pH BALANCED?

Are You Too Acidic?

The acidity or alkalinity of foods can be classified by how we process them. Our bodies transform nearly all foods we eat into acid or alkaline bases. Though we need a balance of different foods for good health, most people eat far more acid-producing foods than alkaline-forming foods. Too many acid-producing substances cause a chronic condition called acidosis, which means the body has become too acidic. Additionally, acid is produced in the body whenever we experience stress or strong emotions such as anger or fear. As you can see, the typical Western diet and lifestyle moves us in the opposite direction of optimal health. Cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment.  They do not do as well in a slightly alkaline body.

Coffee and GERD

Coffee and GERD

There are several good reason to ditch coffee. First off, it stimulates hydrochloric acid (HCL) production. This can be a problem because HCl should only be produced to digest meals. If your body has to make HCl more often in response to coffee, it may have difficulty producing enough to deal with a large meal. Protein digestion in particular is affected by a deficiency of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. This can be a contributor to acid reflux (GERD), which is often caused by low stomach acid. Then antacids are about the worst thing you can take.

Also, acid reflux and heartburn can be caused by coffee due to the way it relaxes the lower esophageal sphincter. This small muscle should remain tightly closed once you’ve eaten to prevent the contents of your stomach from splashing back into the esophagus and burning its delicate lining with hydrochloric acid. Even using decaf coffee regularly causes heartburn problems for some people and researchers think this may be due to other compounds in coffee which can contribute to acid reflux problems.

And if that’s not enough to deter you, drinking coffee for energy turns into a kind of jittery tension that is always on and makes it difficult to relax. Turning on the stress hormones with a cup of coffee when you’re eating also interferes with the digestive process. It can put you in a ‘fight or flight’ mode, and cause you to crave simple carbohydrates for fuel so you can fight or run from the enemy. But we don’t usually run today because we don’t actually have a tiger or a bear chasing us, so all those carbs just turn to fat.

Also, did you know that coffee is among the most heavily pesticide sprayed crops in the world?   According to the CS Monitor, conventional farmers apply up to 250 pounds of chemical fertilizers per acre! Pesticides contribute to a wide range of health problems, including prostate and other types of cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and miscarriages in pregnant women.1 Most people have far more than a small or occasional cups of high quality coffee, and often go for instant coffee, or even worse, that murky brown stuff out of an office coffee machine or vending machine. This is anything but good quality coffee and probably never organic. Drink green tea instead.

Notes

1 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/30/if-you-drink-coffee-make-sure-it-is-organic.aspx accessed accessed 8/25/15

12 Benefits of Detoxing Your Body

12 Benefits of Detoxing Your Body

1. Boosts Your Energy

2. Rids the Body of Any Excess Waste and Toxins

3. Helps You Lose Weight

4. Improved Immune System

5. Healthier Skin

6. Say Goodbye Bad Breath

7. Promotes Healthy Lifestyle Changes

8. Clearer Thinking

9. Healthier Hair

10. Lighter Feeling

11. Anti-Aging Benefits

12. Improved Sense of Wellbeing

Just how toxic are you? Take the Toxicity Quiz.

I’m offering two ways to cleanse your body with me. Join the 30-Day Detox Challenge that Begins August 10.

Come to our Juice and Raw Foods Cleanse Retreat Sept 20-25. We will go through the cleanse together with vegetable juices, wheatgrass juice, and raw foods. Part of the week will be a 3-day juice fast. You will also have a chance to cleanse emotions and toxic thinking. This is a whole person approach to cleansing the body, soul, and spirit. Don’t miss this wonderful experience with my husband and I this fall.

Monster Drinks—Beware!

Monster Drinks—Beware!

Yesterday morning the stepdaughter of my Schnauzer Annie Mae’s groomer died at the age of 38 leaving behind a 3-year old daughter.  She had been drinking Monster drinks and taking diet pills. As we mourn with the family, I also want to send a warning to you.  Before downing such drinks or popping diet pills, it’s very important to know what you’re getting and what it can do to you.

