A Meal Fit For A Pilgrim

Most of us will be sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal this week, but have you ever wondered how our traditional Thanksgiving meal stacks up against what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving? You might be surprised and it might sound a little extreme-- even in a day and age when we have extreme eating on the cable sports network.

Our national Thanksgiving holiday has its roots in the 1621 fall feast that took place between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans in celebration of the colony’s first successful harvest. It was no small event, either. In fact, there are accounts that this first feast included all the Pilgrims, ninety of the Wampanoag, and it went on for three days.

But what was on the menu? Historians are not completely sure what was on the menu beyond venison and wild fowl. One thing they are sure of, however, is that it was not the sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, dressing, and all the trimmings that usually accompany our modern day repast. Instead, the first Thanksgiving meal probably included venison, ducks, geese, swans, and wild turkey as well as maybe seal, lobster, eel, fish and crabs—and maybe some corn and wheat.

Vegetables probably didn’t make the menu, though, because vegetables weren’t big in the 17th century and for the Pilgrims, it would also have depended on what vegetables were in season. When vegetables were in season, however, they may have had beans, onions, carrots, and peas—although this is not confirmed.

They probably didn’t have much in the way of sweets, either. They brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower, but the supply had diminished by the time of their first Thanksgiving meal, so sweets would not have been included. (Besides, the pilgrims didn’t have ovens, either, so pies, cakes, and bread were not on the menu.)

So much for that pumpkin pie…

What they did have, surprisingly, was a lot of spices in their food—not bland food like many might imagine. They used herbs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit in their wares.

In short, their Thanksgiving meal was high in meat dishes—which offered great sources of healthy protein and fats and was low in carbs, including sugars. They probably could have used a few more vegetables, but, times being what they were, that was not the case.

Nowadays, however, our Thanksgiving meals are usually high in carbs and unhealthy fats and can also pack in between 2,000 to 3,000 calories for just that one meal-- which is more calories than most people should have for an entire day. Now that’s what I would call extreme eating.

And while I am not advocating adding seal or even fish to your holiday menu, maybe this Thanksgiving dinner we can take a hint from the Pilgrims and eat more of the healthy proteins and fats (yes, fats) and scale back on the carbs and sugars.

Why Raw Vitamins?

Imagine yourself 100 years ago describing the latest craze in health and nutrition, the “RAW” food movement, with someone living at that time. RAW Foods are natural, uncooked, untreated, unadulterated — NO BINDERS and NO FILLERS. Right after you finished sharing what you consider a groundbreaking concept of consuming foods in their natural state with that person, they would most likely stare at you and tell you that you just described the way they eat every day. What is now considered unique and advanced was for our ancestors the norm.

In today’s modern system of agriculture, the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers allows the average acre of farm land to yield more food than that same acre would have 50 years ago. The flip side of that is due to all of those chemicals, our food is not as nutrient dense as it once was. A comparison of U.S. Department of Agriculture food composition tables from the 1960s and 1970s to the present day reveals that the vitamin and mineral content of the nation’s breadbasket has declined 25 percent to 50 percent in just the last generation.

Our food is less nutritious coming off the farm. This fact is made much the worse when you consider what we do to our food after it leaves the farm. In the name of convenience, safety and even marketing, we subject that food to processing such as irradiation, chemical preservation, heating and treating. Food is created solely based on how well it can be packaged, shipped and sold and not in terms of the nutrition it should be providing. This whole concept supports the maxim that we are overfed and undernourished.

In order to overcome the “nutritional gap” created by an increasingly under-nutritious food supply, many people turn to multivitamins. Unfortunately most multivitamins are chemically isolated, synthetic versions of vitamins and minerals found in food. They are inorganic, lifeless.

We’ve replaced food with an anti-food. Until the Vitamin Code™, there have been few options available for those who wish to supplement with a RAW, living multivitamin. The Vitamin Code represents the next breakthrough in multivitamins.

The RAW Factor
The magic of RAW food is truly found in its simplicity. When you eat a food that is uncooked, untreated, and unadulterated, you are eating that food in harmony with nature’s intention and your body’s design. RAW food enthusiasts will tell you that there are many benefits derived from eating RAW.

When you consume RAW foods you are consuming all of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, probiotics and phytonutrients contained therein. Simply heating foods can result in the loss of hundreds of these co-factors. When you add different chemical treatments and adulteration to the mix, you are often left with food that is a shell of its former self.

