Month: January 2016

You do your best to eat well, exercise, and live a healthy lifestyle. However, no matter what you do in your life, there are events taking place that are out of your control. With farming, comes problems such as that of soil deficiency. In order to protect the environment and ensure the health of those living on Earth, it is important to understand what is happening and what can be done to stop or slow down the problem.

Gradually and amazingly, humans have been depleting Earth’s soil resources much faster than the nutrients can be replenished. If this trajectory does not change, soil disintegration, integrated with the effects of climate modification, will create a big danger to international food security over the next century.

Researchers warn that people have actually been diminishing soil nutrients at rates that are of a magnitude greater than our current capability to replenish the soil. Fixing this imbalance is important to global food security over the next century

Farming, which accelerates erosion and nutrient elimination, is the primary game changer in soil health.

“Ever since humans developed agriculture, we’ve been changing the planet and throwing the soil’s nutrition cycle out of balance,” stated Ronald Amundson, a UC Berkeley teacher of environmental science, policy and management. “Because the modifications happen gradually, frequently taking 2 to 3 generations to be discovered, individuals are not cognizant of the geological change occurring.”

It has been stated that soil disintegration has actually accelerated, and we’re now going into a period where the capability of soil, “the living epidermis of the planet,” to support the development of our food supply is plateauing.

A future ‘phosphorous cartel’

Farmers make use of three vital nutrients to fertilize their crops: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. The discovery of artificial nitrogen production in the early 1900’s is often credited for significantly increasing crop yields, which in turn supported remarkable developments in worldwide population. Because the process of manufacturing nitrogen is energy-intensive, its supply depends on nonrenewable fuel sources.

Unlike nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous originated from rocks and minerals, and those resources are not equally dispersed throughout the world. The United States has just 1 to 2 percent of the world’s potassium reserves, and its reserves of phosphorous are expected to run out in about 3 years.

“This could develop political difficulties and unpredictability,” said Amundson. “Morocco will soon be the largest source of phosphorous on the planet, followed by China. These two countries will have a large amount of say in the distribution of those resources. Some individuals suggest we will see the introduction of a phosphorous cartel.”

Supporting environmental change

Another danger to soil security is connected to its function as a mass tank for carbon. Left undisturbed, soil can hold onto its stores of carbon for hundreds to thousands of years. The most current price quotes suggest that up to 2,300 gigatons of carbon are kept in the top 3 meters of the Earth’s soil– more carbon than in all the world’s plants and atmosphere combined. One gigaton is equal to a billion tons.

However, agriculture’s physical interruption of soil releases saved carbon into the atmosphere. Based upon the location of land used for farming worldwide, 50 to 70 gigatons of carbon has been released into the atmosphere throughout human history. Supporters of sequestration, the long-lasting storage of carbon in soil, have suggested that regaining this carbon will be a means to reduce continuing nonrenewable fuel source emissions of the greenhouse gas.

Of certain concern are the large carbon stores in the soil in the world’s polar areas. Scientists have discovered that temperatures are increasing at greater rates in the northern latitudes.

“Warming those areas resembles filling your freezer with food, then pulling the plug and going on holiday,” said Amundson. “There will be a huge feast of germs feeding upon the food as the plug gets pulled on the stored carbon in the frozen soil. Microorganisms are currently beginning the procedure of converting the carbon to CO2 and methane.”

Recycling soil nutrients

The human dependence on farming is recognized and the majority of the Earth’s most efficient soils are already in agricultural production. However, better management of the soil is needed.

One proposal is to stop discarding nutrients caught in waste treatment centers. Currently, phosphorous and potassium are concentrated into solid waste instead of cycled back into the soil. Additionally, more effective management is needed to reduce losses from soil. Excess nitrogen, for instance, is thought about as a contaminant, with the runoff sapping oxygen from the country’s waterways, suffocating water life and developing dead zones in seaside margins.

Amundson noted that it did not take too long to get individuals to begin separating paper, glass and aluminum cans from their garbage for recycling.

“We should have the ability to do this with soil,” stated Amundson. “The nutrients lost can be captured, recycled and put back into the ground. We have the skillset to recycle a great deal of nutrients, however the supreme deciders are individuals who create policy. It’s not a scientific problem. It’s a social issue.”

It is essential to be aware of what agriculture farming and other industries do to the soil and the environment. The way consumers and producers take care of their fields and property is going to have an effect on the ground and atmosphere, as well as how people will be able to thrive in and around that area.

What Can You Do?

Our modern diets are nearly completely devoid of the vital minerals our bodies need to thrive.  The best way to ensure your optimal health is to supplement what is lacking.

Learn More about the 90 Essential Minerals and Nutrients that your body needs here

 

 

There are many things that can cause a person to gain weight, feel sluggish, and develop dietary issues. The most common though, which many people overlook, is a diet that is high in added sugars. By eating these additional sugars, it is easy to pack on pounds and feel unhealthy.

