Guest Post: How to Starve Cancer Out of Your Body - Avoid These Top 4 Cancer-Feeding Foods

We have heard it many, many times before.  You are what you eat!  Don't take this so lightly anymore, it's time to listen and learn and take action today to begin a new healthy lifestyle. 

I believe I have found one of my new favorite blogs by Dr. Mercola.  To follow is information that I myself have shared previously and encourage everybody to take notice and put into action these lifestyle changes.  Study after study supports the following information.  Visit www.affordablegiftsonline.com for additional resources and USDA Certified Organic Beef, and poultry.

Be sure to visit www.livewellintl.com/jackiebennett for your free Nutrition Seminar and access to the number one rated nutritional supplements. 

 

How to Starve Cancer Out of Your Body - Avoid These Top 4 Cancer-Feeding Foods

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Christine Horner began her career as a board certified general- and plastic surgeon, performing breast reconstructive surgeries on women who'd had full mastectomies due to breast cancer.
In this interview, she shares her extensive knowledge about breast cancer—its causes and its cures, and the pro's and con's of various screening methods.
Her interest in breast cancer began while she was still in college, when her mother developed the disease.
Thirteen years later, when her mother's cancer returned, Dr. Horner became very active with the American Cancer Society.
For a time, she was a vice-president and the Kentucky state spokesperson for the American Cancer Society on breast cancer issues.

"We were trained to say that we don't know what causes breast cancer and we have no known cures; the best things that women can do are breast exams and mammograms," she says.
"… In my practice, I was watching women get younger and younger when I was doing breast reconstruction on them.
Finally, I was doing women in their 20s. I thought something is way wrong with this picture."  I thought why don't we just look through the medical literature and see if there's anything that research shows that women can do, that's within our control that will lower our risks. I had no idea what I was going to find… But when I looked, I instantly found thousands of studies that show exactly why we have a cancer epidemic…"

What's Causing the Cancer Epidemic?

What Dr. Horner discovered was that there are a number of habits we've stopped doing in our modern culture that are highly protective. We've dramatically altered our diets—shunning our native, whole-foods cuisine for highly processed fare—and engage in very little physical activity, for example.

"We're telling women that all they can do is mammogram [screening], and it's extremely disempowering," Dr. Horner says. "You feel like you have no control over it.  But if you look at epidemiological studies… we know that people that live in Asia have a very low incidence of breast cancer or prostate cancer… [W]e have the studies showing that if an Asian woman moves to the United States and adopts our American diet and lifestyle, within one generation her risk will match that of an American woman's.  It's like "Hello? What are we doing or not doing that they're doing or not doing that's making such a big difference? "

Dr. Horner was eventually introduced to the system of Ayurvedic medicine, and the more she learned about it, the more she felt there were answers therein that needed to be shared with people on a wider scale.

'[T]here are so many really simple things people can do that can have a dramatic effect on their health," she says. "Basically, the more you learn about natural medicine, the more you'll realize that we're just telling our patients lies– not on purpose, but from what we have been taught from the pharmaceutical companies and so forth."

She pitched the idea to television stations in Cincinnati to let her talk about complementary and alternative medicine, and ended up being the first syndicated segment on the news related to complementary and alternative medicine, which ran from 1999 through 2002. At that point, she decided to quit her surgery practice to focus on teaching people how to become and stay healthy naturally, and wrote the book: Waking the Warrior Goddess: Dr. Christine Horner's Program to Protect Against and Fight Breast Cancer, which contains all-natural approaches for protecting against and treating breast cancer. Dr. Horner's book won the IPPY award in 2006 for "Best book in health medicine and nutrition."

"[W]e have the answers to the breast cancer epidemic," she says. "We truly do– and it's very simple. If you have a terrible diet and lifestyle and you do just one thing, you cut your risk in half. You do more than one thing and they will multiply up together. They don't add up together. They multiply up together, so it becomes extremely easy to dramatically lower your risk of breast cancer."

It's worth mentioning that the same strategies apply for other types of cancer as well. Prostate and colon cancer tumors, for example, are similar to breast cancer tumors, as certain hormones cause them all to grow. Hence, protective strategies that are effective against breast cancer also work on these other types of cancer. Cancer prevention strategies will also virtually eliminate most other chronic disorders.

The Problem with Conventional Cancer Screenings

While diagnostic screenings have their place, some cancer screens are just about worthless… The wisdom of using the PSA test, for example, which checks for prostate cancer, has recently been questioned. Ditto for mammograms.

