Dear Friend,
It’s a Fact: Caring Is Good for You!
The Institute of HeartMath reveals five facts highlighting how important caring for others is to our health and well-being. The institute also describes a month-long Facebook contest to honor the service and dedication of nonprofit organizations as part of its HeartMath for Communities Project campaign. And because IHM cares about you and your family, we are offering you one of my favorite HeartMath downloadable e-books for free: Understanding Care.
Caring interacts with the heart – literally: HeartMath research shows the heart plays a dynamic role in generating positive emotions and creating feelings of elation during acts of caring and altruism. J. Andrew Armour, a leading neurocardiologist and member of the IHM’s Scientific Advisory Board, found that the heart contains cells that synthesize and release the so-called feel-good hormones, dopamine and norepinephrine.
Caring can increase feelings of elation, relieve stress: States of joy and delight can result from giving to others. When you are altruistic – helping someone – your oxytocin level goes up, which helps relieve stress and create the feeling of elation. It also has been found that the heart produces oxytocin, commonly referred to as the love or bonding hormone, and those concentrations of oxytocin found in the heart are as high as those found in the brain.
Caring can be contagious: Elation makes us feel great and perform good acts, according to an "elevation study" published in the journal, Psychological Science. Researchers studied individuals who watched TV clips that prompted various moods and found those who viewed uplifting clips were more likely to engage in altruistic behavior soon after.
Caring can mean better health: In a Cornell University study that followed over 313 women for 30 years, researchers found 52 percent of women who did not engage in volunteer work experienced a major illness, compared with only 36 percent of those who volunteered in their communities.†
http://www.heartmath.org/templates/ihm/e-content/broadcasts/general/2011/caring-is-good-for-you/caring-is-good-for-you-online.php
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Soil health
http://permaculture.com.au/online/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=192%3Awhy-gardening-makes-you-happy-and-cures-depression&catid=27%3Aarticles&Itemid=55
Permaculture College Australia
Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression
Written by Robyn Francis
Share
While mental health experts warn about depression as a global epidemic, other researchers are discovering ways we trigger our natural production of happy chemicals that keep depression at bay, with surprising results. All you need to do is get your fingers dirty and harvest your own food.
In recent years I've come across two completely independent bits of research that identified key environmental triggers for two important chemicals that boost our immune system and keep us happy - serotonin and dopamine. What fascinated me as a permaculturist and gardener were that the environmental triggers happen in the garden when you handle the soil and harvest your crops.
Getting down and dirty is the best `upper' – Serotonin
Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression.
Ironically, in the face of our hyper-hygienic, germicidal, protective clothing, obsessive health-and-safety society, there's been a lot of interesting research emerging in recent years regarding how good dirt is for us, and dirt-deficiency in childhood is implicated in contributing to quite a spectrum of illnesses including allergies, asthma and mental disorders.
At least now I have a new insight into why I compulsively garden without gloves and have always loved the feeling of getting my bare hands into the dirt and compost heap.
Harvest 'High' - Dopamine
Another interesting bit of research relates to the release of dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. The researchers hypothesise that this response evolved over nearly 200,000 years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted) a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of brain triggered a state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of actually plucking the fruit.
The contemporary transference of this brain function and dopamine high has now been recognised as the biological process at play in consumers addiction or compulsive shopping disorder. Of course the big retail corporations are using the findings to increase sales by provoking dopamine triggers in their environments and advertising.
I have often remarked on the great joy I feel when I forage in the garden, especially when I discover and harvest the `first of the season', the first luscious strawberry to ripen or emergence of the first tender asparagus shoot. (and yes, the photo is my hand plucking a deliciously sweet strawberry in my garden) I have also often wondered why I had a degree of inherent immunity to the retail-therapy urges that afflict some of my friends and acquaintances. Maybe as a long-term gardener I've been getting a constant base-load dopamine high which has reduced the need to seek other ways to appease this primal instinct. Though, I must admit with the benefit of hindsight, I now have another perspective on my occasional `shopping sprees' at local markets buying plants for the garden.
