Select your cosmetics carefully

What does this have to do with nutrition?

Well, I used to work for NuSin many years ago, so the phylosophy was:
"Food for the skin, must be all of the good and none of the bad."

Okay, I understood that, but when I read the labels on most cosmetics or food stuffs, I read that a majority of these ingredients have no benefit at all for your skin nor stomach. Even worse, they are damaging.

So next time you buy, do some research. Google is there for you!
Be informed and no longer ignorant. Health care is too expensive to be ignorant of this.
When you buy a BMW, you make sure you have all the guarantees and the right engine in it and put the right oil and fuel.

Treat your body liewise! It is more valuable than a BMW..

Vegetables That Fight Abdominal Fat

A unique way that a few specific vegetables can actually stimulate the burning of abdominal fat...

(article by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist)

Flat six pack,I bet you didn't know that there is a specific class of vegetables that contain very specific phyto nutrients that actually help to fight against stubborn belly fat.

Certain chemicals in our food supply and our environment, such as pesticides, herbicides, and certain petrochemicals from air and water pollution, household cleaners, cosmetics, etc can react with your body and make your body store excess abdominal fat.

These chemicals are known as xenoestrogens.

Xenoestrogens are chemicals that you are exposed to (and are hard to avoid in the modern world) that have an estrogenic effect in your body. Excess exposure to these can cause hormone balance disruptions for both men and women. So these can wreak havoc in the body for both guys and gals.

These estrogenic chemicals that we are exposed to on a daily basis can stimulate your body to store belly fat, along with many other problems (including cancer risks in the long term).

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, etc. contain very specific and unique phytonutrients such as indole-3-carbinol (I3C) that help to fight against these estrogenic compounds...

And by fighting against these belly fat stimulating estrogenic chemicals, this is just 1 more step in helping you to win the battle against abdominal fat!

Another (good) excuse to do what Mum always told you and eat more broccoli!

PS. In particular, I like to eat steamed Brussels Sprouts with some pepper or muscat powder over it!

Can we eat to prevent or starve cancer ?

Cancer, obesity ... what should we eat to prevent it?

Resveratrol (red wine), Lycopene (cooked tomatoes), blueberries ... funny...I seem to read this also in the book of Genesis.

Taking any cholesterol-lowering drug?

If you're taking Lipitor^®, Crestor^®, Pravachol^®, Mevacor^® or any other statin drug, BEWARE! Statin drugs cause CoQ10 deficiency—and may put your heart in even greater danger!

In 1993, British researchers found that the greater the dosage of a statin drug, the lower the CoQ10 level.

In 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that just 20 mgs of Simvastin^® a day lowered CoQ10 levels by 22%!

Other research shows taking statin drugs can lower your CoQ10 level by as much as 40%!

And as you've read, without enough CoQ10 your heart will suffer, sputter and could even fail!

So why hasn't this warning made headline news?

The answer: GREED! More than 39 million Americans take statin drugs and Lipitor^® is the top selling pharmaceutical in the world, topping $12 billion in sales annually. So you're certainly not going to hear about any statin drug warnings from the big drug makers.

"Statins have killed and injured more people than the government has acknowledged."

—USA Today, 8/20/01

"Statin-induced depletion of CoQ10 must be considered in the... epidemic of heart failure."

—Peter Langsjoen, M.D.

If you're taking any statin drug, you must also take 100 to 200 mg a day of CoQ10 to replenish your body's CoQ10 level and protect your heart.

Though many natural foods contain CoQ10, one may consider to supplement.

Let your Food be your Medicin

Hippocrates was not the first one in saying this!

Some quotes:

"1/4 of what you eat keeps You alive, 3/4 of what you eat keeps your doctor alive."

"We are poisoning ourselves with processed, nutrient depleted foods."

"We are genetically modifying foods we don't know anything about."

Tasty Food = Healthy Food ?

Not if you understand what is behind so called tasty food found in most of the restaurant, processed, canned and packed foods offered.

MSG. Mono Sodium Glutamate is not a food ingredient! Though it has become a food additive, contributing to many of the modern day diseases and illnesses.

Next time, you'd better ask your waiter what they put in your food or you are slowly killing yourself and especially your kids who are very sensitive to these excitotoxins !!

For more info on this, see Dr Russel Blaylock dedicated web site.

or if you have time see this documentary:


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Green Smoothies

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Last December I was with my family visiting some friends in North Thailand. We arrived very early in the morning by train and were ready for breakfast in his home. Marcus gently enquired of us if we eat fruit in the morning and if we had heard of green smoothies.

