For the past 20 years on February 2 some TV station airs the comedy Groundhog Day.  And every year I get sucked into watching it ’cause it’s my favorite law of attraction movie.

In the movie Bill Murray plays an arrogant, self centered weatherman named Phil Connor.  When he is sent to the small town of Punxatawny, Pennsylvania to cover the Groundhog Day celebration, he approaches his job with disdain and bitterness towards both his colleagues and the townspeople.  The next day however, you wakes up to find that he is reliving Groundhog Day all over again.  For the rest of the movie he is plagued with living Groundhog Day over and over again.

Each day, Phil grows more angry and bitter toward his surroundings.  At first he attempts to take advantage of everyone else as they are unaware that this day is being lived over and over again.  He learns their most intimate secrets, and uses this knowledge to his own personal benefit the following day which of course is Groundhog Day.  When he grows tired of that he decides to tempt fate and commits suicide in numerous ways only to wake up the following morning and relive the same day over again.

Eventually he begins to care about townspeople and works hard to make himself a better person.  When he has finally made a complete transformation into a person who adds value to society, the spell is broken and finally he experiences the next day — February 3.  The most poignant quote happens shortly before the next day when he says “No matter what happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I am happy now…” Yes, he is harnessing the power of now.

How often do we choose to live the same day over and over again in misery?  Do we choose to see life throughput pessimistic lens of cynicism?  Do we expect the worst of everyday?  Do we let these thoughts the best of us?  The law of attraction teaches us that what we focus on expands.  So when we choose to wallow in our own sadness or anger, we will live the same day and the same people time and again.  And that when we choose to add value and live in joy, happiness must follow.

When it comes to food, what are you attracting?  Are you in fear of the foods you eat?  If you fear food, you will end up eating processed junk that not only has no value to your body, but depletes your very cells.  Do you think your choice of diet makes you better or morally superior to others?  Such hostility and self righteousness unfortunately manifests itself as disease.  Or are you in the habit of adopting more restrictive and convoluted diets in the hopes of tricking your body into submission? Sadly, your body only knows how to process the foods and dietary habits from millions of years of evolution, so macrobiotics, raw food, low fat and strict vegetarian diets are of little value to it. And still there are others who will say that they are simply too busy to take the time to nurture themselves?  If so, then they can kiss good health goodbye.  If they cannot afford to care for themselves, then the universe will oblige by not providing them with ways to increase their well being.

So what do you choose? To relive Groundhog Day again for the umpteenth time? Or to move past yourself and discover all the wonders of February 3rd?

Eating disorders in children are on the rise. Is this any surprise? With more and more parents switching to unhealthy extreme diets such as vegan, macrobiotic, low fat and raw food, what hope do our children have to develop a normal relationship with real food?

Since people first began to understand the prevalence of these disorders in the 1980s, it was thought that they were on the decline. But today, anorexia and bulimia are on the rise in many groups including those who experienced very little incidence in the past, namely minorities, males and pre-teens.

Children today are pressured by their parents not to exhibit the normal chubby growth pattern their bodies are designed to take on. Mistaking it for obesity, parents put them on restrictive diets which inevitably end up consisting mainly of high sugar, processed, nutrient poor foods — or at least foods from which the nutrients are poorly absorbed as is common in macrobiotic and raw food diets.

It is a shame that eating disorders aside, many of these children will not outlive their parents. Many will be left infertile and with psychological problems.

No matter how you look at it, the only way to tackle the problem of childhood obesity as well as eating disorders in children is to reintroduce wholesome, real foods such as whole raw dairy, meat and eggs into our homes again. A few minutes in the kitchen each day will teach our children to respect food and the beautiful body it creates for them.

Anyone who knows me knows that I continually tout the benefits of raw milk. Raw milk packs a powerhouse of fat soluble nutrients and easily assimilated minerals in it.

Unfortunately, governments worldwide are increasingly not only trying to deter consumers from consuming this natural, nourishing food, but, in the US and Canada, small raw dairy farmers (including raw cheese producers) are being harassed and even put out of business because of supposedly contaminated raw milk products.

This recent vendetta is not only bad for our health, but misinformation about dairy now abounds not only from our governments (heavily funded by producers of puss, feces and blood filled pasteurized milk products), but by many health movements that are largely anti-government such as supporters of vegan or macrobiotic diets. Let’s take a look at some myths and truths surrounding the raw milk argument.

