Don’t Blow it! You will just get an Ear Infection

Ear Aches are common among little kids because of the shape of their faces.  When a child is young their eustatation tubes are fairly parallel.  When little kids are told to blow their nose – that is pretty much blowing infection into their ears. As they get older their face gets longer and the tubes angle down so they suffer with less ear aches.   Instead of blowing little noses just gently wipe.

With winter upon us and we retreat into closer quarters there is more sharing of colds and flu bugs.  One great way to alleviate sinus congestions is to use a neti Pot

When we were kids we were told to sniff warm salt water to clear a sinus infection.  Have you ever tried that?  It really stings and it feels like you are drowning too.  It was a mess, it hurt, and never did much good.  But the neti pot is different.

What is a neti pot?  A neti looks like a ceramic small tea pot with a long spout.  Yes this is gross but it works.  A solution of (1/4 tsp) pharmaceutical grade salt and pure warm water is made for the pot.  Then you bend over the sink with your forehead below your chin and pour the warm saline water through one nostril.  Wait, it takes a few seconds because your sinuses are all behind your forehead and behind your eyes but in about 8 seconds the saline water pours out your other nostril washing all the nasty and bad bugs with it.  The saline water helps fight infection, and dries out that runny nose.

My daughter’s doctor (we know doctors are usually pill perscribers) said that if folks would neti pot as soon as they were exposed to a bug then we wouldn’t catch colds or the flu.  I know it sounds weird – it did to me at first – but it really works.  

Healing, Kiefer, Flax oil Smoothie or…

Ronda’s Purple Monster –

We make the purple monster routinely. This is a great breakfast that is filling and full of good oils, anti-oxidants, and vitamins. We make this smoothie several times a week or when I am on the go and don’t have time to mess with cleaning the juicer. Sometimes I make it to alleviate the guilt of that first cup of morning java.

I buy bananas in large bunches, cut them up in wheels and freeze them one banana per zip-lock sandwich bag. Frozen bananas make the smoothie creamy and cold like ice cream. I also use frozen blueberries, frozen raspberries which eliminates crushed ice chunks at the bottom of the glass. If you don’t use frozen fruit you may want to add ice to your blender. And, no, you don’t taste the carrots – no one would ever know they are in there!

What is Kiefer? Kiefer is like liquid yogurt. I make my own by adding a Kiefer “grain” (a culture that looks like a small piece of cauliflower) to a quart of organic milk. It sits out for 24 hours and then “Wah-lah” you have kiefer. It smells great like sour dough bread. Kiefer is full of pro-biotics as is real yogurt, and is great for you digestive tract. You can buy it at the store in many fruit flavors but it is more economical and healthier to make at home. I make it in a quart sized mason jar with a plastic screw top lid. I also use it in the place of buttermilk in pancakes and biscuits. Yum!

Make sure that you never blend kiefer or yogurt as it kills the live active cultures that are so good for you. Hand stir it in your drink or pulse the blender on only for a second to use the suction to mix in the kiefer rather than blend the little cultures to death.

This is a great smoothie for a healing diet. I was given the basic recipe by a man who had a tumor in his jaw and used it as part of his de-tox and healing regime.

Ronda’s Purple Monster
Healing Smoothie

Put in the Vita-mix container:

¼ cup Flax Seed oil
¼ cup fresh or frozen red raspberries
¼ cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 banana – (I freeze mine)
Handful of raw pecans or walnuts
Handful of raw almonds
1 organic carrot (I use 1 handful of organic peeled baby carrots)

Add enough water to cover ingredients. Blend starting on a low setting and increasing to highest setting until all ingredients are liquefied.

Then add ¼ cup organic Kefir (or plain organic yogurt Or organic
Cottage Cheese - if using cottage cheese then blend)

Blend for only a second or just stir with a spoon.

Makes about a quart.

Please, tell me what you think...

He seems to like it!

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes… (oh, that was the 70’s – and you had to be there...oh, never mind)


The Big Three Major Diet Changes that will Alter Your Body and Probably make you Loose Weight, Too.

I really believe that God designed our bodies to protect us from disease, create all the energy we need, and even store reserves for emergencies. If we eat well and our environments are clean, our immune systems usually do a pretty good job of protecting us from diseases as well as systematically work toward self-healing, replenishing and rebuilding.


Rule of thumb - if you can’t understand the “laboratory tech-talk” on the label it is probably not good for your body.

Lets Get Real - The main mission of most large food corporations is not your health and healing; it is the bottom line - profit. Most food corporations assign a primary mandate to their food development departments that their products have 1. maximum shelf life and 2. maximum taste thrill in order to achieve the greatest profit margin. They accomplish this with long lasting product and repeat purchases. Many companies justify peddling their health damaging fun foods by telling themselves they are "just giving the public what it wants". Few have the goal of your optimum health and healing in mind.

Our friend, Dr. Josh Axe of Maximized Living here in Nashville, Tennessee advises us to make three major healthy changes in our diets.

They are:

1. Replace the bad fats with good fats
2. Change the meat we eat
3. Remove refined Sugars

1. Replacing the bad fats with good fats – Why? Good fats are essential to hormone production, cancer prevention, brain development, weight loss, cellular healing and anti-inflammation. Hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated oils, trans-fats, and rancid vegetable oils are connected with inflammation which is the root cause of heart disease, cancer, and stroke, as well as other inflammatory health issues.