We were already adding more and more raw veggies to our diet, but this blew my mind.
He started putting some green leafy vegetables in a blender, ice water, topped with some tropical fruits and stevia and: WOOOOSSSHHH ... a minute later this green mix was served in a nice cocktail glass!

It tasted great. Since then, I have been a bit hooked on these smoothies... so much so that I even blend my lunch salad now.
So much easier to eat and digest! and no need to add seasoning, etc...

Here are some links to some useful info on how to start:

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Clean or unclean food ?

Are you " sick 'n tired of being sick 'n tired ? "

Due to some recent discussions I held with friends, pastors and doctors, I have decided to re-publish my article, 27/07/2007, on foods for human consumption.

Moreover, a leading charismatic church leader and author of dozens of books, has recently taught on the same subject.
Click here for the VDO clip: "Joel Osteen teaches Scriptures and on what he eats now"

Since food is for many an "idol", I must caution readers to have an open mind and a teachable spirit, willing to change..


It is not a popular "Gospel" .. I always joke to my friends: " You may still make it to Heaven, but not obeying what God intended for food will only make you reach your final destination much FASTER ! "

Choosing Clean Meats:

Pork and dishes made from pork top many Western and Asian food lists. Some people don't realize, however, that these foods come from an ‘unclean’ animal — swine.
The swine, or pig, did not make the Creator's list of "clean" animals for a very good reason.

Clean animals like cows and deer that chew the cud ( = mainly grasses ) have an advanced digestive system that includes an alimentary canal and a secondary cud receptacle. They have three stomachs to process and refine their clean, vegetation-based food in a process that can take up to twenty-four hours.

Pigs on the other hand, never limit their diet to vegetation. They will eat anything they can find — including their own young and sick or dead pigs from the same pen. That’s why we call some people: pigs…because they eat everything (see the photo and article: they do not even mind swallowing waste water!) and slowly also start looking like pigs!

It's no wonder, then, that pork contains poisons and by-products that can harm you, including the destructive enzymes cadaverine and putrescine.

I am NOT promoting vegetarianism at all here! I like to eat meat! Just mind that we, humans have a digestive track 3 times our length, suitable - like most herbivores - for a mainly fruit and vegetable diet.

Carnivore (meat eating) animals can have a track 20 times their length and have much more stomach acid, needed to digest the meat.

Now, think what happens if meat, like pork, starts quickly decaying and rotting in the long digestive track!?

For your health, stick to the animals that The Creator chose as his ideal food for humankind.

Modern medicin also links eating of pork and other meats to colon disease and other diseases, like CVD’s (cardio vascular diseases) with clogging of arteries (cholesterol), toxic and fatty tissue suurounding vital organs like liver and pancreas, etc…etc...

The Creator's Meats

For a quick reference when it comes to choosing meats, remember the bible's guidelines: Choose meat from animals that have cloven hooves and also chew their cud. There are no exceptions to this rule. If an animal has just one quality or the other, its meat is unclean.

No joke: God knows us and what is best for us!

Enjoy your food and give thanks to God for it !

I love you my dear friends, and I hate to see you being "sick and tired of being sick and tired"

The Debate is open: ..... looking forward to your comments ..

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Power Up after a "burn out"

I spent the entire summer in Belgium (nearly 3 months), managed to walk and cycle a lot more than I usually do in Singapore, yet I found my energy levels only partially increased.

Then I met with a good friend, who suffered from a major burn out after struggling with various health issues. Marge referred me to Dr Aelbrecht, I bought his book and studied it thoroughly. Dr Aelbrecht's medical approach is very new to me, though some of his theories I tried to practise for the last year.



Unfortunately, I could not book a consultation with him! But after having read his book, I managed to figure out a few drastic changes to be made to my diet and life style.

http://www.energiekliniek.be

more to follow...

How to Get Sick: Eat Grocery Store Produce and Processed Foods

Pesticides and herbicides are among the world's most deadly chemical compounds. If a pesticide or herbicide kills one thing, it will probably kill, mutate, or seriously damage a whole host of other things. The problem with these compounds is that they tend to stay on the fruit, vegetable, or plant they were applied to. Toxins from our water, air, food, and buildings only make things worse.

Most pesticides are known carcinogens, and some of them pose as counterfeit versions of the female hormone estrogen. These xenoestrogens may promote cancer by stimulating estrogen receptors in the body.

Animal growth hormones are another cause for concern. They don't disappear after an animal is butchered, prepared for market, or cooked. They go right into our stomachs. Nor do they disappear from the milk of a cow treated with antibiotics. It is estimated that one glass of commercial, non-organic milk purchased from a grocery story may contain the residue of up to 100 different antibiotics!

