Trust yourself

Paleo? Raw? Vegan? Which diet is best for you?

Today I was taking a quick swim in the warm Caribbean-like waters of Florida (so thankful to be here!), when I noticed a gent being filmed while performing some very impressive push ups - I'd call them flying push ups or superman push ups where he was pushing himself up into the air high enough to take on the superman pose.  You know the one. He did about 6 in a row, on the sand.

I finished my good morning swim the same time he was finishing his photo shoot, we chatted a little, I complemented his push ups (to begin the conversation) he said I could do them, I agreed.  We chatted a little more, turns out he is another celebrity trainer.

The point of this rather odd story?

As we chatted further, and after mentioning the Enrichd smoothie book and our forthcoming book, we got on to the subject of food and diets.

He said he didn't eat red meat because his doctor told him not to. Fair enough and that can be a good thing for a lot of people.  But then went on to say his digestion wasn't too good, but felt BETTER when eating red meat.  He became more animated and energized as he told me that he felt more energized and better when he ate red meat.  See what happened there?

The message in this story is not about red meat.  

(Image by Gregory Siff for Bite Me Dieting)

Of course listen to your doctors advice, especially if you are having digestive problems, or any health concerns, but it might be worth getting another opinion too, perhaps a different doctor, a doctor from a another culture or country or academic background.

Or perhaps listening to the one who knows you best - your body.

Final notes: The state of many farms and they way they treat animals is disgusting, that is why doing a little research and being selective can pay off for everyone. 

Of course choose the highest quality foods that you can afford and those that have had the most positive effect on the planet.  If you eat meat it's highly recommended that you choose at least organic or wild / grass fed.  This is also particularly relevant for eggs and the life of the chicken.  If your meat is non-organic or you do not know the farm / source then it is highly likely the animals were fed genetically modified (GMO / GM) feed, or treated with genetically modified hormones (rBGH - recombinant bovine growth hormone).  No thanks ;)...

Having spent a good amount of time chatting with, and outright questioning one of the owners of Muddy Boots, I feel confident in saying they are easily accessible and providing meats from some of the highest grade UK farms and abattoirs.  We spoke at length about animal welfare, animals emotions and the abattoirs.

Non Stick vs Cast Iron

Cast Iron or Non-Stick?

This is a really quick, yet possibly very important write up on Non-Stick / TEFLON pans and Cast Iron Pans. 

"Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), linked in laboratory animals to an increase in tumours of the liver, pancreas and testicles and reduced fertility, is one of the chemicals used in the chain of reactions that makes the common non-stick surface Teflon." (The Guardian, 2015)

Teflon Flu is a term given to an illness caused by inhaling the chemicals released when TEFLON (DuPont) nonstick pans are used to cook foods.

There is even a study showing birds dying from inhaling Polytetrafluoroethylene (TEFLON)

Birds are known for having a sensitive respiratory system so it does not necessarily mean that TEFLON non-stick pans are going to kill us but the birds dropping dead is definitely a warning sign. Remember 'canary in the coal mine' being used to let miners know if the air was safe or not?

Remember when Non-stick pans became all the rage? I don't wonder who it was that created the 'rage' or marketing hype.... it was of course the manufacturers, or moreover, their marketeers.

This is another case of our grandparents and generations before being on the right side of health, the right side of the boom in marketeers selling us things we do not need and that could be deadly. Generations before used cast iron for cooking.... and thankfully it's coming back!

The dangers around non-stick pans appears to be linked to the fumes that come from them and the leaching of Polytetrafluoroethylene into food.

4 Tips from various sites, reputable newspapers and studies just in case you still have non-stick/teflon for while you save up the 20$ or to get a cast iron pan:

1) Pre-heating non-stick/teflon is likely to release the fumes which can kill birds and could make humans sick. Non-stick/TEFLON pots and pans quickly reach the temperatures which produce toxic particles and gases (which can enter your lungs). For more on this research "Teflon toxicosis"

2) Do not use non-stick in the oven because ovens will easily reach the higher temperatures.