Of course dopamine responses are triggered by many other things and is linked with addictive and impulsive behaviour. I suppose the trick is to rewire our brains to crave the dopamine hit from the garden and other more sustainable pursuits and activities. As a comment on PlanetDrum stated, "all addiction pathways are the same no matter what the chemical. As long as you feel rewarded you reinforce the behavior to get the reward."
So in other words it all comes down to the fact that we can't change our craving nature but we CAN change the nature of what we crave.
Strengthening the Case for Organic
Glyphosate residues deplete your Serotonin and Dopamine levels
Of course, for all of the above to work effectively and maintain those happy levels of serotonin and dopamine, there's another prerequisite according to another interesting bit of research I found. It appears it will all work much better with organic soil and crops that haven't been contaminated with Roundup or Glyphosate-based herbicides. This proviso also extends to what you eat, so ideally you'll avoid consuming non-organic foods that have been grown in farmland using glyphosates.
A recent study in 2008 discovered that glyphosate, the active ingredient of Roundup, depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in mammals. Contrary to Monsanto claims, glyphosate and other Roundup ingredients do perpetuate in the environment, in soil, water, plants and in the cells and organs of animals. One study found glyphosate residues in cotton fabric made from Roundup-ready GM cotton can absorb into the skin and into our nervous and circulatory systems.
No wonder there's so much depression around, and stress, and all the addictions and compulsive disorders in the pursuit of feeling good. I think back on when I moved to Sydney in 1984 for a few years and was contacting community centres in the inner west to see if there was interest in permaculture or gardening classes. A very terse social worker snapped at me "listen dear, we don't need gardening classes, we need stress therapy classes", and promptly hung up on me with a resounding "Huh!" when I replied that gardening was the best stress therapy I knew.
So enjoy the garden, fresh organic food and make sure you have fun playing in the dirt on a regular basis.
Robyn Francis 2010
Robyn Francis is an international permaculture designer, educator, writer and pioneer based at Djanbung Gardens, Nimbin Northern NSW. She is principal of Permaculture College Australia.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Here's some interesting sites and extracts for further info and reading
Glyphosate Report PDF
fhrfarms1.com/docs/.../Gly%20monograph%20PANAP%204-10.pdf An in-depth and comprehensive report of independent research on impacts and effects of Glyphosate and Roundup published by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific, Nov 2009
Soil Bacteria Work In Similar Way To Antidepressants
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840.php
UK scientists suggest that a type of friendly bacteria found in soil may affect the brain in a similar way to antidepressants. Their findings are published in the early online edition of the journal Neuroscience.
Soil bacteria can boost immune system
Harmless bug works as well as antidepressant drugs, study suggests
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18082129/
EXTRACT: Exposure to friendly soil bacteria could improve mood by boosting the immune system just as effectively as antidepressant drugs, a new study suggests.
The researchers suspect, however, that the microbes are affecting the brain indirectly by causing immune cells to release chemicals called cytokines. "We know that some of these cytokines can activate the nerves that relay signals from the body to the brain," Lowry said in a telephone interview.
The stimulated nerves cause certain neurons in the brain to release a chemical called serotonin into the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain known to be involved in mood regulation, among other things.
Scientists think the lack of serotonin in the brain is thought to cause depression in people.
Previous studies have linked early childhood exposure to bacteria to protection against allergies and asthma in adulthood. The new finding take this idea, called the "hygiene hypothesis," a step further, and suggests bacteria-exposure not only boosts our immune systems, but alters our vulnerability to conditions such as depression as well.
"These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health," Lowry said. "They also leave us wondering if we shouldn't all be spending more time playing in the dirt."
----------
"Selfish behaviors are reward driven and innate, wired deeply into the survival mechanisms of the primitive brain, and when consistently reinforced, they will run away to greed, with its associated craving for money, food, or power. On the other hand, the self restraint and the empathy for others that are so important in fostering physical and mental health are learned behaviors – largely functions of the new human cortex and thus culturally dependent. These social behaviors are fragile and learned by imitations much as we learn language". Dr. Peter Whybrow - "American Mania"
Some interesting insights and food for thought…
Status and Curiosity – On the Origins of Oil Addiction by Nate Hagens
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4240
The various layers and mechanisms of our brain were built on top of each other, via millions and millions of iterations, keeping intact what 'worked' and adding on what changes and mutations helped the pre-human, pre-mammal organism incrementally advance. … We are, all of us, descended from the best of the best at surviving and procreating, which in the environment of privation and danger where we endured the most 'iterations' of our evolution, meant acquiring necessary resources, achieving status, and possessing brains finely tuned to natural dangers and opportunities. In our modern environment, it is the combination of pursuit of social status and the plethora of fun, exciting/novel activities that underlies our large appetite for oil.
