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by Ben Aronoff
Bernadette Wulf
Law of Attraction Coach
Ideal
Weight Coach
EFT Therapist
Reiki Master
Naturopath
Earth News
Earth
has a message for us.
Can you hear it?
“Today,
like every other day,
we wake up empty
and frightened.
Don’t open the door
to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
- Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks)
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Natural
Wellness News |
| Vol.
1,
No. 88 * * * December 2013 |
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Indoor Air, Gluten, Omega 3s, Best Eggs
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 Message
from Bernadette Wulf
Greetings and Happy Holidays!
Another
calendar year rolls to a close. 2013 has been an eventful year - too
eventful for some of us - and it doesn't look like things are
going to slow down any time soon. Big changes are in the works and I
expect that 2014 will bring us lots more surprises. Though we all love
some kinds of surprises, we can also find them very stressful -
especially when they come in the form of things like typhoons, earthquakes, or
tsunamis! So maybe it is time to get your emergency preparedness kit together, and be
prepared for anything. You will feel a lot less stress if you know you
can take care of yourself and your family for a couple of weeks in a
pinch.
This month we have an article on how to keep your indoor air clean, how
GMOs contribute to the growing gluten sensitivity epidemic, a handy
chart for comparing healthy and unhealthy poop, advice about the best eggs you can eat, and
best sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. The owl just seemed like a good image to represent this darkest time of the year.
Be
sure to take some time out during this holiday season to nurture
yourself and your loved ones. That's what holidays are all about after
all - time off from the daily grind to enjoy life with family and
friends, or on your own if that's what you prefer.
To
Your
Health!
Bernadette Wulf
Visit
http://healitall.com
for more information.
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Up
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 Keep Indoor Air Clean
Now
that the chill of winter has arrived, most of us are spending more time
inside with the doors and windows shut. This can lead to indoor air
pollution, which can be much more toxic than outdoor air pollution.
From nrdc.org: "Indoor levels of pollutants may be 2 to 5 times—and
occasionally more than 100 times—higher than outdoor pollutant levels."
Yikes! That is worth some immediate attention.
What to do?
The NRDC article goes on to say [abbreviated version]:
Clean well and often.
- Vacuum often with a vacuum equipped with a HEPA filter.
- Wet mop often. (Dry mopping kicks up the dust.)
- Dust furniture and electronic equipment often with a damp or microfiber cloth.
Keep dust down by
leaving shoes at the door, sealing cracks and fitting your forced-air
heating or cooling system with high-quality filters. Change all filters
regularly.
Use green household and personal care products.
Don't be misled by the "fresh" scents of conventional products, which
are typically produced with [toxic] phthalates or synthetic musks.
- Choose safe cosmetics and other personal care products.
- Use water and natural cleansers or safe commercial cleansers.
- Don't give soil time to set. Make cleaning easier by doing it immediately.
- Instead of using air fresheners, find and eliminate bad smells
at the source, open windows and use open boxes of baking soda in
enclosed spaces.
Watch out for water.
Moisture provides a breeding ground for mold, which can cause
headaches, respiratory problems, skin irritations and allergic
reactions (often only after long exposure). [ ] If you spot mold
anywhere in your home, find the source and clean up the mold right
away. For large or difficult mold problems, you may need professional
assistance.
Protect against silent killers. Radon and carbon monoxide, two of the most dangerous pollutants, are invisible, odorless and common.
- Test for radon (it's simple and cheap to do) and arrange
for mitigation measures if a problem is found. Radon is the second
highest cause of lung cancer after smoking, contributing to 20,000 lung
cancer deaths in the U.S. a year.
- Get your fuel-burning appliances inspected every year to
avoid the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, which can be fatal in
minutes at high levels and cause a range of lesser health effects at
low doses. Also, do not idle cars in an attached garage as the fumes
may enter the home. Get carbon monoxide detectors (some states require
them), but don't rely on them as the first line of defense as they may
malfunction or their batteries may die.
Don't allow smoking indoors. At least 250 of the 7,000 chemicals in secondhand smoke are harmful and at least 69 are carcinogenic.
Grow some houseplants. Plants that can help purify air.
Read More About
http://www.nrdc.org/thisgreenlife/1311.asp
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 Are GMOs Creating Gluten Sensitivity?
From
Care2.com: "Some experts estimate that around 18 million Americans now
suffer from some sort of gluten-intolerance, and while genetics
certainly account for some, it simply can’t explain all of these new
cases. In searching for the answer, some have pointed to
genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) as the potential culprit.
Introduced en masse into the American food supply around the mid-1990s,
GMOs have had just enough time to overwhelm our systems, and some
medical experts believe we’re reaping the consequences.
"Staple GMOs (soy, corn, cotton (oil), canola (oil), sugar from sugar
beets, zucchini, yellow squash, Hawaiian papaya, and alfalfa) have been
infused with Monsanto’s favorite weed killer, Roundup. This herbicide’s
active ingredient is glyphosate, a chemical that has recently been
linked to health conditions that may initiate or exacerbate
gluten-related disorders."
I don't think that it is accurate to say that these crops are "infused
with" Roundup. However, it appears that the genetic tampering done to
all these crops has created serious health problems for millions of
people. From allergies to digestive issues, more and more people have
reported adverse reactions to genetically modified foods, at least
partially because of the damage to gut flora. As you will read in the
article below, gut flora actually communicate with our brains, so it is
very important to maintain a healthy gut.
I am guessing that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg on this
issue so far. Sure, it is not so hard to avoid gluten if you make all
your own food and never eat at restaurants, or even share dinners
cooked by friends or family, but wouldn't it make more sense to
eliminate the cause? Perhaps some people will be gluten intolerant no
matter what, but that doesn't mean that millions of others should have
to seek out gluten free alternatives.
