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I hope you enjoy and find my blog useful. Please feel free to link, comment, or give your advice. Make yourself at home and come back daily as I will be updating daily.
Grace and Peace,
Ed
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I'm a 54 year old Husband, Father of Four Daughters, Pastor and Vice Principal of a private K-12 school on Long Island.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

USDA Food Pyramid

While doing some research the other day I came upon the new USDA Food Pyramid site. You can get there by going to http://www.mypyramid.gov/ Although I don't agree with everything found there, it will allow you to put in your gender, weight and height to receive a personal food pyramid. The pyramid is designed to tell you how much grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans, oils, discretionary calories and, the new component, physical exercise you need.
It is always good to have a diversified, balanced diet with the right caloric intake. And, exercise is a main component to fitness. However I'm not sure about the milk and discretionary calorie categories. Milk can cause mucous problems and is usually found in it's pasturized form in the local stores. We discussed the problems with pasturization and how the process kills vital and necessary enzymes. There is also a sizable part of the population that is lactose intolorant in various degrees which can cause all sorts of allergic reactions.

And what about "discretionary calories"? Are they "discretionary" or "empty"? White flour, sugar and the like are not discretionary! They are detrimental to the health functioning of our bodies. Processed foods and preservatives are also in the same category. As stated in a previous article they also cause our taste buds to crave more of the same! Added salt and sugar cause the need for more added salt and sugar and can be traced to the increasing amount of people with high blood pressure and diabetes.

Other than these two areas the pyramid also does not address the need for the food we eat to be as organic as possible with the least amount of preservatives. I am not a hard core believer in "none of this or none of that" but if we are not careful our compromise can digress back into an unhealthy diet made up of over-processed, over-cooked, genetically altered foods that cause fatigue, depression and illness!

So stop by the government's site but (excuse the pun) read it with a dose of salt!

Remember, garbage in garbage out! Life in Life out! You are what you eat as far as your body is concerned!

May God give you wisdom and grace to become and remain healthy! 3 John 2 says, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth."

Saturday, September 29, 2007

The Feast, One Source For Complete Nutrition


To follow up my last post I'd like to talk about a new supplement I found called The Feast. With the decline in consumption of raw, fresh, organic, nuts, seeds, sprouts, fuits and vegetables the need for a live, natural, organic, raw food supplement becomes vital. Even if we could get a great variety of fruits and vegetables they are likely not to be fresh or grown under the conditions we would want. The use of pestisides and in-organic fertilizers compromise the quality of the produce. Then if we cook them we again reduce the life force of enzymes in the produce.


So the dilema of getting enough fresh, live, organic, raw produce becomes a real and important challenge for us to consider. We are alive and need food that is alive to keep us in optimal health and vitality!

I believe Iv'e found an all natural whole food supplement that can help! It's called The Feast. The Feast is a live whole food that delivers a full, synergistic spectrum of:

30 Antioxident Rich Fruits and Berries

30 Powerful Greens and Vegetables

11 Nutrient Dense Seed, Nuts and Sprouts

83 Active Enzymes

A Full Spectrum Fulvic Mineral Blend

and

22 Strains of Resilient Living Probiotics.

All in a convienient powder that you mix in water to re-constitute. It even has a naturally sweet berry flavor! I have been taking The Feast and can notice the difference it makes in my vitality, mental acuity and overall health. I also know the long term value of consuming live whole foods like Noni Fruit, Gogi, Pomegranate, Acai, Kalmath Lake Algae, Barley Grass, Spirulina, Flax Seed, Oat Bran, Wheat Sprout and the others that are in this product.

I thank God for leading David Uri Lebaron to formulate, process and produce a live food source like this in a time that we so desperately need it. The Bible states that our bodies are made to be the dwelling of the Holy Spirit and that we should glorify God in our bodies! We need to be sure that what we put in our bodies is healthy and beneficial for us and there is nothing more beneficial that that which God created for us to consume!

Grace and Peace,

Ed

Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Importance of "Raw Food"


Here is an excerpt of an article of interest I found dealing with the importance of LIVE FOOD ENZYMES! I found it at http://freedomyou.com/ another great health site. Let me know what you think!

Raw Food EnzymesExcerpt from NORTH AMERICAN DIET
by: Ron & Stacy Lagerquist

There are two Kingdoms on earth which have very distinct cultures. They are transversely opposed to each other and have been at war for six thousand years. One rules by the law of Life—the other, the law of Death. Death, adorned in the garb of pleasure and self-indulgence. Or Life, clothed in the practical and less garish apparel of self-discipline and holiness. The North American Diet is a diet of death, rooted in a culture that has built its foundation on the wrong Kingdom.