"Looking at the diagnostic tests that are currently available, none of them are perfect," Dr. Horner says. "Everything has its pros and cons…  [M]ammography produces radiation, which has been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer. It's like, "Why are you doing the test to look at a disease when it's actually causing the disease, too?"  … It does pick things up at earlier stages, but the problem is that it's not very specific. So when it looks and it sees something… that looks suspicious, it is wrong 80 percent of the time. In the United States, there's roughly a million breast biopsies done per year, and 800,000 of them are unnecessary."

One of the best cancer screening methods is self-examination. But you need to make sure you're doing it correctly. For more information about how to do a breast self exam, please see this previous article.
MRI's, which do not use ionizing radiation, are not a practical tool as they are very expensive, and, like mammograms, MRI scans are not very specific. Ultrasound is another technique used in Western medicine. The traditional ultrasound can see whether a mass is cystic or solid. But while a solid mass is generally considered to be something that might be of concern, this is not 100 percent certain either, as cancer tumors can sometimes have cysts in them.

"Now there's a relatively new ultrasound that uses a color mode," Dr. Horner says. "It's called elastography. But there aren't very many centers in the United States that use it. I go to the Center of the Hoxsey Clinic, to Dr. Arturo Rodriguez at Tijuana. It has a color scale that measures the elasticity of the cell membranes. Cancer cells are very stiff, whereas normal cells have more fluidity to them. It'll show up as red if it has a lot of stiffness to it, as a cancer cell, or blue if it has elasticity… It's a very good tool."

On Thermography

Another form of cancer screen, which is still considered controversial in conventional medicine, is thermography, which gives you an infrared image of your body. By looking at heat and blood vessel patterns you can determine whether there are areas of concern.

"[B]efore you even get a tumor formation, the very first thing that happens is new blood vessels start to grow into the area where the tumor may form. Those blood vessels grow abnormally. They grow an abnormal amount of patterns and they produce an abnormal amount of heat. That's what thermography is checking for," Dr. Horner explains.

As with most new technologies, thermography hit some snags in its earlier stages, and fell out of favor in the early 70s. However, the technology has gotten a lot more sophisticated over the years, and is now computerized; eliminating the need for highly trained technicians to evaluate the results.

"The problem we still have today with thermography is that we don't have standardization," Dr. Horner explains. "We don't have a uniform way that people are tested and trained with uniform equipment, and so forth… But there's definitely a movement… to do standardization, and to get that technology available for women, because this is a technology that has no health detriments associated with it. It does not use radiation or anything harmful to your body."

Unfortunately, the advocates of mammography perceive thermography as a threat to their business model. So there's tremendous pressure against it, including from the federal regulatory agencies.

"It's unfortunate," Dr. Horner says, "but our country is run by big business. It's just is, so anytime we want to shift anything culturally like that, and we're going against established business, we have trouble because it's all about money."

For example, many of the presidents of the American Cancer Society were members of the Radiological Association, which is the industry supporting the mammography component. The entire medical field is littered with massive conflicts of interest.

'We can see that everywhere. You look in the FDA—there are people from Monsanto that work in the FDA. Unfortunately, people think, "the United States is not very corrupt." But actually, it's extremely corrupt," she says.

Still, there are many good reasons for considering thermography. To ensure you're getting the highest standard of care, Dr. Horner recommends using a practitioner certified by the International Academy of Clinical Thermography, an independent non-profit organization that provides objective, third-party certifications. Their website lists qualified thermography centers across the US, Canada, and some other countries, such as France, Trinidad, and Zambia.

Most Natural Prevention Strategies Can Reduce Your Cancer Risk by Half...

Through her research, Dr. Horner has gathered a large number of cancer-prevention strategies—about 50 in all! Even more astounding is the rate of effectiveness of many of these strategies.

"[I]f you look at the studies, virtually every single thing that has an influence [causes] almost a 50 percent reduction in cancer risk… and if you combine them, like I said, you'll get these synergistic results where they'll multiply up as far as their effect is concerned.
I'd say the most important thing is what you do or do not put in your mouth… because you can have huge influences by the foods you consume– the spices, the herbs, and so forth. And, the things that you avoid, that's going to give you the biggest results. … Vitamin D cuts your risks in half. Turmeric and anti-inflammatories cut your risk in half. I could go through each thing—and I'm telling you the research shows that there's about 40 to 50 percent reduction [in risk]—so… to say that one is necessarily better than anything else, that's a really hard thing to claim."