Beyond the hormones that are injected directly into the animal, many of the meats we eat come from animals fed with antibiotic-laden feeds. Growth hormones in our food supply are even blamed for causing the abnormally early menses of young girls and for the overabundance of female hormones in young men. (Female hormones are given to milk cows to increase production.)

Hybridized foods are also unhealthy and could cause dangerous symptoms.

God says to eat every seed-bearing plant after its own kind. Hybridized, seedless watermelons or grapes cannot reproduce, and they may not be the healthy food sources we think they are.

Source: Don Colbert, M.D., Toxic Relief

Food: our idol?

History reveals that the most primitive people were generally the healthiest as well! Our ancestors rarely died from the diet- and lifestyle-related illnesses that kill most people nowadays, mainly because our ancestors ate healthfully and were more active.
They foraged from primary food sources such as wild game, fresh-caught fish from the sea or inland waterways, wild berries, nuts, and plant foods.

Our ancestors ate in order to live.
In our era, we have allowed food to become our idol, and too many people admittedly live to eat. Most modern men and women have strayed far from the Creator's foods, the same foods that nourished the world's healthiest people.

In our promiscuous society, we say yes to virtually every whim and desire of our palate, resulting in a global dilemma of an overweight, sedentary, and increasingly sick population.
It seems we eat to die faster!?

How to make milk kefir

Fermented Beverages

With all the artificially carbonated sodas and flavored coffee drinks out there, it's hard to think of popular modern beverages as healthy. It is time to return to lacto-fermented beverages, which contain beneficial probiotics, enzymes, and minerals instead of hundreds of grams of refined sugar.

Some scholars believe that the "new wine" consumed in the Bible was a nonalcoholic lacto-fermented beverage ( though I rather believe and prefer it was simply fermented red grape juice: WINE! ). These drinks also promote rapid hydration and enhanced digestion. Some typical fermented beverages available today include kefir, grape cooler, natural ginger ale, kombucha, and kvass.

These lactic-acid-rich drinks help relieve intestinal problems, including constipation. They can strengthen the sick and promote overall well-being and stamina and are even considered superior to plain water in their ability to relieve thirst during physical labor.

Remark: Any diary product in itself, produces lactic acid, which if consumed over a long time and for the majority of people can actually cause inflammation in the body. It can also contribute to "acidosis" a new general term of the body being too acidic instead of alkalyne. Acidosis causes many illnesses, such as osteo arthritis, rhumatoid arthritis, cancers, and many others which I will cover in another article.

Get Lactose Tolerant

The healthful probiotic bacteria that speed the lacto-fermentation process along feed on the lactose in milk, leaving behind a substance called galactose. This mono saccharide sugar is easily digestible.

http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/fermenting/kefir_howto.shtml

The first week's struggles

Actually, it was not much struggling.. at least not with the food and hunger pangs.

I am still trying to get into a normal day/night routine with a jet-lag lasting a bit longer than usual (reason: 2 months Europe time zone and a night flight London-Singapore), so sleeping at night with Zoe still waking up once or twice a night to seek comfort with Mum and get some milk.. not easy..

As for the food: though I had to attend a few functions, it was bearable.

Today, I found a nature store, whose owner makes home milk kefir. Hard to find in Singapore. Most people eat outside, lest make their own food!!

My autumn cleanse

This afternoon I observed my mirror image in profile while walking passed some shops and I realized I needed to do something badly! : loosing some weight around my waistline! (or is it waste line?)

My 7 weeks in Belgium, indulging on home made food, some of the most delicious breads and meals, made by my wonderful wife (who did not gain a single Kg!) and my own Mum (who gained 2 Kgs), lead me to some 6 extra Kgs that I need to shed now.

During the following 10-days, I will have a season cleanse, combined with a spiritual fast seeking God on some major issues in my life.

Each seasonal cleanse has its own characteristic dietary guidelines, basically consisting of 10 days of refreshing fruits and veggies and drinking water, lots of it!.

Day One - same fruit at each meal for the entire day, marked by five fruit servings (one or two cups of fruit for each serving). The best fruits for cleansing have a lot of water: watermelon, grapes, apples, and oranges.

Days Two through Four - four servings of fruit during the day plus a healthy salad for dinner. Greens and sprouts are wonderful high-fiber foods.

Days Five through Seven - Similar pattern as days 2-4—except that I add raw nuts and seeds to my salad.

Days Eight through Ten - one type of fruit and four ounces of whole milk plain yogurt or kefir and one tablespoon of honey. (I will teach later on how to make water kefir at home.)

