Two youtube videos to showcase two critical wellness subjects

The first is about the blind faith in doctors that is part of our culture--click here

and the second is more information about salt.  Click here

If you've followed me for long or read any of my e-books, you know that I've reported that restricting salt has no good evidence behind it.  This doctor explains further why this is not only not effective treatment, but deadly if you don't get enough!

The Diet That Shook Up Tennis!!!

The full Wall Street Journal article is at the below link.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703509104576327624238594818.html 

The article is about the new Wimbledon winner, Novak Djokovic, from Serbia.

Here is a quote:

"But no one would have predicted what has transpired since January. Djokovic's season has gone from good to great to outrageously, impossibly, unrealistically phenomenal. In an age when even small sports achievements can get enormous hype, there's really no superlative to describe what the soon-to-be 24-year-old has done this year."

And what made the difference for this elite athlete?  He discovered his gluten allergy and got off gluten--no wheat!  And went from a pretty good tennis player to the world's best. Can eliminating wheat really make that much difference?  Well, Novak defeated Andy Murry of Great Brittain in the semi finals.  Murray is ranked fourth in the World.  Andy Murray’s diet was in the news earlier this week too (before he got knocked out of Wimbledon). It’s the usual carb-loaded fare many sportsmen and women are advised to eat--and the same level of blood sugar and insulin swamping of the typical American diet.

What elite athletes show us is a microcosm of the larger area of nutrition.  If you want optimal performance (for your life) try an anti-inflammatory diet like your long ago ancestors were adapted for.  Your genetics are the same as theirs.  No, there has been no adaptation in humans for grains and sugars in 10,000  years.  None.  It wrecks havoc.  Elimingating that havoc is most likely why Novak Djokovic beat Nadal and Murray at Wimbledon and has the Wall Street Journal speaking in such over-the-top-superlatives.  What do you suppose it could do your your ability to feel and perform better?

More on Gut Bacteria (and enzymes)

Below you will find some links to general information and some specific info, too, about what's known or strongly suspected about gut bateria and the health and aging issues I talked about briefly last time.  They are worth at least a quick perusal.

But while I am still on this subject I want to discuss som major MIS-information that shows up in gut flora/fermented foods discussions and also in many other areas of nutrition--especially the raw foods stuff.

Enzymes in food.  Touted as being very health-ful to eat raw, untreated enzymes.  Here's the deal.  Yes enzymes are important--even critical for well being.  They are proteins with a very specific 3-dimensional shape and they help chemical reactions that otherwise could not happen.  You body makes trillions of enzymes over your lifetime.  They always need the right building blocks to be constructed, of course--like particular vitamins or minerals.

The enzymes in the food we eat are specific for the compound it comes in.  Enzymes in carrots help the carrot plant in some way.  Enzymes in kefir (for instance) are specific for the bacteria and yeasts in the kefir, so they can digest the components of milk in the fermenting process.  When you eat the enzymes from something raw, the acid in your stomach and the digestive process denature that enzyme just as your digestion breaks down ANY protein molecule.  They're protein and they do not survive your stomach acid.  They have the same use to you as a molecule of any protein--nothing special.

There are those who would have you believe eating enzymes is particularly healthful.  No!  Having adequate nutrition to build the specific enzymes your body needs is very healthful, but eating those from "out there" doesn't mean diddley!  This kind of junk science is all over the net.  Be wary.  Enzymes you build internally keep you alive.  Enzymes you eat are fuel--nothing more!

Ok, here are some links to gut flora:

http://omgfatloss.com/blog/can-your-gut-bacteria-make-you-fat/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517110315.htm  make you anxious
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2010/news100819.html  in digestion
http://coolinginflammation.blogspot.com/2010/04/aging-gut-flora.html in aging
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/03/04/us-bacteria-disease-idUSTRE62244320100304 in disease
http://www.purenewyou.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=162 general info and disease discussion

The Role of Healthy Gut Flora in Health

Sometimes I learn slowly.  I got a lot of really bad health information over the years--especially before I started asking questions and challenging a lot of "everybody knows" stuff.  Some was by omission.  Or almost omitted.  Like the whole thing about gut flora.  What's really the case is that the healthy bacteria and yeasts in your digestive tract play a huge role in wellness, aging, digestion, how fat or thin you are and what diseases you have.

Boy, that's a lot to lay on gut flora!  Over the coming months I will try to recreate the links to the above information and be sure to give them to you.  But you've probably only heard about gut flora in terms of a very luke warm suggestion to eat some yogurt after you've been on an antibiotic.  That's because antibiotics kill all the good guys in your gut as well as the bad ones that are making you sick.  Unfortunately there are only two or three good bacteria in yogurt and you need lots and lots--both in variety and in numbers.  Remember that our ancestors--those hunters and gatherers--didn't wash their hands or their food.  They must have eaten a lot of dirt and bacteria all day long.  There is evidence that we are designed to eat dirt and bacteria!  Ok, not so practical now days!

So I have recommended to family, friends, and clients that they take a probiotic supplement.  That's a good start.  But most are not much better than yogurt.  In the literature and blogs I comb, many knowledgeable people are recommending fermented foods for the many healthy bacteria they provide.  Among these are  sauerkraut, kefir, kimchee and miso.  Other pickled, brewed and fermented foods may also provide good bacteria.  In these foods, friendly enzymes, fungi and bacteria pre-digest the food and it increases the flavor, medicinal value and nutrition.

I tried kefir.  It is a fermented milk product.  The closest thing I can say is similar is buttermilk, but it's way better!  The commercial stuff I tried was unremarkable and expensive (nearly $5 for a quart of it) and as a digestive aid (cure for diahrrea or constipation) a non starter.  Which highlights the importance of LIVE bacteria and yeasts!  If it's pasteurized or heat treated, those bacteria are killed and not doing you any good. I acquired live kefir grains and started making my own.   I now love kefir. It's too early to say it's making me healthier (probably) for one thing because I'm already darn healthy!.  But digestion is working without problems and I continue to slowly lose weight.  I certainly recommend kefir for anyone and everyone.  Ask me where to get your own grains (and they grow and multiply, too!)

But I started this today to tell you about a study that shows that kefir stopped the proliferation of at least one kind of malignant cancer cells.  Kefir might be the next great cancer drug!  OK, probably one cannot extrapolate yet to that degree--but it's suggestive.  And since we know that the development of cancers are a response to chronic inflammation, we probably can extrapolate that kefir is anti-inflammatory.  Get some!  make your gut healthier but it also reduces the inflammation of a gut out of balance!