Clean Foot Print

The new movement is to get clean, healthy and rid of chemicals in our routines and bodies, yes I am writing about this – in a different way.

I can’t count the numbers of times I get to answer this question and every time I turn around some professional is sharing new information on how important this actually is for us.

Then the next challenge as seen by others is how, or it’s so expensive.  To start “fresh is best” my old tag line from the days when we had a spice and olive oil shop here in town.  “Eat the season” was also a comment I made regularly.  Our greatest ancestors had limitations, no guns and bows and arrows were a long way down the road, so hunting and fishing were very different.  Meats were limited, fish were more prevalent, but things from the land were the “spice of life” and the way we ate back then.  So our bodies have a predisposition to eat in the same fashion. 

I was, for many years, healthy and thin, strong and active, or at least I thought. Having experienced back pain, I started on a path with “Advil” many times a day, now I have to clean up my body to get back to health.  And that’s not the only thing that I was challenged with, Pepsi, sugar, foods that were processed, fast foods – although I hated most of these, I think you get the picture. 

Making the change wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I grew up with 2 gardens in the yard, one was only raspberries, but I grew fond of being in the dirt.  So when I have the chance things got planted, even in pots around the patio when I was apartment living.  I have always had a greenish thumb!!  Then my love of cooking started to shine.  It is WAY less expensive to cook lobster, prime rib, crab, shrimp than go to the restaurant all the time and living in the Bay area I have access to some of the best seafood.  Then I discovered different vegetation that I can grow here that sweetly compliment the foods I just listed.  I even started to enjoy more fresh salmon and other fish I had shied away from previously.   So this became a regular habit, shopped the best sales bought twice my need so I could stock the freezer making my budget go further.  Then it was time to attack the things around the house making me sick.  I have a sinus that has a weakness to it.  Every time something hits my body, that is where it lands. Reading has informed me that smoke aggravates this condition so my love of candles had to go, or at the least down 100 notches.  As some of you know about 30 years ago I found essential oils.  Now these were a good solution, but not a great one.  At that time the oils that were available were not the best standard and those companies have not changed their ways, they still are not the best.  Then I was introduced to dōTERRA, yes I’m at it again but with good reason.  I share with those that have similar challenges to me and my successes and I do get a fair amount of budget issues back.  SO, here are some comparisons to help change your thoughts and help you change your investing thus changing your budget.

Then I found out the difference in cost savings:

This does not include the amazing savings I get from the other products, and there is an awesome supplement line.  I have some of my friends that state that they have to “try” to get sick and I believe them.  Between their travels and schedules they totally amaze me.  So that when they do get sick it is something that requires a doctors’ attention.  Oh, and did I mention that I get paid for the stuff I use also?

Turmeric, Curcumin and Pepper

It’s been some time since I wrote a blog about this information but it has come to my attention in the past month that I should share this again.

When we had out spice and oil shop I did A LOT of research in my quiet shop hours.  Although that was a few years back there were some things that stuck in my head, Turmeric (Curcuma Longa and is part of the ginger family) is one of them.  There are a lot of things being said that are not far from the truth but do need some clarification.  SO – here is some information that I hope we can all absorb and keep in the back of our minds.  Turmeric essential oil, and the powder, is extracted, or ground, from the root or rhizome of the plant.  When spoken of it is usually the cooking spice that is being referred to.  It is a bright yellow color with a peppery and somewhat pitter taste and is a staple of Indian cooking.  The component that gives us the numerous health benefits is the compound curcumin.  Curcumin first isolated in 1815 did not have a full chemical structure mapped until 1910.  The research on this has since exploded and is showing very promising health benefits. This compound is only 2-5% of the turmeric.  When eating the turmeric spice, you only receive a tiny portion of the curcumin.  We humans have a difficult time absorbing curcumin.  Consumed on its own it just passes through the body without being absorbed into the blood stream thus not providing any health benefits.  If curcumin is taken with piperine, a compound found in black pepper, the piperine enables our body to absorb the curcumin, and at a much higher rate.

So why do we want to include turmeric in our bodies?  Recent studies have shown that curcumin “stops pain and inflammation, and is being investigated for inhibiting tumors, fighting cancer, preventing fat growth and accumulation, regulating blood sugar, stopping depression and slowing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease”.  http://www.curcuminforhealth.com/the-difference-between-turmeric-and-curcumin/

Why take the oil?  Herbs and spices only carry about 25% of the potency of the essential oil.  That being said “Buyer Beware”.  Turmeric is an oil that is easily adulterated, you can read more at  https://aromaticplant.org/blog/post?s=2018-10-10-turmeric-adulteration.  So know who and where to purchase your oils.