However, by simply taking additional sugars out of your diet plan today, and for the next nine days, you will be able to see a dramatic change- not only in your waist size- but also in the way you feel overall.

The current belief regarding sugar varies between worry that it’s not specifically good for you, to thinking that it’s a downright toxin.

There’s no doubt that sugar makes food more enticing– some state even craveable and addicting. It has also been stated that a high sugar diet causes overindulging and weight problems. But what a number of scientists are finding is that despite weight gain and caloric consumption, sugar– particularly fructose– in excess is destructive to health.

A rigorous brand new study in Obesity, led by Robert Lustig, shows that decreasing over consumption of fructose is metabolically valuable in and of itself.

The research included 43 overweight 8-18 year-olds, all of whom were heavy sugar customers (28 percent of their diet was sugarcoated!) as well as had at least one metabolic risk factor, such as hypertension, glucose intolerance or high triglycerides.

For 9 days this group ate an added-sugar restricted diet, while still intending to preserve the very same amount of overall carbohydrates and calories.

A short explanation about sugar, fructose and glucose; I guarantee it’s brief and essential in order to understand what this experiment teaches. Foods and drinks are typically sweetened with sugars that are a mix of the basic sugars glucose and fructose. Sucrose (table sugar) is a two-sugar particle with 1 glucose and 1 fructose bound together, and is therefore exactly 50 percent glucose, 50 percent fructose. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is about 45 percent glucose, 55 percent fructose. Practically all forms of calorie sweeteners used in food processing are glucose/fructose blends. So how does one keep the sugar level while reducing fructose? The answer is starches, which are pure glucose chains.

The study didn’t change the kids’ diet plan to a kale, seeds and quinoa mix, however rather simply changed foods with lots of sugar with other processed foods such turkey hot dogs, pizza and baked potato chips, that have little or no additional sugar, and instead consist of carbs through starches.

Simply 10 days later there were substantial metabolic improvements: Glucose tolerance, blood lipids and other markers of liver health changed for the better.

As pointed out previously, the study intended to keep calorie consumption stable, and for the kids’ weight to stay the very same. Nevertheless, regardless of the effort, and with the scientists adding calories to that result, the kids lost about 1 kg on average (2.2 pounds) in the 9-day study. Could this moderate weight-loss describe these metabolic improvements? The researchers performed regression analysis and claim it’s unlikely– I will not go into that complex description.

So, is sugar toxic?

This research study is further proof that decreasing sugar to more sensible amounts, benefits kids in danger of metabolic problems.

Dr. Lustig typically alerts about the risks of fructose, emphasizing that glucose isn’t really the problem. In reality, since products are usually at least 50 percent fructose, the practical suggestions it to cut all additional sugars.

Sugar in huge quantities is certainly related to weight gain, and other problems. Decreasing it (even without deliberate caloric constraint) normally causes weight decrease and enhanced health outcomes.

So cutting out added sugar and going for the World Health Organization’s and the American Heart Association’s target of no greater than 6 teaspoons a day for ladies, 9 teaspoons a day for men, is very sound advice.

The initial step towards that not-easy-to-achieve goal is to understand just how much sugar is contributed to our food, which is exactly what’s proposed by the FDA, and combated strongly by the food market.

Before reaching for the next sweet treat, one should consider what even the smallest amount of sugar can do to the body. Not only is it a main cause of weight gain, it also holds additional problems that can wreck havoc on the body.

In order to stay healthy and happy for as long as possible, the best idea is to strictly limit sugars if not completely cut them out. The easiest way is to replace them with natural sugars like fresh fruits can offer.

Aside from what you can see on the scale, eating junk food can do more than just make you gain weight. There is a lot more that takes place inside of your body after you consuming a greasy hamburger, an order of fries, and a soda to wash it all down. The essential microbes inside of your stomach that keep you healthy and feeling good, can go on a rampage. In order to feel your best, it is important to eat the foods that are good for you.

When Morgan Spurlock notoriously invested a month eating large meals from McDonalds for the use in his documentary Supersize Me, he put on weight, harmed his liver and claimed to have suffered addicting withdrawal symptoms. This was widely credited to the harmful mix of carbohydrates and fat, plus the added chemicals and preservatives in processed food. However, could there be another explanation?

We may have forgotten about the others who really don’t find enjoyment in consuming junk food. These are the poor beings that stay in the dark in our guts; the hundred trillion microbes that surpass our overall human cells 10 to one and digest our food, provide lots of vitamins and nutrients and keep us healthy. Until just recently we have actually viewed them as hazardous– but the bad ones (like salmonella) are a small minority while most are essential for us.

