We Can Only Be As Healthy As The Food We Eat

In the following article, Josiah Friberg offers some basic and highly sensible guidelines for how we can reconstruct and maintain optimally healthy bodies.

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4 Keys to Optimum Health - Eat These

Super Healthy Whole Foods for Good Nutrition

By Josiah Friberg

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Daily Quote: "YOU are responsible for your family's health and well-being! Take charge - be their caring, guiding Health Captain." - Patricia Bragg
Today I'm going to answer an objection that someone raised a few days ago. After reading the long list of "foods" to avoid and eliminate from your diet, this person wondered, "What's left to eat?"

That's a great question! I would like to share with you some more keys to good nutrition and some practical tips to eating healthy. Are you ready? Get a piece of paper out and write down this list of foods that you CAN eat and enjoy for good health and nutrition. This is a list of "naked nutrition," also known as natural living whole foods. Your daily diet should consist only of these super healthy foods.

SUPER HEALTHY NUTRITIOUS WHOLE FOODS THAT YOU CAN & SHOULD BE EATING

Group I - Fresh, organic raw FRUITS & BERRIES

Go to the produce market or farmer's market and pick out any fruits and berries that appeal to you. I encourage you to try something new every week as well. Here's a partial list of some of the foods in this category:
apples, pineapples, grapefruit, bananas, pears, peaches, papayas, tangerines, watermelon, grapes, apricots, cherries, blackberries, oranges, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, apricots, limes, lemons, raspberries, noni fruit, mangosteen, wolfberry-goji, acai berries, black currants, blueberries, pomegranates, bilberries, elderberries, cranberries, prunes, plums, guavas, mangos, etc.

Group II - Fresh, organic GREENS & VEGETABLES (preferably raw or lightly steamed)

Find the freshest farmer's market where you can get as many organic greens and vegetables as possible. Here's a partial list of some of the foods in this category that you get to enjoy eating:

spinach, watercress, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, turnip greens, collards, cauliflower, mustard greens, mushrooms, chinese cabbage, red cabbage, parsley, green leaf lettuce, green peas, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, dandelion greens, green and red bell peppers, artichokes, celery, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, beets, pumpkin, potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, garlic, cayenne peppers, jalepeno peppers, asparagus, ginger, spring onions, leeks, etc.

Group III - Organic GRAINS, LEGUMES, BEANS, SEEDS, & NUTS

This is a very powerful category of foods that you can choose from every day. You can make all kinds of dishes and meals from this group that are delicious and healthy. Avoid at all costs buying genetically modified (GMO) products. You want to look for these foods that were grown with organic farming methods that don't use toxic chemical pesticides and herbicides. Here's the partial list of foods in this category:

brown rice, barley, millet, oatmeal, buckwheat, wild rice, 100% whole wheat flour, rye, wheat germ, soybean sprouts, lentils, split peas, kidney beans, navy beans, lima beans, garbanzo beans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, sesame seeds, almonds, cashews, macadamias, flax seed, oat bran, wheat sprouts, quinoa and quinoa sprouts, amaranth sprouts, chia seeds, etc. * Remember, only buy fresh RAW seeds & nuts. Do not buy roasted and salted seeds and nuts. Buy them raw and keep them in glass jars in your refrigerator to preserve them; otherwise, they will turn rancid very quickly.

Group IV - OTHER HEALTHY FOODS

This group is last because it is not as important as the first three groups. It contains some very healthy foods that should be eaten in moderation. Other healthy foods include:

Raw milk (unpasteurized & unhomogenized), raw butter, raw yoghurt, raw cheese, raw kefir, wild deep-water ocean fish that have fins and scales, organic natural-fed lamb, turkey, chicken, and beef, organic fermented foods like sauerkraut, Bragg's organic apple cider vinegar, raw unheated & unfiltered honey, raw agave nectar, extra virgin coconut oil & olive oil, sesame oil, Himalayan Krystal Salt, green drinks such as live whole food based InstaFresh juice called "The Feast," high-quality whole food nutritional supplements, and plenty of natural spring water.

