All posts by Ryan

Review: Juiced! The Healthy Way

I just got done reading a short e-book by Kevin and Annmarie Gianni. It came with my purchase of the documentary food matters. I had sheltered away like many of my hundreds of books, but after a great conversation tonight with the wonderful “Amber Jo” about her experience going on a raw food diet I decided to pull it out and read about juicing.

I’ll be honest I didn’t know much about juicing before read this book. In fact, I thought the juicing was the same as making this smoothie. The most I had heard about juicing was that Dr. Gerson used it to help cure certain cancer patients. It was a quick read and a good introduction to the topic of juicing.

I learned that the difference is the juicing removes the fibers from the fruits and vegetables allowing the nutrients a much easier path to absorption your digestive tract. Smoothies on the other hand retained the fibers which slows down digestion.

I learned that you can juice fruits and vegetables with the blunder and simply strain them afterward. I learned that there are certain things that don’t use very well. For example strawberries, avocados, bananas, blueberries, cherries and kiwis don’t yield much juice. I’ve learned that certain juices are used for their unique benefits.while it wasn’t in-depth enough help me diagnose and treat somebody to certain elements, I definitely understood that it’s not as difficult as I thought it would be to begin juicing.

Kevin & Annemarie talk about the difference between a juice fast and a juice feast. Fasting is all about limiting your intake juices alone. The purpose of the fastest typically for detoxification. I got the impression that it doesn’t last much longer than around a week. A feast on the other hand is all about flooding your body with its nutrient and caloric necessities for the day. 92 days was the. It suggested for a feast.

I thought it was particularly cool they were careful to add cautions about when you should and shouldn’t do a juice fast. Consulting with a physician if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding, anemic, suffer from hypothyroidism or have a chronic degenerative disease was suggested.there were also cool to insist that you didn’t need to go out and buy a juicer in order to start enjoying the benefits of juicing.

The book was very well laid out and visually appealing. They reviewed different types of juicers, what they’re good for and where they fall short. They introduced detoxification and mentioned several who have used juice based diets to give the body the proper milieu for healing itself. they mentioned Dr. Max Gerson who I’ve come across recently in the documentary the beautiful truth.

In all I thought it was a great first look at what juicing is how to start slowly incorporating juicing into your eating habits so as to make juicing a success for you.

You can check out their website at RenegadeHealth.com or I found a cool seven-day detox challenge that they offer. They also have a section I’d like to check out under the Health Resources tad at the top. I clicked on Most Popular and found what looked like a treasure trove. I snagged his free report on what the FDA reported is in our foods. Cool. Just to be transparent here I signed up for their affiliate program after looking at their website and the great resources that offer. Don’t feel pressured in any way to buy anything from them. They have plenty of free educational materials to help you understand your health. If you want to see a copy of my Juiced! book, I can share it with you. It has a bunch of recipes for juices if you’re interested, but don’t know where to start.

(I wrote this post with Dragon Naturally Speaking with quick & minimal edits. So please excuse any mistakes! 🙂 )

Foods That Kill

This is a wonderful presentation w/ Dr. Klaper comparing animal products & plant based foods. I’ve made a summary below the video playlist (if you’re reading this in Facebook, please visit my Food That Kills post on my website to see the videos). Please comment when you’ve watched the entire presentation. I would love to hear if you have heard things contrary to what he presents. If you share, please cite your source (preferably, though not necessarily, a peer-reviewed journal article).

Recap of presentation: Diets high in animal protein (milk & meat) (body only needs about 30g / day, typical American diet 100+g a day) causes build up of acids as the liver metabolizes the protein & creates urea, ammonia & other amino acid waste fragments. These acids sap calcium from the bones and the kidneys excrete it in the urine, even in the presence of more than adequate dietary calcium. Osteoporosis seems to be more of a disease of protein excess than calcium deficiency. Highest animal protein consuming countries are the ones with osteoporosis: US, Scandinavia, Europe & Australia. So, milk…DOESN’T do a body good. Not to mention hormones, antibiotics, casein, pasteurization, etc. (Milk, Does A Body Good?)

Another prob w/ US diet, refined carbohydrates (enriched wheat) causes depletion of fiber which slows down the absorption. Without the fiber our intestines get gunked up.

One cause of high blood pressure is high amounts of sodium & one of the things highest in sodium is animal products, milk & meat.

When women eat animal fats prostaglandin 2 is released which makes her uterus constrict, retain fluid, gets irritable. Dr. Klaper Women who have increased their plant based consumption and reduced their animal product consumption have seen reduction in PMS symptoms.

Final thoughts: As a doctor in general practice he noted many patients’ health dramatically increasing and the need for medications reducing as they took on a vegetarian diet. Other than his “we need to control the population” comment at the end I felt it was a very informative presentation that helped put overall health in perspective and helped to dispel some common myths around milk, meat, protein and vegetarian diets.

Milk, Does A Body Good?

After learning about the manipulative of marketing, the power of politics and the Machiavellian tendencies induced by large mounds of money, it perhaps wasn’t as hard to believe as it may have been several years ago. The slogan “Milk, it does a body good” has remained with me for a long time and while it may not have been the prime reason that I loved to down a couple glasses a day growing up, it definitely may have been a contributing factor in keeping my family and I dismissing claims that milk wasn’t good for me.

Well, the more I dig, the more I uncover and the more I see that things are not always as they seem. I don’t consider it a conspiracy, though it may be. I don’t place blame on anyone, though there are groups that have perpetuated lies, knowingly or unknowingly. I just think it’s in my best interest to dig for truth and then feed my body what it needs to thrive.

I’ve struggled through different trials in life as many do; ADD, impulsiveness, mild depression, etc. I haven’t pieced together yet all the reasons for those struggles, but perhaps much of my mental anguish was unnecessary. Now I fully acknowledge the purpose of trials in life. The stressors can cause us to push back, which helps us to seek for answers and to grow, but imagine if there were an understanding, acceptance and living of personal health standards untainted by marketing & man’s motivation for money. What kind of businesses would we build up? What kind of food systems would we have? What kind of prosperity would we uncover and what kind of positive progress could we make as human race?

These are some problems being observed and attributed at least in part with the consumption of milk (and in a broader way, animal products):

  • High in protein that can leech calcium from bones
  • Breast cancer
  • Osteoporosis
  • Atherosclerosis: heart disease, stroke, kidney failure
  • Children coming into puberty sooner
  • ADD
  • Alergies

Considering the distraction from creative endeavors the previous list suggests, I am going to make the decision to reduce milk from my diet. Following you’ll find my Milk Video Playlist (if you are viewing this in Facebook please visit my blog post Milk, Does A Body Good? to see the videos):

So then, why is milk so popular? Well, personally I love the taste, but let’s take a little stroll down the culture of milk in America:

Santa (& Dad's) Favorite Treat
We're told it's good for bones
We're told it's good for kids
And hey! If it's good enough for Batman...