God is the Author of Health and Life. He speaks from many pulpits—from the heights of the Eternal Word, to the depths of a lowly donkey’s mouth. He that has an ear, let him hear—it is time that we stop and listen.

Which Kingdom does your diet reflect? Christians ought to win the world with lives that are filled with vibrancy. And as the world increases in sickness you will stand out like a light, an Ambassador of a different Kingdom.

If rocks can cry out to the Glory of God, then certainly every living cell must sing in concert to Him who is their living Creator. So let us stop and listen. THE W.F.O.C. DIET PROGRAM , direct from the World Federation of Cells, is a comprehensive diet that has your health in mind. For a limited time, you can receive this celebrated program free—yes free! Its principal characteristic is its simplicity and versatility. This program will go anywhere you do—work, home, picnics, or when you have to eat on the run. The greatest feature is that you will never get sick, always have energy, never become overweight and need far less sleep. It is excellent for any age, whether healing, trying to lose weight, or simply desiring increased discipline in daily living.

The key to this revolutionary diet is this:
The greater the percentage of raw food in your diet, the healthier and happier your cells are going to be!
It just doesn’t get any simpler than that!

The earth is alive with the glory of its Creator. No longer can we live in the dark ages of our past, eating ourselves into sickness and decease, trusting a Medical Machine to make us all better. God has provided every resource needed for physical and spiritual health. Its time we stop feeding our cravings and start looking after the temple we have been given. A temple that houses the fullness of God. There’s power in raw food, because if it’s raw, it is filled with enzymes. Vital to life, enzymes tirelessly work at breaking down food, assisting the immune system and carrying on the functions of metabolism. Lipase breaks down fat, protease breaks down protein, cellulose breaks down cellulose and amylase breaks down starch, to mention only a few.

In 1933, the first enzyme diastase was discovered. Found in the wheat germ, it acts on decomposing the natural starches in the surrounding kernel. By removing both the diastase and the wheat germ, bread had a longer shelf life, however, bread became more difficult to digest.
Enzymes are protein molecules that act like spark plugs in the body. Without them we would die. Ninety-eight enzymes have been found in the arteries. Enzymes such as cytochrome qxidase, peroxidase and catalase are components of red and white blood cells. A high source of these enzymes are in the green leaves of plants. It has been discovered that they can fight toxic substances, helping protect the body from cancer.

Scientists are learning how enzymes are crucial to the healing process. Enzymes are the biochemical foundation for thousands of digestive and metabolic functions within the body. About 5,000 different enzymes have been identified so far. Some researchers have estimated that it takes about 100,000 enzymes to run the body.

In digestion, enzymes are the active materials within digestive juices that break down the food. Enzymes are keys that unlock nutrients. They do this job without being changed. Enzymes are found in the salivary glands, liver, stomach, pancreas and the wall of the small intestine.
A fruit left on the counter for too long becomes over-ripe and turns to mush. The ripening process is due to living enzymes breaking down and digesting the fruit. In contrast, pasteurized fruit juice can remain fresh for a year because the enzymes have been destroyed by heat. Enzymes in living foods are little digestion machines, working and assisting to help break down food so that the body may easily assimilate its nutrients. Killing the enzymes for shelf life causes the body to work much harder in digestion and assimilation.

The digestion of a banana requires very few stomach secretions. What about a piece of fried chicken? Chicken contains no enzymes to help digestion. If the chicken has been eaten quickly, there will be little enzyme activity from the saliva. It will sit in the stomach like a lead brick. The body is forced to produce strong acid secretions to build up to do some of the digestion. A coffee or two splashed down, dilutes the digestive juices. The barely-digested chicken then moves on to the small intestine where bile from the gallbladder emulsifies the chicken fat. The chicken is still in need of more digestion so the remainder of the work will require the help of the pancreas. To accomplish such a difficult task, the pancreas must produce large quantities of enzymes which place a heavy burden on it.

Studies show that eating a high percentage of cooked food causes the pancreas to enlarge. A pancreas that is enlarged as a result of over-stimulation, eventually breaks down. From years of abuse, the pancreas secretes fewer enzymes and causes digestive problems such as bloating, gas, diarrhea, gastritis or diabetes.

