R-spondon1
Before I discuss why these findings are so important for followers of natural health and nutrition, let me first offer a disclaimer. The research mentioned here was conducted on mice, not humans, so it isn't full proof that the same mechanism works in humans. Nevertheless, the reason mice are used for such research is because they are nearly identical to humans in terms of biology, gene expression, endocrine system function and more.

Furthermore, even though this study used an injection of R-spondon1 as the "activator" of gene expression in endothelial cells of the intestinal lining, in truth your cells already possess the blueprint to produce R-spondon1 on their own. In fact, human intestines are coated with a layer of epithelial cells that are regenerated every 4-5 days in a healthy person. This is only possible through the activation and continued operation of intestinal stem cells, a normal function for a healthy human.

And what determines the health of those stem cells more than anything else? Their local environment which is predominantly determined by gut bacteria. If your gut bacteria are in balance, the gene expression of your epithelial cells is normal and healthy. If your gut bacteria are out of whack, so to speak, the gene expression of your epithelial cells will be suppressed, thereby slowing or halting the regenerative potential of your intestinal cells. This is why people who have imbalanced intestinal flora also suffer from inflammatory intestinal conditions such as Crohn's, IBS and so on.

Thus, probiotics are a key determining factor in the ability of your intestines to maintain the appropriate gene expression for the very kind of rapid cellular regeneration that can help your body survive a fatal dose of chemotherapy.

Meat and dairy cause devastating gut flora imbalances that may increase susceptibility to chemotherapy drugs
This may also explain why people who eat large quantities of processed meat, cheese and dead, pasteurized dairy products -- especially when combined with starchy carbohydrates and processed sugars -- are far more likely to die from chemotherapy than people who eat more plant-based diets. (There isn't yet a source to substantiate this claim, but it's something I've noted from considerable personal observation. You may have noticed it too among your own family members who have undergone chemotherapy treatments. Those with the worst diets seem to have far higher fatality rates.)

Those who consume processed meat and dead dairy have their intestines filled with fiber-less, difficult-to-digest proteins that are putrefied and sit in the intestines for 2 - 5 days, typically. Dietary sugars and carbohydrates then feed the bacteria fermentation process, resulting in the rapid growth and replication of sugar-feeding bacteria that displace the kind of healthy flora which best protect intestinal wall cells.

This imbalance, I suggest, increases susceptibility to chemotherapy toxicity while simultaneously impairing the ability of the patient to absorb key nutrients that protect healthy cells from the toxicity of chemo drugs. This may explain why patients who heavily consume meat, cheese and dairy diets tend to die so easily when exposed to chemotherapy.

But there's something even more alarming about all this that everyone needs to know...

Antibiotics may also set you up to be killed by chemo
Although the research did not directly address this question, its findings seem to indicate that the kind of gut bacteria "wipeout" caused by antibiotics could prove fatal to a chemotherapy patient.

This is especially worrisome because many cancer patients are simultaneously prescribed antibiotics as they undergo chemotherapy. This could be a death sentence in disguise. While neither the antibiotics nor the chemo directly kill the patient, the combination of sterilized gut bacteria and highly-toxic chemotherapy drugs could multiply the toxicity and prove fatal. The death certificate, however, will say the patient died from "cancer," not from the chemotherapy which is usually the actual cause of death.

And yet, every single day in America, patients who are taking antibiotics are subjected to multiple courses of chemotherapy. This may quite literally be a death sentence for those patients.

There's also a self-fulfilling death spiral at work in all this: following the first round of chemotherapy, many patients suffer from weakened immune system that result in symptomatic infections. Physicians respond to this by prescribing antibiotics, resulting in the patient undergoing subsequent rounds of chemotherapy with "wiped out" gut flora. So the chemo causes the problem in the first place, and then the response to the problem by western doctors makes the next round of chemo fatal. This is a self-fulfilling death spiral of failed medicine.

Oncologists seem to have no awareness whatsoever of the importance of gut bacteria in allowing patients to protect their own healthy cells from the devastating effects of chemotherapy drugs. Many oncologists, in fact, actively discourage their patients from taking any sort of supplements during chemotherapy out of an irrational, anti-scientific fear that such supplements may "interfere" with the chemo and make the treatment fail.

This is one of the many ways in which oncologists get cancer patients killed.

Takeaway points from this article:
• New research shows that a substance generated by intestinal stem cells allows subjects to survive an otherwise fatal dose of toxic chemotherapy.

• Healthy gene expression of intestinal cells allows them to naturally produce protective molecules that support and boost cell regeneration.

• Probiotics may protect and support the intestinal stem cells that help cancer patients survive toxic chemotherapy. (More studies needed to explore this and document the impact.)

• Antibiotics may be a death sentence when followed by chemotherapy.

• Oncologists need to consider the risks and benefits of postponing chemotherapy in patients who are simultaneously taking antibiotics. The combination may be deadly. Conversely, they need to consider the benefits of encouraging chemotherapy patients to take probiotic supplements before beginning chemotherapy treatment.

Sources for this article include:
http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21613-digest-this-cure-for-cancer-ma...

http://science.naturalnews.com/2007/2940322_R_spondin1_a_novel_intest...

http://science.naturalnews.com/2009/2043215_Stem_cells_self_renewal_a...

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041449_chemotherapy_probiotics_antibiotics.html#ixzz2ajqqNC3g

[onawah]

This 6 minute video explains among other things, why it's so important to control candida, especially nowadays
vAg7umyNO9s

[Neverhaveanytime]

I could really do with some help. Recently turned 40 and starting to get my mind opened and Heathier but really need to get the body in shape. Being 6ft 3 and about 25 stone everything is starting to ache an I'm find myself slowing down. I work long hours and need to get in shape to help me and my family.

[Dawn]

Neverhaveanytime: I could really do with some help. Recently turned 40 and starting to get my mind opened and Heathier but really need to get the body in shape. Being 6ft 3 and about 25 stone everything is starting to ache an I'm find myself slowing down. I work long hours and need to get in shape to help me and my family.

Welcome to Avalon! It is great to hear from you. As you begin to incorporate the GAPS info into your life your body will stop being in so much pain. Meanwhile there are a couple of simple self help things you can do that do not take any time. The first is to incorporate systemic enzymes into your lifestyle. Very simple to do... just swallow a few capsules upon awaking and before bed. Wobenzyme and Zymessence are 2 brands that come to mind, but there are others. After age 40 we stop making our own enzymes and this helps our bodies process waste products caught in the tissues. Another product in this line is called Serrapain. The enzyme in this only digests fibrin, which makes up scar tissue throughout the body. Dissolving scar tissue helps a lot with pain.

The second idea for you is radiation hormesis. If you follow this path you will gain lots of energy along with eliminating pain and inflammation. This is done very simply by wearing a pendant, necklace, or a stone in a pocket. I have a thread in Avalon focused on this ... here is the link: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?53597-Hormesis-Healing-Yourself-with-Low-Dose-Radiation

I'm now in my 60s and living in the good 'ol USA, where the food, most of the air, and the public water systems are all deliberately poisoned. I use these methods to continue living an active life nearly pain free. Currently I take no pain meds, mood enhancers, or anti-depression drugs. In this society this is actually rare, although it is not uncommon in other countries.

So my suggestion is:
................GAPS diet,
...............................systemic enzymes,
..........................................................and radiation hormesis.

[onawah]

The Gut Connection
http://www.examiner.com/article/the-gut-connection


Adam McLeodBritish Columbia Holistic Health Examiner
August 14, 2013

Research is just beginning to show a strong connection between the digestive tract and overall well-being. It is surprising how many conditions that patients have which are directly linked to the functioning of the digestive tract. Usually the patient is completely unaware of the connection between their health concern and their gut (and unfortunately, usually their medical doctor is completely unaware of this connection). Common health concerns such as eczema, acne, psoriasis, inability to lose weight, depression, fatigue (just to name a few) are directly related to the health of the digestive tract.

First it is important to distinguish between a food allergy and a food sensitivity. A food allergy is when the body’s immune system reacts to a molecule in the food by initiating a powerful IgE mediated response. This can cause anaphylaxis, hives and acute digestive disturbances. Generally people are very aware of foods that they are allergic to because the response from the body is so dramatic. A food sensitivity is less dramatic in nature and it is the body responding with inflammation. This inflammation can be widespread and affect any tissue in the body. This causes significant concern when the inflammation response is excessive for long periods of time because this can lead to the development of chronic disease. It is extremely common for a patient to have a significant food sensitivity that they are completely unaware of. It is difficult to know that you are reacting to something if you have been exposed to it for your entire life, as far as your body is concerned this reactive state is the “norm”.

In the past it was thought that there was either a full blown allergic response to foods or that there is no response at all. Recent studies have shown that this logic is simply not correct and that there is a spectrum of responses that the body will have to the molecules present in food. Inflammation is a critical phase of the healing process as it is how the immune system focuses its resources on the problem area. Where inflammation becomes a problem is when it does not resolve and it remains excessive for a long period of time. During the inflammation process there are significant amount of free radicals released which initially have a very positive role in healing the tissue. These chemicals can cause damage if inflammation is uncontrolled. If the body is reacting to a food that it is being constantly exposed to for many years, this chronic inflammation will damage tissues and plant the seed for the formation of chronic disease.

Many times I will ask patients if they have been tested for food sensitivities and often the patient will reply, “Yes, I did the skin prick test with my doctor.” The problem is that this test does not look for food sensitivities at all, it looks for food allergies. When the skin is pricked and the body is exposed to a small amount of a substance then the skin will react if it is a substance that you are allergic to. Food sensitivities work by a completely different branch of the immune system so they would simply not show up by this test. There are ways to test for food sensitivities but these tests are usually not covered by medical plans and medical doctors are rarely aware of how to perform these tests. These tests are effective and it can be very helpful for a patient to see a digital graph displaying which foods they are sensitive to.

The gold standard for determining which foods you are sensitive to is through a food elimination and challenge diet. This process can be complicated so it is very important to have guidance from a professional with experience in this area. If the process is not done properly then you will never know if you are actually sensitive to the foods or not. After eliminating all of the foods which you are sensitive to for several weeks, the digestive tract has the opportunity to resolve any inflammation that has been chronically aggravating the cells in the digestive tract. If these aggravating foods have been in your diet for a long time then you will likely not be aware of this sensitivity until you eliminate the aggravators from your diet for several weeks. If the aggravating food is introduced after this elimination period then the patient will often experience discomfort such as bloating, diarrhea, constipation, fatigue or anxiety. The list of potential effects is very long but generally speaking the patient will just not feel great when the food is reintroduced.

One of the first things that people notice when they eliminate these aggravating foods is weight loss. Very often patients are sensitive to gluten and dairy and when these foods are eliminated from the diet it is not uncommon for a patient to lose at least 15 pounds shortly after elimination. This makes perfect sense from a metabolic perspective because one of the hallmarks of inflammation is fluid retention in the affected area. If the entire digestive tract is in an inflamed state from an aggravating food then there is significant water retention along the entire tract. When this aggravation is removed then the water retention via this mechanism is reduced and the patient loses weight.

There are many chemicals that are released during the inflammation process which put the body into a more stressful state by activating the sympathetic nervous system. When there are high levels of these inflammatory markers in the body you will have less energy because these markers tell the cells that they need to focus on resolving the inflammation. To the body, inflammation is a sign that you cannot relax because resources need to be focused on resolving the inflammation. As a consequence your body puts less energy into other bodily functions that are important for quality of life.

I always find it remarkable how many people do not even realize how stressed out their body was until they remove these inflammatory foods. Many times the patient does not feel that anything is wrong and they just do the food sensitivity tests out of curiosity. The results then indicate a strong sensitivity and when this is eliminated the patient feels like the lights were suddenly turned on. They did not realize that they had a problem until their body exited this chronic inflammatory state. After eliminating the aggravating foods they have more energy, their mood improves and they lose weight that they had so much trouble losing in the past.

Chronic inflammation in the gut directly harms the intestinal cells. Normally the cells in the gut are very tightly bound together by structures called “tight junctions”. This essentially makes it impossible for any molecules to leak from the gut into the blood stream. If the integrity of the junctions is strong then the only molecules which can enter the blood stream are molecules that have been adequately digested by the cells. When these cells get damaged the gut becomes “leaky” and molecules begin to leak into the blood stream which should not be there. This is commonly known as “leaky gut syndrome”. There are a number of different down stream effects that seriously impact your health. If you are constantly eating foods which are aggravating your cells then your gut will be more permeable to these molecules. When these molecules start to leak into your blood stream the entire body is put into a stressed and inflamed state which is not conducive to healing. More research is beginning to come out that shows a very strong link between inflammation in the gut and chronic disease.

The good news is that the gut can heal very rapidly if given the right nutrients. The intestinal cells divide very rapidly so they can quickly replace damaged cells under the right conditions. It is very important to have guidance through the gut healing protocol because there can be other confounding factors in your individual case which must also be addressed. The most common Naturopathic approach to healing leaky gut is removing the aggravating foods, glutamine, probiotics and omega-3’s. When high quality versions of these supplements are taken together in necessary doses then the gut can heal very quickly. It is amazing to see how effective these simple therapies are and many of these patients have been struggling to get any relief from the traditional medical system for many years without any success. After a few months of following these protocols they notice a major shift in the health and well-being.

For more articles, visit Adam's blog.

https://dreamhealer.wordpress.com/

3IuoxCujufs

[onawah]

Gut feelings: the future of psychiatry may be inside your stomach

By Carrie Arnold

http://mobile.theverge.com/2013/8/21/4595712/gut-feelings-the-future-of-psychiatry-may-be-inside-your-stomach


Her parents were running out of hope. Their teenage daughter, Mary, had been diagnosed with a severe case of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), as well as ADHD. They had dragged her to clinics around the country in an effort to thwart the scary, intrusive thoughts and the repetitive behaviors that Mary felt compelled to perform. Even a litany of psychotropic medications didn’t make much difference. It seemed like nothing could stop the relentless nature of Mary’s disorder.

Their last hope for Mary was Boston-area psychiatrist James Greenblatt. Arriving at his office in Waltham, MA, her parents had only one request: help us help Mary.

Greenblatt started by posing the usual questions about Mary’s background, her childhood, and the onset of her illness. But then he asked a question that no psychiatrist ever had: How was Mary’s gut? Did she suffer digestive upset? Constipation or diarrhea? Acid reflux? Had Mary’s digestion seemed to change at all before or during her illness? Her parents looked at each other. The answer to many of the doctor’s questions was, indeed, “Yes.”

That’s what prompted Greenblatt to take a surprising approach: besides psychotherapy and medication, Greenblatt also prescribed Mary a twice-daily dose of probiotics, the array of helpful bacteria that lives in our gut. The change in Mary was nothing short of miraculous: within six months, her symptoms had greatly diminished. One year after the probiotic prescription, there was no sign that Mary had ever been ill.

Her parents may have been stunned, but to Greenblatt, Mary’s case was an obvious one. An imbalance in the microbes in Mary’s gut was either contributing to, or causing, her mental symptoms. “The gut is really your second brain,” Greenblatt said. “There are more neurons in the GI tract than anywhere else except the brain.”

Greenblatt’s provocative idea — that psychiatric woes can be solved by targeting the digestive system — is increasingly reinforced by cutting-edge science. For decades, researchers have known of the connection between the brain and the gut. Anxiety often causes nausea and diarrhea, and depression can change appetite. The connection may have been established, but scientists thought communication was one way: it traveled from the brain to the gut, and not the other way around.

But now, a new understanding of the trillions of microbes living in our guts reveals that this communication process is more like a multi-lane superhighway than a one-way street. By showing that changing bacteria in the gut can change behavior, this new research might one day transform the way we understand — and treat — a variety of mental health disorders.
"For decades, researchers have known of the connection between the brain and the gut"

For Greenblatt, this radical treatment protocol has actually been decades in the making. Even during his psychiatric residency at George Washington University, he was perplexed by the way mental disorders were treated. It was as if, he said, the brain was totally separate from the body. More than 20 years of work treating eating disorders emphasized Greenblatt’s hunch: that the connection between body and mind was more important than conventional psychiatry assumed. “Each year, I get more and more impressed at how important the GI tract is for healthy mood and the controlling of behavior,” Greenblatt said. Among eating disorder patients, Greenblatt found that more than half of psychiatric complaints were associated with problems in the gut — and in some patients, he says he has remedied both using solely high-dose probiotics, along with normalizing eating.

Greenblatt’s solution might strike us as simple, but he’s actually targeting a vast, complex, and mysterious realm of the human body: around 90 percent of our cells are actually bacterial, and bacterial genes outnumber human genes by a factor of 99 to 1. But those bacteria, most of which perform helpful functions, weren’t always with us: a baby is essentially sterile until it enters the birth canal, at which point the bacteria start to arrive — and they don’t stop. From a mother’s vaginal microbes to hugs and kisses from relatives, the exposures of newborns and toddlers in their earliest years is critical to the development of a robust microbiome.
"Greenblatt's actually targeting a vast, complex, and mysterious realm of the human body"

In fact, recent research suggests that early microbiome development might play a key role in at least some aspects of one’s adult mental health. One 2011 study out of McMaster University compared the behaviors of normal eight-week-old mice and mice whose guts were stripped of microbes. Bacteria-free mice exhibited higher levels of risk-taking, and neurochemical analysis revealed higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and altered levels of the brain chemical BDNF, which has been implicated in human anxiety and depression. “This work showed us that anxiety was normal, and that the gut-brain axis was involved in that,” Jane Foster, the study’s lead author, said. “Everybody knew that stress and anxiety could lead to gastrointestinal symptoms, but we looked at it from the bottom up and showed that the gut could communicate with the brain. It was the first demonstration that the gut itself could influence brain development.”

Subsequent research out of McMaster further enforces those findings, by showing that swapping one mouse’s gut bacteria with that of another can significantly alter behavior. Researchers transplanted microbes from one group of mice, which were characterized by timidity, into the guts of mice who tended to take more risks. What they observed was a complete personality shift: timid mice became outgoing, while outgoing mice became timid. “It’s good evidence that the microbiota houses these behaviors,” Foster said.

While researchers have established a compelling link between gut bacteria and mental health, they’re still trying to figure out the extent to which the human microbiome — once it’s populated in early childhood — can be transformed. “The brain seems to be hardwired for anxiety by puberty and early adolescence,” Foster said. If the microbiome is part of that hardwiring, then it would suggest that once we pass a certain threshold, the impact of bacterial tweaks on problems like depression and anxiety might wane.

In one Japanese study, for instance, researchers were only able to change the baseline stress characteristics of germ-free mice until nine weeks of age. After that, no variety of bacterial additions to the mice’s guts could properly regulate stress and anxiety levels. The explanation for this phenomenon might lie in what’s known as “developmental programming” — the idea that various environmental factors, to which we’re exposed early on, greatly determine the structure and function of organs including the gut and the brain.

“There are changes that happen early in life that we can’t reverse,” said John Cryan, a neuroscientist at the University of Cork in Ireland and a main investigator at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre. “But there are some changes that we can reverse. It tells us that there is a window when microbes are having their main effects and, until this closes, many changes can be reversed.”

Microbiome_bottom

Even if our gut bacteria carries the biggest influence when we’re young, experts like Greenblatt and Cryan are still convinced that tweaking these bacteria later in life can yield profound behavioral and psychological changes. In a study led by Cryan, anxious mice dosed with the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus rhamnosus (JB-1) showed lower levels of anxiety, decreased stress hormones, and even an increase in brain receptors for a neurotransmitter that’s vital in curbing worry, anxiety, and fear.

John Bienenstock, a co-author on that study, compared the probiotics’ effects to benzodiazepines like Valium and Xanax. “The similarity is intriguing. It doesn’t prove they both use the same pathway [in the brain], but it’s a possibility.”

Although plenty of questions remain, the benefits of using probiotics to treat human behavior are becoming increasingly obvious. Yogurts like Dannon’s Activia have been marketed with much success as a panacea for all of our intestinal ills. Other probiotic supplements have claimed to support immune health. Probiotics’ potential to treat human behavior is increasingly apparent, but will manufacturers one day toss an anxiety-fighting blend into their probiotic brews?
"Experts are convinced that tweaking these bacteria later in life can yield profound behavioral and psychological changes"

It’s a distinct possibility: in one 2013 proof-of-concept study, researchers at UCLA showed that healthy women who consumed a drink with four added probiotic strains twice daily for four weeks showed significantly altered brain functioning on an fMRI brain scan. The women’s brains were scanned while they looked at photos of angry or sad faces, and then asked to match those with other faces showing similar emotions.

Those who had consumed the probiotic drink showed significantly lower brain activity in the neural networks that help drive responses to sensory and emotional behavior. The research is “groundbreaking,” Cryan said, because it’s the first trial to show that probiotics could affect the functioning of the human brain. Still, he notes that the results need to be interpreted with care.

As the research community increasingly lends credence to Greenblatt’s ideas, and public awareness about gut bacteria grows, he’s confident we’ll soon know more about the power of probiotics. “Because of the commercials and the other information that’s out there, patients are beginning to ask,” he said. “They’re much more aware of how important probiotics are.”

Whether all of our mental woes respond to probiotic treatment as dramatically as Greenblatt’s patient Mary remains to be seen. “We have to be very cautious in this field not to be too hyperbolic about what we promise,” Cryan said. Indeed, scientists still aren’t sure exactly which microbial species are part of a healthy microbiome, nor do they know whether certain bacterial strains are absolutely vital to mental functioning, or whether the right balance is what’s key. Furthermore, research still hasn’t parsed which illnesses might be affected by the microbiome and, therefore, treatable using probiotics. “There are beginning to be suggestions that this type of probiotic treatment is worth pursuing,” Bienenstock said. “Whether we can use this to improve people’s lives, well, the door is just beginning to open on this.”

[onawah]

The Spread of Antibiotic Resistant Infections


Lessons from Jon Barron

In this week's excerpt from Lessons from the Miracle Doctors, Jon Barron examines how the dairy industry actually promotes the spread on antibiotic resistant infections.

Milk has played a major role in the development of the 'super bacteria' that have recently emerged to plague our health. In 1990, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed the dairy industry to increase the antibiotic residue standard for milk (one part per hundred million) by a whopping 10,000 percent to one part per million. The problem is that at this level of constant intake, the antibiotics destroy the probiotic colonies normally found in the intestinal tract of the cows, which then allows harmful bacteria to flourish and develop resistance to a whole range of antibiotics. There are fifty-two kinds of antibiotics and fifty-nine bioactive hormones found in milk.

One consequence of the mass-production dairy farm is an increase in cow breast infections. To cure the infections, farmers use large doses of antibiotics, which can also get into our intestinal tract, killing good bacteria colonies in human digestive systems and making us resistant to a whole range of antibiotics. Joseph Beasley, M.D., and Jerry Swift wrote in The Kellogg Report that even 'moderate use of antibiotics in animal feed can result in the development of antibiotic resistance in animal bacteria—and the subsequent transfer of that resistance to human bacteria.'

It is important to note that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that milk must be dumped if antibiotics exceed the one part per million now allowed. It must also be dumped if it has too many somatic cells, white cells (pus) that can indicate mastitis, an udder infection. But is it? Due to budget restrictions, the FDA can only do so much to enforce these laws, and most of us just have to hope that farmers are doing their job in proper testing. Some would say this is not the case. In 1990, an FDA survey found excessive levels of antibiotics and sulfa drugs in 51 percent of seventy milk samples taken in fourteen cities. The Wall Street Journal reported months later that FDA had actually found drugs in 80 percent of the samples.

Which leads us to the next issue—store-bought milk is often disease laden. Some estimate that nine million cows in America are not healthy; half the herds in America have cows infected with bovine leukemia virus and Crohn's disease. It doesn't take a huge mental leap to make a connection between the high consumption of milk in the United States and the fact that 40 million Americans now suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. Why are cows so diseased? Largely it is because of their tortured environments. A typical cow in nature produces an average of 10 pounds of milk per day, but mass-production dairy cows injected with growth hormones and antibiotics can produce upwards of 50 pounds of milk per day. The average California cow, for example, produces a mind-boggling 19,825 pounds of milk each year! That's got to hurt."

http://www.jonbarron.org/articles?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Alerts&utm_content=DHT+9%2F16%2F13

[Dawn]

Onawah: Thank you for the post on milk above. I have lived in my 'new' community for 3 years now and diligently searched for local sources of raw milk here in my community. Since it is illegal to sell raw milk, unless licensed by the government to do so, this was a difficult task. Finally I located a couple of families who raise goats and are willing to share their excess milk with me for making 'goat milk soap'.

In California we have ONE licensed commercial dairy that produces raw milk to serve the entire Southern half of the state. I don't think there are any who serve the Northern half of California any more. This dairy pastures their cows on green grass, and rotate paddocks every few months so that parasites do not build up in the pastures. They use chickens to ferret out the parasites which may be developing after the cows are moved out of a paddock. The chickens carefully clean up the pasture and add additional manure to enrich the soil there. The cleaned paddocks are allowed to rest while the grass grows thick and lush before the cows are re-introduced. This is how animal husbandry used to be handled ... it is kind to the cows and to the environment... it is health supportive to the people drinking the milk.

The government in California has shut down this one remaining dairy a couple of times yearly, and it is pretty clear they would like to shut it down permanently. If even ONE person gets ill and their diet includes this milk, the government immediately shuts down the dairy. If the ill person also ate fast food hamburgers that company is not shut down... the dairy is specifically targeted. I am impressed that the family who own and run Green Pastures have managed to stay in business. Even though no tests have ever found any tainted or infected milk, each time there is a forced shut down it costs them millions of dollars in lost revenue. Usually the shut downs last 6 weeks or more.

Really, it is shameful how the dairy industry tries to push out competition which does not follow the rules when they are the ones creating illness in the general population. We live in a very twisted culture for sure.

[onawah]

No doubt about it. It needs to be completely overhauled, from the ground (underground, actually) up.
I love the old ways of animal husbandry--so practical and healthy for everyone.
One of my fondest daydreams is to have just enough land so that I could have a goat and some chickens, and a nice organic garden.
Sigh.

We live in a very twisted culture for sure.

[onawah]

Does a Bad Diet Cause Bad Behavior?
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/09/19/bad-diet-bad-behavior.aspx?e_cid=20130919Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130919Z1

By Dr. Mercola

Your gut is quite literally your second brain, with the ability to significantly influence your mind, mood and behavior. Again and again, researchers find that depression and a wide variety of behavioral problems appear to stem from nutritional deficiencies and/or an imbalance of bacteria in your gut.

At this point, there’s simply no denying the powerful influence of the gut on both your physical and mental health. This is great news, since this places you in a distinct position of power over your and your children’s psychological health.

A recent article by the Weston A. Price Foundation,1 titled: "Violent Behavior: A Solution in Plain Sight", highlighted the impact of nutrition on brain health and behavior, reviewing the importance of a number of dietary factors, such as:

Fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamins A, D3 and K2
Water-soluble vitamins like B1, B6 and B12
Minerals such as iodine, potassium, iron, magnesium, zinc, chromium, manganese
Specific brain nutrients like choline, ARA and DHA

The article is quite extensive and well worth reading in its entirety as it covers the nutrition-behavior connection from several different angles. In short, however, the evidence is overwhelmingly clear that our current problems with violence and other behavioral problems are rooted in our diet...

As stated by Sylvia Onusic, PhD, CNS, LDN in her article:

“[T]he fact is that a large number of Americans, living mostly on devitalized processed food, are suffering from malnutrition. In many cases, this means their brains are starving...

Making things worse are excitotoxins so prevalent in the food supply, such as MSG and aspartame. People who live on processed food and who drink diet sodas are exposed to these mind-altering chemicals at very high levels.

... Modern commentators are blind to the solution, a solution that is in plain sight: clearly defining good nutrition and putting it back into the mouths of our children, starting before they are even conceived... because food is information and that information directly affects your emotions, nervous system, brain and behavior.”

How Chronic Niacin Deficiency Can Cause Violent Behavior

Few people realize just how potent a factor nutritional deficiencies can be when it comes to behavioral difficulties and violence. Last year, I interviewed Dr. Andrew W. Saul on the topic of niacin and psychiatric health.

He has over 35 years of experience in natural health education and is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service. He's authored over 175 publications and 11 books, and has been named as one of the seven health pioneers by Psychology Today. He's also featured in the movie Food Matters, which I'm sure many of you have seen.

Dr. Saul is co-author of the excellent book, Niacin: The Real Story, along with one of the leading niacin researchers in the world, Dr. Abram Hoffer. Niacin, Dr. Hoffer found, may in fact be a "secret" treatment for psychological disorders, including schizophrenia, which can be notoriously difficult to address.

He performed the first double-blind, placebo-controlled nutrition studies in the history of psychiatry in the mid-1950s. Giving patients extremely high doses of niacin—as much as 3,000 mg per day—his cure rate for schizophrenia was 80 percent! At that point, the American Psychiatric Association blacklisted him, which may in part be why you’ve probably never heard of him, or his invaluable research...

A key point Dr. Saul brings up in the full interview is that certain people have what Dr. Hoffer referred to as niacin dependency, meaning they need more niacin on a regular basis. Essentially, they're beyond deficient—they're dependent on high-doses of niacin in order to remain well.

This particularly appears to be the case with mental disorders. Other researchers have since confirmed Dr. Hoffer's findings, and found that niacin can also be successfully used in the treatment of other mental disorders, such as:
Attention deficit disorder Anxiety Obsessive-compulsive disorder
General psychosis Depression Bipolar disorder

Might Fermented Foods Help Prevent Memory Loss in the Elderly?

Fermented foods have been a staple in virtually all native diets, and the more I learn about fermented foods and the importance of gut health, the more convinced I get that many of our “age-related” health problems stem from lack of protective intestinal microbiota.

We have, en masse in the Western world, abandoned traditionally fermented foods and replaced them with processed foods high in sugar and grains—which feed harmful bacteria instead and promote chronic inflammation.

The effects of this dietary trade-off can be seen in our worsening rates of behavior problems in children, depression, and mental decline in the elderly. It’s worth reiterating that memory loss is NOT a “normal” part of aging at all. It used to be quite normal for seniors to be “sharp as tacks.”

In a recent study, polyamines, found in foods such as wheat germ, fermented soy, and matured cheeses,2 were shown to stave off memory decline in fruit flies.3 The researchers are now embarking on studies to see whether a polyamine-rich diet might have the same effect on humans. I believe chances are, they’ll find that this is indeed the case... Polyamines are aliphatic amines4 believed to be essential components of all living cells. Your body gets polyamines from three sources:

Endogenous biosynthesis
Intestinal microorganisms, and
Through your diet

As described in a 2011 report5 on polyamines in food:

“[P]olyamines are involved in the differentiation of immune cells as well as in regulation of inflammatory reactions, and they exert a suppressor effect on pulmonary immunologic and intestinal immunoallergic responses. In children, high polyamine intake during the first year has been significantly correlated to food allergy prevention...

Diet can to a certain extent regulate biosynthesis of polyamines. Thus, dietary polyamines have several important roles to play in this regard; supporting a normal metabolism and maintaining optimal health as well as regulating the intracellular polyamine synthesis. These seem to be of importance for maintaining the normal growth, maturation of the intestinal tract. Since the level of polyamines decreases with age in animal organs (brain, kidney, spleen, and pancreas), it has been suggested that maintenance of polyamine level from the diet is important to keep the functioning of various organs in the elderly.”

