Gardening Naturally
Feed the soil (not just fertilize the plants) by adding compost and other organic materials is one of the primary building blocks. Start by having a soil test done. Contact your local Agrilife Extension Service for an office in your county. This will give you a starting point for improving the native soil in your intended landscape / gardening area. Read the rest of this entry
Making Better Food Choices
| Making better food choices is key to a healthier life. Start small. Pick 1 or 2 of your worst food choices and try upgrading the quality of your diet. | ||||||||
| It is far better to pick up a healthy life-long habit, than to try to drastically change your life for a short period of time. | ||||||||
| Poor | Better | Best | Notes | |||||
| Sweeteners | White Sugar, Corn Syrup, Splenda (yellow packets), Sweet’N Low (pink), NutraSweet (red/white swirl), Equal (blue) | Raw Sugar (Rapunzel Rapadura, Sugar in the Raw), Honey | Stevia, Mollases, Raw Unfiltered Honey (limited quantity) | Stevia is most appropriate for those who want to lose weight. Molasses has a high mineral content. Raw Unfiltered Honey has many health benefits. | ||||
| Grains | White Flour (especially enriched or bleached) | Whole Wheat Flour (not enriched or bleached) | Organic Whole Grain products such as Quinoa, Amaranth, Oats, Brown Rice | Whole grain products are usually darker in color than bleached flour | ||||
| Salt | White Table Salt | Sea Salt, Pink Salt | Celtic Sea Salt | Better salts will put the mineral content on the package, table salt contains refined salt and “anti-caking agents” | ||||
| Milk | Homogenized Pasteurized Milk | Organic Milk preferably from Grass-fed cows | Quality Raw Milk from Grass-fed Cows | Pasteurization makes milk more difficult to digest and destroys beneficial (pro-biotic) cultures in Raw Milk. | ||||
| Oils/Fats | Hydrogenated Anything, Deep Fried Anything, Vegetable Oil | Butter | Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Butter, Ghee, Extra Virgin Olive Oil (do not cook with), Organic Lard, Fish Oil (refrigerate) | Hydrogenated Oils are toxic to the body. Everyone should take a Quality Fish Oil supplement daily. | ||||
| Drinks | Soda, Alcohol, Tap Water | Soda sweetened with Stevia, Juice (limited quantity) | Quality Filtered or Spring Water, Freshly Squeezed (raw) Juice | Most people need around 2 liters of water per day. Add a pinch of sea salt to every liter of water. | ||||
| Meat | Non-Organic Meat and Animal Products, Processed Meat (Sodium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate) and Smoked Meat | Organic Meat and Animal Products | Free-Range, Grass Fed Meat and Animal Products | A cow’s natural diet is grass. If fed anything else a cow will get sick. Chicken are not vegetarians and should be allowed to roam and search for worms and bugs | ||||
| Food Containers | Canned Food and Drink, #3 & #7 plastics, Aluminum | Glass Containers | Tin cans, #3 and #7 plastics may contain BPA, a known Endocrine disruptor. Never microwave plastic. Aluminum is a major suspect in Alzheimer’s disease. | |||||
Homemade Laundry Soap
Making laundry soap is super easy, works great, and costs about $3.50 for a 5 gallon bucket almost full. Completely bio-degradable. 
Things you’ll need:
1 5 gallon bucket
1 Bar of soap (I prefer Ivory)
1 cup Arm & Hammer Laundry Soda (not baking soda)
1/2 Borax
Adding an essential oil is an option if you would like a scent added to your laundry soap.
Directions:
Pour 4 cups of water in a pot and add grated bar of soap (Ivory)
Add 3 gallons hot tap water in your 5 gal bucket
Add hot ivory mix stir for 1 minute, next add 1 cup of laundry soda stir for 1-2 minutes and add 1/2 cup borax stir 1-2 minutes. Add 20-30 drops of an essential oil (this step is optional).
Let sit overnite, will be jelled in the morning just dip it out, and you are ready for wash day! Great for front load washers as there is no suds!
SUPER CHARGE YOUR METABOLISM!
If you’ve tried to lose weight and failed, it could mean that your metabolism is in need of a boost. Metabolism is the process your body uses to convert food into energy. Your body either uses this fuel right away or stores it in body tissues, muscles, or as body fat. Here are five ways to supercharge your metabolism in under 5 minutes. Read the rest of this entry
Apple Cider Vinager
How It Heals
Pulverize apples into a slurry of juice and pulp, allow the slurry to ferment so that the fruit sugar converts to acetic acid, and you have a folk remedy for a laundry list of ailments. By helping break down proteins and other nutrients, apple cider vinegar may in fact improve digestion, says Bastyr University associate professor and certified nutritionist Jennifer Adler. Also, a study in the journal Annals of Nutrition & Metabolism found that adding 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to a meal containing carbohydrates reduced postmeal blood glucose in healthy people by about 20 percent; the vinegar appears to slow the release of sugar into the bloodstream. “This may confer protection against diabetes and spur weight loss. The cobweb-like substancereferred to as the “mother of vinegarthat you see floating in the fluid is believed to contain most of the cider’s nutrients, enzymes, and beneficial bacteria. According to Adler, these bacteria may help boost the immune system. To best reap the brew’s medicinal benefits, purchase raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar.
