5 Reasons Chewing IS A Most Important Part Of Eating & Digestion

March 29, 2016 Paula Youmell, RN

The story is that engaging those pearly whites in the chew process is the most important initial step you can take for the health of your digestive tract and your bodaciously beautiful body cells. Think how many people chuck food into their faces at break neck speed, chomp on it 5-6 times, and then swallow large chucks of food.

Pay attention the next time you engage in eating a meal. Are you a chewer or a chunk swallower? All these years picking on cows for their endless "cud chewing" and it seems they had it right all along.

Get Chewing Your Cud People And Here Is Why:

1. Chewing begins carbohydrate* digestion: which prevents reflux as you are revving up the digestive tract with your chewing. The more you chew your food, the more messages are sent to the gut to get the digestive juices flowing.

Time to Move with Spring Energy!

March 6, 2016 Paula Youmell, RN

I love Spring. The renewal of life, energy, and all it brings is breath taking to me every year.

Today is March 5th. As I walked in the woods with my dog, I can feel the pull of the sun. It is getting warmer, brighter, stronger... another winter survived! I can smell scents that were not there even 2 days ago; scents of the coming Spring.

I even found a Great White Pine whose south side's snow was already melted away. I sat my butt, right in the pine needles, and pressed my spine up along this mighty pine's trunk. The sun was in my face and the pine needles under me were fragrant in the sun's warmth.

The Rabbit Hole Of Personal Hygiene

February 26, 2016 Paula Youmell, RN

My initial thought was to do a post on Smart Shampooing. My immediate response to myself was that the chemical issue runs so much deeper than just shampoo. I also held back as a part of me thinks this is all common knowledge. The more years I work with clients and students with cancers, auto-immune diseases, skin and respiratory ailments... disease after disease, I speak with them about the products they use. So many people really never thought that their personal care items were an issue: "I don't eat them."

Every day Americans and people all over the world slather lotions, potions, elixirs, cleansers, shampoos, deodorants, anti-perspirants, toothpastes, and on and on all over the outside and inside of their bodies. Few people scrutinize the labels; really scrutinize the labels for what exactly is in these products. They march up and down the grocery, drug, and department store aisles grabbing products off the shelf and tossing carelessly into the shopping cart or basket.

How Does Your Soul Shine?

February 15, 2016 Paula Youmell, RN

Recently my oldest son was watching a show on Netflix when he popped into my room with a "Mom, just heard a quote that was so you." He then spewed out the above John Steinbeck quote to me. I giggled as he's correct, he knows his Mom. I thanked him for the inspiration for my next blog post. And... here we are. The energy is perfect after my last blog post: Which End of the Battery Are You?

We all know on a deep level how we walk in this world: happy or sad. Happiness is a powerful healing force. Happiness works with the flow of life, the flow of nature, and you are nature.

Our thoughts and feelings are powerfully healing or destructive forces; for or against life.

As an RN, working from a space of natural health education with my clients, I always stress that healing is not just a physical event. My home page words: Come Back Into Harmony With Yourself: Body, Mind, & Spirit

Which End of the Battery Are You?

January 28, 2016 Paula Youmell, RN

Weight Loss, Vibrant Health, Dis - Ease of the body... How do they all fit together in some sort of sensible way? **And, what does the battery have to do with it all?**

Reasonable questions, hang with me on this one and I will explain.

I work with people, daily, on their health & well being through my online classes and 1 on 1 consultations. These people, my clients and students, are motivated to change their lives, relief ill health symptoms, and live in a dis - ease free body.

The steps to getting to this space of ease in the body (lack of dis - ease) are similar for all problems:

tease out the root causes of the problems
remove the causes of the problem
heal the digestive tract of inflammation of the gut lining, lack of balance in the gut microbes, remove food sensitivities...
calm the immune system
nourish the liver
balance nutritional intake, balance blood sugar , & balance body weight
add in healthy lifestyle habits (daily movement, botanicals -herbs, etc.), including whole food eating, that will nourish the body cells and whole body back to a state of ease
understand this is a lifestyle and commit to living these changes... well, for life.

Each of these steps are personalized for each individual's specific needs based on their body's bio-chemistry and their own personality needs.

Let's get to that battery!

I have two teen boys. Teens can be snarly, negative word spouting fountains from time to time. We were having a dinner time discussion on the role of mind set in creating disease and healing the body.

Spread Love Where Ever You Go. Let No One Ever Come To You Without Leaving Happier. Mother Teresa.

