Think back to your most productive workday in the past week. Now ask yourself: On that afternoon, what did you have for lunch?

When we think about the factors that contribute to workplace performance, we rarely give much consideration to food. For those of us battling to stay on top of emails, meetings, and deadlines, food is simply fuel.

But as it turns out, this analogy is misleading. The foods we eat affect us more than we realize. With fuel, you can reliably expect the same performance from your car no matter what brand of unleaded you put in your tank. Food is different. Imagine a world where filling up at Mobil meant avoiding all traffic and using BP meant driving no faster than 20 miles an hour. Would you then be so cavalier about where you purchased your gas?

Food has a direct impact on our cognitive performance, which is why a poor decision at lunch can derail an entire afternoon.

Here’s a brief rundown of why this happens. Just about everything we eat is converted by our body into glucose, which provides the energy our brains need to stay alert. When we’re running low on glucose, we have a tough time staying focused and our attention drifts. This explains why it’s hard to concentrate on an empty stomach.

So far, so obvious. Now here’s the part we rarely consider: Not all foods are processed by our bodies at the same rate. Some foods, like pasta, bread, cereal and soda, release their glucose quickly, leading to a burst of energy followed by a slump. Others, like high fat meals (think cheeseburgers and BLTs) provide more sustained energy, but require our digestive system to work harder, reducing oxygen levels in the brain and making us groggy.

Most of us know much of this intuitively, yet we don’t always make smart decisions about our diet. In part, it’s because we’re at our lowest point in both energy and self-control when deciding what to eat. French fries and mozzarella sticks are a lot more appetizing when you’re mentally drained.

Unhealthy lunch options also tend to be cheaper and faster than healthy alternatives, making them all the more alluring in the middle of a busy workday. They feel efficient. Which is where our lunchtime decisions lead us astray. We save 10 minutes now and pay for it with weaker performance the rest of the day.

So what are we to do? One thing we most certainly shouldn’t do is assume that better information will motivate us to change. Most of us are well aware that scarfing down a processed mixture of chicken bones and leftover carcasses is not a good life decision. But that doesn’t make chicken nuggets any less delicious.

No, it’s not awareness we need—it’s an action plan that makes healthy eating easier to accomplish. Here are some research-based strategies worth trying.

The first is to make your eating decisions before you get hungry. If you’re going out to lunch, choose where you’re eating in the morning, not at 12:30 PM. If you’re ordering in, decide what you’re having after a mid-morning snack. Studies show we’re a lot better at resisting salt, calories, and fat in the future than we are in the present.

Another tip: Instead of letting your glucose bottom out around lunch time, you’ll perform better by grazing throughout the day. Spikes and drops in blood sugar are both bad for productivity and bad for the brain. Smaller, more frequent meals maintain your glucose at a more consistent level than relying on a midday feast.

Finally, make healthy snacking easier to achieve than unhealthy snacking. Place a container of almonds and a selection of protein bars by your computer, near your line of vision. Use an automated subscription service, like Amazon, to restock supplies. Bring a bag of fruit to the office on Mondays so that you have them available throughout the week.

Is carrying produce to the office ambitious? For many of us, the honest answer is yes. Yet there’s reason to believe the weekly effort is justified.

Research indicates that eating fruits and vegetables throughout the day isn’t simply good for the body—it’s also beneficial for the mind. A fascinating paper in this July’s British Journal of Health Psychology highlights the extent to which food affects our day-to-day experience.

Within the study, participants reported their food consumption, mood, and behaviors over a period of 13 days. Afterwards, researchers examined the way people’s food choices influenced their daily experiences. Here was their conclusion: The more fruits and vegetables people consumed (up to 7 portions), the happier, more engaged, and more creative they tended to be.

Why? The authors offer several theories. Among them is an insight we routinely overlook when deciding what to eat for lunch: Fruits and vegetables contain vital nutrients that foster the production of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in the experience of curiosity, motivation, and engagement. They also provide antioxidants that minimize bodily inflammation, improve memory, and enhance mood.

Which underscores an important point: If you’re serious about achieving top workplace performance, making intelligent decisions about food is essential.

The good news is that contrary to what many of us assume, the trick to eating right is not learning to resist temptation. It’s making healthy eating the easiest possible option.

It’s never been easier to eat healthy! Our ancestors had to work by the sweat of their brow for every morsel of food. Today we simply have to put foods in our shopping cart. Healthy shopping is the most important step on the path to eating healthy.

It’s never been harder to eat healthy! The hard part about eating healthy is shopping healthy. Healthy shopping is avoiding the processed foods and staying true to the foods that will deliver the most nutrition for the least amount of money.  Avoid foods that come in a box, a can, or a bag.  These are the foods that have gone through the processing required to stay on the shelf for long periods of time.  Buy foods that are still in their original shape; rice and beans, nuts and seeds, fruit and vegetables and you will always be at the top of your game and your highest energy.

