What is Spirulina?

SPIRULINA

 Athrospira Platensis

What is it?

Spirulina is an animal food as well as human food or nutritional supplement made primarily from two species of blue green algae. It is very easily digested and full of nutrients. Spirulina (Athrospira) are free floating filamentous blue green algae that naturally occurs in subtropical and tropical lakes with a high concentration of carbonate and bicarbonate, and high PH. In the 16th century spirulina was a food source for the Aztecs and other Mesoamericans, the Aztecs called it Tecuitlatl. Spirulina was found in abundance in the 1960's by French researchers at lake Texoco, and the first spirulina production plant was established in the early 1970's. It is exceedingly adaptable and can be found in a wide range of places including fresh water, tropical water, salt water and salt pans. In Chad spirulina's history goes right back to the 9th century and is still used by many every single day even now. Spirulina contains up to 71% protein, it contains all of the essential amino acids so is a complete protein, it also contains a lot more goodies too, it contains vitamins A,C,D,E,B1,B2,B3,B6,B9 and is also a source of potassium, calcium, chromium, coper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, sodium and zinc.

What are the benefits of taking spirulina?

·         Boost your energy levels

·         Control your appetite

·         Build endurance

·         reduce fatigue

·         Cleanses the body

·         It will benefit those who suffer from allergies

·         Reduce inflammation

·         Boost your immune system

·         It will maintain healthy cardiovascular function

·         Improve your digestion

·         Support the liver and kidneys

Dosage:

A good place to start is 3 grams a day. Build up over a period of time to 6 grams. When you are ready to up the dosage spread them out throughout the day so your body has a constant supply of spirulina and all its goodies throughout the whole day.

Is it safe?

All the evidence says it’s as safe as oxygen. It has 30 years of testing with no negative results. All of the farms that produce spirulina are under heavily controlled conditions and do not allow the growth of any contaminants. Just like carrots spirulina contains beta carotene except it has ten times more! So if you are one of those people that just don't manage to get your five fruits and veg a day then spirulina is the perfect supplement to help support your body's defences. Good news for people wanting to eat less meat for body weight reasons, spirulina has the average of 60% easily digestible protein without the cholesterol and fat that meat contains. It is the highest protein food with all the essential amino's in it, and good news for your waistline too as it only has a few calories!

According to NASA 1kg of spirulina has the same nutrients found in about 1000 kg of assorted vegetables.

All supplements should be taken with a healthy balanced diet, not instead of food.

What is MSM?

MSM

Methy Sulfonyl Methane

What is it?

MSM is a naturally occurring nutrient, a pure form of organic sulphur that is extremely beneficial and found in every living organism. As well as having the same toxicity as water it has the lowest levels of toxicity in biology. MSM is found in the normal diets of nearly all animals as well as humans, the oceans, rain water and all living things. In the human body sulphur is the fourth most abundant mineral and MSM is 34% sulphur. Despite most first thoughts MSM is white and not yellow in any way which one may expect when thinking of sulphur.

MSM is unrelated to the irritants – common sulphurs, sulphates and sulphites.

What are the benefits of taking MSM?

·         Helps our bodies absorb more vitamins and minerals

·         Helps increase energy

·         Helps to relieve pain

·         Helps dramatically with DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)

·         Helps the body eliminate toxins from the body including lactic acid after working out

·         Oxygen availability to the body is increased when taking MSM

·         Helps with inflammation from arthritis

·         De-calcification of the bones

·         Great for skin, hair and nails

The above is only a short list of the benefits of taking MSM.

Dosage:

The lowest recommended beneficial amount is 1500mg per day, a good place to start would be one capsule in the morning and one in the evening (but not too late in case of any unwanted energising effects) and build up from there. Although there is evidence of people taking very large amounts (10,000mg daily) with no ill side effects it is recommended that you build up slowly and always read the bottle carefully before taking any supplements.

Is it safe?

MSM is extremely safe, in fact still no side effects were seen after scientists conducted tests using doses as high as 8g per kilo of bodyweight. Although due to its high detoxifying effects one may find it stimulating, it may even produce palpitations and anxiety attacks in some people which is why the dosage must be small to begin with and built upon.

"One of the greatest supplements out there" - David Wolfe

If you are taking any other medication please consult your doctor before adding anything to your prescription medication.

