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Clean Your Liver with Food

Clearly the one organ in your body that needs cleansing the most is your liver.  Without a periodic cleanse, fatigue and illness can set in.  The Chinese believe the liver and its function is more vital to life than your heart and your brain.  One can survive injuries to the heart and the brain, but if you're liver is injured watch out.  It is the biggest organ in your body.  And it is responsible for such life-enhancing functions and allows all the other organs and systems in your body to function well.  This is why if the liver is sick, all the other organs in your system will perform poorly.  For this reason, cleansing has its purpose--to keep you healthy and energetic.

Not only does garlic clean the liver, it also relieves high blood pressure.  It's nature's most potent antibiotic and it improves memory.  What's not to like?

But how does one clean the liver?  Maybe you're not into those deep-clay cleansings or enemas or juice purges.  There's got to be a way to cleanse an organ without destroying your routine.  There are foods that you can eat on a regular basis that can clean your liver continuously without having to be home-bound or put in an outpatient care.  That list is here.

1.  Garlic
2.  Grapefruit
3.  Beets and Carrots
4.  Green Tea
5.  Leafy Green Vegetables
6.  Avocados
7.  Apples
8.  Olive oil
9.  Cabbage
10. Lemons & Limes
11. Walnuts
12. Tumeric

I have at different times tried each of the items in that list, not specifically to cleanse my liver but rather to create an overall anti-oxidant effect.  The one for me that seemed to really boost my liver and make me feel good was raw, uncapsulized turmeric. Brussel sprouts and cabbage and spinach have each had a nice effect, but it was the raw turmeric that gave me a wonderfully feeling of relaxation and healing my body as I slept through the night.
 
Dr. Edward Group recommends a full liver cleanse.  He explains it here.  "Other liver cleanse foods not listed above include artichoke, asparagus, kale, and brussel sprouts.  Eating the foods listed above is a great way to help keep your liver functioning properly.  However, for best results, I recommend a liver cleanse.  Performing a liver cleanse at least twice a year will eliminate any foreign substances that may be trapped in your liver.

Health Food Humor. Thank You Sid Caesar!!!

I don't like the end of eras, but certainly Sid Caesar's passing closes one more window on my parents' era.  Wikipedia has some good quotations from the greats who worked with and wrote for Caesar.  

HOW TO FIGHT BRONCHITIS

Four people close to me have had severe bronchitis this winter.  I got it from one of them.  I was miserable.  Had phlegm.  Had debilitating fever. Coughed non-stop.  A few remedies have helped. One is lemon, the rind and flesh, and juice of the lemon.  I'd slice up a lemon and eat it, skin and all.  Lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C but their skin is high in hesperidin, an excellent blood vessel toner.  The vitamin C will help bring your immune system into healthier balance, not to mention that it's a decent detoxer of your stomach.  

To clear your lungs, maybe the best thing that I've seen work directly on the phlegm is a pot of boiling water.

The steam will break up the congested phlegm and separate it from tissue.  You will breathe easier and you will notice the immediate benefits of having more oxygen available to your brain and different parts of your body--arms, legs, shoulders, etc.  Also, the steam will restore hydration to your skin, your lungs, and sinus cavity.  Being sick dehydrates us. Drinking enough water is important for greater function of our internal system when we need it the most.  So hydrate with steam.

The other remedy I found that works is unsweetened yogurt without all that junk, like corn starch.  What the hell is corn starch doing in yogurt? But whole milk, unsweetened yogurt does magnificent work to improve your digestion and rebuild your immunity.  Prebiotics like sauerkraut, kimchi, dill pickles are also excellent prebiotics that will detox you in relieving ways.   As you know already that 80% of your immunity is the aggregate result of your gut flora.  In addition to yogurt, raw butter does wonders too to bring energy back into the various systems in your body.

Oh, and zinc. 

