Pure Food Life

Anise: Digestion Symptom Relief

Anise:

Anise is a relatively unpopular herb that until recently, I honestly have never heard of.   This herb has a beautiful culmination of aesthetic and scent.  It consists of a star shaped bark that smells like natural licorice.   Anise is closely related to fennel and is indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean Region and Southwest Asia.  Anise has been used for medicinal purposes since 1500 B.C.  by both the Egyptians and the Romans.

Anise has many medicinal purposes.  It is very good for aiding digestion and for symptom relief from digestive difficulty.  Anise works well to relax the stomach, to expel gas, ease cramps, and can be especially relaxing for a spastic colon.  Simply put, anise will regulate digestion.  The most amazing thing about anise has to be its ability to diffuse gas.  Anise works to help expel gas from the body better than any product I have ever tried.  I have always had issues with gas and have tried every gas expulsion supplement on the market.  Nothing works better than anise.  I purchased some loose anise from the health shop and brewed a cup of tea with it.  Within a short while of drinking the tea I felt the gas and pain in my stomach simply dissolve.

Therefore, Anise is a good tool to keep in your cleansing tool box.  It is also good to recommend to anyone who has stomach discomfort as a safe alternative to medication.

In order to brew Anise tea:

- Fill a mesh tea ball or tea bag with approximately 4 anise stars and brew in hot water for 10 minutes.  Sweeten with Stivia if desired!

Why Cheese Leads to Calcium Loss and Osteoporosis

In the United States we have been programmed to believe that in order to build strong healthy bones and to avoid getting osteoporosis that we must consume ample amounts of cow dairy.  Sadly this could not be more of a false statement, but women all over the country flock to cottage cheese and skim milk in order to satisfy their need for calcium.  I wish that I could somehow reach all of these women and tell them how wrong they really are.  Most importantly, I would like to tell these women why they have been taught wrongly by the government’s health regulations, school systems, media, etc.

First of all, I just have to say this: Eating Dairy Products including Cheese will not decrease your risk for calcium deficiency, in fact; dairy consumption will increase your risk for osteoporosis and other complications due to calcium loss. While the reasons that dairy has negative effects on our health is a very complex and extensive topic, I would like to focus here on cheese.

There is simply nothing a woman adores more than cheese.  This is because cheese has drug like effects on the body.  This is because Cheese really is a drug.  In 1981, Eli Hazum conducted studies on cheese at the Wellcome Research Laboratory and found morphine in cheese.  Cheese also has a high amount of the protein casein.  When casein is broken down during digestion it transforms into many opiates called casomorphins.  Therefore, it has been shown that cheese has the drug like effect equal to 1/10^th of morphine.  Now, let’s talk about why cheese increases risk of calcium loss.

Let’s talk about salt.  The average two ounces of cheese contains 350 milligrams of salt, cottage cheese contains 900 milligrams and velvita contains about 800 milligrams.  Now that’s a lot of salt!  The problem is this…

“Salt encourages the passage of calcium through the kidneys where it is then lost in the urine.” – doctor Neal Barnard

Since salt actually sparks a decrease in the amount of calcium absorbed by the body it is apparent that the consumption of highly salty foods would increase calcium loss among women.  In fact many studies have been done that prove that women who do not eat cheese have stronger bones and a lower risk of osteoporosis.  A Harvard research study that included 78,000 women showed that the women who got the most calcium from dairy sources vs. plant sources had nearly double the rate of fractured hips.  There’s some food for thought!

The reason we have been programmed into believing that calcium builds strong bones is simply and cheaply for monetary gain.  The sad truth is that the dairy industry is closely knitted with the government.  Specifically, the milk industry pays a portion of their sales revenues into a fund.  The secretary of agriculture has the Dairy and Fluid Milk Board spend the money in this fund (200 million dollars) on things like advertising campaigns and fast food promotions.  They do this through an organization called Dairy Management Inc.  Yes, I know it is sickening.  For example: The U.S. department of agriculture teamed up with Wendy’s to launch the Cheddar Lover’ Bacon Cheeseburger which lead to the sale of 2.25 million pounds of cheese during the promotion time.

