Vitamins & Minerals

Some mind-opening experiences or thoughts…

Have you ever thought of food instead of vitamins and minerals? Gaining nutrition mostly from food… that sounds vaguely familiar. However, with the way food is nowadays (with much less nutrition than in our great grandparents’ day (see previous post), no wonder doctors and nutritionists are urging us to be sure to take our vitamins as a way of ensuring our health. Nutrition mostly from food… It took some “turning my mind around” to get me used to the idea. Doctors did say a while back that we don’t have to take vitamins or supplements. Just eat “right.” Now, virtually all doctors say that we should take them everyday… So when I started eating and drinking the foundational foods (Sunrider), I was surprised to hear from my mentor that instead of taking vitamins, I could just eat and drink these foods. It took some time adjusting to the concept. I just stopped buying the vitamins at the health food store. An easy decision due to budget constraints anyway. Money I would’ve spent on vitamins, I spent on Sunrider’s nutrition-dense foods instead. I learned that nutritional gaps would be covered with this program; with some adjustments (additional food-based nutrients) according to individual needs, i.e. menopause.

I’ve been on that nutrition program (The Basic 5) for over 3 years now. Have gained health as I got older; and strength too. Gained health as I got older; that might be thought of as an oxymoron”. I am seeing many people in my generation–unfortunately–having more ailments (such as arthritis) and a lot of them succumbing to degenerative diseases (I’m in my 50s). I feel lucky that I regained most of my health and energy. I’m surprised that I have more energy than when I was in high school (I was dragging myself around though, due to a dependence on coffee/tea and sugary foods). Considering that I was on a downward spiral of getting worse in my health (RSI (repetitive strain injuries from the computer), fibromyalgia, depression and low energy with blood sugar imbalance causing brain fog, among others), I’m amazed how those symptoms got reversed. BTW, I’m not saying that Sunrider cured me though. It was the nutrients that supported my body in the correct way that got my body to the point of healing itself—that made the difference. The awesome thing (here I am using that word again) is that my body cured itself! That’s another mind-opening “thing” for me to comprehend! Wow just about sums it up for me…!

 

Our Food Supply Today

I’m paraphrasing of all things, an astrology reading for Virgo by Rob Brezsny (thanks to Rob Brezny of Free Will Astrology). This is from a November ‘07 reading, if you’re curious (and BTW, I’m not a Virgo):  ”Because of  changes in agricultural techniques, food is nowhere near as nutritious as it used to be. Vegetables grown on modern factory farms have 27% less calcium and 37% less iron than they did in 1975, for example, as well as 21% less Vitamin A and 30% less Vitamin C.  So if you want to avoid being starved of essential nutrients, you either have to eat a huge amount, take supplements or consume organic food… “I  beg to differ with Rob about the organic food. Although it is an improvement from the cheaper food that’s harvested from chemically fertilized soil, even organic food has less nutrients than in our great great grandparents’ day. See this article which was referred by Dr. Dees (PhD, Nutrition) for more complete info.  

“Keep it clean and moving and the toxins don’t have a chance to sink in, take hold, destroy your body and cause disease”, says Diamond.

Friends and relatives have asked how I’ve managed to keep my weight down. These 2 factors make up a large part of my secret: Harvey Diamond’s approach plus Sunrider! The nutritional suppport from Sunrider made a crucial difference, it made keeping the weight down all the more easier (paraphrasing Dr. Aadil Palkhivala “…when you’re body’s fully nourished, it feels free to let go of stored toxins & fat”). Note: Even though I didn’t set out to lose weight, it still happened as an unexpected benefit in my goal to get healthier and stronger.

This article is from Rob Cooper’s (fellow Sunrider distributor) website (http://www.formerfatguy.com/articles/harvey-diamond.asp):

Best selling author Harvey Diamond served in Vietnam and is a survivor of exposure to the Agent Orange herbicide used to defoliate the jungles of Southeast Asia.

When diagnosed with a condition with no known cure that destroys the muscles of the body, he, like many of his buddies, was told to prepare to die.

Now thirty years later, one of the few remaining survivors with this debilitating condition, he credits his survival to his maintaining a healthy and fluid lymph system.

Years of research forms the basis for his current international best selling book, The Fit for Life Solution, How to Identify and Successfully Eradicate The Cause of Pain, Fatigue and Disease – NOW!

“A poorly functioning immune system that can’t fend off toxins is guaranteed to cause disease”, says Harvey Diamond, author of the acclaimed Fit For Life book series. “Only a strong healthy immune system will keep toxins from lodging in your body.”

“Keep it clean and moving and the toxins don’t have a chance to sink in, take hold, destroy your body and cause disease”, says Diamond.

Here are Harvey Diamond’s “10 Tips for Keeping Your Body at Maximum Health”:

Eat living foods as much and as often as you can [in addition to eating lots of living foods, we recommend eating/drinking Sunrider Whole Foods to fill nutritional gaps, since modern soil conditions don't provide enough nutrients. For example, it takes 12 cups of spinach to have the same nutritional effect as 1 cup in our greatgrandparents' day).].