3) Use an exhaust fan over the hob (knowing that will only suck out the Polytetrafluoroethylene that does not embed itself in your dinner)

4) Find $20 or so to buy a cast iron pan. Boiling water in cast iron is not recommended because it can rust them, almost everything else you might use one for in the kitchen is cool. Boil water in a suitable glass or ceramic kettle.

A couple of tips on cast iron:

1) Season it.  A lot of people are saying to soak the pan in flax seed oil for 18 hours, I will look more into this and let you know.

2) The handle can get HOT so make sure you use the right towel / glove to use when holding it.

IMPORTANT: Often people will say "Can't I eat or do anything???" Well, you can of course, you can do whatever you wish and please, and even if you eat foods known for causing illness you can think your way out of it (google 'The burning monk' for a case of mind over matter - the Monk meditated and did not move or make a sound as he burned from life to death. The thing I'm interested in is exotic possibilities for humans, imagine what could be possible for you, your friends, your children, your family, the human race if we were only eating foods and using utensils etc that were good for us, imagine the extra resources we'd have individually and collectively.... the more of us that are thinking and taking action taking into consideration past (production methods) present and future implications of purchases and the foods we eat, the more space there will be for______________ <fill in the blank with whatever your greater desires are for you, your family and the planet>

And a little note to depart:

" Environmental hazards: Manufacturing PFCs and the consumer products that contain them poses great risks to the environment and wildlife. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says PFCs present "persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity properties to an extraordinary degree." "

Resources for this write up:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/25/are-my-non-stick-pans-a-health-hazard-teflon

http://www.ewg.org/research/canaries-kitchen

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276392/

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

All being well, if you cut your arm (don’t try this) what happens? It heals right.  Miraculously, all by itself.  If the human body is sick or out of balance, get it back in balance and it will most likely do the same.  That is one of the goals of Traditional Chinese Medicine – to get the human back into balance; through lifestyle, food, acupuncture and herbs.

Remember the whole Yin and Yang thing? Balance.
Want to live well and long? Balance could be your ticket...

You good?

I hope so… if so read on..

if not, definitely read on..

This is a full-on read about the future (and past) of health.

PS. This is not about eating soy 😉

PPS. The Enrichd Smoothies Exotic Possibilites Ebook draws a lot of it's wisdom from Traditional Chinese Medicine

Intro to Traditional Chinese Medicine:

The practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) uses some or all of the following in order to achieve balance in the human – lifestyle change (food and stress), acupuncture, acupressure, herbs and massage.

Making changes in life are often the hardest thing for a human to do, even if the outcome of not changing means sickness and early death. Western medicine too often focuses on patching up the symptom (symptoms being messages from your body – HEY SOMETHING IS GOING ON!) where as TCM goes deeper, both soothing the symptoms while getting to the root of the cause.

With Tu Youyou recently receiving a Nobel prize for her life’s dedication to and working with TCM, it is very obvious to me that TCM is about to receive the credit and exposure it deserves.  People often use TCM alongside Western medicine to heal their sickness.

…if you have 2 more minutes do read on.

Sh*t hit the fan at the beginning of the 20th century when scientists were confronted with the fact that their most fundamentalprinciple, mantra, belief if you will, was flawed.  Flawed all the way to the center of the atom (there is an interesting video by Bruce Lipton Phd on this at the bottom of this page)

The basic problem was that they thought the atom was solid, it isn’t.  Inside the atom is energy.
(This situation is kind of like how; they thought the World was flat, and they were ‘right’, but it wasn’t)

2000+ years ago the Chinese had no idea that in 2000 years scientists would finally be getting around to quantum physics – you know, looking inside physical matter at what is actually there – energy.

Thousands of years ago physicians of TCM didn’t know how to look inside a cell, molecule or atom… But they did know that there is more to the human than just physical flesh and bones.  Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on the fact that a human is made of energy (known as Qi) and, that Western medicine began based on a fallacy.