Let’s return to our piece of fried chicken. It has now been sitting in the intestinal track for 24 hours. Because of its partially-digested state, it has become rancid. The body must respond by producing a sticky mucus which envelopes the putrefying chicken in a protective sack. As the fiberless meat moves slowly through 30 feet of intestine, the mucus sack begins to dehydrate and impact on the colon wall. This creates a hard, black, crust-like substance that builds up, layer upon layer, inside the folds of the intestine further hindering the absorption of nutrients. Mercifully after 30 hours, this mucus sack of putrefying chicken is deposited with great effort into the toilet. Our fried chicken has taken more than it has given, depleting the enzyme bank, depositing very little in nutritional value, leaving impacted, dried mucus in its wake.
In contrast, a perfectly ripe banana is sweet to the taste and pleasant to the stomach. Quickly, the enzymes that are present within the banana mix with saliva to break it down into an absorbent vitamin-rich substance. No acid secretion is needed. Passing quickly through the bowel, instead of creating mucus, the natural soft fibers clean the intestinal wall. In a matter of a few hours the banana is easily deposited. No need to spend half your life in the bathroom!
To be healthy, all essential nutrients are required by the body. Even one missing essential nutrient is enough to seriously affect our health. Nutrients work together as a team. Any team suffers if two or three of its top players are missing. Likewise, the cells suffer. When essential nutrients are missing, the cell's metabolic processes are disrupted causing cell rebuilding to slow down and aging to speed up. When the cells’ metabolic processes are free from disruption, and the cells have all the required nutrients, the cells work vigorously at their specific bodily function.

Science is unraveling the wide spectrum of nutrients necessary for vitality. For instance, they have discovered that beta-carotene is beneficial in the healing of cancer. Carrots have been offering this nutrient for years, but it is only now that they are getting attention.
In 1747, James Lind, surgeon's mate on Britain's HMS Salisbery, discovered that when sailors with scurvy were given lemons and oranges they cured quickly of the illness. The vitamin C in the citrus fruits had cured the deficiency caused by eating the ship's rations during long sea journeys. It took the British Admiralty almost 50 years before they used Lind's discovery by adding one ounce of lemon juice to the daily rations. This one ounce of lemon juice supplied 14 mg. of vitamin C, 43 mg. of potassium, 2 mg. of magnesium, and 2 mg. of calcium. This simple supplement enabled the British fleet to become the world's greatest sea power.

Nutritional discoveries are important only if they are used. In the era of James Lind it took 50 years to get his discovery into action. In the present decade, new discoveries are hitting the health food store shelves within a year—thousands of products, supplements and health foods. All of these products are backed by research and testimonies of health benefits.
Even though herbs, vitamins and minerals can have a great benefit to the body, some have spent thousands of dollars looking for a cure through supplements with no success. People often assume that their illness is due to a vitamin deficiency, so by taking vitamins, the illness should disappear. Unfortunately, vitamins or herbs often will not correct the problem. People have tried dozens of different supplements without feeling better. This is because many problems are caused by toxins and the clogging of the lymph by mucoid matter. Unless these problems are first solved, the advantage of taking vitamins is greatly reduced. It is like putting high performance gas in a car when the carburetor is clogged and the engine is malfunctioning. Until it is fixed, high test gas will make little difference in the performance of the vehicle. The body is an electro-chemical machine. When the parts responsible for absorption are cleansed, vitamins will start to be assimilated more efficiently. Vitamin therapy works by flooding the system with nutrients so that the damaged area will have a chance to absorb from a higher blood concentration. A higher concentration means more nutrients will get through to the suffering cell. A therapeutic amount of vitamins will help, but it is more important to remove the obstructions caused by mucus in the intestine, mucoid matter in the lymph, and saturated fats in the bloodstream.

Consider the birds of the air. Animals portray a life of health and vibrancy that painfully contrasts the consumers of the North American Diet. All of God’s creation live on an enzyme-rich diet except for one. Far from Eden’s lush enzyme-rich fruit, modern man wanders the isles of supermarkets, searching packages of food, designed for taste, but empty of life.
All the organs of your body have had to painfully adapt to a cooked food diet. The stomach has a thick layer of mucus to protect it from high-acid concentrations. The intestine has a thick mucus coating to defend it against the toxins caused by purification. A person living on mostly cooked food will have a pancreas, according to percentage of body weight, three and a half times that of a sheep and twice the size of a horse.

Cooked food causes an increase of white blood cells. The body reacts to cooked food in the same way it reacts to infection. Cooking destroys vitamins, makes minerals inorganic, coagulates proteins, transforms fatty acids, and destroys natural fiber, increasing the transit time through the intestine. This, in turn, causes putrefaction that creates additional toxins. Although cooking is the traditional method of preparing food, it does not increase nutritional value, but reduces it and actually robs us of vitality.