Okay, I hope you're happy now that you have a long list of great nutritious foods that you CAN eat. Use this list to prepare meals with for your family and to plan healthy snacks to have on hand for yourself and your kids. These are all natural whole foods, which is where you and I need to be getting all of our nutrition from. I trust this information will be helpful to you and your family and that you will use it to improve your diet and health. God bless you, the Naked Nutrition Knight

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Josiah Friberg has studied health & nutrition for 25 years. He has used this research to create a healthy lifestyle and optimum diet for himself, his family, and many others. His nickname is, "The Naked Nutrition Knight," because he believes strongly in whole food nutrition. Visit his daily blog at: http://eatinghealthynutrition.blogspot.com Josiah is also an avid photographer and a member of the Blue Ridge Photographic Society North Carolina. Visit his inspirational photography gallery at: http://fineartinspirationalphotography.blogspot.com He lives in the foothills of the scenic Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina with his family.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josiah_Friberg

What Kind Of Fuel Are You Burning In Your Body?

Although the following article is mainly focused on osteoporosis, it has some important implications for achieving/maintaining optimal health in general.

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Think Calcium and Prescriptions Are All You

Need to Fight Osteoporosis? Think Again!

By Heidi Whitaker

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When we build a fire, there is an ash left behind by the burned fuel. The same is true of our body when it burns food for fuel. The food leaves an ash. That ash will either be alkaline or acidic, depending on the food.

Acidity and alkalinity are measured on what is called the pH scale. How acidic a food is on our plates is often the opposite of how acidic the ash residue will be. For example, acidic fruits and vegetables tend to leave an alkaline ash, while alkaline meats and cheeses tend to be acid-forming in the body.

Our bodies also produce acid as a by-product of normal metabolism. Because our bodies are designed to be alkaline, this acid must be buffered with alkaline substances. However, our bodies cannot manufacture acid buffers. Food and supplementation are the only means of replenishing alkalinity in the body.

Due to the Standard American Diet (SAD), most people suffer from an unbalanced pH that is too acidic. In other words, their bodies are full of acid waste. Because the body was meant to be alkaline, this condition forces the body to borrow minerals, like calcium, from the body’s organs, ligaments, muscles, and bones to neutralize the acid in an attempt to safely remove it from the body.

Because calcium is being drawn from the bones to buffer acid, this waste product causes osteoporosis. Dr. Susan Brown of the Osteoporosis Education Project considers acid waste a major hidden cause of osteoporosis. A change in diet, not just calcium supplementation, is needed to fight osteoporosis.

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Heidi Whitaker is an author and popular speaker on the subject of autoimmunity. She co-founded http://www.HealthyDivas.com, a resource center for those with autoimmune disease looking for help and answers. Heidi has given hope to many with fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, arthritis, and Chrohn's.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Heidi_Whitaker

Another Important Nutritional Resource

Dr. Robert O. Young, microbiologist and author of "The pH Miracle," states:

"There is only One Sickness and One Disease, and this one ‘sickness’ is the over-acidification of the body due primarily to an inverted way of living, thinking, and eating... there can therefore be only one remedy and treatment, and that is to alkalise the body and break the cycle of imbalance, thus allowing us to experience the energy, vitality and true health we’re all meant to have."

Utilizing this understanding, Mark Anastasi has created what he calls "The Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough." You can learn more about it by clicking here.

Sue Ellen Dickinson's Inspiring Story

An Impressive Journey From MS To Optimal Health

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Sue Ellen Dickinson is an outstanding exemplar of someone who has successfully managed her symptoms of MS by fostering optimal health. Here's an excerpt from her website where she introduces her inspiring book, "No More MS--A Journey Back To Life."

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"The fact is that there isn’t any ONE specific thing that’s going to reverse Multiple Sclerosis. There’s no magic bullet. So in order to make this happen, we have to look at your body as a whole unit, and not just particular ‘pieces and parts’ of your body that you want to fix. And, there has to be a full system put into place in order to fix the problem. And I’m going to show you how.

"Believe it or not, your body was designed to last for a very long time, and has a natural ‘blueprint’ that it will follow to heal itself and keep you in good health, as long as you give it a chance. When something goes wrong, your body can’t read and follow the ‘natural instructions’ on this ‘blueprint’, so it’s easy to understand why illness and disease can take over, making you sick, and keeping you that way.

"By giving your body this chance to heal itself, and treating it as a whole, you’re giving it the opportunity to ‘read the blueprint’ again, and allowing it to follow its’ natural process and design that you were born with, which will ultimately reverse your disease and lead you back to good health.

Because this is a process, I decided the best way to share this information was to write a book called 'No More MS, My Journey Back To Life.'"

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(Click on the title of her book above for her complete introduction.)

Is Healthy Food More Costly?

Healthy eating is one absolutely necessary condition for optimal health. There are multiple reasons why many of us consume food that is anything but healthy, including the belief that it's too costly.