Balance Your pH With These Foods

Having a system and a diet with balanced pH values is an important health topic.  Because we're talking about such small numbers, the importance of this topic tends to get lost.  But it is easier to monitor than you think.  All forms of life have pH and when taken in aggregate the pH value of your body can provide a background profile of either health or disease.  Every food has a pH value.  So does water. So does the soil.   pH is measured on a scale of 0 to 14.  A pH measurement of 0 means that your body at the time of the measurement is acidic.  A measurement of 7 is ideal.  And a measurement far above 7, between 9 and 14 means that your body is too alkaline.  There are quick remedies as well as remedies that you can integrate into your diet.  One quick remedy for a high acidic body is to take one teaspoon of baking soda.  If you're in the habit of eating a lot meat, one teaspoon once a week is enough to put your body back into balance.  Your muscles will relax, too.  So if you've got lactic acid build up in your joints from vigorous exercise in the week, a teaspoon of baking soda will relieve that. So baking soda is a quick remedy.  Not something you want or can incorporate into your daily regime.  Baking soda is a powerful health product.  Research has proven that baking soda eliminates--that's right, eliminates--diabetes.  It also destroys kidney tumors.  One more point about baking soda.  It is so healthy for the kidneys that it literally helps people on dialysis get off of dialysis.  So keep a box of baking soda around for yourself.  It's not just for your drains.

FOODS THAT HELP KEEP pH LEVELS HEALTHY

Natural Society's Elizabeth Renter argues that "keeping pH levels in check is something a healthy body does naturally. All life has a pH level, from the soil to the food to water, that helps keep a body healthy and balanced. When we eat foods that are highly acidic, for example, our body works to correct it, bringing it into alignment with our own pH balance. Ph levels are measured on a scale of 0 to 14. 7.0 is neutral and preferable.  0 is completely acidic and toxic.  14 is completely alkaline and not good for you either.  According to Christina Sarich, your blood needs to be slightly alkaline with a pH somewhere between 7.35 and 7.45.  For a comprehensive list of foods with their pH values, please see this.

  

Generally, foods high in alkalinity tend to be those foods that you've read or known that have great health benefits to begin with.  And though there is some dispute on the exact pH value, I think that the value indicated is within range.  One food that I've heard raved about for its alkalinity is pineapple.  I'd read that pineapple has a pH value of 6.7, pretty close to that ideal range of 7.0.  But the chart that I linked to states that pineapple has a much lower pH value.  That chart may be referring to canned pineapple or maybe pineapple juice.  It does not state clearly "fresh pineapple."  Fresh pineapple that you have to slice may indeed have a higher pH of 6.7.  Still, it is pretty good, has lots of enzymes to help us digest protein, and it tastes good.   

Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/14-alkaline-foods-drinks-optimal-health/#ixzz2seHF9OLt

Ketogenic Diet Improves Insulin Sensitivity and Numerous Aging Markers, Dr. Joseph Mercola

I am re-posting this fantastic article by Dr. Joseph Mercola.  It covers ketogenic diets that rely on fats to boost fat metabolism.  A friend of mine just told me that the Inuit Indians got their vitamin C from the fat of animals.  I will have to check that out.  He cited the book "Wheat Belly" as the source of that information.

We are just beginning to understand the biological intricacies of aging. A growing body of research is challenging the belief that aging is beyond your control, prompting scientists to begin thinking about ways we can slow our aging clocks to a slow crawl.

Although this is a relatively new branch of science, there are some factors that appear to be key in controlling how quickly you age. One major factor seems to be insulin signaling and the metabolic “engines” you have running day to day, which are largely controlled by the foods you eat.

In the first featured video, Dr. Peter Attia discusses how a ketogenic diet can optimize your metabolism. But before I discuss the specifics of this, I want to tell you about a remarkable mouse study, presented in the second video. Scientists just accomplished quite a feat: extending the lifespan of mice by 20 percent just by manipulating just one single gene.

Visit the Mercola Video Library

The Aging of Mice and Men

In a report published in the August 2013 issue of Cell Reports,1 scientists discovered that the “mTOR gene” is a significant regulator of the aging process—at least in mice. This gene is thought to be involved, in some capacity, with insulin signaling.

In this study, a drug was used to suppress the action of the mTOR gene by 25 percent in a group of laboratory mice. The drug, rapamycin, is an immunosuppressant used to treat certain cancers and also to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients.