So you see, your cheese fixation is not a result of a health promoting governmental campaign, but is a side effect of the capitalist nature of the American Government.  My ultimate lesson here is that it is important for us to start thinking for ourselves in this world, because when there is money to be made: the money comes first.

Much of the information in this article comes from the book Breaking the Food Seduction by Neal Barnard, M.D. the president and founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.  Barnard is a true leader in his field who is changing the health industry from the inside.

Love and light

Maren

The Blood Gas Theory: The Cause of Gas/Bloat On A Cleansing Diet

The blood gas theory has not received very much attention in the scientific world outside of chemistry, and is very rarely discussed in a nutritional sense.  This is quite disappointing because; when the blood gas theory is understood many of the problems that people experience while cleansing can be understood as well. 

Quite simply explained the blood gas theory consists of the following…  There are bacteria in our stomach that work to break down the food we eat in order to digest it.  As the bacteria break down the food for us they give off gas as a byproduct of this process.  Gas production is inevitable when it comes to digesting.  This is why we pass gas every day, and would die if we didn’t.  However, the amount of gas that we produce can be minimized by improving the types of foods we eat and by combining them properly.  By doing this we create less digestive work for the bacteria in our small intestine to do. In result the bacteria will give off less gas.  LESS WORK = LESS GAS

When we eat a standard American diet (SAD) and combine our foods poorly our digestive systems must work ultra hard which produces excess gas.  Since most people eating a poor diet eat multiple times a day, they do not give their bodies enough time to fully break down meals and to diffuse the gas that is produced.  Therefore the gas cannot escape from the body and becomes trapped in the system.  Gas is like a rock in the body, it is very hard and nothing can pass by or around it; the gas acts as a wall.  This is why gas causes constipation, when there is gas in the colon no waste matter can pass around it, and it gets stuck. 

When an enormous amounts of gas is produced and cannot leave the body, it has to find somewhere else to go.  So where could it possibly go?  When the digestive system becomes full of excess gas it will permeate the stomach lining as well as cells in surrounding areas.  This process occurs through a very commonly studied scientific phenomenon called diffusion.  The gasses defuse into the cells in our body which expand the cells and create blockages that make it difficult for that cell to perform its metabolic function.  This is possible because cells consist of a special membrane or barrier.   The membrane acts like a gate, allowing certain things to enter and other things to exit in order to create a balance within the cell that is optimal for metabolic functioning.  In diffusion, molecules travel from areas of high concentration to low concentration.  So if there is a high concentration of gas in the digestive system it will diffuse to areas of lower concentrations located in other areas of the body.  This is how gas pressure builds up in the cells.

            When we cleanse our system we are giving our digestive system a time to rest.  During this time the body begins to break down excess materials/toxins that are being stored up, Releasing the stored toxins.  As we cleanse, our cells also begin to release the gas that has been stored.  Again this falls right back to the law of diffusion.  When the digestive track empties out due to more complete digestion or fasting, the concentration of molecules in the GI becomes lower than it is in the cells.  Therefore, the gas molecules (along with the toxins) begin to move from the area of high concentration (compacted cells) to an area of low concentration (GI tract).  Once in the GI the gas is released through flatulence and causes bloating.

            This is why we become increasingly gassy and bloated when we cleanse.  So the hard truth is that we won’t deflate instantaneously upon embarking on a cleansing diet.  This further also ties into why we would feel more bloated and full after eating vegetables than we would after eating something dense like a chocolate bar.  This is because the vegetables are cleansing and awaken old gas more so then a dense chocolate bar, which will further compact the body, allowing the gas to stay dormant within the cells.

New Post Soon

Hello Everyone!

I am sorry that i have not posted in a while. I have been very busy working on Butter Your Body, school work, and am currently now getting my certification in Iridology from the New York School of Iridology. I will be posting an article some time tomorrow or the next day. Thank you for your patience!