research tells us that drugs of abuse activate the brain's mesolimbic dopamine reward system, the neural network that regulates our ability to feel pleasure and be motivated for "more". When we have a great experience… our brain experiences a surge in the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine. We feel positively charged, warm, `in the zone' and happy. After a while, the dopamine gets flushed out of our system and returns to it's baseline level. We go about our lives, looking forward to the next pleasurable experience.
Hagens also muses that "There is anecdotal evidence that the typical american diet high in processed starches and sugar robs us of our baseline serotonin - the zen master of brain neurotransmitters. Lack of serotonin makes us more susceptible to cravings/behavioural
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Permaculture College Australia
Why Gardening Makes You Happy and Cures Depression
Written by Robyn Francis
Share
While mental health experts warn about depression as a global epidemic, other researchers are discovering ways we trigger our natural production of happy chemicals that keep depression at bay, with surprising results. All you need to do is get your fingers dirty and harvest your own food.
In recent years I've come across two completely independent bits of research that identified key environmental triggers for two important chemicals that boost our immune system and keep us happy - serotonin and dopamine. What fascinated me as a permaculturist and gardener were that the environmental triggers happen in the garden when you handle the soil and harvest your crops.
Getting down and dirty is the best `upper' – Serotonin
Getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels – contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research. Serotonin is a happy chemical, a natural anti-depressant and strengthens the immune system. Lack of serotonin in the brain causes depression.
Ironically, in the face of our hyper-hygienic, germicidal, protective clothing, obsessive health-and-safety society, there's been a lot of interesting research emerging in recent years regarding how good dirt is for us, and dirt-deficiency in childhood is implicated in contributing to quite a spectrum of illnesses including allergies, asthma and mental disorders.
At least now I have a new insight into why I compulsively garden without gloves and have always loved the feeling of getting my bare hands into the dirt and compost heap.
Harvest 'High' - Dopamine
Another interesting bit of research relates to the release of dopamine in the brain when we harvest products from the garden. The researchers hypothesise that this response evolved over nearly 200,000 years of hunter gathering, that when food was found (gathered or hunted) a flush of dopamine released in the reward centre of brain triggered a state of bliss or mild euphoria. The dopamine release can be triggered by sight (seeing a fruit or berry) and smell as well as by the action of actually plucking the fruit.
The contemporary transference of this brain function and dopamine high has now been recognised as the biological process at play in consumers addiction or compulsive shopping disorder. Of course the big retail corporations are using the findings to increase sales by provoking dopamine triggers in their environments and advertising.
I have often remarked on the great joy I feel when I forage in the garden, especially when I discover and harvest the `first of the season', the first luscious strawberry to ripen or emergence of the first tender asparagus shoot. (and yes, the photo is my hand plucking a deliciously sweet strawberry in my garden) I have also often wondered why I had a degree of inherent immunity to the retail-therapy urges that afflict some of my friends and acquaintances. Maybe as a long-term gardener I've been getting a constant base-load dopamine high which has reduced the need to seek other ways to appease this primal instinct. Though, I must admit with the benefit of hindsight, I now have another perspective on my occasional `shopping sprees' at local markets buying plants for the garden.
Of course dopamine responses are triggered by many other things and is linked with addictive and impulsive behaviour. I suppose the trick is to rewire our brains to crave the dopamine hit from the garden and other more sustainable pursuits and activities. As a comment on PlanetDrum stated, "all addiction pathways are the same no matter what the chemical. As long as you feel rewarded you reinforce the behavior to get the reward."
So in other words it all comes down to the fact that we can't change our craving nature but we CAN change the nature of what we crave.
