Archive for September, 2011

It’s no secret that I strongly advise the inclusion of meat in a healthy diet. The world’s best CrossFitters share that sentiment as well – many of them adopting the Paleo lifestyle. With my Nutrition/Lifestyle Program, however, I’ve worked with a few vegans and vegetarians. I encourage them to eat meat, but ultimately it’s their decision and I’ll work with that. But I don’t believe it’s as black and white and many vegetarians/vegans make it out to be. I just want them to make an informed decision instead of relying on an archaic way of thinking. We have to look at the effects of modern-day farming methods. A recent post from Mercola.com highlights some outstanding points that I will summarize here. Click here for the full article.

          VS.

1. I’m a vegetarian because it’s the environmentally friendly choice.

In the book, The Vegetarian Myth, ex-vegan Lierre Keith proclaims that saving the planet and ending the suffering found in factory farms cannot be achieved by refusing to eat animals. It can only be achieved by boycotting modern agricultural practices, which Keith calls “the most destructive thing that people have done to the planet.”

The carbon footprint of conventional farming is mainly due to the unnatural feed that these animals are given, which requires lots of fossil fuels. Many don’t think about this, but fossil fuels are used in everything from the fertilizers and pesticides that are sprayed onto the crop to the transportation of the feed.

Grass does not require fossil fuels to grow. Rotating the livestock on pastures does the job instead. And other health-harming practices, such as injecting the livestock with hormones and antibiotics, are not allowed in organic, pasture-raised farming.

With regards to modern practices, Keith states: “Grain will dramatically increase the growth rate of beef cattle … and the milk production of dairy cows. It will also kill them.

The delicate bacterial balance of a cow’s rumen will go acid and turn septic. Chickens get fatty liver disease if fed grain exclusively, and they don’t need any grain to survive. Sheep and goats, also ruminants, should really never touch the stuff.”

2. I’m a vegetarian because I’m opposed to killing animals for food.

Keith shows in her book that any food that is a product of modern-day farming – even a soy burger – is exacting a toll on life itself, including that of animals. Keith writes, “Specifically, agriculture is biotic cleansing. It requires taking over entire living communities and clearing them away, then planting the land for just humans. All of that is a long way of saying “extinction”. None of us can live without a place to live, without habitat. An activity that has destroyed 98% of most animals’ habitat can hardly be claimed to be animal-friendly.

Northern Africa once fed the Roman Empire. Iraq was forests so thick that sunlight never touched the ground – no one in their right mind would call it the “Fertile Crescent” now. The dust storms inChina are so bad that the soil is literally blowing across the Pacific Ocean and over the continent until it hits the Rocky Mountains, where it’s causing asthma in children inDenver.

The planet has been skinned alive. And the only reason we have not hit complete collapse is because we’ve been eating fossil fuel since 1950. This is not a plan with a future…The truth is that agriculture is the most destructive thing humans have done to the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. The truth is that agriculture requires the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems.”

3. I’m a vegetarian because it’s healthy.

This is the reason I hear most often. Above all, we need to find a diet that works for us. Everybody is different so NO ONE can tell you what or how to eat. You need to listen to your body. My recommended approach is Metabolic Typing. The bottom line, though, is that you need to listen to your body. If you’re a vegetarian/vegan and you’re sick all the time, you keep getting injured, and/or your cholesterol and triglycerides are on the rise – it’s your body telling you to please eat some kind of animal protein and fat. It doesn’t necessarily have to be meat. There are healthy animal proteins like raw organic dairy and organic free-range eggs.

Many vegetarians/vegans reference The China Study as the authoritative proof that eating meat is harmful.  Dr. Mercola addresses this nicely but I’ll summarize two main points below:

• The China study was an observational study. Correlations deduced from an observational study cannot prove causation. All you can really do with data from an observational study is form a hypothesis, which must then be tested in randomized, controlled trials, to ferret out the truth about whether or not x actually causes y.
• In many cases, the data do not show statistically significant correlations between animal protein consumption and disease such as cancer at all. On the contrary, it would seem that sugar and carbohydrates are correlated with cancer – not animal protein. In addition, the data indicate that fat is negatively correlated with cancer mortality (aka. higher fat equals lower cancer mortality), which again contradicts the claim that meat is harmful.

Look for Sustainable Sources.