Studies in laboratory mice have actually revealed that when fed an intensive high fat diet plan, their microorganisms change dramatically, and for the worse. This can be partially avoided by using probiotics; however there are evident differences between us and laboratory mice, in addition to our natural microorganisms.

A current study took a group of Africans who ate a standard regional diet plan, high in beans and vegetables, and switched their diet with a group of African Americans who consumed a diet plan high in fat and animal proteins and low dietary fiber. The Africans fared worse on American-style food: their metabolism changed to a diabetic and unhealthy profile within simply 2 weeks. Instead, the African Americans had lower markers for colon cancer threat. Tests of both groups showed really different microbiomes, the populations of microorganisms in their guts.

Home Testing

Remarkably, no one has actually specifically examined the effect of junk food on westerners from the viewpoint of the microbiome.

One researcher who wrote the book The Diet Myth, has been exploring a number of uncommon diets and taped their impacts on his gut microbes. These diets consist of fasting, a colonoscopy diet, and an extensive unpasteurized French cheese diet plan. His son Tom, a final year student of genes at the University of Aberystwyth suggested an extra vital experiment: to track the microbes as they altered from an average western diet plan to an intensive fast food diet for over a week.

The father wasn’t the ideal subject since he was not on a typical diet, but Tom, who like many students enjoyed his fast food, was. So Tom accepted being the guinea pig on the basis that his dad paid for all his meals and he could analyze and write up his outcomes for his argumentation.

The strategy was to eat all his meals at the local McDonalds for 10 days. He was able to consume either a Big Mac or Chicken nuggets, plus fries and Coke. For extra vitamins he was permitted beer and crisps at night. He would collect excrement samples prior to, for the duration of and subsequent to his diet plan and send them to 3 different laboratories to inspect consistency.

Tom started in high spirits and a lot of his fellow students were envious of his unlimited processed food budget. As he put it:

“I felt good for 3 days, then gradually declined, I ended up being more sluggish, and by a week my buddies believed I had actually gone an unusual grey color. The last few days were a genuine struggle. I felt actually unwell, however, certainly had no addicting withdrawal symptoms, and when I finally completed, I hurried (uncharacteristically) to the shops to get some salad and fruit.”

While it was clear the extensive diet plan had actually made him feel momentarily weak, they needed to wait a few months for the results to come back. The findings came from Cornell University in the US and the crowdfunded British Gut Project, which permits individuals to obtain their microbiome checked with the results shared online for any individual to assess. They all came back with the same story: Tom’s community of gut microbes (called a microbiome) had actually been ravaged.

Tom’s digestive tract had seen enormous shifts in his typical microorganism groups for factors that are still uncertain. Firmicutes were replaced with Bacteroidetes as the dominant type, while friendly bifidobacteria that reduce swelling halved. However, the clearest marker of an unhealthy gut is losing species diversity. After just a few days, Tom had actually lost an approximated 1,400 types– nearly 40 % of his total. The changes continued and even 2 weeks after the diet his microbes had actually not recuperated. Loss of diversity is a universal signal of disease in the digestive tracts of overweight and diabetic individuals and sets off a range of immunity issues in lab mice.

The idea that junk food is bad for you is not news, but knowing that they decimate our gut microorganisms to such a degree and so rapidly is fretting. Many people consume junk food on a regular basis, and even if they do not get fat from the calories, the body’s metabolic process and immune system are suffering via the impacts on the microbes.

We rely on our germs to produce much of our necessary nutrients and vitamins while they rely on us eating plants and fruits to give them energy and produce healthy chemicals which keep our body immune system working regularly.

While this may be unlikely to stop people from consuming junk food, understand that the devastating effects on our microbes and our long term health might potentially be reduced if we also consume foods which our microbes enjoy like probiotics (yogurts), root vegetables, nuts, olives and high-fiber foods. Exactly what they appear to crave, above all else, is food diversity and a piece of pickle in the hamburger just isn’t enough.

Before heading up to the local fast-food restaurant to grab lunch or dinner, consider what you are doing to your body. Instead of filling it full of fats, sugars, carbohydrates and other unhealthy ingredients, consider choosing healthier options that will assist in improving your overall health and well-being.

“The food you eat can be either the best and most powerful form of medication or the slowest form of poison.”
Ann Wigmore

When walking through the aisles of the grocery store, you will find rows and rows of processed foods that have lost their nutritional value and do more harm than good. Research over the previous years has shown without a doubt, that exactly what you consume has a profound result on your total health. With that in mind, if you know what to look for, you can find nutrient-dense foods that will help you to not only survive, but thrive and fight off illness. Some foods will combat inflammation which fuels illness, while others assist the body to remove contaminants and protect from free radical damage. Healthy organic foods will attack any disease on some level.

So what is on the list of illness combating foods?