Some of the common traps American families are lured into are unhealthy drinks. Sodas, energy drinks, coffee drinks, sugary fruit drinks and alcohol flood our cells with toxic junk that bog down our immune system and every other bodily system.  The average person would never think of pouring any of these drinks into their dog’s bowl or their favorite house plant.  Why?  Because they know it would kill the plant or make their beloved pet sick.  They would never do such a thing.  Yet they pour these same drinks into their baby’s sippy cup and their spouse’s dinner glass.

What about chips?  There are so many varieties and brands of these high-fat, high-calorie snacks that there is an entire aisle at the grocery store devoted to them. The combination of unhealthy drinks and unhealthy snacks create obesity, acne and sluggish energy levels.  No wonder Americans turn to energy drinks just to get through the day!

It’s no one’s fault.  American’s have been bombarded with advertising that makes these products seem like a natural part of life.  But processed foods are far from natural and have been linked to every form of diet-related diseases including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

The answer is to learn a new way of choosing what goes into your shopping cart.  Do we choose the items that fill our cells with health and vitality and our skin, hair and eyes with beautiful sparkle, while also trimming our waist and firming our thighs?  Or do we choose what tastes good, what feeds our addictions to salt, sugar and caffeine and what we are familiar with? Making healthy shopping choices means trying foods that you are not familiar with and allowing yourself to enjoy new textures and flavors.  Think of it as an adventure or a challenge that you have to be very strong and brave to endure.  When you open your mind and your mouth to new things you will find that these whole foods are not nearly as “freaky” as you might have thought.  You might even grow to like them.  I know I have and millions of others have decided that these are the foods that make them healthy and happy in body, mind and spirit.

Our Saturday Strategy:

I Want It All! Personal Chef Package

Healthy Pizza Let each person top their own individual pizzas. Some can use vegan cheese. Some can use veggie meat crumbles. Some can bring their own meat! Some can do veggies only. Gluten sensitive people can put pizza toppings on the Millet Polenta that comes with the package of Vegan Dishes.

6 Individual Vegan Pizzas  Whole Grain Crusts Veggie Burger Sausage Crumbles Homemade Marinara Sauce Veggie Toppings -You assemble your pizzas with your own cheese or vegan substitute. -Bake an hour before you are ready to eat. $39.97

An article in Medical News Today claims that RESVERATROL is the reason for the health benefits of red wine linked to moderate wine consumption. A glass a day for women and two glasses a day for men brought a long list of benefits.

Reduces risk of depression
Slows aging
Prevents blindness
Prevents dementia
Prevents colon cancer
Prevents breast cancer
Prevents lung cancer
Prevents prostate cancer
Protects skin from severe sunburn
Prevents liver disease
Protects the brain from damage after a stroke
Prevents type-2 diabetes
Boosts levels of Omega-3 fatty acids

Resveratrol is a compound found in some plants. Plants produce resveratrol to fight off bacteria and fungi. Resveratrol also protects plants from ultraviolet irradiation. Red wine contains more resveratrol than white wine because it is fermented with the skins (white wine is not). Most of the resveratrol in grapes is in the seeds and skin. Light colored wines are only in contact with the grape skins for a short period of time. That’s why they are light pink and not deep red. The dark red color and the bitterness of some varieties of wine comes from longer contact with the skins and therefore have more of the health benefits associated with resveratrol.

The amount of resveratrol found in one glass of wine can range from 0.2 milligrams to 2.0 mg, Resveratrol in the pill form may contain a much higher dosage, but like so many isolated substances, a pill can’t offer the benefits of the whole food nor the experience of fine wine.

Here are a few foods rich in resveratrol

• Red wine
• Red Grapes
• Blueberries
• Raspberries
• Bilberries
• Peanuts
• Dark Chocolate

Too Much Alcohol Can Be Harmful

In many cases, drinking too much can not only counteract the benefits one would receive, but it may, in fact, make things worse in the long run.

Health Benefits of White Wine

But what about white wine and champagne? Do these have any beneficial properties?

White wine has many of the same positive health benefits as red wine. It, too, contains flavonoids that have antioxidant properties, which can help prevent cancer. In fact, according to a study from the University of Barcelona, white wines may have a higher antioxidant capacity than red wines.

White wine also has the ability to protect the heart against aging, which can provide preventive benefits to the organ, and could be beneficial towards achieving weight loss, according to a 2004 study from the University of Hohenheim (Germany). Consumption of white wine provides the same energy derived from juices–plus the additional benefits from consuming wine.

Champagne is generally lower in calories than red wine, white wine or beer and has heart-healthy properties, like red wine. The study results indicate that daily moderate consumption of champagne may improve vascular performance. And with as little as three glasses a week can assist in preventing brain disorders, including dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Reading study. It found that phenolic acid found in certain black grape varieties can aid memory. The researchers recommend two to three glasses of champagne a week after the age of 40 to help prevent dementia.

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Naked Wines

Saratoga Wine Exchange

Do you really have wheat and gluten allergies or are you allergic to the denatured white flour products the manufacturer has produced?

When wheat has been genetically modified, processed, stripped of its nutrients, bleached, ground into flour and baked into high-calorie products high in sugar and salt, low in natural fiber and nutritional value, the products that result no longer have any of the life-giving properties of the “staff of life” that wheat originally had.