Strengthening the Case for Organic
Glyphosate residues deplete your Serotonin and Dopamine levels
Of course, for all of the above to work effectively and maintain those happy levels of serotonin and dopamine, there's another prerequisite according to another interesting bit of research I found. It appears it will all work much better with organic soil and crops that haven't been contaminated with Roundup or Glyphosate-based herbicides. This proviso also extends to what you eat, so ideally you'll avoid consuming non-organic foods that have been grown in farmland using glyphosates.
A recent study in 2008 discovered that glyphosate, the active ingredient of Roundup, depletes serotonin and dopamine levels in mammals. Contrary to Monsanto claims, glyphosate and other Roundup ingredients do perpetuate in the environment, in soil, water, plants and in the cells and organs of animals. One study found glyphosate residues in cotton fabric made from Roundup-ready GM cotton can absorb into the skin and into our nervous and circulatory systems.
No wonder there's so much depression around, and stress, and all the addictions and compulsive disorders in the pursuit of feeling good. I think back on when I moved to Sydney in 1984 for a few years and was contacting community centres in the inner west to see if there was interest in permaculture or gardening classes. A very terse social worker snapped at me "listen dear, we don't need gardening classes, we need stress therapy classes", and promptly hung up on me with a resounding "Huh!" when I replied that gardening was the best stress therapy I knew.
So enjoy the garden, fresh organic food and make sure you have fun playing in the dirt on a regular basis.
Robyn Francis 2010
Robyn Francis is an international permaculture designer, educator, writer and pioneer based at Djanbung Gardens, Nimbin Northern NSW. She is principal of Permaculture College Australia.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Here's some interesting sites and extracts for further info and reading
Glyphosate Report PDF
fhrfarms1.com/docs/.../Gly%20monograph%20PANAP%204-10.pdf An in-depth and comprehensive report of independent research on impacts and effects of Glyphosate and Roundup published by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific, Nov 2009
Soil Bacteria Work In Similar Way To Antidepressants
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840.php
UK scientists suggest that a type of friendly bacteria found in soil may affect the brain in a similar way to antidepressants. Their findings are published in the early online edition of the journal Neuroscience.
Soil bacteria can boost immune system
Harmless bug works as well as antidepressant drugs, study suggests
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18082129/
EXTRACT: Exposure to friendly soil bacteria could improve mood by boosting the immune system just as effectively as antidepressant drugs, a new study suggests.
The researchers suspect, however, that the microbes are affecting the brain indirectly by causing immune cells to release chemicals called cytokines. "We know that some of these cytokines can activate the nerves that relay signals from the body to the brain," Lowry said in a telephone interview.
The stimulated nerves cause certain neurons in the brain to release a chemical called serotonin into the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain known to be involved in mood regulation, among other things.
Scientists think the lack of serotonin in the brain is thought to cause depression in people.
Previous studies have linked early childhood exposure to bacteria to protection against allergies and asthma in adulthood. The new finding take this idea, called the "hygiene hypothesis," a step further, and suggests bacteria-exposure not only boosts our immune systems, but alters our vulnerability to conditions such as depression as well.
"These studies help us understand how the body communicates with the brain and why a healthy immune system is important for maintaining mental health," Lowry said. "They also leave us wondering if we shouldn't all be spending more time playing in the dirt."
----------
"Selfish behaviors are reward driven and innate, wired deeply into the survival mechanisms of the primitive brain, and when consistently reinforced, they will run away to greed, with its associated craving for money, food, or power. On the other hand, the self restraint and the empathy for others that are so important in fostering physical and mental health are learned behaviors – largely functions of the new human cortex and thus culturally dependent. These social behaviors are fragile and learned by imitations much as we learn language". Dr. Peter Whybrow - "American Mania"
Some interesting insights and food for thought…
Status and Curiosity – On the Origins of Oil Addiction by Nate Hagens
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4240
The various layers and mechanisms of our brain were built on top of each other, via millions and millions of iterations, keeping intact what 'worked' and adding on what changes and mutations helped the pre-human, pre-mammal organism incrementally advance. … We are, all of us, descended from the best of the best at surviving and procreating, which in the environment of privation and danger where we endured the most 'iterations' of our evolution, meant acquiring necessary resources, achieving status, and possessing brains finely tuned to natural dangers and opportunities. In our modern environment, it is the combination of pursuit of social status and the plethora of fun, exciting/novel activities that underlies our large appetite for oil.
