Does Fish Oil Cause Prostate Cancer?

Odds are you've heard this outrageous headline somewhere the last couple weeks.
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous quoted studies, I've come across in a long time.

It seems that the scare going across the news these days, trying in vain to connect a link between fish oil and prostate cancer is based on some hidden agenda towards naturopathic medicine at worst, or just plain ignorance on how to interpret data at best.

First off the study quoted does not use fish oil nor look into whether the subjects took fish oil - they looked at their blood plasma DHA levels.

Second off, the study did not vary significantly in DHA values, so to draw any type of correlation here is fiction - the facts are quite clear in that. The difference in omega 3 fatty acid levels between non-cancer, total cancer, low grade cancer and aggressive cancer groups were 3.62%, 3.66%, 3.67% and 3.74% respectively, which is within normal variation - for the authors to suggest any type of correlation is extrapolating beyond the data. There is no variation.

And lastly - even if a study were to show a true correlation between high DHA blood plasma level and increased occurence of whatever disease, you would want to look into the source of DHA. Does the person even supplement with fish oil? If so, is the fish oil contaminated with chemicals and rancid.

It is VERY important - regardless of this study which results are of absolutely no value - that you do look into the source of fish oil in addition to supplementing with vitamin E. If you do not supplement with sufficient of antioxidant E, then the types of fats found in fish oil tends to oxydize and contribute to inflammation before they are able to heal on a cell level.

So yes, with supplements you also need to pay attention to quality and be aware of synergistic factors that must be taken into account to reap benefits.

Bottomline - should you avoid fish oil? No - you need those types of fats for healthy brain and cell membrane functioning. Should you look into the quality of fish oil you're taking and ensure it's not chemically processed and comes from small fishes such as sardines in addition to always supplementing with vitamin E to stabilize the fats from going rancid? Absolutely.

Think of it this way: just because blueberries can go molded, it doesn't mean that they're not good for you and you should only eat canned food. It simply means that you shouldn't eat a food that has gone bad, and with supplements there are some rules you need to be aware of as you can't determine from the look of it, whether it's a of bad quality similar as to mold on your fruit.

Using your common sense and working with someone who knows how to match natural medicine with your biochemistry blueprint solves any issues. Of course the (mis)information in the mainstream media and from pharmaceutical sponsored studies, is overwhelming and no one can expect to be an expert on human biochemistry from the one-diet-fits-all type of health magazines we're loaded with.

Be smart about your health and don't compromise quality-wise on it - wealth is worth nothing without health.

Got a question health a-z talk to me here.

Ref: J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013 Jul 10. Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk

in the SELECT Trial. Brasky TM, D

We have the right to know what's in our food.

Because food is love. Food is family. Food determines your future.
If you're in California, vote yes to proposition 37.
GMO is already illegal in 61 countries.

You don't wanna know: Cherry-picking data for profit.

What we don't know can hurt us: Industry bias against negative outcomes means vast amounts of research goes unpublished, Ben Goldacre says.

There is a systemic flaw in the core of medicine: you need to watch this TEDMED talk from Washington DC 2012. Goldacre is truly worth his weight in gold - yesyes, pun intended.

You really don't wanna know.

This is an unlisted youtube video - all the more reason to watch it here.

Killing Justice. Do We Deserve To Kill?

This TedTalk is brilliant - it gets to the core of why we are seeing a rise in behaviors linked to fear, anger and mind-boggling, almost inhuman, aggressive acts during this time.

The whole belief that we can heal pain with pain or make something right by killing another human being is so fatally flawed that it screams out loud in silence.

I used to be a tough cookie, when I was a kid. I thought that I was going to pursue a career either in the special agent force or the Navy Seals. Naturally, I also stubbornly believed that certain acts were just so despicable, that they deserved death sentence. The thing is, those who sentence someone else to death, will end up killers themselves.

And there is no objective truth seen through the eyes of any human, so we will never be able to rightfully judge something according to the deed done.

Our challenge - as I see it - is to focus on life rather than death. And with that comes the possibility of creating an identity that resonates in an honest way; where we are not left with a bitter taste in our mouth after our, culturally accepted perhaps, but deeply shallow and (self)-destructive deeds.

Settling for the picture perfect life.

I love this music video by Kimbra - everything we THINK we need in this life, only adds to misery as we spin our slippery webs, luring others in by the shimmery shallowness, only to trap them in an attempt to fill the void that is within us; that only we ourselves can fill... or rather through our faith in Him. Yes, I'll be quite frank here... I have yet to meet an atheist who is wholesome... where there is not a sense of despair in the air; not to say that believers are saved people of any sorts - there are bad seeds everywhere.