Gluten

Gluten is the sticky substance found in wheat that makes dough stretch when it is kneaded.  Gluten-free grains such as quinoa, barley or oats are not sticky enough to rise tall and make a soft, porous loaf of bread.

To make bread that rises well you must use at least 60% wheat flour.  The other 40% can be gluten-free whole grains.  When wheat is sprouted it loses much of its gluten as it becomes a vegetable instead of a dormant grain. This flour will not rise as well as whole wheat flour.  To keep the necessary “sticky ratio you must have 60% of the flour in a batch of bread whole wheat flour with all the gluten intact. Less than 60% will produce a dense, heavy loaf of bread without the holes that make it light and airy.

Wheat and Gluten Allergies

Seven Signs of Gluten Sensitivity
Celiac disease has hundreds of recognized symptoms, according to the Celiac Sprue Association, a nonprofit for those with the disease. Here are some common problems:

• Unexplained weight loss
• Anemia
• Fatigue
• Infertility
• Chronic diarrhea or constipation
• Abdominal pain and bloating

If you have any of the symptoms on the list above without the first two, “unexplained weight loss” and “anemia”, chances are you have a diet-related digestion problem that can be solved by a better diet.  The first step is to clean out your kitchen of all products made from white flour.  Not because they contain gluten but because they provide no nutrition, contain too many carbohydrates, slow down your digestion and tax your bodily systems.

Wheat has been the staff of life for many cultures for thousands of years.  Over decades of testing, wheat grass juice is known to be a miraculous cure for everything from gang green to cancer.  What changed? Why do wheat products cause illness and disease now when they never did before?  Could it be that the stripping and denaturing of the grains that takes place during processing that produces food products that harm the body?  Is it the wheat or the method of processing that is causing the gluten sensitivity?

The health industry will often encourage a trend in order to market their products such as “Gluten Free” crackers or bread.  Let’s be sure it is the gluten that is causing your symptoms before making the leap to a gluten free diet. You may feel much better on a “gluten free” diet simply because you have cut out white flour products. This doesn’t prove that gluten was the culprit, but white flour was the source of all your diet-related symptoms. Candida is more likely the cause of your symptoms and by cutting out white flour products you starved the candida bacteria of its craving for carbohydrates.  No wonder you feel better!

Healing Power of Wheat and Wheat Grass Juice

Healing power is hidden in the wheat berry. All the potential to create life is packed into every seed. It remains dormant and waits until it is touched with pure, life-producing water. It then bursts with living, edible, miraculous regeneration. Many people have been given back their precious gift of health through the healing power of wheat in its purest form, sprouted wheat and wheat grass, while millions have conversely been robbed of health by the inferior products created from the dormant seed, bleached and stripped of all nutritional value.

Wheat, 10 to 14 days after planting, produces a tender grass that contains the entire range of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and nutrients that the human body requires. The juice from this grass might well be our source of survival during food shortages and difficult times if we have a store of wheat. According to scripture, eating the grain of wheat (the “staff of life”) will also cause us to have better understanding about the complex and confusing things going on around us. It will also help us to see the snares and the traps set for us by “conspiring men in the latter days.” One of the biggest snares ever perpetrated against mankind is the readily accepted practice of taking the “staff of life” provided by Mother Earth and turning it into “the source of death and disease” provided by the manufacturer. We accept this manufacturing “tradition” and knowingly participate in it by buying the products they produce.

As we nourish our cells with the highest forms of nutrition available to us, the capacity of our bodies, minds and spirits produce the greatest possible fruit. Do we have a right to do any less than the highest and best with the gift of life that has been given to us? Wheat grass juice can be applied to eyes, ears, and nose and brings natural healing benefits to all possible ailments. If you are ever without other herbs, essential oils, or other healing remedies, wheat berries make up a complete first aid kit that Mother Earth has given us. You can even use the wheat grass pulp to help heal external wounds, blemishes, rashes, and bruises.

Non-GMO, organic, whole wheat kernels can be sprouted and then dried again to grind into flour that not only will not cause allergic reactions but will cause health and healing.  With sprouted whole wheat flour you can produce a variety of foods including breads, cookies, pizza, and desserts.  The texture will be denser than the twinkies and ho hos you might be used to, but that is because these products will be packed with natural fiber, nutrition, and life-giving substances not found anywhere else on earth. Until you buy wheat in its original form, sprout it overnight in a little water, and eat one or two of the little sprouted kernals, you will never know if it is truely “wheat” or “gluten” you are allergic to or the products the manufactures provide at the grocery store.

