Don’t Skip Meals...

Don’t Skip Breakfast or Any Other Meal! ~ Studies show that people who eat breakfast report being in a better mood, and have more energy throughout the day. Wow!  Studies published in the journal Nutritional Health found that missing any meal during the day led to an overall greater feeling of fatigue by day's end.  Make sure you take time to eat healthy balanced meals!



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Take a Power Nap...

Sleep to Beautiful Skin!

Did you know? Just a simple a 30-60 minute "power nap" can not only reverse the effects of information overload, it may also help us to better retain what we have learned.

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Exercise for Energy

WebMD says even a brisk 10-minute walk not only increased energy, but the effects lasted up to 2 hours! Then when the daily 10-minute walks continued for three weeks, overall energy levels increased & stress levels decreased. It also gives your cells more energy to burn and circulates oxygen. Exercising causes your body to release epinephrine and norepinephrine, stress hormones that in modest amounts can make you feel energized. Even a brisk walk is a good start!

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Part 3 - Sucrose: "Pure" Energy at a Price

Refined Sugar - The Sweetest poison of All
by William Dufty

When calories became the big thing in the 1920s, and everybody was learning to count them, the sugar pushers turned up with a new pitch. They boasted there were 2,500 calories in a pound of sugar. A little over a quarter-pound of sugar would produce 20 per cent of the total daily quota. "If you could buy all your food energy as cheaply as you buy calories in sugar," they told us, "your board bill for the year would be very low. If sugar were seven cents a pound, it would cost less than $35 for a whole year." A very inexpensive way to kill yourself. "Of course, we don't live on any such unbalanced diet," they admitted later. "But that figure serves to point out how inexpensive sugar is as an energy-building food. What was once a luxury only a privileged few could enjoy is now a food for the poorest of people."

Later, the sugar pushers advertised that sugar was chemically pure, topping Ivory soap in that department, being 99.9 per cent pure against Ivory's vaunted 99.44 per cent. "No food of our everyday diet is purer," we were assured. What was meant by purity, besides the unarguable fact that all vitamins, minerals, salts, fibers and proteins had been removed in the refining process? Well, the sugar pushers came up with a new slant on purity. "You don't have to sort it like beans, wash it like rice. Every grain is like every other. No waste attends its use. No useless bones like in meat, no grounds like coffee." "Pure" is a favorite adjective of the sugar pushers because it means one thing to the chemists and another thing to the ordinary mortals. When honey is labeled pure, this means that it is in its natural state (stolen directly from the bees who made it), with no adulteration with sucrose to stretch it and no harmful chemical residues which may have been sprayed on the flowers. It does not mean that the honey is free from minerals like iodine, iron, calcium, phosphorus or multiple vitamins. So effective is the purification process which sugar cane and beets undergo in the refineries that sugar ends up as chemically pure as the morphine or the heroin a chemist has on the laboratory shelves.

What nutritional virtue this abstract chemical purity represents, the sugar pushers never tell us. Beginning with World War I, the sugar pushers coated their propaganda with a preparedness pitch. "Dietitians have known the high food value of sugar for a long time," said an industry tract of the 1920s. "But it took World War I to bring this home. The energy-building power of sugar reaches the muscles in minutes and it was of value to soldiers as a ration given them just before an attack was launched." The sugar pushers have been harping on the energy-building power of sucrose for years because it contains nothing else. Caloric energy and habit-forming taste: that's what sucrose has, and nothing else. All other foods contain energy plus. All foods contain some nutrients in the way of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins or minerals, or all of these. Sucrose contains caloric energy, period.

The "quick" energy claim the sugar pushers talk about, which drives reluctant doughboys over the top and drives children up the wall, is based on the fact that refined sucrose is not digested in the mouth or the stomach but passes directly to the lower intestines and thence to the bloodstream. The extra speed with which sucrose enters the bloodstream does more harm than good. Much of the public confusion about refined sugar is compounded by language. Sugars are classified by chemists as "carbohydrates". This manufactured word means "a substance containing carbon with oxygen and hydrogen". If chemists want to use these hermetic terms in their laboratories when they talk to one another, fine. The use of the word "carbohydrate" outside the laboratory-especially in food labeling and advertising lingo-to describe both natural, complete cereal grains (which have been a principal food of mankind for thousands of years) and man-refined sugar (which is a manufactured drug and principal poison of mankind for only a few hundred years) is demonstrably wicked. This kind of confusion makes possible the flimflam practiced by sugar pushers to confound anxious mothers into thinking kiddies need sugar to survive.