At Least One-Quarter of Population Have Too Little Gut Bacteria

According to recent research6, 7 from Denmark, in which they analyzed the human gut microbial composition on 292 people (169 of them obese and 123 of healthy weight), a quarter of the participants were found to have 40 percent fewer gut bacteria than the average needed for optimal health. Obese participants were particularly at risk of having too little beneficial bacteria to maintain health. Oluf Pedersen, professor and scientific director at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen told Medical News Today:8

"Not only has this quarter fewer intestinal bacteria, but they also have reduced bacterial diversity and they harbor more bacteria causing a low-grade inflammation of the body...

Our study shows that people having few and less diverse intestinal bacteria are more obese than the rest. They have a preponderance of bacteria which exhibit the potential to cause mild inflammation in the digestive tract and in the entire body, which is reflected in blood samples that reveal a state of chronic inflammation, which we know from other studies to affect metabolism and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

...Our intestinal bacteria are actually to be considered an organ just like our heart and brain, and the presence of health-promoting bacteria must therefore be cared for in the best way possible.”

Recent studies have repeatedly demonstrated that the makeup of your intestinal flora can have a powerful impact on your weight, and your propensity to gain or lose weight. For example, lean people tend to have higher amounts of various healthy bacteria compared to obese people. One 2011 animal study9 even suggested that daily intake of a specific form of lactic acid bacteria could help prevent obesity and reduce low-level inflammation. Probiotics have also been found to benefit metabolic syndrome, which often goes hand-in-hand with obesity. This makes sense since both are caused by a diet high in sugars, which leads to insulin resistance, fuels the growth of unhealthy bacteria and promotes chronic inflammation, and packs on excess weight.

Diet and Environmental Factors Affect Your Gut Flora

I have long been convinced of the value of regular probiotic supplementation. For nearly 20 years, I took a daily probiotic supplement but now I eat about four ounces of fermented vegetables a day that are started with our new high vitamin K2 starter culture, which will soon be available for sale. I sincerely believe that it is a profoundly wise health habit to either regularly supplement with a high quality probiotic or eat non-pasteurized, traditionally fermented foods such as:

Fermented vegetables
Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
Fermented milk, such as kefir
Natto (fermented soy)

Ideally, you want to eat a variety of fermented foods to maximize the variety of bacteria. Keep in mind that eating fermented foods may not be enough if the rest of your diet is really poor. Your gut bacteria are an active and integrated part of your body, and as such are vulnerable to your overall lifestyle. If you eat a lot of processed foods for instance, your gut bacteria are going to be compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora and feed bad bacteria and yeast. Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics
Chlorinated water
Antibacterial soap
Agricultural chemicals
Pollution

Are You Getting Enough "Brain Food"?

One nutrient in particular that is essential for optimal brain functioning is omega-3 fat. Along with probiotics for those who refuse to eat fermented foods, an omega-3 supplement is one of the few supplements I had recommended to all the patients at my clinic.

In terms of brain health, omega-3 deficiency is known to change the levels and functioning of both serotonin and dopamine (which plays a role in feelings of pleasure), as well as compromise the blood-brain barrier, which normally protects your brain from unwanted matter gaining access. Omega-3 deficiency can also decrease normal blood flow to your brain, an interesting finding given that studies show people with depression have compromised blood flow to a number of brain regions.

Could rampant omega-3 deficiency be a contributing factor to deteriorating mental health? I believe so—along with vitamin D deficiency, which also plays an important role.

Making matters worse, a number of foods that contain critical nutrients for optimal brain function and mood control have been "demonized" in our culture. B3- and protein-rich foods such as raw dairy products, eggs and meat have been more or less blacklisted, accused of being too high in cholesterol and fat...

I couldn’t agree more with the Weston A. Price Foundation's sentiment that the answer to so many of our health problems, both physical and psychological, are right in front of our noses—in our fridge and pantry. In addition to consuming fermented foods, eliminating most sugars and grains from your diet is also of critical importance as these will increase your risk of insulin resistance, which is also linked to psychological problems such as depression and violent behavior.

[onawah]

Food is the Best Medicine

From the Videos From Forbidden Knowledge and More thread, post #398 at http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?43548-The-gut-of-most-disease...-NOT-what-you-think-&p=733055#post733055

Sufferers of neurological conditions
also suffer from digestive disorders.
Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride is
convinced that these two facts are
inextricably related.

She cites a recent Swedish study,
which shows that 90% of human DNA
does not come from the cells of the
human body - but from the cells in
the gut flora!

That is certainly indicative of something.

Video (about 49 mins):

Source: cONYR7vAD-A




http://www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/24595.html

[Dawn]

I spent a lovely afternoon reviewing this thread. So many wonderful posts here and so very much information. I had forgotten a lot of it and re-reading this thread was a terrific refresher. Anyone reading this post can do the same.

In doing this I discovered some new information that has not been posted before. The link for this info was contributed by Mu2143 and can be found here: http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.htm

There are some wonderful recipies here that I never thought of. Here are a few examples from this rich site:

Kefir SourCream...similar to Mascarpone. Will keep for at least a month in the ‘fridge
~1 to 2 cups fresh whole milk [fresh raw milk is best].
~1 cup fresh non thickened natural dairy cream [fresh raw cream is best].
~2 to 4 Tbs milk kefir-grains, or, 1/4 cup freshly strained ready-to-drink liquid-kefir.
~1/2 tsp sea salt.

Kefir-Straightjacket A kefir-curd dip or spread prepared from draining kefir with added ingredients to create a taste sensation that many people have gone crazy #@|@# asking for more

Kefirkraut Zzzzzz wake up all!!! Naturally pickled cabbage /or other vegetables similar to traditional sauerkraut but without the addition of any salt or very low salt content if desired, as opposed to traditional sauerkraut which contains between 2% to 3% salt. Kefirkraut has converted many who dislike sauerkraut to kefirkraut devotees. Directions here: http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirkraut.html#Kefirkraut

Kefir made with bee pollen. Either water-kefir or milk-kefir cultured with the addition of bee pollen. This recipe may help unlock nutrients, which through normal digestion are mostly unavailable from bee pollen. This limitation is due to the indigestible cell-wall of each pollen cell so the nutrients are unavailable through gastric digestion. Including bee pollen for preparing milk-kefir, the proteolytic enzyme-rich medium may help to at least partially break down the cell wall of bee pollen cells, so gastric digestion which follows may be able to further breakdown the cell wall, aiding in better digestion and absorption of nutrients. Although my understanding of bee pollen is that the cell-wall is made up of cellulose, which in this case, there would be little to quite marginally small enzymatic attack on the cellulose by kefir organisms, it is quite a delicious rendition to kefir nevertheless.

Kefir-Grain Gelato-Style Ice-Cream If someone told you that you could eat ice-cream and actually heal yourself from many gastro intestinal problems such as IBD and Ulcerative Colitis, you would probably think that there is no way this can be true. Well, you're wrong. See the recipie here: http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefir-faq.html#ingestingkg

[Dawn]

I thought this recipe deserved its own post. It is from the same site as the link above. The author cured himself totally of Hepatitus C. If you know anything about Hep C you will be aware that it is considered incurable and is considered an eventual death sentence.... which makes this recipe a miracle formula.

HERBAL KEFIR LIVER BLUSH

This recipe improves liver function. A treat for Hepatitis C virus infection [HCVI] and a fearful or shy, sluggish liver.

Ingredients
For 2 and 4 servings respectively.
-2 or 4 cups freshly strained kefir.

-½ or 1 cup young coconut water.

-3 or 6 fresh leaves each of Dandelion [Taraxacum officinale] and Greater Plantain[Plantago major], coarsely chopped.

-1 or 2 Tbs St. Mary's Milk Thistle seed [Silybum marianum], well crushed.

-1 or 2 Tbs each of anise and caraway seed, well crushed or in powder form. 

-2 or 4 Juniper berries [Juniperus communis], well crushed.

-1 or 2 Tsp Turmeric root powder [Curcuma longa], preferably either whole dry root and crush yourself, of fresh root.

-1 or 2 Tbs ground Rose hip.

Method
Blend all ingredients in a food processor for 30 seconds to prepare a smooth consistency. Pour in a suitable glass bottle, make sure not to fill the bottle more than 2/3 full. Place either an airlock on the bottle, or fit a lid but do not seal the bottle airtight. Place the bottle in a dark spot away from direct sunlight, and let stand for 2 days at room temperature.
Enjoy ½-cup diluted with ½-cup fresh water. An option is to sweeten with maple syrup, rice syrup or honey to your liking. Or in preference for a savory over sweet, include a little unrefined sea salt, or 1/4 Tsp non-pasteurised organically produced soy sauce. For weight loss enjoy ½ hour before meals. For weight gain, take directly after meals, will also assist digestion.

[onawah]

Wow! What a great resource! ( http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.htm )
Thanks Dawn!
I agree, this thread is a treasure trove of excellent information.
I wonder how many people's health could be restored and lives saved by following the advice herein...

[Dawn]

Onawah: I agree, this thread is a treasure trove of excellent information.
I wonder how many people's health could be restored and lives saved by following the advice herein...


Onawah, I am (again!) recovering from leaky gut! Why? Because I foolishly got caught up in believing that a parasite cleanse might actually be a good thing. OMG! I would have thought that after creating this thread and after reading eveything I posted here, along with everything everyone else posted I would have totally eliminated that 'old program'.

So, how did I get caught up in the belief that a parasite cleanse would be a good thing? I guess you could say that I had some hold out programming somewhere within me that was not in full agreement. It is one thing to consciously know something, it is another thing to act upon it. One of my favorite sayings is


"Enlightenment is courageousness in all situations... at all times."
Sri Ramana Maharishi


I think I must have had a failure of courage for a moment, AKA self doubt. Someone I thought was a expert in natural healing told me that I should do a spring cleanse in order to support my continued health. So I did. I actually paid a parasitologist to diagnose and make recommendations. I foolishly thought that, because essential oils were used for the treatment, I was doing something good for myself. What a horrible decision! The protocol took a full 3 months and at the end I have (again!) leaky gut syndrome.

I have been carefully nurturing my inner garden for the past 2 months and I am slowly getting better.

Now, why am I telling on myself here at Avalon? Because I imagine that there might be someone somewhere who might benefit from this story. Perhaps I can stop someone else from making such a foolish error in judgement.

It is clear to me (once again) that living a life of robust health means that everything MUST be approached with loving support. This also applies to the wee beasties that live within our bodies. It is so important to keep nourishing our inner gardens and planting more flowers and friends there. Eventually the weeds will move on because there is no room for them anymore.

Love is the answer

Make love.... not war! And this applies to our inner gardens just as it applies to the external world around us.

[conk]

There is an MD in my town that performs Infant Fecal Matter Transplants. He takes patients on the brink of death, suffering from C. Diff bacteria and revives them completely. Guess who is now harassing him? The Fraud & Death Administration.

Thanks for all the new recipes. I've ordered the 5 liter fermenting crock posted by Paula. Can't wait to use it. My first batch of sauerkraut was too salty. I'm eating it anyway for the bugs, but I'll know better next time. Anyone use sodium from celery juice instead of salt?

[onawah]

Yes, Conk, I use fresh, raw celery juice instead of salt, and it works very well.
I didn't have quite enough last time, so I watered it down a little and it was still fine.

Dawn, I hope you get all healed up again soon, and with all the great information you have accumulated, I'm sure you will.

I got some Ceylon cinnamon and am having an easier time dealing with my sweet tooth.
Thanks again for that advice.
Meanwhile, in my search for the natural sweetener that my body can deal with best, I think date sugar is the best I've found so far.
It still makes me feel fatigued, but not as much and not as quickly as the last new one I tried, which was organic coconut palm sugar.
I have yet to try noni fruit sugar ( I think that's the one I've heard about). My local health food carries it, but it's $20 for a small shaker bottle, so I'm going to see if I can just get some free samples.
I might also try raw coconut crystals. I think that will probably be better than coconut palm sugar, which is heat treated.

[Dawn]

Onawah: I have yet to try noni fruit sugar ( I think that's the one I've heard about). My local health food carries it, but it's $20 for a small shaker bottle, so I'm going to see if I can just get some free samples.Is the noni sugar like this? Dried noni powder? It says you can make noni juice from it and looks less expensive than what you mentioned Onawah:
http://www.nuts.com/driedfruit/noni/organic-powder.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Campaign%20%232%20-%20Snacks%2C%20Seeds%2C%20Misc.&utm_group=Group%23241%20-%20Organic%20Noni%20Powder%20%5B7206%5D&utm_term=buy%20noni&utm_type=Phrase&gclid=CKuWoqC45bkCFUhMpgodEgsAyg
http://cdn.nuts.com/images/auto/510x340/assets/dfe0aa6669bef196.jpg

I still have no craving for sugar. In fact I've made it through this summer with very little interest in summer fruits except for berries. I still love my berries and every night I have a bowl of what ever berry is locally ripe. Yum! Getting off of sugar last year was difficult, but it has continued to be a non-problem for me. In fact, I really don't like many of the sweet things I used to love... they now just seem too sugary.

I'm prepping for a liver/gall bladder cleanse this week. This calls for apple juice daily and I really need in half or more with water... even then it is over sweet for my reformed tongue.

Today I made fresh raw goat kefir cheese. I let it ferment for 5 days until it was really really ripe and then hung it in a cheese cloth bag for 24 hours. This afternoon I took the fresh cheese out of the bag and added hot pepper powder, dried parsley, cordyceps mushrooms, and garlic powder. It tastes amazing. Part of the reason I made it was that I just love drinking the whey.... and since I'm on a cleanse whey will help clear my liver and hasn't much fat content. I am going to let my cheese sit in the 'fridge until after the cleanse. The cheese should last almost indefinitely since it has living kefir cultures in it, unlike store bought pasteurized soft goat cheese.

Did you know that raw goat and cow cheese is allowed by the FDA only if it is aged until it is 'hard' cheese. The soft or farmer's cheeses must all be pasteurized .... What a shame!

[onawah]

I have to look more into this before I can answer any questions about noni sugar, or any other kind of fruit sugar.
So you found a source of raw goat milk, Dawn? That's great!
And your cheese sounds delicious. I've never tried to make goat cheese, though I've made almond cheese using the same method, and it was fabulous.
I am planning to get some in October and make kefir with my new kefir grains.
Then I will compare how I feel to how I feel with the coconut kefir I've been making.
I like them both, but think the goat kefir is probably going to be the winner as to how it makes me feel.

[onawah]

One good thing (the only one I can think of!) about being a "canary in a coal mine" is that I am a good gauge for others to know when something is toxic or not.
34wJt3pRY0w
As reported earlier, the Coconut Palm Sugar didn't work for me (though my Candida seemed to find it a real treat)!
A local friend who recently took some training to be a nutritional consultant just gave a workshop on sugar (which I had planned to attend, but couldn't make).
She apparently didn't realize that there is a big difference between two alternative sweeteners that are getting a lot of press recently, Coconut Palm Sugar and Coconut Crystals.
I did a little research and found some links to share with her, which follow.

It appears that Coconut Palm Sugar is all boiled as far as I can tell, and some Coconut Crystals are raw,though not all and the crystals do at least undergo a low heat dehydrating process.
Needless to say, boiling will destroy most of the nutrients, particularly the enzymes.
Go here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWuQj95SYw
for a short video showing the process of making Coconut Palm Sugar

and here:http://www.vitacost.com/coconut-secret-raw-coconut-crystals#productDetails
for a description of one brand of raw Coconut Crystals:
http://www.vitacost.com/coconut-secret-raw-coconut-crystals#productDetails

"Small batches ensure that our pure, low glycemic Coconut Crystals, made from this natural sap, is a raw, enzymatically alive product, low temperature vacuum evaporated only to remove excess moisture and allow for crystallization. By contrast, most brown sugar is boiled at temperatures up to 221 degrees F. (the end product containing 93% sucrose, compared to sap crystals which is only0.5% glucose, 1.5% fructose, 16% sucrose, and 82% inulin -- a prebiotic that promotes digestive health.)"

I haven't tried the raw Coconut Crystals yet, but I will order some in October and let you know how it makes me feel.
(I'll bet there will be quite a contrast to the way that Coconut Palm Sugar makes me feel, which is fatigued and dopey. )

Notice also here:
http://www.vitacost.com/earth-circle-organics-coconut-sugar-crystals-14-oz
this Coconut Crystal product is boiled:
"The collected liquid is kettle-boiled into thick caramel syrup, then dried and ground into crystals".

[Dawn]

Attention!!! Very important! Digestive worms are IMPORTANT to our HEALTH. De-worming is dangerous and can be deadly.

I am considering starting a thread about this topic because it is so important. The facts about our symbiotic relationship with digestive worms have just been brought to my attention. I am still suffering 3.5 months after the parasite cleanse prescribed to me and I am still looking for answers to heal myself. It appears I may need to re-infect myself with worms in order to return to health. There is a medically approved "helminthic treatment" to do this, however it is very expensive.

Here is a partial copy of an email sent to me by a friend which lays out this info succinctly:

It was discovered less than 10 years ago that intestinal worms for the most part are symbiotic and not parasitic as has been believed for the past 100 years and more.

It was first discovered 15 years ago with monkeys in captivity ... they would sometimes die of Irritable Bowel Syndrome whereas in nature monkeys never get the disease. The monkeys were wormed by the veterinarian and there was a theory that this was the cause. They re-infected the monkeys with natural worms found in wild monkeys ... the disease disappeared and they never lost another monkey to the disease.

There is a 10 million dollar USA study starting in 2004 to find the most beneficial worms to add to the human digestion. Here is a preliminary report ...

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/44092.php

They are adding whipworms to the human digestion to solve these diseases. In addition the article points out that Crohn's Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome are not even present in undeveloped native cultures worldwide.

De-worming has just been identified as a dangerous practice.

Your guy recommended parasite treatment for Dawn Mazur ... and it almost killed her. She had a severe toxic reaction to the essential oils used.

Personally I would never undergo a parasite treatment at all because there is no way of knowing how seriously the immune and digestive system would be compromised.

...... this practice of parasite treatment is dangerous and modern science now supports that view.

I searched with Google for 'helminthic treatment' and came up with hundreds of sites. Here is just one.
http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=17&m=1914181

I read a lot of the posts on various forums on helminthic therapy and it's terrible to see the amount of misinformation that's floating around. I have done quite a lot of research on the subject, tried all 3 available organisms used in helminthic therapy, and achieved remission from severe Crohn's, so I'd like to clarify the situation.

There are a total of 3 microscopic organisms used in treatment of a variety auto-immune diseases, in particular we are going to be discussing CD and UC here. There is nothing gross or disgusting about them. We have billions of bacteria living inside of us and we wouldn't be able to live very long without them. We humans lived with other organisms, including helminthic parasites, for millions of years and only started getting rid of them over the last 70-80 years in the developed world. Undeveloped countries (most of Africa and South America) still have them and Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis are virtually unknown there. Granted, they have a host of other problems and diseases but they don't suffer from auto-immune illnesses. Balance is needed. Modern humans survived to this day because we evolved to have strong immune systems that could keep the number of parasitic organisms in our bodies very low. Those that couldn't, died out and we are descendants of those who survived. Parasitic organisms in turn tried to live as long as possible and since the immune system fight invaders using inflammatory response, they evolved to suppress this inflammation and kept our immune system in check. Now that we got rid of them, after evolving to live in a symbiotic relationship with them for millions of years, our immune systems go haywire and go into uncontrolled inflammatory responses.

This information is very important to Avalon members in light of the fact that I am always reading posts here about using MMS (a great way to kill gut organisms) and cleansing. WAKE UP! Your cleansing could be KILLING YOU!

[conk]

Dear God, what's a country bumpkin to do? Myself, I am inclined to find the most out of date information available and give it the credit it deserves. To ignore most of the health information of the last 75 years seems to be the right course. Anything from Mr. Beauchamp and prior seems to be the gospel.

So, we've been led to believe that MMS would not kill beneficial bacteria. Is that not true? And Hulda Clark was wrong about parasites?

[Dawn]

Conk: So, we've been led to believe that MMS would not kill beneficial bacteria. Is that not true? And Hulda Clark was wrong about parasites?

Yes, MMS definately kills bacteria without discrimination in my experience. I did a 6 month MMS self treatment and ended up with IBS that put me into diapers for the next 18 months. I would NOT recommend MMS to anyone unless, for some reason it seems like a last resort. I think it is dangerous, even deadly.

And... it appears Hulda Clarke may have been wrong too.

I put all of this up to our present state of being out of touch with the oneness of all things.

Here is something to consider... In many tests plants grown in organic soil rich with compost will remain healthy and bug free, while next to them plants that are chemically fertilized will get lots of bugs and require insecticide treatment to keep them alive. Why... the chemically fertilized plants are not healthy because they have only a few nutrients to survive and grow on. It has been found that in a symbiotic relationship fungus (which has the ability to dissolve minerals from surrounding soil) actually penetrates the roots of plants and supplies them with micronutrients they need, in return the plants create sugars through photosynthesis to feed the fungus. Both organisms benefit from the relationship.

So with our bodies. It is often mentioned that our food is not as nutrient rich as it was 50-80 years ago. Supposedly we all need food supplements to overcome the non-nutritive veges, which are the only things available now. HOWEVER... there is a wonderful new movement in gardening and food production. In this movement FUNGUS is recognized as the missing organism... it is the key to vigorous, mineral rich foods. When fungus is nurtured in soil by not cultivating and by mulching the surface of the soil deeply ... amazing vegetable yields of mineral rich plants result.

So... we have been killing fungus, plowing our soil, and using fertilizers which kill the microbes in the soil for about 90 years now. And the food we eat to nourish ourselves is severely lacking in the minerals we need to be healthy. It is no wonder our bodies are filled with parasites. Just like the poorly nourished commercially fertilized plants growing in dead soil, our poorly nourished bodies without the proper symbiotic inner organisms get imbalances of parasites of all kinds.

Yet, instead of looking at this problem from the root cause, we have been looking at how to slash, burn, and kill our internal micro-flora and fauna. Seems pretty obvious at this point that this does not work. So... perhaps we should try a different approach

[778 neighbour of some guy]

Yes, MMS definately kills bacteria without discrimination in my experience. I did a 6 month MMS self treatment and ended up with IBS that put me into diapers for the next 18 months. I would NOT recommend MMS to anyone unless, for some reason it seems like a last resort. I think it is dangerous, even deadly.

And... it appears Hulda Clarke may have been wrong too.


Hm, that's interesting Dawn, that is definitely a hard hitting effect on MMS, I use it for some time now and don't have the reactions you have, I benefit from it actually, no diapers here, but I do wonder why Bill seldom endorses the MMS threads, there have been many so far.

As far as the parasites ( worms) go, well ok it should not be surprising there are some good and bad ones and we indeed form a symbiotic team, its been seen in many animals as well so no reason for it to be any different for us, so how do we distinguish them, I don't like my nutrients to be robbed by things I don't need at all, not beneficial for me and makes my shopping more expensive.

I started yesterday on a candida cleanse the second I heard about it, 100% pure gum turpentine, and something is NOT liking it at all, and I have a huge OLD Cheese craving right now, so something wants to be fed for sure after my second dose.

[Dawn]

778 Neighbor of Some Guy: I started yesterday on a candida cleanse the second I heard about it, 100% pure gum turpentine, and something is NOT liking it at all, and I have a huge OLD Cheese craving right now, so something wants to be fed for sure after my second dose.

And here again is the question. How do we help balance our bodies? You know conventional wisdom is that 'old cheese' is not a good thing. However I have seen the opposite information being endorsed by Mercola and a few other 'health experts'. Perhaps your body is looking for some kind of fungus which is on/in the aged cheese?

In the end it is all about not sticking with a belief, but constantly remaining curious and open to the next deeper truth which shows up.

My life and my body are my laboratory where I try out experiments. Currently I am having an amazing healing by using a sulfur containing amino acid (L-taurine), a rich omega3 oil, kefir, and berries in my simple diet. It is creating a situation where my liver is detoxing in a wonderful and almost fantastical way. Who would have thought this could even happen in a 60+ body. I created this for myself in support of my liver and then I heard about the Budwig diet, which appears to be based on a similar principle.

So... the real question I always try to hold is
What is the root cause? As long as I keep going deeper, new things seem to show up.

Today I collected used coffee grounds from my local Starbucks, and then collected hardwood shavings from a woodworking company. I already have a bunch of old goat shelter bedding complete with poo and goat urine. Tomorrow I combine them with home grown worm castings and some powdered rock dust to make an 8" thick blanket on top of my front garden soil. My food will come from this nutrient rich soil.

In the back of my garden I soaked young cabbage plants in special symbiotic fungus spores today before planting them in ground I prepared about a month ago. My long term health plan includes eating the intensely nutrient rich food I grow for myself on an ongoing basis. Now that I understand the fungus connection I am expecting my food to become much more nourishing to my body.

And... even so I will tell you that I have been looking for a place to buy natural gum turpentine for some time without success. I am delighted the turpentine thread gave some links. Perhaps there will come a time where some is needed to create balance???? So just in case I bought some. Who knows what the future may bring

[778 neighbour of some guy]

And... even so I will tell you that I have been looking for a place to buy natural gum turpentine for some time without success. I am delighted the turpentine thread gave some links. Perhaps there will come a time where some is needed to create balance???? So just in case I bought some. Who knows what the future may bring

This was actually pretty funny Dawn, the turpentine thread started of, I read it immediately, bouncing in my chair, "hotdamn, me iz gotzu buy me sum uf dat gum turshizzle", so I ran out to the health food store, turned the whole place upside down, came up with nothing, asked the owner, he looked at me with utter surprise, and told me where to go ( only one place in my town where they sell it he said), I knew exactly where it was and walked to the place in 10 minutes, asked the question "any bio gum turps", I got a very big surprised smile and a "Yeah sure man", he walked me there, and on the floor were a lot of cans of the turps, I bought one 1/2 liter can and went to the supermarket next door for some regular mini white sugar cubes as advised by dr Daniels, ate something on the way home, and I passed an artist supply shop, for some reason I stuck my head around the corned and asked if she had any gum turp, and behold from the same brand I just bought she showed me an even bigger can, so I could not believe my luck, told her to keep the can but she tried to convince me to buy it "well, blahdiblah, its my last can, cant order any more when this is gone, blahdiblah, it flies out the door, blahblah", but the can stood behind all kinds of other brands and had a good amount of dust on it, so........... its still gonna be there when I need it, that's for sure, and I know theres still the other address in the same street, hahahaha, lucky me eh. A sign from the Most High Bob especially for me. Anyway, I going to take the third dose now and will keep you posted on the other thread on the progress.

Thanks for your reply Dawn, I will take care with the cheese, I love salty old Dutch cheese...... dammit:Cry:

[onawah]

Dr. Mercola really seems to know what we want to be hearing about on this thread! Dawn was discussing fecal implants recently, and here's more info on that subject. Whether anyone needs it or not, it's good to know there are alternatives when they are needed.

Do You Really Need Poo-in-a-Pill?
By Dr. Mercola 10/21/2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKDHSF2Viqg
SKDHSF2Viqg

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/10/21/fecal-transplant.aspx?e_cid=20131021Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=2013102


Two years ago, I reported on the emergence of fecal transplants, a relatively simple process in which feces from a healthy donor is transplanted into a patient, typically via an enema or colonoscopy. The procedure has shown remarkable results in treating a wide range of health conditions.

Sad to say, earlier this year a relative of a good friend of mine was hospitalized and came down with a serious C. diff infection. I strongly advised the family to get a fecal transplant. However, the family refused, and listened to their conventional doctor. The relative died a few days later. So this is serious, and you need to pay attention as this might affect someone you know.

According to Dr. Mark Mellow, medical director of the Digestive Health Center at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, fecal transplants lead to rapid resolution of symptoms in 98 percent of patients with Clostridium difficile who don’t respond to multiple previous treatments.

C. difficile is a bacterial infection that is often resistant to antibiotics, is often debilitating, and can be fatal. Research has also found that fecal transplants show promise in the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, with symptoms sometimes improving in mere days.

Preliminary research2 from the Netherlands has even revealed that transplanting fecal matter from healthy thin people into obese people with metabolic syndrome led to an improvement in insulin sensitivity, which adds further credence to the immense role healthy gut bacteria can play in your health.

It’s not surprising then to learn that conventional medicine is taking such findings to the next level—this time by putting donated fecal bacteria in a pill... However, I would dissuade you from thinking that this might be a magical route to fix less than life threatening conditions.

While I believe fecal transplantation can be lifesaving in some circumstances, I want to make it clear that you will likely never have to resort to receiving donated feces if you address your gut health on a daily basis—by avoiding factors that kill off your beneficial gut bacteria, and continuously “reseeding” your gut through a healthy diet.

Also, any time you take an antibiotic, it is important to take probiotics to repopulate the beneficial bacteria in your gut that are killed by the antibiotic right along with the pathogenic bacteria. If you don’t, you’re leaving the door wide open for further health problems.

Fecal Bacteria in a Pill May Successfully Treat Gut Infection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix_yKUMFLHI
ix_yKUMFLHI

That said, as reported in the featured article,3 capsules containing fecal bacteria from healthy donors are another, less invasive way to “transplant” healthy bacteria into your gut, should you suffer with chronic, debilitating gut infections. According to Thomas Louie, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, 30 out of 31 patients were successfully cured of recurring Clostridium difficile infection with such pills.4

As reported by Scientific American:5

“C. difficile often sets in after antibiotic use has disrupted a person's normal balance of gut bacteria. A gut microbiome transplant using bacteria from the feces of a healthy donor restores that balance, and can be highly effective against C. difficile, which is notoriously difficult to treat with antibiotics.

...The patients in Louie’s study each swallowed 24–34 freshly assembled capsules of bacteria, which were coated with gelatin to survive the stomach and reach the intestines. The team followed the patients' progress for up to one year afterwards by sequencing the gut microbiome. They found that C. difficile had disappeared and bacteria associated with a healthy gut microbiome, such as Bacteroides, Clostridium coccoides, Clostridium leptum, Prevotella, Bifidobacteria and Desulfovibrio, increased in numbers.”

The fecal matter in question is typically donated by a healthy family member, so the pills are made for each individual patient. To make them, the feces are processed until only bacteria remains, which are then encapsulated inside a triple-layer of gelatin in order to safely make it through your digestive system into your intestines before dissolving. According to Dr. Ravi Kamepalli, MD, an infectious diseases physician and author of a study on fecal transplantation tolerance, fecal transplantation has a 98 percent success rate, and the vast majority of patients report being overall satisfied with the ease and effectiveness of the procedure.

"Human beings are 90 percent bacteria and once that balance is altered with antibiotics, opportunistic infections can cause serious problems. All we are doing with this treatment is resetting the balance,” Dr. Kamepalli told Medical News Today.6

What Bush-Men Are Teaching Modern Scientists About Microbial Balance

An interesting article published by The Human Food Project7 highlights the dramatic differences between our ancestral behavior and modern living, in terms of how we maintain this crucially important balance with microbes of all kinds. In it, the author, Jeff Leach, a Human Food Project researcher, describes a recent visit to the Hadzu, a tribe of traditional hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.

“I had come to Tanzania as part of a collaboration of US, Canadian, and Tanzanian researchers to try and understand what the gut microbiome might look like in a group that still hunts and forage’s 95-100% of its food...” he writes.

To his amazement, after killing, skinning, and gutting an Impala, the Hadza men scrubbed the blood off their hands using a handful of the animal’s stomach content. They also consumed partially raw chunks of the Impala’s intestines that had been quickly roasted over an open fire for about a minute. Leach continues:

“Whether it’s an Impala, Dik Dik, Zebra, bush pig, Kudu or any other of the myriad of mammals they hunt and eat, becoming one with the deceased’s microbes in any number of ways is common place – same goes for 700 plus species of birds they hunt (minus abundant amounts of stomach contents for hand sanitizer!). While less obvious than at the ‘kill site,’ the transfer of microbes continued back in camp when women, children and other men handled the newly arrived raw meat, internal organs, and skin. The transfer continued as the hunters engaged (touching) other members of the camp.”