Wine has gotten most of the attention when it comes to health benefits, but the health benefits of beer just as numerous. Beer has just as many antioxidants as wine and is higher in protein and vitamin and contains iron, calcium, phosphates and fiber. Italian researchers found that moderate beer drinkers had a 42 percent lower risk of heart disease compared to non-drinkers. For maximum benefits, keep your consumption to one pint—at around 5 percent alcohol by volume—a day, the researchers say.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that women who drank one drink a day had less cognitive impairment and less decline in their cognitive function compared to women who abstained from any alcoholic beverages. The researchers theorized that alcohol protects the brain by improving blood circulation,

“We know it is beneficial to have a drink a day for your heart. This says there is an additional reason to follow that guideline — it can protect against cognitive decline,” said Marilyn S. Albert of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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Beer and Candida

Alcohol is produced by yeast fermentation. Candida is an overgrowth of yeast in the stomach that causes a long list of symptoms in the entire body. When spirits like vodka, whiskey, and cognac are distilled the actual heat produced kills any yeast residue in the final product. Wine also has sufficient alcohol content to kill the yeast in the alcohol. In fact, wine can only reach an alcohol volume of about 12% because that is the point at which the yeast that is creating the alcohol is killed.

In beer, however, the alcohol content rarely exceeds 6%, so there will be traces of live yeast which are left behind, even if the beer is clear and filtered. In fact, there probably is yeast in all beer unless it was pasteurized.

So, if you enjoy a regular beer, and you also suffer from candida symptoms, it could be the yeast residue in your brew that is causing your health problems. To solve the problems, stop all beer and focus on restoring your digestive system to allow time to eliminate all yeast from your system. If you continually feed the yeast into your digestive system you may not be able to get free from the symptoms of candida.

New E-Cig Research

In an 8-month study, the KU Leuven researchers examined the effect of using e-cigs (“vaping”) in 48 participants, all of whom were smokers with no intention to quit. The researchers’ goal was to evaluate whether e-cigs decreased the urge to smoke tobacco cigarettes in the short term, and whether e-cigs helped people stop smoking altogether in the long-term.

The participants were divided into three groups: two e-cig groups, which were allowed to vape and smoke tobacco cigarettes for the first two months of the study, and a control group that only had access to tobacco. In a second phase of the study, the control group was given e-cigs and all participants were monitored for a period of six months via a web tool, where they regularly logged their vaping and smoking habits.

In the lab, the e-cigs proved to be just as effective in suppressing the craving for a smoke as tobacco cigarettes were, while the amount of exhaled carbon monoxide remained at baseline levels. In the long-term analysis, results showed that the smokers were more likely to trade in their tobacco cigarettes for e-cigs and taper off their tobacco use.

At the end of the 8-month study, 21% of all participants had stopped smoking tobacco entirely (verified via a CO test), whereas an additional 23% reported cutting the number of tobacco cigarettes they smoked per day by half.

Across all three groups, the number of tobacco cigarettes smoked per day decreased by 60%.

“All the groups showed similar results after we introduced the e-cigs,” concluded Professor Frank Baeyens and postdoctoral researcher Dinska Van Gucht of the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology Unit. “With guidance on practical use, the nicotine e-cig offers many smokers a successful alternative for smoking less – or even quitting altogether. E-cig users get the experience of smoking a cigarette and inhale nicotine vapor, but do not suffer the damaging effects of a tobacco cigarette.”

“By comparison: of all the smokers who quit using nothing but willpower, only 3 to 5% remain smoke-free for 6 to 12 months after quitting,” says Baeyens.

Nicotine e-cigs are currently banned in Belgium. In light of their study results, the researchers are now urging for a new legal framework for nicotine vaping in Belgium. All neighboring countries allow the sale of nicotine e-cigs.

There is nothing more therapeutic than digging in the soil, breathing in fresh air, getting sun on your face and eating fresh produce from your own garden. This is the exercise that improves health in body, mind and spirit. This is the well-being that you can’t bottle and sell as a medical cure even though it is more effective. Combine this with the sense of community that fills the soul when many people work together, nothing else can compare. This is what we were intended to do with our time, our energy and our strength.

I worked together with my neighbors in a community garden. We found an elderly gardener who could no longer continue to keep up with her beautiful garden and yard. She was an extraordinary gardener with all the tools we could ever want. She had planted and nurtured grapes, figs, apricots, mulberries, pomegranates and a large, well fertilized garden spot. When she went to live with her daughter, a few families helped her by taking care of her yard and keeping it watered. She in return allowed us to garden in her garden spot and reap the fruits of her years of labor that went into preparing and establishing that little piece of ground. It was a win/win partnership.

By working as a group we added even more therapy to the garden experience by learning to work together, sharing and being generous with the riches that come from the sweat of our brow. We thrived! Look around your neighborhood. There may be a situation close by where you can garden with a community of like-minded people or bring new life and vitality to an elderly neighbor’s yard. Or if you have plenty of garden space, why not invite neighbors and friends to work with you to create a result far more spectacular than you would be able to do by yourself. There are those around you who have no land to work with and would love an opportunity to learn how to garden.

We found another spot of ground that was up to our waist in weeds and seemed to be abandoned. My friend, Deborah Curtis, said this little spot of ground “called to her” every time she walked her children to school. With a little detective work she was able to contact the owner of the abandoned property and get permission to garden there. They had access to irrigation water that came every five days for a yearly fee.

We paid the fee, cleaned up the yard and dug ditches to distribute the water as it came into the yard. Many families worked together to dig the long ditch that took the water from one end of the yard to the other. A community filmmaker stopped by to film what we were doing and ended up putting his camera down and grabbing a shovel. There is something contagious about gardening!