Pork, Pig, Swine … not for mine!

Choosing Clean Meats

Pork and dishes made from pork top many Western and Asian food lists. Some people don't realize, however, that these foods come from an ‘unclean’ animal — swine.
The swine, or pig, did not make the Creator's list of "clean" animals for a very good reason.

Clean animals like cows and deer that chew the cud have an advanced digestive system that includes an alimentary canal and a secondary cud receptacle. They have three stomachs to process and refine their clean, vegetation-based food in a process that can take up to twenty-four hours.

Pigs on the other hand, never limit their diet to vegetation. They will eat anything they can find — including their own young and sick or dead pigs from the same pen. That’s why we call some people: pigs…because they eat everything (see the photo and article: they do not even mind swallowing wastewater!) and slowly also start looking like pigs!

It's no wonder, then, that pork contains poisons and by-products that can harm you, including the destructive enzymes cadaverine and putrescine.

I am NOT promoting vegetarianism at all here! I like to eat meat! Just mind that we, humans have a digestive track 3 times our length, suitable - like most herbivores - for a mainly fruit and vegetable diet.

Carnivore (meat eating) animals can have a track 20 times their length and have much more stomach acid, needed to digest the meat.

Now, think what happens if meat, like pork, starts quickly decaying and rotting in the long digestive track

For your health, stick to the animals that the Creator chose as his ideal food for humankind. Modern medicin also links eating of pork and other meats to colon disease and other diseases, like CVD’s (cardio vascular diseases) with clogging of arteries (Cholesterol), etc…etc...

The Creator's Meats

For a quick reference when it comes to choosing meats, remember the bible's guidelines: Choose meat from animals that have cloven hooves and also chew their cud. There are no exceptions to this rule. If an animal has just one quality or the other, its meat is unclean.

No joke: God knows us and what is good for us!

Enjoy your food!

Detox? Just watch what you eat!

It has been a while since I bought my last crate of juice from Cold Storage.

When I was reviewing some infomercials by Jack Lalanne last month, one thing this 93 year old fitness and health guru said was: “Whatever comes packed or boxed and is made by man is no good!” I stood still by that phrase and thought of it deeply.

Indeed, all that has been created by God has been declared good: fresh fruit, vegetables, grains, seeds, etc… yet today, all seemed to be processed and packed for easy storage and consumption.
Even if you take something made of organic produce, it still must be packed with something that prevents it from decaying or rotting. Hence, good ingredients are processed with food additives, acids, preservatives, some even toxic.
The final product is not that organic anymore. So, by nurturing our bodies, we actually stuff it with acids and toxics that imbalance our organ functioning and eventually gets stored up in our organs and joints and causes illnesses and cancer.

Ever wondered why everybody is talking “detox” now? Instead of “detoxing” our bodies, we’d better be careful of what goes into our mouths!!

So, I have decided to make my own vegetable and fruit juice at home and purchased myself recently this fantastic "Hippocrates" twin gear juicer!

So every 2-3 days, I buy a couple of kilo's fresh produce from the market and make some exotic mixes at home. That is really yummie!!

On top of that, Tio - our gardener here - has helped me to set up this little wheat grass garden so once in a while I get to drink this super healthy fresh wheatgrass.

Below are some links of sites that I have found interesting on the above subject and for fun I have also added some of Jack Lalanne’s interviews and oldies of his TV shows when he was 50 years younger!! Enjoy it...

Here is good ol' Jack, doing his facelift workout at age 88: click on this link .. Jack 88 ... very funny...and it seems to have worked for him!!!

... and here he is with his famous "powerjuicer"... and his trade mark "Good-bye song" he has been doing on his TV shows for more than 50 Years!!!

Have fun and enjoy the clips!

(Double click on the dark coloured links to be re-routed to the YouTube site...)

Pro and Cons of Network Marketing

Yes, 10 years ago I left the corporate world and wanted to become become a millionaire by 35.
I was already using some products by NuSin and jumped into working at it full time. The promise was not a QUICK rich plan, but years of hard and consistent work.

Amway, Herbalife, NuSkin, FreeLife, Young Living, etc (the list is long)... Yes, some have great products, but they also come with great prices.

Let me explain why!

MLM makes us believe that direct marketing is the cheapest way to get a product to the consumer.

That is TRUE. Only: in most MLM there are 6 to 10 levels of distributors who each need to earn a commission and make money to buy their own overpriced generic products.

This is also TRUE: Ex. : Shiseido sells a cream for 100$. 70$ is used for advertisement and marketing and to pay the pretty faces you see in Vogue. 20$ goes to the company for revenue and less than 10$ goes to R&D and the actual raw material cost. What do you buy: an expensive, poor quality cream.