research tells us that drugs of abuse activate the brain's mesolimbic dopamine reward system, the neural network that regulates our ability to feel pleasure and be motivated for "more". When we have a great experience… our brain experiences a surge in the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine. We feel positively charged, warm, `in the zone' and happy. After a while, the dopamine gets flushed out of our system and returns to it's baseline level. We go about our lives, looking forward to the next pleasurable experience.
Hagens also muses that "There is anecdotal evidence that the typical american diet high in processed starches and sugar robs us of our baseline serotonin - the zen master of brain neurotransmitters. Lack of serotonin makes us more susceptible to cravings/behavioural
Get great advice about dogs and cats. Visit the Dog & Cat Answers Center.
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Brain Care and obesity Avoid Fructose Not Fat!!
Good summary of what I've been learning about my own health and research hidden from the view of the public. By lack of study and commercial interests I would guess.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-heb-fructose-021011,0,4723004.story
From http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/28/new-study-confirms-fructose-affects-your-brain-very-differently-than-glucose.aspx
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/la-heb-fructose-021011,0,4723004.story
According to the Chicago Tribune:
“The researchers ... found that ‘cortical control areas’ -- broad swaths of gray matter that surrounded the hypothalamus -- responded quite differently to the infusion of fructose than they did to glucose. Across the limited regions of the brain they scanned ... glucose significantly raised the level of neural activity for about 20 minutes following the infusion. Fructose had the opposite effect, causing activity in the same areas to drop and stay low for 20 minutes after the infusion.”
From http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/28/new-study-confirms-fructose-affects-your-brain-very-differently-than-glucose.aspx
People everywhere are finally waking up to the indisputable fact that all simple sugars are not the same when it comes to the physical end results they create. The latest Public Service Announcement warning New Yorkers about the dangers of excessive soda consumption is a powerful illustration of this increasing level of awareness.When these differences are understood, it's easy to see how and why fructose—mainly in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—is in large part responsible for the meteoric rise of obesity and its related health problems.It's a staple ingredient in a vast majority of sweetened beverages and processed foods of all kinds, from pre-packaged meals to baked goods and condiments. And the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS!
Your Brain Reacts to Fructose and Glucose in Very Different Ways
This latest study is intriguing, as it shows that the difference between fructose and glucose is not just limited to how they're metabolized in your body; your brain also reacts to these two sugars in entirely different ways.Nine healthy, normal-weight subjects received either glucose, fructose, or saline (as the control). Their brains were then scanned to evaluate activity around the hypothalamus, which is a key player in appetite control and production of metabolic hormones.Interestingly, the researchers discovered that the "cortical control areas" surrounding the hypothalamus responded very differently to each substance:
- Glucose significantly raised the level of neural activity for about 20 minutes
- Fructose reduced neural activity in the area for about the same amount of time
- Saline had no effect on neural activity
So, what does this mean?At this point, the implications of these differences are unclear. The Chicago Tribune reported that:"At this point, said [lead researcher] Purnell in a phone interview, it means nothing more than that the two substances did prompt different responses in the brain--that the brain did not respond to them identically.Within some of the "cortical control areas" where differences were seen, lie some important neural real estate, includingregions where notions of reward and addiction are processed.As scientists have a closer look in future studies, they should be able to zero in on which specific areas are affected differently by the two forms of sugar."So, time will tell what these latest findings really mean, but we already know that fructose has a detrimental impact on two hormones involved with satiety and hunger, namely leptin and ghrelin, and that this influence sets in motion a vicious cycle of hunger, increased food intake, and increased fat storage.