The use of the word "carbohydrate" to describe sugar is deliberately misleading. Since the improved labeling of nutritional properties was required on packages and cans, refined carbohydrates like sugar are lumped together with those carbohydrates which may or may not be refined. The several types of carbohydrates are added together for an overall carbohydrate total. Thus, the effect of the label is to hide the sugar content from the unwary buyer. Chemists add to the confusion by using the word "sugar" to describe an entire group of substances that are similar but not identical. Glucose is a sugar found usually with other sugars, in fruits and vegetables. It is a key material in the metabolism of all plants and animals. Many of our principal foods are converted into glucose in our bodies. Glucose is always present in our bloodstream, and it is often called "blood sugar". Dextrose, also called "corn sugar", is derived synthetically from starch. Fructose is fruit sugar. Maltose is malt sugar. Lactose is milk sugar. Sucrose is refined sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beet. Glucose has always been an essential element in the human bloodstream. Sucrose addiction is something new in the history of the human animal.

To use the word "sugar" to describe two substances which are far from being identical, which have different chemical structures and which affect the body in profoundly different ways compounds confusion. It makes possible more flimflam from the sugar pushers who tell us how important sugar is as an essential component of the human body, how it is oxidized to produce energy, how it is metabolized to produce warmth, and so on. They're talking about glucose, of course, which is manufactured in our bodies. However, one is led to believe that the manufacturers are talking about the sucrose which is made in their refineries. When the word "sugar" can mean the glucose in your blood as well as the sucrose in your Coca-Cola, it's great for the sugar pushers but it's rough on everybody else.

People have been bamboozled into thinking of their bodies the way they think of their check accounts. If they suspect they have low blood sugar, they are programmed to snack on vending machine candies and sodas in order to raise their blood sugar level. Actually, this is the worst thing to do. The level of glucose in their blood is apt to be low because they are addicted to sucrose. People who kick sucrose addiction and stay off sucrose find that the glucose level of their blood returns to normal and stays there. Since the late 1960s, millions of Americans have returned to natural food. A new type of store, the natural food store, has encouraged many to become dropouts from the supermarket. Natural food can be instrumental in restoring health. Many people, therefore, have come to equate the word "natural" with "healthy".

So the sugar pushers have begun to pervert the word "natural" in order to mislead the public. "Made from natural ingredients", the television sugar-pushers tell us about product after product. The word "from" is snot accented on television. It should be. Even refined sugar is made from natural ingredients. There is nothing new about that. The natural ingredients are cane and beets. But that four-letter word "from" hardly suggests that 90 per cent of the cane and beet have been removed. Heroin, too, could be advertised as being made from natural ingredients. The opium poppy is as natural as the sugar beet. It's what man does with it that tells the story. If you want to avoid sugar in the supermarket, there is only one sure way. Don't buy anything unless it says on the label prominently, in plain English: "No sugar added". use of the word "carbohydrate" as a "scientific" word for sugar has become a standard defense strategy with sugar pushers and many of their medical apologists. It's their security blanket.

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Part 2 - Sugar: Harmful To Humans & Animals

Refined Sugar - The Sweetest poison of All
by William Dufty

Shipwrecked sailors who ate and drank nothing but sugar and rum for nine days surely went through some of this trauma; the tales they had to tell created a big public relations problem for the sugar pushers. This incident occurred when a vessel carrying a cargo of sugar was shipwrecked in 1793. The five surviving sailors were finally rescued after being marooned for nine days. They were in a wasted condition due to starvation, having consumed nothing but sugar and rum. The eminent French physiologist F. Magendie was inspired by that incident to conduct a series of experiments with animals, the results of which he published in 1816. In the experiments, he fed dogs a diet of sugar or olive oil and water. All the dogs wasted and died.3


The shipwrecked sailors and the French physiologist's experimental dogs proved the same point. As a steady diet, sugar is worse than nothing. Plain water can keep you alive for quite some time. Sugar and water can kill you. Humans [and animals] are "unable to subsist on a diet of sugar".4 The dead dogs in Professor Magendie's laboratory alerted the sugar industry to the hazards of free scientific inquiry. From that day to this, the sugar industry has invested millions of dollars in behind-the-scenes, subsidized science. The best scientific names that money could buy have been hired, in the hope that they could one day come up with something at least pseudoscientific in the way of glad tidings about sugar.