I wanted to have enough tomatoes to bottle salsa for the year. For our family that would be 24 pints. In order to have so many ripe tomatoes at one moment in time you have to plant 20 tomato plants or more—way more than one family would need. If there are more families involved, they can plant 20 tomato plants together and then harvest them in turns to make all the salsa or tomato sauce they want at one time.

I made a goal for my family to eat out of the garden entirely as long as it was producing a bountiful harvest. I allowed myself absolutely no trips to the store to buy produce. We ate gourmet meals every day of the week. I abandoned all my food production such as making bread and cooking beans. We didn’t need so much food. We were able to create meals from the garden without much else added; chili Rellenos, colorful salads, stir fry, spaghetti squash, or pizza topped with tomato sauce made from garden tomatoes, garlic, onions, basil and oregano. It was food heaven.

I planted new seeds as soon as my plants were done producing. This keeps the garden at its maximum production at all times. Next, I made a goal for myself to keep things growing in the garden during the winter months. Potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, onions, garlic, spinach and bok choy are able to live and survive mild winters. I also found out that Winter Wheat is planted in the fall and harvested in the Spring. I have so much Winter Wheat in my food storage, I felt like I had to try planting some. After all, if one grain of wheat produces 20 grains, then one bucket produces 20 buckets. Where will you find better increase from any other investment? If I could plant the whole foods I had stored, I could replenish my stores without spending any money in the years to come. That sounded very intelligent to me. I wanted to try it.

My trips to the store were diminishing significantly. We were down to a few grocery items that we were not able to produce; eggs, milk, ice cream, butter, cheese, honey and chips! I realized that in the Old Testament God promised a land “flowing with milk and honey.” That means a land that had cows and bees. I began to wonder, though I lived in a city and didn’t own land, how I could reap the benefits of a “land flowing with milk and honey.”

I decided that our garden area would have to expand to produce some of these products. I fenced off a small area in a shady corner of the yard where we gardened and got three chickens about half grown. In a few months we have more eggs than we could keep up with. Next, I have my eyes on a bee hive set up as soon as we got the money. I want that ¾ cup of honey for my bread each week and 1¼ c honey for my granola once a month or so.

I believe with consciousness comes responsibility to help others’ eyes to be opened.  For this reason I have set up this cookbook and the website with materials and presentations that will help with that process. We have 100 home-made videos demonstrating how to plant, harvest, prepare, and cook whole foods.  Many people are using these resources to make a difference in their circle of influence.

One thing we need to know about today’s campaign against certain food groups is that we are omnivores.  We are able to eat anything and still survive.  The idea that we have to cut out huge parts of the food groups is not as enlightened as it sounds.  Don’t eat carbs.  Don’t eat dairy.  Don’t eat grains. Don’t eat gluten.  Don’t eat soy.  What can we eat?

It is true that milk is unable to be digested by millions of people in this country, but the reason can’t be blamed on “dairy”. Today’s milk products are not the same substance that it was when our grandparents drank milk from the cow.  The milk today has been de-natured and is full of toxic substances that cause allergies.  Is milk the problem, or the method of mass-production?  Soy products are causing problems today while civilizations have lived on soy for thousands of years.  Why?  Because they have been genetically modified and are processed into isolated substances separated from the whole bean. Peanuts are causing such horrific reactions because they are drowning in pesticides. Allergic reactions to today’s foods have steadily increased into an epidemic.

Wheat has gotten a “bum rap” over the years as more and more people are experiencing allergic reactions to the products found on the shelves of the grocery stores made from wheat.  But this is not the wheat products that our ancestors consumed that gave them the strength to plow fields, chop wood and lift bales of hay. When wheat has been genetically modified, processed, stripped of its nutrients, bleached, ground into flour and baked into products high in sugar and salt it no longer has any of the life-giving properties of the “staff of life.”

Foods made from white flour are consumed in great quantities by masses of people on the Earth who limply rely upon the food industry to hand them their meals on a silver platter. They don’t have to think.  They don’t have to know how to produce.  They just eat and eat and eat! Is it any wonder that our country is producing overweight people, irritable, low-energy, of lower intelligence, full of cancers, arthritis and heart disease with less ability to reproduce strong healthy offspring?  Will the “angel of death” spoken of in scripture “pass over” people who hand over fist consume foods that have been perverted in this way? Some people believe that sin is a concept that only applies to the behaviors that break the laws in the 10 commandments, but what about the behaviors that break the laws of nature?

Healing power is hidden in the wheat berry. All the potential to create life is packed into every seed. It remains dormant and lifeless until it is touched with pure, life-producing water. It then bursts with living, edible, miraculous regeneration.  Many people have been given back their precious gift of health through the healing power of wheat and wheat grass in its purest form, while millions have instead been robbed of health by the inferior products created from the dormant seed, bleached and stripped. We are intelligent people.  We can figure this out and make the right decisions for our families.