No-No’s – Hydrogenated and Partially Hydrogenated oils like cottonseed oil, soybean oil, and vegetable oils (yes, vegetable oil like canola which quickly turns rancid. This really surprised me because I always thought it was a “healthy oil”! ) – This change alone will help you loose weight because almost every bread, cracker, cookie, and boxed food on the market is filled with this stuff.

Good Fats: Cold Water fish, olive oil (not heated), olives, avocado, coconut milk, unrefined coconut oil, coconut flakes, grape seed oil, full fat plain yogurt, cod-liver oil, krill oil, canned sardines, flax seed oil, butter, hemp oil, almond butter, raw (unpasteurized) cheese, eggs, cashew butter.

I cook in a taste-less, cold pressed coconut oil or grape seed oil (cheapest at Trader Joe’s Grocery Store). Good fats can become bad when you cook with them so when cooking with high heat – use only coconut oil or grape seed oil. Olive oil becomes a bad fat when heated above 120°.

2. Changing the meats you eat – Why? When an animal that was designed to eat grass is given a grain diet to fatten it up for the market, (remember the “This little piggy” toe song?) it changes the fatty acid ratios and denatures the good fats which when eaten causes imbalances in our bodies. Also the commercial pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics and hormones in meats are higher than any vegetable we eat.

Replace with: grass fed, free range meats. Also, eat more veggies than meat – sorry guys and Dr. Atkins – that diet is not healthy. A good rule of thumb for meats is to buy locally raised organic meats when possible. You can find a local farmer through Local Harvest - www.localharvest.org - plus buying locally will help support community agriculture and keep farmers (your neighbors) in business.

3. The Biggie – Replacing Refined sugars - Notice the key word in the article title is change - not eliminate. If you tell a chocoholic like me or the ordinary American sugar addict that we can no longer have sugar – well we just can’t/won’t do it. That is what an addiction is – something that we became a slave to. Some of us can’t shake it even if threatened by a miserable disease.

Why replace the sugar? You know most of the reasons, but some important ones are sugar:

• Suppress the immune system-this means you are more prone to all kinds of nasty energy and quality of life stealing diseases because your body’s ability to fight them off is weakened
  
  
• Makes your body acidic- Your body needs to be balanced or on the alkaline side because cancer grows in an acidic environments not alkaline ones.


• Causes a loss of tissue elasticity – that means it makes you start to look older than Granny Clampett.
  
  
• Stresses out your (Irreplaceable) pancreas
  
  
• Spikes your insulin production – so what? I can handle the highs and lows. Well…that’s not all…
• Raises Insulin levels:
  
  
• Causes rapid weight gain – (The good news is we no longer have to buy a ticket to see the fat lady at the freak show)
  
  
• Depletes you vitamin and mineral storage- Refined Sugar is an anti-nutrient it contains no vitamins or minerals (empty calorie) so in order for sugar to be metabolized it must tap the body’s reserve of vitamins and minerals. That means “five-a-day” turns into fifteen-a-day to make up for the sugar that is taxing your supply
  
  
• Increases bad cholesterol - A depletion of vitamins and minerals impairs the metabolization of cholesterol and fatty acids, contributing to higher blood serum triglycerides, cholesterol – translation: Doctors tell us this increases chances of heart problems and stoke
  And on and on and on...

So, what’s an addict to do?

Stevia is a 100% natural, Calorie Free, Sugar Free, sweetener – and a lot of people like it. It is also suitable to bake with. I don’t care for it because it has a bitter after taste to me. Trader Joe’s Grocery store has a brand they sell in packets that is a blend of Stevia and maltodextrin (a product derived from starch) which is the best I have tried. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s and are desperate enough to pay for packing and shipping I will buy some from my Trader Joe's and mail it to you. NuNaturals Stevia is another good brand available at most Whole Foods markets.

*Maple Syrup- Grade A- light, mild, and more delicate maple flavor. This is the best grade for making maple candy and maple cream. It is the most popular grade sold because it’s closest to the artificial supermarket pancake syrup we grew up with.
Grade B- is sometimes called Cooking Syrup, is made later in the season. It is darker, with a strong maple and caramel flavor. Although some people use this for table syrup it's often used for cooking, baking and as a flavoring agent. Grade B less-widely-available but many enjoy more pronounced maple taste and use it as a part of a seasonal cleansing fast.

*Honey- Local and raw is the best. It is thought that honey derived from local flowers helps reduce seasonal allergies.

Fruit sugars like date sugar – watch out for the calories.

*Warning: High GI foods such as refined sugar, honey, maple syrup and corn syrup require little processing by your digestive system so if the body does not hand an immediate need for the energy, it stores that energy as fat.

Drum roll please…
My all time favorite sweetener and healthy sugar substitute is….and I love it so much that I sell it on my web site…

Agave – pronounced (Uh-gah-vay) is an all natural, low glycemic, plant juice that is sweeter than sugar. It looks like bottled honey, except not as thick. It is organic and kosher. It is even diabetic user friendly because it is low glycemic.

To be continued… Tomorrow, I will tell you more about this wonderful product, Agave.