The Top Four Cancer-Promoting Foods

Dr. Horner brings up an excellent point, and that is that in order to be effective, you must first STOP doing that which is promoting cancer growth (or poor health in general), and then all the other preventive strategies have the chance to really have an impact. Addressing your diet should be at the top of your list, and rather than adding certain foods, you'll want to eliminate the most dangerous culprits first.
Naturally, processed foods and soft drinks do not belong in a cancer-preventive diet...
Dr. Horner, believes red meat from animals reared in confined animal feeding operations (CAFO's) is also a MAJOR contributor to cancer. These animals are given antibiotics, growth hormones and other veterinary drugs that get stored in their tissues. Additionally, cooking the meat over high heat creates heterocyclic amines, which further add to its carcinogenic effect.
While I do recommend eating meat, I agree that there is absolutely NO benefit to eating CAFO beef. The ONLY type of meat I recommend is organically-raised, grass-fed meats. It's hard for a lot of people to grasp the difference between CAFO and organic meat, but truly, they are like two different species in terms of their nutritional content. One is health harming while the other is beneficial.
So when we're talking about the detrimental impact of red meat on your health, especially in terms of feeding cancer, please understand that we're talking specifically about CAFO beef, aka "factory farmed" meat. Next on the list of cancer-promoters is sugar (this includes ALL forms of sugar, including fructose and grains).

"To me, sugar has no redeeming value at all, because they found that the more we consume it, the more we're fuelling every single chronic disease," Dr. Horner says. "In fact, there was a study done about a year ago… and the conclusion was that sugar is a universal mechanism for chronic disease. It kicks up inflammation. It kicks up oxygen free radicals. Those are the two main processes we see that underlie any single chronic disorder, including cancers. It fuels the growth of breast cancers, because glucose is cancer's favorite food. The more you consume, the faster it grows."

Next is the type of fats that you consume. It's important to remember that every cell membrane is made out of fat, as is your brain. According to Dr. Horner, bad-fats in the diet are a major contributor to ill health and cancer. On the list of fats to eliminate are:

• Animal fats from CAFO-raised animals
• Trans fats
• Partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fats

Healthy fats of particular importance for cancer prevention are omega-3 and omega-9. According to Dr. Horner, omega-3 in particular serve to effectively slow down tumor growth in estrogen-sensitive cancers such as breast-, prostate- and colon cancers. Fourth on the list of cancer promoters is ANY item that contains xenoestrogens (chemicals that mimic estrogen). This can become a rather long list once you start including any food contaminated with such estrogen-mimicking chemicals, such as BPA, found in the linings of canned goods and in plastics. The list gets truly unwieldy when you include personal care products that contain such chemicals as well…

"There are case reports of five- and six-year-olds going through secondary sex characteristics because of the shampoo that they were using... There are all sorts of different sources where we're exposed to these chemicals from our foods and from the products that we use.
What we're seeing is younger and younger puberty. Around the world, the average age is about 16  years old. In the United States, it's 10 years old now, and sometimes even younger. The problem is that with each menstrual period there is a surge of estradiol, which is the strongest, most abundant form of estrogen, and the one that's most associated with breast cancer. If you start your period very young, you'll have more periods in your lifetime than what a person would have, obviously, if they started at an older age.
In addition to that, when a girl goes through puberty, her breast cells become really sensitive to environmental toxins, radiation, and so forth. They're considered immature. They haven't differentiated– as a more scientific term for it– so there's a longer period of time that they're exposed to these toxins where they have a greater sensitivity."

Dr. Horner reviews a number of other important factors that influence your cancer risk, so for more details, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript.

Eating for Cancer Prevention

According to Dr. Horner, the research clearly shows that the one food that is the most important for optimal health is plant foods.

"Plants are packed full of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that are crucial for our health. They also have hundreds of phytochemicals in them. These don't have any nutritional or caloric value, but they are like natural medicines, and some of them behave exactly like chemotherapy," she says.
"Every plant has some anti-cancer properties to them. There are some that are standouts. Cruciferous vegetables are something that I really recommend. They're a family of vegetables that include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, collards, and Brussels sprouts…
All of them have several different chemicals in common. They've got indole-3-carbinol, Calcium D-glucarate, and sulforaphane. They have big anti-cancer properties to them, and they inhibit the growth of breast, prostate, colon cancer and a variety of other ones. Of all the families of vegetables to consume, [cruciferous vegetables] are the ones to be aware of, so you can make sure you're including that in your diet frequently."

Naturally, you'll want to make sure the vegetables are fresh, and ideally locally grown and organic.  Besides cruciferous veggies, another standout plant for cancer-prevention is flax seed. The lignans in flax seed inhibit the growth of cancer in about a dozen different ways, including the exact same mechanism as the anti-cancer drug Tamoxifen and Arimidex, which shut down an enzyme in fat cells called aromatase that converts androgens into estrogens.

