Holistic Nourishment

This article is adapted from Safbaby.com, written by healthy home expert, Mary Cordaro.

You’re pregnant!  Images of beautiful nurseries fill your head as your thoughts turn to how to prepare your home for your little one. Whether you are adding a new room, remodeling an existing space or simply painting and furnishing a room, you want it to be beautiful and perfect. You want the best for your baby.

But you wonder…can you trust the products you see, the ones labeled as “non-toxic”, “natural” or “safe” for baby?

EWG’s Baby Body Burden Study made it starkly clear that what the mother ingests, absorbs and inhales directly affects the fetus. In fact, nearly 287 chemicals were found in the cord blood, the majority being carcinogenic, neurotoxic and developmentally toxic. Until recently, the impact from chronic, extremely low-level exposure to these chemicals has not been clear.

Dr. Bruce Lanphear, MD, MPH, well-published expert on children’s environmental health, states “There is strong evidence that learning disabilities and lower IQ scores can be attributed to extremely low levels of exposure to toxic metals like lead and mercury, persistent toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), and other toxins including organophosphate (OP) pesticides and compounds used as flame-retardants.” He concludes that thirty years of research led to the conclusion that chronic low-level exposure to these chemicals does matter. (more…)

Glutathione is one of the most important molecules for protecting you against chronic diseases. Your body produces its own glutathione, but stress, poor diet, pollution and environmental toxins, medications, trauma, aging, infections, cancer, and radiation all deplete your levels. These stressors also make it harder for your body to produce adequate levels of glutathione to minimize the collateral damage from the stressors.

Glutathione is a molecule composed of three amino acids, cysteine, glycine, and glutamine. Sulfur, a component of cysteine, sticks to free radicals and toxins like heavy metals, which is then carried out of the body through the bile and stool.

With too much oxidative stress or too many toxins in our body, the glutathione becomes depleted and we can no longer protect ourselves against free radicals and infections, thus chronic illness develops. Glutathione is also critical in helping the immune system fight infections and prevent cancer. Maintaining adequate glutathione levels in your body is one of the best ways you can take care of your health. And luckily, diet and lifestyle changes boost glutathione levels significantly!

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What can your body tell you about your health?

Your pulse, blood pressure, temperature, and body composition are foundational ways to assess your health status. Your sense of smell and taste, oral health (tongue, lips, teeth, cheeks), and your nails can provide further insight into your nutritional status.

In what ways can you improve your health? Try out this quick, self-assessment and find out what your body is trying to tell you.

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Zingiber Officinale

Ginger

Zingiberacae Family

Ginger is a common household herb that provides numerous health benefits.  It is an excellent herb to have on hand for sore throats, colds, aches and pains, stomach upset, and to warm you up on a chilly day.

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Not only are we exposed to external environmental toxins (air pollution, pesticides, heavy metals…), we are also exposed to our own internal toxins produced by the body.  These toxins are often not neutralized and excreted from the body, but rather stored in the fat cells.  When the body is under stress, it can release these toxins into the blood stream where they can wreak havoc on many other places in the body, causing inflammation and burdening the liver.

So how do you know if you are toxic? Do you suffer from headaches, excess weight, muscle/joint pain, food allergies, depression, insomnia, fatigue, asthma, body odor, or acne/eczema? If so, your body is trying to tell you that it is out of balance and these matters need to be addressed before they become serious health conditions.

Does Sugar Decrease Your Health?
Yes! Because of Advanced Glycation End-Products

 The more sugar you eat, the more it coats the surface of cell membranes, causing life-changing damage.  One of the main issues with sugar consumption is a process called glycation.  The sugar creates cross links between cellular parts (usually proteins) that are normally mobile.  Unfortunately, all cellular activity is impaired when this occurs.  Moreover, cross-linking prevents white blood cells and other cells from getting to the location they are trying to go, thus disrupting chemical messages from being transmitted.  As you can imagine, this creates impaired function throughout the body.

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Are You Mineral Deficient?

Minerals are crucial elements of the biological processes that govern blood sugar metabolism in the body.  Individuals with blood sugar imbalances and diabetes often exhibit mineral deficiencies and have a weakened ability to regulate glucose levels.  Supplementing with high quality, bioavailable minerals improves the body’s ability to modulate glucose levels and can be extremely therapeutic for individuals with deficiencies.