The mice whose mTOR was suppressed lived 20 percent longer than the control mice—which in human terms, equates to an additional 15 years of life! But they had other effects as well—some that were beneficial, and some that were not.

For example, the mTOR-suppressed mice demonstrated improved memory and cognition and had a much lower cancer risk. However, they also developed softer bones, more infections, and more cataracts than normal mice.

The mTOR gene is known to play a role in cellular metabolism and energy balance. Researchers believe it’s also somehow involved in the effects of calorie restriction, which is associated with longevity. It’s been known for nearly a century that animals consuming less food live longer.

Those on restricted calorie diets are living longer probably as a result of improved insulin regulation, as insulin resistance is a major factor in many chronic illnesses.2Researchers concluded that mTOR is a significant regulator of aging and are optimistic that targeting this gene may someday be part of an anti-aging strategy.

But mouse studies don’t always translate to humans. There is no guarantee that inhibiting the action of mTOR in humans would produce similar life-extending effects—and it could be harmful in unforeseen ways.

For now, your best bet is to use diet and exercise to optimize your mTOR pathway, which is part of your insulin pathway. You can learn more about this in this previous interview with fitness expert Ori Hofmekler.

The role that insulin plays in longevity was also demonstrated by earlier research involving worms, of all things! By adding just a tiny amount of glucose to worms’ diets, their lifespan was shortened by 20 percent. Believe it or not, when it comes to insulin signaling, there are many similarities between you and those wiggly creatures. Consuming lots of sugar and grains is the equivalent of slamming your foot on your aging accelerator.

A High-Fat Diet May Also Lengthen Your Life

Numerous studies have shown that lowering your caloric intake may slow down aging, help prevent age-related chronic diseases, and extend your life. As you age, your levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides tend to gradually creep upward.

A 2010 study examined the effects of a high-fat diet on typical markers of aging. Study participants were given a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet with adequate protein, and the results were health improvements across the board. Serum leptin decreased by an average of eight percent, insulin by 48 percent, fasting glucose by 40 percent, triglycerides by nearly eight percent, and free T3 (thyroid hormone) by almost six percent.

What we know now about calorie restriction is that, in animals, it reduces metabolic rate and oxidative stress, and it alters neuroendocrine and sympathetic nervous system function. We also know that calorie restriction improves insulin sensitivity, and high insulin levels accelerate aging.

Therefore, it is safe to assume that much of the longevity phenomenon can be attributed to improved insulin signaling. What this means for you is that your longevity depends more on what you eat than on how much you eat.

A Radical Ketogenic Diet Experiment

Now that you have an understanding of how important insulin is to your health and longevity, let’s take a look at Dr. Peter Attia, who presents one of the clearest examples of the effects of diet on overall health markers. Dr. Attia is a Stanford University trained physician with a passion for metabolic science, who decided to use himself as a lab rat—with incredible results.

Although Dr. Attia has always been active and fit, he did not have genetics on his side. His natural tendency was toward metabolic syndrome, in spite of being very diligent about his diet and exercise. So he decided to experiment with a ketogenic diet, to see if he could improve his overall health status.

For a period of 10 years, he consumed 80 percent of his calories from fat and continuously monitored his metabolic markers, such as blood sugar levels, percent body fat, blood pressure, lipid levels and others. He experienced improvement in every measure of health, as you can see in the table below. An MRI confirmed that he had lost not only subcutaneous fat but also visceral fat, which is the type most detrimental. His experiment demonstrates how diet can produce major changes in your body, even if you are starting out relatively fit. And if you’re starting out with a low level of fitness, then the changes you experience may be even more pronounced.

	BEFORE	AFTER
Fasting blood sugar	100	75-95
Percentage body fat	25	10
Waist circumference in inches	40	31
Blood pressure	130/85	110/70
LDL	113	88
HDL	31	67
Triglycerides	152	22
Insulin sensitivity	Increased by more than 400 percent

What is a Ketogenic Diet?