Despite the ingrained fear of germs in Western societies, it is highly probable that many of our modern diseases are the end result of a dramatic disconnect from the natural world, which is teeming with microbiota. The so-called hygiene hypothesis states that early exposure to dirt and germs actually programs your immune system to properly identify threats. According to this theory, if you're healthy, exposure to bacteria and viruses can serve as "natural vaccines" that strengthen your immune system and provide long-lasting immunity against disease.

As Leach discusses in his article, there’s compelling evidence showing that we probably need to be exposed to FAR more microbial organisms than we currently allow ourselves to be:

“[C]learly our hunter-gatherer ancestors had a more intimate involvement in the total microbial metacommunity of the environments they inhabited than we do in the concrete jungles we call home. It’s tantalizing to think that as part of this microbial web, that our ancestors didn’t benefit in some way with the nearly daily sampling and exchange of microbes with animals as diverse as zebra, impala, birds, or even carnivores... or from a dizzying number of plants sprouting from soil teeming with bacteria (and their genes) worth sampling and possibly utilizing for our mutual benefit. Not only is this plausible, it’s highly likely.”

Gut Health Begins at Birth

A baby’s initial exposure to microbes occurs during the birth process itself. As he is squeezed through the birth canal, your baby receives his first dose of bacteria. This initial transfer of microbes from mother to infant is the reason why it’s so crucial for pregnant women to optimize their gut flora before and during pregnancy. Failure to do so can have wide-ranging consequences for the child’s health.

Research shows that there is a close connection between abnormal gut flora and abnormal brain development—a condition Dr. Campbell-McBride calls Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS). GAPS is the result of poorly developed or imbalanced gut flora and may manifest as a conglomerate of symptoms that can fit the diagnosis of autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD) without hyperactivity, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, just to name a few possibilities.

In short, abnormal gut flora sets the stage and can have a dramatic impact on your child’s overall mental and physical development. Add to this the tendency for modern mothers to carry disinfectant lotions, sprays and wipes everywhere they go, in case little Junior should happen across a piece of dirt, and this initial abnormal composition of microbiota could easily be compounded.

Inappropriate use of antibiotic drugs is another factor. Despite repeated warnings that antibiotics do not work for most cases of sore throat and bronchitis for example, doctors are still prescribing them8 for these conditions. Not only does this unnecessarily decimate your gut bacteria, which are critical for the optimal functioning of your immune system, this kind of misuse is also driving the rise in antibiotic-resistant infections that are far more deadly.

There’s also been a significant decrease in breastfeeding since the advent of infant formula, and this too plays a role. We now know that breastfed babies develop entirely different gut flora compared to bottle-fed babies. Infant formula never was, and never will be a healthy replacement to breast milk, for a number of reasons, and altered gut flora is one of them.

Your Health Hinges on What You Put Onto and Into Your Body

As discussed by Dr. Robynne Chutkan, MD in a recent interview by The Atlantic9 about her new book Gutbliss: A 10-Day Plan to Ban Bloat, Flush Toxins, and Dump Your Digestive Baggage, your health is really dependent on your digestive wellness, and it all begins with what you do and do not put into your mouth.

Dr. Chutkan’s expertise is in the area of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, but the impact of gut microbes go far beyond that. For example, she rightfully points out how your skin “mirrors” the state of your GI tract. Skin problems like Rosacea, for example, can be effectively cleared up by addressing your intestinal health. According to Dr. Chutkan, Rosacea is frequently assocated with dysbiosis, a condition caused by microbial imbalances in your body.

Now, since your gut bacteria are an active and integrated part of your body, as such these microbes are heavily dependent on your diet and vulnerable to your lifestyle. If you consume a lot of processed foods and sweetened drinks for instance, your gut bacteria are likely going to be severely compromised because processed foods in general will destroy healthy microflora, and sugars of all kinds feed bad bacteria and yeast. So avoiding processed foods and sugary foods is a critical first step to optimize your gut flora. Your gut bacteria are also very sensitive to:

Antibiotics, both in the form of oral medicines and meats from animals raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Livestock antibiotic use accounts for 80 percent of the total antibiotics sold in the US, so if you regularly eat CAFO meats, you’re exposed to a continuous supply of low-dose antibiotics
Agricultural chemicals (particularly glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, which is used in large amounts on genetically engineered “Roundup Ready” crops)
Chlorinated and fluoridated water
Antibacterial soap
Pollution

Since most of us are exposed to these detrimental factors at least occasionally, it's generally a good idea to "reseed" the good bacteria in your gut by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement or eating fermented foods. This is important for everyone, but as mentioned earlier, it’s imperative if you are a woman who is pregnant, as your newborn depends on you for its initial gut flora. Many women of reproductive age are deficient in a wide range of vitally important probiotic strains—a deficiency that transfers to their offspring, and may set the stage for any number of problems.

You Don’t Need Poo-in-a-Pill to Achieve Digestive Health

The micro-organisms living in your digestive tract form an important inner ecosystem that influences countless aspects of your health. Since virtually all of us are exposed to factors that destroy beneficial bacteria in your gut, such as antibiotics (whether you take them for an illness or get them from contaminated animal products), chlorinated water, antibacterial soap, agricultural chemicals and pollution, ensuring your gut bacteria remain balanced should be considered an ongoing process.

Barring an emergency situation, in which a fecal microbiota transplant could be the difference between life and death, the easiest and best way to reseed your gut with healthy bacteria is to include fermented foods in your diet. Additionally, one of the major side benefits of eating a healthy whole food-based diet like the one described in my nutrition plan is that it automatically supports your gut health by allowing beneficial gut bacteria to flourish.

While you could certainly use a high-quality probiotic supplement, fermented foods can supply your body with good bacteria FAR more effectively and inexpensively than a supplement. As an example, it’s unusual to find a probiotic supplement containing more than 10 billion colony-forming units, but when my team tested fermented vegetables produced using a probiotic starter cultures, they had 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Literally, one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic!

So clearly, you’re far better off using fermented foods. Again, when choosing fermented foods, steer clear of pasteurized versions, as pasteurization will destroy many of the naturally occurring probiotics. Examples of traditionally fermented foods include:

Fermented vegetables
Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink)
Fermented milk, such as kefir (like fermented vegetables, a quart of unpasteurized kefir also has far more active bacteria than you can get from a probiotic supplement)
Natto (fermented soy)

If you do not eat fermented foods on a regular basis, taking a high-quality probiotic supplement is definitely recommended. It can also be incredibly useful to help maintain a well-functioning digestive system should you occasionally stray from your healthy diet and consume excess grains or sugar, or if you have to take an antibiotic.

[Dawn]

GUT BACTERIA MIGHT GUIDE THE WORKING OF OUR MINDS. Listen to this 8 minute program recorded on NPR:


http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/18/244526773/gut-bacteria-might-guide-the-workings-of-our-minds?inf_contact_key=eeaed782041dad1c09648e92ad24141811b939b8d1ff448581555a3473eaf639

[onawah]

I'm in the middle of making my next batch of coconut kefir with 9 young green Thai coconuts, which is a lot of work.
So the additional reinforcing info about the importance of probiotics was very timely.
Thanks Dawn!

I've learned a couple of important things about sweeteners.
I bought an organic raw honey from Vitacost, brand name is YS, 2 lbs for $12. See:
http://www.vitacost.com/ys-eco-bee-farms-raw-honey
...and had no bad reaction to it like the local raw honey I had been using.
I have heard that some bee keepers are using toxins in the bee hives to control parasites, and I'm thinking that may have been what I was having a reaction to, so it seems like it was something other than just Candida causing it.
Since I have a hypothyroid condition, I am definitely very sensitive to chlorine, and that's what some bee keepers have been using, so I'm betting that was the problem.
The YS honey is so good, I can just enjoy it licking it from a spoon, and I've never wanted to eat honey that way before.
Very good price too, especially for organic honey!

My second discovery is Coconut Secret raw coconut crystals. See:
http://www.vitacost.com/coconut-secret-raw-coconut-crystals
I researched various coconut sugars, and this appears to be the only one that is evaporated at a low temperature, enough to be considered raw, and that makes a BIG difference.
The other ones are boiled, which of course, kills the enzymes and other nutrients.
I have a little bit of a reaction to it , but compared to the other coconut sugars I have tried, it's not bad at all.
The reason for the bad reaction in those cases was Candida, I'm pretty sure.

A modest victory, but for someone who enjoys a sweet taste now and then, a happy one!

[lunaflare]

hi Onawah, have you tried organic stevia powder? Not much is needed for a sweeter taste
simply use similar proportions to sugar. I assume you have and not liked the taste?
It really works for me

[onawah]

Yes, I have tried it, but can't stand the taste.
I might try mixing a little with one of the other sweeteners and see if that tastes OK.
I didn't like honey either when I first started using it, but I gradually got used to it, so that might work.

[MorningFox]

I started my first batch of sauerkraut 4 days ago, using a crock with a saucer and weight to keep the cabbage packed down and the non airtight lid on top. It's completely covered in brine and has started to go slightly milky and bubbly on top, which I thought was a good thing.

I thought all was well but I've now just read this article (http://www.foodrenegade.com/3-biggest-fermenting-mistakes-youre-already-making/) which has confused me. It says amongst other contradictory information, that fermenting should be done in an airtight environment.

Fermenting has been done traditionally without air locks for hundreds if not thousands of years, no? Should I carry on doing it the way I am?

I think I've probably answered my own question but I guess I'm looking for a bit of reassurance as that article has made me question what I'm doing.

[Flash]

thank you all for your information, i am constantly reading your updates. Thanks a lot.

[onawah]

When I am making fermented vegies, I put the mason jar lids on tight, but not airtight, during the fermentation process, according to the recommendations that I have read.
Because the vegies expand during fermentation, the lids have to be removed periodically in order to press the vegies back down and release the air bubbles.
Once they stop bubbling, I seal the jars as tight as I can.
I don't think it's safe to keep the containers airtight during fermentation--the jars could explode and/or the crocks could crack due to pressure from within.
But it's also important to avoid contamination as much as possible, so it's good to keep the containers tightly sealed during fermentation, though not airtight.

[Conehead]

This is a very good thread…here is a simple sauerkraut video recipe…

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I encourage you to experiment with different recipes for kraut and kimchi…they can vary a good bit and if you have been turned off in the past you might find something that you enjoy:cool:

[RunningDeer]

I started my first batch of sauerkraut 4 days ago, using a crock with a saucer and weight to keep the cabbage packed down and the non airtight lid on top. It's completely covered in brine and has started to go slightly milky and bubbly on top, which I thought was a good thing.

I thought all was well but I've now just read this article (http://www.foodrenegade.com/3-biggest-fermenting-mistakes-youre-already-making/) which has confused me. It says amongst other contradictory information, that fermenting should be done in an airtight environment.

Fermenting has been done traditionally without air locks for hundreds if not thousands of years, no? Should I carry on doing it the way I am?

I think I've probably answered my own question but I guess I'm looking for a bit of reassurance as that article has made me question what I'm doing.

Hi Morning Fox,
These are my experiences and instructional videos and links to the equipment I sprung for:

After researching all the benefits from Lacto-Fermentation and making a batch of 4 1/2 gallons of veggies, I sprung for a german-5-liter-fermenting-crock. (http://www.harvestessentials.com/german-5-liter-fermenting-crock-pot.html) Free shipping over $89. Total cost was in March, 2013 = $96, it now $110. It’s a 5 star rating, with super quick free shipping. See below for my first attempt with jars, which I still use.

My last several batches, I kept it simple: red and green organic cabbage, red onion, and garlic. I use a little sea salt to kick off the process.

Here’s the same pot and instructions.

Fermenting Sauerkraut with Daniel Vitalis, Part 1
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Fermenting Sauerkraut with Daniel Vitalis, Part 2
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For those that are short of money, here’s a six minute video using jars:


How to Make Lacto-Fermented Vegetables
This is link has a great 6 minute vid (http://www.nourishingmeals.com/2012/02/how-to-make-lacto-fermented-vegetables.html), a reference and ideas section. It takes about a week to ferment and then you refrigerate. They keep for months.

Here’s my first batch:

beet, carrot, red pepper, red onion, garlic & herbs and spices.
broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, red pepper, red onion, garlic & herbs and spices


http://avalonlibrary.net/paula/Recovered/Fermented_zps60bae9c5.JPG

What are Lacto-Fermented Vegetables?

“...Lacto-fermentation is a natural process to preserve foods and stops the growth of bacteria that causes foods to go bad. Unlike modern preservation methods which kills all the good stuff in food, lacto-fermentation make nutrients more absorbable and provides the intestines with friendly bacteria. The heating process of commercial fermented foods destroys the enzymes and friendly bacteria. The process of lacto-fermentation turns sugars and starches into helpful acids, mainly lactic acid. Lactic acid breaks down the proteins and helps the body absorb them. It also aids in the absorption of iron. Lactic acid does not cause the body to become over acidic. Lacto-fermented foods help to normalize the acidity of our stomach.

Foods that have been lacto-fermented contain many vitamins, friendly bacteria and enzymes that our bodies need. They contain B vitamins, omega 3 fatty acids, digestive enzymes, lactase, lactic acid and probiotics. Traditionally foods that have been lacto-fermented include sauerkraut, sour dough bread, tamari, chutney, yogurt, kefir, and kimchi. It supports our immune systems, reduces cholesterol, acts as and anti-biotic and anti-carcinogen.

Lacto-fermented foods promote the growth of friendly intestinal bacteria and aids in digestion. It strengthens the digestive system and increases the vitamin levels in our bodies because we are able to absorb them more readily. Lacto-fermentation neutralizes phytic acid, an unhealthy chemicals in grains and beans. Phytic acid blocks the absorption of calcium, iron, phosphorus and zinc, which leads to mineral deficiencies and bone loss. It also acts as an enzyme inhibitor. Lacto-fermentation neutralizes the phytic acid and helps break down gluten and sugar. Lacto-fermentation of dairy makes it more digestible and adds lactase to the dairy products. Soybeans are extremely high in phytic acid and must always be eaten fermented, preferably naturally by lacto-fermentation….”

Paula :wave:

[conk]

Paula, thanks to you I now have a wonderful 5 liter fermenting crock. So much easier to use than "whatever is around". ;) Thanks for the references. (edit: sorry, forgot I had already posted about my new crock)

I'm also into my 2nd gallon or so of yummy kefir. My grains are exploding in growth and can't find enough people to share with. Next will be experimenting with various flavors, both sweet and savory, and perhaps turning some into cheese. I like to leave it for about 3 days, so it gets pretty sour. So, so much better than the dead commercial variety.

[onawah]

Excellent article from Dr. Sircus on the relationship between fungi (particularly Candida) and cancer here:
https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox/14302fcb1431f033
He also discusses grains, which fungi love to feed on.

Quote New Cancer/Fungus Theory

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmhHyq_Fv3s

What Causes Cancer? - Doug Kaufmann On Know The Cause

This video and chapter offers crucial information about the relationships between cancer and infectious threats that every cancer patient and their family must be aware of. The truth that we must stare down is that cancer and infections cannot be separated from each other.

Cancer—always believed to be caused by genetic cell mutations—can in reality be caused by infections from viruses, bacteria, and fungi. “I believe that, conservatively, 15 to 20% of all cancer is caused by infections; however, the number could be larger—maybe double,” said Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, director of the Cancer Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Dannenberg made the remarks in a speech in December 2007 at the annual international conference of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Whether caused by infections or not, once cancerous conditions are well underway the weakening of the immune system and the battle that ensues between the good guys and the bad is cheered on by hordes of infectious agents that increase in density, power and form as a patient’s cancers get worse.

Cancer also involves inflammation, acid pH, low oxygen conditions accompanied by low CO2 levels, lower core body temperatures as well as nutritional deficiencies and high levels of tissue and cellular toxicity with heavy metals, chemicals and radiological exposure.

When the body’s (immune system) weakens we get sick from one of a host of viruses, bacteria and fungi that already live within us but are dormant. Change pH, oxygen, cell voltage and hydration levels and these pathogens are ready to jump all over our blood streams and tissues.

Cancer cells love the conditions that healthy cells abhor. Same goes for all infectious agents. It is impossible to be dying of cancer and not be dying of infections and nutritional deficiencies at the same time!

Given enough time, cancer will develop whenever there is a proliferation of damaged cells. When cells are damaged, when their cell wall permeability changes, when toxins and free radicals build up, when the mitochondria lose functionality in terms of energy ATP production, when pH shifts strongly to the acidic, and when essential nutrients are absent, cells eventually, or sometimes quickly, decline into a cancerous condition.
We can see that when a person has cancer they are literally rotting inside and dying from the loss of function, gathering infectious forces, and losing strength from malnutrition as the cancer cells eat us out of house and home.

Science Daily reports, “With infectious diseases, it is often not the pathogen itself, but rather an excessive inflammatory immune response (sepsis) that contributes to the patient’s death, for instance as a result of organ damage. On intensive care units, sepsis is the second-most common cause of death worldwide. In patients with a severely compromised immune system specially, life-threatening candida fungal infections represent a high risk of sepsis.”

“The working group led by Karl Kuchler in the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Infection Biology (Max. F. Perutz Laboratories at the Vienna Biocenter Campus) has now deciphered the molecular causes of life-threatening inflammatory reactions that are triggered by fungal infections: two highly aggressive types of phagocytes in the immune system (neutrophils and inflammatory monocytes), which however also have a high potential for collateral destruction, mediate the inflammatory reaction during an infection with candida. Certain interferons, the messenger substances used by the immune system, which are excreted during fungal infections, stimulate the influx of immune cell types to infected organs and lead to sepsis.”

“We have been able to demonstrate for the first time that the targeted blockade of this immune response with inflammation-inhibiting drugs can significantly reduce candida sepsis and therefore mortality,” says Karl Kuchler, who used an anti-inflammatory substance in the study.[1]

Science Daily said, “Infectious diseases are the world’s number-one cause of death, with pathogenic fungi being responsible for extremely dangerous infections. Worldwide, more than €6 billion are spent each year on anti-fungal medications, and the total costs of the medical treatment of infectious diseases caused by pathogenic fungi are estimated in the order of hundreds of billions of Euros.”

Cancer cells and pre-cancerous cells are so common that nearly everyone by middle age or old age is riddled with them, said Dr. Thea Tlsty, a professor of pathology at the University of California, San Francisco. That was discovered in autopsy studies of people who died of other causes, with no idea that they had cancer cells or precancerous cells. They did not have large tumors or symptoms of cancer. “The really interesting question,” Dr. Tlsty said, “is not so much why do we get cancer as why don’t we get cancer?”

The earlier a cell is in its path toward an aggressive cancer, researchers say, the more likely it is to reverse course and go back to being healthy again. So, for example, cells that are early precursors of cervical cancer are likely to revert. One study found that 60% of precancerous cervical cells, found with Pap tests, revert to normal within a year; 90% revert within three years.

There are certain physical properties of cells that change that make us call them cancerous. Tumor cells display a characteristic set of features that distinguish them from normal cells. All cancer cells acquire the ability to grow and divide in the absence of appropriate signals and/or in the presence of inhibitory signals.

The spread or metastases of cancer is inversely proportional to the amount of oxygen and the acidity around the cancer cells. The more oxygen, the slower the cancer spreads. The less oxygen and the higher the acidity the faster the cancer spreads. If cancer cells get enough oxygen, they will die (cancer cells are anaerobic). If you deprive a group of cells of vital oxygen (their primary source of energy), some will die, but others will manage to alter their genetic software program and mutate and be able to live without oxygen.

When the oxygen level drops below 60%, the respiration process of making energy changes into fermentation in a cancer cell. Normal cells turn cancerous. Normal body cells need oxygen and are aerobic whereas cancer cells do not need oxygen and are anaerobic. Healthy cells metabolize, burn oxygen and glucose to produce ATP.

Dr. Ma Lan and Dr. Joel Wallach point out that one type of white blood cell kills cancer cells by injecting them with oxygen, creating hydrogen peroxide in the cells.

Dr. Luke Curtis is reporting on research that deals with 27 lung “cancer” patients who were later diagnosed with lung “fungus” instead of lung cancer. “Fungal infection can present with clinical and radiological features that are indistinguishable from thoracic malignancy, such as lung nodules or masses.” Doctors who diagnose lung cancer are unaware of the fact that cancer mimics fungal infections.[2]

Over one million people worldwide are misdiagnosed with tuberculosis when in reality they have an incurable disease with a similar outlook to many cancers, says a recent report published in 2011 in the Bulletin of the WHO.[3] The disease called “chronic pulmonary aspergillosis” (CPA) is a fungal infection not a bacterial infection. Is this incurable, totally drug-resistant TB infection fungal or bacterial? It looks very much like, or is identical to, TB when doctors look at it on a chest X-ray and it has very similar symptoms initially. Doctors mistake it for TB and prescribe antibiotics as standard practice.

Because the X-ray features and symptoms are so similar to bacterial tuberculosis, doctors fail to recognize it, resulting in many unnecessary fatalities.
World Health Organization

50% of all patients who develop pulmonary aspergillosis are unlikely to survive for more than five years, a similar outlook to many cancers. Deaths from fungal infections are a little like death from vaccines, invisible and off the radar from most of the medical establishment. Yet as high as 40% of cancers are provoked by infections, and even though in most late-stage cancers, the infection is fungal the medical profession considers it heresy to say cancer and fungus in the same breath.

According to Dr. Milton White, cancer is “neither the result of a virus nor the consequence of an inherited gene defect. Cancer is a hybrid. It is due to a plant bacterium (conidia) derived from an Ascomycete strain of fungus…”

We Better Get the Story Right with Cancer

In Nature we read, “Although viruses and bacteria grab more attention, fungi are the planet’s biggest killers. Of all the pathogens being tracked, fungi have caused more than 70% of the recorded global and regional extinctions, and now threaten amphibians, bats and bees. The Irish potato famine in the 1840s showed just how devastating such pathogens can be. Phytophthora infestans (an organism similar to and often grouped with fungi) wiped out as much as three-quarters of the potato crop in Ireland and led to the death of one million people.”

Researchers estimate that there are 1.5-5 million species of fungi in the world, but only 100,000 have been identified. Reports of new types of fungal infection in plants and animals have risen nearly tenfold since 1995.

Fungi are dreadful enemies. During their life cycle fungi depend on other living beings, which must be exploited to different degrees for their feeding. Fungi can develop from the hyphae, the more or less beak-shaped specialized structures that allow the penetration of the host. The shape of a fungus is never defined; it is imposed by the environment in which the fungus develops. Fungi are capable of implementing an infinite number of modifications to their own metabolism in order to overcome the defense mechanism of the host. These modifications are implemented through plasmatic and biochemical actions as well as by a volumetric increase (hypertrophy) and numerical hyperplasia[4] of the cells that have been attacked.

In 1999, Meinolf Karthaus, MD watched three different children
with leukemia suddenly go into remission upon receiving a
triple antifungal drug cocktail for their “secondary” fungal infections.[5]

Doctors and Dentists at Fault

Dr. Elmer Cranton, says that, “Yeast overgrowth is partly iatrogenic (caused by the medical profession) and can be caused by antibiotics.”

Fungi (e.g.Aspergillus fumigatus) are not affected by antibiotics and neither are viruses. If not given correct treatment (antifungal medication) the prognosis is that 50% of those infected will die inside five years. In fact the overuse of antibiotics leads to fungal infections. Allopathic doctors practicing pharmaceutical medicine are a lost cause now that the world of pathogens is rebelling against what they have been doing with antibiotics these past decades.

When fungi become systemic from gut inflammation and the overuse of antibiotics,
you can see how the whole body—again, the eyes, liver, gallbladder, muscles
and joints, kidneys, and skin—becomes involved in inflammatory bowel disease.
Dr. Dave Holland

Heavy metals create contaminated environments both inside and outside the cells. These environments attract all kinds of pathogens—viruses, bacteria and fungi. Many cancers are caused by infections, which are themselves caused by heavy metal contamination. According to the observations made by the internationally recognized medical researcher, Dr. Yoshiaki Omura,all cancer cells have mercury in them. The single greatest source of mercury contamination is mercury containing dental amalgum and doctors around the world still inject children with mercury containing vaccines.

Each year in the U.S. an estimated 40 tons of mercury are used to prepare mercury-amalgam dental restorations. Scientific studies have concluded that the amalgam is the source for more than two thirds of the mercury in our human population. On a daily basis each amalgam releases on the order of 10 micrograms of mercury into the body. This mercury either accumulates in the body or is excreted via urine and feces into our wastewater systems.

Extremely Dangerous

“Fungal infections cannot only be extremely contagious, but they also go hand in hand with leukemia—every oncologist knows this. And these infections are devastating: once a child who has become a bone marrow transplant recipient gets a “secondary” fungal infection, his chances of living, despite all the anti-fungals in the world, are only 20%, at best,” writes Dr. David Holland.

Doug A. Kaufman wrote:

The day I wrote this, a young lady phoned into my syndicated radio talk show. Her three-year-old daughter was diagnosed last year with leukemia. She believes antifungal drugs and natural immune system therapy has been responsible for saving her daughter’s life. She is now telling others with cancer about her daughter’s case. After hearing her story, a friend of hers with bone cancer asked her doctor for a prescriptive antifungal drug. To her delight, this medication, meant to eradicate fungus, was also eradicating her cancer. She dared not share this with her physician, telling him only that the antifungal medication was for a “yeast” infection. When she could no longer get the antifungal medication, the cancer immediately grew back. Her physician contended that a few antifungal pills surely should have cured her yeast infection. It is my contention, however, that the reason this medication worked was because she did have a yeast infection not a vaginal infection for which this medication was prescribed; a fungal infection of the bone that may have been mimicking bone cancer.

A medical textbook used to educate Johns Hopkins medical
students in 1957, Clinical and Immunologic Aspects of Fungous
Diseases, declared that many fungal conditions look exactly like cancer!
Doug A. Kaufmann
The Germ That Causes Cancer


Cancer is a biologically-induced
spore (fungus) transformation disease.
Dr. Milton W. White

“Tumor-inducing cells have many of the properties of stem cells,” said Dr. Michael F. Clarke, a professor at the University of Michigan Cancer Center. “They make copies of themselves—a process called self-renewal—and produce all the other kinds of cells in the original tumor.”[6]

According to the Mayo Clinic, cancer refers to any one of a large number of diseases characterized by the development of abnormal cells that divide uncontrollably and have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue.

Our DNA is like a set of instructions for our cells, telling them how to grow and divide. Normal cells often develop mutations in their DNA, but they have the ability to repair most of these mutations. Or, if they can’t make the repairs, the cells frequently die. However, certain mutations aren’t repaired, causing the cells to grow and become cancerous…or so the story goes. Yeasts and fungi are, in human terms, abnormal cells that divide uncontrollably and have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. We know so little about these terrible invaders but oncologist’s think they understand a lot about cancer even though they have not cured it.

The shape of the fungus is never defined; it is imposed
by the environment in which the fungus develops.

“In some cases, the aggressive power of fungi is so great as to allow it, with only a cellular ring made up of three units, to tighten in its grip, capture and kill its prey in a short time notwithstanding the prey’s desperate struggling. Fungus, which is the most powerful and the most organized micro-organism known, seems to be an extremely logical candidate as a cause of neoplastic proliferation, Dr.Tullio Simoncini says, “Candida albicans clearly emerges as the sole candidate for tumoral proliferation.”

Face the Fungi

Fungi’s relationship to disease remains a difficult and controversial topic and is not really popular with doctors who hold tightly to their antibiotics and obsession with bacteria and viruses. Mainstream orthodox medicine misses the boat entirely on the treatment of fungi, yeast and molds with both the cancer and diabetes establishments “standards of care” lacking antifungal medications.

A new area of research being driven by Dundee life scientists is revealing remarkable abilities of fungi to interact with minerals and metals. Led by Professor Geoffrey Gadd in the College of Life Sciences, the research explores the unique taste that fungi seems to have for rock and heavy metal.[7] This environmental science has demonstrated the incredible power of fungi, to eat through concrete and to absorb heavy metals such as mercury and uranium in the environment.


What no one has thought of until now, is the possibility that fungi may have a stealth mode or several stealth modes with one of them being subversion through DNA convergence.

New Theory Unveiled

Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungus that “escapes phagocytosis because the spores are surrounded by a thick viscous capsule.” In the case of histoplasma capsulatum, which itself is a sac fungus, when confronted by the macrophages, they ingest the fungus, but instead of killing it and digesting it, something else can take place.

The white cells can end up protecting the fungus and its DNA as “friend” because it has been incorporated inside the macrophages effectively hiding the invader from our other immune defenses. Unfortunately for us fungal cells always become the dominant cells.

An entirely new way of looking at the relationship between cancer and fungus is seeing that cancer begins when the DNA from Fungus and the DNA from our white blood cells merge to form a new hybrid “tumor, or sac.” This hybrid attains a life of it’s own now, bypassing our immune defenses because it is 50% human, and therefore just enough to be recognized as “self.”

A large and significant number of independent cancer researchers, scientists, microbiologists and prominent medical practitioners over the past 100 years have found overwhelming evidence supporting this cancer-fungus link or link between cancer and microbes in general. Microbes have always been found to be present in cancer/tumor cells. There is nothing unusual or new about this but don’t try to talk to your oncologist about any of this for I can assure you the odds are high that he or she will not want to know.

The Vitally Important p53 Gene

Along with phagocytosis, our p53 gene plays one of the most important roles in protecting us against cancer. It not only stops cancer invasion, but it also kills tumor cells, thereby preventing cancer from even starting. But in over 50% of all cancers, scientists have discovered that the patient’s p53 gene was mutated and unable to stop cancer from initiating. According to the American Cancer Society, the p53 gene is the most studied of all genes because damage to this gene allows cells with damaged DNA, like cancer cells, to proliferate.

“Aflatoxin genotoxicity is associated with a defective DNA damage response bypassing p53 activation.” This means that the mycotoxin, aflatoxin, found in our food supply, is capable of inactivating the p53 gene. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science stated in 1993, that the mycotoxin, aflatoxin b1, made by Aspergillus fungus, is known to cause p53 mutations. Mycotoxins, made by fungi, are among the most carcinogenic substances known to science.

The Aspergillus mold toxin, aflatoxin B1, inhibits the breakdown of both glucose, or simple sugar, and glycogen.[8] Fungi and the mycotoxins they produce impacts our genetic code, causing alterations that are found in a majority of cancers, reports Doug Kaufman. “Altering a cell’s DNA amounts to changing the environmental code of that cell. Once changed the cell may respond differently – or not at all to outside hormones and enzymes that normally stimulate it to perform necessary functions. As one example of genetic alteration, aflatoxin B1 causes a break in DNA that alters the p53 tumor expression gene. Changes in this particular gene allow the cell to proliferate out of control. So it’s no accident that this same mycotoxin can also go on to cause liver cancer”

Fungi and their mycotoxins manipulate their
hosts on the cellular level, and prevent us from
defending ourselves by subverting the immune system[9].

Fungi are found in foods that we eat every day.[10] Our primary concern is the long-term effects of ingesting food contaminated with low levels of mycotoxins," and that carcinogenic toxins, such as aflatoxin, a by-product of the Aspergillus molds, is a "common contaminant of peanuts, soybeans, grains and cassava. It's a "frequent contaminant of wheat and corn." Without a properly-functioning immune system, we're at risk of succumbing to various infectious and chronic diseases. Fungi invade our grain food supply because grains-a source of carbohydrates-are their favorite food.