To reduce inflammation and oxidative damage, key antioxidants and minerals are key to fighting these inflammatory and destructive reactions. Therefore, individuals with mineral deficiencies should supplement their diet in order to restore optimal vitamin and mineral levels, thus controlling oxidative damage and inflammation.  Minerals are especially important for reducing the occurrence of comorbid conditions common in diabetic individuals such as pancreatic insufficiency, renal disease, neuropathy, and retinopathy.

Minerals are also required for proper insulin function.  Insulin is the hormone that brings blood glucose into cells and therefore lowers blood glucose levels.  Of primary importance to glucose metabolism, inflammation, free radical scavenging, and immune health are the minerals zinc, magnesium, chromium, manganese, vanandium, and copper. 

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Genetically Modified Foods: Why So Many of Our Children Have Behavioral Problems & Why There is a Rise of Allergies and Chronic Disease

Genetic engineering is the process of adding a gene from another species into your target genome.  Spider genes have been inserted into goats to make bullet-proof vests. Cow genes have been inserted into pigs so the pigs have cow hides. 88% of corn produced in the US and 96% of soy are genetically modified. Canola and alfalfa crops are also genetically modified.

GMO FACTS:

Since the mid 1990’s when GE crops were introduced, we have seen nationwide increases in GI diseases, inflammation, leaky gut, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, allergies, eczema, birth defects, infertility, autism, autoimmune diseases…
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Bones cycle through periods of growth and breakdown throughout the course of your life.  By our mid-20’s bones begin to lose their ability to regrow and are more prone to breaking down.

What Leads To Osteoporosis?

Eating an acidic, inflammatory diet including caffeine, alcohol, soda, refined sugar, processed foods, a high-salt diet, a meat-based (high protein) diet, and a low vegetable diet can all contribute to bone thinning.  Eating foods you are allergic to can also lead to bone loss because your gastrointestinal system will be inflamed and have increased permeability (more, larger molecules and pathogens can pass undigested into the blood stream) which in turn increases the acidity of the blood and draws alkaline nutrients out of the bone.  Moreover, malabsorption can lead to nutrient deficiencies that can inhibit bone regrowth.

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How Important is My Gastrointestinal System?

Your gastrointestinal system has 4 functions.  The first three are related to nutrient intake: digestion, absorption, and excretion.  The 4^th function however, is related to protecting your body from the external environment.  The intestinal wall, along with your lungs, skin, eyes, ears, and nose, are barriers that defend your body from pathogens and toxic particles in the air we breathe, the objects we touch, and food we eat.  The lining of your intestinal tract, your tonsils, appendix and lymph nodes are collectively referred to as your Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue (GALT). These tissues and associated processes comprise roughly 60-70% of your immune system! (more…)

What happens when you digest carbohydrates? How does that affect my blood sugar levels? And what is insulin? If you or someone you know is suffering with diabetes, understanding the condition and learning how to modulate insulin levels is key to reversing illness and restoring health.  (more…)

Do you have food allergies, digestive distress, environmental toxicity, acne, or eczema? You may have a leaky gut! Read more to learn what happened and how to heal yourself.  (more…)

The path of digestion begins even before you put food in your mouth.  When you see and smell, or even just think about food, your salivary glands (parotid by the ear, sublingual and submandibular), release an enzyme called amylase, and mucus and water to coat the lining of the mouth.  Chewing your food is crucial to prevent malabsorption and indigestion.  (more…)

There is an increasing occurrence of gluten sensitivity and intolerances today.  Some people believe it is the result of genetically modifying the food we eat, although there is still no conclusive evidence of this.  Perhaps the increase in allergies is a result of poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyle finally taking its toll on this generation. However, by adding new DNA to foods, new proteins are being expressed in these foods.   (more…)

In addition to being conscientious about the foods we eat, we must also consider the methods of processing and preparation.  For years I have believed that vegetable oils are “heart healthy” and the “better fat” but now I am not so convinced.  First of all, oil is not a whole food: it has been extracted from a nut or a seed and in most cases stripped of it’s beneficial nutrients.  (more…)