Still, it is puzzling to me how humans will believe in anything and everything but God. And even more discombobulating that some people will get downright angry if you admit to being a follower of Him. And there is something deeply disturbing in that it seems more "trendy" to speak about God as the divine in the treetops or celebrate some holy stones as a divine being of sorts. Or believe in scientology, horoscopes, stars, aliens, mars men.... christalmighty, the list goes on of what people find more acceptable and "trendy" to believe in rather than God of which there is so much evidence both in writing and actual parts from buildings and ships that goes to confirm what is written in the Bible.

Well, this was all a side note - I won't bore you guys with more of my personal faith, although it has been a saving grace for me - as for all humanity, I'm tempted to say. And thank god that He does not lower his standards to a pop culture. So no - I won't be "getting with the times" and the evergrowing newage faith tribes promoting tolerance, love and whatnot; yet ever so judgmental if you do not follow their manmade rules on vegan dieting and whatnot (...). Quite the hypocrisy. These manmade rules do not match the circle of life nor nature's path. Going to one extreme does not outweigh the other end... the solution to the abuse occurring everywhere today - whether it be towards factory farmed animals or domestic violence is not found in going to the other end of the specter -- you still tip the balance; resulting in a fundamentally flawed one-dimensional way of thinking aka black/white addictive thinking pattern that we are prone to lean on. Because it is easy - we get to put people in our beloved boxes; tricking ourselves into thinking that we have evolved into accepting beings; yet ever so busy making up rules as we go... always adjusting depending on the flavor of the day... and our comfort (...)

One might say, that the Bible is judgmental; well, thing is we all know what is right and what is wrong at any given time deep within our core. Yes, we do - otherwise we wouldn't feel "bad" when we do certain things in life... and where did this conscience come from I ask? If there is no higher power, a conscience actually makes no sense at all. Only the one who created us is able to ever judge us - so if you ever go to a faith based society and find that you are judged by man... keep in mind, that this has nothing to do with faith or believing in God - it is power abused by man - and that occurs everywhere. That's life. This life, anyway.

But getting back to settling. I don't believe in settling... with anything or anyone. Nono I'm not commitment phobic - I am all for commitment, when it is natural and it flows. The point being, settling; as in losing yourself, your values and abusing other people to fill a void that you choose to ignore rather than step up to the plate and fix it. That is actually a very egocentric and not very caring approach to enter a relationship - we enter out of need and compromise.

I don't believe any one of us should settle down with anyone before we have our own lives straight... because two wrongs don't make a right, it only makes for postponing sorting your own messiness out; a distraction of sorts. And as humans, we sure do love our distractions, don't we. 

Unfortunately, you can only suppress symptoms temporarily - as with all things in life... so the pace we move at depends on how much pain we experience in the current situation... the more pain, the quicker we typically choose to develop and move on... the sweet lure lies in the pain that we can override via other distractions - Rx meds, addictions and whatnot. 

You self-medicate on these behaviors when you disconnect from your core being. 

You no longer need to self-medicate when you heal the disconnected ends within you. 

Simple.

You Are Not Special.

In case you missed it, here's an excerpt from the going-viral commencement address by high school teacher David McCullough, Jr. Already deemed the "You Are Not Special" speech.

"Resist the easy comforts of complacency, the specious glitter of materialism, the narcotic paralysis of self-satisfaction. Be worthy of your advantages…Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things."

Lil' Kim... the lifestyle of the rich and the famous: sex, drugs 'n rock'n roll.
Does she exude happiness? How many drugs are needed to keep up this act.

The speech, basically, being a reaction to a vertically challenged generation drowning in options and narcissism - quite literally. Too many options, too little hierarchy and no common values does not make for a happy generation. It makes for a shallow, self-absorbed and compulsive generation where the drive for instant gratification and numbing behaviors is penetrating; never before in history have we seen this complete rejection of values, hierarchy and "anything goes" mentality, yet no one really wants to take responsibility for their actions - thus they numb themselves with (self)destructive behaviors.

Our current generation is categorized by spending hours on end discussing, analyzing what is right and what is wrong - and everything is supposed to be tolerated in the name of freedom. Even breaking down other people's chosen belief systems and values. That, unfortunately, is not freedom - quite the contrary.