Cooking destroys nutrients. Folic acid is abundant in most green vegetables. However, 95% of this vitamin can be lost by cooking. Over 50 fruits and vegetables have oxalic acid. While harmless in its natural state, altered by heat, it becomes harmful. Calcium binds with the oxalic acid in the blood to neutralize it and to form calcium compounds (calciumoxalate) which are difficult for the body to remove and may lead to kidney stones.

Raw food is alkalizing while cooked food is acid-forming. Cooked food tends to have a stimulant effect by causing the body to speed up its metabolism to rid itself of these destroyed nutrients, altered proteins and fats. For the sick, eating cooked food is like taking a whip to a tired overworked horse.

Research has shown that cooked fiber passes through the digestive system more slowly than raw food. It partially rots, ferments and putrefies, causing toxins, gas and even heartburn. Cooked food is harder to digest, less absorbent, and what is absorbed is less assimilable. In short, the body works more for less.FOOD IN THE RAW Enzymes start to die at 105 degrees, but all are destroyed at 130 degrees Fahrenheit. For this reason, leading health authorities agreed that 80% of our diet should be composed of raw living foods.

Plants have a complex array of enzymes necessary for their life process. When we eat living plant foods we also consume the enzymes used in their life process. It was once thought that enzymes were destroyed in the stomach by hydrochloric acid and were, therefore, useless to the body. Yet when certain enzymes were tagged with radioactive dye, they could be observed leaving the stomach and entering the blood and could later be found in the liver, spleen, heart, lungs, duodenum and urine. If we eat food packed with enzymes, the effect will be seen in every organ of the body. When we eat fruits or vegetables, plant enzymes act as catalysts and work in harmony with vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats to feed the cell.

When you eat an abundance of raw fruits and vegetables, they will act as a broom that gently sweeps and cleans the intestinal wall. The colon will be kept squeaky clean. This is important because a clean intestine is necessary for health and to heal disease.

All the nutrients we need can be found in fruits and vegetables. Eating a diet high in raw fruits and vegetables increases energy, assists healing, rebuilds healthy tissue, rejuvenates and invigorates the entire body. You feel vital because all cell functions are operating at peak performance.

Fresh applesauce poured over a bed of diced mango with a sprinkle of cinnamon, raw nut butters, bean sprouts rolled in noir sheets, flax oil salad dressing, fresh pineapple juice with blended coconut, lettuce with sesame seeds and avocado dressing—to mention only a few of the diverse, colorful, mouth-watering, cell-delicious raw food that can be created from an endless variety of raw materials. You can find many raw food recipes in Whole Foods And Healing Recipes, as well as healthy cooked food.

Healthy eating does not have to be bland and boring. Food in its natural state is filled with countless varieties of delectable flavors and textures. A diet that will not feed the carnal appetite, but nourish His Temple with foods that are fit for His glory.

It is a shame that the great fathers of theology did not include enthusiasm as one of the attributes of God. Omnipresence and omnipotence are profoundly esoteric names that help us stretch language beyond itself into the realms of the eternal. Magnetic, electrifying, enchanting, even filled with zest and fervor, these names may seem to border on the sacreligious when describing the character of God. But our Creator has an irrepressible nature, so filled with vigor and vitality, that there is nothing that can hold Him down—not even the grave. We cannot tame Him with clumsy labels or primitive theology. God smashes through such boxes with the laughter of a playing child.

The Eternal has a flair for the dramatic. A Universe brimming with choreographed movement.

If you like what you are reading I encourage you to order North American Diet
Available as soft cover book & as digital E-Book
WHAT NOT TO EAT AND WHY
http://freedomyou.com/

Also check out http://urilife.com/realfoodforlife/products.com

Food


The third most important element to our lives here on earth is food. Now we have come to my favorite subject! The subject of diet is too expansive for just one post so I will be spending the next several blogs discussing this issue and really appreciate your imput and comments as we go.

There are many facets of diet and many ways to approach the subject so I will go about it one blog at a time. Our diet has many puposes and functions in our bodies. It is the fuel our body burns to create energy much like the fuel you put in your car, motorcycle or boat. It also supplies the nutrients our body needs for the daily functioning of each specific organ as they carry out their purpose that they were intended for.

I believe in the Biblical model of creation so I will be looking at this and every other topic we discuss from that viewpoint. You see our overall philosophy of life affects each and every choice we make. It is our belief system that motivates us and moves us along the path we take. The Bible states that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen". It says that by faith we understand that the Universe was created by God. Divine design. We will get into this further in future blogs.