Fungi are parasites whose mission is to invade a larger host.
Given a chance they will alter our body chemistries to suit their needs.

In their refutation of the theory of autoimmunity Kaufman and Holland[11] explain that in Type 1 diabetes it is entirely plausible that invading fungi have altered beta cells, remained undetected, yet set off the body’s immune defense system, which is unable to destroy the offending fungi allowing them to continue to invade other beta cells and progressively lead to total destruction and a complete lack of insulin. The extremely manipulative ways that fungi work to ensure their own food supply is highly characteristic of their nature.

A recent Japanese study suggests that fungal
mold toxins have the ability to signal the beta cells
in the pancreas to shut them off by killing them.12

A.V. Constantini, MD, former head of the WHO Collaborating Center for Mycotoxins in Food has spent 20 years studying and collecting data on the role fungi and mycotoxins play in devastating diseases. In his research he found a number of fungi that demonstrate specific toxicity to the pancreas.


Candida A

When fungal colonization and mycotoxin
contamination is maximal one finds cancer
growing and mestastizing at a maximal rate.

Beating Back Late Stage Infections (Cancer & Fungus) with Sodium Bicarbonate

Sodium bicarbonate acts as a powerful, natural and safe antifungal agent,[13] which when combined with iodine, would probably cover the entire spectrum of microbial organisms. The efficacy of sodium bicarbonate against certain bacteria and fungi[14] has been documented. Its role as a disinfectant against viruses, however, is not generally known. Sodium bicarbonate at concentrations of 5% and above was found to be effective with 99.99% reduction viral titers on food contact surfaces within a contact time of 1 min.[15]

It was not until oncologist Dr. Tullio Simoncini came along that the concept arose that cancer can be treated with sodium bicarbonate. My book Sodium Bicarbonate, Rich Man’s Poor Man’s Cancer Treatment continues to be the only medical bible on this subject.

Over 90, 000 people a year die from
secondary infections in hospitals.

In my Natural Allopathic protocol we approach the problem of cancer and fungal infections from a number of different angles. When it comes to dealing with pathogenic microbes we want to take them head on. If we eliminate these microbes we lighten the load on the immune system so it can do its job of eliminating cancer.

Immune systems are normally, in late stage cancer patients, choking on these harmful microbes. When we rid patients of these microbes the immune system immediately begins to be supercharged. Many have experimented through past decades of passing small electric currents and high frequencies through people and have seen anti-pathogenic effects with viruses, bacteria and fungi.

What we are talking about here fits the military tactics that Natural Allopathic Medicine employs when facing off against cancer. A platoon of white cells are sent to rescue hostages (organs overrun by cancer), but en route get pinned down by heavy fire from ground forces (parasites, viruses, fungi and bacteria tying up the immune system). Then air support (magnesium, Bioresonance treatments, iodine, CBD and sodium bicarbonate) come and obliterate the ground forces leaving the platoon (immune system agents) free to go and recover hostages (us). We also directly increase immune system strength using far infrared treatments that raise core body temperature.

Dr. Mark Sircus Photo
Dr. Mark Sircus, Ac., OMD, DM (P)
Director International Medical Veritas Association
Doctor of Oriental and Pastoral Medicine
http://drsircus.com/

[onawah]

3 'Dirty' Ways to Recharge Your Gut Health

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/23/soil-quality.aspx?e_cid=20131223Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131223Z1&et_cid=DM36877&et_rid=376659019

By Dr. Mercola

Could healthy soils hold the key to your good health? According to many experts in soil biology and biological farming, the answer is a resounding Yes.

Daphne Miller, M.D., author of Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing, recently penned an insightful article for YES Magazine1 on the importance of soil quality.

“I spend my days in a sterile 8x10 room practicing family medicine and yet my mind is in the soil. This is because I’m discovering just how much this rich, dark substance influences the day-to-day health of my patients.

I’m even beginning to wonder whether Hippocrates was wrong, or at least somewhat misguided, when he proclaimed, ‘Let food be thy medicine.’ Don’t get me wrong—food is important to our health. But it might be the soil where our food is grown, rather than the food itself, that offers us the real medicine,” she writes.

Key to Improved Nutrition

Dr. Miller cites research in her article that all point in the same direction—healthy “living” soils make for food with better nutrient content. And by “living,” I mean soils that are teeming with microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and microscopic roundworms called nematodes.

Far from being scourges to be avoided at all cost, microorganisms are an essential component of life. We now understand that it is the cooperation between these microorganisms, the soil’s biome, and the plants’ roots, called rhizosphere that is ultimately responsible for allowing the plant to absorb nutrients from the soil in which it’s grown.

Insects and weeds also have their place in this circle of life. According to soil scientist Dr. Arden Andersen, insects are nature’s garbage collectors. Thanks to their specialized digestive systems, which differ from ours, they remove that which is not fit for us to eat—things we cannot digest.

And weeds are nature’s way of evolving the soil—it’s an intermediate plant that mobilizes nutrients in order to alter the soil, making it more suitable for the next evolutionary level of plants to grow in it.

Once you understand this natural cycle, it allows you to address food quality, weeds, insects, and plant disease at its point of origination, without ever resorting to chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizers, or genetic engineering.

As explained by Agri-Dynamics founder Jerry Brunetti in a recent interview, the root ball (rhizosphere) of the plant is the “gut” or intestinal tract of the plant. It houses microbes just like the human gut does, provided the soil system is healthy.

Soil health then connects to everything up the food chain, from plant and insect health, all the way up to animal and human health. Health, therefore, truly begins in the soils in which our food is grown.

Plant ‘Gut’ Health Is as Critical as Human Gut Health

Old-timers like Weston Price, William Albrecht, Louis Bromfield, and Friend Sykes all found that there’s a strong correlation between having good mineralized soils with robust biological activity. According to the featured article:

“Given this nutrient flow from soil microbes to us, how can we boost and diversify life in the soil? Studies consistently show that ecological farming consistently produces a greater microbial biomass and diversity than conventional farming.

Ecological farming... includes many systems (biodynamic, regenerative, permaculture, full-cycle, etc.) that share core holistic tenets: protecting topsoil with cover crops and minimal plowing, rotating crops, conserving water, limiting the use of chemicals (synthetic or natural), and recycling all animal and vegetable waste back into the land.

Much of this research supports what traditional farmers around the world have long known to be true: the more ecologically we farm, the more nutrients we harvest.”

Researchers are increasingly starting to recognize gut microbiota as one of your most unappreciated “organs.”2 It may even be more appropriate to view your body as a “super organism” composed of symbiotic microorganisms. Probiotics are even becoming widely accepted and adopted in the conventional medical community to support health.

In soil, we have a very similar process. The health of the plants, and those who eat those plants, all stand to benefit from the optimization of soil microbiology.

Optimizing soil biology also strengthens plants against pest infestations without having to resort to chemical warfare. Research shows that there’s constant communication going on between plants via the rhizosphere (root ball). Plants “talk” to one another through aerial emissions—the volatile gasses they emit—and also through the mycelial networks in the soil.

This is a major insight that deepens our understanding of the importance of nurturing and maintaining healthy soil microbiome. It also explains why you don’t really need synthetic chemicals to grow large amounts of food. On the contrary, the chemicals used in modern agriculture are killing the very foundation of health—the microbiome in the soil. In short, if we support and nurture the microbiome in soil, it in turn will provide us with good nutrition and optimal health through the food grown in it.

The ‘Farm Effect’

The featured article highlights another fascinating theory, which suggests that your immune cells might actually be part of a “backup” system to another long forgotten first line of defense, namely your gut microbiome, which is strengthened by—and in large part dependent on—the continuous exposure to soil microorganisms.

Modern DNA sequencing techniques have led scientists to make the surprising discovery that gene swapping takes place between your gut microbiome and the soil biome, as well as with microorganisms from other places in your daily surroundings.

As reported in the featured article, European researchers have discovered that children raised on organic farms have far lower incidence of allergy and asthma, compared to those raised on conventional, industrialized farms or in the suburbs. They refer to this as “the farm effect.”

“In one study, researchers cultured farm children’s mattresses and found a potpourri of bacteria—most of which are typically found in soil,” Dr. Miller writes.3 “How soil microbes and other farm microbes protect against allergic diseases is still a matter of debate, but research is increasingly pointing to a new idea which, for lack of a better term, I will call the “microbiome exchange hypothesis.”

This is a fascinating hypothesis, originating with French research that found an identical sequence of DNA in two different species of Bacteroidetes. One of these species of bacteria lives on seaweed. The other is part of the gut microbiome of Japanese people. The researchers concluded that the bacteria had “hitchhiked their way into the human gut via sushi and other seaweed dishes and passed their seaweed-digesting DNA on to resident microbes of the human host,” Dr. Miller writes.

What difference does it make, you may ask? Well, it appears that people raised in areas where seaweed is a dietary staple are given—via this DNA exchange from one bacteria to another—a greater ability to extract nutrients from this particular food, compared to someone who has never eaten it before. Understanding this deep connection with local food staples gives a whole new meaning to the value of eating foods that are native, local, and in season...

Why GMOs Can Worsen Your Health

One of the reasons why so many of us are concerned about genetically engineered crops is because a main characteristic of such plants is resistance to the potent herbicide glyphosate, which devastates the soil microbiome. Killing microorganisms is in fact one of glyphosate’s primary mechanisms of action, as it is patented as an antibiotic. Besides that, glyphosate is a potent chelator that sequesters valuable minerals, rendering them inaccessible and unusable for the plant.

It ties up minerals like manganese, zinc, and iron, which are essential for the plant’s immune system and growth. These minerals are also important for human health. Another problem, which applies to both genetically engineered (GE) and conventional hybridized plants, is that when a plant is altered it may lose its ability to emit the correct signals to warn its neighbors about impending attacks. Hence, they become more vulnerable to infestations.

On numerous occasions, I’ve stated that the differences between industrial farming and organic farming, using time-tested all-natural methods, are so vast that the foods produced by the former cannot be equated to the foods produced by the latter. Use of genetically engineered plants only deepens the many problems associated with conventional, chemical-heavy farming.

The environmental effects are also 180 degrees opposed, as industrial farming contributes to every form of environmental devastation, while organic farming methods restore the environment and invigorate and support the ecosystem—of which humans are an integral part, I might add. Many equate modern techniques with “progress,” when in fact most of our technological advancements are now threatening to destroy us right along with the planet as a whole.

Three Basic Principles of Biological Gardening

“Life” in essence boils down to microbiology—their presence in us and around us, and the benevolent symbiotic relationships that exist between us. If you support the microbiology in your gut, they will support your good health. The same principle applies to the soil in which your food is grown. Take care of it, and it will take care of you.

This is important information, as many nay-sayers will tell you that buying organic produce is a waste of money. From my perspective, understanding the impact soil quality has on the final product, and how chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in conventional farming decimate the microorganisms in the soil, makes for a very strong argument that organic or biologically farmed foods are indeed a healthier choice.

Below, I’ll list some helpful sources for finding such foods, but you may also want to consider growing your own. Homemade ferments are another excellent way to boost your nutrition and promote healthy gut flora—and if made with homegrown veggies, all the better! As Dr. Miller writes:4

“Eating fresh-grown food from healthy soil is not an all-or-nothing proposition, and even a daily handful of herbs from a container garden can have a positive impact on our health. Whether it is homegrown or from a local farm, I do mention to my patients that they should think twice before peeling or scrubbing their farm bounty. After all, who knows what beneficial bacteria might be coming along for the ride? By the way, eating fermented farm-fresh vegetables is a great way to get a mega-dose of soil bacteria.” [Emphasis mine]

Three basic principles of biological gardening that will make your soil hospitable for beneficial microorganisms, which in turn will allow plants to flourish, are the following. I’ve previously written about how to employ these principles in your own garden, so for more information, please review the related articles listed in the side bar.

Correct nutrient balance in the soil
Soil inoculation. This can be done by adding soil probiotics or basic fermentation products such as compost tea. This will generate and support the proliferation of beneficial bacteria much in the same way you can boost the probiotics in your fermented vegetables by using a starter culture
Proper food (fertilizer) for the microorganisms to consume and thrive. Note that it’s the microbiome that you need to feed, not the plant directly. The microbes in turn will then feed the proper nutrients to the plants grown in that soil.
Without these bioorganisms, your plants cannot get the nutrients they need. So what you need is not more chemical soil additives; what you need is the proper balance of beneficial soil organisms. Hence, the better you’re able to fertilize the microbes, the healthier your plants will be, and the fewer plant diseases, pest infestations, and weed problems you’ll have as well

Whet Your Appetite for Gardening by Growing Sprouts

While you can grow all manner of food, even in small spaces, one of the easiest and least expensive is sprouts. Best of all, sprouts can be grown year-round, regardless of weather, and contain up to 30 times the nutrition of organic vegetables grown in your own garden. They also allow your body to extract more vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and essential fats from the foods you eat, so in terms of growing nutrient-dense food for your family at minimal expense, they’re really hard to beat.

During sprouting, minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, bind to protein, making them more bioavailable. Furthermore, both the quality of the protein and the fiber content of beans, nuts, seeds, and grains improve when sprouted. The content of vitamins and essential fatty acids also increases dramatically during the sprouting process. Sunflower seed and pea sprouts tend to top the list of all the seeds that you can sprout and are typically each about 30 times more nutritious than organic vegetables.

Helpful Resources

“Thinking of a healthy body as an extension of a healthy farm, and vice versa, is a paradigm shift for many of us. But when we consider that all of our cells get their building blocks from plants and soil then, suddenly, it all makes sense. In fact, it is not too much of a stretch to say: We are soil,” Dr. Miller states.5

Indeed, the finding that your physical and mental health is rooted in microscopic organisms in the soil and in the foods you eat is thought-provoking, to say the least. On the upside, it tells us how to fix countless problems—from poor health to environmental issues that plague mankind across the globe. For all of these reasons, I cannot encourage you to support the small family farms in your local area strongly enough. They, and by extension you, are part of the solution. Here are some great resources to obtain wholesome food that supports not only you but also the environment:

Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
Farmers' Markets -- A national listing of farmers' markets.
Local Harvest -- This Web site will help you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals -- The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online outlets in the United States and Canada.
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture(CISA) -- CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting the products of small farms.
FoodRoutes -- The FoodRoutes “Find Good Food” map can help you connect with local farmers to find the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSA's, and markets near you.

[Hervé]

One wonders where that "Don't touch that! It's caca!" comes from? Starving MDs?

[Dawn]

Onawah Default Re: The gut of most disease... NOT what you think!
Excellent article from Dr. Sircus on the relationship between fungi (particularly Candida) and cancer here:
https://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox/14302fcb1431f033
He also discusses grains, which fungi love to feed on.

Quote New Cancer/Fungus Theory

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmhHyq_Fv3s

What Causes Cancer? - Doug Kaufmann On Know The Cause


Onawah, I am glad you posted this. I have gone beyond this thread since starting it. I do not think it goes deep enough into the causes of digestive illness and what is going on in our modern society. I have found more help from a website detailing out one man's health journey out of fungus based illness. This man, Dave Asprey, spent over $300,000 of his own money finding the cure for his illness. His wife is a doctor and his relationship to her probably helped to spur him onto victory over his life long illness. The in-depth information I've found by following the links on his blog has been the next level for me. I think I'm going to open a whole new thread on it.

In a nutshell... Dave realized that we all eat mold, fungus, and micotoxins with every meal! This did not used to be the case in the past. And... it is not hard to turn back the clock and eat in a way that does not follow these practices.

Here is his website link: www.thebulletproofexec.com

I have changed my diet to follow his information. It was easy and I have a great deal more energy and health. I enjoy following his recommendations... they are a lot of fun, and the meals are very tasty and satisfying.

[Dennis Leahy]

Dawn, I believe that website link should be: http://www.bulletproofexec.com/

Thanks!

I'm checking it out... :~)

Dennis

[778 neighbour of some guy]

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[778 neighbour of some guy]

Dave Asprey on The Bulletproof Diet at Smart Life Forum April 19, 2012

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[778 neighbour of some guy]

Ok the above post, I tried to make my own version of Bulletproof coffee and the stars aligned while shopping, for me usually a sign I am on to something, I broke my blender a few weeks ago, so I found a stick blender on discount for 16 euro's, next to it stood a French coffee press, same discount and same price, so 16 euro's for the hardware is pretty cheap, the good coffeeguy Simon Levelt was located on the other corner of the street and I bought some ( 250 grams) of central American ( Mexican), light roasted fresh sweet coffee< they gave it a course grind for me, 5.20 euro's ( for me that's expensive coffee), on the other corner is my local health food supermarket located Gooodyfoods and I bought 3 sticks of organic grass fed butter ( 3x2.65 =7.95), raw unprocessed coconutoil was in the cupboard already so that didn't cost me anything for this experiment, total cost for the experiment 29.15 euro's, thank god for Christmas bonuses. The required MCT oil wasn't available since the Sports nutrition dude was closed today and yesterday, so I used coconutoil.

Anywho, non of the products I used were the bulletproof version ( 100%) mold free, since I have to order the Bulletproof stuff from the internet, and I don't use paypal, and getting the stuff from the US to my doorstep in Holland would very likely have quadrupled the cost for me and I am no rich stinker.

But, I started my experiment anyhow since the coffee and grass fed butter and coconut oil at least were the best I could get whiling staying within my budget, so far I feel good, I used over a whole stick of butter 1.1/2 in my coffee and actually am not hungry yet, an inflamed tooth and gumline has already mysteriously cleared up within hours of drinking my version of the bulletproof and I have plenty of energy and am not jittery from the coffee so far ( coffeejitters apparently have nothing to do with coffee or caffeine but with the mold in cheap coffee that produces a toxic chemical reaction, jitters, this makes some sense to me since we are for a good part a biochemical organism), clearly my body understands something weird is happening now it suddenly has a mass of fat to burn without effort and is directing energy to cleaning me out, or it is just moldy coffee of course but I am trying my best to make something out of this, anyway the huge chunk of butter seems to relax me and energize me at the same time, but, I am not doing it good enough, that much I know, so for you interested parties, if you can afford it, try the real stuff, so far this isn't that bad, but the real stuff will prolly give you even better results.

[Hervé]

Yep... nutrition... definitely turned into a weapon:

A miracle in Wisconsin
Dec30 (http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/a-miracle-in-wisconsin/) by Jon Rappoport (http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/author/jonrappoport/)

A Miracle in Wisconsin
by Jon Rappoport, December 30, 2013
www.nomorefakenews.com (http://www.nomorefakenews.com/)

I published this article in October of 2002. At the time, it was the most widely read piece I’d written and posted on my site. Its basics still hold up.

What I didn’t mention at the time was the corrosive role school-food distributors and their allies on boards of education play in the health of children.

These are the people who operate a corrupt system and mandate the feeding of toxic and nutritionally empty junk to students across the country.

One school took another path:

Natural Ovens and the ‘Healthy Lunch Program’ Revolution
A MIRACLE IN WISCONSIN
by Jon Rappoport, Monday, October 14, 2002

A revolution has occurred in Appleton, Wisconsin. It’s taken place in the Central Alternative High School. The kids now behave. The hallways aren’t frantic. Even the teachers are happy.

The school used to be out of control. Kids packed weapons. Discipline problems swamped the principal’s office.

But not since 1997.

What happened? Did they line every inch of space with cops? Did they spray Valium gas in the classrooms? Did they install metal detectors in the bathrooms? Did they build holding cells in the gym?

Afraid not. In 1997, a private group called Natural Ovens began installing a healthy lunch program.

Fast-food burgers, fries, and burritos gave way to fresh salads, meats “prepared with old-fashioned recipes,” and whole grain bread. Fresh fruits were added to the menu. Good drinking water arrived.

Vending machines were removed.

As reported in a newsletter called Pure Facts, “Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching.”

Principal LuAnn Coenen, who files annual reports with the state of Wisconsin, has turned in some staggering figures since 1997. Drop-outs? Students expelled? Students discovered to be using drugs? Carrying weapons? Committing suicide? Every category has come up ZERO. Every year.

Mary Bruyette, a teacher, states, “I don’t have to deal with daily discipline issues. I don’t have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior I experienced before we started the food program.”

One student asserted, “Now that I can concentrate I think it’s easier to get along with people.” What a concept—eating healthier food increases concentration.

Principal Coenen sums it up: “I can’t buy the argument that it’s too costly for schools to provide good nutrition for their students. I found that one cost will reduce another. I don’t have the vandalism. I don’t have the litter. I don’t have the need for high security.”

At a nearby middle school, the new food program is catching on. A teacher there, Dennis Abram, reports, “I’ve taught here almost 30 years. I see the kids this year as calmer, easier to talk to. They just seem more rational. I had thought about retiring this year and basically I’ve decided to teach another year—I’m having too much fun!”

Pure Facts, the newsletter that ran this story, is published by a non-profit organization called The Feingold Association, which has existed since 1976. Part of its mission is to “generate public awareness of the potential role of foods and synthetic additives in behavior, learning and health problems. The [Feingold] program is based on a diet eliminating synthetic colors, synthetic flavors, and the preservatives BHA, BHT, and TBHQ.”

Thirty years ago there was a Dr. Feingold. His breakthrough work proved the connection between these negative factors in food and the lives of children. Hailed as a revolutionary advance, Feingold’s findings were soon trashed by the medical cartel, since those findings threatened the drugs-for-everything, disease-model concept of modern healthcare.

But Feingold’s followers have kept his work alive.

If what happened in Appleton, Wisconsin, takes hold in many other communities across America, perhaps the ravenous corporations who invade school space with their vending machines and junk food will be tossed out on their behinds. It could happen.

And perhaps ADHD will become a dinosaur. A non-disease that was once attributed to errant brain chemistry. And perhaps Ritalin will be seen as just another toxic chemical that was added to the bodies of kids in a crazed attempt to put a lid on behavior that, in part, was the result of a subversion of the food supply.

For those readers who ask me about solutions to the problems we face—here is a real solution. Help these groups. Get involved. Step into the fray. Stand up and be counted.

The drug companies aren’t going to do it. They’re busy estimating the size of their potential markets. They’re building their chemical pipelines into the minds and bodies of the young.

Every great revolution starts with a foothold. Sounds like Natural Ovens and The Feingold Association have made strong cuts into the big rock of ignorance and greed.

First published 10-14-2002.
Jon Rappoport

[onawah]

Fermenting Foods—One of the Easiest and Most Creative Aspects of Making Food from Scratch
December 29, 2013
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/29/sandor-katz-on-fermented-foods.aspx?e_cid=20131229Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20131229Z1&et_cid=DM37923&et_rid=382183370
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By Dr. Mercola

Ninety percent of the genetic material in your body is not yours but belongs to the bacteria that outnumber your cells 10 to 1. These bacteria have enormous influence on your digestion, detoxification and immune system.

Sandor Katz is a self-described “fermentation revivalist,” and has published two books on this topic, along with a third on the underground food movement. He’s a native of New York and a graduate of Brown University. Sandor currently lives in Tennessee, where he pursues his interest by presenting workshops around the world on fermentation.

Fermented food is something I too have become quite passionate about, and I firmly believe it’s an absolutely essential factor if you want to optimize your health and prevent disease. The culturing process produces beneficial microbes that are extremely important for human health as they help balance your intestinal flora, thereby boosting overall immunity.

Moreover, your gut literally serves as your second brain, and even produces more of the neurotransmitter serotonin—known to have a beneficial influence on your mood—than your brain does, so maintaining a healthy gut will benefit your mind as well as your body.

Fermented foods are also some of the best chelators and detox agents available, meaning they can help rid your body of a wide variety of toxins, including heavy metals.

“It wasn’t until I was in my 20s... that I first began to learn about and observe some of the digestive benefits of eating live culture fermented foods,” Sandor says.

“It was another decade after that when I left New York City, moved to rural Tennessee, and got involved in keeping a garden that I first had a reason to investigate the practice of fermentation. All of the cabbages were ready at the same time, and I thought I should learn how to make sauerkraut. I did a little bit of research in cookbooks and started making sauerkraut. Thus began my investigations into fermentation about 18 years ago.”

Starter Cultures versus Wild Ferment

When fermenting vegetables, you can either use a starter culture, or simply allow the natural enzymes in the vegetables do all the work. This is called “wild fermentation.” Personally, I prefer a starter culture as it provides a larger number of different species and the culture can be optimized with species that produce high levels of vitamin K2, which research is finding is likely every bit as important as vitamin D.

For this past year, we’ve been making two to three gallons of fermented vegetables every week in our Chicago office for the staff, which they can enjoy with the lunch we provide as an employee benefit.

We use a starter culture of the same probiotic strains that we sell as a supplement, which has been researched by our team to produce about 10 times the amount of vitamin K2 as any other starter culture... When we had the vegetables tested, we found that in a four- to six-ounce serving there were literally 10 trillion beneficial bacteria, or about 100 times the amount of bacteria in a bottle of high potency probiotics.

There are about 100 trillion bacteria in your gut, so a single serving can literally “reseed” 10 percent of the bacterial population of the average person’s gut! To me that’s extraordinary, and a profoundly powerful reason to consider adding fermented vegetables as a staple to your diet.

You don’t have to use a starter culture however. Wild fermentation is fermentation based on microorganisms that are naturally present in the food you’re fermenting. It’s just as simple as using a starter culture, but it will take a little longer for it to ferment.

“It’s very predictable when you salt and submerge vegetables [in their natural juices or brine]. The bacteria that will initiate at fermentation are always Leuconostoc mesenteroides. Then it’s a successive process whereby, as the pH changes and as the environment changes, different strains of bacteria come into dominance...” Sandor explains.

“Typically, in a mature sauerkraut, the late-stage bacterium that’s dominant is Lactobacillus plantarum. It’s a very predictable succession, what happens with raw vegetables, [but] the specific strains will always be somewhat different depending on the vegetables you’re using and the environment that you’re doing it in.”

To Salt or Not to Salt?

Whether or not to use salt also largely comes down to personal preference. While it’s not a necessity, Sandor does provide some compelling reasons for adding a small amount of natural, unprocessed salt—such as Himalayan salt—to your vegetables. For example, salt:

Strengthens the ferment’s ability to eliminate any potential pathogenic bacteria present
Adds to the flavor
Acts as a natural preservative, which may be necessary if you’re making large batches that need to last for a larger portion of the year
Slows the enzymatic digestion of the vegetables, leaving them crunchier
Inhibits surface molds
Again, natural unrefined salts are ideal as they contain a broad spectrum of minerals, and the fermentation process makes the minerals more bioavailable—a win-win situation!

“Just now, I’m getting near the bottom of a 55-gallon barrel of sauerkraut that I made last November mostly out of radishes. That would not be possible without the addition of salt,” Sandor says. “You can make sauerkraut, and then you can ferment for several weeks in a cool environment. Maybe you could get to several months. But what would happen eventually to a salt-free kraut is that enzymes in the vegetable would basically digest the fiber of the vegetables. It would just turn into a mush, which is not at all appealing to me.”

What Type of Container Should You Use?

There’s no need to over-think or spend large amounts of money on containers. The material they’re made of is important however. You do NOT want to use plastic or metal. Plastics are loaded with chemicals you don’t want leaching into your food, such as bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthlalates. Metal is also inadvisable as salts can corrode the metal. Even if you don’t add salt, most vegetables have some natural salts in them. Good options include:

Glass jars (wide-mouthed Mason jars are ideal, so that you can get your whole hand in there to press down the vegetables)
Ceramic crocks
Wooden barrels
I completely agree with Sandor’s sound general advice here:

“My main message that I would encourage your viewers and listeners to remember is you don’t need to buy anything special. You need a head of cabbage or a couple of pounds of vegetables, and beyond that everything you need is already in your kitchen. Whatever tools or devices you typically use to chop or shred vegetables, you can use that. Add some salt, mix it around, squeeze it with your hands for a couple of minutes, and stuff it into a jar.

Beyond that, you could use any kind of shredding device you like: a mandoline, a food processor, a continuous feed food processor, or a specialized cabbage-chopping device. You could buy beautiful elegantly designed crocks. But you have everything that you need to get started in your kitchen. Don’t let the beautiful crock that you don’t have yet be the reason why you don’t start doing this.

I think it’s really important to recognize that you don’t need anything special to start a fermentation practice. You might decide you want to play with starter cultures, but you don’t need starter cultures to get started. You might decide that you want to invest in a crock, but you don’t need a crock to get started.

If you take two pounds of vegetables, you can stuff a quart-sized jar with those. Just chop them up. Shred them. They can be extremely fine, or they can be coarse and chunky. It doesn’t matter. Lightly salt them to taste or else weigh them and measure out 1.5 percent salt. I prefer to salt them lightly to taste.”

Two Helpful Tips...

As Sandor explains, an important step in the process is to squeeze the vegetables before packing them into the jar. You don’t need any fancy tools for this; just use your hands. “Bruising” the vegetables in this way allows the cell walls to break down and release their juices. Capture the juice in the jar you’re going to ferment your vegetables in. Then stuff as many veggies into the jar that will fit. You want to stuff them in as tightly as possible, forcing out any air pockets that might ruin the batch. The brine should cover the vegetables.

Sandor then simply covers the jar with the lid and leaves it on the kitchen counter. A helpful tip I learned from Caroline Barringer is to top off the jar with a cabbage leaf, tucking it down the sides. Again, make sure the veggies are completely covered with the natural brine you squeezed out of the vegetables (or add a small amount of celery juice), and that the juice is all the way to the top of the jar to eliminate trapped air.

To speed up the fermentation, store the jars in a warm, slightly moist place for 24 to 96 hours, depending on the food being cultured. Ideal temperature range is 68-75 degrees Fahrenheit; 85 degrees max. You don’t want it too hot, as heat will kill the beneficial microbes. Don’t tuck them away in a dark closet and forget about them, though! As Sandor explains:

“The reason why you don’t want to just put it in the closet and forget about it is that it’s going to produce pressures, especially in the first couple of days. You want to relieve that pressure by opening the jar for a second. In that way, you don’t get a huge accumulation of pressure and risk the possibility of the jar exploding – or what’s more likely to happen, if you’re using a canning jar, where the glass is thick and the lid is thin, it will just contort the top. But it’s best to consciously release the pressure.”

The second tip is to smell and taste your ferment regularly. There’s really no objective moment when the fermentation is ready, so go ahead and taste it at frequent intervals, starting after about 48 hours. Then keep on tasting it every few days or a couple of times a week as it matures. It typically takes about a week for the optimal amount of fermentation to occur. Resist the temptation to eat out of the jar, however, as this can introduce undesirable organisms from your mouth into the jar. Instead, always use a clean spoon to take out what you're going to eat, then, making sure the remaining veggies are covered with the brine solution, recap the jar.

When the flavor is to your personal liking, transfer the jars into the refrigerator to dramatically slow the progression of the fermentation. Keep in mind, the vegetables will tend to get increasingly sour as time goes on, but according to Sandor, you could let the vegetables ferment for weeks and even months without worrying about them spoiling—after all, that’s what the fermentation process does: It preserves food without refrigeration.

Some additional info on how to ferment vegetables can be found here.

On Allowing Your Creative Juices to Flow

There is no food that cannot be fermented. As Katz states in a recent NPR article1, bread, coffee, pickles, beer, cheese, yogurt and soy sauce are all examples of foods that have been fermented at some point during their production process. That said, not every vegetable will produce equally delicious results, and not every food is as easily fermented as vegetables, but your imagination is really the only limit when it comes to what you can concoct.

