Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Have you thought about water?
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Soil as it Relates to Nutrition
One day I was shopping with my wife in one of the major superstores. I was a bit bored and found myself just staring down one of the isles, looking at nothing in particular, but actually observing the whole of what was within my view. I saw hundreds and hundreds of brightly colored boxes and plastic containers with all types of flashy names and slogans printed on them. My mind began to analyze what I was seeing. Was this really food I was looking at? Just regular old food? Well, there did not appear to be anything regular about it,not with all the flashy colors and such. All this stuff must be something really exotic and incredibly good, it all looked so attractive.
Randomly, out of sheer curiosity, I reached out a grabbed the nearest colorful box; the prettiest one. Slowly and deliberately, I read the ingredients. It began to occur to me that even though I am an above average reader and reasonably good with vocabulary, I could not pronounce exactly half of the items contained in the ingredients list. That bothered me.
If I can't pronounce the names of these ingredients, there is a strong chance that I really don't know what they are and an even stronger chance that I do not really need them inside of my stomach. I had to wonder if these ingredients that I could not pronounce were put in there for my benefit and well being or for the convenience or benefit of the manufacturer?
I put the box back on the shelf and again, scanned the isle studying the exterior of all the containers. Then it hit me, these folks are all in a big contest. All of the companies that have their products on these shelves are competing against eachother for my money. My money, my neighbor Bob's money, Uncle Joe's money, everybody's money. I could not come up with any other explanation for all the jazzy packaging.
I asked myself, "Are all these manufacturers really concerned about my good health? How many meetings in corporate offices are held to discuss the potential impact of all these whacky ingredients on my body?"
Well, I was on a roll now so I waltzed up and down the isles, looking for products that I thought might be manufactured and sold by companies who did have my best interests at heart. Oh, I found a few that I felt might actually be concerned about how their products were produced and what it was that was going in my stomach, but it was very few, comparatively speaking.
I found myself in the produce section. This is the place where we buy things that are supposed to be very healthy and good for us to eat. You know, fruits and vegetables and all that grows in the dirt. I went from label to label searching for the name of a local company, someone who raised produce within a hundred miles of my home. You guessed it, I quickly became alarmed that the vast majority of it was raised not only outside of that hundred mile radius, it was raised outside of our country!
Soon thereafter, I was able to locate my wife; her cart mounded up with all those brightly colored packages and lovely looking produce. I was a changed man, never to look upon a basket of groceries the same again.
How many of you, taking the time out of your day to read this post, are aware of how soil is designed to work? Some call it dirt, some call it soil, whatever you prefer to call it, it is the medium from which all food related items that you swallow originate from. Let me back up; it is the medium from which all food related items that you swallow are "supposed" to originate from! In reality, I guess, we would actually have to go back to 1880 for that to actually be the case and in that setting, there would be a well used garden spade, a hoe, a fork and any number of other soil related impliments in every shed or garage in America. In those days, practically every household had a garden and everyone of those gardeners had a working knowledge of soil and how it functions. If not, they didn't eat very well. I realize, painfully; those days are gone, likely for good.
Dirt is dirt you argue, nothing special about that, right?
Wrong.
Soil or "dirt", when adequately understood and evaluated can only be accurately described as the foundation of most living things. If you doubt me, please come up with the name of any life form on earth (living on or above the land) that does not require nutrition originating in the soil. That should put the importance of soil and it's condition into the proper perspective.
Here's another eye-opener for you. Soil, in and of itself, with all proper ingredients in place, is a living, breathing, manufacturing machine. It is a life form, in and of itself. That fact will come as a surprise to eighty percent of you. In 1880, it would have surprised no one.
Any good, knowledgeable gardener will explain to you that the produce harvested from a garden is only as good as the soil it came from. Of course this same principle applies not only to peas and corn, it also applies to wheat, barley, bananas, apples, soybeans, and any other food related item that requires sunshine and water in order to grow. You think about that list the next time you are surveying your cupboards for something to have for supper. Even though it comes in those nice, fancy packages, the majority of the ingredients should still come from the soil.
When most Americans shop for produce at their local superstore, they are really only concerned with the overall appearance of that produce - how attractive it is to their eye, with little or no concern for the actual nutrient content of that some produce. After all, how in the world is the average consumer going to be able to determine nutrient quality or quantity? They can't and most producers are counting on that fact. Modern science produces many ways and products that provide producers with the ability to grow very "good looking" fruits and vegetables. These same methods and products are not designed to ensure complete nutrition at the same time, only mother nature can do that. Some natural processes cannot be replaced.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Why are we so unhealthy?
This question first came into my mind years ago when at the age of 35, I was suffering from some fairly significant health problems that were causing me a lot of personal anxiety and also beginning to limit what I was able to do physically. Having been very active most of my life as a professional guide in Montana, this development in my life was a serious problem that would eventually have a significant effect upon my ability to continue in my profession.