Eat It Up
Apple cider vinegar’s bright, crisp taste and more-than-a-hint-of-tart flavor work well with lentil soups, slaws, baked beans, braised cabbage, and roasted winter squash. “Bean salads and cooked whole grains also take well to apple cider vinegar’s tang. Or try the cider in a hot or cold beverage lightly sweetened with natural honey or agave syrup.
To improve digestion and blood sugar control, try mixing 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with 1 cup of water and imbibing before meals. Due to its acidity, apple cider vinegar can burn the esophagus, so adequate dilution is a must.
Treat Allergies with Essential Oils
Allergies are miserable, and millions of people suffer from them. Headaches, sore throats, coughing, watery eyes, stuffy noses, and sneezing are all common allergy symptoms, and using essential oils can help relieve the problem.
Here are some of the best essential oils uses for allergies.
Lavender is especially good at treating hay fever. Pure lavender oil is a natural antihistamine, and can relieve allergy symptoms in minutes. You can use it by applying one drop to your cheeks or forehead, as needed, or by putting 1 to 2 drops in your hand, rubbing your palms together, cupping them over your nose, and inhaling 4 to 6 times as needed.
You may also use in a diffuser or nebulizer, used for aromatherapy inhalation.
Many people find that eucalyptus essential oil also relieves their allergies. There are a few types of eucalyptus. The best and safest one for allergies is Eucalyptus . It’s great for respiratory, sinus and viral infections. You can apply one drop of it to your forehead or cheeks, just like with lavender oil, or put one drop in your hand, cover your nose, and inhale. Don’t ingest eucalyptus oil, however, as it isn’t meant for consumption.
The essential oils uses for allergies are virtually endless, but these are the top two oils for treating your problems. Use them regularly, whenever you notice a problem, and you’ll soon find the relief you seek!
Aromatherapy
by Danielle DiStefano
I feel so fortunate to have had many opportunities to attend the numerous educational seminars New Sun has offered over the years. Of course, having my mom teaching classes for all of my life certainly made a difference too, and I wanted to share one of my favorite topics with you… Aromatherapy, which is the usage and inhalation of plant oils, called Essential Oils, for improved physical, mental and emotional well-being. True aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of aromatic substances and has been a time-honored health modality for thousands of years. Essential oils and their usages are mentioned over 200 times in the Bible and they were used historically for thousands of years by every civilization. Read the rest of this entry
A Total Body Spring Cleaning!
Welcome in Spring with a “spring cleaning” !
It is important for our health to wash and clean the outside of our body and to clean our teeth. It is even more important to clean the inside of our bodies. However, drinking water is not enough to do the tough job of cleaning the residue that builds up inside our bodies. Some examples of items that need cleansed from inside our bodies are: undigested food that turns into toxins, waste that is not yet eliminated, sugars and preservatives we ingest in our food, chemical sprays and residue that have not been properly washed from the fruit and vegetables we eat, and environmental poisons in the air. Read the rest of this entry
THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM: YOUR HEALTH DEPENDS ON IT!
By Carolyn Monck
Mainstream medicine ignores the lymph system, but its vitality is crucial to your health. The Lymphatic System acts as the lifeline of the body and conducts a plethura of vital functions.
One function is to transport lymph or interstitual fluid through the body, collect waste products and cellular debris from the tissues, then destroy and eliminate these toxic substances. Read the rest of this entry
Pancreas Balance
Definition
The term “diabetes mellitus” refers to a group of diseases that affect how your body uses blood glucose, commonly called blood sugar. Glucose is vital to your health because it’s an important source of energy for the cells that make up your muscles and tissues. It’s your brain’s main source of fuel.
If you have diabetes, no matter what type, it means you have too much glucose in your blood, although the reasons may differ. Too much glucose can lead to serious health problems.
Chronic diabetes conditions include type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Potentially reversible diabetes conditions include prediabetes — when your blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as diabetes — and gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy.
Symptoms
Diabetes symptoms vary depending on how high your blood sugar is elevated. Some people, especially those with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, may not experience symptoms initially. In type 1 diabetes, however, symptoms tend to come on quickly and be more severe. Some of the signs and symptoms of type 1 and type 2 diabetes include:
- Increased thirst
- Frequent urination
- Extreme hunger
- Unexplained weight loss
- Presence of ketones in the urine (ketones are a byproduct of the breakdown of muscle and fat that happens when there’s not enough insulin)
- Fatigue
- Blurred vision
- Slow-healing sores
- Mild high blood pressure
- Frequent infections, such as gum or skin infections and vaginal or bladder infections
Although type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, it typically appears during childhood or adolescence. Type 2 diabetes, the most common type, can develop at any age and is often preventable. Read the rest of this entry