For an interesting article that argues against this assumption, CLICK HERE.

Acid/Alkaline Balance

There is increasing evidence that the average American diet tends to create an excessively high level of acidity in the body and that this, in turn, contributes to the development of many diseases.

Click on the link below for an excellent overview article: The pH Nutrition Guide to Acid/Alkaline Balance by Jack Challem.

The pH Nutrition Guide to Acid / Alkaline Balance

Implications of Vitamin D for MS

Editor's Note: It's a truism that good nutrition is essential to optimal health. Unfortunately, the prevailing modern diet with it's high percentage of processed foods, commonly results in major nutritional deficiencies. Although Vitamin D is essential for everyone, recent evidence suggests that it may be of even greater importance for people with MS. This excellent article by Harry Monell underscores this fact.

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Vitamin D - Eight Important Reasons To Ensure Sufficient Intake

By Harry Monell

Until most recently, the general consensus among health researchers and practitioners held that the primary function of Vitamin D was in helping the body to maintain a healthy level of calcium in the blood, primarily for proper bone health throughout an individual's lifetime. But, more and more, research is showing that this important vitamin is playing a much larger role in the overall health of the body. The following issues are eight of the top reasons to ensure adequate bodily concentrations.

1. Increase bone density - It defends against osteoporosis by triggering the absorption of calcium into bone cells.

2. Lower risk of all forms of cancer - A large number of studies have shown positive results indicating that with adequate vitamin D, risks for most forms of cancer can be reduced. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that vitamin D supplements may lower risk by 77 percent. In fact, in many of the clinical studies, indications are that the disease may be prevented entirely. Benefits have been especially promising in clinical studies on cancers related to: Breast, Colon/Rectal, Pancreas, Prostate, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and the Lungs.

3. Preserves Muscle strength - A common symptom of severe vitamin D deficiency is leg weakness. Senior citizens typically suffer from an inexorable muscle wasting that begins by age 40. In recent group studies Vitamin D blood levels were measured in elderly men and women and found that individuals who had higher readings also had greater thigh strength, concluding that blood concentration of vitamin D directly correlated with leg strength and function in these people. Another important result of the study showed that with a daily vitamin D intake of 800 units or more, falls were reduced to half of their pre-study level.

4. Energy metabolism - One of the newest identified functions of the hormonal form of vitamin D, known as 1,25-D, is its role in determining how the body manages energy. In other words, it means that without sufficient intake of vitamin D and calcium, cells burn fewer calories and store more of them as fat. And, it turns out that dairy products are more effective than plain calcium at inhibiting fat synthesis and actually augmenting fat breakdown.

5. Strengthen Immune System - Vitamin D appears to send a signal the cells triggering production of specific proteins needed to fight off disease and other conditions in which the immune system attacks the body's own healthy tissue.

6. Reduced risk of MS - Incidences of Multiple Sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases tend to be rare near the equator, where ultraviolet light from the sun is intense and people produce an abundance of vitamin D. In a recent study, women getting at least 400 IU of vitamin D per day showed only a 60 percent risk of developing MS compared to women getting less of the vitamin.

7. Tooth and gum health - Low blood concentrations of vitamin D were linked to gum disease in a study involving both men and women taking part in the federally sponsored National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The rate of loss in tooth-gum attachment was 25 percent higher among those participants with the least vitamin D.

8. Prevention of Diabetes - University of Pittsburgh researchers reported that a vitamin D deficiency affects the pancreas's release of insulin and found the risk of diabetes to be one-third lower in people with the highest concentrations of the vitamin. So, how much of the vitamin do we really need?

The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., currently recommends that people from infancy through age 50 get 200 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day, that those ages 51 through 70 receive 400 IU daily, and that anyone over 70 get a net of 600 IU. Sources include exposure to the sun, foods, especially dairy products and the meat of oily fish, such as tuna, salmon and mackerel, as well as, a variety of supplements.

But, no matter what the source, we now understand the importance of maintaining sufficient concentrations of vitamin D, as it contributes to the overall health and quality of life for each of us.

For additional information and important resources, please visit The Healing Power Of Vitamins And Nutrients

Copyright 2007 Harry Monell. All rights reserved. Please feel free to share the entire contents of this article with your friends or post it on your site as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged, including this notice.
About the Author

Harry Monell is writing articles and maintaining New Day Nutrients.com, a website dedicated to promoting better health and vitality by providing useful information, advice and the latest news covering a wide range of health and nutritional topics. For additional information and resources, please visit The Healing Power Of Vitamins And Nutrients

Promoting A Balanced Immune System

Helping Your Immune System Win The War Against Disease

By George Shears

Just as our country is currently engaged in a war against covert terrorism, your immune system is similarly waging a constant war against the hidden enemies within your body.