"I hear from patients, "Oh! My oncologist told me not to take flaxseeds, because they're estrogenic,"" Dr. Horner says."They don't understand how plant estrogens or "phytoestrogens" work.
There are all sorts of different strengths to estrogens. Let's say estradiol, which is the strongest, most abundant form– if it hooks on to the estrogen receptor, it may cause a thousand cell divisions. But if a plant estrogen hooks on, it may cause one. When you flood your system with these plant estrogens, I'd say it's kind of like a game of musical chairs. There are only certain numbers of receptors, and whoever gets their first, gets it. They're blocking the strong estrogens from getting on, so that's why it has an inhibitory effect."

Other Lifestyle Factors that Influence Your Cancer Risk

Other lifestyle factors that have been found to have an impact on chronic disease and cancer include:

• Vitamin D—There's overwhelming evidence pointing to the fact that vitamin D deficiency plays a crucial role in cancer development. As mentioned earlier, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure. And if you are being treated for cancer it is likely that higher blood levels—probably around 80-90 ng/ml—would be beneficial. The health benefits of optimizing your levels, either by safe sun exposure (ideally), a safe tanning bed, or oral supplementation as a last resort, simply cannot be overstated. In terms of protecting against cancer, vitamin D has been found to offer protection in a number of ways, including:
  
  
  • Regulating genetic expression
  • Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
  • Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
  • Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
  • Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous
  To learn the details on how to use vitamin D therapeutically, please review my previous article, Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.
• Getting proper sleep: both in terms of getting enough sleep, and sleeping between certain hours. According to Ayurvedic medicine, the ideal hours for sleep are between 10 pm and 6 am. Modern research has confirmed the value of this recommendation as certain hormonal fluctuations occur throughout the day and night, and if you engage in the appropriate activities during those times, you're 'riding the wave' so to speak, and are able to get the optimal levels. Working against your biology by staying awake when you should ideally be sleeping or vice versa, interferes with these hormonal fluctuations. According to Dr. Horner:
  
  

  "If we, for instance, go to bed by 10, we have higher levels of our sleep hormone melatonin; there's a spike that occurs between midnight and 1am, which you don't want to miss because the consequences are absolutely spectacular. Melatonin is not only our sleep hormone, but it also is a very powerful antioxidant. It decreases the amount of estrogen our body produces. It also boosts your immune system… And it interacts with the other hormones.
  
  So, if you go to bed after 10… it significantly increases your risk of breast cancer."

• Effectively addressing your stress: The research shows that if you experience a traumatic or highly stressful event, such as a death in the family, your risk of breast cancer is 12 times higher in the ensuing five years.
• Exercise—If you are like most people, when you think of reducing your risk of cancer, exercise doesn't immediately come to mind. However, there is some fairly compelling evidence that exercise can slash your risk of cancer.
  
  One of the primary ways exercise lowers your risk for cancer is by reducing elevated insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. Additionally, exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood. Your immune system is your first line of defense against everything from minor illnesses like a cold right up to devastating, life-threatening diseases like cancer.
  
  The trick about exercise, though, is understanding how to use it as a precise tool. This ensures you are getting enough to achieve the benefit, not too much to cause injury, and the right variety to balance your entire physical structure and maintain strength and flexibility, and aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. This is why it is helpful to view exercise like a drug that needs to be carefully prescribed to achieve its maximum benefit. For detailed instructions, please see this previous article.
  
  Additionally it is likely that integrating exercise with intermittent fasting will greatly catalyze the potential of exercise to reduce your risk of cancer and stimulate widespread healing and rejuvenation.

I have implemented many of these suggestions into my own lifestyle changes and have had tremendous results.  Don't let anyone tell you differently.  Put the following four suggestions into action and watch the remarkable changes in your health.  You be the judge, you won't know until you try.


1.  Take the number one rated cellular nutritional supplements
2.  Eat a low glycemic, low fat healthy diet 
3.  Moderate exercise
4.  Personal/Spiritual Development

Get Set To RESET new event starting January 20th, can't wait to get you started and on your way to a healthy new lifestyle.

I hope this guest blog has helped you today and more importantly sparked a desire to make some changes. 


God Bless,


Jackie Bennett
Certified Live Well Coach

Addicted To Fast & Processed Foods

To follow is a post I read from Dr. Mercola regarding the coveted golden arches "McDonalds", like I needed to tell you what golden arches meant.  I have to say that prior to starting my own journey and goal to get healthy and learning so much about nutrition and nutritional supplementation, my entire family was like most of us out there, addicted to fast food and processed foods.  It was controlling my food choices on a daily basis.  I couldn't drive past the fast food restaurants without cravings for some or all of them.  I couldn't keep the chips and crap out of my shopping cart. 
 
