Iron (Fe) (Get Your Blood Pumpin’)

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Iron (Fe) (Get Your Blood Pumpin’)

Ever since humans have discovered the properties of this chemical element, iron has been incorporated into many different things on this Earth. I know you’ve heard of numerous buildings made from iron, but what about its use in building cells in the human body? How much do you know about it now? Once again we need to go to a microscopic scale to see its truth in your body. To be plain and simple, without iron you don’t exist. How’s that for making a bold statement? Iron has a strong attraction to Oxygen. When we reach optimal absorption of iron, we feel very energized because there is plenty of Oxygen to keep your cells operating at a high level and in turn YOU operate at a high level. Way too many humans are deficient in iron (anemia) and due to its use in the production of Hemoglobin, there is no wonder why most of us walk around in a chronic state of depression, fatigue, and lack of desire. Let’s fix that! Iron can be obtained through both plant and animal life, but animal meat, especially red meat, provides a more bioavailable form than does its counterpart from the plant kingdom. Pretty much anything considered to be a plant or part of a plant and is dark green or black in color will contain iron, such as kale, chard, spinach and blackberries just to name a few. There’s one major hurdle to absorbing iron though, humans can only absorb approximately 10-40%. If you truly eat cleanly then you’re going to be closer to that 40% number as opposed to most humans hovering around a rate of 10-20%. And I must add that without enough Vitamin C, you won’t ever absorb enough Iron and will constantly stay fatigued and stressed both physically and mentally because the body has to work too hard to absorb what little it can. At this point, you only have two options: clean up your eating habits tremendously or eat a lot of iron rich foods. If you choose option two, you will eat too much, your bowel movements will be very strenuous, and you will eventually develop iron toxicity. Ultimately your best bet is to go with option one and clean up your eating habits so you can live a better more fulfilling life.

Calcium (Ca) (Put That Cow’s Milk Down)

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Calcium (Ca) (Put That Cow’s Milk Down)

So I have to ask, how many times do we hear about the element Calcium these days? Pretty much on a daily basis. Currently, I hear it being tossed around like a ball almost every day in the health industry. What’s the big talk all about. You hear about it in all of the Got Milk? commercials. Where do you get Calcium?… Why is your first thought dairy? Instinctively, because it’s a white colored element. Socially, it is in cow’s milk. Now if I kept going on about it, you’d continue to assume cow’s milk. Stop! Let’s go with goat’s milk instead. A baby calf consumes cow’s milk so it can grow big bones quickly. Ever wondered why a baby calf struggles to stand on all 4 limbs in early stages of life? Riddle solved. Humans do not assimilate cow’s milk very well due to its high lactose sugar content as well as its high calcium content. We need foods that contain much more friendly levels of the necessary nutrients and goat’s milk and cheese (raw or unpasteurized) is much more user friendly to humans. But back to Calcium, we also associate this element with bone too. Rightfully so. Calcium, along with Phosphorous, is what our bones are mostly made from with the exception of a tiny percentage of Copper. It also aids in a muscle tissue’s ability to contract. Microscopically, without enough Calcium ions the nerve cannot release acetylcholine, therefore the muscle will not contract how it should. Acetylcholine is needed in the energy producing and fat burning process. Let’s zoom back out to a bigger scale, you have to naturally want to know what else contains Calcium. Many dark green leaves like kale, chard and spinach, tiny bony fish like sardines and herring, oysters, clams and many seeds as well as a few fruits. We can only absorb Calcium if we have enough Vitamin D and most humans are to some degree deficient in Vitamin D so no wonder we are Calcium deficient as well. Weak bones is what comes to my mind, what the medical world calls osteoporosis. Weak infrastructure is probably a better way to word that cause we would have weak muscles too. I think you’re starting to get the picture – it requires a lifestyle change to make the body’s complex system work optimally. Supplements don’t work as effectively, if at all, so don’t be lazy. Reach instead for the healthy, natural, whole food source to utilize the high bioavailability of it’s organic Calcium nutrient.

Cholesterol (I’ve Been Framed!)

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Cholesterol (I’ve Been Framed!)

Ah, cholesterol. Poor guy has taken a ruthless beating over the past couple of decades on his role in human health. If I ask “Why is cholesterol so bad for you?” I know I’ll get a wide variety of answers and that’s exactly the problem. Too many conflicting answers and information out there. OK so do me a favor and forget every one of those answers. There’s a reason why it’s involved in our lives so let’s read on to find out. This guy is really one of your best friends so quit hatin’. Without cholesterol you’d be dead, literally. It is the synthesizing agent of the famous Vitamin D and if you read the section on the benefits of Vitamin D you’d realize the utter importance of cholesterol. The human body makes cholesterol from many types of fat especially saturated fat. Wait a minute… Yes you read that right. I’m giving some credit to saturated fat. Cholesterol, in addition to synthesizing Vitamin D, has a main role in the body and that is to help clean up other fats floating around the blood stream. So many people, including nutritionists, get cholesterol confused with LDL and HDL so let’s get it right. HDL and LDL are not cholesterol; rather, they are proteins–lipoproteins to be exact. Why do you think protein is part of its name? They’re not trying to fool you. They are the carrier proteins of cholesterol so that cholesterol can do its job. It helps clean up toxins and with the help of its carriers it delivers it to the liver for further processing elimination. All in all, cholesterol truly is a necessity of life unless you want to walk around in an inflamed state. Oh wait, you probably already are in that state cause the media makes it out to be a bad guy. Your next question is probably along the lines of “So where can I obtain this wonderful nutrient?” Many things have it, but they also contain many other bad things. When it comes to eating whole foods from the Earth, cholesterol can be found or created in the body from animal fats from pasture raised and free to roam animals. Of course one of the best sources is the yolk from eggs that came from pasture raised chickens. When cooking eggs, try to poach them or fry them in a healthy oil such as avocado or hemp seed oil so that the yolk is still runny and not fully hardened. Runny yolks yield so many nutritious nutrients it’s unreal, such as choline, and other phospholipids that create a much needed protective sheath surrounding every nerve you have. Without them you will never operate how you want to in life and in fact will be in misery because of over heated nerve endings. Another result will be a misfiring of an electrical signal from nerve to nerve and that will ultimately lead to a myriad of nervous system problems and an untimely death. If I were you, I’d stop listening to what the government and media say about health. It’s all about politics and money to them, not your health.