This war started before you were born and it will continue until you die. Although it's a war that always ends in defeat, there's a lot you can do to markedly postpone that ultimate defeat and to maintain a state of vibrant health into advanced old age.

These enemies of your immune system include well over 400 toxins ingested from the food you eat, the water you drink, and the air you breathe, along with a multitude of bacteria, viruses, and mutated cancer cells. Increasingly, it has to deal with particularly aggressive bacteria that have developed resistance to most, if not all, antibiotics.

It is also being challenged by a host of new viruses, including HIV, SARS, West Nile, ever-changing strains of influenza that now bear the threat of a world-wide pandemic. Never in the history of our species has it been more important to have a very strong, well-functioning immune system.

A recent longitudinal study, however, has shown that an average person's immune system declines at a rate of approximately 3% per year! The subjects in this 12-year study were all young adults and were apparently healthy when the study began.

When your immune system is functioning fully, it's very much like a very powerful army. It is composed of several highly specialized types of cells, much as an army is made up of many different specialty groups.

Just as supply lines are of crucial importance for an army to wage an effective and successful campaign, the cells of your immune system must similarly receive a constant infusion of all the crucially-important nutrients that they need. As is well known in the art of war, when these supply lines break down, the war is lost.

Another element that is of equally crucial importance--both to an effective fighting army and to your immune system--is constant and effective communication. If this breaks down, the war also cannot be won. One of the most common objectives in warfare is to destroy the "command and control" of the enemy.

When communication breaks down in the immune system, the individual cells in this system do not work together effectively; moreover, they lose their effectiveness both in being able to detect various kinds of enemies and in disabling them. And worst of all, they often mistakenly perceive that other cells in the body are the enemy and aggressively attack them. This results in the many forms of auto-immune diseases that are becoming increasingly prevalent.

So promoting healthy communication within the immune system is clearly of the utmost importance. Until very recently, however, very little has been known about how to do this. Even now, most people know absolutely nothing about this crucially important form of health care. My main purpose here is to guide you in gaining the knowledge you need to provide your immune system what it needs in order to maintain optimal cell-to-cell communication.

Thanks to the electron microscope and the new science of Glycobiology (or Glycomics), it is now known that eight basic sugar molecules are of crucial importance in cellular communication. Collectively, these sugars (or monosaccharides) are called glyconutrients (the prefix, "glyco," from the Greek word for sweet).

Sadly, six of these eight sugars are markedly deficient in the modern diet. On the bright side, however, it is now possible to correct this deficiency through supplementation. This new kind of supplement is called glyconutrition and is often referred to as "the missing link" in nutrition. Along with essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, and essential vitamins and minerals, it comprises a fourth category of nutrition that is absolutely necessary for optimal health.

It's very important to have an immune system that is both strong and well-modulated. The word "strong" here refers to its potency in attacking and destroying pathogens of all kinds. There's a wide array of nutrients that can contribute to keeping the immune system strong or in giving it a temporary boost. Colostrum, Echinacea, Beta Glucan, and other mushroom extracts are important examples.

But if your immune system is strong in this sense without also being well-modulated--that is, if it's unable to discriminate accurately between friend and foe--its strength may actually be used AGAINST you. The end result of this may be the development of some kind of auto-immune disorder, such as MS, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, and many, many others. This is very likely a major contributing factor to how auto-immune disorders of all types are currently proliferating at an accelerating rate.

Fortunately, there are now excellent supplements that support the immune system in BOTH of these crucially important ways. To learn much more about them and how to get them, please click on the URL below.

Resources for further information about glyconutrition:

http://www.thesweetlife.info
http://www.mannapages.com/mildredshears

A Long Healing Journey

On A Road Less Traveled

By George Shears

People afflicted with MS often assume that they have to rely entirely on drugs in managing their symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Many people with this disease have discovered, however, that actively promoting their own optimal health in every way possible is of equal or greater importance. I speak from experience, because my wife, Mildred, has followed this pathway with outstanding results.

Sue Ellen Dickinson, in her recent inspiring book, "No More MS--A Journey Back To Life," has similarly documented the effectiveness of this approach.