Speaking of gluten free alternatives, there are very few on the market
that are certified organic, so ironically that makes them a potential
source of GMOs. The only organic gluten free bread I've seen is Amy's
frozen sandwich rounds. Mary's Gone Crackers makes some pretty good
organic gluten free cookies, but I can't say their crackers are very
tasty. Fortunately, it is easy to make good buckwheat/flax crackers
yourself.
Anybody looking for a great business to start? How about an organic
gluten free bakery? Looks like the demand will be escalating at least
until we get GMOs labeled.
Read More About GMOs and Gluten Intolerance
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/are-gmos-responsible-for-your-gluten-intolerance.html
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 Perfect Poop Chart
I
know poop isn't a very popular subject once we get past first grade,
but maybe kids know something we don't know. Any good doctor will ask
you to describe your poop, because it is a very tangible sign of how
well your digestion is working - and we all know that good digestion is
one of the major keys to good health. In fact, some experts, including
Hippocrates, say that “All disease begins in the gut."
But
how do we tell how well our gut is functioning? One good way is to look
at poop.
So imagine how excited I was to discover the Bristol Stool Chart!
(Actually, excited is quite an overstatement, but it is interesting.)
Rather than have to come up with clever adjectives to describe form and
texture, we can just point to the picture that most closely matches.
Whew! That makes it a lot easier.
From personal experience, I can state that taking a daily probiotic
Bifidus supplement has been highly beneficial for my own gut health. I didn't know it when I
started taking it, but it turns out that probiotics (which become our
gut flora) can communicate with our brains.
From RenegadeHealth.com: "Recent scientific breakthroughs are showing
that your gut flora has the ability to communicate directly to your
brain, thus affecting your moods, feeding your immune system
information on how to act, and helping to control inflammation." Things
like that really make me appreciate scientists who spend their lives in
laboratories discovering this stuff. Human curiosity is so amazing.
So take a look in the toilet, compare your results with the handy
chart, and take appropriate action. It's not all # 2 anymore! # 1 - 3
may indicate way too many animal products and refined grains (like
pastries and bread), and/or a lack of enough fluids, fiber, and
vegetables.
On the other end of the scale, # 5 - 7 may indicate that you need to do
a thorough intestinal detox and gut healing (like the Body Ecology
Diet). If you are looking at #7 for more than a day, you may need to
see a doctor, and make sure to drink lots of fluids with electrolytes,
like coconut water.
Read More About Healthy Poo
http://renegadehealth.com/blog/2013/11/27/4-factors-of-a-healthy-poop
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 A Good Egg!
If
you eat eggs, you might want to read this article from Be Well Buzz
explaining why it is important to choose organic, pasture raised eggs
from healthy hens. If you know anything about hens, you know that they
were never meant to live in little cages, or even a big barn where they
run around in a herd under electric lights. Hens naturally wander through fields picking up
bugs, grass, leafy greens, and a few seeds, but most farmers feed them
predominantly grains, and GMO grains at that. So the very best eggs,
and the ones I always look for, are labeled organic, pasture raised.
They will usually be expensive - around 8 dollars a dozen, but well
worth the cost because you will be getting many more health benefits from
them.
The next best eggs would be labeled organic, free range. That means
they are raised in a big barn away from natural sunshine, but at least
they are organic and free of GMOs. Any other eggs will do you more harm
than good in my opinion, and they will not be humanely raised, which is
a very important factor.
From bewellbuzz.com: "So which [eggs] are the best? The simple answer
is: you want the eggs that come from the healthiest hens possible. In
other words, hens need to have access to sunshine and be able to eat
the omnivorous diet they’re supposed to. Yes, hens are in fact
omnivores (mostly insectivores), and do not usually eat the grains most
farmers feed them with nowadays."
Read More About the Best of the Best Eggs
http://www.bewellbuzz.com/nutrition/bad-news-free-range-eggs/
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 Best Sources of Omega 3
Another
article by Be Well Buzz addresses the issue of Omega 3 and fish oil.
Much as I would like to get all my omega 3s from plant sources, the
science seems to indicate that we can't get enough that way. The
article recommends krill oil, but we can also get a good amount of
Omega 3 from pasture raised eggs and grass fed dairy products, if you
include that sort of thing in your diet. Most important is to cut way
back on vegetable oils that contain Omega 6 fatty acids, because the
more of those we get, the more Omega 3s we need to balance them.
"An epidemiological review published back in 1998 had already verified
what a few prominent voices are now piping up to declare. Consuming
plant sources alone will be insufficient for feeding the body the EPA
and DHA it requires. [Ed. - We can also get EPA and DHA from marine
phytoplankton - something to explore if you are vegan.]
Flax and chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp and walnuts provide
short-chain alpha-linoleic acid (ALA). Our bodies are able to
synthesize EPA and DHA from ALA but inefficiently."
Read More About Best Sources of Omega 3s
http://www.bewellbuzz.com/nutrition/best-sources-omega-3-fatty-acids/
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To
read past issues of
HealItAll.com Newsletter go to
http://healitall.com/newsletterarchives.html
Bernadette Wulf is a Law of Attraction
Coach, Ideal Weight
Coach, EFT
Therapist,
Naturopath,
and
Reiki
Master with a world-wide practice via phone and
Internet.
Visit http://healitall.com
and http://magical-lifecoaching.com
for more information.
For Health & Wellness Coaching
or Law
of
Attraction Coaching
contact Bernadette Wulf at wulfartist@yahoo.com
707-824-0675 (Pacific time zone)
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