Fructose Packs on the Pounds Faster than Any Other Nutrient
Part of what makes HFCS so unhealthy is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver, and it promotes a particularly dangerous kind of body fat, namely adipose fat. This is the fat type of fat that collects in your abdominal region and is associated with a greater risk of heart disease.Additionally, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form (i.e. soda and sweetened beverages of all kinds), its negative metabolic effects are magnified. Because while HFCS has about the same amount of fructose as cane sugar, the fructose in HFCS is in its "free" form and not attached to any other carbs.The fructose in fruits and in cane sugar is bonded to other sugars which results in a decrease in its metabolic toxicity.Consuming foods that contain high amounts of fructose—even if it's a natural product—is, to put it bluntly, the fastest way to trash your health. Among the health problems you invite with a high-fructose diet are:
- Obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes
- Elevated triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels
- Elevated blood pressure
- Liver disease
- Depletion of vitamins and minerals—Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with your heart's use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium.
- Cardiovascular disease, arthritis, gout, and cancer
Adding insult to injury, HFCS is most often made from genetically modified (GM) corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns, from an increased risk of developing food allergies to the risk of increased infertility in future generations.
Beware: Mixing Fructose with Glucose Increases Destructive Effect
Fructose consumption clearly causes insulin resistance whereas straight glucose does not. However, it's worth knowing thatglucose accelerates fructose absorption! So when you mix glucose and fructose together, you absorb more fructose than if you consumed fructose alone...This is an important piece of information if you are struggling to control your weight.Remember, sucrose, or table sugar, is exactly this blend -- fructose plus glucose. So, the key to remember is to not get too nit-picky about the names of the sugars. ALL of these contribute to decreased health:
- Sucrose (table sugar)
- Corn syrup
- High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
- Crystalline fructose, and any other high-fructose sweetener they may dream up
- Natural fructose in the form of fruits, fruit juices, and natural sweeteners such as honey and agave.
Is Fructose from HFCS Worse than Fructose from Table Sugar?
High fructose corn syrup is about 55 percent fructose while table sugar is about 50 percent. The fructose in the corn syrup is also dissociated from the glucose, unlike table sugar which has it attached. So HFCS is clearly worse than table sugar, but not orders of magnitude. It is only marginally worse.The MAIN reason why fructose and HFCS are so bad is that in the mid 70s two things happened. Earl Butz changed the US Agriculture policy to massively subsidize corn production in the US, and scientists also figured out how to make HFCS in the lab from corn.The combination of these two events made fructose VERY cheap. So cheap that it's put in virtually all processed foods because it is virtually free and massively improves the flavor of most foods. So if you are a processed food producer there are virtually no downsides.So it becomes a QUANTITY issue, and the average person is now consuming 600 percent more than their ancestors did, and some are consuming 1500 percent more. So the massive increase in this toxin is what is causing the problem. If table sugar was as cheap and used as much it would cause virtually identical side effects.
Fructose Metabolism Basics
Without getting into the very complex biochemistry of carbohydrate metabolism, it is important to understand how your body processes glucose versus fructose. Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, has been a pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used.Here's a summary of the main points:
- After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. With glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.
- Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.
- The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes.
- Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.
- When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
- The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
- Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.
So, if anyone tries to tell you "sugar is sugar," they are way behind the times. As you can see, there are major differences in how your body processes each one. The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased belly fat, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome -- not to mention the long list of chronic diseases that directly result.If you, like so many others, have struggled with your weight for years; examined your diet; avoided fat and counted your calories, yet not getting anywhere and wondering what you're doing wrong, please pay very close attention to this issue!In many cases the primary culprit is an excessive intake of hidden sugar in the form of fructose, whether natural fructose (such as agave syrup or 100 percent fruit juice, for example), or in the form of corn syrup (or high fructose corn syrup), which is a main ingredient in countless beverages and processed, pre-packaged foods.It's extremely easy to consume high amounts of fructose on a daily basis, especially if most of your foods are processed in any way, or if you drink sodas or any other sweetened beverages such as ice-teas, fruit juices and sports drinks. As previously discussed, even seemingly "health-conscious" beverages like Vitamin Water, Jamba Juice and Odwalla SuperFood contain far more added sugar and/or fructose than many desserts!So please, understand that it's not dietary fat that's making you fat. It's fructose.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Structured Water. Is this how Earth imparts Well-being to Us?
In my ever curious search for helping develop my own pictures and understanding on how we connect with nature and how that connecting process generates feelings of well-being and maybe even healing.
