Organic Vs. Conventionally Grown Food

I am looking at the January 28th, 2014 edition of The St. Lawrence Plaindealer. (Ok, I wrote this over 2 years ago... where does the time go? and never posted it.)  The FARM FOCUS section has an article titled: "Important to Properly Clean Produce." The last paragraph, in this short article, had this statement: The Pure Food Growers of America states that the average American consumes more than 10 pounds of insecticides and herbicides every year from produce.

Their answer to this consuming pesticide problem is in the article’s title:

"Important to Properly Clean Produce"

I have a few ideas of my own around this “just wash it off” issue.  Is it really just a matter of washing the produce well?  This sounds like a good plan, on the surface. However, when we think about chemicals and the permeability of the produce’s skin and the soil the produce is grown in, the actual picture looks a bit different.

Washing produce is a good idea but will not remove toxic agricultural chemicals.  While it may reduce the surface residue, any chemicals sprayed directly onto the food are absorbed directly into the plant.

Take an apple tree, for example.  If you spray that tree, the apples get direct chemical application and the ground around the tree is also contaminated with the chemicals.  The chemicals are absorbed through each apple’s skin.  Much the same process that happens if you were to put the chemical directly onto your own skin, it is absorbed directly into your whole body.

The chemicals that end up on the ground, around the tree, are absorbed into the soil. This is the same soil that the tree’s roots are in.  When the roots are absorbing nutrients and moisture from the soil, the chemicals also get absorbed.

Every cell of the tree, and all of the apples on the tree, are exposed to and contain these toxic chemicals.

This same process happens with root vegetables (say, carrots) growing underground.  Spray the soil with pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc., and the carrot will absorb these same chemicals right out of the ground. When that carrot is growing and taking in soil nutrients and moisture, it does not selectively avoid the pesticides.  The end result on the full grown carrot is not merely surface contamination on your produce. 

No amount of washing the surface of an apple, carrot, or any other produce is going to wash off the chemicals that have entered every cell of that organism.

Buy organic:  fewer chemicals and better nutritional value.  While organic foods seem to cost more, at the cash register, than conventionally grown foods, the value of organics cannot be stressed enough.  Foods grown organically, naturally, have higher nutritional values. Plants and other animals react to natural foods and natural living in the same manner:  their bodies are healthy and whole!  When plants and animals are raised organically, their cellular health is intact. This is the kind of food you want to put into your body; food that is healthy and intact, right down to the cellular level. Your body will be in better nutritional health when you treat it naturally with whole foods, grown without chemicals, and make the choice to live a whole health lifestyle.

Think about biology, cell regeneration, your internal nutritional savings account; all are good reasons to put whole, organic nutrition into your body.  You will save money, yes, long after you walk away from the cash register, by preventing disease and avoiding the need for invasive medical intervention.

Buying organic food is worth the price at the cash register.  What we spend now, on good food, will prevent us from spending money later on medical treatments.  To make organic food more cost effective: find local farmers and buy directly from those farmers.  You avoid paying all the “middle men” who are making money getting your food from the farms to the supermarket.  You can also find farmers who may not be USDA organic certified but adhere to sustainable growing practices.  This farmer will sell produce at a lower price than USDA certified organic food.  Ask; most farmers will graciously share their growing practices with you.

Environmental Working Groups' list of 53 produce items from most to least contaminated:  http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/   Use this list to help decide what produce is best to invest in organically grown, if purchasing 100% organic produce is not possible.

Buy the very best food you can.

Bottom Line:

Gratitude Is A Form of Self-Love

Life is what happens when we are busy planning our lives. 

A comment made to me yesterday inspired this post.

Comment: Nothing in life ever turns out the way we plan it to, want it to.

I do not believe this to be true and I think when we put our focus on not getting what we planned or wanted, this is all we are going to see.

If we face life with gratitude for all we do have and all that does turn out as planned, our vision of the day and life is so different.

I remember a girlfriend's x-husband said this to her when she was pregnant: "Expect nothing from me and everything you get will be a gift."  I confess, at the time I thought "what an asshole he is!"  Many years later I can see the wisdom of his words (not that it was so wise to say to your pregnant wife!)

When we expect nothing out of the day or a given situation and open our arms with gratitude to all that does happen, our world is colored in a completely different way. Brilliant technicolor of joy. Gratitude is the attitude of joy - it colors everything in a new light.