Dr. Attia consumed what is known as a ketogenic diet, which is one that shifts your body’s metabolic engine from burning carbohydrates to burning fats. Your cells have the metabolic flexibility to adapt from using glucose for fuel to using ketone bodies, which come from the breakdown of fats—hence the name “ketogenic.” Another term for this is nutritional ketosis. As an aside, many types of cancer cells do NOT have this adaptability and require glucose to thrive, which makes the ketogenic diet an effective therapy for combating cancer.

A ketogenic diet requires that 50 to 70 percent of your food intake come from beneficial fats, such as coconut oil, grass-pastured butter, organic pastured eggs, avocado and raw nuts (raw pecans and macadamia nuts are particularly beneficial). One of the fastest ways to prevent nutritional ketosis is by consuming sugar or refined carbohydrates.

Besides restricting carbs and limiting protein, you can also strengthen your ketone engine with intermittent fasting, which is what Dr. Attia did. He restricted his sugar intake to about five grams per day, which is quite extreme and much lower than I recommend for most people. He consumed a moderate amount of protein, and the rest of his foods—80 percent of them—were fats. But his approach, as radical as it was, really proves that a ketogenic diet can have profound health benefits—not to mention blowing thesaturated fats theory of heart disease out of the water, once again.

Please note that I have recently revised my position on using low carb long term and now believe that the low carb, low to moderate protein, high healthy fat diet is appropriate for most who are insulin or leptin resistant. Once that resistance resolves, then it likely becomes counterproductive to maintain a low-carb approach. Once your weight, blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol normalize, you can increase your carbs. Personally, I now consume several pieces of fruit a day and have two dozen fruit trees in my yard, but my body weight, fat and insulin resistance are all optimized.

You Heart LOVES Ketones

Your heart, as well as other muscles, operates quite efficiently when fueled by ketones. Your muscles can store more glucose (as glycogen) than your brain because they have an enzyme that helps them maintain their glycogen stores. But your brain lacks this enzyme, so it prefers to be fueled by glucose. When your blood glucose levels are falling, your ketone levels are typically rising, and vice versa. You might be wondering, then, how your brain is able to function when you’re in a state of ketosis.

It turns out that your body has a mechanism for providing your brain with a fuel source it CAN use when glucose is in short supply. When your glucose is low, your brain tells your liver to produce a ketone-like compound called beta-hydroxybutyrate (or beta-hydroxybutyric acid). This compound is able to fuel your brain very efficiently, especially with “practice.”

The more efficient your body is at burning fats, the more easily it can move seamlessly between its fat-burning and carbohydrate-burning engines, and the more stable your blood sugar will be. Your body will be able to save its glycogen stores for when they are critically needed, such as when you’re engaged in intense physical activity.

Are You ‘Bonking’?

The problem is that most Westerners, whose diets are typically heavy in sugars and carbs, have lost their ability to burn ketones efficiently. If this is you, then carbohydrates are ever-present and your liver can’t remember how to produce ketones because it hasn’t needed to. Your fat-burning engine has been switched off. If you eat the standard American diet, chances are you’ve lost your ability to burn body fat, despite carrying around an enormous supply of it! And I say that with the greatest respect and concern.

Dr. Attia uses the analogy of a huge petroleum truck that runs out of gas on the highway—in spite of having thousands of gallons of fuel on board, the truck can’t access it and stops dead in its tracks. When this happens in your body, he calls it “bonking.” Everyone is born with their own set of genetics that influences their metabolic tendencies. If you didn’t hit the “genetic jackpot,” then you may have to work a bit harder to restart your fat-burning engine.

How is this accomplished?

For starters, eliminating excess sugar and grains from your diet will help you “retrain” your body how to burn fat for fuel. Typically, restricting your carbohydrates to 30 or 40 grams per day, along with an appropriate amount of protein, is enough to “starve” your brain into ketosis. Exercising, particularly while fasting, is also very effective at jumpstarting your fat-burning engine. The more consistently you exercise, the better your body will be at using your own fat stores for energy. In summary, when it comes to your ketogenic engine, you either “use it or lose it.” And as you saw by Dr. Attia’s results, using it can have a profound impact on your health and longevity.

Strategies for Adding Years to Your Life—and Life to Your Years

A key factor in living a long, healthy life is optimizing your insulin, which increasing numbers of scientific studies are proving. But other factors are important as well. The following are my top anti-aging recommendations.

