The Basics of Healthy Living

These principals offer new concepts which are revolutionizing health. Many companies today market what they want you to believe is healthy. Learn here which are the most common myths and #1 culprits. Here are sevral things you can do to get started on your way to enjoying a healthier life in no time....

....And drop me a note to let me know how you are doing or if you have questions ......there is so much to learn so let's get started!

The number one contributing dietary factors today are Polyunsaturated Fats and Starch

1. Polyunsaturated fats

Remove polyunsaturated fats. Use butter, lard and coconut oil instead. These increase your metabolism and are protective.

Polyunsaturated fats are slowing your metabolism, even if you are eating a very, very small amount. Some feel we can handle up to 4% of our dietary fat intake in the form of polyunsaturated fats. Other researchers say as little as 1/2 teaspoon a day causes problems. We have to detoxify these oxidized fatty acids and they cause damage. They include most of the vegetable oils, seed oils, fish oils and fat from feed lot animals. Grass-fed and wild animals have a more tolerable 4% polyunsaturated fat, feed-lot is much higher.

Polyunsaturated oils tend to be liquid at room temperature. They are hidden in just about everything processed from the store. Manufactures like them because they are inexpensive. Farmers like them in the feed, because it slows the metabolism and fattens the animal faster for market.  Are we being fattened by them, also?

These fats are also used to help suppress the immune system for transplant patients and as little as 1/2 tsp a day is associated with cancers of all kinds. Healthy? Do we want to suppress our immune system, slow our metabolism and raise our risk of cancer and other diseases?

If you are young and thin, you likely have stored very little of these. If you are no longer in your 20's or carry extra weight, you will have these in storage. It may actually take several months and up to 4-5 years after removing them from your diet to get rid of them and reduce them to a health level.

2. Starch

Starch is in grains, root vegetables, and high fructose corn syrup. Replace starch with fruit, honey, cane sugar and other natural sweeteners. Starch intake is directly associated with diabetes rates. Pre-diabetes or insulin resistance is associated with over 80% of fertility disorders. The higher your starch & 'complex carb' intake, the higher your insulin resistance. Grains can be prepared using traditional methods to reduce the amount of starch such as sprouting and souring, but most do not remove all of it. Liming of grains, as in masa, hominy and grits appears to remove all of the starch. Fruit is inversely related to diabetes, meaning the more fruit one eats, the lower our risk of diabetes and insulin resistance. Some fruits are better than others, such as the higher sugar tropicals, the list is long. There are over 120 different tropical fruits, so enjoy!

Most do not get enough animal protein

Increase animal protein intake. Low stress animal proteins are #1 choices and are easy to add. Include eggs, dairy, shellfish, gelatin, pork rinds and bone broth. Most of us today are not eating adequate animal protein. We need 80-100 grams per day depending on your size and activity. The elite athlete and pregnant or full time breastfeeding mother requires up to 120grams/day.

Many today do not eat the Nutrient Dense foods

The fat soluble nutrients, vitamins A, D, E, & K, all work together. Nutrient dense foods include animal sources such as grass-fed butter, liver, shellfish, organ meats, and egg yolk.They play a significant role in fertility. 

Vitamin D is important and is low for most people living at latitudes away from the equator. It is a seco-steroidal hormone that helps regulate the metabolism and so much more. Sunshine is your best source. Most are low especially those who avoid the sun, use sunscreen, eat low-carb, have darker skin or live in cloudy or northern latitudes. These things can make it difficult to get enough vitamin D.

Adequate sugar, such as fruit, in the diet reduces your need of vitamin D. Not enough fruit or sugar in our diet such as low-carb diets, increases the amount of vitamin D one needs.

According to The Vitamin D Council, if supplementing one will need about 2000-5000 IU of D3 per day for most depending on weight. If we haven't been in the sun at mid-day, twice a week for 20-40 + minutes, we can assume our level is low. A normal sunshine dose of 10,000-20,000 IU a day for a few weeks can raise a low level. I recommend you have your vitamin D level measured after this. Many researchers are seeing good health at levels of 60-80ng. Once you reach this range, one can take a regular maintenance dose of 2000-5000 IU/day to keep it there

Most of us are low in the retinol form of vitamin A unless we are eating the nutrient dense foods listed above. A robust metabolism depends on vitamin A. This is not beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is a polyunsaturated fat and makes extra stress your body has to deal with, it should be avoided. Most people with a family history of diabetes and hypothyroidism cannot convert beta-carotene to the active form of retinol. Retinol must be supplied daily in small amounts, an amount which researchers have not determined yet. Be aware that too much vitamin A interferes with vitamin D.

These foods also contain variable amounts of the other fat soluble nutrients. Vitamin K's active form can be found in grass-fed butter. Liver should be eaten weekly, or supplemented. Shellfish at least twice weekly. Eggs and butter daily.

B vitamins. The animal form of these is best. Liver and organ meats contain a lot of B vitamins, as does limed & sprouted grains and fermented foods. Fermented foods however, are an added stress and should be limited.  For example, limit your yogurt intake to 1-2 Tbsp per day at the most, using it as a condiment, not a food serving. 

Minerals. More minerals are absorbed from your diet when your vitamin D level is adequate. Dairy and fruits are really good sources of minerals, as is shellfish, crustaceans and eggshell calcium. Many with low metabolisms are very low in magnesium, daily supplementing can help as well as epsom salt baths twice weekly.

Offending Agents

Todays lifestyle and environment have added stressors that are over taxing an already stressed system.

Some will need hormone support to provide the right environment for the body to restore itself. Those substances which help to balance this and restore health are the youth hormones such as thyroid, progesterone and pregnenolone. 

Infertility is associated with elevated stress substances and low youth hormones. Lowering the stress related hormones is important. Stress agents in our body include estrogen, cortisol, prolactin, histamine, serotonin and inflammatory substances. They can be be "self-feeding"  becoming a vicious cycle if left unchecked. 

There are a multitude of common everyday substances that suppress our metabolism and add to the stress our bodies have to deal with. Many of these have strong "estrogenic" or stress-inducing activity and suppress the metabolism. They need to be avoided. Here are a few:

polyunsaturated fats & omega-3's( half life can be 2-3 months), starch, raw brassica vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, kale (half life is 24 hours),  lactic acid & fermented foods, carageenan (in many store bought dairy products), persistent cardio exercise such as running or biking, water in plastic bottles, a cloudy day, lack of bright light during all your waking hours, radiation, pesticides, petroleum products such as parabens in personal care products, inadequate sleep, hypothyroidism, hops in beer, meat from female animals, reservatrol, most sunscreens except the zinc and titanium oxides, pomegranate, rapid weight loss....and others.