Let the doors of life be open to synchronicity. Let your heart be open to synchronicity. As cliche' as it sounds most things do work out for the best. We may not see this in a given moment but hind sight usually tells a different story. Find the magic in life unfolding in every moment.

Gratitude brings peace. Gratitude is self-love. Listen to your heart, it knows.

My Bathroom Wall Quote

PS  After writing and posting this last evening, one of my morning inspirational emails came through with this:  (Serendipity rocks!)

Developing Our Personal Power

I took the words in the below two paragraphs, with permission, from  Elissa Hayman's November blog post.  Elissa is a spiritual healer from New Mexico. I was introduced to Elissa and her work by a fine, local lady and friend.

I was stopped in my tracks by the most fiery blaze of coppery gold color I ever saw, radiating off a long line of cottonwoods on the riverbank.

Someone else had stopped to admire them and we got to talking. He turned out to be an herbalist who lived in the nearby mountains. His renowned company, Dragon River Herbals, was on the scene in Santa Fe; they supplied doctors and health facilities with their high-quality, wild-crafted, organic products.

Through this herbalist, I learned something interesting about wild-crafted herbs: their medicine is so much more potent because in Nature, they go through a lot of stress.  The plants' response to the natural stressors in their environment makes them produce more potent medicinal properties. The "fat cat" herbal plants grown in cultivation don't need to develop the inner strength necessary to BE strong medicine.

That's something to remember in November 2014, when  it will behoove us to see challenges like a plant in the wild, as something that develops our powers.

I love these words. It is the wise woman teaching I do around the foods we eat, the herbal plant foods we use for medicine, and the way we cultivate personal power in our mind, body, and soul.

Organic foods have this magic about them as well! When food is grown organically, the food itself has to fend off foreign invaders. In this dance for survival, the organically grown food develops higher amounts of nutrients and develops nutrients that do not exist in conventionally grown agriculture's foods (because conventionally grown foods do not survive these natural stressors). 

We are approaching the American holiday of Thanksgiving; a time to be grateful for all that we have and have experienced in life. 

Life experiences are the building blocks of who you are as a being; your wild crafting as a human. Take a moment to express gratitude, every day, for your life and all the wild crafting that has made you grow stronger. Life experiences are powerful medicine!

Feed your body, mind, and soul well!

Gratitude for making it safely into the Supai Village in the Havasupai Home, the Indians of the Blue Waters. Gratitude for surviving the long and very, hot trail down into the canyon.  Getting out was easy; we started at 4:30 AM and beat the sun out of the canyon!

Happy Thanksgiving with Love!

 

Herbal Recipe to Clean the Liver from Holiday Eating and Imbibing!

Simple Liver Nourishment Cleanse

Liver Nourishment:  This is a very simple way to nourish the liver as it goes about its non-stop job of filtering your blood.  Your liver is not “dirty.”  Spending a few days focusing on nourishing this important organ is a good way to prevent disease and heal your body.  Love your liver with good food, liver specific herbs, and relaxation. Oh yeah, did I mention fun and laughter? Anger is a toxin to the liver; let go of anger and revel in fun, love, and laughter.

Raw food fast for 3 days:  lots of local and seasonal berries / fruit in AM with nuts and seeds and then vegetable salads and raw nuts and seeds at noon & PM meals.

***If pre-diabetic, diabetic, or you have any metabolic syndrome issues (where you need to not have high levels of blood sugar surging through your system) keep your intake of fruit conservative and eat more vegetables. 

Raw root veggie and cabbage slaws are great in fall and winter for the raw, seasonal veggies.

AM liver flush before any food:  juice of 1 whole lemon, 1-2 tsp olive oil, pinch of unrefined sea salt. You can use this simple liver flush in the PM and/or the AM.  

I have clients who do it in the AM because they drink their Essiac detox tea at night.

Detox infusion:  purchase an ounce of each of these herbs:  cut burdock root, cut dandelion root, nettle leaf, dandelion leaf, and red clover blossom.

Each night heat 1 quart of water, stainless steel pot please.  When water is simmering turn to very low heat and simmer 1 tsp. each of the burdock and dandelion roots for 10 minutes.  This is a very gentle simmer with the cover on the pot.

After the ten minutes, shut off the heat and have 1 tsp. each of the dandelion, nettle, and red clover.  Add to pot, stir to get wet and cover pot.  Let it sit over night to steep, pot covered.  Strain into quart canning jar in AM and drink 3-4 cups over the course of the day.