Outside The Box

Outside The Box

Now you have a good idea about good food and bad food, the importance of water, the amazing healing powers of food, superfoods, enzymatic/live/Raw food and an understanding of the concept – ‘You are what you’ve eaten.’

Now I would like to ‘step outside of the box a little.’ All of us know what being a vegetarian consists of, and most of us know what being a vegan consists of, but what about Raw vegan, fruitarian, juicarian and Breatharian? To follow is a small explanation to each.

Raw vegan – This is somebody who eats the vegan diet but does not heat the food above 44 degrees Celsius (this temperature varies a little between sources) in order to preserve all of the living enzymes. Somebody who has taken on this diet but eats Raw animal products/by-products, for example bee superfoods may still be referred to as a Raw foodie.

Fruitarian – This diet includes nothing but fruits. There are enough frutarians in the world right now living perfectly healthy and happy lives to say this diet really works. This is a high fibre, high nutrient diet.

Juicarian – This diet is similar to the fruitarian diet with the exception of fibre as all the fruit is usually pressed and juiced with the fibre stripped. This diet is all about the abundance of nutrients, a flood of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. And because the fibre has been taken away these goodies are delivered to your cells in minutes. Juices from vegetables are included too, as is water and sometimes green tea.

Breatharian – now this one seems a little hard to take in but believe me the evidence is overwhelming, you can see it for yourself, just put the word ‘Breatharian’ into your favourite search engine. The Breatharian with the highest profile could possibly be Jericho Sunfire. This diet consists of no food or water, confused? Once the body has been through an enormous amount of changes it starts to produce its own water (although we absorb up to 1.5 litres of water a day through our skin, baths, showers, rain etc.) The body will take the energy from the sun’s rays, like a plant does. It sounds like a tail you would tell your grandchildren but like I said there is a lot of evidence, so you make your own mind up.

Whilst we’re outside the box I would like to mention a few supplements being promoted by David Wolfe. I will only list these few and leave the search to yourselves, or should I say ‘leave you to blow your own minds.’ Marine phytoplankton. MSM. DMSO. And one of the biggest discoveries of all time, even defying all science – ORMUS. All very easily found on Google. Enjoy!

We have been through a lot in previous articles; The concept of ‘you are what you’ve eaten’, nutritional cures for diabetes and cancer, good foods and bad foods, superfoods and the importance of good water. I hope this has given you a better understanding of ‘true health’.

So, you are what you eat, and now you know it. Good food is the most amazing thing, as it has the ability to build tissue, create energy, control moods and thoughts, make us immune to disease and connect us back to the earth again.

Let me leave you with something to think about. If what we take into our bodies is broken down and rebuilt into tissue, creating us, ‘you are what you’ve eaten,’ then a Raw vegan/foodie would be built from the most pure living plants and plant products on the planet . . . . . and a Breatharian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . THE SUN!

What about water?

Water

In the last articles we looked through good foods, bad foods and superfoods but it’s not all about the foods though. Let’s not forget about water, after all we are made up of 50 – 60% of it. Nothing can survive without water and almost nothing takes place in the human body without it playing a role. A 150lb man would be 90lbs of water; that’s about 80 pints. Our blood is comprised of 92% water. Water does everything from carry nutrients to the cells and waste nutrients away via the kidney to aiding the conversion of food to energy to lubrication of body tissues such as the eyes, lungs and air passages, and the list goes on, but before you rush to the tap filling glass after glass of water, now you know how essential to life and important to your well- being water is, you must consider the quality of the water you are putting into your body.

 Tap water will not only be unstructured (Dr Masuru Emoto – Water crystals) but contains many pollutants including chlorine, (which can cause allergies, diarrhoea or depression as well as destroying friendly bacteria – Nutrients A-Z. Dr Michael Sharon) fluoride and anti-corrosion chemicals. Filtering your water would be a great decision as this takes most of the ‘nasties’ out. Bottled water is not the best choice either I’m afraid, despite the great TV ads and marketing, not only is it too unstructured but plastic bottled water has a much worse secret – LEACHING! Have you ever heard of leaching before? If not, then information is easily found on the internet. Leaching is when chemicals used in the construction of plastic bottles are released into the water and thus drank by the consumer. A wide range of tests have been conducted with disturbing results, (check out a documentary on Google video called ‘Tapped.’)