So with the Creation model in mind we proceed to discuss our nutritional needs. The bible says that God created man from the earth. That is very interesting when you consider that the nutients for all life come from the earth and that original creation. Our bodies composition is much like very rich earth when you extract all of the water and reduce us to basic compounds. On this planet our nutrition comes from the very ground we walk on, the wells we drink from and the air we breathe. Even the sun plays an important part in the process of assimilating important nutrients for our proper bodily functions.

We were "fearfully and wonderfully made to live an abundant life here on earth and to continue that life in another form with our Creator in the world to come! Therefore there must be a right and wrong diet. There are things that will help me and things that will hurt me. Natural laws set into place by God for my good if I obey them and for bad if I don't. I will begin my discussion of these in tomorrows blog.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment, suggestion or prospective to enhance this blog! Also feel free to subscribe through one of the services listed here. I have found a great new all natural, whole food drink that I'm excited about for many reasons. Stop by my other site to check it out.
http://www.urilife.com/realfoodforlife/products.html

I will be discussing this and other great supplements in future blogs.

Grace and Peace,
Ed

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Water


Next to the importance of Air to our existance Water is necessary for life and health. Considering that most of the body consists of water we must be concerned with both the quantity and quality of the water we drink.

Many experts say we need a minimum of 64 ounces of water each day to promote health and wellness. Water helps maintain our temperature, helps to remove toxins from the body, keeps our skin (the largest organ of our body) hydrated and healthy, helps with circulation and even staves off hunger. In fact, sometimes when we feel hungry it is simply because we are dehydrated and a glass of water or two may be all we need to feel full again!

The quality of water is also important. I use a water cooler with purified water both in my home and office. Some tap water may have too much clorine or fluride to be considered healthy! Some experts say the only pure water is distilled water but it is often hard to find and a bit costly. Some chose to install water filters and that may be a good option or a waste of money depending on the filter used. I'm told that reverse osmosis filters are the best and can be installed in a main water feed to provide pure water to drink and wash with.

The Bible speaks a lot about water. It says that there was a river in the Garden of Eden that promoted life all around it. We see as we study history and cultures that communities often form mostly around a body of water due to the importance of this wonderful substance. More items are transported by water than any other means! In Psalms 46 it says, " There is a river, whos streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

Hence, the importance of H20 in our lives. It's importance can't be minimized! Next to air, it is the most necessary substance on earth and we must protect it and drink it daily for our lives here on earth depend upon it.

If these short articles are a blessing to you drop a comment and subscribe. If not, drop a comment and subscribe! LOL Communication and the exchange of ideas is what blogging is all about!

Later,
Ed

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Air


Air.....Probably a good place to start. The quality of our air especially in the cities has declined steadily. As an Assistant Principal I have seen a steady increase of asthma in children over the past 15 years or so. I am thankful for the new public smoking laws as this might have been a partial cause to this increase but is it enough?

Everytime I cross over from Staten Island to New Jersey I see huge smoke stacks filling the sky with who knows what. I just somehow feel that this can't be good. You can hardly see through the haze and the smell....well I'm sure you get the picture by now.

They say that inside our homes is not much better and may even be worse. So what are they trying to say? Is it our breath or bodies? I doubt that. We shower, use deoderent, brush and spray more than ever! Could that be it? Well, it was enough for me to buy two Oreck air purifiers. And believe it or not I did notice a difference in the quality of the air. Feels lighter and cleaner. Or is it just in my imagination?

Trust me, I'm not a proponent of getting rid of our cars and present day technology. I just think that maybe we need to put our heads together to find a new technology to cure the present technology and we can worry about that technology latter. Until then we have to forego our outside activity on smog alert days and keep the school nurses office filled with inhalers.

I am a bit perplexed....should I study yoga and other deep breathing techniques? Or am I better off just taking little gasps every now and then? What do you think?
Ed

Monday, September 24, 2007

Real Food For Life


It seems to me, and according to statistics, that we are living longer! That's Great! But, is longevity the only goal? Being 52 years old I am noticing that although our length of life is getting longer, our quality of life for the most part is not.


I don't just want to live longer. I want to live better! I want to be vibrant. I want to feel good. I want to be intact in body, mind and spirit. I want my five senses to be in good operating condition simultaniously. It seems that while the drug companies and physicians can extend our life, we trade quality for quantity! What fixes one problem creates another.


There has to be a better way! I hope, with your help, to be using this blog to help all of us find that better way. I believe it to be found in proper diet, exercise and proper reading. By proper reading I mean reading useful, quality material that will enhance our mental and spiritual health. Hence, the reason for this blog.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. This blog is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. You should consult with your medical professional before beginning any diet or exercise program!

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