Relaxing habits when doing a liver nourishing cleanse:  Plenty of fluids; lots of good, restful sleep, eating in a calm environment (without screens) and chewing very slowly and thoroughly, yoga, massage, relaxing by the fire or under a favorite tree (seasonally dependent behaviors!) while reading a good book…the point is to nurture the whole you and make your liver feel at peace and loved.

When to nourish the liver:  Ideally 4 times a year at the spring and fall equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices.  I recommend waiting past the Winter Solstice, after the December holidays, for obvious reasons! 

Milk thistle is a good herb to take for liver nourishing and rebuilding.  It can be added to the above dandelion, etc. herb tea. Milk thistle is a seed and needs to be added and simmer with roots and/or barks.

http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/making-herbal-infusions-teas/

Capsules, tinctures, teas of milk thistle are good options as a single herb or as a combination herbal formula with turmeric and perhaps ginger…

Taking milk thistle for a couple of weeks after a three day nourishing cleanse can help to nourish and rebuild the liver.  You can make milk thistle into a tea with nettles.  Again, simmer the milk thistle seeds, very gently for 10 minutes before adding the nettle leaves. Shut off the heat before you add nettle leaves and allow the herbs to infuse, covered, for at least 4 hours.

If you would prefer to do a more intense liver nourishing (that is pre-packaged for you, creating ease), go to this website:  www.herbdoc.com  and search under the 5 day detox programs for the liver cleanse.  It is a very complete liver cleanse kit with a well written book explaining liver cleansing and its benefits to your health and longevity.  Think of it as nourishing your liver, fortifying it with the nutrients it needs to do its blood filtering job well.

Dr. Schulze’s products are top of the line and use high quality herbs. They tend to be a bit more expensive but quality is quality.

You can do a more intense, longer, liver / organ cleanse by putting the materials together yourself and following the cleanse for more than 3 days

• Whole foods, raw
• Herbal teas
• Fresh made juices
• Lots of pure water (no chlorine and flouride from municipal water supply; both are toxins to body cells and your liver.)
• AM flush

If you have diabetic tendencies do not do a "juice or herbal tea" only liver cleanse.  Eat food and keep your protein level up.

Need help? Give me a shout.

The Final Tip: Divine Weight Loss

This is it... the final weight loss tip coming to you with LOVE. 

Truly, I could write many more. I want to inspire you and not overwhelm.

Final Divine Weight Loss Tip:

Gratitude:  An attitude of gratitude for everything in your life and all you are as a divine human being does wonders in the quest to make healthy choices. When you see yourself, truly for the divine spirit you are, the natural tendency is for TLC towards self.

Practice gratitude for you. 

Every AM, wake up and make your first thought about what you are grateful for today. Make something up if you have to and stick with it. Every PM, as you are shutting your eyes for the day, visualize one thing that happened today that you are grateful for. Anything counts, even that you made it through the day. Heart centered thanks to self for that fact. Each day, finding 1 thing to be grateful as the sun comes up and again, as the moon shows her face, will get easier & easier. It is a practice.

Remember: There is no perfection and yet you are perfection. 

If this sounds counter-intuitive to you, try practicing honoring your divine being every day in everything you do. Let me know how this changes your attitude about you and your actions towards yourself. I love to hear people's amazing stories about their health and healing.

I often have people say to me things like: "I can't be as perfect as you, Paula, around food choices and exercise." Trust me... I am not perfect. But, I do make choices from this space:

• Is this natural for my body?

• Will it feed my cellular health?

• Will this choice inspire my highest good on this planet so I can best serve myself and others? 

  I move on from this space and make my choices. This attitude, coming from my mind,heart, and soul, makes it easy for me to choose healthy lifestyle options. Then I slather my choice with gratitude! Much as I slather my life with butter. But that’s another story.

Strive for Purr-Fection:  Ever notice how cats are Purr-Fectly content in just about any situation? Approach life from a cat mentality and make the situation Purr-Fect in the moment!

I wish you calm and peace as you heal mind, body, and spirit and re-balance your weight and health.  