It's possible that I have found another way by which science is continuing to discover supporting evidence for how are feelings of well-being come from being connected with nature.
The following link below has a scientist (Dr. Pollack) talking about structured water. structured water is not a complex thing to understand. Structured water could be considered ice better description is a liquid crystalline, snowflakes, ice crystals,....not that unfrozen water is unstructured unfrozen, water just has less structure, or at least a structure that allows the material to be more fluid.
There are probably four known ways to create structured water.
- Cooling it to about 39 degrees Fahrenheit
- Stirring the water with a spoon in a circular jar to create a vortex
- Classically, one way of doing it is to use infrared radiation (heat). By applying heat to the muscle, you increase blood supply, which is helpful. But you're also building water structure! Dr. Pollack's research shows that infrared heat is very effective for ordering cellular water. In terms of the source of the infrared heat, as long as it emits the right wavelength of radiation, it will be effective. According to Dr. Pollack, the wavelength of 3 micrometers (microns) is ideal and very effective.
- "If you put a negative electrode right next to structured water, the structured region grows, but with a positive electrode it diminishes," Dr. Pollack explains. "So this structured water is just filled with charge. It's not free charge, its charges that are fixed at points in a very tight matrix--something like a semi-conductor. But it can build, and the source from which it builds is water, ordinary bulk water.
Now it turns out that the earth is negatively charged, so that when you ground yourself with the earth you are connecting your body to a negatively charged energy. Thus you should end up absorbing Negative electrons and building structured cellular water with in your own body.
Structured water is a charge separation negative accumulates near the light source and positive accumulates further away. FYI: This is basically photosynthesis in plants.
It is still an open debate as to how healthy structured water is but there is no evidence or reports that structured water is unhealthy. The fact that infrared heat build structured water and infrared heat speeds and promotes healing makes it possible that maybe the structured water is part of the mechanism that is speeding the healing process.
60 min detailed science on proving structure exists.....
?? min towards end suggests this is how plants get energy (photosynthesis)
Or watch it in another tab click this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jKL2-B0QA&feature=player_embedded#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jKL2-B0QA&feature=player_embedded#
55 min- more interesting, this one gets into grounding
34:50 min=neg electrode current builds structure
37:20- 40:00 min = earth neg charged (References Richard Feynman had whole chapter in some book and talking about "grounding" or "earthing")
(200 volt charge difference between foot and nose, thus neg charge should go into body and build structured cellular water, earth to ionisphere is half million charge in volts difference)
45:00 structured water is good reasons assumptions (it's like a battery stored energy, structure=life)
49 min plant growth 1/3 taller in garden not science, possible observation science russian colleague
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/29/dr-pollack-on-structured-water.aspx
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Coiled rope video: part 2 dna fractal attenas
DNA antenna... found more support at http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ascension/esp_ascension_17c.htm by David Wilcox
I was talking about how the DNA molecule, as per Dr. Peter Gariaev's information, acts as an antenna, and that it harnesses photons of light in an otherwise dark room. And all the light will spiral through the molecule.
I'm starting to find more references to DNA being a continuous loop not a strand with 2 end points. And more guesses that DNA is our conscious interpreter of out environment (body[inner], Nature[outer], Sences[inner]) to our brain. Science will have to catch-up later and prove it.
This is to supplement the DNA fractal antenna post with a video example of how rope coils when it is twisted. This is to help one better understand how I think the gentleman in the previous videos describing DNA and how it coils. ( not just the helix twist but beyond that)
here's the video.
I was talking about how the DNA molecule, as per Dr. Peter Gariaev's information, acts as an antenna, and that it harnesses photons of light in an otherwise dark room. And all the light will spiral through the molecule.
I'm starting to find more references to DNA being a continuous loop not a strand with 2 end points. And more guesses that DNA is our conscious interpreter of out environment (body[inner], Nature[outer], Sences[inner]) to our brain. Science will have to catch-up later and prove it.
This is to supplement the DNA fractal antenna post with a video example of how rope coils when it is twisted. This is to help one better understand how I think the gentleman in the previous videos describing DNA and how it coils. ( not just the helix twist but beyond that)
here's the video.