Basically, which end of the battery are you? Positive or negative? What do you surround yourself with:

negative or positive people?
negative or positive words, thoughts, and actions?
negative or positive media, screen time?

When we work to change our lives for healing, we must remember the power of the ends of our personal batteries.

Negative words, conversations, thoughts, actions, people, news, social media crap, etc. are just as toxic to our body cells as:

heavy metals toxins
agricultural chemicals, pesticides and the like,
synthetic ingredients in factory made food
factory made food itself
chlorine
etc. etc. etc.

Every negative experience, no matter how brief, creates negative vibrational frequencies in our miraculous & beautiful body cells. Just like other toxic impacts, these negative frequencies cause inflammation that lead to ill health, dis - ease in the body. Negativity contributes to a weaker immune system and the impacts of a weakened immune system: ill health in all areas (acute issues such as colds and flu to chronic inflammatory issues of lifestyle diseases, auto-immune responses, and cancer.

Your Everyday Positivity Prescription:

Every AM think of 1 kind thing you can do for someone else. Even tiny little acts of kindness have a huge positive ripple in your world and the world at large.
A positive act of kindness for self (10 minutes of yoga anyone?).
Be aware of negative thoughts creeping into your mind & stop them dead in their tracks. Replace them immediately with positive thoughts. Generating positive thoughts will become a habit quickly.
Negative people... move away. Surround yourself with positive people.
Negative conversations? Find a way to subvert to positive or excuse yourself from the conversation to go do a random act of kindness.
Everyday remind yourself of 1 thing you are grateful for.
Every night as you lie down to sleep: remind yourself of that thing you are grateful for and something good that happened that day.
Remind yourself of the grateful thing every AM.

Gratitude is the attitude of happy folk!

The power of thought is the magic of the mind! Lord Byron

Much love and gratitude for you being here & reading this! Paula

The sign on my front door:

Anti-Inflammatory Butter Recipe

January 17, 2016 Paula Youmell, RN

To my delight, the Potsdam Food Co-op recently had a basket full of wild turmeric root*. Before I could discover it, I received several messages from personal clients and Co-op members... "Hey Paula, guess what I found at the Co-op? AND, what do I do with it now that I have it?"

Suggestions:

grate into soups, stews, and stir fries
add to grated root veggie slaws
grate into butter and nut butters
grind into smoothies** if you are a smoothie person (See eBook information below)
add to yummy chai tea

Keep in mind that turmeric is absorbed and used more efficiently (healing & nutritionally speaking) when it is eaten with fat. Some plant constituents (the natural chemicals in plants) are better broken down, absorbed, and assimilated into your cells when fat is part of the equation. Healthy fat is also a great help in weight loss, healing body cells, and creating vibrant health.

So... I decided to make Wild Turmeric Butter! No, this is not local butter but I was out of Kriemhild Butter and I get tired of stock piling the plastic containers it comes in. Time for me to special order some of the 1 lb. rolls that are wrapped in paper. Hmm, they do sell a 50 pound block! :)

Wild Turmeric Butter Recipe

Into the vita-mix I threw:

1/4 pound (1/2 cup) of cow's milk butter, see image above
1/3 cup raw, local honey
2-3 tbsp. of organic, extra virgin olive oil (always make sure it comes from a virgin!)
1/3 cup organic, raw, unrefined coconut oil
1/3 cup raw coconut butter (this contains all edible parts of the coconut not just the oil)
6-7 small pieces of wild turmeric root
2 tsp. Ceylon cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. dry ginger root powder (next time I will use a piece of fresh, organic ginger root)

Then I blended it thoroughly. This took using the vita mix plunger to keep pushing the mix of ingredients into the blades. I also shut off the blender twice to scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula until all was well blended.

The next time I make this decadent and scrumptious butter I will use only cow's milk butter with the honey, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. I was down to my last 1/2 pound block of butter. Being without butter in my home is a tragedy!

Turmeric butter on toast with a fried duck egg from Nature's Storehouse in Canton.

*Curcumin, turmeric's most active ingredient, reduces the formation of fat tissue. Turmeric suppresses the blood vessels needed to form new fat tissue (it is an anti-inflammatory herb and excess fat formation is an inflammatory response) and therefore may help prevent fat build-up. Curcumin use, from turmeric, results in improvements in insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and other inflammatory symptoms associated with obesity, metabolic disorders, and even cancer.

**Smoothies:

Courtesy of: BeHealthyToday

Natural Health Education Blog