Myth #1: Raw milk is dangerous because it harbors infectious organisms such as E.coli.

Truth: Raw milk kills many infectious organisms including E.coli on contact. Just like raw meat begins to smell bad when it is not fit for human consumption, raw milk will begin to smell very rancid whenever a dangerous organism that it cannot kill is present. Pasteurized milk has no such defenses and so is prone to harboring dangerous diseases-causing bacteria without letting the consumer know.

Myth #2: Raw milk has caused many people to get sick.

Truth: As far as my research has revealed, there are less than 10 cases per year in the United States of people considered to have gotten sick from raw milk. Many of these people never even consumed raw milk! One such case, for example, was in Washington state where 7 people  (5 according to some reports) suddenly became sick with a mysterious disorder. Only 2 of the 7 had consumed raw milk, yet raw milk was blamed for all 7 cases! It was later discovered that the 2 children who had drunk raw milk were also caught eating dirty snow on the day they got sick. Pasteurized milk, on the other hand, has been responsible for causing thousands of people to get sick at one time. Twice in the 1980s pasteurized milk caused disease outbreaks in 17,000 people (each). The most recent case in Massachusetts occurred in 2007 and resulted in 3 deaths. Let’s face it, if raw milk should be banned because it did ever cause anyone to get sick, then peanuts, lettuce, scallions, blueberries, pasteurized milk and many other foods should be outlawed as well.

Myth: Milk is a bad source of calcium.

Truth: Raw milk is an excellent source of assimilable calcium. It is only pasteurizing milk that makes calcium unavailable to the body. Raw milk is also an important source of vitamins A, E, and K plus phosphorus, magnesium and the trace minerals as well as enzymes, essential fatty acids and probiotics. Take that soy milk!

Myth: If raw milk was safe, the FDA would approve it as safe for human consumption.

Truth: The FDA is run by executives of pharmaceutical companies, many of which are involved in making the chemicals that go into conventional foods. Do you really think they have any interest in making decisions that would hit themselves in the pocket book? Remember, this is the same agency that considers aspartame safe even though it is linked to over 200 side effects (including death), convinces us to eat soy foods for its health benefits even though it contains 196 entries in its poisonous plants database (and growing) and is 100% behind releasing genetically engineered plants and cloned animals into the food supply despite the fact that study after study has shown these foods to be the cause of infertility and many diseases.

Myth: If raw milk was safe, the government would make it legal.

Truth: The only purpose of a gun is to kill, yet the government has found ways of making guns legal for those who want them. Interestingly enough, as voters we are all convinced that politicians receive financial kickbacks from various industries to drive their decisions — except when it comes to food policy. Why would we think that this would be any different?

There are many, many more myths about raw milk, but as a working mom, I don’t have time to delve into them all. Suffice it to say, that raw milk is not only safe, but also healthful.

That’s why it’s so important for us to Stop FDA Tyranny Against Dairy Farms today.

The Weston A Price Foundation has been working tirelessly for the past several years to help small farmers such as Morningland Dairy and Estrella Family Creamery from unfair scrutiny and raids on their farms inauthentically in the name of food safety.

You can click here to help Morningland Dairy and click here to help Estrella Family Creamery. Please pass this post on to your friends, Tweet it, Facebook like it or otherwise spread the word. If for nothing else, to preserve true freedoms in the modern world.

Dangers of Vegan Diets: How Vegan Deficiencies Affect The Mind

I recently received an e-mail from a woman who was asking me if the hostility she perceived in vegan people she’s met could possibly be related to vegan deficiencies. She participates in forums where vegans blast her for having a different perspective on nearly everything. As a nutritionist, I face the same thing every day. Interestingly enough, the people who object the most to my message know the least about nutrition, so I had a lot to say.  I ended up writing her such a long response about the dangers of vegan diets, I decided to post it here. Enjoy!

MY RESPONSE:

I’ve found that I do much better psychologically if I don’t engage too much with vegans. I state my case and then move on. Otherwise, they’re so self-righteous I’ll lose my mind! You can’t rationalize with the insane. And yes, the lack of proteins and cholesterol in the diet along with B12 deficiency is associated with the hostility and violent stance so many of them take. The funniest, most ironic thing I find about adherents to the vegan diet is that they consider themselves so enlightened about what meat does to the planet and the course of disease, but in fact, the data they base it on — especially where health is concerned — is based on the info the government and food processing companies want them to know.