Most people readily accept this premise. Who among us would argue that eating a canned fruit cup in syrup is better than eating a fresh apple?

While all foods provide some nutrition, RAW foods provide higher levels of the 45 nutrients we need to supply our bodies every day. In addition, the co-factors mentioned above are incredibly important. Our bodies are designed to take in food and then break it down in order to glean nutrition from that food. Co-factors such as probiotics and enzymes aid this process. The probiotics and enzymes present in RAW food aid the digestion process, allowing the body to break down the food and assimilate the nutrients into the bloodstream. Nature provides the complete package of vitamins, minerals and co-factors necessary for the body to maximize the nutrient potential of RAW food.

No supplement can compare to the benefits associated with consuming RAW foods. If you have a nutritional deficiency or you just don’t eat a healthy balanced diet you probably need to supplement to give your body the basic nutrition it needs to function properly. If you are going to supplement, you should seek out a RAW, Whole-Food multivitamin. The Vitamin Code is a multivitamin that was developed to provide supplemental nutrition as close as supplementation can get to actual RAW food.

Is Your Multivitamin RAW?
Each vitamin and mineral contained in The Vitamin Code multinutrient formulas is individually cultivated resulting in a process that mimics plant activity. In nature, plants transform inorganic material into useable and bioavailable nutrients. Similarly, the Vitamin Code Process transforms isolated nutrients, renaturing them into whole foods. The result is an innovative RAW vitamin, mineral or antioxidant that is surrounded by the probiotics, enzymes, phytonutrients and other co-factors that create a nutrient-rich source of fuel beneficial for the body.

At no point during the cultivation process are the vitamins and minerals treated, adulterated or cooked. More importantly is what you won’t find on the label — no binders or fillers. The Vitamin Code nutrients are 100% active, meaning that every ingredient contained within them has nutritional value and purpose. The Vitamin Code represents a breakthrough in multivitamins: RAW, living multivitamin/mineral supplements. 

Probiotics and Mercury

Some developmental, neurological changes do not have a clear genetic linkage. One hypothesis is that mercury poisoning through environmentally acquired mercury, which could be due to casual contact or through vaccination, may exert neurological effects on the brain. It may be that mercury exposure during early development might “throw a genetic switch”. There is anecdotal evidence that soil-based organisms can help with detoxification. Pathogenic organisms have been shown to readily detoxify mercury.

The detoxification of organic mercury in bacteria occurs from their ability to convert highly toxic Hg2+ to Hg (0) via a redox reaction. It has been known for over 25 years that the intestinal flora could produce organic mercury from ingestion of mercuric chloride. Enteric bacteria, including streptococci, staphylococci, E. coli, yeasts, lactobacilli, bacteroides and bifidobacteria, are capable of methylating HgCl.

Probiotic organisms such as lactobacillus and bifidobacteria produce only small amounts of methyl mercury. The elemental mercury escapes from the bacteria after detoxification, where it may continue to 1 of 4 possibilities: expulsion, reabsorption, or be taken up and processed back to methyl mercury by either pathogenic or probiotic bacteria. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 90 % of methyl mercury is excreted through bile in the feces. Elemental mercury or mercuric chloride is taken up and processed much more slowly to methyl mercury. With large numbers of probiotic bacteria, mercury can effectively be driven toward expulsion.

It is estimated by the American Academy of Pediatrics that during childhood vaccinations, it is possible for the dose of mercury to exceed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended levels for safety. There are chelation protocols using ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid (EDTA) or dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) to effectively clear mercury from the body. The administration of probiotics would prevent any recycling of toxic mercury.

As probiotics contact and process the various types of mercury, there would be some mutations that would occur in the probiotic genomes. The body has an innate ability to clear organic mercury, with 90% of methyl mercury being excreted through the bile in feces. 
There is a belief that the gastrointestinal tract plays a major role as mercury exerts an effect on the immune system in the gut. Mercury can cause an autoimmune response. Probiotics along with monoterpene may be valuable in detoxifying mercury, since monoterpenes can increase phase II detoxifying in the body.

Whats In Your Gut?

Do you wonder what is in your gut? Or how you can remove it? 

Chances are you have, well let me tell you a little bit about the good and the bad bacteria in your gut.

Yes! There is such a thing as "good bacteria" but because so much of what we see or hear of is bad bacteria the good tends to be guilty by association. This should not be the case, as a matter of fact if you had enough good bacteria in your gut there would be a lot less bad bacteria to kill in your whole body.