“Even though this energy can’t be touched or measured, they believe that Qi (Life-force energy) is running through us and every living thing in the Universe including food ” (Deperon and Enion, 2015)

Two completely different foundations, and foundations are everything right?  Remember that old age saying; keep building on a shaky foundation and you will end up with an obesity epidemic and millions of people paying billions of dollars for medication(?)

Traditional Chinese Medicine has evolved over thousands of years of research and practice.  The learnings are passed on between practitioners and the herbs and remedies are not protected by patents.

(By the way, yes I have experienced many TCM treatments including acupuncture and herbs. The more I research and experience treatments (it’s actually awesome for maintenance too) the more I love it and want to share this information with you).

Side note: Western medicine has its place, I’m sure. Because there is a lot of mis-information out out there about Chinese Medicine, often the purpose of this article is to show you the benefits of wisdom from the East that has been around for 1000’s of years.

INTERESTING FACT: Recently (Winter 2015) Tu Youyou (pharmacologist at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences) was awarded a Nobel Prize (and $900k+) for her research and work in discovering a therapy for malaria (artemisinin being the specific extract from Artemisia Annua).  Artemisinin was proven to be an improvement on the drug Chloroquine which the malaria parasites have developed a resistance to.   Oh, by the way she’s 84 years old and awesome.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, 4 insights:

1) Sickness or illness is viewed as stagnation.  
In order to heal or balance the human the stagnation needs to be relieved – unblocked if you will.

Compare that to “you have illness X and here are you pills”.  Not cool…  Or do you like taking the pills?  TCM can get stagnation flowing again in a number of ways, often starting with lifestyle and eating habits, closely followed by acupuncture and then herbs (taken orally or applied topically).  Know that there is no actual order for the treatments and it is a human by human diagnosis and administration of treatment.  So, in TCM illness is viewed as something that is happening in the moment rather than a final diagnosis.

2) The medicine you eat/drink/take is herbs.
After balancing food and lifestyle then come the herbs.  They’re potent and get to work performing a number of functions depending on the symptoms (messages from the body).  Some dry from the inside out, some add moisture, some warm, other cool, some give energy and others calm.  The combination of herbs you are given will be based on you.  (more on this in point 4 below).

IMPORTANT NOTE: herbs are not to be depended on (unlike many of the unnecessary prescriptions in Western medicine), they are to help create balance while other changes are being made (lifestyle and food)

Note: Herbs are sometimes prescribed straight away depending on the practitioner and the state of the human.

3) The body is viewed as a mini version of the Universe and that it is completely connected to the immediate and greater environment.

I love the perspective of Dr Bruce Lipton who lectures about the body being made of cells, inside the cells are molecules, then atoms and inside the atom?  Energy (Qi)

(This is a key principle in TCM and it is science- quantum physics).

4) Everything is comprised of the ever changing Five Elements. Fire, Earth, Wood, Metal, and Water symbolically represent everything.

Metaphorically speaking too much of the ‘fire’ element in a human could manifest as night sweats or acid reflux.  Too much of the ‘water’ element might show up as ‘loose poop’.  The critical factor in treating imbalances in the elements is the correct diagnosis followed by the right balance of herbs and lifestyle changes to address the imbalance.  An example; someone that has too much fire and water would both need to dry the water and cool the fire (symbolically speaking of course).  It’s important to remember that the elements in the environment are always changing too (Think seasons – summer is more fiery than winter, which is cooler and perhaps more damp) and so that is one reason it is beneficial to eat local because the food will be in season and in tune with the environment it is born from.

 
Other awesome stuff they do in the East:

– Squat to poop.  I started doing that when I was around 21, and in so many years have only downed one toilet – yep, the whole toilet fell onto its side and I ended up with one foot in and one out (re-pooping thankfully).  When you squat (butt below knees) you relax your insides allowing an easier poop and for more volume to be released.  By doing this safely over time you also strengthen your knees and open your hips – useful in old age – just ask your nanna or someone elses’.