The vegan movement has little to do with altruism and more to do with satisfying the insanity of the ego. Otherwise, they’d be able to live and let live. Inform people of what they think they know and allow them to make the decision. Find true solutions instead of simply avoiding. Life isn’t black and white and neither is the issue of eating meat.

I don’t believe that any humans are designed to be strict vegan. Some may do “OK” on a vegetarian diet, but I have never met anyone and haven’t read any data that indicates it to be true that they would thrive as vegans. For example, Hindus in India survive on a vegetarian diet that includes plenty of dairy, but when they move to places like London where the vegetation is seemingly hydroponically grown, they develop pernicious anemia and other deficiencies. In effect, the vegetables (and probably water) they had in India contains microscopic bugs that seem to satisfy their need for complete protein. Milk is also probably not pasteurized (except in cities).

Buddhist monks may be the closest to a real vegan group, but they are not part of society and they do not reproduce so their needs are different. Protein is a stress balancer and I feel that the more you live in that real world (with jobs, children, heavy metals and other pressures), the more you need flesh to come back to center unless you are able to completely remove yourself from real life on a daily basis. Even so, I know many people who are vegan and meditate and such, but they don’t look healthy at all. Many of them show signs of neurological illness or end up with cancer.

We should really take into consideration where we live now as well, not just where our ancestors come from. It is said that it takes 10,000 years for the human body to adapt to new foods, so we never know for sure where we came from ultimately. One thing is for sure. Humans never ate processed foods and sugars like current generations. Otherwise, just eat foods as seasonally as possible predominantly from the region where you live.

I only eat fish that has been tested for low mercury and PCBs. I fear that most fish live a life far worse than farm animals with only chickens faring worse. Lamb is probably the most ethically raised even if you don’t go officially organic or pastured. Beef, surprisingly, is next as those animals at least see some daylight and grass at some point. While I understand why you would want to be pescatarian, I think this is what got Jeremy Piven in trouble with his mercury toxicity. At least if you’re getting protein from a variety of places, your body will better be able to chelate the metals, plus you’d be offsetting the amount of metals and PCBs you consume. I’m fortunate to live near Amish country (well 2 hours away) where I know my farmers who raise my food ethically. My favorite is a woman who does raw goat milk. She does pastured goat, pork, chicken, beef and has a neighbor doing lamb. — all soy and corn free!!! But there are some mail order sources of meat that I find to do the right thing.

In my neighborhood, many women have taken up a detox diet based on a book by a local author. It has some good points and in many ways mirrors the diet I recommend, but it is basically a starvation diet that does nothing to put good stuff back into the body. As a result, all the people I know who have done it look worse and end up with horrible allergies that didn’t surface before. I call it the pro-aging diet. Detox is good, but if you don’t put in some healthy foods, the bad guys will take over the body leaving you wrinkly, bloated and hostile. Interestingly enough because she presents her material in a simplistic way and is local, many of the women around here adore her teachings — yet come to me to sort them out.

When we start cutting out real foods, we can easily start overconsuming fake ones and we can damage our guts which ends up causing more foods we must avoid.

You may wonder what a post about free psychic readings is doing on a site about food and the law of attraction, but the concept is simple. Sometimes we know which direction we should be headed in, but try as we might, we constantly get in our own way of moving forward. This is where a good psychic comes in.

Click here for a free psychic reading by email.

To my mind, a psychic shouldn’t be looked upon as someone who is going to tell you how to live your life based on hocus pocus or voodoo, but is a person who intuits human nature and can help you understand your choices more clearly and get in touch with your inner self. (Sorry if this sounds like I’m saying they are a replacement for psychiatric therapy, they absolutely are NOT.)

In short, a psychic is someone who can help you refocus, center your mind and change your behavior. So what better way to do that than with a free reading?

As an EFT practitioner, people often come to me for advice or mental “tune-ups”. It’s great to know that such a simple technique can calm the mind and help people make the right decisions to achieve their long term goals.