Action and Reaction

Within our lives we bring passion and joy, sadness, hope, and help.  Within our lives we push for change; we push for cause.  What happens exactly?  Answer: the world reacts to our actions.  For every environmental inquiry there is an environmental response: a reaction… a ricochet.  This is the point, is it not?  Is that what we are all really doing in life, manipulating our world by making it respond to our stimuli?  That’s exactly what we are doing. No not only the good in the world are doing it, we all are.  Changing through action and reaction is embedded into the universal order, it manifests itself though every touch and tongue that slips past our lips or our limbs in this life.  This is certainly a powerful concept; is it not?  The mental conception of this ultimate power that lies within us all is nothing short of powerful, wouldn’t you agree?  Beyond that though, think for just a second, what is it all for?

Where do our changes go, where does our passion go when we do?  When we die?  In the last moments of life, when our cells spark; reflecting that supernova effect of the shining star in all living beings and then diming forever.  What happens to the passion?  What happens to the ability to manipulate and change?  Do these abilities die too?  Within every worldly second, human stars die. They die like little palpitations filling to their capacity and then busting like boils… all over this world.  The human skin, being the barrier between the boil’s innards and the outside world.  As the boil bursts and our inner contents explode in that last shine of light; so does the passion.  Where does this energy go without a body to move it?  Does it die too, or dissipate into the nothingness of ignorance?  Within this, what happens?  What happens to our purpose?  Is it suddenly rendered meaningless since it is no longer usable, tangible, or changeable?  The answer lies within the lives that are left among the living.  The lives that were involuntarily, or perhaps voluntarily violated by the passions that spill forth from the busted bodies that litter the world every second.  Again, with every action there is reaction; with each simulation: there is a response.  Whether that response is good or bad, and whether that manipulation had an altruistic soul or a narcissistic one is irrelevant to the fact that it always happens.  Since it always does, and it always will.  The point being that yes: our actions do continue to effect the world’s responses beyond our death because they are fulfilled by those who reacted to our stimuli while we were alive.  While we were doing the stimulating.

There is a constant flux in the world, a flux between the good intention and bad: both the positive and negative reaction.  They are all reactions none the less; are they not?  The battle lies in intention, do the negative reactions outweigh the positive ones in society?  Is the rippling effect of good or evil reining over the other?  The question is one that cannot be answered, because that answer lies within the beholder.  The holder of the crystal ball is the one with the answer, but he can only answer the question for himself.  So as we stimulate our environment from day to day we must be the judge of our intention; be aware of what they are and the responses that they will cause.  Just do not be fooled, as the law says: with every action there is a reaction.

Let’s Be Honest Here

Within the life I find that many advocates, teachers, nutritionists, authors, life coaches, and other types of members of the educational aspect of society pride themselves on the notion of their new found perfection through the methods that they proclaim.  My use of the term perfectionist here is very particular in pertaining to members of the health life, but it also applies to everyone.  What I mean is that they may claim to be in balance with nature, to not be tempted by propelling factors of society, or to never be tempted by not so healthful foods, or not so healthful behaviors and thoughts.  As true as their claims may be, I find their mantras to be a little false at times or at least exaggerated.  Members of the health community may want to portray an image of perfection of their way of life to their clients in order to appear more successful and to give themselves a more authoritative voice.  Which is understandable, how can you sell a T.V. set if you tell your clients it doesn’t work right?  It is pretty easy to hide behind a pretty website or a fancy book cover.  Furthermore, it is even easier to hide behind words.  The words in publications by various people tend to stand as the end all of someone’s life style and emotional well being; what they say on their websites and books is what the reader will believe.  It is also what the reader wants to believe.  One smart nutritionist once told me that to be a teacher you have to walk the walk and talk the talk.  But how many of us have talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk, at least once in a while when no one was looking?  Is it not crazy to assume that every life coach’s life is not perfect?  That they are not entirely happy or not dealing with personal battles similar to the ones their clients may be going through?