By law, the water companies themselves do not need to provide any results for tests conducted on the water they are supplying and not only that, the tests are conducted by the same companies that sell the water. If your chef was his own hygiene manager, would you be curious about the quality of his kitchen? Now that ice cold bottle of water in the fridge doesn’t seem so appealing and the tap doesn’t look so inviting anymore, you could pop to your local superstore and pick up a water filter or there is another solution.

What if I told you that the best water in the world is free! And by the best I mean clean, pure, mineral rich, hydrogen rich, structured and completely radiation free.

Sounds too good to be true, but it’s not, and all you have to do is devote a little time and effort to finding a source and collecting it, yes I am talking about spring water.

As we all know, no matter how organically foods are grown they will always have some level of pollution/radiation on them from the air as it is always falling, including aluminium!?! (take a look at –‘What in the world are they spraying?’ Google video.) Daniel Vitalis conducted an experiment on water and discovered that it has no radiation at all! It genuinely is the only unpolluted substance left on earth, it would be the purest thing you will ever come into contact with in your lifetime, and you can be made of 50-60% of this. Why would you not want to experience that? If you have no idea where to find a spring try – findaspring.com, created by Daniel Vitalis. Some springs have great access for a car and others involve a hefty trek, so choose wisely and remember it’s not only the best water you can possibly drink but it’s also completely free!

What Are Superfoods?

Superfoods

So the last article was all about good and bad foods, now you have a good idea of those let’s move on to superfoods. This is only a fraction of the superfoods out there but I hope it will give you a better understanding of the word ‘Superfood’.

What constitutes a superfood? Dr Gillian McKeith says ‘’Superfoods are the most powerful nutrient-dense foods on the planet, and they have virtually no calories, no bad fats or nasty substances.’’ So what are these superfoods? Well there are quite a few so let’s put them into categories, green superfoods, bee superfoods, herb-superfoods, sea vegetables, leafy superfoods and sprouts. It would take too long to go into each category in detail but I will list some of the foods for each category for the benefits of your next shopping list.

·         Green superfoods – Spirulina, chlorella, wild blue/green algae, barely grass, wheat grass and alfalfa grass.

·         Bee superfoods – Royal jelly, bee pollen and propolis.  (For the non-vegans)

·         Herb-superfoods – Nettle, aloe Vera, Echinacea, astragals, and Siberian ginseng.

·         Sea vegetables – Dulse, nori, kelp, arane, wakame and hijiki.

·         Leafy superfoods – There is so many, but here is a handful – Kale, chicory, lettuce, watercress, and Swiss chard.

·         Sprouts – Again, there are so many, but here are a few – Alfalfa, buckwheat, lentil, mung, adzuki and clover.

For me and many others, the absolute king of all superfoods must be cocoa, not in the processed and destroyed state we are all seeing but it its Raw state, because for those of you that did not know, cocoa comes from a nut, and quite an amazing one at that. Cocoa has the highest vitamin C content in the world as well as the highest antioxidant levels in the world! WOW! I know, and there’s so many more punches packed in this nut, it has the highest levels of magnesium and chromium, possibly the highest levels of manganese, zinc and copper. These benefits only come from the product being in its Raw state.

There are so many of these amazing food stuffs out there that we know virtually nothing about, unfortunately in these modern times inverted values are common place, many people would rather spend their money on fast cars, fashionable clothing and new gadgets than the best superfoods on the planet.

Marinated Mushrooms And Simple Salad

‘Hell Yeh Sauce’

Spice up your meal and burn calories at the same time with this super sweet metabolism raising hot sauce

Ingredients:

·         3 Scotch bonnets (I removed the seeds from 2 as this was my first attempt)

·         3 Small apples, cored, peeled and chopped

·         Half tin of peaches, washed (I would of tried fresh but had none)

·         1 Tbsp. English mustard powder

·         Juice of 1 lemon

·         30ml Water

·         3 Tsp. Brown sugar

·         2 Tbsp. Agave

·         1 Tbsp. Dried coriander leaf

·         1 Tsp. Pink Himalayan crystal salt

Method:

·         Blend ingredients together

·         Put into a pan and bring to boil

·         Simmer for 5 mins

·         Pour into clean jar and leave until room temperature, then seal and put in fridge

Why not try this easy recipe out . . . . .

Marinated Mushrooms and Simple Salad

Marinated Mushrooms 

·         Wash the mushrooms and leave to dry

·         Slice an X into the top of each mushroom

·         Put some ‘Hell Yeh Sauce’ into a bowl, add the mushrooms and cover. Shake well until the mushrooms are covered evenly

·         Leave to sit for a while then repeat

·         Place on an oven dish and cook at 200 for about 15mins

You can serve these however you fancy but they go nice on top of a simple salad . . . . .