“If you ferment summer squash, which are very watery, they will tend to get soft and mushy much faster than any other kind of vegetable would,” Sandor says. .. You can certainly ferment kale and other dark green vegetables, but the high levels of chlorophyll in these vegetables produce a really strong flavor in fermentation. I prefer to use dark green vegetables as a minor ingredient rather than as the primary ingredient. Then I feel like that strong flavor can become a nice accent.

But if it’s pure dark green vegetables, that flavor’s a little bit too strong for me, although I have heard from other people who really, really love it. In a way you can only learn what you like by experimenting.

My biggest batch every year has been from radishes. I have a farmer friend who uses daikon radishes as a cover crop over acres and acres of his land. He invites me to pick a truckload full of daikon radishes. And I augment that with some cabbages, some chili peppers and garlic, and make a 55-gallon barrel full every year... Then you can also ferment whole vegetables. The difference with whole vegetables is that you can’t pull the water out of them, so you need to mix up a brine – salty water – and ferment them in the salty water.

... I met a woman whose grandmother was from a town in Poland, where they used mashed potatoes in their sauerkraut. And I love making mashed potatoes sauerkrauts. What I do is I steam potatoes, I mash them up, cool them to body temperature, and then I layer the mash potatoes in with my salted cabbage. That makes a beautiful sauerkraut. You can really be experimental and go wild. You can add things other than vegetables.

... In German tradition, juniper berries are often used. I’ve been tasting wildly experimental krauts with curry seasonings and things like that. Really, the only limitation is our imagination, once we understand the underlying principles of getting the vegetables submerged.”

A Word of Caution Regarding Meat Fermentation

As just mentioned, while virtually any food can be fermented, and the fermentation process automatically renders the food exceptionally safe since the probiotics produced kill any pathogens present, a disclaimer regarding fermenting meats is worth taking note of.

“Fermenting vegetables is an intrinsically safe practice. In the United States, according to the USDA, there’s never been a single case of food poisoning reported from fermented vegetables. There is no danger. The food itself is a strategy for protection. Fermented vegetables are safer than raw vegetables,” Sandor says. “With meat, I can’t say this. The word “botulism,” which is the most feared food poisoning form of all, comes from the Latin word “botulist” or sausage. Until the advent of canning, which was in the 19th century, it was from fermented sausages that people knew about the rare food poisoning disease of botulism.

There’s a little bit more of a learning curve. Another limitation with fermentation of meat for preservation process is the acids, which are what enable certain fermented foods to preserve so well. Acids are produced from carbohydrates, and meat fundamentally lacks carbohydrates. There’s a tiny bit of glycogen, but not enough to support a significant fermentation and formation of lactic acid. Typically, when salami is produced, the meat and the fat are minced or ground. And then they’re mixed with a tiny bit of sugar. The sugar is really what is fermented by the lactic acid bacteria and creates the acidic environment that is able to preserve the meat.

It’s not through acidification alone that the meat is preserved. It’s a combination of acidification, drying (the meat is partially dried), and salting (the meat is always salted). Any one of these mediums could preserve the meat, either making it very, very dry as in something like jerky, making it very, very salty as in a food like prosciutto, or very highly acidic.”

More Information

To learn more, pick up one of Sandor’s books, The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from Around the World, or Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods.

You can also find more information on his website at WildFermentation.com.

[Dawn]

Have you ever thought you found an answer... only to realize some time later that the info was not complete?

I find myself looking back on this thread with some sorrow.

You see, I MUST try to correct the harm I have done here before more people are injured by following it.

I just started a new thread here that is actually much more advanced in information than this thread... please go look at it! http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?67192-Moldy-Modern-diet-and-Biohacking-your-body&p=781516#post781516

Why is this important? Well, if you are eating kefir and making fermented vegetables then it is highly likely you are also consuming a lot of living mold. These can take up residence in your body, causing a lot of inflammation... and down the line they may also cause cancer.

It turns out that many of the 'good' bacteria in cultured foods are actually inflammatory.

Here is a link to information that can start you in the right direction: http://www.bulletproofexec.com/why-yogurt-and-probiotics-make-you-fat-and-foggy/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmhHyq_Fv3s

[Molly]

I would love to try fermenting some veggies this summer when the garden is going! Thanks for all the info & especially the links & vids :)

Especially the sauerkraut one.. maaaaaaan I could eat like 10 pounds of that in one day lol. I'd love to just make it myself.

[Conchis]

I'm not sure this post belongs here, and if not, please delete or move. I saw this floating around out there and thought it was pertinent to the discussion here. Sometimes we lose sight of the simple stuff, we all need to be eating organic at least. I found this little video, made by a little girl to be a great reminder of that fact.

exBEFCiWyW0

[Dawn]

Molly: I would love to try fermenting some veggies this summer when the garden is going! Thanks for all the info & especially the links & vids

Especially the sauerkraut one.. maaaaaaan I could eat like 10 pounds of that in one day lol. I'd love to just make it myself.

I know! This thread is enticing! BUT WAIT!!!!

MY LATEST INFORMATION IS THAT YOU MAY BE POISONING YOUR BODY IF YOU DO THIS!!!! Please, OH (!) PLEASE! Take a look at my latest thread. And... please don't do this to yourself.

Here is the link to this important information: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?67192-Moldy-Modern-diet-and-Biohacking-your-body&p=781516#post781516

[wegge]

you made many people here fermenting maniacs and it really was fun but somehow I didn´t relate well to my Kefir the last few months and even threw him away 2-3 weeks ago, now with your new information I get a different view :)

still in love with my kombucha!

[chocolate]

Quote:
'What Is Lacto-fermentation?


Historically, fermented foods have played an important role in the diets of most every society throughout the world. But beyond just the culinary choices and preservation advantages of fermented foods is the natural phenomenon of fermentation performed by the cells within our bodies that helps to keep us healthy. With fermentation becoming quite popular in modern culture, it is good to understand some of the basic science regarding fermentation and lacto-fermentation in particular.

Lactic Bacteria

Most people think about beer or wine when they hear the term fermentation. While certain yeasts are used to convert the sugars in grape juice or grains into alcohol, it is bacteria that are responsible for lacto-fermentation. The “lacto” portion of the term refers to a specific species of bacteria, namely Lactobacillus. Various strains of these bacteria are present on the surface of all plants, especially those growing close to the ground, and are also common to the gastrointestinal tracts, mouths, and vaginas of humans and other animal species. Many of us may be familiar with Lactobacillus acidophilus, the acid-loving bacterium commonly included in the process of making yogurt, but there are many others.

Lactobacillus bacteria have the ability to convert sugars into lactic acid through a naturally occurring fermentation process. The Lactobacillus strain is so named because it can readily use lactose, the sugar in milk, and convert it quickly and easily to lactic acid. So lacto-fermentation does not necessarily need to involve dairy products.

Lactic Acid

Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits the growth of harmful, or putrefying, bacteria. This phenomenon allowed people to preserve foods for extended periods of time before the advent of refrigeration or canning. Lactic acid also promotes the growth of healthy bacteria in the intestinal tract. That is why lacto-fermented foods are considered probiotic foods. (Probiotic means “for life”.).

Beyond preservation advantages, lacto-fermentation also increases the vitamin and enzyme levels, as well as digestibility, of the fermented food. In addition, lactobacillus organisms produce antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances that may contribute to good health. That is yet another reason to have an abundant amount of lactobacilli residing in our intestinal tracts.

Fermented Foods

The diets of every traditional society have included some kind of lacto-fermented food. In Europe they have been primarily dairy, sauerkraut, grape leaves, herbs, and root vegetables. The Alaskan Inuit ferment fish and sea mammals. The Orient is known for pickled vegetables and kimchi in particular.

Pickles and relishes are a part of the American food tradition. But the kind of pickles and sauerkraut that can be purchased in most grocery stores today are not at all the same products our ancestors knew. Since the advent of industrialization, most pickling is done with vinegar, which offers more predictable results, but no lactic acid. However, with just a little patience, instruction, and minimal supplies, it is possible to learn the time-honored art of lacto-fermentation.

How It Works

Lacto-fermentation really is more art than science. The science part is simple: lactobacillus (from a prepared culture, fresh whey, or just naturally occurring) plus sugar (naturally present in vegetables and fruits), plus a little salt, minus oxygen (anaerobic process), plus time, equal lactic acid fermentation. The length of fermentation can vary from a few hours to two months or more. The temperature of the room where fermentation occurs will determine the length of time. The ideal temperature is around 72°F, but warmer or cooler temperature will still work. (Some strains of bacteria require specific temperature ranges.) The length of time is dependent more on the flavor you prefer than anything else and since the flavor level of lacto-fermented vegetables increases with time you will want to sample often until you are experienced enough to know what works for your tastes. Just keep in mind that you don’t want to introduce a lot of oxygen to the fermentation process as this increases the chance of spoilage. Lacto-fermentation is generally done in an airtight container or a crock with a water seal that prevents air from contaminating the culture. If you have a reliable recipe to follow, you can make minor adjustments as you see fit.

The important thing is not to be intimidated by lacto-fermentation. You are not going to make your family sick by giving them home-fermented foods. Unless it smells unmistakably putrid (in which case common sense says throw it away), fermented foods are some of the safest foods you can eat. They are easy for even a beginner to prepare and it doesn’t take long to gain enough confidence to venture beyond basic yogurt or sauerkraut to an endless variety of vegetable and/or fruit combinations." end of quote

Sourse: http://www.culturesforhealth.com/what-lacto-fermentation/

[conk]

Molly: I would love to try fermenting some veggies this summer when the garden is going! Thanks for all the info & especially the links & vids

Especially the sauerkraut one.. maaaaaaan I could eat like 10 pounds of that in one day lol. I'd love to just make it myself.

I know! This thread is enticing! BUT WAIT!!!!

MY LATEST INFORMATION IS THAT YOU MAY BE POISONING YOUR BODY IF YOU DO THIS!!!! Please, OH (!) PLEASE! Take a look at my latest thread. And... please don't do this to yourself.

Here is the link to this important information: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?67192-Moldy-Modern-diet-and-Biohacking-your-body&p=781516#post781516

Dawn, I don't think you intend to downplay the importance of gut bacteria, but to simply chose wisely. Chose foods for fermenting that are not suspected of harboring mold, is that correct?

Two or three years ago a holistic practitioner tested me with an electronic device that detects and measures known and cataloged frequencies. She detected the frequency of mold in my body. She likely did not go far enough after concluding my mold came from my love of peanut butter and peanuts in general. With your new information it may be that the mold present was from mulitple sources.

Dang it, the Bulletproof coffee is SOLD OUT. Will keep visiting and perhaps get an email alert when stocks are replenished.

Great new information for us. Very appreciative!

[chocolate]

I never had any problem accepting ideas when they are based on mutual and hopefully full spectrum understanding. But if anyone really needs to know about someone's new brand of coffee or ideology, it is fine by me.

Have you ever thought about the amount of microorganism that invade you body by drinking water (poor quality right now everywhere), breathing air (also quite not the same as before), kissing someone, having sex, giving birth, etc? If you have, I am sure most of us have, than maybe you have heard that the body have its ways of dealing with the problems. Once you understand those ways than no amount of current trends can catch you off guard. With the acidic level in some parts of your body together with the help of your saliva, stomach acid and other bodily fluids, most mold and other pathogens don't have a chance. But that is when you take proper care of your food in general.

Fermented foods are safe.
Not sure how I feel about the new coffee and the bulletproof ideology, though.
I will check it out, may be a bit later.

My current coffee comes in small batches in an air sealed package (vacuum, meaning no air). The microtoxins that have been in the coffee while growing are partially gone by the time it is roasted. I think I will take my chance with what is left inside.

Information is important when it goes together with understanding.
I have been making yogurt, kombucha, kefir, lacto fermented vegetables, sourdough and bread with it for quite some time. Making wine and other alcohol is a trademark of my father's family. Grandfather was a beekeeper.

I guess there are a few things that I can still learn while being around, but mostly I run with what I have right now.

[Dawn]

conk: Dawn, I don't think you intend to downplay the importance of gut bacteria, but to simply chose wisely. Chose foods for fermenting that are not suspected of harboring mold, is that correct?

Two or three years ago a holistic practitioner tested me with an electronic device that detects and measures known and cataloged frequencies. She detected the frequency of mold in my body. She likely did not go far enough after concluding my mold came from my love of peanut butter and peanuts in general. With your new information it may be that the mold present was from mulitple sources.

Dang it, the Bulletproof coffee is SOLD OUT. Will keep visiting and perhaps get an email alert when stocks are replenished.



Chocolate: I never had any problem accepting ideas when they are based on mutual and hopefully full spectrum understanding. But if anyone really needs to know about someone's new brand of coffee or ideology, it is fine by me.

Have you ever thought about the amount of microorganism that invade you body by drinking water (poor quality right now everywhere), breathing air (also quite not the same as before), kissing someone, having sex, giving birth, etc? If you have, I am sure most of us have, than maybe you have heard that the body have its ways of dealing with the problems. Once you understand those ways than no amount of current trends can catch you off guard. With the acidic level in some parts of your body together with the help of your saliva, stomach acid and other bodily fluids, most mold and other pathogens don't have a chance. But that is when you take proper care of your food in general.

Fermented foods are safe.

I want to make it very clear here that I am not touting a brand of coffee! If you think that is what I am doing then you are missing the point completely... and your ignorance could cause you real issues down the line.

I realize that humans have eaten fermented foods during their long history. I also realize that this entire thread is based on how wonderful this is and how health protective it is. Please notice that human bodies are still dying, in the modern world, before age 100. Are you aware that this is not normal in many parts of the planet? Human bodies should live to at least 150- 1,000years of age... and they do this all the time.... so .... we must be doing something incorrectly which we could improve.

the BulletProof information has been given to us all for free. It is not necessary to drink the coffee (which always shows as 'SOLD OUT' on INTERNET EXPLORER FOR SOME REASON! Try a different browser and you will find you can order it without a problem). The coffee enhances the effect of the MCT oil and grass fed butter. High quality green tea that is not moldy would also be a wonderful choice and is discussed on BulletProof. There are good reasons for trying to find mold-free coffee for brain support. These reasons are carefully detailed on Bulletproofexec.com

Chocolate, the mold in the coffee mostly comes from the way it is processed. If you can find arabica beans which have been wet processed they might be micotoxin free. Trader Joes actually carries 'Ethiopian Coffee' which seems OK to my body. In 'wet processing' the coffee fruit is removed from the inner bean right away so that it does not dry in place over the coffee bean as molds attack it. Roasting does not remove the micotoxins. If you research micotoxins on the internet you will find a lot of info

Also... this is not a fear campaign about molds. I agree that we kiss, touch door knobs, breath the air, and generally live on a planet filled with opportunistic organisms who would love to eat our cells. The problem is that so many of us have eaten GMO foods with strange DNA, eaten some factory fresh foods, taken antibiotics, and been immunized. All of this has weakened our biome (inner garden of friendly flora and fauna). Many of us are just not in tip top health. Current agricultural practices have damage the soil biome which means that our top soil is extremely depleted and our food crops are not healthy. Our bodies are under an onslaught of inflammation causing moldy foods, EMFs, toxins, etc.

One of the reasons that we are having such a difficult time might be that the GMO foods swap genes with our biome and our cells. GMO food designed to kill insects who eat it also kill our friendly gut bacteria. In addition gene swapping between fungus and bacteria is well known. This is behind the current aggressive molds and fungus which have created brand new disease. And it is likely behind the extreme rise in cancer.

We are foolish to live in fear of this and try to be aseptic. Instead it is wise to support the health of our bodies by choosing not to eat mold filled food with every meal. Eating organic food is a good idea too as these have been grown on soil with a healthy and balanced micro biome.

Choosing to eat moldy fermented foods is not wise. I remember when I made kimchee and published the results in this thread. The recipe called for me to taste it after 3 days... which I unfortunately did. It tasted and smelled like rotted food (UCH!!!!!).... then a week later it tasted like delicious kimchee. Fermented foods rely on acidophilus to create acetic acid which kills competing fungus and mold.... but the mycotoxins these organisms made are still in the fermented food.

You eat fermented foods... you are eating mold mycotoxins.

Your choice. Now you know

[chocolate]

Dawn, I don't think you are touting that brand of coffee. It was an expression, mistake on my part for not expressing that idea differently.
I know from your posts you are also searching for information, not advocating for personal gain.

What is bothering me is that we seem to go from one end of the balance to the other, while there has been valuable information and already discovered paths, that is all.
I am sensitive to all kinds of new ideology that just takes parts of already exiting ones and spins it around for someone's benefit, not necessarily for our common benefit.
It is true one needs to be aware and careful while choosing food, clothes, utensils, etc. So that part I understand.

We are not in a very good health mostly because of modern medicine, industry waste, some vaccinations, partially because of GMOs. But we are not as weak as it sounds. Fasting, old traditional health care and remedies, good activity, proper state of mind and education, those are powerful tools still. After few more years if nothing changes we will reach the point of no return, but [I hope] we are still in for a change.

I still think eating fermented food isn't as dangerous as it sounds based on what you have written. I will reread it carefully once more, right now my eyes are a bit tired and my mind is occupied by other thoughts.

[Dawn]

Chocolate: I still think eating fermented food isn't as dangerous as it sounds based on what you have written. I will reread it carefully once more, right now my eyes are a bit tired and my mind is occupied by other thoughts.

Chocolate, I don’t know you or your circumstances. This is the difficulty of attempting communication through writing to each other on the internet. However, the symptoms of tired eyes and occupied mind are EXACTLY what the Bulletproof diet addresses. I just don’t have those symptoms anymore on this diet!

I am posting a duplicate of post I put in my new thread because it is so important to correcting mis information presented on this thread in ignorance by myself and others. Avalon discourages duplicate threads, however this is SO important that I think it is useful:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Why Yogurt and Probiotics Make You Fat and Foggy

http://www.bulletproofexec.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/yogurt-300x200.png

A terrific article that is worth studying
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/why-yogurt-and-probiotics-make-you-fat-and-foggy/

Here is a synopsis:
Our gut biome has changed due to modern farming and factory fresh foods

Eating organic means that the soil your food was grown on is alive with many good organisms

Disturbance in our gut boime is adding to a recent rise in histamine intolerance. This leads to things like:
** inflammation
*****hives
********skin irritation
***********throat tightening
**************increased heart rate
*****************nasal congestion
*******************migraines
*********************fatigue
************************heartburn
****************************reflux
******************************weight gain

Histamine intolerance is cumulative and not always immediate

Different types of bacteria and probiotics also play a part in histamine regulation. Some probiotics are necessary for proper gut function (where histamine lowering enzymes DAO form), but some strains actually raise histamine levels. The different strains of studied probiotics are categorized as (1) histamine producing bacteria, (2) neutral bacteria, or (3) histamine degrading bacteria.7-1

1. Histamine producing bacteria: Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus reuteri, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus (Found in most yogurts and fermented foods).

2. Neutral bacteria: Streptococcus thermophiles (also in yogurt) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (shown to down regulate histamine receptors and up-regulate anti-inflammatory agents)

3. Histamine degrading bacteria: Bifidobacterium infantis (found in breast milk), Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus plantarum, and some soil-based organisms.

Some of these bacteria form histamine when they break down protein in foods, even vegetables, whether the food is in your gut or fermenting in your kitchen. Now you know why I’m skeptical about throwing a bunch of cabbage into a bucket to let it ferment. You just don’t know what you’re getting.

In this article there is a sobering story about taking a pre-biotic with ‘The Pearl’ (this is a high quality probiotic touted as one of the best ones you can buy). Dave experienced bloating within 30 minutes and gained 8 pounds within 14 hours. It took him a full week to loose those 8 pounds. Why? The probiotic organisms in ‘the Pearl’ produce histamine....

Even ONE course of antibiotics can wreak havoc on your biome population, ruining your health forever ... unless you take positive steps to correct the situation.

I spent a lot of time researching what probiotics contain histamine DEGRADING bacteria so that I can add them to my current health regime. I hope you do the same.

[conk]

I am extremely grateful for this info Dawn. How do we repopulate our gut bacteria if not by fermented foods? Supplements are weak alternatives. What if someone's bacterial colony was decimated by antibiotics. How do they restore balance? Must it be through soil microbes from plants that arer grown optimally?

[Dawn]

Conc: I am extremely grateful for this info Dawn. How do we repopulate our gut bacteria if not by fermented foods? Supplements are weak alternatives. What if someone's bacterial colony was decimated by antibiotics. How do they restore balance? Must it be through soil microbes from plants that arer grown optimally?

I think a big part of the answer comes from how we eat. It is critically important NOT to eat ANY grains or seeds. It is equally important NOT to eat many other foods which contain natural poisons, called lectins. I have tried to do this over and over... failing each time over a period of months as cravings kicked in. The Bulletproof diet I am currently on is probably the best chance I have ever found of remaining on such a diet without effort. This is because the special mold-free coffee that begins the day actually binds to the same opioid receptors which cause us to crave wheat. This means that our addiction to bread can be released in a painless way, without any cravings at all. Not only that, but it turns out the mold free coffee is a very powerful health food.

Taking commercial strains of histamine reducing bacteria works if you also do NOT feed the bad bacteria at the same time. So, if your diet is devoid of sugar, devoid of anti-nutrients, and low in starches.. then you feed the healthy bacteria and the others begin to die out.... But wait! You must stop eating foods containing 'bad' histamine forming bacteria all the time (kefir and fermented foods). There are some pretty good products out there that contain only inflammation reducing bacteria. I spent some time researching them online and found a number of them.

I have to say that I consider myself still in transition Conk, but I am MUCH healthier than when I started on this lifestyle 6 weeks ago.

If anyone on this thread feels bloated after eating kefir... then please don't have any more. I was fooled into thinking this was a Herxheimer reaction, but I now understand it was my reaction to the histamine produced by the kefir organisms. Unfortunately I continued to eat it for a long time after I noted this reaction and I became more sensitive to histamine....

[onawah]

So are you including homemade kefir using kefir grains and raw organic milk or raw coconut milk, Dawn?
How do you know which bacteria are in homemade fermented foods?

I think a lot of the problem traces back to soil.
If the soil is good, the seeds aren't GMOs or hybrid beyond recognition, they will be healthy.
And of course, only non-commercial soils these days are any good, such as organic farmers are using.

Sprouting seeds and grains changes their nutritional value greatly, and I think some of them are still safe.
Dawn, I don't know if 6 weeks is really long enough to know if this new diet is going to work for you on a long term basis.
So much of this new information is in contradiction to what has been known to work in communities of very long-lived peoples, especially re fermented foods.
But I agree that much has changed on the planet recently in the way we produce food, so I am keeping an open mind.



[QUOTE]You must stop eating foods containing 'bad' histamine forming bacteria all the time (kefir and fermented foods).

[Dawn]

Onawah, I'd suggest that you go to www.BulletproofExec.com and begin to look at the information in detail. I know that you have some health challenges, and you just might find your answers here. We are not the people of history. I am a person who was on antibiotics about 60% of the time for a 20 year period until I became allergic to every single one of them. Antibiotics are actually made from the micotoxins of mold. So I have had to find my way towards health and it has been somewhat of a continuing struggle. It is said that anyone who has been on these has a problem.


How do you know which bacteria are in homemade fermented foods?

I think a lot of the problem traces back to soil.
If the soil is good, the seeds aren't GMOs or hybrid beyond recognition, they will be healthy.
And of course, only non-commercial soils these days are any good, such as organic farmers are using.

Sprouting seeds and grains changes their nutritional value greatly, and I think some of them are still safe.

From what I now know I'd give the following answers to you:
1. I think your are absolutely correct about the soil. This is going to be a continuing issue for mankind as we are all victims of corporate farming

2. Your question... how do we know what is in home fremented food.... nails the problem exactly. Even though home fermenting ends up with a product where the lactic acid fermenting bacteria are the 'winners' and are prevelant in the food... this does not mean that molds and fungus did not grow in the batch at some point and have left the food filled with spores and micotoxins. Don't eat home fermented foods.

3. Sprouted seeds are filled with lectins in most cases. These are poisons the plants make to defend themselves and are very inflammatory except in certain plants. Just spend your time educating yourself on which are not good for you. The best foods are the anti-inflammatory vegetables. There are vegetables that have pre-biotic fibre and anti estrogen compounds which reduce inflammation.

4. I have been on this diet for 7 weeks now (I've been tracking my IQ for the past 3.5 weeks now)... I agree... I will know more as time progresses. I have read so many posts by others on the diet who are using the Bulletproof forum. For me, I was having chronic diarrhea that was quite severe and this ended abruptly the day I changed to the new way of eating. There is something called 'refeed days' within the diet where you eat nearly 0 protein and a starchy dinner. On these days I suffer from bloating in my digestive tract... I attribute this to the inner biota I've grown during my 2 years on kefir and sauerkraut. I think I have a gut full of histamine producing bacteria and yeast. Currently I have a 2 pronged approach to changing this... (1) I am starving them out through this diet which is very clean and low starch (2) I am taking antihistamine probiotics containing inflammation reducing strains of bacteria.. I will let you know what is happening.

[meat suit]

Dawn,
I suggest you add a comment to your opening post on this thread, making new readers aware of your change of mind as early as possible....

[chocolate]

The information provided here is much appreciated, Dawn.

In my opinion we are different, we live in different parts of the world with different conditions (soil or otherwise) and needs.

My eyes and brain suffer because I work on a computer 16 hours a day, making drawings and the results are inevitable.

There was a point when I thought I should stop eating yogurt. I did stop for a while, although that is one thing I loved dearly. It turned out later after going back to yogurt, that yogurt and kefir work great with my chemistry. I am not tracking my IQ [i never understood how to even test my IQ], so I cannot prove what difference my food has on my brains. :)
Still, I think of my body as a strong and wise machinery with better life response than my logical mind, so if I really feel the need to eat something, I eat it.

Wherever there is a discussion about gluten intolerance and grain provoked-related conditions, I discovered the opinion that it is not so much the grain itself with the components that block absorption of other nutrients in the body, as much as it is the mineral homeostasis and specifics of the body. One way to deal with the problem is to soak the grains in water with added little bit of lemon juice or whey. Making sprouting grains also deals with some of the later problems. But as I said, it is a matter of choice, need and availability.
I live in an area (Bulgaria) where making yogurt and kefir happens on its own almost, and I love eating the products. It is that simple for me. If my IQ drops from time to time I will compensate with more gardening than decision making ( I am trying to make a joke :) ).

I am not with a medical [or nutritional science] background, but I have discovered that listening to what my body tells me works for me. When I decide to be hard-headed about it, not listening to what it tells me and going against the signals, I suffer. But I see life differently, much less concentrated on the material/physical part of it, and I think that a bit of a kink in the road is sometimes not so bad.

The conversation is much appreciated and I loved your in depth information!

Off topic---> I sincerely and deeply hope that you will continue on your path and feel better every day. I sense you are listening to your body too, and you are feeling much better already.
Having health problems is never an easy and pleasant situation.
I think [an opinion only] that may be after you regain some of your strength/health, you probably could add some of the food that you loved and miss from the past, since your body chemistry will be changing with time and the body will be healing the places that need healing.

When I was a kid my mother had filled me with antibiotics [I know that for a fact]. That resulted for me in very severe kidney problems, and probably other issues. After I figured out how to deal with the situations I also made changes to what I eat. One thing is certain, I haven't taken antibiotics for years and if I have the chance I never ever will.

The thread you started originally [I couldn't fully read it but I got the gist], I still think is important.
The bulletproof website I visited, quickly skimmed over and closed it. There is nothing new in it for me that would make me visit again. Whatever I read I agreed upon it in my mind, but that is something I have know for quite some time.

Apology for the derail! My intention was good.

[Dawn]

Meatsuit: Dawn, I suggest you add a comment to your opening post on this thread, making new readers aware of your change of mind as early as possible....

Great idea! Done!

And Chocolate, thank you for such a clear and carefully thought out post. I appreciate it. Your corner of the world does not have the GMO situation we suffer with in the US. You also do not have the feedlots that fatten cattle and other animals on fungus riddled and GMO grains. I actually have several friends who moved to Czechloslovakia and lost 40 pounds within just a few months... without dieting. It was myserious to them and perhaps the lack of fungus and GMO crops are the answer. I'm sure the healthier soil that has not been as abused by factory farming also contributes to better health. I also understand that most European countries have a limit on the amount of mold toxins coffee can contain ... we have no such limit in the United States. Our government is failing us in so many uncountable ways. It appears bent on trying to poison the entire US population.

[chocolate]

"It seems like every day, another scientific discovery is made showing the link between the bacteria in our gut and the health of the rest of our bodies. The best way to boost your gut bacteria is to consume nutrient- and probiotic-rich fermented foods. Here are just a few reasons why you should add them to your diet:

Fermented foods improve digestion. Fermenting our foods is sort of like pre-digesting them (sorry about the mental image!). That makes them easier to digest, and easier for our bodies to absorb their nutrients.

Fermentation actually makes foods more nutritious. On top of the fact that we can more easily absorb their nutrients, studies have shown that traditionally fermented dairy products actually provide more vitamins than conventional or even raw milk. Veggies, fruits, beans and grains also become more nutritious after they ferment.

Fermentation also helps get rid of anti-nutrients. Fermentation helps eliminate phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that hangs out in grains, beans, seeds and nuts. Reducing the phytic acid makes it easier for our guts to absorb minerals, so you get more bang for your buck."
source: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11664/5-fermented-foods-everyone-should-eat.html

Dawn, I noticed here we might have better soil and overall food, but the control over what is in the hypermarkets is so low that when I buy cheese or yogurt I have no idea what I am buying.
I like the organic TChibo Coffee which allegedly is labeled and certified in Germany, but who knows.
One good thing is that the US people are starting to do something about the situation they are in.

[Dawn]

Chocolate: Fermented foods improve digestion. Fermenting our foods is sort of like pre-digesting them (sorry about the mental image!). That makes them easier to digest, and easier for our bodies to absorb their nutrients.

Fermentation actually makes foods more nutritious. On top of the fact that we can more easily absorb their nutrients, studies have shown that traditionally fermented dairy products actually provide more vitamins than conventional or even raw milk. Veggies, fruits, beans and grains also become more nutritious after they ferment.

Fermentation also helps get rid of anti-nutrients. Fermentation helps eliminate phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that hangs out in grains, beans, seeds and nuts. Reducing the phytic acid makes it easier for our guts to absorb minerals, so you get more bang for your buck."
source: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11664...hould-eat.html

I was 100% in agreement with everything you wrote here until I became ill from such a diet. When I eat fermented foods I now have a very immediate and bad inflammation reaction. Home fermented foods contain many good bacteria, however they also contain mystery 'guests' such as molds.

I do not have this reaction to the simple and clean diet I am now on.


My eyes and brain suffer because I work on a computer 16 hours a day, making drawings and the results are inevitable.

About your computer... have you downloaded the free program from justgetflux.com which adjusts your computer screen at sunset? It has been discovered that the amount of blue light emanating from your computer screen is very unhealthy after sunset. It prevents your body from manufacturing melatonin. This in turn prevents your body from rebuilding itself while it sleeps at night. Just this one change made a difference in my life.... and my computer screen is still easy to see in the evening... it is just not as bright in the blue ranges.

[onawah]

I'm open to anything that is better than homemade cultured and fermented foods, but so far, I've had no problems, and it's been beneficial to me, and is certainly affordable, which is a big factor for many, myself included.
Using fresh, locally grown, organic, non-pasteurized foods for culturing and fermenting has got to make a lot of difference in what kind of results you get.

I normally would post this in the Forbidden Knowledge thread, but the info is so specific to the info on this thread, I'm posting it here:

The American Parasite: 250 Million Americans Infected
You can "poo-poo" this topic all you
want, but if you don't take the proper
actions, to ensure the health of your
gut, you will open yourself to chronic
conditions, such as arthritis, which are
incurable. Prevention is the best
medicine!

