Archive for the 'Health' Category

Remember when we thought Orange Juice was good for us? We were silly and naive back then, weren’t we? If you’re not freshly squeezing it at home, you’re drinking a chemical cocktail. Yum Yum!!

Ever wonder why each and every batch of your favorite orange juice tastes the same? I mean, not every orange tastes exactly the same, right? So, how in the world can our orange juice taste exactly the same no matter the month or season? Because our food is engineered!!

According to a Food Renegade article:

For industrially-produced orange juice, after the oranges are squeezed, the juice is stored in giant holding tanks and the oxygen is removed from them, which allows the liquid to keep for up to a year without spoiling.  It also makes the juice completely flavorless. So the industry uses “flavor packs” to re-flavor the juice.

“Juice companies therefore hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that formulate perfumes for Dior and Calvin Klein, to engineer flavor packs to add back to the juice to make it taste fresh. Flavor packs aren’t listed as an ingredient on the label because technically they are derived from orange essence and oil. Yet those in the industry will tell you that the flavor packs, whether made for reconstituted or pasteurized orange juice, resemble nothing found in nature. The packs added to juice earmarked for the North American market tend to contain high amounts of ethyl butyrate, a chemical in the fragrance of fresh squeezed orange juice that, juice companies have discovered, Americans favor. Mexicans and Brazilians have a different palate. Flavor packs fabricated for juice geared to these markets therefore highlight different chemicals, the decanals say, or terpene compounds such as valencine.

The formulas vary to give a brand’s trademark taste. If you’re discerning you may have noticed Minute Maid has a candy like orange flavor. That’s largely due to the flavor pack Coca-Cola has chosen for it. Some companies have even been known to request a flavor pack that mimics the taste of a popular competitor, creating a “hall of mirrors” of flavor packs. Despite the multiple interpretations of a freshly squeezed orange on the market, most flavor packs have a shared source of inspiration: a Florida Valencia orange in spring.”

And do I really need to get into all that sugar that you’re drinking? I think we’re well past that, don’t you?

I like to think that at CrossFit Adventure, we’re a family. But that bond extends beyond our walls. The decisions you make affects everyone else. Everyone.

YOU make a difference by the simple choices you make. Every time you choose a non-organic food, you are choosing food allergies. You are choosing cancer. You are choosing fatigue and insomnia. Every time you say “yes” to those foods, you are telling the policy makers that it’s okay to pervert your food.

For the sake of your community. For the sake of your family. For the sake of your own health. Choose quality products that have been grown or raised with a conscience.

You have such great power. Use it wisely.

Although the men can benefit as well. We’re talking antiperspirants and aluminum folks. Your antiperspirant probably contains aluminum which is not a good thing if you’re trying to avoid breast cancer. Nor is it a good thing if you’re trying to avoid Alzheimer’s. Frankly, it’s not a good thing period.

I’ve always told women to avoid unnatural antiperspirants like the plague. What do women typically do before they put on antiperspirant/deodorant? They shave – opening up the pores under the arms. This creates an open passage to the lymph nodes and breast tissue. Not good to voluntarily put aluminum on after shaving the pits.

A few points from Mercola.com:

• Women with breast cancer have higher levels of aluminum in their nipple aspirate fluid (NAF), a fluid present in the breast duct tree
• Studies show aluminum from antiperspirants is deposited in breast tissue, and animal studies have also found that aluminum can cause cancer
• Important breast-cancer prevention strategies include choosing natural personal care products, being aware of bra risk factors, limiting your fructose/sugar intake, exercising, and optimizing your vitamin D (through sun exposure) and animal-based omega-3 fat levels

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.

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.