Every now and again we like to talk about spices and spicing up your life. Today we want to talk about an excellent spice in a little bit more detail: Cayenne Pepper.

Cayenne packs a mighty punch in heat, flavor, and nutrition. Cayenne contains capsaicin which gives it the heat and the bite! Ouch! It stimulates the body’s blood flow and improves circulation, particularly to the extremities, which can be desensitized by disease and chronic illness.

Cayenne pepper also acts as a digestive aid. It helps to create hydrochloric acid which is necessary to breakdown and digest food. Also, being that it is anti-inflammatory, cayenne can help heal stomach ulcers and rebuild the tissue in the stomach.

One of cayenne’s most fascinating features is that it can be used to bring patients out of a heart attack. When administered quickly enough, cayenne can stop a heart attack within 30 seconds as it regulates blood flow, changes the elasticity of veins and capillaries, and changes blood pressure. Also, it has been reported that capsaicin (the main ingredient in cayenne) was found to destroy prostate cancer cells.

Cayenne pepper’s list of healthful benefits could go on and on. We like to use it in everything from smoothies, to chocolate, to meat/poultry, and in classic mexican dishes. Add some spice to your life today!

Soy has been proclaimed as a health food for the past several years. While it has some benefits, it depends on the manner in which it is consumed. Fermented soy products like tempeh, miso and soy sauce are safe and somewhat beneficial to eat. The unfermented soy products are the ones to avoid.

90% of the soybeans used to make substances like soymilk and meatless entrees are genetically modified, red flag number one. Second, soy has one of the highest percentages of pesticide residue. Lastly, the unfermented soy has to be processed in many ways to be digestible at all. Soy is not edible in its natural form. Manufacturers extract soy protein isolate to use in their products by mixing the beans with an alkaline solution to remove fiber, then precipitated and separated using an acid wash and, finally, neutralized in an alkaline solution. The last step is to spray dry the resulting curds at a high temperature to produce a high protein powder. Nitrates, which are carcinogens (cancer causing), are produced during spray drying. A variety of artificial flavors are added to the soy substance, including MSG.

Soy also contains isoflavones. Some say they are beneficial, but there is overwhelming evidence that they cannot be good for you. Isoflavones are similar to the hormone estrogen, and your body reacts the same to them. For instance, drinking two glasses of soymilk a day is enough to alter a woman’s menstrual cycle. In soy-based infant formula there is the equivalent of five birth control pills that infants drink per day. It has been linked to infertility in men and early onset of puberty in females in western cultures. Many claim soy reduces the risk of cancer and use Asian culture as an example of this. While Asians have fewer cases of breast, uterus, and prostate cancer, they have a high rate of esophagus, stomach, liver and pancreas cancers in addition to thyroid and digestive cancers. Digestive cancers imply a connection to food sources. Laboratory rats given soy exhibit the thyroid and digestive cancers, too.

Soy is also full of anti-nutrients. They contain enzyme inhibitors. Enzymes are necessary to break down proteins and other nutrients and soy makes it more difficult on the body to get what it needs from food. One inhibitor is called Hemagglutinin, which is a clot-promoting substance. It causes red blood cells to clump together so oxygen is not as easily transported. Cooking or processing does not denature these inhibitors, but they are reduced to manageable levels after a long period of fermentation.

There are more negatives than positives when it comes to soy products. Stick to fermented soy like tempeh, miso and soy sauce. If you think about it, it’s incredibly unnatural to make a meat flavor and texture out of a soybean anyway. Let’s use what nature has given us without massive amounts of processing to keep our bodies fueled. There are plenty of nutrient rich whole foods out there just waiting to be eaten!
By: Ashley Dance

Issue 98: GoL Rewind:

Since the beginning of human history, people usually walked everywhere they went, and physical activity was part of their lifestyle. They didn’t have to make room for it in their schedules. In fact, mere survival necessitated movement.

With our modern conveniences, however, our immediate survival is no longer contingent on our physical activity. Our buildings, shopping centers, works areas and homes are all designed so that we don’t have to move around much. That’s not how we’re hard-wired to live, though, and this “cushy” lifestyle has translated into weight gain and lowered health levels. In fact, the sedentary modern lifestyle can contribute to as many as 1,000 calories per day not burned and a 50% reduction in physical activity. While our immediate survival may not rely on physical activity, our long-term health may definitely be tied to our activity level.

An article in The Journal of Physiology reminds us that we are made for a physically active lifestyle, but we’ve been on a downward spiral to inactivity—and it’s nothing new. In 1953, almost 60% of American children failed to meet even a minimum fitness standard for health. Can you imagine what the percentage was for adults if it was 60% for children? Or better yet…can you guess what the percentage would be now—especially considering that children have generally become even more sedentary?

The article continues and gives the scientific basis underlying how physical inactivity affects at least 20 of the most deadly chronic disorders. The hope is that raising awareness could serve as a starting point for developing additional strategies n the ongoing war against inactivity-induced chronic health conditions that plague our inactive modern society.

In other words, inactivity can bring on serious health problems—and we need to change our ways.