Monster drinks are loaded with caffeine— energy drinks yield approximately 160 mg of caffeine for a 16 oz can. The packaging usually contains a warning label advising consumers against drinking more than 48 oz per day (16 oz per day in Australia). The drinks are not recommended for pregnant women or people sensitive to caffeine.  They also have more sugar (sucrose and glucose) than caffeine. The full list of ingredients include carbonated water, sucrose, glucose, citric acid, natural flavors, taurine, sodium citrate, color added, panax ginseng root extract, L-carnitine, caffeine, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, niacinamide, sodium chloride, glucuronolactone, inositol, guarana seed extract, pyridoxine hydrochloride, sucralose, riboflavin, maltodextrin, and cyanocobalamin.

These drinks are fattening on top of everything else.  A 16 ounce can of Monster Energy has 27 grams of sugar – that’s 7 teaspoons. And if that’s not sweet enough, it also contains the artificial sweetener sucralose. But that’s mild in comparison to the truly frightening side effects.

Fourteen-year-old Anais Fournier died December, 2011 of cardiac arrhythmia and caffeine toxicity from consuming Monster Energy drinks.  According to her parents, Fournier had purchased and consumed two Monster Energy drinks over a 24-hour period. Within hours of finishing the second Monster, she collapsed and died in the hospital six days later, after being placed in an induced coma. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation of Monster Energy drink to research the amount of caffeine these drinks contain and their effects on health. According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, emergency room visits involving energy drinks increased to approximately 13,000 in 2009. The FDA found that Monster Energy drink has been linked to six deaths, a non-fatal heart attack, and 37 reports of adverse events. Some of these cases date as far back as 2004, making this an ongoing issue for the last decade. Nevertheless, this bad-boy drink is still on the market, and only with a warning not to drink too much.

Couple caffeine-loaded energy drinks with diet pills, and you’ve just spelled disaster.  The caffeine in diet pills is equal to 2 or 3 cups of coffee, which when added to a caffeine enriched diet, can increase heart rate, blood pressure, and induce insomnia and anxiety.

Lose Weight, Not Your Life!

If you want to lose weight, rather than your life, do vegetable juice fasting.  It’s almost guaranteed that you’ll lose weight—like a pound or two a day, without harming your body.  In fact, you’ll be helping your body with a gentle cleansing while feeding your vital organs super nutrition.  Summer is a great time to juice fast while the weather is warm.  This is the time to eat light and drink more fluids.  And if you want my help and group support along with weekly lessons, and teleconference calls with me, you can still join Jumpstart Summer.  Two more people joined this week so you will not be alone as a newcomer.

James Lost 13 Pounds Juicing

I started juicing seven days a week on May 1st of this year and have used only the recipes in your book, “The Big Book of Juices & Green Smoothies” since May 1.  My energy level began to improve noticeably after two weeks of juicing.  I lost a lot of weight. The majority of my weight loss (13 pounds) occurred between June 6th and July 6th when I began using your “The Fast Track One-Day Juice Diet” from your Turbo Diet book two times every week.  I perhaps would have lost an additional four pounds during this period had my solid food meal plan been low glycemic and/or low carb.  I’m slowly transitioning to a low glycemic and low carb nutrition program.  I anticipate losing at least another 13 pounds in the next four weeks, if not more, by supplementing my daily juicing with a healthier diet  Also, I’ve had metatarsalgia  in the bottom of my right foot for about the last two years.  Before I started  juicing I could only go out for 20 to 30 minute walks two or three days in a row and then I’d begin limping from soreness in the right foot.  Now I can walk an hour every day without developing pain in my foot. When I do experience mild aching in the bottom of my right foot on occasion, I roll the bottom of my right foot on a frozen 17 ounce bottle of water for about 20 minutes every two or three days or so and continue to walk an hour almost every day.