This cleverly hand-drawn animation,
created by an MD, is not selling any
products, but he is advocating that
you incorporate more probiotic foods
in your diet, such as pickles, olives,
sauerkraut, kefir yogurts - or any
other yogurts with high counts of
*active* lactobacillus bulgaricus.

If you don't like these foods or
otherwise don't see a way to
incorporate them into your regular diet,
he advises you to take these active
probiotics in capsule form. These
friendly "fauna" will balance out the
nasty "flora" of candida, which is a
silent army of bad little critters in
your digestive tract, that gives you
food cravings to feed itself with things
that are bad for YOU.

Not only does this video get into the
wide-ranging medical and behavioral
effects of not properly managing the
health of the largest internal organ of
your body, it also gets into the industrial
and political history and back-handed
deals, which have led to our modern diet,
which makes us fatigued, malnourished
- and yet obese.

Candida is parasite that uses your body
as its personal feeding ground, taking
over first your stomach, then your
entire gastrointestinal tract, forcing you
to crave the foods it wants...while slowly
destroying your body from the inside out.

Governments are finally admitting that
this is real. Measures have been
proposed in New York and the country of
Mexico to try and stop it.

People hated New York City's Mayor
Bloomberg's failed ban on the sale of soft
drinks (containing less than 70% natural
juice) in portions of over 16 oz. Although
the manner in which he went about
enforcing laws around this was far from
ideal, he was right that you shouldn't be
drinking this stuff. In fact, Bloomberg's
position was far more moderate than that
of a Dutch politician, who has proposed
that sugar become a controlled substance,
like all others that are known to be
addictive.

I don't think that it is up to any state to
enforce how much soda we drink. I think
it is up to each individual to become
informed about the hazards to their health,
lurking on every food shelf and to care
for oneself accordingly - or else, suffer the
consequences...


Video (almost 30 mins):
p9-aleeQ2ho


http://www.ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.com/page/25762.html[/YOUTUBE]

[enfoldedblue]

Hi

Dawn it is great that you have found something that works so well for you!

It is fascinating the way this thread has progressed. A few things come to mind upon exploring it.

There is always going to be a new band wagon in the alternative health community.

With so much information available no matter what food we search we will find claims for and against it.

There are very few absolutes in regards to food. So far the few things that I have not found much controversy around is : Avacado, broccoli, turmeric...that all I can think of off hand. Even humble garlic which has so many documented health benefits has controversy around it.

There is no doubt (at least to me) that the modern western diet is damaging to health, and the more we eat whole organic unprocessed food the better. Beyond that I think it is dangerous to say or think we have found the holy grail of nutrition (unless we make it very clear we are only speaking for ourselves). I have seen people heal serious health issues by changing to a raw vegan diet; others through paleo/ gaps style approaches; and others through increasing fermented food intake and avoiding toxins....

I think at the end of the day, because we are unique creatures with our own personal health puzzles we need take responsibility for our own health and listen carefully to our own body.


Since introducing fermented food into my diet I have noticed a great shift in my digestion. I definitely feel better including some fermented food in my diet.


For me I have found that I am best off avoiding extreme positions. Any extreme health measures, in my opinion, can potentially cause health issues down the road.

The mould issue does speak to me and makes me think that for me it might be better not to be so nonchalant about mould developing on the surface of a ferment. For a strong healthy person this might not be an issue...but with my health issues my intuition resonates with being aware of mould. But at the same time for me it doesn't feel right to go to extremes to avoid mould altogether as I believe the body needs to have a bit to work with in order to maintain a resistance.

For me I feel that including fermented foods and foods that inhibit the formation of moulds and yeast ( like rutabaga/swede, coconut oil, ginger etc) in my diet and avoiding foods like sugar etc that feed moulds and yeast is a balance that resonates at the moment. This may change with time.

However I also understand that some people have developed strong sensitivities to moulds and for these people it may be beneficial to be highly cautious.


I personally would not be so quick to reject this thread. I think there is some great information here, that while may not be a key for some, could prove very useful to others.

I just came across this experiment by Dr. Emoto that I think brings up another interesting dimension of this discussion:


The rice experiment is another famous Emoto demonstration of the power of negative thinking (and conversely, the power of positive thinking.) Dr Emoto placed portions of cooked rice into two containers. On one container he wrote “thank you” and on the other “you fool”. He then instructed school children to say the labels on the jars out loud everyday when they passed them by. After 30 days, the rice in the container with positive thoughts had barely changed, while the other was moldy and rotten. http://themindunleashed.org/2014/01/scientific-proof-thoughts-intentions-can-alter-physical-world-around-us.html

[Hervé]

[...]

I just came across this experiment by Dr. Emoto that I think brings up another interesting dimension of this discussion:


The rice experiment is another famous Emoto demonstration of the power of negative thinking (and conversely, the power of positive thinking.) Dr Emoto placed portions of cooked rice into two containers. On one container he wrote “thank you” and on the other “you fool”. He then instructed school children to say the labels on the jars out loud everyday when they passed them by. After 30 days, the rice in the container with positive thoughts had barely changed, while the other was moldy and rotten. http://themindunleashed.org/2014/01/scientific-proof-thoughts-intentions-can-alter-physical-world-around-us.html

Thanks for the reminder!

The crux of the matter: Programming!

How many generations have gone through that one: "Don't put that in your mouth! Don't even touch it! It's poo-poo/caca/etc..." Even worse for North American where the two archenemies were "commies" and... microbes... everywhere and "out to get you"... made a fortune to chemical companies providing cleaning product companies with weapons to fight the war for "cleanliness" against those bugs...

[Dawn]

enfoldedblue: The mould issue does speak to me and makes me think that for me it might be better not to be so nonchalant about mould developing on the surface of a ferment. For a strong healthy person this might not be an issue...but with my health issues my intuition resonates with being aware of mould. But at the same time for me it doesn't feel right to go to extremes to avoid mould altogether as I believe the body needs to have a bit to work with in order to maintain a resistance.

Just to be clear... the problem is beyond the mold. All mold and fungus excrete mycotoxins into the food they are eating. These poisons have the effect eliminating competition for the food because the mycotoxins are poisonous to 'others'. So... if your food HAS (at one time) had fungus or mold growing in it which is now dead... it is still filled with mycotoxin poison.

Now, if your body is young and healthy it has the ability to detoxify some of this, and it stores the rest in various places (like fatty tissue, joint cartilage, and so on). Over a lifetime these toxins build up in the body and illness sets in. There is very strong evidence that cancer is actually a result of this.

I want to thank you for the reminder about gratitude Enflodedblue. This is all important all of the time. It is my personal experience that the human mind and the human consciousness is, to a large extent, shared. This has meant that if others around the globe are not in a constant state of gratitude and love, then it is challenging for me to remain in such a state. I have never personally met anyone who is 100% in a state of gratitude and love at all times and in relation to all things. When the soil is tilled, the seeds planted, the food grown, the food harvested, the food shipped, the grocery store displaying the food.... are all the people involved in a state of gratitude all of the time?