You are a living body, so feed that body living food. Eat lots of fresh and cooked vegetables, raw or slightly cooked, and fresh fruit. Plants are filled with the nutrients, compounds and substances that promote life, something canned and frozen foods tend to lack. These essential materials allow the immune system to strengthen itself and work more effectively and more efficiently. Eat organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible to avoid pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and chemical fertilizers. Many of these residual chemicals are toxic or can’t be digested, broken down or flushed out of your body. Pesticides and many chemicals bio-accumulate in the cells or bones in your body and eventually may trigger cancers or other toxic chemical disease reactions.

Eat fruit correctly – alone – or before anything else.
Fruit is to be eaten alone. Alone fruit turns into energy faster than any other food because it is the only food that does not require digestive energy. It should be eaten before other anything else. It should not be eaten with anything else, or after a meal. When eaten alone fruit tends to be alkaline when it enters you stomach. However, when fruit is combined with wheat, meat, dairy or vegetables it turns to acid in your stomach. As a result, it doesn’t get digested and instead ferments producing alcohol, which in turn promotes a build up of toxins over time, and is one of the primary causes of diseases such as cancer.

Eat more salads.
Salads are living foods. Every time there is a great discovery of a compound that helps cancer or other human maladies, it comes from the plant kingdom. You’ll never find an amazing discovery that has been isolated in a pork chop.

Reduce animal products in your diet.
Scientific evidence abounds showing that animal products, especially meats and poultry raised in feedlots with antibiotics and artificial hormones, are associated with more and more diseases. The human lymph system is not designed to break these artificial materials down so they can be washed away. They tend to remain and build up in our bodies, creating stockpiles of toxic chemicals that eventually can overwhelm the body’s immune system.

Reduce or even eliminate dairy products from your diet.
Dairy products are a real health hazard to many people. They contain no useful fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. Milk is often contaminated from pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics. Dairy products are known to be a major cause of allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases. Many doctors including the late Dr. Benjamin Spock, America’s leading authority on child care, have spoken out against feeding cow’s milk to children. Doctors have shown it causes anemia, allergies, and insulin-dependent diabetes. More and more studies are showing that dairy products may actually cause osteoporosis, not help prevent it, since their high-protein content leaches calcium from the body. Dairy products create an immense amount of mucus in your body and your lymph system has to work overtime to rid the body of this unnatural product.

Eat light in the morning, preferably fruit or vegetables or juices. Go light at lunch. Lay off the heavy sweets in mid-afternoon. Don’t eat heavy just before you go to sleep.
Digestion requires more energy than any other function of the body, which is why you feel tired after eating, and why you rush to the coffee machine to perk you up. Eat a light breakfast. Leave about three hours without eating before you go to sleep. The body needs to rest, not work on digesting food that saps energy for healing.

Drink lots of pure water every day.
The living body is about 70% water and through natural daily movement and evaporation your body loses 2 quarts of water a day. You need to replenish water because your body does not manufacture it on its own. Drink a minimum of eight, eight ounce glasses a day to replace the 2 quarts of water your body loses. The medical benefits of water are many – there are more medical miracles associated with water than any other substance known to mankind. It is the single most important food you can ingest and is known to help treat and even cure heartburn, backache, headache, upset stomach, diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. If you have any of these diseases, you may just be suffering from dehydration, along with 75 percent of the rest of the population.

Exercise daily. Exercise more and more every day till you change your lifestyle.
You can improve how you look, how you feel, and how much you enjoy every day. You’ll get more energy from increasing how much you exercise even if you just start with a twenty minute walk every day. Physical activity is essential to get you heart pumping blood moving through your system to bring oxygen to your brain and flush toxins from your body. Movement and activity cleanses the lymph system. Find something fun and do it regularly. Get energized and spice up your life.

Take fewer prescription drugs.
Medications are only necessary when you are sick. The rest of the time medications can compromise your physical and mental fitness. Drugs and medications may also interact with each other and produce negative side effects. The body can’t break down many drugs easily. Like pesticides and hormones they build up in the muscle, bones, skin and cells of your body and interfere with normal body function. Study what you are taking and search out natural alternatives, and make the switch. Find an herbal food consultant or find a dietitian or nutritionist to help you.

Think positive thoughts. Find the rainbow in everything.
You attitude is the most important factor that will influence what happens to you in your life. Develop and keep a positive attitude about everything. Be grateful for everything, for everyone and for every moment of your life. Wake up and start each day by repeating positive thoughts out loud fifty times! Watch what happens then! Ask who can I bestow love upon rather than who loves me or worse, who is out to get me today. Ask what can I do to make someone happy rather than why should I be happy today, or worse, who’s going to yell at me and make my day miserable. Look for find and focus on the good things around you. Choose to spend your time thinking about the good things you find. See your life as a glass half full, rather than one half empty. You attitude will make the difference in your life.

These are just a few of the phenomenal ideas and strategies you’ll find in Harvey Diamond’s book The Fit for Life Solution, How to Identify and Successfully Eradicate The Cause of Pain, Fatigue and Disease — NOW!

The Fit for Life Solution, How to Identify and Successfully Eradicate The Cause of Pain, Fatigue and Disease – NOW! is available at bookstores nationwide, and online from Dragon Door Publications, Web: www.dragondoor.com