Wheat, 10 to 14 days after planting, produces a tender grass that contains the entire range of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and nutrients that the human body requires.  The juice from this grass will be our source of survival during food shortages and difficult times.  According to scripture, eating the grain of wheat (the “staff of life”) will also cause us to have better understanding about the complex and confusing things going on around us.  It will also help us to see the snares and the traps set for us by “conspiring men in the latter days.” One of the biggest snares ever perpetrated against mankind is the readily accepted practice of taking the “staff of life” provided by Mother Earth and turning it into “the source of death and disease.”  We accept this manufacturing “tradition” and knowingly participate in it.

As we nourish our cells with the highest forms of nutrition available to us, the capacity of our bodies, minds and spirits produce the greatest possible fruit. Do we have a right to do any less than the highest and best with the gift of life that has been given to us? Wheat berries, after just a few days of sprouting, can produce a variety of foods including sprouted breads, cookies, sprouted pizza, desserts, rejuvelac, sprouted wheat germ, and wheat milk. Wheatgrass juice can be applied to eyes, ears, and nose and brings natural healing benefits to all possible ailments. If you are ever without other herbs, essential oils, or other healing remedies, wheat berries make up a complete first aid kit that Mother Earth has given us. You can even use the wheat grass pulp to help heal external wounds, blemishes, rashes, and bruises.

Animal products are another example of foods that have gotten a “bum rap”.  Vegan vegetarians are correct in avoiding the products found in the grocery store, and absolutely correct in choosing not to kill a living creature when there are plenty of other choices to consume.  The disrespectful and inhumane way that the meat and dairy industry brings food to the masses is gut wrenching and stomach turning.  In all the centuries before us, we only killed to stay alive.  But now we provide the meat and dairy industry with an insatiable appetite that justifies their practices.  The meats are shot with antibiotics because the conditions are so unsanitary that the likelihood of disease is constantly present.  The feed used to fatten the animals are as unhealthy for the animals’ bodies as the feed they provide for us at the grocery store is for ours.

If you picked out the biggest, fattest man on the street, with pimples and sweaty palms, you have the equivalent in cows, pigs and chickens in the meat department of your grocer.  But that’s not enough to satisfy the greed of the manufactures.  They then take that fat, unhealthy creature and ask how they could make him produce even more meat.  They came up with hormone shots that cause weight gain at a faster rate.  Picture this in human beings and you have the five hundred pound man that can’t walk and has so much strain on his heart that he will die at any moment.  Mmmm. Yummy.  Give me a burger of that!

Since this specimen is not long for this world anyway, it’s best to put him “out of sight-out of mind” so the scene won’t bother our appetites, where he will not be able to move from his spot and therefore must eliminate right where he is. Yes it is very unsanitary, but we have amazing medical breakthroughs called antibiotics that prevent most diseases, so it’s okay.  They don’t complain much.  But wait, that’s not enough weight gain.  We could get more poundage if we got them to eat more, but they won’t.  So we have brilliant scientists who came up with the idea of a feeding tube down the throat.  They don’t have to want it, you just do it to them.  They don’t have much strength to fight it, so it works very well.

Now that we have walked through the most horrific scene of torture that we could possibly imagine, can we truly order that double cheese burger or that order of chicken wings, lunch meats, steak and pork chops without admitting that we are the reason for it all?  We buy the product.  That’s all there is.  Without that constant drive to produce more and more meat and dairy for every meal for every man, woman and child in every home in America and other “civilized” nations, there would be no reason for this sin to continue.  This is the sin that will bring damnation to our world.  All other sins in the average household pale in comparison.

The “conscious” person understands that negative energy causes illness and disease as much as any factor.  How much negative energy is in our food if the sources of all meat and dairy are coming from animals that are being treated in this manner?  It boggles my mind to think of how much negative energy is being sent into the environment of planet earth from the hearts and minds of these tortured fellow beings. Do we really think we can escape such negative energy without it returning upon us?

A Conscious Solution

We can do something.  We can stop buying any and all meat and dairy from the grocery stores and the endless array of restaurants offering these products in varieties that tantalize the senses and get our salivary glands juicing.  I can’t be part of such a system.  I refuse.

The only answer I have is to produce my own groceries as mankind has always have done for generations of time. I choose to keep my own chickens in my own back yard, and give them names so that no one will be tempted to eat our pets!  I want to have a friendly family milk cow named “Betsy” that gives and gives, with very little needs of her own.  All she needs is a patch of grass and she is good to go.

We have been taught in the last 50 years that animals are smelly, dirty, and low class.  People of higher class would not involve themselves with such activities as petting farm animals. They carry disease!  Icky Pooh!   But the truth is, everything about farm animals is positive, healthy and happy—being near them, feeling their warmth, allowing them to be part of our every-day lives, fertilizing our ground as they go along, mowing our lawn or pecking up all the bugs that would damage the fruit in the garden.  Products from these natural resources in our own backyard actually build health and well-being rather than diminish it.  Animals and their products are not the problem as vegan vegetarians often believe.  The problem is allowing others to do the production for us, because they don’t do it with the love and care that we would do for ourselves.  They can’t possibly because of the sheer numbers.  If they have to make enough food for everyone, they have to do it the way they are doing it now.  The only answer is to bring food production back into our own lives and solve many problems at once.