What is EFT? EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It is a tapping technique developed by a man named Gary Craig. The best way I can describe it, if you are unfamiliar with tapping techniques, is that it is something like acupressure plus prayer. You tap on certain acupressure points of the body, then you say affirmations to your subconscious to get the outcome that you want. Essentially, while your conscious mind is concentrating on which points you will be tapping on, your subconscious is receiving the messages you are sending to it. Why? Because the subconscious is running the show. It’s always running the show.

One of the amazing things I discovered during the past several years of tapping is that I often uncover repressed emotions and forgotten contributors to my (or my client’s) current pain. In fact, many people have called me psychic because the process has helped me to intuit past events that my clients often have forgotten.

In fact, I think that this is often what psychics do, although I think that they don’t necessarily have to tap on themselves to get into that space that allows them to intuit not only past events, but how the client should move forward based on those events.

Like with psychics, you should not expect EFT to change your life, but the advice you receive will change your outlook. And once your outlook changes, your life will fall into place.

When you begin to experience the miracle of great nutrition, it’s easy to forget that the quality of your sleep is nearly as important. I have seen (and experienced) lulls in health brought on by lack of proper rest. Many experts also suggest that you should sit on chairs that conform to your body’s shape. Try bean bags as an alternative to the usual stiff chairs that can throw off your posture.

[amazon-product align="right" alink="#1f2edf" region="us" tracking_id="savorthejourney-20"]B0000CBITT[/amazon-product]One of the biggest problems people have with eating better is the concept of quick and easy that has been shoved down our throats by the media. If marketing executives have succeeded in nothing else, they have convinced us that we are not worth the time and effort of preparing ourselves nourishing meals that satisfy our souls.

If time is of the essence in your kitchen (and no doubt it truly is for some of us), then consider upgrading your knife collection. Many tools can make cooking easier, but in my experience, have a good set of Japanese kitchen knives has made an enormous difference in the amount of time spent in the kitchen.

Another great time saver is a crock pot. Remember those? Perhaps you or your mom got one when you got married? Or maybe you saw one at a yard sale? Some people worry about leaving these running while they are out of the house, but unless you have cats that jump up on your kitchen counter every time you turn your back, the chance of having a catastrophic accident in your absence is probably equal to anything you might experience with your refrigerator breaking down while you’re at work.

My final recommendation would be to acquire a convection oven. These contraptions are far superior to their slightly faster, very distant evil cousin the microwave oven. In my case, my convection oven takes approximately 10-20 minutes to reheat any given meal at its default setting of 350 degrees. That may sound like a lot to someone who is used to eating a minute or two after popping something in the microwave, but you can get a lot done in that time — go to the bathroom, do your hair, feed the cat (that darn cat again), pack your bags to leave, wash a few dishes, check your Facebook page etc. In no time, you’ll be enjoying a meal that was heated by the normal process of heating from the inside out — not the other way around. And if you need to take your food on the road, consider getting a good wide-mouth thermos which should keep your food hot for up to nine hours!

There will be more to come on the subject as the modern kitchen has many pitfalls for the health enthusiast. This should be quite enough to hold you for now.

The Problem with Moderation

Moderation is a term that is often bandied about by people when they no longer understand what to eat. Unfortunately, this approach to eating fails nearly 100% of the time.

My grandfather was the first person I had ever hear use the saying. He was born in the West Indies in the late 1800s. To him moderation meant eating his meals made from whole ingredients such as meat (including seafood and chicken), vegetables, bread, rice, fruit, dairy and tea. Snacks, desserts and alcohol were occasional indulgences mainly reserved for birthday parties, weddings and holidays.

To him, moderation also meant living moderately. He didn’t perform any extreme sports or go to the gym. He took walks when he needed to get somewhere. He didn’t smoke, but was not paranoid to be in the company of someone who was. He took life in stride, was never sick a day in his life and lived to be 103.

The next person to give me the moderation speech was 37 years old. She was 60 lbs overweight, avoided red meat, ate cup of soups and other processed foods for most of her meals, snacked throughout the days on various confections and ate a half dozen Dunkin Donuts and large coffee with extra low fat milk and several packets of sugar every morning for breakfast. She was a runner and contracted every disease and illness that circulated. Unfortunately, this is how the vast majority of people interpret “everything in moderation.”