Perhaps it is wise to avoid foods that are known to contain high levels of toxins
~~~~~all manufactured and packaged foods
~~~~~~~grains
~~~~~~~~~~~seeds
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~members of the nightshade family (goji berries, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~meat, eggs, fish, and dairy products made from sick animals
when possible.

I don't think this has to be a fear thing... I think it is just a matter of awareness.

There are levels of health. If you have never eaten fresh organic produce, then switching to a diet containing these can cause a sudden surge in your health and energy. If you have not had probiotics in quantity, then switching to fermented foods is a step in the right direction. If you have been a raw food vegetarian like I have been much of my life, then adding in healthy pasture raised animal foods causes a health improvement.

It is all about becoming aware and conscious of what is going on around you.

And speaking of gratitude... is it possible that TPTB have an expectation that the 'factory fresh' food they create will reduce the population size and send more sick people into the medical industry looking for cures? Perhaps eating the way TPTB have encouraged us to is actually stepping into a trap they have made with a purpose in mind. This is just an open question for me. Whether planned or not ... the way we live now is causing early aging, low fertility, and chronic illness.

[music]

Balance

Speaking on a purely physical footing, humanity is such as it is (planet dominant) because we learned how to utilise a great deal of food that was beyond our physiology. And we evolved along with our ability to modify food. Some adaptations we have made are good, and some are not, but still, we are the evolved creatures that we are in this purely physical sense, and philosophy doesn't change that much.

Fermentation is a part of that, as are other methods of opening up food resources to us. If we have a method of preparing a kidney bean for example, that increases available protein by 38%, increases other nutritional factors as much as fourfold, and which reduces phytic acid content by 50% (rough figures from memory), then if only from a global resource management perspective, we really should be considering that. We have that method - it is germination, followed by fermentation. We can then cook the bean should we wish, and the probiotics will perish leaving what are sometimes called metabiotics in the form of beneficial metabolites. Or we can pull the beans out before they are fully cooked and ferment them again, which further enhances, and remakes the enzymes and metabolites destroyed in the cooking. Or, we can decide not to eat that sort of food at all, because most of us have heard by now that it's not really good for us in the closed form.

We are told we should eat nothing but raw food, and that too much raw food is toxic. We are told that animal fats will kill us, and we are told animal fats will cure us. We are told that micro-organism are bad, and we are told they are good. Everyone has a position, and we all have the ability to defend our position eloquently, fanatically, even aggressively. What we often forget to remember is that though we share a common evolutionary path in the anatomical and physiological sense, we are all individual expressions of this vague thing called a "human being". As individuals, we all have slightly different nutritional needs. What works for one person may well not work for another person, and that's great, because that only confirms our unique spark of being, one spark among many, and that is a beautiful thing.

Certainly share what you have found, Dawn, and thank you for doing so, but please remember you are one spark among many, and that is a beautiful thing.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

And speaking of gratitude... is it possible that TPTB have an expectation that the 'factory fresh' food they create will reduce the population size and send more sick people into the medical industry looking for cures? Perhaps eating the way TPTB have encouraged us to is actually stepping into a trap they have made with a purpose in mind. This is just an open question for me. Whether planned or not ... the way we live now is causing early aging, low fertility, and chronic illness.

I believe at first they didn't know any better, food is food, full stomach, you had your diner, all is well, that was the meme.

But by now, with this immense knowledge base on how foods work in the body and what we ACTUALLY need to thrive and be HEALTHY and they still produce this crap, its first degree murder, a slow kill method, they worked themselves into this trap they sold us, they are as deep into this as we are and its very hard to back out of it, they would have to admit they didn't know while they actually told us they did know what was good for us, like the doctor who said smoking was good for you, like at first the earth was flat until they discovered otherwise, they are scared to death we find out and start claiming our health, money and loved ones back, this goes for nutrition, science, religion, politics and knowledge as a whole, when I found out universities only taught the knowledge they could afford, a light bulb went on for me, we are actually in a good place when it comes to knowledge, the bad part is the price of the updated science, if you cant afford the knowledge you are not on the cutting edge you could be, that is where the problem lies imo, I however see organic foods are on the rise in supermarkets, whatever the hell that word means, organic, I know what it should mean by my personal standards, but my personal standards have nothing to do with what is actually available to me in stores, unfortunately. I do see a rise in the demand, slowly but surely and can only hope and wish for that standards will be raised big time, preferably in short order.

[Ahnung-quay]

I'm reading this post tonight for the first time. At end of January, I stepped on the scale and I was not happy with the readout. I asked myself a question; If you aren't in control of what you're eating, what are you in control of? The next day, I started a "diet" for the promotion of weight loss. I decided on 1000-1200 calories (I'm 56 years old, rather short at 5'4", and work a sedentary job so I don't need a huge amount of calories to maintain weight anymore). I've been doing the "diet" for two weeks now. Basically it is emphasizing fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, little starch, and one serving of meat. I do almond milk. I have went with some organics on the fruits and vegetables but, not all due to cost. I have lost almost 8# so far.
In addition to carrying extra weight, I had steadily been having increased joint pain-shoulders, neck, hands, one hip, knees, ankles... I could hardly get out of bed in the morning. After two weeks of eating no sugar or processed foods, I have no pain, not even from the carpel tunnel that I have suffered with for two years!
I did do about one week of Candex prior to starting the "diet". I believe that the Candex has helped so that I have not craved sugar or anything sweet at all. Candex is a product that kills excess candida Albicans but, doesn't cause other bacteria die off. At this point, I don't even want to go back to eating the way that I was eating because I never want to hurt again!
I did some research today and found that what I probably have is psoriatic arthritis which is linked to psoriasis. I found that this in turn may be linked to poor gut health and fungus that causes psoriasis on the skin or nails. I plan on adding back some daily tumeric which I had been using for the carpel tunnel. I will also be looking at the fermenting and making some yogurt from goats milk. I used to make yogurt years ago.
Right now, I can't wait to get my garden going! I only have 4# more to lose to my initial goal weight. Then, I'll decide if I want to lose more. I put the word "diet" in quotation marks because this is my new way of life; not a "diet". Dawn and others, thanks for all that you are sharing here.

[onawah]

I got my Lufenuron in the mail yesterday and have started the 3 day course of treatment. I won't know if it worked for another couple of weeks, but I will post the results here. (See: http://lufenuroncandidacure.owndoc.com/ to learn about Lufenuron, which has been shown to be an effective eliminator of Candida in apes and has lots of testimony from human individuals who have tried it. It breaks down the tough protective chitinous wall that surrounds the Candida fungus, which causes it to die off. The Veterinarian approved product which I bought is quite affordable.

I'm posting this video link again because most people really have no idea how widespread and damaging the Candida epidemic is, or how it got started.

The history of how various forms of sugar (as addictive as cocaine) and artificial sweeteners became a big part of the SAD (standard American diet) despite many studies showing how dangerous they are, and how Candida is now a hidden national epidemic, causing obesity, cancer, depression, fatigue and more...

p9-aleeQ2ho

( I cannot testify as to the effectiveness of the probiotic product which this video is pushing, but the rest of the vid is definitely worth watching and sharing. )

[Ahnung-quay]

I've seen that video Onawah and it is worth the watch. Good luck with the Lufenuron!

[Flash]

[...]

I just came across this experiment by Dr. Emoto that I think brings up another interesting dimension of this discussion:


The rice experiment is another famous Emoto demonstration of the power of negative thinking (and conversely, the power of positive thinking.) Dr Emoto placed portions of cooked rice into two containers. On one container he wrote “thank you” and on the other “you fool”. He then instructed school children to say the labels on the jars out loud everyday when they passed them by. After 30 days, the rice in the container with positive thoughts had barely changed, while the other was moldy and rotten. http://themindunleashed.org/2014/01/scientific-proof-thoughts-intentions-can-alter-physical-world-around-us.html

Thanks for the reminder!

The crux of the matter: Programming!

How many generations have gone through that one: "Don't put that in your mouth! Don't even touch it! It's poo-poo/caca/etc..." Even worse for North American where the two archenemies were "commies" and... microbes... everywhere and "out to get you"... made a fortune to chemical companies providing cleaning product companies with weapons to fight the war for "cleanliness" against those bugs...


The two arch enemies in America: Commies and microbes. You had me Rolling down laughing.

In one sentence you have described America's compulsivity lol

[Flash]

Onawah, i started the same Lufeneron this week end, i will keep track of results here. I also knew my daughter did have candida (tested long ago) so I put her on it too.

Next is a real change in diet.

[onawah]

That's great! We can compare notes.
I'm hoping for a dramatic die-off of Candida, so that eliminating sweets won't be so hard.
I do believe sweets are just as hard to give up as cocaine, and I've had this addiction for far too long.
Even though I limit myself to fresh fruit, raw unfiltered honey and raw coconut crystals, I still crash and get the "sugar blues" at times, and I know I could be feeling so much better.
I was a smoker once and gave that up by juicing lots of raw fruits and vegies every day, but I think the real tipping point was a self-hypnosis tape.
If the Lufeneron doesn't work, I think I will try that for my sweet tooth as well.
And I need to get back to more sprouted foods.
I'm sure results vary with individuals with the Lufeneron, but the literature rang true for me, so I am hopeful.
Good luck!

[Hervé]

Roundup linked to global boom in Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance (http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/02/19/roundup-linked-global-boom-celiac-disease-gluten-intolerance/#.UwQXIV73M_0)
Sustainable Pulse (http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/02/19/roundup-linked-global-boom-celiac-disease-gluten-intolerance/#.UwQXIV73M_0) Tue, 18 Feb 2014 21:28 CST

http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/171281/large/Roundup_e1357192553864_644x322.jpg (http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/171281/full/Roundup_e1357192553864_644x322.jpg)

Celiac disease, gluten intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome are on the rise worldwide, and that rise has taken place in parallel with the increased use of glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide, shows a new US peer-reviewed paper from Dr. Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff. The review has been published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Toxicology.

Roundup is linked in Samsel and Seneff's new review paper to a major increase in celiac disease. A recent estimate suggests that one in twenty people in North America and Western Europe now suffer from this gluten intolerant disease.

"All of the known biological effects of glyphosate - cytochrome P450 inhibition, disruption of synthesis of aromatic amino acids, chelation of transition metals, and antibacterial action - contribute to the pathology of celiac disease," Samsel and Seneff's paper states.

Monsanto's Glyphosate (Roundup) has become the number one selling herbicide worldwide, due to the increase in the planting of Roundup Ready GM Crops.

What is Celiac Disease? (http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/#what)

Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms.

When people with celiac disease eat foods or use products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi - the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Without healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much food one eats.

Find Full Review Paper Here (http://sustainablepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Glyphosate_II_Samsel-Seneff.pdf) [PDF file]

Journal of Interdisciplinary Toxicology Review Abstract:

Authors: Dr. Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff
Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression. It is a multifactorial disease associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure and cancer. Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic. Fish exposed to glyphosate develop digestive problems that are reminiscent of celiac disease. Celiac disease is associated with imbalances in gut bacteria that can be fully explained by the known effects of glyphosate on gut bacteria. Characteristics of celiac disease point to impairment in many cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are involved with detoxifying environmental toxins, activating vitamin D3, catabolizing vitamin A, and maintaining bile acid production and sulfate supplies to the gut. Glyphosate is known to inhibit cytochrome P450 enzymes. Deficiencies in iron, cobalt, molybdenum, copper and other rare metals associated with celiac disease can be attributed to glyphosate's strong ability to chelate these elements. Deficiencies in tryptophan, tyrosine, methionine and selenomethionine associated with celiac disease match glyphosate's known depletion of these amino acids. Celiac disease patients have an increased risk to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which has also been implicated in glyphosate exposure. Reproductive issues associated with celiac disease, such as infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects, can also be explained by glyphosate. Glyphosate residues in wheat and other crops are likely increasing recently due to the growing practice of crop desiccation just prior to the harvest. We argue that the practice of "ripening" sugar cane with glyphosate may explain the recent surge in kidney failure among agricultural workers in Central America. We conclude with a plea to governments to reconsider policies regarding the safety of glyphosate residues in foods. SOTT.net Comment (http://www.sott.net/article/274113-Roundup-linked-to-global-boom-in-Celiac-Disease-and-Gluten-Intolerance): Add this latest research to the list of negative health effects associated with RoundUp:

Death by Multiple Poisoning, Glyphosate and Roundup (http://www.sott.net/article/180255-Death-by-Multiple-Poisoning-Glyphosate-and-Roundup)
Is Monsanto's Herbicide Harming Male Fertility? (http://www.sott.net/article/239782-Is-Monsantos-Herbicide-Harming-Male-Fertility)
Research: Roundup Diluted by 450-Fold is Still Toxic to DNA (http://www.sott.net/article/241613-Research-Roundup-Diluted-by-450-Fold-is-Still-Toxic-to-DNA)
Groundbreaking Study Shows Roundup Link to Birth Defects (http://www.sott.net/article/215323-Groundbreaking-Study-Shows-Roundup-Link-to-Birth-Defects)
Monsanto's Roundup is Causing DNA and Cellular Damage (http://www.sott.net/article/243580-Monsantos-Roundup-is-Causing-DNA-and-Cellular-Damage)
Monsanto™ Roundup Ready Crops Leading to Mental Illness, Obesity (http://www.sott.net/article/238984-MonsantoTM-Roundup-Ready-Crops-Leading-to-Mental-Illness-Obesity)
Monsanto's Infertility-Linked Roundup Found in All Urine Samples Tested (http://www.sott.net/article/240662-Monsantos-Infertility-Linked-Roundup-Found-in-All-Urine-Samples-Tested)
Study shows: Lethality of Roundup 'weedkiller' extends beyond plants to humans (http://www.sott.net/article/261331-Study-shows-Lethality-of-Roundup-weedkiller-extends-beyond-plants-to-humans)
Monsanto's Roundup devastating gut health, contributing to overgrowth of deadly bacteria (http://www.sott.net/article/254839-Monsantos-Roundup-devastating-gut-health-contributing-to-overgrowth-of-deadly-bacteria)

[Ahnung-quay]

Your post doesn't surprise me Amzer Zo. I've always felt that a big source of the growing food allergy epidemic has been herbicides and pesticides. It was only recently that I found the link between gluten intolerance and candida overgrowth and them.

[TargeT]

Psychobiotics: Can Stomach Bacteria Change Your Brain?

The plot keeps thickening when it comes to the connection between your gut and your brain.

A new review article links probiotics to changes in mood and mental health, suggesting these “good” bacteria might have potential as a treatment for depression and other psychiatric maladies. In the study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers define the term “psychobiotic” as “a live organism that, when ingested in adequate amounts, produces a health benefit in patients suffering from psychiatric illness.”
These organisms act on what researchers call the “brain-gut axis,” a biological network connecting the intestinal and endocrine systems to the spinal cord and regions in the brain that process stress, such as the HPA-axis.

Is all this plausible? Perhaps. Ghrelin, known as the “hunger hormone” and produced in the intestines, was recently found to play a role in the development of chronic stress. And stress in turn has been found to alter our microbiota. There’s growing evidence that there’s a special connection between the gut and the brain, and as one MGH psychiatrist said recently: “There is a neural feedback from the gut to the brain so chronic gastrointestinal distress can exacerbate anxiety or depression.”

Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, stated last December that how “differences in our microbial world influence the development of brain and behavior will be one of the great frontiers of clinical neuroscience in the next decade.”

Dr. Timothy Dinan of University College Cork in Ireland and the psychobiotic study’s lead author says that although the research conducted on humans is sparse, “the animal studies indicate that certain psychobiotics can change brain chemistry.”

In the review, a few of these psychobiotics and their effects on neurotransmitter production are listed:


Escherichia, Bacillus, and Saccharomyces produce norepinephrine. Candida, Streptococcus, Escherichia, and Enterococcus produce serotonin, while Bacillus and Serratia have the potential to produce dopamine.

As far as human studies are concerned, “if we find significant changes in the microbiota in conditions such as depression or schizophrenia, then normalizing the microbiota with psychobiotics may alleviate symptoms,” Dinan says. Placebo-controlled studies are up-and-coming in the U.S. and Europe, he adds, and if all goes well, “a product should be available within 5 years” for the “treatment of stress related disorders such as anxiety, depression, and irritable bowel syndrome.”

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2013/11/psychobiotics-stomach-bacteria-change-your-brain

[enfoldedblue]

Hi,

A couple of weeks ago I went to an amazing workshop up in a remote location tucked away in the hills at a little community produce market. It was a fermenting workshop and the main speaker was Sandor KAtz (fermenting guru :) ). The human spirit there was vibrant and organic and felt very real and down to earth. The event was organized by a friend of Sandor KAtz, so unlike his workshops in the city that cost $500 this one was free. Many people shared their stories, their recipes and their wares. We tried fermented cakes and dishes that came from recipes that were handed down many generations. Tom my partner brought many of his beautiful delicacies, including his fermented ketchup...yum! One of the guys who spoke specialised in garden (non edible) ferments and it was fascinating to hear about the communities of bacteria that when healthy and in balance make our gardens thrive. It is fascinating how we are becoming aware of just how important healthy communities are on ALL levels!

[onawah]

So I tried the 3 day treatment with lufenuron which I purchased here: http://shop.owndoc.com/product-info....on-pid170.html
and I do think it helped.
I experienced some die-off symptoms, but on the whole, I think my focus and energy levels improved.
I want to try the enzyme combination of cellulase and protease that is recommended in this product: http://www.enzymedica.com/store/Candidase
I've always felt a marked improvement when taking enzymes, and I'd rather stick with more natural things.
I'm not really sure exactly what Lufenuron is made of, but the action of the enzyme combination is apparently the same as the lufenuron, which is to break down the protective chitinous wall that surrounds Candida, and that is what makes it so hard to kill.

[Hervé]

More from Dr. Seneff:

Meet the controversial MIT scientist who claims she discovered a cause of gluten intolerance (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

Ari LeVaux
Alternet (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:07 CST


http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/175119/medium/Seneff_infograph_sm.png (http://www.sott.net/image/image/s8/175119/full/Seneff_infograph_sm.png)

© www.tanoro.com (http://www.tanoro.com)


Does she finally have the answer?

Stephanie Seneff is a senior research scientist at MIT. Based in the university's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Seneff's focus is, according to her web page, "the intersection of biology and computation." She is also, according to many in the science community, a "quack," meaning a poseur at the business of science, and a practitioner of pseudoscience.

Since she began publishing papers on biology, in journals considered fringe by the mainstream scientific establishment, Seneff has posited explanations for a host of disorders, and drawn heated objections from experts in most every field she's delved into. She is, in short, a controversial figure in the scientific community, which is an unusual position to occupy for someone with three degrees from MIT.

In recent months, Seneff co-authored two papers proposing a connection between the herbicide glyphosate and gluten sensitivity. I spoke with Seneff by phone about this hypothesis, her transition from computer science into biology, and her reputation in the scientific community.

Ari LeVaux: How is it that, in your opinion, glyphosate causes gluten sensitivity?

Stephanie Seneff: What we argued in the paper is that glyphosate binds to the gluten. Gluten usually forms cross-mesh connections between different amino acids, and glyphosate would disrupt that because it would prevent the cross-mesh by binding to the gluten and causing the gluten to stay in the form that is known to be more allergenic. So we believe glyphosate causes the gluten to assume the form that is more allergenic.

ALV: You think this applies to both Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity?

SS: Gluten sensitivity by itself doesn't necessarily have the transglutaminase immunogenicity of Celiac. It shares the same features with Celiac disease, but it's not as extreme. But these things also have a host of other pathologies that are associated with this particular condition of gluten sensitivity, which is what's so fascinating to me. All of these risk factors that co-occur with Celiac disease could be explained through other ways that glyphosate disrupts physiology. That's the most fascinating thing to me, is that you can explain all of these other things, maybe not directly through the effect of gluten but through the effect of glyphosate on the body.

People who have Celiac disease have increased risk for other things; for example, non-hodgkins lymphoma, and they die earlier because of these other risks. They also have fertility problems, they are more likely to produce children with birth defects, and are more likely to have depression and serotonin problems. All of these things that are connected to Celiac disease, but also exist independently from Celiac disease, are also caused, in our opinion, by glyphosate.

ALV: Your paper discusses the reason that glyphosate is being sprayed onto wheat. Could you explain this practice?

SS: Glyphosate is being sprayed on wheat right before the harvest. This has become a more and more popular practice among farmers. We found specific data in the UK showing a dramatic increase in the practice of spraying the wheat with glyphosate right before the harvest. This is three or four days before they harvest the seed. You can't imagine that that glyphosate has disappeared in those three or four days. The intent is to kill the plant.

Wheat, of course, is not GMO, it's not Round-Up ready. They probably don't want it to be Round-Up ready because then they couldn't do this anymore. This is a very convenient practice. It reduces the effort involved in the combine when you're harvesting the wheat.

ALV: If glyphosate were causing these problems, wouldn't we expect to see higher incidence of these diseases that are supposedly caused by glyphosate?

SS: One thing we certainly see in Sri Lanka and in El Salvador is agriculture workers who are working in sugarcane fields that are sprayed with glyphosate right before the harvest just as wheat is: these workers are dying at a young age from kidney failure. And people with Celiac disease are at a high risk of kidney failure. And we can see how glyphosate would kill the kidney, because you get into an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria that produces p-cresol, which is very toxic to the kidney.

And that's just one example of how glyphosate would cause kidney problems. Sri Lanka and El Salvador have both within the last year decided to ban glyphosate usage on their farms because of what they've seen happening to these agricultural workers.

ALV: You began your career at MIT in artificial intelligence. How and why did you transition to biology and toxicology?

SS: I'm a computer scientist. I do natural language processing. I've done that for many years, we've built dialog systems that allow people to interact with information on the web through natural language, and I've transitioned to applications in biology over the past six or seven years. I've published now over a dozen papers in that space. Part of what we do is analyzing drug side-effects and then providing an interface that can allow people to find out if other people have experienced similar symptoms in responding to certain drugs that they're taking.

Recently what I've gotten really interested in is processing the literature. So if you take the research literature on some topic, for example glyphosate, you can let the computer use NLP [Natural Language Processing] to help you organize the information that's in the articles, and help you figure out the story. I think it's a very powerful method for helping a biologist understand the biology, biochemistry and medical literature, and interpret it.

ALV: Does MIT support you in your biology research?

SS: I have been gradually transitioning more and more toward doing biology. So far MIT has been supportive and has continued to fund this work.

ALV: Do you have a biology lab?

SS: No. It's all computer science. It's all synthesis. So basically what I do is I read papers and I process them with the computer to help me understand them and interpret them and generalize and build a story. So it's really a matter of studying. Mostly what I do now is study, and then write. Trying to understand biology. I have an undergraduate degree from MIT in biology, and I also spent one year in graduate school in biology before switching over to computer science. And my PhD was on an auditory model for the human processing of speech. So that also involved biology, neurology. I'm not a complete ignoramus in the field of biology.

ALV: If you had a lab, what experimental research would you do to test your theory on glyphosate and Celiac disease?

SS: Take people with Celiac disease and put them on an organic diet. Or take people with inflammatory bowel disease, because that's sort of related - in fact, a paper was just published where they put people with inflammatory bowel disease on an organic wheat diet. This wheat was an ancient heirloom wheat.

The theory in this paper is that it's the new forms of wheat that are causing inflammatory bowel disease, because the wheat itself has evolved. We've been genetically modifying wheat, through the traditional evolutionary process that we've used in the past. Not the GMO but other ways of manipulating the genes. So wheat today is not the same as the original ancient wheat.



SOTT Comment (http://www.sott.net/article/275526-Meet-the-controversial-MIT-scientist-who-claims-she-discovered-a-cause-of-gluten-intolerance): Modern wheat is the 'perfect chronic poison' says expert (http://www.sott.net/article/262067-Modern-wheat-is-the-perfect-chronic-poison-says-expert)
The world's most popular grain is also the deadliest for the human metabolism. Modern wheat isn't really wheat at all and is a "perfect, chronic poison," according to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist, author and leading expert on wheat.
Approximately 700 million tons of wheat are now cultivated worldwide making it the second most-produced grain after maize. It is grown on more land area than any other commerical crop and is considered a staple food for humans.
At some point in our history, this ancient grain was nutritious in some respects, however modern wheat really isn't wheat at all. Once agribusiness took over to develop a higher-yielding crop, wheat became hybridized to such an extent that it has been completely transformed from it's prehistorical genetic configuration. All nutrient content of modern wheat depreciated more than 30% in its natural unrefined state compared to its ancestral genetic line. The balance and ratio that mother nature created for wheat was also modified and human digestion and physiology simply could not adapt quick enough to the changes.
Davis said that the wheat we eat these days isn't the wheat your grandma had: "It's an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic research in the '60s and '70s," he said on CBS This Morning. "This thing has many new features nobody told you about, such as there's a new protein in this thing called gliadin. It's not gluten. I'm not addressing people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. I'm talking about everybody else because everybody else is susceptible to the gliadin protein that is an opiate. This thing binds into the opiate receptors in your brain and in most people stimulates appetite, such that we consume 440 more calories per day, 365 days per year." With this paper they weren't thinking about glyphosate, but I suspect that what they ended up doing was show that glyphosate is causing the inflammatory bowel disease because they used organic ancient wheat compared to non-organic modern wheat.

You'd have to measure the glyphosate in the food, obviously, to see if it was there. And you could do some kind of controlled dietary experiment on humans. Or you could do something like that on rats, too, where you could be less ethical, I suppose.

ALV: Looking back on your recent work in biology, what are your biggest successes and failures?

SS: My biggest excitement in terms of what I've discovered is the idea, which I've published in a paper with co-authors, that sulfate is synthesized in the skin in response to sunlight. Sunlight catalyzes the synthesis of sulfate in the skin by an enzyme that's called endothelial nitric oxide synthase. If true, it has tremendous impact on health.

ALV: Is there anything, looking back on your career in biology, that you think you may have gotten wrong?

SS: My thinking keeps evolving. I'm still searching. What I wish is that more people would be allowed to be bold about hypotheses because I think biology is rather straitjacketed right now and most people are feeling they're required to show restraint in how they interpret things and I'm sort of being what they would call bold and adventuresome. I mean, basically, proposing things, trying them out, turning them over, synthesizing, trying to understand, because I think that we poorly understand a great deal of what's going on in biology today.

For example, cardiovascular disease, I think is extremely poorly understood. I have my own theories about it, and I would say that it's actually a cholesterol sulfate deficiency problem, which is of course a very radical point of view. Cholesterol sulfate deficiency. And in fact the build-up, the excess of cholesterol you see in the blood is a direct response to that deficiency in cholesterol sulfate, and the heart actually needs more cholesterol, not less, and the LDL builds up because it gets gummed up with sugar and it can't deliver its goods. If you've got mailmen that are really slow you've got to have more of them or the mail won't be delivered.

ALV: You've been called an "anti-vaxxer" for your views on autism. Do you believe that vaccines cause autism?

SS: I took on the task of trying to figure out autism six or seven years ago because I got concerned about the rising incidence of autism in our country, which I think is very disturbing. It's risen alarmingly since then. Now it's one in 50, which is the latest number, which is very frightening to me. So I was looking at all of the environmental toxins, because there has to be an environmental factor, or a combination of environmental factors.

Aluminum is one that I picked up on quite early. Because aluminum is very toxic, and many of the vaccines contain aluminum. And it's injected directly in, past all the barriers.

Ordinarily the body is quite good about keeping aluminum out. The gut will absorb very little of what's in the diet...assuming you have a healthy gut. Glyphosate produces a leaky gut, and that's going to help the aluminum get in. What I believe now is that the aluminum in the vaccine is far more toxic as a consequence of the glyphosate that's also in the blood. The two of them are synergistic, because the glyphosate forms a cage around the aluminum and keeps it from getting expelled. The aluminum ends up accumulating, getting trapped with the glyphosate, and then the aluminum ends up in the pineal gland, and messes up sleep, and causes a whole cascade of problems in the brain. The glyphosate and aluminum are working together to be much more toxic than they would be, acting alone.

So yes, I do believe that aluminum in vaccines is a contributing factor in autism.

ALV: How does glyphosate create this cage around aluminum?

SS: Glyphosate cages all kinds of things. One of the things it does in the gut that's bad is it cages all the minerals, like iron and manganese and even sulfur, so it prevents the gut bacteria from gaining access to really important micronutrients, even things like molybdenum which we only need in small amounts, but if there isn't any we're in trouble, because certain enzymes critically depend on these minerals. Glyphosate builds a cage around them and it builds a cage around aluminum as well. There's a nice paper on that with beautiful pictures of glyphosate caging aluminum.

ALV: The journals you've been writing for, such as Entropy and more recently Interdisciplinary Toxicology, have been labeled by your critics as "pay to play" journals with "zero impact factor."

SS: I will agree with them that the impact factor of these journals is low. I am very excited about the opportunity for someone like myself to be able to publish at all. Because I am, as you know, a Johnny-come-lately to the field. People don't view me as an expert on biology. It's a new career for me. That's one of the problems. Another problem is that I'm writing things that the main journals don't want to publish, so I think there's an uphill battle.

About the author

Ari LeVaux writes a syndicated weekly food column, Flash in the Pan. (http://www.flashinthepan.net)

[Dawn]

Amzer zo: More from Dr. Seneff:

Meet the controversial MIT scientist who claims she discovered a cause of gluten intolerance

Ari LeVaux
Alternet
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 17:07 CST

© www.tanoro.com

Does she finally have the answer?


Thanks Amzer zo. Good article. Does not agree with some of the other scientists I've read but likely she has found a very good secondary problem.

I have continued adding the bulletproof coffee to my diet and the effects have been amazing and wonderful

A year ago (almost to the day) I tested at the 37th percentile in the ability to perform in the Luminosity brain gym.

Now I perform at the 97th percentile.

I am not boasting, not at all.... I am just letting everyone know that this particular food makes gigantic changes in brain function. The way it works is that the (lab tested mold free) antioxidant oils in the coffee act as a carrier through the blood/brain barrier. In the coffee are anti fungal oils, including lauric acid, (from grass fed butter), capric and caprylic acid (distilled from coconut oil) and cocoa butter (an anti oxidant). This delicious creamy mixture is emulsified in a blender and tastes almost exactly like a high quality cup of mocha cappuccino.

I have found that I have had to modify the rest of the Bulletproof diet to suit what my kidneys can handle and find I am only rarely eating meat.

One of my current favorite dishes is either steamed broccoli or cauliflower blended until creamy with a large dollop of butter. This makes a bowl of delicious creamed veges that has a consistency similar to oatmeal. It is delicious and satisfying. And these types of foods allow me to remain on a grain free diet with little or no poisonous lectins.

I also indulge in a very special type of fermented dairy beverage (I think I wrote about this). It is made with anti-inflammatory bacteria to which a type of mold eating bacteria is added. Despite the allergies I developed while being on the GAPS diet to all things home-fermented... I can still enjoy this a few times a week. Unlike holstein milk it contains no casein protein, which 98% of people are allergic to. It is made from Masai cattle imported from Africa. They remain with their calves and roam freely. They are milked with a traveling milking shed only once daily after their calves have eaten their fill. Their lives are as happy for them as possible. This farm is run by the same man who nearly died of Chrones disease 30 years ago and brought us all the Primal Defense soil bacteria. You can peek at it here: www.beyondorganic.com. Unfortunately it has been set up as an MLM (ugh!) but you can become a preferred customer at no charge through the www.bulletproofexec.com site.

[Hervé]

Brazilian migraine sufferer found to have calcium stones in brain; gluten the culprit (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2607681/Man-suffered-headaches-10-years-calcium-stones-brain-coeliac-disease.html)

Anna Hodgekiss, Fri, 18 Apr 2014 10:10 CDT



http://www.sott.net/image/image/s9/181707/medium/article_2607681_1D2D4777000005.jpg (http://www.sott.net/image/image/s9/181707/full/article_2607681_1D2D4777000005.jpg)

© New England Journal of Medicine


The 'calcium stones' found in the brain of a Brazilian man suffering from headaches for several years

A Brazilian man who suffered from terrible headaches and vision problems was found to have 'calcium stones' in his brain.

The stones were due to him suffering from undiagnosed coeliac disease - an autoimmune disease caused by intolerance to gluten.

Because of his symptoms of headaches and vision problems, the man had been treated for migraines but shown no signs of improvement.

It was only when he had a CT scan that the calcium stones - patches of calcification in the back of the man's brain - were detected in the area responsible for vision, LiveScience (http://www.livescience.com/44883-celiac-disease-brain-stones.html) reports.

Tests showed fluid in the man's brain had antibodies associated with coeliac disease. The condition is caused by a reaction of the immune system to gluten - a protein found in wheat, barley and rye.

When someone with coeliac disease eats gluten, their immune system reacts by damaging the lining of the small intestine, stopping the body from absorbing nutrients.

The case report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, backs up previous research that 60 per cent of coeliac patients also have neurological symptoms.

Other symptoms of the condition can include bloating, diarrhoea, nausea, wind, constipation, tiredness, headaches, mouth ulcers, sudden weight loss, hair loss, anaemia and osteoporosis.

Blood tests found the man had an iron deficiency and coeliac disease.

When he began eating a gluten-free diet, taking iron tablets and epilepsy drugs, his condition improved, it was reported.

The doctors treating the man, at the University of São Paulo, say it isn't clear how coeliac disease causes the stones to accumulate in the brain.

One theory is that an inability to absorb iron may be to blame.

[778 neighbour of some guy]

International best-selling author Donna Gates comes on Bulletproof Radio to discuss why gut ecology is vitally important to your performance and how healing it can be beneficial even for those of us that don't have digestive problems -- but chances are you probably have at least some underlying issues. On the show you'll learn three things to start doing now for better gut health and a simple breakdown on which digestive enzymes you should be taking.

BHe4Bxk9_as

[Hervé]

Fasting for three days can regenerate entire immune system, study finds (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10878625/Fasting-for-three-days-can-regenerate-entire-immune-system-study-finds.html)

A person's entire immune system can be rejuvenated by fasting for as little as three days as it triggers the body to start producing new white blood cells, a study suggests


http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02932/mouth_tape_measure_2932869b.jpg

Researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative switch" which prompts stem cells to create brand new white blood cells Photo: PEGAZ/Alamy

By Sarah Knapton (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/sarah-knapton/), Science Correspondent
7:51PM BST 05 Jun 2014

Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly, scientists have found in a breakthrough described as "remarkable".

Although fasting diets have been criticised by nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing new white blood cells, which fight off infection.

Scientists at the University of Southern California say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for people suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy.

It could also help the elderly whose immune system becomes less effective as they age, making it harder for them to fight off even common diseases.

The researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative switch" which prompts stem cells to create brand new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the entire immune system.

"It gives the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system," said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the University of California.

"And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting.

“Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or ageing, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system."

Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of glucose and fat but also breaks down a significant portion of white blood cells.

During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells.

In trials humans were asked to regularly fast for between two and four days over a six-month period.

Scientists found that prolonged fasting also reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to ageing and a hormone which increases cancer risk and tumour growth.

"We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system," added Prof Longo.

"When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged," Dr Longo said.

"What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?"

Fasting for 72 hours also protected cancer patients against the toxic impact of chemotherapy.

"While chemotherapy saves lives, it causes significant collateral damage to the immune system. The results of this study suggest that fasting may mitigate some of the harmful effects of chemotherapy," said co-author Tanya Dorff, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital.

"More clinical studies are needed, and any such dietary intervention should be undertaken only under the guidance of a physician.”

"We are investigating the possibility that these effects are applicable to many different systems and organs, not just the immune system," added Prof Longo.
However, some British experts were sceptical of the research.

Dr Graham Rook, emeritus professor of immunology at University College London, said the study sounded "improbable".

Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at UCL, said: “There is some interesting data here. It sees that fasting reduces the number and size of cells and then re-feeding at 72 hours saw a rebound.

“That could be potentially useful because that is not such a long time that it would be terribly harmful to someone with cancer.

“But I think the most sensible way forward would be to synthesize this effect with drugs. I am not sure fasting is the best idea. People are better eating on a regular basis.”

Dr Longo added: “There is no evidence at all that fasting would be dangerous while there is strong evidence that it is beneficial.

“I have received emails from hundreds of cancer patients who have combined chemo with fasting, many with the assistance of the oncologists.

“Thus far the great majority have reported doing very well and only a few have reported some side effects including fainting and a temporary increase in liver markers. Clearly we need to finish the clinical trials, but it looks very promising.”

[Roisin]

That's good to know because 3 days is the limit for me when it comes to fasting. After that I start getting awful charley horses in the morning just as I'm waking up when I automatically stretch. Ouch!

But if a 3 day fast is as good as they are saying in that article, then I will continue to do them!

[Hervé]

Exercise Activity Increases Gut Bacteria (http://www.activistpost.com/2014/06/exercise-activity-increases-gut-bacteria.html)



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%AD%A6%E6%9C%AF.png/512px-%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E6%AD%A6%E6%9C%AF.png


Heather Callaghan
Activist Post (http://www.activistpost.com/2014/06/exercise-activity-increases-gut-bacteria.html)

Would you be fascinated to know that there is a journal Gut?

Just Gut. One journal completely devoted to gut studies in the realm of gastroenterology. As far science trends are concerned, the gut has become a sexy topic, if you can believe it. But it should be more than that.

A lot of people hear "exercise" and think "yeah, yeah, blah, blah..." Or maybe it's only a means to become sexy.

But it should be more than that...

This particular study published in journal Gut (http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2014/05/28/gutjnl-2014-307305.short?g=w_gut_ahead_tab) - albeit a small one - if true, should be all the more proof that movement is a part of diet and not just a separate entity for the body.

Research is finally lending its collective credibility to gut microbiota, immunity and the gut-brain connection (http://www.amazon.com/Gut-Psychology-Syndrome-Depression-Schizophrenia/dp/0954852028/ref=as_sl_pd_tf_sw?&linkCode=wsw&tag=permacultucom-20). You could have asked farmers half a century ago for another reason they liked antibiotics - it somehow fattened their animals. Yet it is only now that conventional research is drawing a connection (http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Gut-Breakthrough-Eliminating-Revolutionizing/dp/0062075861/ref=as_sl_pd_tf_sw?&linkCode=wsw&tag=permacultucom-20) between antibiotic use and human obesity problems. And probiotics and good health.

Most people think of taking probiotics through supplements or fermented foods and drinks. Exercise is now a good way to boost healthy gut bacteria. Diet did play a role in the following study.

Researchers studied fecal and blood samples of 40 professional rugby players, chosen for their extreme diets and exercise as a comparison. Those were compared with samples from 46 healthy men with normal body mass index (BMI) and some of those 46 were chosen for having higher BMI.




They all answered food questions - how much and how often they ate 187 different foods over a four-week period. Their normal levels of physical activity were surveyed.

The athletes had higher levels of creatine kinase, an enzyme indicator for muscle and tissue damage. BUT, they had lower levels of inflammatory markers (http://www.amazon.com/Anti-Inflammatory-Diet-Inflammation-Eliminate-ebook/dp/B00KAQZ12G/ref=as_sl_pd_tf_sw?&linkCode=wsw&tag=permacultucom-20) than the healthy men as well as a better metabolic profile.

Here's where else the gut bacteria factors in. Athletes had higher levels of several microbial types (taxa). They had significantly higher proportions of 48 taxa than men with high BMI; and of 40 taxa than men with normal BMI. They showed much higher amounts of Akkermansiaceae - a bacteria species linked to having lower rates of obesity and associated metabolic disorders.

Rugby players ate more from all the food groups and protein from meats made a bulk of their diet and 22% more of their energy intake. They also took a lot of protein supplements and had hearty amounts of fruit and vegetables, but fewer snack foods than their counterparts.

Dr. Georgina Hold, of the Institute of Medical Sciences at Aberdeen University believes there has never been a more important time to understand the health of our resident microbiota.

In a linked editorial, she said:
Our findings indicate that exercise is another important factor in the relationship between the microbiota, host immunity and host metabolism, with diet playing an important role.She pointed out that we are comprised by trillions of bacteria, the whole of which are implicated in many conditions and determine how well we harvest the energy from the foods we eat.

Does this mean I have to take up rugby?

Not unless that's your thing. But the idea here is that movement matters to your gut. It's not separate from your "diet," its a part of it.

[onawah]

STUDY SHOWS FASTING TRIGGERS STEM CELL REGENERATION

(Though I wonder if this applies to juice fasting, which is a heck of a lot easier to do...)

http://news.therawfoodworld.com/study-shows-fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration/


(TRFW News) A study in the June 5th issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Stem Cell clearly indicated how stem cells shift from dormant to self-renewing when the body experiences prolonged cycles of fasting.(1)

A state of starvation activates recycling of white blood cells
White blood cells decreased in numbers, which is explained by Valter Longo, the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, and director of the USC Longevity Institute: “When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged.” Once the person would start eating again, new white blood cells are created. The study has so far involved both mice and the first human testing stage, phase 1 human clinical trial.

Fasting generates new immune system
Another huge benefit from prolonged fasting is how our levels of IGF-1 lowers as a result. This is a growth-factor hormone linked to the risk of cancer, the progression of tumors and also our aging. Longo explains further:
“PKA is the key gene that needs to shut down in order for these stem cells to switch into regenerative mode. It gives the ‘okay’ for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system.” He and his team also found that: “…the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting. Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system.”

These are great news, especially since statistics show how nearly 14 million people were diagnosed with cancer during 2012 (2), and this new discovery may have a very positive impact on how the consequential damages of chemotherapy treatment will be significantly reduced.

Sources for this article include:

www.sciencedaily.com
www.cancerresearchuk.org

[ThePythonicCow]

STUDY SHOWS FASTING TRIGGERS STEM CELL REGENERATION

(Though I wonder if this applies to juice fasting, which is a heck of a lot easier to do...)
I'm a semi-clueless, semi-newbie at this, but I'd guess not.

I suspect that the body has to switch to its "no food seen for days" metabolism in order to get these fasting effects. The carbs (sugars) in fruit juice would be quite sufficient to avoid this change.

[The Truth Is In There]

Brazilian migraine sufferer found to have calcium stones in brain; gluten the culprit (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2607681/Man-suffered-headaches-10-years-calcium-stones-brain-coeliac-disease.html)

[...]

The doctors treating the man, at the University of São Paulo, say it isn't clear how coeliac disease causes the stones to accumulate in the brain.

One theory is that an inability to absorb iron may be to blame.

it isn't clear because the whole theory is bs. these are all different symptoms that have nothing to do with each other except that energy blockages or just plain lack of life energy and cellular order are at the base of all of them.

the eye problems, for example, are due to a continually reactivated trauma that has to do with either wanting to see something (or someone) and not being able to, or the opposite, not wanting to see something/someone and having to.

the region in the brain that is calcified corresponds with the eyes, it controls the eyes. whenever the trauma is reactivated (quite possibly every day in this case) normal energy supply in the part of the brain which controls the eyes is blocked which leads to calcification of the brain cells. the calcium channels are opened, which means stimulation, but no closed again. that overstimulation leads to excessive calcium accumulation and consequently the damage of these brain cells. when this happens every day year after year, more and more calcium accumulates. this entire mechanism is completely unrelated to gluten sensitivity, which is due to energy blockages or degenerative influence on the digestive system. gluten sensitivity is not a cause, it's an effect. the smart doctors should ask themselves why only that part of the brain is calcified and not others. or does gluten perhaps affect that back of the brain, aluminum the front, perhaps fluoride the center? :rolleyes:


btw, candida infection, since some people here are suffering from that, is also an effect. the candida develops because the digestive systen degenerates and it's the candida's job to help with that degeneration. fungi are simple organisms of a very low order that require little energy. nature uses them to break down matter that suffers from lack of life energy either because not enough is supplied by the environment or because it is so chaotic that it can't be used (like in electricity - that's why candida thrives in people who are exposed to strong electric or magnetic fields).

i've mentioned this elsewhere and just wanted to add it here again. it's always better to find the cause instead of eternally and without long-term success trying to treat symptoms.


I also indulge in a very special type of fermented dairy beverage (I think I wrote about this). It is made with anti-inflammatory bacteria to which a type of mold eating bacteria is added. Despite the allergies I developed while being on the GAPS diet to all things home-fermented...

sounds like you turned your kitchen into a biological lab. i've found that people who go from one supposedly healthy diet to another (gaps, rotten meat, fermented stuff, kefir, you name it...) often end up being allergic to almost all of these things. this is also because the underlying cause is not removed but symptoms are treated until they become untreatable. eventually such a person may not be able to eat and digest anything anymore without problems.

[Hervé]

Good luck in 'splaining that theory to these guys (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?72183-Monsanto-Losing-Grounds&p=845585&viewfull=1#post845585) (<---)

[onawah]

It gets harder to know how to treat the underlying causes when so many of them are becoming more and more pervasive, such as EMFs, GMOs, chemtrails, fluoridated water, etc. etc.
Medical Intuitive Caroline Myss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Myss
...author of Why People Don't Heal and how They Can, Anatomy of the Spirit, etc. who was on the best seller lists for a long time, reportedly got amazing results with very ill clients who miraculously healed once they understood the underlying psychological reasons for their illness.
But we are complex creatures, and I think we have to find as wholisitic an approach to all levels of our being, physical, astral, mental, emotional, spiritual, as we can.
Some of us are canaries in the coal mines.
I found that I could not live in proximity to cell phone towers without having panic attacks and Alzheimers-like symptoms (loss of memory, focus, etc.)
No doubt due to a very traumatic and near fatal NDE brought on by being hit by a speeding hit and run driver while walking across a street, which impacted my being on all levels.
I've been told I have rips in my aura which cause energy leaks, but I've not been able to heal that as yet, so I treat the symptoms as best I can.
Sometimes our choice of treatments for these severe kinds of injuries are hit and miss, but short of escaping to an alternate Earth where everything is pristine and healthy and healing is easy, we can only do the best we can, and report our findings that others might benefit.



sounds like you turned your kitchen into a biological lab. i've found that people who go from one supposedly healthy diet to another (gaps, rotten meat, fermented stuff, kefir, you name it...) often end up being allergic to almost all of these things. this is also because the underlying cause is not removed but symptoms are treated until they become untreatable. eventually such a person may not be able to eat and digest anything anymore without problems.

[onawah]

The Paleo Diet—Is It Right for You? By Dr. Mercola
June 22, 2014
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/06/22/the-paleo-diet.aspx?e_cid=20140622Z1_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20140622Z1&et_cid=DM47112&et_rid=560559122

TlW1Ac4Ng0Q



The Paleo Diet is one of the hottest diet trends around. With celebrity followers and even high-end restaurants taking notice of Paleo principles, some might even say Paleo has gone mainstream.

Here, I interview celebrity chef Pete Evans about his views and experience with the Paleo diet. He currently hosts a leading TV show in Australia called My Kitchen Rules — an amateur cooking competition. Evans also has an American food show that will air this Fall on PBS called Moveable Feast.

“I follow a Paleo diet,” he says. “But do I like it, that word?”

“It fits, but I prefer to call it Eating Real Food; simple as that—food that doesn’t inflame anything in me or cause any distress in my body. I love organic fruits and vegetables (not so many fruits), and I love to know where my meat or protein source comes from.”

From Vegan to Paleo

Evans claims a lifelong interest in health and nutrition, and he’s been a chef for over 25 years. Twenty years ago, he followed a strict vegan regimen. However, it didn’t work out so well.

After losing a lot of weight and becoming anemic—which is a common problem when following a strict vegan diet in which you abstain from all animal foods—he decided to listen to his body more, and to try other alternatives:

“I started eliminating grain because I never eliminated grain while I was a vegan. That was the first major shift for me, then dairy, and refined sugars. You’re left with still a plethora of ingredients to cook with, coming from a chef’s point of view. That’s what I get excited about,” he says.

The Paleo Diet: What Is It?

While we may consider ourselves to be at the pinnacle of human development, our modern food manufacturing processes have not created a race of super-humans in possession of greater health and longevity.

Quite the contrary... Humans today suffer more chronic and debilitating diseases than ever before. And there can be little doubt that our food choices play a major role in this development.

During the Paleolithic period, many thousands of years ago, people ate primarily vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots, and meat, which varied depending on season and availability.

Based upon scientific research examining the types and quantities of foods our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate, the foundation of "The Paleo Diet" is lean meat, including ostrich and bison as well as organ meats, seafood, fresh fruit, and non-starchy vegetables -- a far cry from the standard American diet.

Today, these staples have been largely replaced with refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup, cereal, bread, potatoes, and pasteurized milk products. Most Americans eat a far narrower selection of fruits, vegetables, roots, and nuts, and in lesser quantities than our “cavemen” ancestors.

"Normalizing" your system is the true strength of the so-called caveman diet. By eating foods that are concordant with your genetic ancestry, you can avoid many of the diseases associated with our modern diet. As Dr. Loren Cordain, author of The Paleo Diet and one of the world's leading experts on Paleolithic nutrition, has stated:

"The nutritional qualities of modern processed foods and foods introduced during the Neolithic period are discordant with our ancient and conservative genome. This genetic discordance ultimately manifests itself as various chronic illnesses, which have been dubbed ‘diseases of civilization.’

By severely reducing or eliminating these foods and replacing them with a more healthful cuisine, possessing nutrient qualities more in line with the foods our ancestors consumed, it is possible to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease."

Why the Typical Paleo Diet Might Be Problematic for Some People

Today, at the age of 40, Evans feels like he’s in the best shape of his life. And he credits his “Paleo style” diet for optimizing his health. However, while the “standard” Paleo Diet can be a healthful way of eating, especially compared to the Standard American Diet, I also believe it has certain weaknesses or flaws that could be improved upon.

The primary one is that I believe it calls for too much protein for most people. Protein is freely substituted for carbs as being a healthy choice.

Like my mentor Dr. Ron Rosedale, Evans also recommends being mindful about the amount of protein you eat. Your body only needs so much; when consumed in excess, you may run into problems again.

The reason Dr. Rosedale recommends limiting yourself to one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body weight is because of the stimulatory effect protein (branch-chained amino acids specifically) has on mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)—a pathway that seems to be largely responsible for the pathology seen in cancer growth. When you limit protein to just what your body needs, mTOR remains inhibited, which helps lessen your chances of cancer growth.

I believe it is the rare person who really needs more than one-half gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. Those that are aggressively exercising and competing or pregnant women should have about 25 percent more, but most people rarely need more than 40-70 grams of protein a day.

To determine your lean body mass, find out your percent body fat and subtract from 100. So if you are 20 percent body fat you would have 80 percent lean body mass. Just multiply that by your current weight to get lean body mass. For most people, this means restricting protein intake from 35 to 75 grams a day. As mentioned, pregnant women and those working out extensively need about 25 percent more.

Is It Possible to Eat Too Little Carbs?

Another common objection to the Paleo Diet is that it’s too low in carbs for some people. Generally speaking, if you're on a high-carb diet and suddenly reduce your carb intake, your blood cholesterol profile will improve. Typically, your triglyceride levels will be sharply reduced. However, if your carb intake is below 25 percent (the Paleo Diet is about 23 percent carbs), your body will have to adapt to a scarcity of glucose, which can cause hormonal changes that may negatively impact your blood lipids.

According to Dr. Paul Jaminet, a trained astrophysicist and author of the book Perfect Health Diet, you may be able to tolerate an extremely low-carb diet if your health is really good, because your body can manufacture some glucose from protein. Others may not fare as well. According to Dr. Jaminet:

"The biggest problem is it's not a robust diet. If you get infections (which will raise your body's glucose needs), then you can really get into trouble on a zero carb diet. In general, it's a stressful thing for your body."

While some experts, such as Dr. Ron Rosedale, believe you can't have too little glucose because it's always going to cause some adverse metabolic consequence, Dr. Jaminet, on the other hand, believes that once you get below a certain threshold of glucose in your diet, you can start experiencing certain health challenges.

I believe that the low-carb, low-to-moderate protein, high healthy fat diet is appropriate for most who are insulin or leptin resistant. Once that resistance resolves, then it may become counterproductive to maintain a low-carb approach. Once your weight, blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol normalize, you can then increase your carbs again. If your weight goes up or other symptoms return, then it would be wise to use that approach again.

Does the Paleo Diet Contain Enough Fat?

When you are treating insulin/leptin resistance, I believe most would benefit by decreasing carb consumption, and replacing them with healthy fats. Replacing carbs with too much protein can actually cause health challenges similar to eating too many grain carbs and sugars. The Paleo Diet calls for about 38 percent protein and 39 percent fat, which may actually be too much protein and not enough fat for optimal health.

Again, when you consume protein in levels higher than you require and recommended above (one-half gram per pound of lean body weight), you tend to activate the mTOR pathway, which can help you get large muscles but may also increase your risk of cancer. This pathway is ancient but relatively recently appreciated and has only been known for less than 20 years. Odds are very high your doctor was never taught this in medical school and isn't even aware of it.

Many new cancer drugs are actually being targeted to use the mTOR pathway. Drugs using this pathway have also been given to animals to radically extend their lifespan. But you don't have to use drugs to get this pathway to work for you.

The key thing to remember is that when you reduce carbs and protein, you need to replace the lost calories with high-quality fats such as avocados, butter, coconut oil, nuts, and eggs. Your healthiest option is to ensure your carbs come primarily from fresh, organic non-starchy vegetables like greens; eat limited amounts of high-quality protein; and eat primarily a high-fat diet. Depending on the type of carbs (high fiber or not), most people need anywhere between 50-85 percent fat in their diet and sometimes even higher for optimal health.

This applies to athletes and those who exercise vigorously as well. As noted in a recent Malta Today article,1 a high-fat diet can actually be more beneficial for athletes than traditional carb-loading:

“A gym-goer or athlete consuming a low-carbohydrate diet will in turn teach their working muscles to utilize the fat stores and this is actually more efficient and can level out blood sugar fluctuations... Grain-based carbohydrates also can lead to bloating, creating a certain sluggishness which in turn affects performance in training, and not in a good way...

What about the actual training? Allow your body a chance to adapt to the low carbohydrate intake without overdoing it at the gym, gradually increasing the repetitions or time spent doing cardiovascular exercise. You will soon benefit from the leaner and sharper feel, and you can up the tempo as your body begins to tap into fat stores for energy.”

Key Differences Between My Nutrition Plan and the Paleo Diet

My nutrition plan has many similarities with the Paleo Diet, namely the restriction of sugars and grains, increases in fresh vegetables and a focus on finding high-quality, toxin-free food sources. However, there are some key differences that I want to highlight, as I believe these factors can make a significant difference in your health. My nutrition plan contains the following dietary advice, which the Paleo Diet is lacking:

Less protein, higher healthy fat: In general, it would be unusual for most adults to need more than 100 grams of protein and most likely need close to half that amount. Again, when you reduce protein, you need to replace it with other calories, specifically high-quality fats such as avocados, butter, coconut oil, olives, olive oil, nuts, and eggs.
Dairy is allowed: Dairy, particularly full-fat raw dairy, is allowed in my nutrition plan. I personally do not drink much milk nor think it is necessary to drink milk, but raw dairy from organically-raised grass-fed cows, especially fermented like yogurt or kefir, does have worthwhile nutritional components, as do other whole raw dairy products, like raw-milk cheese.
Seafood should be eaten with caution: The Paleo Diet includes lots of fish and other seafood on a regular basis. However, it is difficult to find seafood that is free from toxin buildup as a result of pollution. For this reason, I only recommend seafood that is high in healthy fats while being minimally exposed to toxic contaminants. Safer options include wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, and anchovies, as well as a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat supplement (krill oil) to make up for lacking seafood in your diet.
Fermented vegetables: One of the best ways to protect your health is by keeping your gut flora healthy by eating naturally fermented foods. Fermented vegetables are a key component of this and are highly recommended in my nutrition plan. One-quarter to one-half cup of fermented veggies with each meal is ideal, but you may need to work up to this amount gradually.
Intermittent fasting: The Paleo Diet is supportive of intermittent fasting, although it does not specifically highlight it. Intermittent fasting is one of the most powerful interventions I know of to shed excess weight and reduce your risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. There are many different variations of intermittent fasting, but if you are like 80 percent of the population and have insulin resistance, my personal recommendation is to fast every day by simply scheduling your eating into a narrower window of time.
Evans’ Favorites: Organ Meats and Fermented Veggies

While Evans does eat a moderate amount of red meat these days, he favors organ meats and other animal parts.

“You go all around the world, and the chefs love to cook with the bits that you usually can’t find in the markets. [Not only] because it is cheap but because it’s got so much flavor. Whether it’s the brains, kidneys, livers, tongue, tail, or the foot, we get excited about that sort of thing. That’s what I guess my mission is: not to encourage people just to eat the offal, but to eat nose to tail if they’re going to eat the animal.”

Evans is also a staunch proponent of fermented vegetables, having read Dr. Natasha McBride’s book on The GAPS Diet. She was the catalyst for me as well; I had dinner with her one night at a Weston Price event where we were both speaking, and I started fermenting vegetables as soon as I got back home. Besides a number of cooking and other food-related TV shows, Evans has also authored two books: Healthy Every Day and The Paleo Chef, which focuses on gluten-and grain-free whole food recipes that are easy to prepare.

“What I consider real food is fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and good-quality protein. [It’s] simple, but the most important thing apart from the health benefits is: it’s delicious, because ‘health food’ has always had that sort of stigma that it’s like eating cardboard, whereas that couldn’t be further from the truth,” he says.

As for the actual process of cooking, Evan recommends keeping it simple. He prefers economy when it comes to cooking, which means making big batches of stock, broth, soup, curry, and stew.

“It’s not just for one meal; I’ll make enough for six meals or even 10 meals. Do it in bulk. That way, you can freeze it down in portions, so you’re not spending all your time in the kitchen, because there are better things to do with your time like spend it with your family. Per meal, I average between 10 to 45 minutes. If I have to spend any longer than that, I probably won’t do it. That’s the type of recipes I like to put into my books.”

In Doubt About What to Eat? Read My Nutrition Plan

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Dietary advice can be a bit of a moving target, as everyone has unique nutritional needs. That said, there are some dietary basics that are foundational, and which I believe will likely never really change—at least in our lifetimes—and that apply to the vast majority, if not everyone. This includes avoiding processed foods and limiting sugar as much as possible.

Aside from making sure your diet is low in sugar and consisting primarily of fresh, whole foods, many of the finer details need to be regularly revised based on new research and increases in wisdom from personal explorations of applying this research. More often than not, some trial and error is required in order to determine what works best for you. For example, while some people achieve great health on a vegan diet, it’s certainly not for everyone. As in Evans’ case, sometimes a vegan diet can do more harm than good, even though it may sound like a very healthy way to live, in theory. As Evans says:

“I fully respect anyone who takes on a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, if it makes you healthy and strong. That’s all I would say: Listen to your body. Do what feels right for yourself. Be your own guinea pig. As soon as something doesn’t feel right or doesn’t make sense to you, maybe you can tweak it a little bit. But don’t be harsh on yourself or feel too much guilt if you got off track either.”

The challenge is to keep up-to-date with it all and have a process that allows you to integrate this information using an easily digestible format. That is one of the primary reasons behind the compilation of my nutrition plan. In the ‘90s, I rejected the idea of writing a book, as by the time it was printed it would be out of date. Instead I chose to focus my efforts on the Internet. I strongly recommend reviewing my nutrition plan whenever your schedule allows. It is a very detailed and comprehensive program – it's basically an entire book in multimedia format. The plan is divided into three stages: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. If you realize you're already doing all the things included in the beginner's phase, then it may be time to move on to the next phase.

If you're new to the site, I encourage you to go through it from the beginning, as it is one of the most powerful tools to truly allow you and your family to take control of your health. If you’re a Paleo Diet fan, you may be able to jump in at the intermediate or advanced level, taking your health to an even higher level than you had before.

[Hervé]

Check the data on this thread as well:

Ketogenic Diet Beats Chemo For Almost All Cancers (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?72429-Ketogenic-Diet-Beats-Chemo-For-Almost-All-Cancers)

[The Truth Is In There]

...got amazing results with very ill clients who miraculously healed once they understood the underlying psychological reasons for their illness.
...
I found that I could not live in proximity to cell phone towers without having panic attacks and Alzheimers-like symptoms (loss of memory, focus, etc.)


that's because these psychological reasons (traumas) create energy blockages in specific places in the body and in the brain (like what i explained above, with the eyes) and disease is the result if energy can't flow properly. long forgotten childhood traumas can thus be reactivated throughout the entire life without the person being aware of it. in a similar situation the person will react not like a grown up but like child. this is one clear indication of a childhood trauma and blocked energy. just as an example. once the people work through the trauma and thus remove the blockage the energy can flow again and the body heals. life and death, health and disease, it all depends on energy flow.

cell phone towers create energetic chaos. even without blockages people will get sick because such chaos is also created in the bodies (etheric and physical). the same goes for electric and especially magnetic fields.

however, what i wanted to express regarding the apparently unsuccesful use of different diets is that it should become obvious after a while that diet can't be the cause (otherwise everybody would have digestive issues, or be allergic to gluten). the underlying cause is always, always blocked energy, in that particular case in the digestive tract. one reason can be traumas regarding "digestion" - in humans usually not in the literal sense. it can be an event that was never properly digested, just as one example.

also, as mentioned elsewhere, there are places that are naturally low or chaotic in energy (over fault lines, water veins or certain mineral deposits). a person will never become healthy if chaos is persistently created in the etheric body by bad energies of a place (or whatever).

these energetic causes - inside (traumas) as well as outside - must be found and removed (or if not possible, as in some "outside" cases, one has to remove oneself from the place), then healing will happen naturally, even with a "normal" diet.

[Hervé]

The Gluten Intolerance Epidemic: Monsanto’s Hegelian Dialectic Dream Come True
(http://www.thedailysheeple.com/gluten-intolerance-epidemic-monsantos-hegelian-dialectic-dream-come-true_062014)
Melissa Melton
The Daily Sheeple (http://www.TheDailySheeple.com)
June 30th, 2014


http://www.thedailysheeple.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gluten-intolerance-is-it-just-a-fad-or-is-todays-wheat-really-toxic_022014-1024x576.jpg (http://www.thedailysheeple.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gluten-intolerance-is-it-just-a-fad-or-is-todays-wheat-really-toxic_022014.jpg)

Just last month, researchers published a new research paper (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0733521013001598) in the Journal of Cereal Science (tagline: “Cereal Science for Food Security, Nutrition and Sustainability”) all about how genetic engineering could save the millions of people suffering daily from gluten intolerance. Gluten-free foods have now become a $4 billion dollar industry.

More and more people are realizing every day that they aren’t as sick as they thought they were — that a reaction to the gluten from wheat found in thousands of products on their grocery store shelves is actually damaging the lining of their intestine, rendering them unable to absorb nutrients properly, which manifests all sorts of horrible health issues.

Gluten intolerance and celiac disease can actually present as over 200 different symptoms. For example, did you know that gluten sensitivities can show up as (http://blog.trueglutenfree.com/gluten-sensitivity-symptoms):


Abnormal Blurry Vision
Abdominal Pain and Distention
Abortion (Spontaneous)
Addison’s Disease
Adenocarcinoma of the Intestines
ADHD
Alopecia (hair loss)
Anemia (caused by nutrient deficiencies – Iron, Folate, B-12, B-6, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Copper)
Angina Pectoris (chest pain/ pressure)
Anorexia
Antiphospholipid Syndrome
Anxiety
Aortic Vasculitis
Apathy
Apthous Ulceers and Canker Sores
Arthritis – Juvenile Rheumatoid, Enteropathic, Psoriatic, Rheumatoid
Asthma
Ataxia
Atherosclerosis
Autism and other learning disorders
Autoimmune Hepatitis
Biliary Cirrhosis
Bitot’s Spots
Bleeding Gums
Blepharitis
Blood in the Stool
Bone Fractures
Bone Pain
Bronchiectasis
Bronchoalveolitis
Cachexia
Cataracts
Cardiomegaly
Cardiomyopathy
Cerebral Perfusion Abnormalities
CFS
Cheilosis
Cholangitis (gall bladder)
Chronic Constipation
Chorea
Coagulation Abnormalities
Coronary Artery Disease
Crohn’s Disease
Cutaneous Vasculitis
Cystic Fibrosis
Delayed Puberty
Dementia
Depression
Dermatitis
Dermatitis Herpetiformis
Dermatomyositis
Diabetes Mellitus Type 1
Diarrhea
Down Syndrome
Dysmenorrhea
Epilepsy
Erythema Nodosum
Failure to Thrive
Gastric Bloating
Glossitis
Grave’s Disease
Growth Retardation
H. Pylori Infection
Heartburn
Hives
Hypoglycemia
Hypogonadism
Hypospenism
Infertility
IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
Impotence
Insomnia
Keratomalacia
Lactose Intolerance
Loss of Smell
Lymphoma
Malnutrition and Nutritional Deficiencies
Melanoma
Mental Retardation
Menopaus (early)
Migraine Headaches
Multiple Sclerosis
Muscle Wasting
Myopathy
NAFL
Non Hodgkin Lymphoma
Nose Bleeds (Spontaneous)
Obesity
Osteomalacia
Osteoporosis
Osteopenia
Pancreatic Insufficiency
Parkinson’s Disease
Parathyroid Carcinoma
PMS
Polyglandular Syndrome
Polymyositis
Psoriasis
Scleroderma
Secondary Food Allergy Response
Short Stature
Sjogren’s Syndrome
SLE
Small Cell Esophageal Cancer
Spina Bifida
Steatorrhea
Thrombocytopenia
Thyroiditis (Hypothyroidism)
Tremors
Ulceractive Colitis
UTI
Vaginitis
Vomiting
Vitiligo

And no, that’s sadly not all.

Due to gluten’s ability to render a sensitive person unable to properly absorb their nutrients, it’s also been tagged for a multitude of reproductive issues and cancer which is on the rise.

While organizations such as one in 133 (http://1in133.org/) have sprung up around this issue, figures show that at least 18 million Americans are sensitive to gluten (meaning they experience negative health symptoms when they eat it) and another 3 million suffer from full-blown Celiac’s Disease, which is an extreme form of gluten sensitivity that can be deadly (although all of it can ultimately be deadly).

Those numbers are conservative at the very best, however, considering

a) they are from 2011 and;

b) it’s a fact that some people don’t show any hardcore symptoms at all

... totally leading them to believe they suffer from something other than gluten intolerance and the resultant nutrient deficiency that follows.

Recently, research has come forward to suggest that it’s the main ingredient glyphosate in Big Agra giant Monsanto’s worldwide best-seller Roundup that is potentially behind the gluten intolerance (http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/study-monsantos-roundup-causes-gluten-intolerance/) epidemic we’re seeing today:

“Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic.

“Fish exposed to glyphosate develop digestive problems that are reminiscent of celiac disease. Celiac disease is associated with imbalances in gut bacteria that can be fully explained by the known effects of glyphosate on gut bacteria.

“Characteristics of celiac disease point to impairment in many cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are involved with detoxifying environmental toxins, activating vitamin D3, catabolizing vitamin A, and maintaining bile acid production and sulfate supplies to the gut.

“Glyphosate is known to inhibit cytochrome P450 enzymes. Deficiencies in iron, cobalt, molybdenum, copper, and other rare metals associated with celiac disease can be attributed to glyphosate’s strong ability to chelate these elements…

“Glyphosate residues in wheat and other crops are likely increasing recently due to the growing practice of crop desiccation [drying] just prior to the harvest. We argue that the practice of “ripening” sugar cane with glyphosate may explain the recent surge in kidney failure among agricultural workers in Central America. We conclude with a plea to governments to reconsider policies regarding the safety of glyphosate residues in foods.” (source (http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/study-monsantos-roundup-causes-gluten-intolerance/)) Monsanto also began producing genetically modified glyphosate tolerant sorghum in the last decade, which is used in many of the gluten-free foods that make up that $4 billion gluten-free food market and which Monsanto mentions on its website (http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/sorghum-101.aspx) “is an excellent substitute for wheat for those who cannot tolerate gluten.” So what now?

Gluten sensitivities are spreading throughout modern society like cancer, and glyphosate is everywhere these days. We’re using more glyphosate now than at any other time since it was invented, and that figure is not set to lessen any time soon with the continued proliferation of Monsanto’s glyphosate-resistant crops all over the world.

Well, the “answer” the scientific community has come up with is…you guessed it…more GMO. One of the key components of the research paper first mentioned above is the creation of a transgenic approach:

Their report acknowledges that creating strains of wheat with reduced gluten toxicity is difficult using conventional breeding methods, and that genetic modification, in particular a technology called RNA interference (RNAi), hold the greatest promise in reducing or ‘silencing’ the gluten proteins in wheat and other cereals.

Such technology allows researchers to develop gluten-free wheat strains by adjusting the gluten fractions toxic to those with celiac disease. They acknowledge that their efforts could face resistance fueled by global concerns around genetically modified foods.

They also note that current and prior genetic modification efforts have not produced products with tangible benefits to the consumer. Rather, the main beneficiaries of such efforts have been large companies and/or farmers. (source (http://www.celiac.com/articles/23688/1/Is-Genetically-Modified-Wheat-the-Solution-to-Celiac-Disease/Page1.html)) So you see, we need genetic modification to save us from the burgeoning gluten intolerance issue! Well, who better to save us than global genetic modification giant Monsanto who is already in the process (http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-gmo-wheat-crop-648/) of testing a genetically modified strain of wheat as we speak?

Indeed, Monsanto has actually spent the better part of a decade-and-a-half researching GMO wheat. The company began field testing a variety starting in 1998, but suspended operations in 2005 after determining that a super-wheat strain wasn’t quite ready to be launched. See how that works?
Problem: glyphosate proliferation.
Reaction: widespread gluten-intolerance.
Solution: GMO wheat.
Diabolical, no?

Delivered by The Daily Sheeple (http://www.TheDailySheeple.com/)
Contributed by Melissa Melton of The Daily Sheeple (http://www.TheDailySheeple.com).

[onawah]

A net radio show upcoming about gluten intolerance on Talk Hour. See:
http://www.naturalhealth365.com/natural_healing/gluten-free-diet-immune-system-1076.html
Also, great news about almonds, which are even better than we thought:
http://www.naturalhealth365.com/food_news/organic-almonds-antioxidants-1075.html

[conk]

In trying to avoid gluten and other grain proteins I continue to find them lurking in the most unusual places.

Yes indeed, almonds are a rich source of nutrients. It is very hard to find a quality vitamin E supplement with all 8 constituent parts. Almonds contain them all. Good luck finding truly raw almonds. I'm not sure the USA produces any that are not chemically "pasteurized". Nutz.com sells almonds from Spain that are truly raw. A little more costly, but....

[The Truth Is In There]

wow..eliminate gluten and you eliminate about 50% of all diseases known to man, or so they would have you believe. sounds like it's the most toxic substance in the universe. why am i not dead yet, or suffering from all of these diseases?

the answer is that the gluten protein is just a trigger and not a cause in and of itself, otherwise the human race would long be extinct. the body saves this trigger information in its database, once it has connected it with a certain trauma that created an energy blockage somewhere in the body because the gluten happened to be in the digestive tract at the time (being there most of the time in most humans, normally). every time gluten is eaten later on the same blockage is triggered and eventually disease develops. depending on the trauma you get lots and lots of different diseases all triggered by that one protein. fancy that!

it's like the dog that had his tail in the car door when it was closed. the dog may forever after avoid cars because they hurt his tail. humans may forever after avoid gluten once gluten is associated with a certain trauma that happened once and caused a disease. it's nature's way to keep us out of trouble.

[Hervé]

Boy's Ear Problems Had Rare Cause: Gut Disease (http://www.livescience.com/46879-crohns-disease-ear-pain.html)


By Rachael Rettner, Senior Writer | July 18, 2014 05:11pm ET

http://www.livescience.com/46879-crohns-disease-ear-pain.html

http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/068/331/iFF/child-ear-140718.jpg?1405719421
A child's ear. Credit: studio online/Shutterstock.com


A 10-year-old boy in North Carolina suffered from ear pain and hearing problems for years before doctors were finally able to crack the case: He did not have an ear condition after all, but an underlying disease in the gut.

The boy saw multiple doctors for his ear symptoms, which included episodes of ear pain (http://www.livescience.com/34720-ear-infections-symptoms-and-treatment.html), bloody ear discharge and problems hearing. He was prescribed eardrops, antibiotics and other medications, but nothing seemed to help, said Dr. Eileen M. Raynor, a pediatric head-and-neck surgeon at Duke University Medical Center who treated the boy.

"It was like swimmer's ear gone crazy," Raynor said. "He was really miserable." The boy was also being treated for the skin condition psoriasis (http://www.livescience.com/42285-psoriasis-skin-treatment-cure.html), and had skin lesions on his scalp and other parts of his body.

When the boy arrived at Raynor's center, his ears were red and inflamed, and were leaking pus, and his ear canals were narrow from inflammation. Raynor said she could not see his eardrums because the ear canals were so inflamed and damaged. [16 Oddest Medical Cases (http://www.livescience.com/37919-oddest-medical-case-reports.html)]

Doctors put the boy under anesthesia to perform a biopsy of his ear. Results from this biopsy and a second skin biopsy revealed that he had a skin condition that can occur as a complication of Crohn's disease (http://www.livescience.com/40066-crohns-disease.html).

Crohn's disease is a condition that causes swelling and irritation in the digestive tract, which can lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. In rare cases, patients can develop skin disorders, eye inflammation and mouth sores, but nearly everyone who develops these complications has been diagnosed with Crohn's disease before the skin symptoms show up, Raynor said.

Doctors likely didn't suspect Crohn's disease in the child because he did not have any stomach symptoms, except for occasional constipation. "It really wasn't on anyone's radar screen because he didn’t have any GI [gastrointestinal] complaints," Raynor said.

This is the first case that Raynor knows of in which a child with Crohn's disease had ear symptoms, she said. "There was nothing that I could find anywhere that described what we were seeing in this kid."

A gastroenterologist confirmed the Crohn’s disease diagnosis.The boy was given infliximab, a medication used to treat Crohn's disease (http://www.livescience.com/39880-inflammatory-bowel-disease.html) that blocks a protein involved in inflammation. After treatment, the boy's hearing improved, and he no longer has ear pain or discharge, although his ear canals are still somewhat narrow.

"He is significantly better since he's been on the correct treatment," Raynor said.

It's possible that the child's skin symptoms were also mainly a result of Crohn's disease, but a dermatologist who saw the child said that the child had psoriasis as well as Crohn's, Raynor said.

A report of the case was published yesterday (July 18) in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. Raynor said she wanted the case published so that it would bring awareness to these symptoms as possible complications of Crohn's disease.

[onawah]

Did antibiotics cause the polio epidemic?...and much more....
This is by FAR the best explanation of the origins of the polio, AIDS and cancer epidemics that I have come across to date.
From Giovanni's post on Up at the Ranch at:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?3596-Up-At-The-Ranch-And-Beyond&p=858355&viewfull=1#post858355


Coast To Coast AM - July 26, 2014

The Monkey Virus Conspiracy

"Investigator Ed Haslam has been researching the chilling links between the murder of Dr. Mary Sherman and the CIA, cancer-virus experiments in secret laboratories, and our contemporary health system. He joined host Dave Schrader (email) for the entire program to discuss new crime scene photos and other evidence to make an undeniable case against nearly untouchable people, not only for the murder of this respected scientist, but also for causing epidemics of soft-tissue cancers and other diseases."

program links here:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2014/07/26

7zBoEZdgCKw


There is a separate thread on this topic here:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?73254-The-Cancer-epidemic-is-20-times-the-Polio-epidemic&highlight=cancer+epidemic

[ThePythonicCow]

More from Dr. Seneff:

Meet the controversial MIT scientist who claims she discovered a cause of gluten intolerance (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

Ari LeVaux
Alternet (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

...
In recent months, Seneff co-authored two papers proposing a connection between the herbicide glyphosate and gluten sensitivity. I spoke with Seneff by phone about this hypothesis, her transition from computer science into biology, and her reputation in the scientific community.
~~~~~~~~~