It has been proved, however, that (1) sugar is a major factor in dental decay; (2) sugar in a person's diet does cause overweight; (3) removal of sugar from diets has cured symptoms of crippling, worldwide diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart illnesses. Sir Frederick Banting, the codiscoverer of insulin, noticed in 1929 in Panama that, among sugar plantation owners who ate large amounts of their refined stuff, diabetes was common. Among native cane-cutters, who only got to chew the raw cane, he saw no diabetes. However, the story of the public relations attempts on the part of the sugar manufacturers began in Britain in 1808 when the Committee of West India reported to the House of Commons that a prize of twenty-five guineas had been offered to anyone who could come up with the most "satisfactory" experiments to prove that unrefined sugar was good for feeding and fattening oxen, cows, hogs and sheep.5


Food for animals is often seasonal, always expensive. Sugar, by then, was dirt cheap. People weren't eating it fast enough. Naturally, the attempt to feed livestock with sugar and molasses in England in 1808 was a disaster. When the Committee on West India made its fourth report to the House of Commons, one Member of Parliament, John Curwin, reported that he had tried to feed sugar and molasses to calves without success. He suggested that perhaps someone should try again by sneaking sugar and molasses into skimmed milk. Had anything come of that, you can be sure the West Indian sugar merchants would have spread the news around the world. After this singular lack of success in pushing sugar in cow pastures, the West Indian sugar merchants gave up.


With undaunted zeal for increasing the market demand for the most important agricultural product of the West Indies, the Committee of West India was reduced to a tactic that has served the sugar pushers for almost 200 years: irrelevant and transparently silly testimonials from faraway, inaccessible people with some kind of "scientific" credentials. While preparing his epochal volume, A History of Nutrition, published in 1957, Professor E. V. McCollum (Johns Hopkins university), sometimes called America's foremost nutritionist and certainly a pioneer in the field, reviewed approximately 200,000 published scientific papers, recording experiments with food, their properties, their utilization and their effects on animals and men. The material covered the period from the mid-18th century to 1940. From this great repository of scientific inquiry, McCollum selected those experiments which he regarded as significant "to relate the story of progress in discovering human error in this segment of science [of nutrition]".


Professor McCollum failed to record a single controlled scientific experiment with sugar between 1816 and 1940. unhappily, we must remind ourselves that scientists today, and always, accomplish little without a sponsor. The protocols of modern science have compounded the costs of scientific inquiry. We have no right to be surprised when we read the introduction to McCollum's A History of Nutrition and find that "The author and publishers are indebted to The Nutrition Foundation, Inc., for a grant provided to meet a portion of the cost of publication of this book". What, you might ask, is The Nutrition Foundation, Inc.? The author and the publishers don't tell you. It happens to be a front organization for the leading sugar-pushing conglomerates in the food business, including the American Sugar Refining Company, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Curtis Candy Co., General Foods, General Mills, Nestlé Co., Pet Milk Co. and Sunshine Biscuits-about 45 such companies in all. Perhaps the most significant thing about McCollum's 1957 history was what he left out: a monumental earlier work described by an eminent Harvard professor as "one of those epochal pieces of research which makes every other investigator desirous of kicking himself because he never thought of doing the same thing".


In the 1930s, a research dentist from Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Weston A. Price, traveled all over the world-from the lands of the Eskimos to the South Sea Islands, from Africa to New Zealand. His Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects,6 which is illustrated with hundreds of photographs, was first published in 1939. Dr. Price took the whole world as his laboratory. His devastating conclusion, recorded in horrifying detail in area after area, was simple. People who live under so-called backward primitive conditions had excellent teeth and wonderful general health. They ate natural, unrefined food from their own locale. As soon as refined, sugared foods were imported as a result of contact with "civilization," physical degeneration began in a way that was definitely observable within a single generation. Any credibility the sugar pushers have is based on our ignorance of works like that of Dr. Price.


Sugar manufacturers keep trying, hoping and contributing generous research grants to colleges and universities; but the research laboratories never come up with anything solid the manufacturers can use. Invariably, the research results are bad news. "Let us go to the ignorant savage, consider his way of eating and be wise," Harvard professor Ernest Hooten said in Apes, Men, and Morons.7 "Let us cease pretending that toothbrushes and toothpaste are any more important than shoe brushes and shoe polish. It is store food that has given us store teeth." When the researchers bite the hands that feed them, and the news gets out, it's embarrassing all around. In 1958, Time magazine reported that a Harvard biochemist and his assistants had worked with myriads of mice for more than ten years, bankrolled by the Sugar Research Foundation, Inc. to the tune of $57,000, to find out how sugar causes dental cavities and how to prevent this. It took them ten years to discover that there was no way to prevent sugar causing dental decay. When the researchers reported their findings in the Dental Association Journal, their source of money dried up. The Sugar Research Foundation withdrew its support. The more that the scientists disappointed them, the more the sugar pushers had to rely on the ad men.