In my own defense, I would say that over the course of my life, I had taken reasonable good care of my body in terms of what I put into it. I had been a non-smoker, non-drinker and for the most part had been very well taken care of by my mother growing up and also my wife following our marriage in 1985. Over the course of my life to that point, about 90% of the meals that I ate were home cooked from "scratch" with quality ingredients. My record in terms of junk food was not perfect, but I was not in the habit of eating candy or other junk type stuff on a regular basis. Still, at a young age, I began to have severe problems with chronic heartburn which deteriorated into an infection in my stomach lining. I had to start being very selective with what I was eating and could not comfortably eat at restaurants or other people's tables without the fear of launching another attack of stomach pain. I had been treated by various doctors for years with only short-term, occasional relief - the problem would always return with more severity each time.
I had also had a severe heart murmur from birth that was a constant source of anxiety and concern due to the nature of my daily physical exertion. There is nothing quite like feeling your heart stop beating - then to skip a beat and then restart itself at a much faster pace in order to get back into normal rhythm. This would happen as often as fifteen to twenty times a day, depending upon how hard I was working. Again, the doctors who identified this problem were not able to treat it effectively and informed me that I would have it the rest of my life and that some people with my condition would die at a young age with little or no warning. Needless to say, I was not very happy with that diagnosis.
About this same time, I started having a lot of trouble with my lower back. I had constant pain there, particularly at night when trying to sleep. I simply could not get comfortable and for most of the night would never get into any deep or really restful sleep patterns. I thought it was my mattress! My back would go out on a regular basis which left me crippling around, my back in the shape of the proverbial "question mark". To complicate this situation further, I inherited Sleep Apnea from my father (also diagnosed by doctors). I was becoming more and more sluggish due to a lack of quality sleep and absolutely dreaded going to bed each night due to the fact that I knew it would be pure torture to try to wake up and get going when the alarm went off.
Taking all of this into consideration, there were other problems as well, such as the fact that whenever the dreaded flu would come around to our house, I seemed to get the industrial strength version and it would drag on for up to three weeks before I could begin to shake the symptoms. Sometimes I would be hacking and coughing for up to six weeks. I was also plagued with a steady variety of infections and other maladies that would have me in and out of the cycle of antibiotics that just never seemed to put an end to anything.
I reached a point in this never-ending battle that I just had to ask myself the obvious question . . . . ."Why am I having all of these health problems?" By most people's standards, I was doing a fairly good job of taking care of my body - I was very active in terms of exercise, at times hiking up to eight miles in steep terrain. I was eating fairly healthy and was not really ingesting anything that would be considered by most to be bad for my health. So why? Why such poor health?
Well, the answers did not come at age 35. I struggled along for a few more years until a break in the clouds came in the form of an excellent Naturopathic Chiropractor that my mother referred my wife and I to in 1998. Through this good man, we began to unravel some of our chronic problems and after several visits, began to see some relief in many categories. Even so, the relief was temporary with the symptoms usually returning after a few weeks. A good example of this was with how my wife's neck was continually going out of whack. She would get an adjustment and feel great for a couple of weeks but again, within four to five weeks, we would be back at the Chiropractor for another adjustment.
Does any of this sound familiar? I am sure my wife and I are more the rule than the exception. Well, I am just about to get to the good part.
Due to a series of events that are too numerous to describe in this narrative, by December of 2006, we were no longer in the outfitting business and I was coming down off of the effects of serving as the County Sheriff in the area where we lived. It probably goes without saying that the stress and strain of that experience certainly did nothing to improve my overall health condition - in fact, through the course of my years as sheriff; I had developed a very severe case of Fibromyalgia that was steadily crippling me. This was on top of all the other problems earlier described. I was a mess and due to my inability to do much physically, I was slipping into depression as well.
It was at this exact point in time, December of 2006, that I received a phone call from my dad that was the opening of a door that would forever change the course of my life and that of my immediate family. In that phone conversation, I learned that one of our mutual friends, who had been suffering from the debilitating effects of a severe brain injury for many years, had miraculously recovered. This development was revealed when this friend stopped in to see my dad to shake his hand and tell him that in his case, a miracle had happened, and he was on the road to recovery. He was walking and talking normally! The last we had seen of him, he was reduced to shuffling from his bed to the couch in the living room - that being the extent of what he could do without collapsing. As a result of his injury, he had suffered from severe panic and anxiety attacks, constant headaches, equilibrium problems, super-sensitive hearing, slurred speech and many other problems too numerous to mention. His condition was diagnosed as irreversible and terminal by doctors and specialists.
In talking to him and his family members, they told me that they had been introduced to a company that provided a series of products that were designed to deliver the highest quality of complete nutrition in a form that was 98% absorbable to the body. These products, taken consistently over the course of several weeks, had evidently provided this friends' body the fuel it needed to begin the healing process and to reverse the affects of the brain injury. Over the previous several months, all of the symptoms of his "terminal" injury began to fade to the point that his wife was able to gradually discontinue most of the over 40 prescription medications and narcotics that the doctors and specialists had prescribed for well over five years.