Simple Salad

Ingredients:

·         Mixed leaves

·         Cucumber

·         Cherry tomatoes

·         Celery

·         Extra virgin olive oil

·         Walnut oil

·         Pink Himalayan crystal salt

·         Lemon juice

Method:

·         Lay leaves on a plate

·         Chop cucumber, tomatoes and celery and throw on top of salad

·         Drizzle olive oil and walnut oil

·         Sprinkle salt

·         Squeeze fresh lemon juice all over

Good Food, Bad Food?

Good Food, Bad Food?

After the last articles, you know you really are what you eat and how essential enzymes and a good diet is, but what is a good diet? What is good food? What is bad food? To follow is a list of good foods and bad foods and some of the roles they play in the body. (taken from Dr Gillian McKeith’s book – you are what you eat.)

Protein

Protein is used for building muscle tissue.

·         Good protein – Vegetable protein is easily broken down and digested in the body. Hemp is an excellent source of vegetable protein as is sprouted seeds, along with many others.

·         Bad protein – If your digestive system is week or just not as strong as it should be then protein from red meats is going to be difficult to break down, cow’s milk is also difficult for most people to digest, it’s very high in saturated fat, low in vitamins and the mineral content is out of balance with human biochemistry.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are used by the body for energy as well as brain function and mood attitude.

·         Good carbs – Rice, grains, fruit, vegetables and wholegrain bread. These healthy carbohydrates without added refined sugar and otherwise known as complex carbohydrates, they contain natural sugars easily used by the body.

·         Bad carbs – These include cakes, biscuits, chocolates, sweets and anything with refined sugar, flour or processed white rice. Dr Gillian McKeith says ‘’If you want to be fat and ill, eat bad carbs.’’ Eating bad carbs can lead to the storing of carb residues as fat and in turn could lead to diabetes.

 Fats

Some are essential, some are deadly, a confusing area.

·         Good fats - These will lower cholesterol, boost immunity, nourish the reproductive organs, skin hair and bone tissue and lubricate the body. These fats are so important they called them ‘essential fatty acids’ (EFA’s) Dr Gillian McKeith refers to them as ‘essential thinny acids.’  A few good sources of these fats are seeds – sunflower, flax and pumpkin, sea vegetables, fish, avocado’s and olives.

·         Bad fats - The effects of these fats can be fatal!  These are heavy fats that turn hard, block arteries and put you at risk of heart attacks and strokes. These are of course saturated fats. The best place to find these bad fats are cheese, red meat, pork and dairy products. But by far the worst source of possible early grave is hydrogenated vegetable fat. This is a result of a process that hardens liquid vegetable oils. These hydrogenated vegetable fats turn into even more dangerous Trans fatty acids which have been shown to cause heart disease, diabetes and cancer. These bad fats also deplete good cholesterol and increase the bad. Still fancy a little margarine on your toast? Unfortunately hydrogenated vegetable fat is in a wide range of foods including, chocolate, crisps, sweets, ice cream, pastries and baked goods.

Whilst in the swing of things I would like to mention two more things, they are processed foods and additives. Let’s start with processed.

So what are processed foods? These are foods that have to go through a process before getting to you, like plastic wrapped foods, microwave foods, meal in a tin, supermarket sandwiches, I think you get the picture. This type of food is no good for your body for so many reasons; one being the processing of foods will change the proportions of nutrients within the foods, meaning that by the time it gets to you it has little to no nutrient value whatsoever. Another reason is additives.

 Additives will always be a huge problem with over 3000 allowed by the food industry including sweeteners, flavour enhancers, nitrates, nitrites, preservatives, bleaching agents and the lists goes on, but are they all safe? Were told they are. When these little beauties find their way into our bodies from our ‘convenient’ foods they can cause allergic reactions, stress on the liver to produce such chemicals, many of which are cancer forming.

 Right now in today’s society with everything at our fingertips it’s never been easier to make better choices about our general health. In the words of David Wolfe ‘’Its either going to be this then we eat or its going to be this then we eat, this could be the most horrid chemical soup of all time or it could be the most extraordinary superfood of all time and it’s the same amount of work to get it into our mouths.’’ What will you choose?