Also TRUE: MLM company XWZ, sells their cream for 100$. Pays 70% of it to their multi level distributors (marketing cost) and can still afford with 30$ to invest in good ingredients. What do you buy: an expensive, good quality cream.

NOW: mind you: this is only for products with a high M&A cost, NOT for generic products and household products or consumer products with a low M&A. ESPECIALLY now that many of these products can be purchased directly over the net.

Most MLM pay out anything between 40-75% of their sales price to the level of distributors involved.

Here is some satire on MLM companies: Have a look at these

There is a certain power in network marketing, sharing with family friends, colleagues...do we not want the best for our beloved ones? Of course it is!

I yet to have to encounter a great MLM Company that has great, competitive products with a tech edge, good compensation plan and long term future, making a change in peoples lives.

See the next funny commercial of how a father talks to his young boy about "important things" in life ... I hope he does not end up with a new car and a teenage pregnancy at the same time!!

“Fruits, Lies and Videotapes”

I have gathered from YouTube some infomercials on the wolfberry products, mostly drinks, either pure or mixed with other powerful anti oxidant fruits.

What a lot of fruit juice manufacturers fail to say is how much ORAC ( Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity ) contents is in the bottle!

Moreover, many of these juices are reconstituted, meaning they are made from concentrates. NOT from fresh raw or cold pressed juice. Yes, they usually do not contain preservatives, but why would it? … it is hardly a fresh natural product!

USDA research has shown that processing (such as evaporation to concentrate) significantly reduces the ORAC.
So, I am not calling it “Lies” but at least some form of deception, whereby manufacturers take claims of fresh produce and then attribute it to their processed products.

One example is this of “Del Monte”
Even though the USDA claims that “prunes” have the highest ORAC score of fruits ( 5700 TE ) per 100 grams, Del Monte fails to state that their premium prune juice has same or at least a fraction of that ORAC level.
On the same label, it is said “water extract from prunes” meaning it is not pure pressed juice!!! Consumers are made to think that drinking their product is the same as eating fresh prunes.

I have written many of these companies, including Del Monte, to explain this or at least mention on their packaging the factual ORAC level of the finished product, not referrals to their fresh produce. I have yet to receive any formal reply of any of them, including some “Fruit Juice Manufacturers Associations” in the USA.

In case they do, I will post their replies.

This is what Brunswick Labs, an independent testing facility on ORAC levels, state on their own web site: "The fact that a commercial product contains one of these plant products does not necessarily mean that the ORAC value of the product will be the same as the plant product in its' pure form. "

So, please sit back, relax and let the info overwhelm you. It is very hype and American. The Big Dream! You may need a broadband for quick streaming…and eat some fresh fruit or vegetables if you can!

The Greek philosopher Hippocrates said : "Let food by your medicin" but this is what God says in the Bible in Ezekiel : "The fruit of the trees be for food and their leaves for medicin".

It is amazing to see how MLM companies can turn these fruits into juiced products and sell for more than 50USD per bottle! One needs to be shrewd to see if all their claims are valid or not..

(REMARK: I do NOT endorse any of the products or companies shown)

Blood cell research after taking wolfberry

Dr Victor Marcial-Vega, trained at John Hopkins, did blood cell research after administering Goji juice to one of his patients.

On the VDO you can notice a decrease in bacteria content as well as cholesterol formation.
White blood cell movement is changing after taking a daily dosis of wolfberry. After 5 days an obvious change can be noticed.

Move your mouse over below screen and click to start loading to show the 6 minute VDO clip:

Goji in the news - BBC & Times Magazine

Today the BBC published an article: "Goji good for you?"

Funny they start an article like this, as if asking in today's world if eating an apple, pear, carrot was good for you!?

I do not know why it is when people finally realize that what nature offers is usually good - God created all of it and He called it: "Good" - it is rediculized and not taken seriously.

Or do I read in between the lines here that some of these research projects are not supported by the rich pharmaceutical industry?

In today's news, we could also read that it was because government intervention and ditto subsidies, the wheat and meat industry was heavily supported, man became overloaded with carbo and meat diets - now leading to massive obesity and consequently heart and other related diseases. Because of this the fruit and vegetable prices have been inflated, with prices for fresh produce nearly not affordable or not available in many markets.

Ever thought how easy it is to eradicate poverty if the poor people could just farm and grow vegetables and fruits, sell it and keep some for their own consumption?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5315202.stm

In 'Times Magazine' it is called: "Superfruit of the Year"