Basically the precise opposite of the Standard American Diet (SAD). Organic foods like colorful veggies, fruits, beans, healthy fats, garlic, herbs, spices and lean proteins. While this is not a full list, let’s take a look at a few highlights:

1. Beans

Beans provide numerous phytochemicals along with fiber. Phytochemicals such as saponins have the capability to combat health problems on the cellular level, and Folate is a B vitamin that minimizes the danger of certain diseases.

2. Black Seed/Oil

Likewise referred to as black cumin, black cumin seed, or black seed. There are presently 656 peer evaluated researches on this amazing food. This seed has the capability to stabilize and enhance the body immune system.

3. Carrots

Carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, an antioxidant that researchers think secures cell membranes from contaminant damage and slow the development of problematic cells. They also supply antioxidants that can battle health problems.

4. Cruciferous Vegetables

Cruciferous vegetables such as bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, kale, collards and cauliflower consist of sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinols (I3Cs). These are 2 powerful components that assist to detoxify the body.

5. Garlic

The very same sulfur substances that provide garlic its strong smell can stop disease triggering substances from forming in your body, speed up DNA repair work and eliminate problematic cells. Don’t forget other foods from the same food group; onions, leeks, shallots and chives.

6. Ginger

Ginger has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, valuable for alleviating nausea, migraines, aching muscles and arthritis.

7. Grapes and Resveratrol

Research study reveals that resveratrol can offer many health benefits including, lowering inflammation, and avoiding oxidation of LDL cholesterol. If you are wanting to increase your resveratrol consumption, consider taking in grapes, blueberries, cranberries and pomegranate each which provide a large range of anti-oxidants.

8. Green Tea

Green tea is rich in polyphenols and catechins, in particular EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate). This powerful antioxidant can assist to purify the liver. Lab studies have actually discovered that catechins in tea can help promote cell health.

9. Pomegranate

This fruit offers anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. If buying juice, make sure to read labels as bottled juice generally contains extremely high amounts of sugar.

10. Sea Vegetables

Kelp, Kombu, Hijiki, Nori and Arame are powerful mineral and vitamin rich foods that can quickly be contributed to soups, salads, rice or noodle meals. Sea veggies provide a host of dietary and healing advantages. Kelp can sssist in removing radioactive particles and heavy metals from the body. Kombu can assist in lowering blood pressure and is plentiful in iodine, carotenes, B, C, D and E vitamins. It is likewise a high protein seaweed that contains calcium, magnesium, potassium, silica, iron, and zinc. Hijiki can boost natural killer T-cells for disease protection. Nori is rich in all the carotenes, calcium, iron, iodine and phosphorous. Arame is among the wealthiest sources of iodine. Herbalists utilize Arame to help reduce bust and uterine fibroids. Dried seaweeds can also be powdered to use in detox baths.

11. Spinach

This versatile green food contains lutein and zeaxanthin. These carotenoids can eliminate unstable particles and free radicals from your body. They are also in other dark green leafy vegetables.

12. Strawberries
All berries include powerful antioxidants, which indicates they naturally halt the procedure in the body that produces free radicals that damage your cells. Berries such as raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and cranberries are also powerful anti-oxidants and considered a protective food.

13. Tomatoes

Lycopene is an extremely concentrated antioxidant in tomatoes. While regular consumption of tomatoes and peppers is connected with healthy cells, it has a disadvantage which is solanine. If you have any swelling in your body, consuming foods with solanine is highly likely to worsen and exacerbate the situation. Click here to find out more: https://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/link-between-nightshades-chronic-pain-and-inflammation

14. Turmeric

Curcumin is among the most effective anti-oxidants discovered in turmeric and has various health benefits.

15. Vitamin D.

Although this isn’t really a food, there are many studies that reveal this vitamin contributes to an improved state of health. A liquid supplement can help you to get your daily needed dose.

By making informed decisions about what you put into your body, and choosing foods with powerful components like these 15, you can strengthen your body and live a longer more enjoyable life.

Unfortunately it is very difficult to get all the needed nutrients from our modern diets.  Mineral depletion in our farming soils have left even the best foods devoid of the needed nutrients.  Our most popular supplement Tangy Tangerine is packed with fruits & vegetables with and Incredible ORAC value OVER 8000.

ORAC is a method of measuring antioxidant capacities in biological samples.  Here is a great list of food ORAC values.

Tangy Tangerine also includes:

16 essential vitamins
12 amino acids
60 plant derived minerals
2 essential fatty acids

Similar to any changes in diet plan or procedure, please talk about with your practitioner initially.

References:.

MDPI-Open Access to Numerous Studies https://www.mdpi.com.

U.S. National Library of Medicine https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.

Black Seed Studies https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=nigella%20sativa.

Turmeric Studies https://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/turmeric.

8,000+ Studies References on Vitamin D https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Vitamin+D+for+Cancer.