The reason why some people feel this is living moderately is because they are so confused by the messages we receive from the media. We are continually told that meat and fat are bad. Then the same “nutritional experts” find every excuse possible to let us know that we need to include chocolate, coffee, red wine and processed soy foods into our diets. They claim that the only reason our ancestors thrived on high quality protein such as meat and saturated fats is because they were constantly on the move. Yet there is so much missing from this misguided information!

True, few of our ancestors sat behind a desk, but relatively few of them performed intense physical activity all day long either. Energy was often expended in short spurts followed by long periods of down time spent communing with others. Today, however, the “moderationists” feel that we can somehow exercise all the nutrients that are missing from our diets into our bodies. This is impossible. Only foods that have co-existed with humans since the dawn of our species can do this. There is no factory, no exercise, no substitute to match nature’s elements.

So if you want to live in moderation to protect your health, eat like our ancestors. They had the blueprint for good health. True there were famines and other scourges that often took them in the prime of life, but those who escaped such an end routinely lived to be 90 years and older. They did not succumb to cancer, heart disease or complications of diabetes.

To this satisfying diet, add your exercise, your spirituality, and other components of a healthy lifestyle. It is proven that all of these elements go hand in hand, but it is difficult to have the lifestyle when the diet is not congruent.

There are far more elements to consider to determining exactly how to proceed with a healthy diet. They will be gradually revealed to you as you browse the pages of this site.

Here are some resources to improve your health, home and lifestyle.

For books and equipment referenced on this site, see our Amazon store:

We all know that fish is good for us, but unhealthy waters are making it harder to eat fish that isn’t poisoned. For healthy seafood that is ultra-low in mercury and PCB levels (far below EPA levels), Vital Choice is  your answer. Randy Hartnell, owner and founder of the company, only purchases his high quality line-caught fish from clean waters of the Pacific Northwest and tests the catch to ensure the high quality his customers expect.

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Microwaving has been a widely accepted method of cooking and heating meals in a flash, but few of us stop to think how ‘nuking’ affects what has often started out as the nutritious foods that we strive to incorporate into our diets.

Nearly two decades ago, a German study showed that microwaving food is indeed a major cause of the dramatic increases in cancer experienced in the industrialized world. Microwaving heats food from the inside out, whereas traditional cooking methods heat food from the outside in. The researchers found that this change in heating technique creates unique life forms called radiolytic compounds. Radiolytic compounds do not exist in nature. Furthermore, these compounds dramatically and progressively reduce red and white blood cell counts.

The lowered red blood cell count leads to anemia. Fewer white blood cells decrease immune system activity. Both conditions allow disease to invade the body without a fight. So while some people may feel that they are healthy because they never get sick, it is likely that they never get sick because their bodies are not strong enough to mount a defense against invading organisms.

Microwaved food also increases levels of LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol carrier) while decreasing the “good” HDL cholesterol carriers.*

This study didn’t even look at the fact that food microwaved in plastic contains 10,000 times more carcinogens than the FDA officially allows! It does, however, support the more current research showing the dangers of feeding babies microwaved formula or breast milk.

So what should you do, if you don’t have a lot of time to prepare nutritious meals all the time?

* Thermoses are a great blast from the past that is coming back into fashion. At about $20 a pop, they pay for themselves in just a few weeks. I often heat up leftovers from dinner in a small pot or the convection oven while I’m having breakfast. Then I pack the thermos and go.

* Convection or toaster ovens are a necessity to any healthy kitchen or office space. One can be purchased for as little as $30 new, less at a garage sale. You may need to invest in a few small Corningware-type dishes to heat up your meals, but they are well worth the $4 investment.

* Picnic! Once again, do as the French. Prepare an easy “charcuterie” plate: little pickles, (nitrate-free) cold cuts, pâtés, raw milk cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, plain full-fat yogurt, fresh fruit, olives and a cold potato salad. These are all excellent, nourishing foods that barely need any prep and easily make a meal in themselves.

Besides the health advantages for you and your family, eating foods that are naturally prepared allows you to truly enjoy the wonderful flavors you may not even have realized were there. You’ll be astonished at how different it is! And like my husband, you just may find yourself the envy of your office!

*This is yet another fact that should make us rethink the cholesterol theory which blames animal foods for rising cholesterol rates. But more about that in another post.

Source:

VALENTINE, TOM, Microwave Tragedy, Acres USA, 1994.