Working with this good family, my wife and I began to take these same products as soon as was possible. Without going into all the details, I am very pleased to say that within six months, all of my major ailments were on their way out. Within ten days of taking the products, I noticed a significant improvement in the way I felt waking up in the morning. For the first time in over fifteen years, I was waking up feeling rested, refreshed and ready to get after it at 6:00 AM! It is important to note that I said "waking up". The alarm was not waking me up; I was waking up on my own. What an exciting thing that was for me. I started getting up and fixing breakfast for my family. (my wife thought it was great too . . . . .)
Both my wife and I began to feel a real difference in our energy levels and our over-all vitality. She was able to return to her daily exercise regiment without the residue of muscle and joint stiffness - a real boost to her positive outlook on life. Our immune systems are much improved as evidenced by the fact that neither one of us have had a serious case of the flu or any other malady for almost three years.
What a turnaround! It was an absolute reversal of a trend that for us was taking us down a road of struggle and depression. Today we are healthy, happy and very active. As I sit writing this narrative, I have no significant health problems remaining. I have the good fortune of spending as much time as possible in the woods and back country, hiking and hunting without the limitations of physical ailments. I go where I want and feel great doing it!
As you can imagine, as all of this was unfolding, my brain was working trying to make sense of what I had been through and all that had happened. Obviously, the solution to all the problems that I had been previously plagued with had come in the form of quality nutrition - that being the only real change I had made in my daily regimen that resulted in the reversal of my health situation. I gave my body what it needed to do the job the Creator designed it to do more effectively and completely. Makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Put your body back in charge of not only healing itself, but also in fighting daily to prevent those problems from returning. As has been proven in thousands and thousands of cases, the human body is incredible in its ability to heal and reconstruct itself so we should not be surprised with this concept.
I personally believe, over the past eighty years, two things have happened to contribute to the over-all decline in personal health and wellness and the increase in premature death and disability from things like Cancer and Diabetes. First and most importantly, the majority of our people now live in cities and urban areas and have ceased to raise or have any control at all over the food that they eat on a daily basis. They rely one hundred percent upon industry and commercial agriculture for their food supply. Are those producers taking care of their soil? Is there a possibility that their soil is worn out and no longer provides the same level of nutrients to the plants that it did twenty years ago? How confident are you in the over-all quality of food that is raised in Mexico or South America? As far as you know, do the companies that are raising and selling this food have your best interests at heart or are they simply interested in the bottom line? A very legitimate question I believe and one that we should all be asking ourselves. I personally believe that a local farmers market is a far more trusted source of quality food if you cannot raise your own. Secondly, in the incredible rise to power of our current medical and pharmaceutical industry, we have come to rely, for the most part, on synthetic medications and man-made procedures for every aspect of healing (the quick fix society). In other words, the focus for the actual healing process has shifted from our bodies natural systems, to that of unnatural processes, injections and drugs. We place all of our faith for the "healing" process upon medications and procedures that are in reality, not actually capable of any healing at all! After all, most medications are designed to knock down or temporarily "disable" a symptom of an illness or so-called disease, long enough to allow the body to heal the problem. If our bodies do not have the fuel necessary for the healing process to be even started, much less completed, then it only stands to reason that we will not be healed. The healing machine must have sufficient fuel to go to work. If it does not, it will wait patiently until the fuel arrives. Thus, the phenomenon of chronic illness, and physical ailments that just hang on and never really go away.
We are all struggling, health wise, in one way or another. Look around at your family and friends and all of those you work with. How many of them are on prescription meds with no end in sight? How many are either diabetic or concerned about becoming diabetic? How many have high blood pressure, Arthritis, high cholesterol, or any number of other maladies? Generally speaking, the people in this country are not healthy and it gets worse every day.
It is very important for you to know that I am not a wizard or an expert in any category. I am just a very normal person who has been fortunate enough to have had friends who were willing to share their experience and good fortune with me. Thankfully, I still have an open mind and try hard to apply common sense thinking with respect to how things work. It is also important for you to know that everything that I have done to improve my health and vitality has been based upon “results”. It is also important for you to know that all of the information in this narrative is very simply my opinions, based purely upon my own observations and my personal experiences. I am one of those who enjoys interacting with regular people and stand willing to help you if you are genuinely serious about changing your own destiny. I currently work for the local school district, my wife and I have three daughters ages 19, 16 and 6. We have two sons ages 21 and 17. We are currently very happy living in rural Wyoming.
If you are serious about starting and following the process that has turned our lives around, please post an entry or contact me at briggsdistributors@live.com. I am happy to answer your questions or just discuss this topic of improved health and wellness.
Best wishes,
Bill