Are DNA fractal attennas? I think so...Part One
As I am ever curious about how our sensory apparatus works, I have found this idea attractive. Don't be put off by the title of the video but get through the video until 12:28 when the gentleman scientist describes what DNA looks like and why he thinks it might be acting like a fractal antenna. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. But I latched onto it and it made lots of sense to me. Fractal antennas are what they are currently using in modern cell phones, you might notice that cell phones no longer have antenna points sticking out. Fractal antennas allow a much more compact area to receive multiple frequencies instead of just one frequency, you can find images on Google if you try but I don't think it will enlighten you anymore ince they do not "look" like DNA coils.
The most important part out of the DNA structure is that not only does it twist ONCE and the twist a second time and coil, but it probably twists three times. The video describes this but you can demonstrate for your self ( or watch my iphone video below....... just take a piece of string and you twist one end,..... if you keep twisting and give the string room you will notice that it will develop a second coil the more you keep twisting that you can develop a third and fourth and fifth coil if you have enough string you can keep doing this and have the coils you created create a new larger coil and you can keep going as long as you have string. I believe what they're trying to say in the cell phone video is that each coil can mark different defined lengths, and these different lengths can then act as frequency reception wavelength matches.
Remember how our old antenna used to look ( see below approximation)? Each reception bar is physically cut and pre-defined link on the antenna is cut to match the wave"length" of the particular frequency you wanted to receive. I'm Thinking that in the DNA coils each length from coil to coil could mark a stop and start length which would be able to match up against and send\recieve different frequency wavelengths. If this Is true then this would give us another sensory mechanism by which we could receive information via unseen wavelengths.
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How a 6 ft long DNA is fractal athena around View the video starting at 12:28 of the Linked Video below. This is also why such a long strand of DNA can be put in such a compact area I'm thinking ameoba here).
Or if this link goes away...try this instead....
cell phone see minute 12:28 for dna fractal comparison
cell phone see minute 12:28 for dna fractal comparison
iphone video of coiling rope to show how DNA coils beyond the helix coil we typically see
The weak part is that fractal antennas do not "look" the same as twisted rope they only function the same in that both are compact devices able to receive multiple frequencies. Although the DNA sequence's inside is suggestive of fractal patterns dna-barcodes-suggest-fractal-nature-of-genome/
The weak part is that fractal antennas do not "look" the same as twisted rope they only function the same in that both are compact devices able to receive multiple frequencies. Although the DNA sequence's inside is suggestive of fractal patterns dna-barcodes-suggest-fractal-nature-of-genome/
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Multi-system validation
3) Other than seeking validation by discussing experiences with a group, is there a place we can go or a means we can use to determine the validity of the messages we receive?
I use what I call multisystem validation. In other words, I am checking the results of my intuition against other systems, like....: the best information of science facts that I have available, and against mine and others' experiences of what has worked before, and sometimes validating against someone else's intuition who has more experience in that particular communication realm than I do, another validation is simply is... is it working? lastly I'm working on a muscle testing validation technique (muscle testing works on the theory of attraction also). So in summary I look across multiple systems and the more systems that validate the experience or interpretation the more confident I am about the choice and interpretation.in bullet form here are my validation systems
SYSTEM CHECKS AVAILABLE IN MULTISYSTEM VALIDATION
- heart: love compassion- gut: instinct intuition- sensory feedback feelings (not talking about the interpretation of emotions like anger or sadness but does this "feel:" right, good, constructive, building on positive, see value selection criteria below)- past experience- past experience of other people I trust- muscle testing- Dr. Phil's how's that working for you? (outcome validation)- validation by another person's intuition and sensory feedback (heart and gut)- I will even validate by other cultures dogma or religious beliefsone note is that my multisystem validation is balanced in the interpretation value selection criteria I use below.
VALUE SELECTION CRITERIA
- love,- compassion- not imposing on others free will- maintaining my own free will- and that which will serve the highest good.- Inclusion versus exclusion- constructive versus destructive- healing versus wounding- connective versus disconnective
- good
- feelings
- makes sense vs makes confusion
- building on the positive
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