What is typically more common among people in all of life to want to appear a certain way or perfect to their peers.  For example, this notion manifests itself in the diet aspect of the health life.  Many people who put labels on their diets such as raw foodist, raw vegan, high raw, vegan, place-favorite-blood-type-diet-here, think that is important for everyone to know that they always eat that way.  They may always order a plain salad when they go out to eat with friends but snack on the occasional bag of chips when no one is looking.  Then if asked what their dietary habits are like they may fully eradicate that bag of chips from their answer.  The point here is that not everyone eats perfectly according to their label and may even lie about their habits out of shame.  This simply should not be the case.  Life is about progression not ultimate perfection, because perfection my friends is simply not possible.  Not to mention that everyone’s version of holistic perfection differs from one another.  In another instance one may lie about stress levels, a person who is providing nutritional consultation to an anxiety sufferer may not want to tell their client that they too sometimes suffer from anxious thoughts? This brings me to my next point: that people have no problem telling you the way they were in the past but don’t really dwell on the way they are today.  For instance on many websites holistic practitioners and bloggers may list the problems they had before changing their lifestyle habits but rarely include their current transformations in their textual database.  This is quite sad because it does not dignify the journey.  Those of us who pride ourselves on our journey to a happier state of mind may find themselves skipping to the end of the story before they get there.

Again I want to reiterate that this is a normal aspect of human nature.  We all want our peers to view us in a certain way.  Everyone wants to appear on top of the world and in control.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The one thing that I think needs to change is the level of honesty that we have in our work.  There is nothing wrong with talking about a current struggle we are facing or a slipup that we had “that one time.”  In fact admitting to our imperfections whatever they may be can only increase our levels of integrity and sincerity.  They may also increase our ability to see our own journeys.

Look, I am not going to sit behind this blog and tell you that I’m perfect.  Hey here we go, no I do not eat only vegetables all the time.  Yes I am still sometimes influenced by thoughts that are lodged in a dying eating disorder.  Sometimes I cheat.  Sometimes I sleep too late.  I get stressed out, I over eat, I under eat.  I have not fully understood the capacity of my own mind and do not fully understand the internal forces that have driven me to make both positive and negative social and emotional decisions in my lifetime.  BUT! I have made progress.  I am smarter, stronger, better, more positive, less disordered, and more relaxed than I used to be.  My health is 100 percent better than it used to be, but it still has room for improvement.  Yes I get a headache or a stomach ache sometimes.  If you come to me for advice I would provide you with much more intelligent and wise incite than I would have a few years ago.  But would it be perfect, probably not?  Am I still growing as a person, yes I am.

So the end point of this article is that let’s be honest with each other, I respect the person who tells me that they drank too much last night way more than the person who claims to eat raw all the time and never drink.  For those of us who have reached our goals and practice what we preach, or those of us who admit to imperfection.  Rock on.  When we step out of our humanistic egos we truly embody the holistic spirit.  So come on; let’s be honest here.

New Beginnings: A Revision

Our society pines itself on the notion of new beginnings.  We love the idea of being able to start over; to start fresh.  This is reflected in many aspects of our lives.  For instance, think of New Year’s resolutions.  New year’s resolutions generally always involve changing something about ourselves, whether that be our behaviors, our appearances, our success in business, etc.  Also, think of how many times we have been unhappy with something that we ate today and vowed not to eat it the next day.  The typical procrastinator’s mantra, “There is always tomorrow,” and, “Tomorrow is a new day.”

This societal mind frame is indicative of a problem that dives much deeper underneath the skin than simply the idea of procrastination and humanistic desire for self improvement.  It is an indirect symptom of the self-hate and dissatisfaction with ourselves that we all feel on some level.  In our modern world we are constantly being stimulated by unnecessary comparisons to other people that spark unnecessary competition.  I can’t walk down the street without seeing an ad that forces me to compare myself to the person in the ad.  Every conversation that one has concerning socioeconomic status, jobs, and salary, sparks a very conscious comparison to whomever each person is talking to or about.  Sometimes I wish that I could just walk around with a delete button and that every time I see something that I do not like, that makes me feel insecure or that I feel can make another person insecure, that I could simply delete it.  This constant comparison and competition that goes on between all human beings may lead to expansion, but it also leads to the decomposition of our self esteem, our general joy of life and our self-love.  Ultimately this competition does nothing for any of the players, it just leaves them loathing themselves for what they have done in the past, hating themselves for lack of success and depressed.   As a society we are so out of touch with the notion of comparison and competition how it goes on from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic levels of our civilization that we do not even realize how it is deteriorating us and effecting us.