– They eat white rice. It’s more easily digested than brown rice which contains the whole husk.  White rice is not necessarily great for someone who urgently needs to burn fat but for the most part it’s more easily digested and generally recommend as part of a meal for someone especially if they have a weak digestion.  The labor intense lives of the Chinese, especially a few hundred / thousand years ago, was well suited to the fast releasing carbs like white rice.  Oh my, so much more to say on that subject but I will leave it there for now.

– Seaweed is a staple in the Asian diet (not wheat).  Seaweed is a great (real food) source of iodine giving 3000 to 5000 micrograms of iodine per day.  In the the West they simply added an extract to table salt which is inferior real food and potentially dangerous (Mercola, 2013) There is LOADS of info on Seaweed in the Enrichd Smoothies, Exotic Possibilities Ebook available here

– Asians tend to eat much more fish than Westerners giving them a more balanced Om3 to Om6 ratio. (‘Are fish safe to eat?’ and ‘are we killing all of the fish?’ are a whole other conversation).

– They tend to eat most of the animal including making broths and soups by boiling the bones to pull out much needed minerals.

– Asians meditate and walk more than most people in the West.

– Fermented food is common in Asia – this is a process that helps remove the plant’s natural defense mechanism making it more easier to digest.  AND the fermented foods (like cabbage and tea) nourish the human with brilliant bacteria.

Shou Puerh Tea, It was a 2008...

 
Advantages of Traditional Chinese Medicine:

+ Using herbs means no chemical.   

+ It works to heal rather than destroy.  Western medicine appears to focus on destroying the problem and everything in it’s path often including the immune system and bacteria critical to the health and healing of a human being.

+ Side effects are few and far between – increasing compliance – people more likely to actually take the herbs knowing they are going to feel alrigh (NCBI, 2001).  Compared to common side effects of pharmaceuticals; death, nausea, constipation, drowsiness, pain and you have a no-brainer.

+ Cost is minimal (especially in comparison to pharma)

+ Can heal and prevent major illnesses which would often be diagnosed as terminal in Western medicine.

+ The job of the TCM practitioner is more than just healing you.  Remember the old ‘give a man a fish’ metaphor?  This is the way TCM is helping the human race with its health – offering learning on finding and keeping ones own balance.

+ Western medicine defines health as the absence of illness.  Fuck not being ill, what about being awesomely well!

+ ‘Fresh, local food and herbs when needed’ is pretty much their eating ‘philosophy’

Getting Traditional Chinese Medicine right:

+ Herb quality is very important – like food, soap even deodorant if you use it – anything that goes in your body should be the most nourishing as possible – especially medicine.  You can get this right by having your practitioner referred to you by someone in the know and doing a little research yourself first.

+ It can take longer to cure a disease using TCM but TCM is known for curing, removing the tail or root of the disease rather than merely covering up a symptoms.

+ It takes commitment by the patient (you might have to boil herbs to make the medicine) where in Western medicine you just take a pill, though some TCM practitioners use herbs in capsule form.

+ If you are taking Western medicine and see a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine it is critical that you report this to your new doctor, and vice versa (NCBI, 2001).

+ It can take a bit of time finding the right practitioner for you.  My experience was as well as seeing my awesome acupuncturist in LA I used to drive to San Francisco to see a specialist too.

The antibiotics factor:

“Antibiotics” Phillip Ward, Practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine says“When it comes to treating a life threatening infection there is no other type of medicine/herb that has benefited the world as much as antibiotics.  He goes on to say “The fact that they <antibiotics> are widely over prescribed is a whole other issue.  But, for example, if you have a legitimate infection in your heart or kidneys there is no time to mess around and antibiotics should be prescribed immediately.  In general, TCM does not deal with urgent illnesses of that nature and magnitude as well as Western medicine.  This is why hospitals in China use the best of both worlds (TCM and Western pharmaceuticals) to treat patients.  The beauty of living in this time of existence is that we can use more modern medicines like antibiotics to rid ourselves of a dangerous infection and then use TCM to recover and strengthen our system to prevent possible infections in the future. Although, there seems to be a shift brewing with medical doctors on the horizon western medicine’s biggest pitfall is educating patients on how to stay healthy.  They focus on treating diseases and put very little if any emphasis on staying healing and the importance of a balanced life (healthy eating, proper sleep, adequate movement and exercise, healthy relationships)  This is where TCM does its best work. We (TCM practitioners) have the means to treat serious illness but our primary focus is to keep our patients healthy. The forefathers of TCM realized 3000 years ago that it is easier to stay healthy than it is cure a disease”.