• Proper Food Choices. For a complete guide about which foods to eat and which to avoid, see my comprehensive nutrition plan. Generally speaking, you should focus your diet on whole, ideally organic, unprocessed foods that come from healthy, sustainable and preferably local sources. For the highest nutritional benefit, eat a good portion of your food raw. This type of diet will naturally optimize your insulin signaling.

Most people (although there are clearly individual differences) should strive for a diet high in healthful fats (as high as 50-70 percent of the calories you eat), moderate amounts of high quality protein, and abundant vegetables. Non-vegetable carbohydrates should be a fairly minimal part of your diet. Sugar, and fructose in particular, can act as a toxin when consumed in excess, driving multiple disease processes in your body including insulin resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and systemic inflammation—any of which can shorten your life.

• Comprehensive Exercise Program, Including High-Intensity Exercise. Even if you’re eating the best diet in the world, you still need to exercise—and exercise effectively—if you wish to optimize your health. You should include core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and the right kind of stretching, as well as high-intensity “burst” type activities. Consider combining this with intermittent fasting to supercharge your metabolism.

• Reduce Your Stress. Your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease, from heart disease to depression to cancer, and yet it’s the factor most often neglected. Stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, energy psychology tools such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), and yoga are all viable options that can help you relieve stress and clear out hidden emotional blocks.

• Optimize Your Vitamin D. The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round, and the only way to determine this is with a blood test. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used when necessary. Most adults need about 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day to achieve optimal serum levels.

If you take supplemental vitamin D, you also need to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin K2, as discussed above. Fermented vegetables can be a great source of vitamin K2 if you ferment your own using the proper starter culture. Gouda and Edam cheese are also good sources.

• Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible. This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, pesticides and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives. Avoid prescription drugs in favor of more natural approaches, whenever possible.

Sources and References

• 1 Cell Reports August 2013
• 2 Wall Street Journal online August 2013

Lemon, Peel, and All? Absolutely.

FIGHTING SEASONAL COLDS?

Eat sliced lemon.  Peel and all.

HOW MUCH DO I EAT TO STOP A COLD?
As much as you can tolerate.

WHAT EFFECT CAN I EXPECT?
1)  A relaxation of body ache that comes with a cold or flu.
2)  You become less contagious.

I've heard the clarion through the years about reaching for Vitamin C immediately when you have a cold.  In the past, it's either been Ester-C or ascorbic acid.  But I don't like the fact that many, if not all vitamin supplements, are derived from genetically modified sources.  So I wanted to see if by reaching for real food that I might experience an equal or better response.  And it seems to bear itself out. The lemons with the peel cleanses your liver and intestines.  This cleansing alone is beneficial.  It doesn't do everything, but it does help in repairing the immune system.  Some might thing that eating slices of lemon is too strong or too much and that maybe a lemon wedge or slice in a glass of water would do. It would do. It just wouldn't do enough. Remember, you goal is to eliminate the virus that is causing the cold or flu.  Lemon slices will overwhelm any virus.  You will feel better.

STARVE A COLD, FEED A FEVER?  OR, FEED A COLD, STARVE A FEVER?

Remember that maintaining a healthy immune system is what's key.  And good nutrition is essential for a healthy immune system.  I would not starve a cold or a fever, but instead focus on your immunity and the foods that will boost it.  Since 80% of your immunity comes from healthy gut flora, paying attention to your gut immunity is vital.  To that end, probiotics are the go-to foods when one feels weak from a cold or flu.  In other words, yogurt.  Plain, whole milk yogurt.  During illness, avoid sweetened yogurts.  It's always your decision, of course, but in the service of rebuilding immunity, it's encouraged to go sugarless for a few days. What other foods contain probiotics?  Kefir appears in all the lists that you'll find online.  You can find unsweetened kefir, but I have yet to find whole milk kefir.  It's true that sometimes people get bilious or nauseous with the flu and dairy products may turn some people off, but the probiotics should settle your stomach.  The lemon peel will chase the virus away.  Probiotics targets the larger effects of a cold, in other words, your gut immune system.  It needs support during times of illness.