Mel Fabregas has just posted an interview with Stephanie Seneff on Sanitas Radio: Glyphosate [Roundup]: The GMO Pathway to Disease & Cellular Death (Audio at this link) (http://www.sanitasradio.com/guests/2014/08aug/SR-140805-sseneff-p.php).

http://thepythoniccow.us/Stephanie_Seneff_Glycophosphate.jpg (http://www.sanitasradio.com/guests/2014/08aug/SR-140805-sseneff-p.php)
The (lengthy) description includes:




Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression. It is a multifactorial disease associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure and cancer. Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic.

[Hervé]

Thanks Paul!

Reposted it here GMO And Related Stuff (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?72043-GMO-And-Related-Stuff) as well!
(http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?72043-GMO-And-Related-Stuff)

[RunningDeer]

In trying to avoid gluten and other grain proteins I continue to find them lurking in the most unusual places.

Yes indeed, almonds are a rich source of nutrients. It is very hard to find a quality vitamin E supplement with all 8 constituent parts. Almonds contain them all. Good luck finding truly raw almonds. I'm not sure the USA produces any that are not chemically "pasteurized". Nutz.com sells almonds from Spain that are truly raw. A little more costly, but....

Thanks for the information, Conk. One minor correction, Nuts.com (http://www.nuts.com). (The other site took me to 'nuts and bolts'.) BTW: I collect & use many of your post on health tips.

RunningDeer <3

[RunningDeer]

:bump2: Dr. Stephanie Seneff is new to me. I've got more of her vids lined up. Thanks, Paul.


More from Dr. Seneff:

Meet the controversial MIT scientist who claims she discovered a cause of gluten intolerance (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

Ari LeVaux
Alternet (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

...
In recent months, Seneff co-authored two papers proposing a connection between the herbicide glyphosate and gluten sensitivity. I spoke with Seneff by phone about this hypothesis, her transition from computer science into biology, and her reputation in the scientific community.
~~~~~~~~~

Mel Fabregas has just posted an interview with Stephanie Seneff on Sanitas Radio: Glyphosate [Roundup]: The GMO Pathway to Disease & Cellular Death (Audio at this link) (http://www.sanitasradio.com/guests/2014/08aug/SR-140805-sseneff-p.php).

http://thepythoniccow.us/Stephanie_Seneff_Glycophosphate.jpg (http://www.sanitasradio.com/guests/2014/08aug/SR-140805-sseneff-p.php)
The (lengthy) description includes:




Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression. It is a multifactorial disease associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure and cancer. Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic.

[StandingWave]

It cannot be said often enough: modern strains of wheat are toxic to the human physiology! It's also about a lot more than only gluten! I've seen Dr. William Davis (cardiologist) referenced in other threads in PA but I feel the information he has to share is so important that it should be understood by everyone in search of health. Here is an excellent article that explains his findings: Modern wheat is the perfect chronic poison says expert (http://www.undergroundhealth.com/modern-wheat-is-the-perfect-chronic-poison-says-expert/)

[onawah]

From Jon Barron's newsletter, always a good source of cutting edge nutritional info


Aloe Vera: The Plant of Immortality
by Jennifer Good 8/8/2014

Daily Health Tip A brief look into the history of aloe vera will reveal the truly amazing medicinal uses this plant possesses. Ancient Egyptians referred to it as "the plant of immortality," and the Native Americans called it "the mystery plant." Over the centuries, medicine men and women alike jealously guarded the true power and potential of this plant. Which leaves us with the question, "Is there even more to discover about this miraculous succulent?"

If you know anything about aloe vera, you probably know it's used in treating sunburns. But, what about beyond the sunburn? Aloe vera is an amazing mixture of more than 200 constituents, including polysaccharides, enzymes, glycoproteins, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.

Almost legendary for its healing and regenerative powers, the true potential of aloe vera benefits were merely waiting to be tapped. For instance, it has been shown to rapidly speed up the healing time of flesh wounds and burns, increase oxygen levels in the blood, reduce inflammation, and fight cancer. Furthermore, it provides a plethora of organic soldiers designed to literally consume bacteria, viruses, parasites, and even cancer cells. These health benefits are too prominent to ignore, which is why you'll find aloe vera in Jon Barron's Private Reserve Superfood formula.

However, the problem has always been that aloe's key active ingredients were so diluted in liquids and gels and so destroyed in processing (especially in dried aloe concentrates) that only tiny amounts were ever available for use by the human body. It is almost miraculous that even with these limitations, aloe vera benefits were effective. It is only within the last couple of decades, however, that scientists have learned how to concentrate the active ingredients in aloe to levels far, far, far beyond what was possible before - while at the same time preserving the integrity of the key ingredients. And then, within just the last 10 years, that process has been significantly enhanced to almost unimaginable levels.

The active polysaccharide fractions in aloe are called galacto-mannans or beta-glucomannans. These polysaccharides have been shown in laboratory studies to act as a bridge between foreign proteins (such as virus particles) and macrophage cells in the human body, facilitating the destruction of the invading protein by the macrophage. Activating the receptor sites of the macrophages is also a key to the overall boosting of cell-mediated immunity, which, significantly, is deficient in HIV infection and other immune disorders. In addition, aloe polysaccharides also protect the bone marrow from damage by toxic chemicals and drugs.

These various effects, while seemingly widespread and unrelated, are in fact due to one simple process that occurs at the cell membrane. Acemannan (the name often used for aloe beta-glucomannans, acetylated polymannans and mucopolysaccharides) is a long chain sugar that interjects itself into all cell membranes. This results in an increase in the fluidity and permeability of the membranes allowing toxins to flow out of the cell more easily and nutrients to enter the cell more easily. This results in improved cellular metabolism throughout the body and an overall boost in energy production.

Following are a few of the vital functions Acemannan and the other constituents of aloe have been found to perform. They...

Make cells more resistant to viruses and pathogenic bacteria by incorporating themselves into cell walls
Improve overall cellular metabolism and functioning
Reduce inflammation
Provide critical lubrication of joints; helping to prevent arthritis and to heal it once it has developed
Aid in the absorption of water, minerals, and nutrients in the GI tract
Reduce pain
Improve vascular flow
Reduce scarring
Improve macrophage activity as much as tenfold
Enhance macrophage effectiveness in modulating the entire immune system
Enhance macrophage effectiveness in stimulating, producing, and releasing antibodies
Increase the body's own production of interferon, interleukins
Increase the number of antibody forming T-cells in the spleen
Increase the number and activity of killer T-cell and increase monocyte activity
Fight fungal infections, such as: Athlete's foot, Ringworm, Pruritus anivalvae, Balnea, Essential Pruritus, and Vaginal yeast infections
Help heal athletic injuries such as: Muscle cramps, Sprains, Strains, Bruises, Swelling, Soreness, Tendonitis, and Bursitis
Soothe and promote the healing of intestinal disorders such as: Indigestion, Heartburn, Hyper-acidity, Peptic and Duodenal Ulcers, Colitis, and Hemorrhoids
Promote the healing of kidney disorder
Help with diabetes
Kill parasites such as: Pinworms and Threadworms
Speed wound healing by as much as 35%
Reduce allergic reactions
Stimulate bone marrow activity
Stimulate fibroblasts to release collagen and elastin to make new tissue
The bottom line is that the aloe vera benefits found in concentrated fractions enhance the functioning of the entire immune system, detoxify the body, promote the repair of a wide range of tissues and organs, improve digestive functions, and help with the destruction and elimination of invading bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
For more great topics on natural health visit the website, JonBarron.org!

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutein
https://www.macular.org/lutein
http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA59576
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/51711.php

[angelichuman]

Oh my goodness omg! I didn't realize the wheat intolerance/allergy could be glycophosphate intolerance/allergy!
duh, its not just the food, its where it grew whats put on it, I forgot about that!


:bump2: Dr. Stephanie Seneff is new to me. I've got more of her vids lined up. Thanks, Paul.


More from Dr. Seneff:

Meet the controversial MIT scientist who claims she discovered a cause of gluten intolerance (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

Ari LeVaux
Alternet (http://www.alternet.org/food/meet-controversial-mit-scientist-who-claims-have-discovered-cause-gluten-sensitivty?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark)

...
In recent months, Seneff co-authored two papers proposing a connection between the herbicide glyphosate and gluten sensitivity. I spoke with Seneff by phone about this hypothesis, her transition from computer science into biology, and her reputation in the scientific community.
~~~~~~~~~

Mel Fabregas has just posted an interview with Stephanie Seneff on Sanitas Radio: Glyphosate [Roundup]: The GMO Pathway to Disease & Cellular Death (Audio at this link) (http://www.sanitasradio.com/guests/2014/08aug/SR-140805-sseneff-p.php).

http://thepythoniccow.us/Stephanie_Seneff_Glycophosphate.jpg (http://www.sanitasradio.com/guests/2014/08aug/SR-140805-sseneff-p.php)
The (lengthy) description includes:




Celiac disease, and, more generally, gluten intolerance, is a growing problem worldwide, but especially in North America and Europe, where an estimated 5% of the population now suffers from it. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, skin rashes, macrocytic anemia and depression. It is a multifactorial disease associated with numerous nutritional deficiencies as well as reproductive issues and increased risk to thyroid disease, kidney failure and cancer. Here, we propose that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide, Roundup®, is the most important causal factor in this epidemic.

[Hervé]

More Pesticides Coming to Our Food (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/19/gm-crops-pesticides-herbicides.aspx)

August 19, 2014
By Dr. Mercola


http://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/Public/2014/August/excessive-pesticide-use.jpg

[...]

What’s the Big Deal About Glyphosate Residues in Your Food?
Glyphosate residues in the amount of “parts per million” might not seem like such a big issue, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. While Monsanto insists that Roundup is safe, a peer-reviewed report authored by Anthony Samsel, a retired science consultant, and a long-time contributor to the Mercola.com Vital Votes Forum, and Dr. Stephanie Seneff, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reveals how glyphosate wrecks human health.7 (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/19/gm-crops-pesticides-herbicides.aspx#_edn7)

They argue that glyphosate residues (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/15/glyphosate-health-effects.aspx), found in most commonly consumed foods in the Western diet courtesy of GM sugar, corn, soy, and wheat, “enhance the damaging effects of other food-borne chemical residues and toxins in the environment to disrupt normal body functions and induce disease.” Interestingly, your gut bacteria are a key component of glyphosate’s primary mechanism of harm.

Monsanto has steadfastly claimed that Roundup is harmless to animals and humans because the mechanism of action it uses (which allows it to kill weeds), called the shikimate pathway, is absent in all animals. However, the shikimate pathway IS present in bacteria, and that’s one key to understanding how it causes such widespread systemic harm in both humans and animals.

Now, with the impending approval of the new GM crops, you’re going to see increased exposure to even more herbicide residues, including the highly toxic dicamba and 2,4-D. If you eat processed foods, most of which are made with GM corn and soy ingredients, you’re consuming glyphosate residues, and will then be exposed to the forthcoming dicamba and 2,4-D residues as well, probably in each and every bite. Knowing this, and the fact that tests show people in 18 countries across Europe already have glyphosate in their bodies,8 (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/19/gm-crops-pesticides-herbicides.aspx#_edn8) this should leave you very, very concerned…

[...]

Full article: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/08/19/gm-crops-pesticides-herbicides.aspx

*************************************************************

That's what one gets when a solution to a "problem" becomes a problem worst than the initial one...

The actual problem was not that food supplies were dwindling... but how to control populations by controlling the food supply... you know, one of those Agenda 21 bright ideas...