Cats being Purr-Fect:

Dogs are Purr-Fect too but in a totally different way. ; )

Divine Weight Loss Tips 1- 7&8&9&10

1. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/2/divine-weight-loss-tip-1

2. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/1370

3. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/4/divine-weight-loss-tip-3

4. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/5/divine-weight-loss-tip-4

5. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/6/divine-weight-loss-tip-5

6. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/7/divine-weight-loss-tip-6

7. https://www.paulayoumellrn.com/blog/2014/8/9/divine-weight-loss-tip-7-8-9-10

5 Shocking Ways Yoga Causes You To Lose Weight

Sacred Eating

Sacred Eating:  Meal Time as a Spiritual Time

In Eastern Indian  culture, eating is a spiritual experience. Truly, living is a spiritual experience and they recognize this. Native Americans always gave thanks to all the spirits of the food they ate, be it plant or animal based food. Eating was always viewed as sacred in our culture.   People were grateful to the earth and all beings involved in providing the food that graced our tables.

In comes modern living and people with way too busy lives who have learned to gobble food while on the run.  Smoothies to chug while racing about the house getting tasks accomplished, omelets being eaten in the car with disastrous results  (Yes, I had one lady tell me a funny "omelet in the car story" and how she reserves omelets for weekend breakfasts only.  I have had equally disastrous results with grated beet salad in the car.  Not a good idea; beets stain everything), and far too many drive through eateries dot our landscapes making eating a mindless commodity for the run, run, run of life.

We have lost the art of mindfulness around that which feeds our each and every body cell; not to mention feeds our minds and souls.

When I was a kid (Oh no, groan... here come the stories of "barefoot to school, uphill both ways!"), I had an internal time clock. I just knew I had to be home at 5 PM for family dinner time.  No watch or cell phone in my pocket to remind me; we were just very aware, on an unconscious level that we needed to scramble home at 4:55 PM.  I am not certain of the consequences of a missed dinner.  I never stepped over that line.  Family dinner time, eating the evening meal together, was an unspoken sacred family time.

Take a moment and think about how you can slow down your daily life to incorporate peace around meals.  Meals where you actually sit at the table instead of finding yourself running out the door, food in hand, to eat in your car  on your way to work or some evening activity.

Sit and be still.  Sit at the table with loved ones (your precious pets count here) and experience the scents, colors, flavors, and textures of your food. Food is a very sensual experience and, yet, most of us skip right over this blessing of sensuality. 

When we take the time to give thanks for all it took to bring this food to our plate and relax and chew it slowly and thoroughly, we perform an amazing healing service to body, mind, and soul.

And, a bonus here, every extra chew means more flavor burst in our mouths, more food broken down for ease of digestion and absorption to feed every one of our beautiful body's cells... does all this not seem worthy of our time and attention?  

When we express and experience gratitude for the food on our plates and gratitude to all who made the meal possible, a ripple of healing effects roll through our body.  This literally creates healthier body cells, a healthier you through better digestion and absorption of nutrients, better sleep quality as your body is less stressed, and an all around better quality of life.

And, on a bigger level, it sends a healing ripple of positive energy out into the world.  Eating peaceful meals has a powerful global effect.  

Can you think of one small step you can take today to make meal time a more leisurely and sacred time in your daily life?  As you contemplate change, remember that no one is perfect.  I was standing at the kitchen counter, eating a "quick" snack when the thoughts for this post raced through my head.  There I stood, eating and scribbling notes before those notes became lost in the recesses of my mind and the rest of my day's activities.

Bottom line:  Eating is a spiritual experience: we are spiritual beings in a physical body.  All of our Earthly experiences are spiritual, divine.  When we treat food preparation and eating from this space, we better care for our bodies.  Choosing whole foods to nourish ourselves, right down to each and every physical body cell, is a choice we can make from a space of wellness and deep nourishment of our body, mind, and spirit.

When we approach all life choices in this manner, making choices for wellness seems like the only way to go. It is pure loving kindness.

You owe it to yourself:  slow down, relax, and enjoy your food.  Discover eating again for the sacred experience it truly is.

Native American Gratitude Prayer

We thank Great Spirit for the resources that made this food possible;

We thank the Earth Mother for producing it, and 

We thank all those who labored to bring it to us.

May the wholesomeness of the food before us, bring out the wholeness of the Spirit within us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.                                     John F. Kennedy

 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I am very grateful to all of you, walking with me on my path, as I support and educate others in their quest for health and healing.

I am grateful for all the local farmers and the food they bring to my table, feeding my family.

Be well, Much love, Paula