As I mentioned before, I want people to make an informed decision on whether a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle is for them. Trust your body to be your guide instead of falling victim to what the masses think (aka. if everyone is doing it, it must be good). You are unique and only one person can tell you what’s right for you. If it’s not working, change it!! Just be sure to obtain your foods, whether animal or plant, from organic, sustainable sources such as Full of Life Farm.

In my never-ending pursuit to find the highest quality food available, I stumbled upon Full of Life Farm right here in Concord!!

Well, the farm itself is up in Oregon. But we’re lucky enough that the owners live here. Once a month, they ship down some of the best quality food you can get anywhere. If you live anywhere in the Bay Area, it’s worth it to make the trip out to Concord.

They only sell their products out of their garage on Saturdays from 10am – 12pm. Although, they also have a stand at the Mountain View Farmer’s Markets on Sunday mornings.

The best part about it is that they have EVERYTHING!! Most local farms/ranches only sell beef. Full of Life sells beef, goat, pork, poultry, and eggs. Not only that, but they sell all parts of the animal: Meat, bones, skin, fat, even pig ears and feet for stock!! If you have a copy of Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions, Full of Life is the place to get all of your products.

Keep an eye out at CrossFit Adventure – we’d soon like to buy in bulk from Full of Life at a 5% discount. If you’re intested, let Nathan know.

For now, check out their website or just stop by their home on Saturdays from 10am-12pm:                     890 Navaronne Way; Concord, CA 94518

Take a deep breath with me . . . Hold it . . . and let it out. Happy weekend!! It’s been a LONG week, hasn’t it? You work hard. You deserve the rest. Your body has been crying out for it. But do you listen?

From Joshua Becker at BecomingMinmalist.com:

Consider the benefits that rest offers…

• a healthier body.
• more balance.
• less stress.
• deeper relationships.
• better opportunity to evaluate life’s direction.
• a new, fresh outlook.
• increased productivity.

Yet, despite all the proven benefits of rest, intentionally setting aside regular time for rest is a practice that has become undervalued and underappreciated in today’s culture. We have become overworked, overstressed, and exhausted. Yet, Sabbath (setting aside one day each week for rest) remains a dying practice that less and less people practice regularly (never mind the idea of actually taking a two-week vacation).

Overlooking the importance of rest is certainly not unique to our modern society. But our culture has made it increasingly difficult to take rest without specific intentionality. Consider some of these factors prevalent in our modern society that argue against the idea of rest:

• Rest has become confused with laziness. We live in a society that praises those who work 60hrs/week and makes faulty assumptions about those who work 40. We have confused rest with laziness. And while too much rest may indeed be an indicator of sloth, the regular practice of finding rest is not.

• The desire for money has become unquenchable. Modern society loves money. We love it to a point that we will sacrifice much of ourselves to gain more of it. Some sacrifice morals, character, or family. Others consider rest a fair trade… and will gladly sacrifice it at the altar of the almighty dollar.

• Success is measured incorrectly. Similarly, we have begun to measure success by the amount of cash in savings, the size of our homes, or the model of our cars. The nicer one’s lot in life, the more successful they must be. Unfortunately, this is a faulty measure of success. The true test of success should be measured in significance rather than success. But often times finding significance requires us to rest long enough to recalibrate our lives around the things that matter most.

• We live in a world that is always “on”. While electricity may have made it easier to work late into the night, the Internet has surrounded us with opportunities and relationships 24 hours/day. Today’s world never stops. And when the possibility to make money every hour of the day is combined with the desire to do so, rest quickly gets pushed aside.

• A false sense of urgency surrounds us at every moment. We live in a world that floods our minds with so much information that it has become difficult to sort out the important from the unimportant. As a result, the urgent needs of the day crowd out the important. And rest puts up little fight against the urgent.

• Our minds require distraction. Our minds have become addicted to stimulation and validation. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to turn off E-mail, Facebook, or Twitter… not to mention cell phones, televisions, or the Internet. And when our minds begin to require distraction, rest becomes an increasingly difficult state to achieve.

• Rest cannot be rushed. Modern society loves shortcuts. We desire 15-minute abs, 30-minute meals, and 1-hour photos. Unfortunately, rest can never be rushed. It must be entered deliberately and allowed to complete its cycle in due time. By definition, this requires patience… and a cleared schedule.