Here my goal is to make you aware of this competition and how it works, and then perhaps you can examine the role that it plays in your life.  Becoming aware of this subliminal cause of self-hatred is also the first thing that we can do to reverse it.  While it is not something that can be changed overnight, in the same way that we cannot cleanse our bodies overnight, it is something that we can improve upon by being aware of its active role in our daily lives.  Also, while we may not want to or be able to stop comparing ourselves right away it is helpful to know what it does to our emotional well-being.  Awareness is the first step to absolution here.

Furthermore, going back to my original notion of new beginnings, while it is nearly impossible to keep yourself from competing with an individual or ideal that you encounter in your daily life, you can start by respecting your past.  By this I mean that we can start to be more accepting of ourselves if we could incorporate what we do one day into the next and to consider the idea that yesterday, today, and tomorrow may act as building blocks that when stacked get us closer to our goals.  Instead of thinking of each day and each “failure” as separate entities that should be wiped away so that we can start over.  Whether we can accept it or not, yesterday will always affect the outcome of today, regardless of how much effort we exert trying to erase our past.  So next time you make a resolution to improve yourself, think of it as a building block, an extension of yesterdays efforts and not a clean slate to start over on.  If we take all of our trials and tribulations into account we may be able to see our successes and improvements for what they really are.  The results of the constant continuum that are our lives the building blocks of yesterday that never crumble and never falter, always effecting how the building blocks of today are stacked.

buttermybody, natural lipbutter and hand and food butter treatment

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to give you all an update on my natural body product project extravaganza! Along with the body butter I have added two types of handmade, organic, natural, preservative free, lip butters! These delicacies combine the silkiness of a deep cream with a thick base that makes a lip butter that both hydrates and adds a glow. I will never use anything else on my lips now that I have found this!
Along with the lip butter, I have also developed a deep moisturizing hand treatment. This treatment combines a wax base with a coco butter cream along with other essential oils. For this treatment one must apply the lotion to ones hand or feet and then place a damp warm glove over the hand for a few minutes. Once you remove the glove and wash away the cream your hands are left with a silky smooth sensation.
For anyone who is interested trying these products please email me. I will give free samples to the first 10 emails. mepstein@drew.edu

Soon these hand made products will be available to all at www.buttermybody.com

New Vegan Non-Toxic Homemade Body Products, Lotion and Body Butter

Dear all of my wonderfully conscious readers:

I must apologize for my lack of posts this past week, I have been unexplainably busy with midterms and such!  Although, I have wonderful news to tell all of you!  I have been working on the creation of a vegan moisturizer and body butter!  I have been working with purely natural sources of oils and waters that are non-toxic and provide the skin with much needed hydration!  The lotion I am currently the most proud of has the smell of lavender and the thickness of lush body butter.  This cream goes on thickly and smoothly.  I am working on a raw version.  I do not heat my creams personally but I have to do some background check to make sure that the oils I am using have not been heated before they are sold.  The creams I have made feel lush and full bodied and remind me of a day at the spa.  We all love anointing our skins with creams and products to improve its overall appearance and function which is why there are so many products out there!  But wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that the products you were using were free of harsh chemicals and animal products!  For instance, those of you who have young children could understand the peace of mind that would come with using a moisturizer on your child that would not make them sick if they accidently ingested it?  This is precisely how I feel.  We must become more conscious of what we are putting onto our skin in the same way that we are conscious of what goes into our mouths. 

                If I find that there is interest in this vegan moisturizer I would like to distribute free samples in a give-away that can be mailed to my readers.  I would also like to hear your responses on weather or not you would be interested in this product if I started to distribute it for sale.  Please leave comments on my blog or email me your thoughts at mepstein@drew.edu

 It is time that we become more bodily conscious; so let’s start here!

Updated About Page

Hey everyone I finally made an about page which includes some information about myself and my email address if anyone would like to reach me, those curious.. check it out! I plan on making a better one as my work/website/education progresses but for now this will have to do.