Coming to this conclusion, I determined that I would stop buying any and all animal products from the grocery store.  I would make them myself or find someone who make them with their own labors.  I love cheese.  I love ice cream.  I love eggs once a week.  I need eggs for the properties they bring to baking.  I have learned to live without meat, by replacing it with Mega-Meat.  These are my conclusions and my efforts to live in a world with a food industry that is so corrupted.  Some people think I am crazy trying to raise chickens in an suburban environment, but I don’t have time to elaborate on my reasons.  I just smile and feel proud of my decisions.

I plan to grow my own grains and soy, and raise my own animals.  I plan to find others who will do this with me so that I don’t have more work than I am capable of doing. I plan to get a cow and board it locally just as people board a horse.  I want to share the responsibilities of caring, feeding and milking with a community of like-minded people.  If the cow has to be milked twice a day, seven days a week, then I plan to involve a community of 14 families who would each milk and feed the cow once a week.  The amount of milk they get from their milking is theirs.  Many elderly people will tell you that they grew up milking cows.  It used to be part of everyday life.  There was a cow in every back yard.  Now yards have gotten smaller and smaller and zoning

has made laws to prevent you from owning a cow. I believe it is all part of a greater problem of being forced to be dependent. I believe owning a cow will be an important step in empowering self-reliance among my friends.

To experiment, I fenced off a small area in a shady corner of the yard where we gardened and got three chickens about half grown. In a few months we had more eggs than we could keep up with.  The propaganda we have been fed is making us believe that animals are “dirty” and “smelly” and “undesirable”.  It may be true if you cage an animal in too small of an area, but if an animal is allowed to roam free in enough space, their droppings go back to the earth in a short amount of time, making the land more fertile.

We found that raising three chickens is equivalent to the cost and effort of raising a dog, but a lot more profitable.  Our three chickens each laid one egg a day, so at the end of each week we had 21 eggs.  Most families buy a dozen eggs every week. We grew very attached to our chicken pets and would never consider eating them for meat.  The eggs were more than enough to get from our chicken venture.

Part of the time we kept the chickens on our balcony because we had no land to put them on.  I made a cube shape with PVC pipe and bought some bird netting to drape over it.  It worked perfectly and was very light and portable.  I brought them to a grassy area next to our house where they could eat bugs and grass.

When they got muddy or dirty, we bathed them like we would bathe a baby in the bath tub.  They cooperated and let my little boy dry them off with a towel.  We absolutely loved every minute. When summer came and the balcony became blazing hot, we had to find a permanent home for them at a ranch outside of town. Some day we hope to own chickens again

John Hopkins Medicine

Antibiotic overuse in children has become a common problem, aggravated by parental pressure for the medication, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). As a result, many bacterial infections in the U.S. and worldwide are becoming resistant to antibiotics, thus creating a lack of effective treatment for bacterial infections.

Overuse of antibiotics is leading to strains of diseases that are becoming resistant to the medication, making it harder to treat patients. All too often, antibiotics have been prescribed for conditions such as colds, fluid in the middle ear, or bronchitis, which do not respond to antibiotics, according to the CDC. Antibiotics are only effective in treating bacterial infections.

The key to preventing overuse of antibiotics is education of the parents and doctors in the appropriate use of antibiotics, according to the AAP. Some tips to remember when taking antibiotics, according to the American Medical Association, include the following:

Take the antibiotics as prescribed.

Finish the full course of antibiotics, as prescribed.

Do not save or reuse antibiotics.

Always consult your child’s doctor for more information.

A Personal Chef might be the answer to the biggest health problem today: not enough time to cook from scratch using healthy, whole foods.

We find Personal Chefs from your local area that are willing to learn and follow the Healthy Meals for the Week Plan.  This will be someone who is certified and experienced to cook in your home, yet most personal chefs do not have the training for healthy, vegan cooking.

If you want to find your own Personal Chef and go through the interviewing process personally, do a google search and a find personal chef agency in your local area.  During the interview process ask each chef if they would be willing to take a course in Healthy Cooking and learn a whole new way to cook. If they answer yes you have a winner!

There has never bee a greater need for a Personal Chefs than now that the average American no longer has the time it takes to eat as healthy as they would like. So many people are living a daily dilemma knowing that it is better for them and for their loved ones to eat whole foods that spring from the ground, but their just isn’t time to shop fresh every day and cook from scratch every meal!

If you are not a stay-at-home mom you might have to resort to drastic measures if you really want to put healthy meals on the table on a consistent basis. A Personal Chef who follows our Healthy Meals for the Week plan may be that drastic measure that you must take.

  MyWholeFoodsKitchen.com Can Help!

Welcome!

Let’s get your kitchen re-organized for a healthier, more efficient and more economical way of living.

Millions of Americans have already decided to transition to a better diet but don’t have time to learn how and don’t have the money to invest.  Most people give up saying,

“Health takes too much time and money!”.

Do you have a shortage of time or money? We customize our services to fit your unique situation.