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Part 1 - Why Sugar Is Toxic To The Body

Refined Sugar - The Sweetest poison of All
by William Dufty

In 1957, Dr. William Coda Martin tried to answer the question: When is a food a food and when is it a poison? His working definition of "poison" was: "Medically: Any substance applied to the body, ingested or developed within the body, which causes or may cause disease. Physically: Any substance which inhibits the activity of a catalyst which is a minor substance, chemical or enzyme that activates a reaction."1 The dictionary gives an even broader definition for "poison": "to exert a harmful influence on, or to pervert".


Dr. Martin classified refined sugar as a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. "What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals are present. Nature supplies these elements in each plant in quantities sufficient to metabolize the carbohydrate in that particular plant. There is no excess for other added carbohydrates. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results in the formation of 'toxic metabolite' such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars containing five carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites interfere with the respiration of the cells. They cannot get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally. In time, some of the cells die. This interferes with the function of a part of the body and is the beginning of degenerative disease."2


Refined sugar is lethal when ingested by humans because it provides only that which nutritionists describe as "empty" or "naked" calories. It lacks the natural minerals which are present in the sugar beet or cane.


In addition, sugar is worse than nothing because it drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination makes upon one's entire system. So essential is balance to our bodies that we have many ways to provide against the sudden shock of a heavy intake of sugar. Minerals such as sodium (from salt), potassium and magnesium (from vegetables), and calcium (from the bones) are mobilized and used in chemical transmutation; neutral acids are produced which attempt to return the acid-alkaline balance factor of the blood to a more normal state.


Sugar taken every day produces a continuously overacid condition, and more and more minerals are required from deep in the body in the attempt to rectify the imbalance. Finally, in order to protect the blood, so much calcium is taken from the bones and teeth that decay and general weakening begin. Excess sugar eventually affects every organ in the body. Initially, it is stored in the liver in the form of glucose (glycogen). Since the liver's capacity is limited, a daily intake of refined sugar (above the required amount of natural sugar) soon makes the liver expand like a balloon. When the liver is filled to its maximum capacity, the excess glycogen is returned to the blood in the form of fatty acids. These are taken to every part of the body and stored in the most inactive areas: the belly, the buttocks, the breasts and the thighs.


When these comparatively harmless places are completely filled, fatty acids are then distributed among active organs, such as the heart and kidneys. These begin to slow down; finally their tissues degenerate and turn to fat. The whole body is affected by their reduced ability, and abnormal blood pressure is created. The parasympathetic nervous system is affected; and organs governed by it, such as the small brain, become inactive or paralyzed. (Normal brain function is rarely thought of as being as biologic as digestion.) The circulatory and lymphatic systems are invaded, and the quality of the red corpuscles starts to change. An overabundance of white cells occurs, and the creation of tissue becomes slower. Our body's tolerance and immunizing power becomes more limited, so we cannot respond properly to extreme attacks, whether they be cold, heat, mosquitoes or microbes.


Excessive sugar has a strong mal-effect on the functioning of the brain. The key to orderly brain function is glutamic acid, a vital compound found in many vegetables. The B vitamins play a major role in dividing glutamic acid into antagonistic-complementary compounds which produce a "proceed" or "control" response in the brain. B vitamins are also manufactured by symbiotic bacteria which live in our intestines. When refined sugar is taken daily, these bacteria wither and die, and our stock of B vitamins gets very low. Too much sugar makes one sleepy; our ability to calculate and remember is lost.

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Did you know? Sugar Can...