Among the disorders associated with an increase of incidence in inactivity are:

• Cardiovascular diseases—including heart disease, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, angina, and myocardial infarction; hypertension, stroke, intermittent claudication, and platelet adhesion and aggregation
‚Ä¢ Metabolic diseases–including Type 2 diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia, and gall bladder disorders
• Cancers—including breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and melanoma
• Pulmonary diseases—including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Musculoskeletal disorders—including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and physical frailty
• Immune dysfunction disorders and neurological disorders—including cognitive dysfunction

Those are serious side effects of inactivity.

It’s time to get back to old school exercise—even if it’s just walking several times a week. It can mean the difference between health and unhealth.

From:Extraordinary Health by Jordan Rubin

There are few vaccines that are “safe” and most (99%) have some side effect attached to them. We here at the Barga home will not take them unless it is life or death. I have been known to argue with the medical staff a time or two, but, not without doing my research. Well, if you are wondering how you will have time for that, let me introduce to you a great new site that will help you learn more about vaccines.
http://www.nvic.org/

Take the time to learn about what you can do to avoid these harmful drugs and do your research. Learning these things makes you more knowledgeable in prevention. It will also better your odds at achieving whole health.

Issue 90: From Jordan’s Desk–Immunity & the Sunshine Vitamin
Most of us know that vitamin D is important for bone health, but this essential nutrient has other benefits, too. Over 900 genes and several areas in the body—the brain, heart, blood vessels, muscles and intestines—have vitamin D receptors, or proteins that bind to vitamin D. Studies show positive health effects happen when vitamin D binds to these receptors. Perhaps that’s why research indicates vitamin D’s role in immune, cellular, brain and cardiovascular health.

Let’s take a closer look at vitamin D and immune support, though, especially when it comes to T cells. For instance, vitamin D is a powerful immune system supporter and inhibits negative autoimmune responses by modulating T cell responses. When vitamin D is in short supply, Th1 cells can attack the body instead of fighting off unwanted invaders.

That’s great, but what exactly are T cells? T cells are types of white blood cells that are of high importance to the immune system, particularly how the body tailors its immune response to specific invaders such as viruses and bacteria. T cells, in fact, are likened to soldiers that seek out and destroy targeted invaders.

The University of Copenhagen published their findings about T cells and vitamin D in Nature Immunology. The researchers report that it appears vitamin D activates the body’s T cells, which act as the immune system’s first defense against viral and bacterial invaders.

“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,” Carsten Geisler, the study’s lead author, told Reuters.

The researchers indicated that if someone comes up short on vitamin D—and about 75% of U.S. teens and adults and half the world’s population are deficient in vitamin D—T cells won’t become activated and respond to unwanted invaders. Additionally, the researchers believe that their findings can have all sorts of health implications—“from common viruses to combating global epidemics,” they say.

Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine at Boston University and the world’s leading authority on vitamin D, says, “Every tissue and every cell in your body has a receptor for vitamin D. Every tissue and every cell of your body requires vitamin D to function properly. We’re now recognizing that immune cells in the body have vitamin D receptors, which means that they need vitamin D to fully function. And we’re now recognizing that the immune cells that gobble up many immune-threatening elements are controlled in part by vitamin D.”

That’s great news in and of itself, but what’s more is that vitamin D is cost effective.

“The cost of a daily dose of vitamin D3 is less than five cents, which could be balanced against the high human and economic cost of cellular unhealth attributable to insufficiency of vitamin D,” researchers point out.

Dr. Greg Plotnikoff, Medical Director, Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis says, “Because vitamin D is so cheap and so clearly reduces all-cause mortality, I can say this with great certainty: Vitamin D represents the single most cost-effective health benefit in the United States.”

Apparently so—and now strong T cell function is just one more reason why we don’t want to come up short on the sunshine vitamin.

If you know us here at Life Fitness Academy, then you know that we enjoy great places that serve great things. Like what?… you ask!?! Well, like Kombucha, organic fair trade coffee, and great foods! It doesn’t hurt to have great service, a wonderful atmosphere, and community all wrapped up into one nice place.

The Frothy Monkey is such a place. We like Frothy because of their commitment to quality, the attention to detail, and they sell delicious kombucha! It’s a great pick-me-up kind of place, especially for me, between clients at the gym on Music Row, or a central meeting place for clients and friends alike. Frothy has recently made some upgrades to their building, like: more seating in an attached breezeway, as well as a new bar situated on the back wall.

I have to admit that what has drawn me to this place in the beginning was their name. “The Frothy Monkey”, it sounds fun and worth exploring. So I did, and every time I come in for a kombucha I am greeted by a staff that is truly warm, as I am sure a frothy monkey would be. Being in the fitness and nutrition business, I must say that I would love to see some healthier breakfast pastries, like maybe some spelt flour danishes, spelt cookies, spelt cinnamon rolls and local dairy yogurt with soaked almonds and berries. I know what your thinking, “spelt flour?” Yes! It’s easier to digest and unlike all-purpose flour or even whole wheat flour it will allow you to keep your energy up in the morning. Just a suggestion…

I am thankful there is a place where I can unwind or get a quick “pick me up” during my day. Thanks Frothy Monkey, you inspire community!