I thought to myself:  

• What is going on?
• Why do I buy McDonald's and hide in the garage in the car to eat it, then hide the bag in the garage garbage can, when I know how unhealthy it is?
• Why am I doing this?  I was trying so hard not to eat it and to teach my kids not to eat it but couldn't control my own cravings.
• How can I help my family if I can't help myself?
• What is it going to take to get my health and my families health turned around?
• How can I be the example that I and my family so desperately needed?

Health on downward spiral!
The sad part is that my health and my husbands health was on a downward spiral, yet I had no self control.  Until, I was introduced to Usana Health Sciences and learned about cellular nutrition,  insulin resistance and how the daily roller coaster of my insulin was fueling the cravings.  It wasn't in my head, this was real and it's real for you too.  We started with nutritional supplements then after a year or so we decided to give this RESET a try.  We completed the RESET program which was a life saver for my entire family.  The cravings really did go away and we learned how to eat a healthy low glycemic diet which keeps your insulin balanced.  RESET cleansed our bodies, the cellular nutritional supplements help keep our bodies insulin balanced and our cells have the nutrition they need.  Our health has had such a dramatic improvement. Now, that doesn't mean we don't ever eat a sandwich or order a pizza from time to time.  We don't crave these foods anymore and we have learned, when we are out or at a party, traveling or not able to choose what is being served, techniques for each of these situations.  Techniques we will teach you.

We have a problem, Houston.
I am happy to say that both my husband and I have a problem, and it's actually a good problem to have.  Perhaps you are familiar with a flexible spending plan.  It's a before tax deduction taken from your paycheck and deposited into an account to be used toward qualified medical expenses.  This helps to reduce your taxes based on your gross income.  Well, we used it regularly for prescription medications, that by the way were increasing yearly.  You know, the blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, acid reflux medication and a few others. Not only where the medications increasing so was our waistlines. I am sure you get the picture.  It has now been over a year since the RESET took place and we have nothing to use the money on.  Did you get that?  No more prescriptions, no more high cholesterol, no more high blood pressure, no more acid reflux.  What a wonderful problem to have, wouldn't you agree.  We have lost the weight and have kept it off.

Of course, if you want change you have to decide to make things change.  No  more excuses, RESET makes it so simple to stop the cravings and enables your body to use your insulin correctly instead of storing it as fat.  That is why there is a side effect of weight loss. Couple this with award winning nutritional supplements, moderate exercise and a low glycemic diet and you will regain control of your health.  Watch my free online nutrition seminar at www.livewellintl.com/jackiebennett and learn about insulin resistance and what you can do about it.  Take action by contacting me for a personal RESET challenge or enroll in one of my RESET events.  

With this said, I wanted to share with you the following article by Dr. Mercola regarding fast and processed foods.  Although, we all know it's bad for us we don't always know just how bad it really is. 
 

The Chicken Which Should be Banned Posted By Dr. Mercola | November 08 2010   

Do you put dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent made of silicone, in your chicken dishes?
How about tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a chemical preservative so deadly that just five grams can kill you?
These are just two of the ingredients in a McDonalds Chicken McNugget. Only 50 percent of a McNugget is actually chicken. The other 50 percent includes corn derivatives, sugars, leavening agents and completely synthetic ingredients.
Organic Authority helpfully transcribed the full ingredients list provided by McDonalds:

"White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning (autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid, rosemary), sodium phosphates, seasoning (canola oil, mono- and diglycerides, extractives of rosemary).
Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, whey, corn starch.
Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent."

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

There's no doubt about it. Processed food like that from McDonald's is just not part of a healthful diet – in fact, much of it cannot even pass for real food.
After reviewing the above article I am very grateful I can say I have never had a Chicken McNugget from McDonald's. If you can't say the same at least you can commit to never having another one again.
This sentiment was echoed by Federal Judge Robert Sweet in a lawsuit against the restaurant chain back in 2003 when he said:

"Chicken McNuggets, rather than being merely chicken fried in a pan, are a McFrankenstein creation of various elements not utilized by the home cook."

At the time, Time Magazine reported that Judge Sweet "questioned whether customers understood the risks of eating McDonald's chicken over regular chicken."
That was seven years ago, and I still wonder whether or not McDonald's customers truly understand the risks they take when consuming fast food on a regular basis.
If you missed Morgan Spurlock's documentary Super-Size Me, I highly recommend you watch it with your entire family. It's a real-life illustration of just how dangerous – life threatening, in fact – an excessive fast food diet can really be. And "excessive" consumption is likely far less than you imagine: Eating fast food just twice a week DOUBLES your risk of developing insulin resistance, compared to eating it just once a week, for example. Insulin resistance, as I've discussed on many occasions, is one of THE primary driving factors behind most of the diseases we currently struggle with, from diabetes to cancer and heart disease...
The truth is, McDonald's fare contain non-food ingredients that can seriously harm your health.
This shouldn't come as any great surprise. After all, how healthful can something be that shows no signs of decomposing after being left on a counter for more than a decade?
Clearly there's more chemicals in there than actual, real foodstuff.