SUGAR CAN suppress the immune system.
SUGAR CAN upset the body's mineral balance.
SUGAR CAN contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and crankiness in children.
SUGAR CAN produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
SUGAR CAN cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
SUGAR CAN reduce helpful high density cholesterol (HDLs).
SUGAR CAN promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol (LDLs).
SUGAR CAN cause hypoglycemia.
SUGAR contributes to a weakened defense against bacterial infection.
SUGAR CAN cause kidney damage.
SUGAR CAN increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
Sugar may lead to chromium deficiency.
SUGAR CAN cause copper deficiency.
SUGAR interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
SUGAR CAN increase fasting levels of blood glucose.
SUGAR CAN promote tooth decay.
SUGAR CAN produce an acidic stomach.
SUGAR CAN raise adrenaline levels in children.
SUGAR CAN lead to periodontal disease.
SUGAR CAN speed the aging process, causing wrinkles and grey hair.
SUGAR CAN increase total cholesterol.
SUGAR CAN contribute to weight gain and obesity.
High intake of SUGAR increases the risk of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
SUGAR CAN contribute to diabetes.
SUGAR CAN contribute to osteoporosis.
SUGAR CAN cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
SUGAR leads to decreased glucose tolerance.
SUGAR CAN cause cardiovascular disease.
SUGAR CAN increase systolic blood pressure.
SUGAR causes food allergies.
SUGAR CAN cause free radical formation in the bloodstream.
SUGAR CAN cause toxemia during pregnancy.
SUGAR CAN contribute to eczema in children.
SUGAR CAN overstress the pancreas, causing damage.
SUGAR CAN cause atherosclerosis.
SUGAR CAN compromise the lining of the capillaries.
SUGAR CAN cause liver cells to divide, increasing the size of the liver.
SUGAR CAN increase the amount of fat in the liver.
SUGAR CAN increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.
SUGAR CAN cause depression.
SUGAR CAN increase the body's fluid retention.
SUGAR CAN cause hormonal imbalance.
SUGAR CAN cause hypertension.
SUGAR CAN cause headaches, including migraines.
SUGAR CAN cause an increase in delta, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly.
SUGAR CAN increase blood platelet adhesiveness which increases risk of blood clots and strokes.
SUGAR CAN increase insulin responses in those consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets.
SUGAR increases bacterial fermentation in the colon.

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Ayurveda: 8 Golden Rules For Good Digestion

Ayurveda teaches that poor digestion is at the root of all disease, following these simple guidelines is one of the greatest favours you can do for yourself and your family.

BRIGHT AND FRESH -  Choose wholesome foods that look fresh and colourful, and try to buy organic where possible.

REGULAR MEALS - Having set times for meals is a kindness to your digestive system. This doesn’t have to be set in stone, but a guide time for breakfast, lunch & dinner brings regularity to your eating that will help you get the best from your meals.

Eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly, and stop eating just before you feel completely full. Ayurveda teaches that leaving some space in the stomach helps us digest our food better, to eat until you are uncomfortably full puts your digestive system under duress and makes you feel sleepy after eating.

EAT CALMLY - According to Ayurveda eating on the go is an insult to your digestive system. You cannot digest your food properly if you are walking, driving, reading, watching TV or grabbing a bite to eat between tasks or appointments. When you are going to eat sit down and take a few deep breaths, look at your food and express gratitude for it. Then do nothing but eat for the next few minutes. If you are used to eating in a rush this may feel like it's slowing you down a bit at first, but you will soon get used to it and feel the benefits.

PASSING TIME - Allow time in between meals so that you can digest the last meal properly before you eat again. If you are very hungry and that hunger has come upon you slowly and steadily it’s a sure sign that it’s time to eat another meal, but the desire to eat between meals may be due to emotional hunger rather than a real biological need to eat.

As a general rule try to leave a four hour gap between meals to allow one meal to be processed efficiently before you introduce more food to your stomach. Eating between meals means that you digestive system becomes distracted from your last meal to focus on whatever snack has now entered your system. Ayurveda believes that this distracted digestion can lead to a weakened digestive system and a build up of toxic waste.

PLAYING WITH FIRE - Mid-day is the time when your digestive "fire" is at it's most potent and that's why Ayurveda advises making lunch the main meal of the day. Allowing 4-6 hours between lunch and dinner and eating a light evening meal helps reduce acid reflux because you're not settling down for the night on a full stomach.

SIT A WHILE - Take time to relax after eating, even if it's just for 5 minutes, sit quietly and allow yourself a pause before going back to work or going on to do other things.

GET WATER WISE - Sip room temperature water with meals. According to Ayurveda, ice cold drinks weaken the digestion. Milk doesn't mix with meals either. Hot water or herbal tea is good to sip when eating and if your digestion is sluggish you could make a simple ginger tea by grating some fresh ginger and adding it to a cup of freshly boiled hot water. This is very good for digestion, thirst quenching and cleansing to the deeper tissues of the body.

EAT FOR HEALTH AND HARMONY - Eat fresh local grown foods whenever you can, Ayurveda considers fresh fruit, vegetables and grains to be easy to digest and the best fuel for the body, processed foods, junk food, canned foods are heavy to digest, they do not nourish and energise the body well and meat is dulling to the mind and consciousness. For optimum digestion and health most of our diet should consist of cooked grains and vegetables, for example soups, dal and rice, noodles and vegetables, or Mexican rice and bean dishes are very nourishing and easy for the digestive system to process. These foods honour your body's natural intelligence.