1) If you have time and money…

We can teach you how to set up My Whole Foods Kitchen in your own home, make your own dry mixes that only require water. We have over 100 videos online demonstrating how to use whole foods to make meals that your family will love. We make it easy for you! We ship you the food and containers to you and away you go! It’s a do-it-yourself lifestyle of self-reliance.

2) If you have money, but no time…

We can set up My Whole Foods Kitchen in your home for you. We will ship the food and containers to your home and travel there to prepare the space and organize your kitchen for you. We will set up your kitchen with hand made dry mixes that only require water! Now you will be ready to prepare quick and healthy meals! Or you may choose to hire a Heart Healthy Cook from My Whole Foods Kitchen to prepare your meals for the week or even daily. This could be a live-in position or someone you find in your local area that can be trained to continue the meal plan for you.

3) If you have time, but no money…

We can teach you how to set up My Whole Foods Kitchen and assist other families to start a new life of Heart Healthy Meals that they will love! Take the Heart Healthy Cooking Course and get started today!

THE home-cooked family meal is often lauded as the solution for problems ranging from obesity to deteriorating health to a decline in civility and morals. Using whole foods to prepare meals without additives and chemicals is the holy grail for today’s advocates of better eating.

But how do we get there? For many of us, whether we are full-time workers or full-time parents, this home-cooked meal is a fantasy removed from the reality of everyday life. And so Americans continue to rely on highly processed and refined foods that are harmful to their health.

Those who argue that our salvation lies in meals cooked at home seem unable to answer two key questions: where can people find the money to buy fresh foods, and how can they find the time to cook them? The failure to answer these questions plays into the hands of the food industry, which exploits the healthy-food movement’s lack of connection to average Americans. It makes it easier for the industry to sell its products as real American food, with real American sensibilities — namely, affordability and convenience.

I believe the solution to getting people into the kitchen exists in a long-forgotten proposal. In the 1960s and ’70s, when American feminists were fighting to get women out of the house and into the workplace, there was another feminist arguing for something else. Selma James, a labor organizer from Brooklyn, pushed the idea of wages for housework. Ms. James, who worked in a factory as a young woman and later became a housewife and a mother, argued that household work was essential to the American economy and wondered why women weren’t being paid for it. As Ms. James and a colleague wrote in 1972, “Where women are concerned their labor appears to be a personal service outside of capital.”

She argued that it was a mistake to define feminism simply as equal pay in the work force. Instead, she wanted to formally acknowledge the work women were already doing. She knew that women wouldn’t stop doing housework once they joined the work force — rather they would return home each evening for the notorious “second shift.”

Many feminists at the time ignored the Wages for Housework campaign, while some were blatantly antagonistic toward it. Even today, with all the talk of the importance of home cooking — a huge part of housework — no one ever seems to mention Ms. James or Wages for Housework.

But ignoring this idea once again devalues housework and places a premium on working outside of the home. Since women first began to enter the work force, families have increasingly relied on processed foods and inexpensive restaurant meals. Those foods tend to have more calories and less nutritional value than fresh vegetables, fruits and meats, so it’s easy to see how the change in meal patterns led to a surge in obesity.

In 1970, Americans spent 26 percent of their food budget on eating out; by 2010, that number had risen to 41 percent. Over that period, rates of obesity in the United States more than doubled. Diabetes diagnoses have also soared, to 25.8 million in 2011 from roughly three million in 1968.

It’s nearly impossible for a single parent or even two parents working full time to cook every meal from scratch, planning it beforehand and cleaning it up afterward. This is why many working parents of means employ housekeepers. But if we put this work on women of lower socioeconomic status (as is almost always the case), what about their children? Who cooks and cleans up for them?

In the Wages for Housework campaign, Ms. James argued for a shorter workweek for all, in part so men could help raise the children. This is not a pipe dream. Several Northern European nations have instituted social programs that reflect the importance of this work. The Netherlands promotes a “1.5 jobs model,” which allows men and women to work 75 percent of their regular hours when they have young children. In Sweden, parents can choose to work three-quarters of their normal hours until children turn 8.

To get Americans cooking, we need to make it possible. Stay-at-home parents should qualify for a new government program while they are raising young children — one that provides money for good food, as well as education on cooking, meal planning and shopping — so that one parent in a two-parent household, or a single parent, can afford to be home with the children and provide wholesome, healthy meals. These payments could be financed by taxing harmful foods, like sugary beverages, highly caloric, processed snack foods and nutritionally poor options at fast food and other restaurants. Directly linking a tax on harmful food products to a program that benefits health would provide a clear rebuttal to critics of these taxes. Business owners who argue that such taxes will hurt their bottom lines would, in fact, benefit from new demand for healthy food options and from customers with money to spend on such foods.

If we truly value domestic work, we should also enact workplace policies that incentivize health, like “health days” that employees could use for health-promoting activities: shopping for food, cooking, or tending a community garden.

We can’t democratize good food without placing tangible value on the work done in the home. So while proponents of healthier eating are right to emphasize the importance of home-cooking and communal meals, we will never create an actual movement without placing a cultural and monetary premium on the hard work of cooking and the time and skills needed to do it.