I would LOVE to read your thoughts and comments about this (this is your queue to write a comment)

Sources:

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/tu-facts.html

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/oct/05/william-c-campbell-satoshi-omura-and-youyou-tu-win-nobel-prize-in-medicine

Lu, Henry C. Phd Chinese Natural Cures – Traditional Methods for Remedy and Prevention Black Dog & Leventhal publishers inc. 2005

Lu, Henry C. Phd Chinese System of Food Cures. Prevention and Remedies. Sterling Publishing company inc. 1986.

Mercola, Joseph. 2013. Iodine Supplements may be too much ofa good thing. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/29/iodine-deficiency-risk.aspx

Pitchford, P. Healing with Whole Foods. Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition. North Atlantic Books. 2002

Craze, Richard & Jay. Richard ‘The Tao of Food’ Sterling Pub Co Inc. 1999

Chene, Jung Shi MD. Medicinal food in China

Strengths and Weaknesses of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine in the eyes of some Hong Kong Chinese. 2001.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1731793/pdf/v055p00762.pdf

Segerstorm and Miller. 2006. Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System:  A Meta-Analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361287/

WASHING - Clothes, bedding, pits, tits, balls and bum!

If your Spanish is about as good as John Cleese, on Fawlty Towers, know that in the video below I’m talking about sleep, and how we do it for many many hours in our life time, 1000’s of hours, years actually! During those years we are constantly breathing and absorbing through your skin whatever it is you wash your bedding with.

The example I give is of my amazing mum’s neighbor who was getting sicker and sicker, with respiratory problems and a nasty cough. I instantly recommended to my mum that it could be linked to her laundry detergent, or at least that the laundry detergent was NOT helping matters. Mum, as mothers often do, pretty much dismissed my tip at the time, only to call me a few months later telling her neighbor is much much healthier now because she switched out her laundry detergent for a natural, plant based detergent.

Her original reasoning was that companies making the laundry detergents wouldn’t legally be aloud to used ingredients that were harmful to humans… really?

The thing is maybe today you’re fine, maybe in a year or so you’re fine, but down the line, decades of sleeping with chemicals later, surely it’s better to just do the common sense thing and switch to a natural plant based biodegradable laundry detergent?

AND, this is without even touching on the environmental benefits of using plant based, biodegradable laundry detergents. Awesome. I leave it up to you… woosh!

Tea: Going VERY deep into Puerh Tea

Tea – Deeper into Puerh Tea with Global Tea Hut

(38 things you probably didn't know about Puerh Tea)

The last drop of a 2008 Shou Puerh I drank while writing this tea information blog post.

Puerh Tea Facts (38 of them!)

1) The importance of quality of the raw material (The, soil, tree and leaf) for Puerh is much higher than other teas.

2) The value of Puerh is 90% in the tree

3) Puerh tea comes from the regions Puerh, Lincang and Xishuangbanna

4) Tea is sometimes picked in one region then taken to another to be sold at a higher value, pretending it is from the higher value region

5) Puerh trees are either old growth or plantation

6) Old growth are those that are 100+ years

7) Green Puerh, known as raw or uncooked is not fermented during production or compression.

8) These sheng cakes ferment slowly, it takes 70 years to reach full fermentation. This is the traditional fermentation process of puerh.

9) Puerh can be drank at any stage and it will have different characteristics.

10) The changes in puerh happen exponentially. I.e they change a lot at the beginning and less as time goes by. (As puerh ages the rate of change decreases)

11) 70 years is considered mature because the changes slow down enough to be considered as not changing. 5 to 10 years is a big difference, 34 to 40 but after 70 it doesn’t change significantly.