Chicken McNuggets: "Made With White Meat"... and What Else?

According to McDonald's, their chicken nuggets are "made with white meat, wrapped up in a crisp tempura batter." But as the article above shows, these chicken nuggets are a far cry from what you might expect, based on that description.
About half of it is actual chicken. The rest is a mix of corn-derived fillers and additives (most likely genetically modified), along with a slew of synthetic chemicals, including:

• Dimethyl polysiloxane, a type of silicone with anti-foaming properties used in cosmetics and a variety of other goods like Silly Putty
• Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a petroleum-based product with antioxidant properties

The latter, TBHQ, is typically listed as an "antioxidant," but it's important to realize it is a SYNTHETIC chemical with antioxidant properties – NOT a natural antioxidant.
The chemical prevents oxidation of fats and oils, thereby extending shelf life of processed foods. It's a commonly used ingredient in processed foods of all kinds, but you can also find it in varnishes, lacquers, pesticide products, as well as cosmetics and perfumes to reduce the evaporation rate and improve stability.
At its 19^th and 21^st meetings, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives determined that TBHQ was safe for human consumption at levels of 0-0.5 mg/kg of body weight. However, more recently, the Codex commission set the maximum allowable limits up to between 100 to as much as 400 mg/kg, depending on the food it's added to. (Chewing gum is permitted to contain the highest levels of TBHQ.)
That's quite a discrepancy in supposedly "safe" limits!
So, is the safe level zero, or 400 mg/kg? Who knows?!
According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, one gram of TBHQ can cause:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
• Delirium
• Sense of suffocation
• Collapse

Based on animal studies, health hazards associated with TBHQ include:

• liver effects at very low doses
• positive mutation results from in vitro tests on mammalian cells
• biochemical changes at very low doses
• reproductive effects at high doses

The good news is that it is not suspected to be a persistent toxin, meaning your body is probably able to eliminate it so that it does not bioaccumulate.

REAL Food "Lives" and "Dies"

I recently commented on the curious ability of McDonald's food to remain impervious to degradation. It's as if the food has been embalmed to stay "fresh" forever! After sitting on a shelf for 14 years, the hamburger bun has yet to develop a single trace of mold. It's barely even begun to shrivel...
Folks, these buns bear absolutely no resemblance to real bread, and when you read the list of ingredients, this mysterious mummification feature becomes less of a mystery.
Here are just a few of the ingredients in a McDonald's hamburger bun:

• calcium sulfate (aka Plaster of Paris)
• calcium carbonate (Antacid medication)
• ammonium sulfate (According to MSDS,“harmful if swallowed”)
• ammonium chloride (Causes irritation to the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea)
• calcium propionate (Preservative)
• sodium propionate (Mold inhibitor)

Always remember that wholesome, health-promoting food is "live" food, and the hallmark of live food is the fact that it will decompose.
The fact that these burgers, buns, and fries do not decompose, even after a decade or two, is a clear sign that it's just not real food, and should not be part of your diet.

You Are What You Eat...

The bottom line is that if you want to stay healthy, and keep your children healthy, you have to avoid fast food and other processed foods, and invest some time in your kitchen, cooking from scratch. Reclaiming your kitchen is part and parcel of healthful living, so you know exactly what you're putting in your body.
Ideally, you'll want to consume as much whole, raw, organic and/or locally grown foods as possible. That's one of the major reasons why vegetable juicing works so well – you're consuming living raw food!
Most vegetables also have very low carbohydrate levels that minimally disturb insulin metabolism – another important trait of a healthful diet -- but there is something very special about vegetable juicing and eating live raw foods in general.
In addition, I believe optimal health is also largely dependent on eating the right foods for your nutritional type. I think this is such an important part of an optimal diet that I am now offering the entire Nutritional Typing program to you for free.
If you're "hooked" on fast food and other processed foods, please review my recent article How to Wean Yourself Off Processed Foods in 7 Steps. If you're currently sustaining yourself on fast food and processed foods, this is probably the most positive life change you could ever make.
And if you have children, remember that feeding your children home cooked meals can have far reaching benefits, extending even to your future grandchildren. Yes, that's right! It is now well known that dietary changes can prompt epigenetic DNA changes that can be passed on to future generations. For instance, pregnant rats fed a fatty diet had daughters and granddaughters with a greater risk of breast cancer.
Making wise food decisions can literally "override" genetic predispositions for disease.
If you need help determining what foods are actually healthful and which are not, please review the shopping guidelines listed at the end of this recent article.