One cannot survive where the other one thrives, this is to say when you build up the good bacteria in your gut it will usher out the bad. Preventing sickness, bad skin, stomach acid, and weight gain. It will aid in digestion, regularity, energy, weight loss and over all good health. I know this maybe a little much to understand I feel like I spend a lot of time convincing people of this when it should be common knowledge. Medically speaking it is over looked and because of that and other factors of course, it is not widely known and or reported.

The truth is you have bad bacteria in your gut and it is making you fat, unhealthy and cranky. It can also cause leaky gut or LGS which lets toxins and bad bacteria leach into the blood stream cause high blood pressure, cholesterol, and artery disfunction. So what can you do?

Start eating as much good bacteria as possible:

-sour kraut

-lacto-fermented beverages and foods

-raw grass fed milk and kefir

-raw grass fed dairy and yogurt

-kombucha

-you can also take a simple supplement to aid in this process learn moreClick Here

Is the Beautiful Skin Diet Next?

You most likely have heard you are what you eat, but did you know that same principle may apply to skin health, too? It’s true. Your diet might have a lot to do with the condition of your skin, and vitamins and antioxidants as well as other nutrients, can play major roles in skin health.

Karen E. Burke, Ph.D. of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s dermatology department says that vitamins C and E as well as selenium can support the skin’s natural repair systems against free radical damage. Good sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits, red peppers and broccoli, while tasty sources of vitamin E include whole grains and nuts such as almonds and hazelnuts. You can get selenium from cod, turkey, and Brazil nuts.

But these do not stand alone in how to maximize beautiful, healthy skin. Vitamin A is also important for skin because, like vitamins C and E, it acts as a powerful antioxidant. Vitamin A can be found in dark orange vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, and winter squash as well as dark green veggies such as broccoli, spinach, and kale.

Vitamin B plays a role in skin health as well because the B vitamins are essential for body cell health—including the skin cells. A vitamin B deficiency can lead to itchy, dry skin, so it’s important to get enough foods rich in the B vitamins including fish, eggs, whole milk, chicken, and whole grains.

Additionally, the natural antioxidant coenzyme Q10 can help cells grow and can protect them from free radical damage. Interestingly enough, coQ10 levels generally drop as we age and this drop is believed to add to skin’s aging process. Good dietary sources of CoQ10 include: sardines, mackerel, heart, liver, beef, lamb, eggs, spinach, broccoli, peanuts, wheat germ, and whole grains.

And don’t forget those healthy fats—such as omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s can help produce and preserve the skin's natural oil barrier which is essential to keeping skin hydrated, plumper, and younger looking. Foods high in omega-3s to look for include salmon, flaxseeds, nuts, and high omega-3 eggs.

And here’s some good news that is sure to put a smile on your healthy-skinned face: chocolate might even help improve your skin. In fact, a German study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that women who drank hot cocoa with high flavonoid concentration had smoother and softer skin than those who drank cocoa with a lower flavonoid concentration. (But be sure to not overdo it, chocolate lovers!)

The bottom line is that a healthy diet can support skin health. What a delicious way to love the skin you’re in!

Passion For Health

This weekend I learned a lot about myself through my church's membership class. I enjoyed the class much more than I thought I would, but only because I don't like talking to people about my feelings. Its a right of passage for men only, sorry ladies. 

Anyway through this class we did a passion assessment, this where I truly feel I have made some steps in the right direction.

I learned that I really love what I do (biblical health and personal training) I love it so much I have become very passionate about it. I want to make sure that set the record straight as to why I am so passionate. Because I love to see people change their lives and I love being a part of it. I know this sounds very cliche' but it is the truth.

It is even more relevant than I knew before because of the biblical health aspect. This is true for the simple fact that you can't have true change unless you surrender to Christ. This is as much true in your life as it is in mine.

God is love and love is real, this is the difference between what I do and anything else you may  find out there in the "fitness world". I am and will always be invested in the relationship, for the sole reason of Gods love.

I would love to talk to you about this on a personal level so that I can explain more how Christ and health are so important for your life. 

I will tell you that being healthy is one thing but living up to Gods standards for health is much more beneficial because He does things with excellence.

I will say it like this, serving God with your health is just another way for you to be vessel to be worked through and to be ministered to. A vessel that is perfect to look at but most importantly holds the Living water.

Another tool in your spiritual tool box!

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