Shou & Sheng Puerh Tea Facts

12) Called cooked or ripe. This is fermented to various levels before it is pressed into cakes.

13) The tea is plied, moistened and then often covered with a thermal blanket. Sometimes previously fermented tea is introduced to add certain bacteria.

14) This artificial fermentation lasts typically 45 to 60 days.

15) Older Shou was part fermented, today it is often fully fermented

16) This artificial fermentation was developed in the late 60’s and was licensed for commercial use in the 70’s 1973 is the date most books use. This was done to try to mimic the qualities of sheng sheng in less time.

17) They were not successful in mimicking sheng puerh but they did manage to create a whole new category of Puerh tea.

18) If the Shou was partially fermented it will age further but if fully fermented it tends to mellow out.

19) Sheng and Shou puerh tea processing differences:

20) Mao Cha is kneaded and bruised, then left to dry in the sun (early morning to late evening – midday is too hot).

21) The markings we often see on the leaves are from pressing and not packaging. They are made by special cross-woven cotton bags.

22) Steam is used to prepare the tea for compression – this is to ensure the leaves are soft and pliable but not cooked or oxidized in any way (light re-hydration).

23) Sometimes steaming is done between metal pans instead of in cloth.

24) In a non-mechanized factory, a wooden tables is placed over a hot wok full of water. The steam rises through a small hole in the center of the table. This is more difficult to prevent burning this way. it required the skill of generations to perfect this.

25) Compression was traditionally done between stone block moulds, turning the tea (in the cloth) into a ball. This is when they add the inner trademark sticker (nei fei)

26) The producer would then stand on the block, using his weight to compress it. Some of the smaller family run puerh tea factories still do it this way.

27) In the more modern factories pressing is done by a machine, and others are done by hand and lever.

28) After compression the cakes are taken out of the cotton cloths and put on wooden shelves to dry, because they are still slightly damp from the steam at this stage.

29) The tea, compression, shapes of the cake all affect the drying time – this can be hours, days or up to a week.

30) When dry the cakes are packaged. Each generation has it’s own unique style of wrapping, paper, printing, style of Chinese characters, nei fei etc. There is a whole science to wrapping. The paper is handmade and the fiber, texture and ink can be a sign of authenticity – it’s impossible to genuinely age the paper and ink.

31) Discus shaped cakes are individually wrapped in handmade paper and then buddled in 7’s. This is called a tong. 12 tongs are then packed together (84 cakes) Each tong is wrapped in bamboo bark (not leaves) to preserve freshness and protect it from the elements. Bamboo also has good energy. When bamboo trees get bigger or sprout new stems they shed skin/bark.

32) ‘New’ sheng puerh tea was originally only drank in order to check the aging process. Tea lovers as recent as 15 years ago would have considered new puerh unfinished. Now, rather than comparing young and old puerh we enjoy different ‘categories’.

Bonus Tea info

33) ‘Antique age’ tea was produced prior to the formation of Communist China and is from before 1949. Around this time Puerh tea was just another commodity alongside rice, and other agriculture products. Often these teas were not wrapped because at the time it was considered too costly. Now some cakes are worth more than a hundred of thousand dollars.

34) Song Ping Hao and Tong Qing Hao are two legendary tea families.

35) In 1949 “New China” was established and the central government declared that all agriculture belonged to the people. At this time the tea industry was handed over to the local government. This closed the family run, private businesses (1950’s) and the Antique Era came to an end.

36) The Masterpiece Era began with the creation of the state-run factories, like Menghai.

37) “Chine Tea Corporation, Yunnan Branch” was created and trademarked in 1951. This now the famous “8-Zhong Tea” character that is stamped in the center of all cakes from the Masterpiece and later, Seven Sons eras.

38) Luncang in Yunann is known as the birthplace of Tea.

 Shopping for Tea:

Enrichd Superfoods Tea Page

Bibliography:

Global Tea Hut. September. 2014 Special Puerh Edition.

Much of this information was proudly sourced from Global Tea Hut who I consider to be one of the greatest English resources for high integrity information on tea.