 I sure hope you are ready to make a change in your life and your families.  I look forward to getting you started today.



God Bless,

Jackie Bennett
Live Well Certified Coach

The Tree and Its Fruit

 

This morning I read this passage and it's not the first time I have read it.  It wasn't even part of my reading plan today.  I was drawn to this passage in response to a Facebook post, then led to another passage then to this passage.  But today after reading this I felt and saw things a little differently and I know I was directed to this passage by the Lord and needed to share this with you. 

Now, I am no expert in the scripture, I am just like most of you out there, learning to live by the word of God. I felt it necessary to share this with you because I believe this pertains to who I am as a person and who I want to always be.  

It also pertains to my business's and what they represent and why I do them.  My number one biggest goal with my business's and life is to make a difference by being a positive impact on peoples lives. To be genuine, kind and loving. Because of this I research, learn, listen and sometimes am gripped in fear that I may be wrong, or I need to be sure a product is safe, or that what I am saying is the truth because I value you as a person, friend, customer and God's people.  I do not take this lightly, and when the fear is so powerful I turn to God and pray for understanding and guidance and direction.  Only then can I proceed.  So, here it goes, this is what I heard today, these are my notes on the following passage. 

The Tree and Its Fruit

Matthew 7: 15-20

15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.



I believe with this passage the message I am hearing from the Lord today is that false prophets come in every area of life.  For example the salesperson trying to sell you something and their only true motivation is the commission at the end of the sale.  The friend, family or neighbor that is trying to convince you to do or say something that they know is wrong and can lead you down their path but certainly won't be good for you and they know it.  They look polished, they act confident but they don't really care about the person or needs of the individual they are selling or talking to, they are like a wolf ready to swallow you and trample you both spiritually, mentally and physically.  Their fruit is sour, grows fast and furious and is insincere and will rot you.  They do not have a true passion or desire for what they are doing.  Pause, pray, then open your eyes and you shall see, open your ears and you shall hear, ask and you shall receive.  Ask them why they are here and who they serve and why they are doing what they are doing.  Their answers will reveal true motivation.

A good tree has a true passion for what they are doing because they want to better the world and God's people.  They want to provide a service and protect God's people or improve their lives.  They are willing to learn and sacrifice in order to be sure they are doing rite by God. They know that by doing write by God, they will be blessed and God's people they are serving will be blessed with there presents and efforts as well.  When the true motivation is to serve God and serve God's people you simply cannot produce bad fruit.  God will provide peace, knowledge, love, friendship and fellowship with relationships that are genuine and will last their entire lives.  God, will fill the hearts and minds with love and prosperity.  And most important of all is the final reward of being with the Lord after death from this earth. 

The rewards that are received may not be quick, they may not happen overnight, they may take many years of hard work and dedication not only to your work or task at hand but to God and God's word but they will come when the Lord decides to give them.  Live your life knowing that you do not control your life, the Lord our God guides us and keeps us and will love and bless us along the way.  Set your sites on the Lord and he will deliver and never abandon you.

A bad tree will product bad fruit in every aspect of their lives.  Things will not go well, for them, the path they walk will close and wither behind them.  Pain and suffering will follow them where ever they go. Their heart will continue to be empty and their hunger and thirst will be insatiable and will never go away.  The hunger will be fed with greed, heartbreak and material pursuits. They will be defeated and the sourness of their fruit will be tasted by all and eventually when the time comes the ultimate reward for this kind of fruit is to be chopped down and thrown into the fire. 

Peoples actions are the fruit of life.  What you say and do daily creates the fruit.  What you feel in your heart defines the fruit.  So, seek the Lord our God and his word.  Live your life according to his word, and if in doubt pray to the Lord for guidance and wisdom.  He will answer, until he calms the storm in your heart you have your answer.  It's probably not something you should be doing or perhaps you haven't nourished your mind, body and soul with knowledge and wisdom and are not ready yet according to the Lord for the task at hand. Pray to the lord for that wisdom, guidance and do not fear, when the time is rite you will know when and how to proceed.

I have realized that the number one issue that has been holding me back is the fear of planting and providing bad fruit.  God has not planted this in my heart or soul, so I need not fear it anymore.  I thank you Lord for this message today and all that you have blessed me with.

Again, I share this with you because I was guided too and I believe with all my heart this is and will always be my vision for all that I do in life. 