To summarize, black pepper is needed for its piperine to process curcumin, turmeric does not although that being said a little black pepper in your dish adds a little spice and will motivate your metabolism!

My Health Care Assistance - ME!

Let’s face it our health care system is breaking down!  Most everyone has become aware of the impact this has had on our families and let’s face it, we are concerned about our families as well as our own health and coverage.

Many question why, in our days, is it that there are so many more children with that awful “C” word condition, why are there so many more with things like fibromyalgia, MS, and the list goes on?   There are different answers from different healthcare individuals.  But if we put some common sense into this what answers do we come up with.  We know that “metals” and “chemicals” are not things well liked by our bodies, these are things we are not designed to process.  Where do they come from, or how do they get into our bodies?  This list is long but here are a few areas:  the air we breathe is full of large particles of junk, the processing of foods – if you can’t pronounce it you shouldn’t be eating it - the chemicals that are used in the fields on our produce and then there are things that we take to “help us” but that’s a discussion for another day – but let’s look at the products that are grown for just a moment.

Growing plants need nutrients to become big and strong, where do they get these from?  Well, one way is from the ground, they need sun, air, rain, and or water.  What is the make-up of a plant, you start with a seed that grows into a plant, this is made up of cells, moisture and solids.

It takes the water and the nutrient to grow, then the next step is the fruit or vegetable, we will use tomatoes as an example here, the tomato is also made up of moisture and cells, equal solids.  It gets its nutrition from the plant, which as I stated gets the plant nutrition from the ground.   Let’s dig a little deeper here; our air is full of emissions, over sprays, and a very long list of things we should not be taking in.  The rains come through the air taking with it to the ground chemicals.  The farmer uses stuff on the plants that end up on the plant itself as well as the ground and then with the watering of the garden these end up in the water, in the ground, and the plant then holds the junk as it absorbs the water and the nutrients, which now becomes part of the cells of the plant and the fruit or vegetables that the plant is producing. Cool right?  Yes and no, bad news is we are now eating these things and ingesting the junk that has been taken in by the plants -to no fault of theirs.  Now can we get away from all of this, the honest answer to that is no – that being said, we can control how much of this we take in.

NEXT:  did you know that what you smell goes directly to your brain?  That’s correct and there is more to this, in fact that "smell" (chemical, flower or food) is in your brain in 12 seconds, it is in your blood in 2 minutes and in 20 minutes it is in every cell of your body!  Smell will trigger memories, triggering emotions both good and bad.  It will shift your bad mood to a good one or vis versa. 

NOW, so how quickly do you think that the bad stuff from what you eat gets into your body – a body that is made up of what?  You guessed it - cells!!  We are not much different than plants, meaning we are made up of how much water? We consist of blood, water, and cells of many types just like plants and our body loves what we get from plants – part of why we need so many vegetables in our daily diets.

SO-What can we do to empower our own situations to bridge the gap in our health?

There are several things that will make this happen: exercise, eat right, sleep right, manage your stress, reduce toxic load, how about informed self-care?

SO – Exercise there are different answers here depending on who you ask and what if’s – but a good number is 150 minutes a week,

-Eat right – we hear more and more no white flour or sugars, more vegetables, 50-80% of your body weight in water ounces(so if you weight 200 lbs, you should be drinking 100 to 150 ounces of water a day), nothing processed, these are the big ones.

-Sleep – are you aware that an adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep? That being said anything less than 6 or more than 10 is not good for us either.  And more importantly for all but especially women need to be asleep between 10-2 pm as our body works on hormones during that time.

-Manage stress – good and bad the body knows no difference, find your happy space and use it. 

-Reduce toxic load – that we are talking about here

-Informed self care – the new plan for you and your family.

The talk about essential oils is important – but you have to be willing to learn about the quality, consistency, where and how they can be used to help bridge the gap.  An associate shared that they can be the new 80/20 plan, 80% of things we can deal with in our homes and the other 20% go out to doctors, chiropractors, and the like.  How can that be – I recall a talk regarding essential oils.

Essential oils are not new, but there are new criteria creating a more sustainable and trustworthy product.  They do not own the titles of “snake oil” or “voodoo” medicines either.  Recent findings are proving that have been around since 5000bc.  And even closer to today they were used in WWII.  How many of you know that the common aspirin (acetylsalicycli acid) was derived from the willow tree, the bark which has been in traditional medicine for a very long time, oh and don’t eat too many poppy seeds as morphine is an isolation from the straw of the opium poppy.  And this a little less know fact, the pacific yew tree (taxus brevifolia) has found to produce the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel?

Essential oils are extracted from the roots, bark, tree, leaves, fruit, flowers and saps of plants.  They are their own defense system against, bacteria, viruses, and pests. 

Now this is a greater discussion than for this mere newsletter so hang out and find out what comes next.