 

Vitamin D (You Are My Sunshine)

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Vitamin D (You Are My Sunshine)

Vitamin D is a very often disrespected and under appreciated nutrient to human health. In fact, if I had to guess based on my own readings, research, and experiences I would say nearly 80-90% of Americans are deficient to some extent. Basically, most people are walking around in a chronically inflamed state of being, which is in the direction of stasis, often known as death. OK, so let’s try to prevent that, because life on the other hand is more exciting. What is Vitamin D you ask? It is quite often referred to as the “Sunshine” vitamin due to the rays of the sun providing light and energy to the body. However, it must be clarified that only the UVB rays are what allows the body to properly absorb the vitamin D. It works in 2 ways in the body. First, which is how most people know it, the skin absorbs the sun’s UVB rays via a cholesterol enzyme and then converts the energy once in the liver and once in the kidneys to a bioactive form known as Vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, so the body can utilize it. Once in the bloodstream it helps with many reactions in the body. One of which is the absorption of calcium and phosphorous and we all know how important both calcium and phosphorous are. In fact, one Doctor that I like to research and read about, Dr. Weston Price, a dentist, would just about swear on it. A Naturopathic Doctor, whom I’m very intrigued by, Dr. Bernard Jensen, would 100% agree with Price but probably wouldn’t put quite as much emphasis on the importance of Calcium as a dentist would. The second way is through the eyes. A very poorly known issue is that Vitamin D only works when it is in correct proportion to Vitamin A. Deficiency of one creates toxicity of the other. Hence why the eyes are so extremely important to the strongest of bodies. It activates the pineal gland, which in turn sends a signal to the pituitary gland, known as “The Master Gland”, which controls the majority of the endocrine system and most of the hormones. Uh oh, I said “hormone” but stay calm. If correct measures are taken, hormones won’t get wacky. Now that makes me want to get more sun! Don’t get me wrong though, you can get too much sun and get burnt. Depending on skin type, it usually will take between 20-45 min of good sunlight 2-3 days a week to obtain more than enough Vitamin D due to it fat solubility. Keep in mind, something often overlooked is your geographic location. It is nearly impossible to obtain enough Vitamin D for those residing in the northern latitudes of the Earth. Supplementation may suffice, but I don’t recommend supplements unless speaking with your Natural health care provider or a local Naturopathic clinic. Humans fortunately have the ability to store extra Vitamin D in fat cells. The sun is really the best way to get this vital nutrient, but some foods such as shallow water fish and oysters and clams can be high in the nutrient. Also, unpasteurized or raw goat’s milk and goat’s cheese is a good source of the Vitamin. My best advice to you: Get some sun and get to know your local organic farmer!

 

Potassium (K) (Go Bananas)

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Potassium (K) (Go Bananas)

Among the 16 major chemical elements that are contained in the make up of man, Potassium is so vital to the overall health that without it a human heart would not survive but for a very short period of time! Potassium is the element that increases the alkalinity of the entire muscular system. Anything that is considered alkaline in nature will help fight off the detrimental toxins, germs, and acids produced in the world as well as the human body. Potassium, like many other organic elements, has its life partner, Sodium. These two work very closely together, almost to the point where they are inseparable. Hand-in-hand so to speak. Both, Potassium and Sodium, are considered electrolytes and must stay in balance with each other in order to keep proper, effective, and efficient communication between our cells. When they get out of balance, disease processes begin. When in proper ratio they put the perfect osmotic pressure on cells to permit the exchange of many other vitamins, minerals, and amino acids in and out of the cells, especially muscle tissues – potassium inside, sodium outside. In conjunction with Calcium, these three elements are why our muscles contract and without Potassium or a lack of it will produce muscle cramps. Potassium can help in the protection of the heart as well, so it is a must in our diets! Eat a serving of Morgan’s banana ice cream and you’re well on your way to a stronger heart. Other good sources are kiwis, citrus fruits, potato and sweet potato skins, and most dark green leafy vegetables. Potassium is the leading element in the elimination of carbonic acid and lactic acid from our muscles – and a day after a good workout you’re sure to feel the effects of these acids in the form of sore, tight muscles! Always remember the 1st rule in health – to achieve great health, you must get your foods in their natural, whole state directly from the Earth.