• A misunderstanding that rest is purely physical. Rest is physical. But it is more than that. It is mental, emotional, and spiritual. It is an understanding that the world is going to survive without you. It is an inner strength that allows you to disconnect from accomplishing “work” and focus on yourself and those around you. It is not mere physical leisure. It is rest: body and soul.

I have worked hard to keep a day of rest as an important part of my life and weekly routine. But it is an upward battle that requires relentless intentionality… because we live in a culture that has far too often underappreciated its value.

I never get sick of saying it – The closer to nature you’re eating, the better. More and more research is pointing in this direction. Where are all of the articles that prove otherwise? Show me the research!! (Doing my best Jerry Maguire impression)

IN THE NEWS: KIDS WHO DRINK RAW MILK HAVE LESS ASTHMA, ALLERGIES
A large European study has found–once again–that children who drink raw milk have less asthma and allergies. This is not big news to WAPF members, but the really big news is that the findings were publicized in a September 13, 2011 Reuters Health press release, with worldwide circulation.  Of course the article contained the usual warnings about the dangers of raw milk when we have no records of raw milk killing a single child, while asthma is a life-threatening disease that kills thousands of individuals each year. In the U.S., more than seven percent of adults and even more kids have asthma, causing millions of visits to emergency rooms and doctors’ offices every year.
The researchers tapped into a large survey in which parents answered questions about their children’s milk consumption. The researchers also collected eight hundred milk samples from the participants’ households. Compared with kids who only drank store-bought milk, those who drank raw milk had a 41 percent reduction in their odds of developing asthma. They were also only about half as likely to develop hay fever–even after accounting for other factors that might be relevant. On the other hand, those who drank boiled farm milk had no less asthma than those who drank store milk.
The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, is the first to point to the exact components in the milk that might be protective. The protective effect was linked to so-called whey proteins in the milk, such as BSA and alpha-lactalbumin.”Pasteurization remains an effective tool to inactivate harmful microorganisms but may simultaneously destroy whey proteins,” said a spokesperson for the study.

The abstract to the journal article can be found here.

The Reuters article can be found here.

And yes, whey protein is that powerful. If you’re looking for a quality whey protein (aka. GNC/Costco/Trader Joe’s is highly processed crap), ask me (Nathan: nathan@crossfitadventure.com). I can get you some or point you in the right direction. The same is true for raw milk. ASK ME!!

Thomas Navarro is dead. His death certificate reads: “Cause of Death: Respiratory failure due to chronic toxicity of chemotherapy”. Initially, Thomas’ parents refused conventional treatment (radiation and chemotherapy) and sought alternative therapy. As a result, their doctor filed charges of child abuse and child neglect . . . even though the doctor told them the chemotherapy won’t work AND the FDA has not approved the use of radiation or chemo for children.

On the verge of Breast Cancer Awareness month, millions of dollars will soon be donated. The sad truth is that such a small percentage of your donations actually go toward anything worthwhile. Of the $1.041 billion dollars the American Cancer Society “earned” in 2008, over $400 million went to salaries. Only $134 million went to research and grants. So only about 13% of your donations are going towards research. And how effective has that research been? Just ask Thomas Navarro – oh wait, he’s dead.

That may be a little crass, but we’ve been fighting this war on cancer for 40 years (The National Cancer Act was enacted in 1971). Rather than decreasing, cancer rates have increased during the last 40 years, and now surpass heart disease as the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 45 to 74. You tell me, is that money well spent?

Important! The producers of the following film are allowing a full and FREE preview through September 24th! Please tell everyone you know to watch this film in its entirety through September 24th, 2011. Please watch this video to learn more about Thomas’ battle and the untold story of cancer research. And learn how President Reagan secretly beat cancer WITHOUT radiation or chemo.

According to the film, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men in the United States will get cancer in their lifetime. The 40 year war on cancer has merely shown that radiation and chemotherapy are not effective therapies. The good news is that the risk factors for cancer are controllable. Only 6-10% are related to genetics. If this is a major concern for you, please check out the Nutrition section of our website and learn to live a healthy lifestyle. Working in (meditation, mindfulness), working out, stress management, sleep, and of course nutrition are all a part of Nathan’s Program.

Cut Poison Burn from Nehst Studios on Vimeo