Mildred's, long struggle with MS began in June of 1983. While shopping in a supermarket, she was suddenly overcome with extreme dizziness, which continued unabated for nearly two years. During this period, she also experienced many other classic MS symptoms, especially extreme fatigue and sensitivity to heat, and was unable to walk unassisted. She spent all of her time either in bed or in a wheel chair.

Within the first month after the onset of her symptoms, she went through a 10-day, intensive inpatient neurological evaluation at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and was formally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Her neurologist recommended that she start on a course of steroids, which was essentially the only medical treatment at that time. Since she was very aware of how this intervention would disrupt her entire endocrine system, she adamantly refused it and opted for an eclectic natural healing approach for managing her symptoms of multiple sclerosis instead.

Both she and I were quite knowledgeable about, and open to, a variety of self-healing alternatives, many of which she incorporated into a regimen for promoting a state of optimal health. From the outset, she placed a strong emphasis on healthy nutrition and experimented with a number of specialized diets. She also took large amounts of high-quality nutritional supplements, received acupuncture treatments, and practiced meditation intensively, along with systematic guided healing visualization. She also focused strongly on maintaining a positive mental attitude.

By diligently following this natural healing approach over the next two years, her most overwhelming key symptom of dizziness gradually diminished so that she was able to start walking again without assistance. After that, she was also able to resume driving and to engage in relatively non-demanding activities of daily life. Her levels of energy and endurance, however, continued to be very limited. This part of her condition remained largely unchanged for 18 years after her initial diagnosis.

During those years, she also suffered from the classic, intermittent flare-ups of her initial symptoms, including acute episodes of dizziness, numbness in various parts of her body, intense headaches, extreme sensitivity to heat, and--above all--profound, chronic fatigue.

One of her most persistent physical challenges was in walking. Whenever we went walking together, we always moved at a snail's pace, because she was simply unable to get her legs to move more rapidly. She also became exhausted quickly and had to rest frequently. This difficulty always became more prominent in even mild heat.

Apart from using Meclazine to help manage her dizziness, the only other drug she took for her MS symptoms of multiple sclerosis was Symmetrel. This anti-viral agent was recommended to her by a personal physician who told her that some of his MS patients had gotten favorable results from taking it. Since she found that it at least had no apparent negative side effects, she included this in her regimen until about 4 years ago, when she stopped taking ALL prescribed medications.

In the late fall of 2002, a good friend told her about a new nutritional supplement that reportedly had been helpful to others in managing their symptoms of multiple sclerosis. After carefully researching it, she decided to give it a try. As a result of adding this new nutritional component to her regimen, her overall level of health improved dramatically over the next 6 to 8 months and has remained high ever since.

The first major improvement came in the form of greatly increased energy and a markedly increased sense of well-being. For the first time since the onset of her symptoms, she found herself again able to engage in a full range of daily activities, instead of having to carefully ration her energy with frequent naps throughout the day.

The next big noticeable improvement came with the onset of warm weather in the following spring and summer. To our great surprise and delight, she was able to join me in a daily, brisk 3-mile walk around the lake where we live in northern Minnesota--even during the hottest part of the summer; in fact, on one of the very hottest days of that summer, she pushed a stroller with two of our grandkids in it for the full distance.

Now, four and a half years later, perhaps the strongest validation for how lasting these improvements have become is that--at age 69--she is providing full-time care for three of our grandchildren, ages 13, 8, and 5--a feat that would have been completely impossible for her prior to this last stage of her recovery.

We've heard a great many other impressive stories of how others afflicted with the symptoms of multiple sclerosis have had similar success by fostering high level wellness. As I mentioned, one of the most impressive of these is by Sue Ellen Dickinson. Further information about her inspiring book can be obtained at the website below.

It's very important to understand that natural self-healing approaches, such as the one I've shared here, are not intended to prevent, cure, or mitigate disease in any way whatever; rather, their one-pointed objective is simply to promote optimal health in every way possible.

Please understand, therefore, that it was not a particular nutritional supplement that produced my wife's full recovery from the symptoms of multiple sclerosis; rather, by utilizing the micronutrients in this particular form of food, the CELLS OF HER BODY were able to achieve a significantly higher level of optimal health. And just as darkness is dispelled by light, disease symptoms--regardless of their specific form--tend to become less prominent to the degree that high level wellness prevails.

Natural healing, then, is all about fostering optimal health--NOT about curing, preventing, or mitigating disease, which is the sole province of allopathic medicine.