I will continue to share with you information, articles and things I have learned along the way so I can help you help yourself in the area of living a healthy and balanced lifestyle.  It's a difficult world out there to navigate and there is allot of bad fruit, so be safe and know that I love and care about each and everyone of you.  

God Bless,

Jackie Bennett
Live Well Certified Coach


P.S.  Get ready for some new and exciting changes including a new web site, revised RESET with added features, and if all goes well a new cooking club.

I want my fast food, bread and potatoes too!

It’s difficult to understand what the big deal is about white processed flour, white bread and white rice, white potatoes, processed foods and fast food.  They have all been around forever so how can they be so bad?  The problem with these foods is that they are high glycemic and spike your insulin very quickly.  This set’s you up with a spike in your insulin (hyperinsulinemia) then a sudden drop in your insulin (hypoglycemic) which in turn causes you to crave foods which of course usually consist of the nearest vending machine or fast food restaurant which after eating starts this viscous cycle all over again creating hunger and cravings.  Additionally, most of these foods have very little nutritional value causing nutritional deficiencies as well.  Nutritional deficiencies have been scientifically linked to more than 70 degenerative diseases today, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, strokes and heart attacks.

What does insulin do anyway?

Food is normally absorbed into the bloodstream in the form of sugars or glucose and some other substances.  When glucose enters the blood stream it signals the pancreas to produce the hormone insulin.  This hormone attaches to cells, removing sugar from the bloodstream so that it can be used for energy.  Insulin is basically a storage hormone that drives sugar into the cell to be used for energy or stored as fat.  Of course this is the simplified version of what insulin does.  Eventually this roller coaster ride of spiking and dropping our insulin levels causes us to become less sensitive to our own insulin, basically causing us to become insulin resistant causing: 

•          Significant increase of inflammation of the arteries increasing the risk of heart attack and stoke

•          Fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability, mood swings, depression, brain fog

•          increased blood pressure

•          increased LDL (bad cholesterol)

•          decreased HDL (good cholesterol)

•          uncontrolled weight gain usually around the middle causing central obesity

•          kidney damage

•          Polycystic ovarian syndrome

So what’s the deal, why don’t we listen?

The puzzling thing to me is this is not new information.  This information has been available for many, many, years.  We have all heard our doctors tell us again and again to get more exercise, eat healthy and take your multi vitamin year after year as our blood pressure rises, our blood work gets worse, we get fat and lose our energy and vitality, yet we somehow think we are not subject to the consequences of our diet choices and lifestyle choices.  Well, any doctor will tell you that if lifestyle changes do not occur, full blown diabetes mellitus will be the next step in this highly degenerative disease and it only gets worse from there. 

  

So now what?  What do I do now?

You have just learned the basics of what is happening with most of our bodies out there and now you need to honestly take a look at your current lifestyle decisions in the areas of diet, exercise, spiritually and nutritional supplementation and decide it’s time to make the necessary changes to take back your health and the health of your family.  

There are four lifestyle changes that I have done and can recommend from personal experience and much research on the subject and that you probably have heard many times.

1.       Take top quality Nutritional Supplements to feed your cells daily (take the health assessment for guidance on what your particular supplementation needs may be by clicking on our product partner link, then health assessment tab at top of page)

2.       Eat a low glycemic low saturated fat diet (watch free nutritional seminar)

3.       Exercise moderately (minimum) 30 minutes daily and gradually step it up (seek medical advice and supervision if you have any current medical conditions)

4.       Personal development and spirituality for stress reduction and clarity in your life

I am a Live Well Certified Coach and I am here to personally coach you along the way.  I routinely hold RESET events to put you on the rite path to taking back control of your health.  I will be starting a new event soon but I am available for personal RESET coaching as well.  Simply give me a call or drop me an email to get started today.  

But there is something you need to know. The end result of this program or any program is in direct proportion to your goals and your commitment to keep those goals.  No more excuses, no more giving yourself reasons not to succeed.  Learn to listen to what you are telling yourself and learn how to change how you speak to yourself.  Learn to listen to what your body is telling you as well!  We can be our worst enemy or we can be our best ally.  You decide! I am here to help you reach your health goals and I truly look forward to working with each and every one of you.

God Bless,

Jackie Bennett

Live Well Certified Coach

jackiegemstar@yahoo.com

Making & Keeping New Year's Resolutions: Organic Gardening

I just read this article and it has important points to remember when setting goals and keeping them. Remember, we tend to be programmed to make excuses as to why we can't do something or why this wouldn't be a good time today. These excuses said often enough become ingrained in our brains and we simply become chronic excuse makers. Some retraining of your thoughts and how you talk to yourself may be in order.

Making & Keeping New Year's Resolutions: Organic Gardening