The rise in addictions in this generation can be clearly linked to this confusion of self, no clear parental direction and that "everything goes...." sex, drugs, alcohol etc. etc.... a complete moral breakdown. Yes, yes I know I sound old-fashioned, the issue, however, is that with it, we are seeing a growing tendency towards chronic need for meds to manage our mood  - now more than ever. People are depressed; and you become depressed when you are disconnected. And you become disconnected, when what you do, goes against your core nature.
This is not about living up to some type of Mother Teresa here, it's about doing what makes you truly happy in the skin you are in.

Only you know when you do things that you need to follow up with a numbing act because you feel disgusted by what you have just done. Maybe you are not even conscious about it. Maybe it's something you have learned yourself to do on autopilot to deal with "life". Always following your work day with hanging out at the bars or binging on tubs of ice cream, or the steady flow of escorts. These are all drowning behaviors that numb you from temporarily feeling pain.

Life, however, does not need to be "dealt with". Life is a state of flow; it happens when you are connected and stand up for yourself. You still make "bad" choices, but you view them as learning experiences that enable you to move forward instead of repeating them and needing to numb yourself with destructive behaviors because what you call "life" is just breaking you in.

That is not life. Life builds you up. Makes you strong. But only when you choose to live life with open eyes and take off your blindfolds. 

I don't know your truth. I can't tell you how to live your life, because no one, except you, knows that. You can trick yourself into thinking that everything is fine, everyone else is doing it. Make no mistake: everyone else is not happy. Giving in to peer pressure does not bring happiness - it's the easy way out in that moment, but it makes you spiral downward.... disconnecting from who you are, what you truly want to be.

"Everything is possible" is the positive trait of this generation's mindset, but with it comes a responsibility for those consequences that follow whatever path you choose. Every action has a consequence. The larger your goal, the greater the risk - you must prepare for the consequences. And as of now, we are a generation characterized by kids told the sky is the limit, unfortunately no one has taught us that there are consequences we must face whether now or later. And as with all things - there are fees when we "buy" on credit.

If you're not willing to pay for the candy at the cashier - then don't eat it; it doesn't belong to you. And taking things that don't belong to you tends to make you sick.... one way or the other.

Does your doctor walk the talk?

He also owns 150,000 shares of a vaccine corporation AND sits on their board of directors.

In spite of some of Dr. Oz's advice being quite solid, make no mistake: he's not your doctor, 

but big pharma's doctor. KaChing! The sound of selling your soul for cool cash.

Nothing is more ugly than people who don't walk the talk.
You don't have to be perfect and run it - we all stumble, fall and crawl;
but if you're not moving in the right direction,
you are living the lie.

Does your doctor walk the talk?

Living in denial of your shadow.

The stronger the repulsion, the stronger the hate, the stronger the disdain for whatever or whomever... you can be sure, it is your own dark side.
Stop pretending. Get real. Switch on the light. Embrace your dark side.

Or self-destruct.

YOU ARE FAT! ...yeah, and so what?

Ad to fight child obesity in Georgia.
Is this helping the solve the cause of the issue,
or only  ridiculing it, making it even more difficult to get to the core of the issue.

This ad left me feeling slightly discombobulated, to say the least. 

My initial reaction was, "how dare they!... That is just tasteless!"

Admittedly, working with body image issues and eating disorders, as one of my specialties, by balancing those brain chemistry imbalances that are at play in combination with working with behavioral change modification, I am quite opinionated when it comes to ed triggers and body image issues presented in society.

Even though above ad is clearly crossing the line for good taste by inspiring other kids to make fun of the fat kids in school - I think it would be refreshing, if we could all get to a point where fat is just that: fat. You are fat. Yes. And so what - nothing to cry about. I am not telling you, you are worthless or stupid or unloveable - far, far from it!

Love vs. Lust.

We seem to forget - consciously or not - that being fat has nothing to do with your qualities as a human being or how lovable you are. You are very lovable! Never forget that the size of your derriere has NOTHING to do with how much someone loves you! Don't fall victim to not being able to decipher the difference between lust and love. Everyone can be lusted upon - only few are those who you will connect with on a soul level and love. You are selling yourself short if you aim for lust instead of love. Lust cannot replace love. Ever.

Yeah, you have fat. And I have kidney disease. Same, same but different.

I think a lot of us, when we overreact to hearing the words "you are fat", don't realize that sure enough, this may be said as an insultment, but in the end - it really isn't. It is just like saying "you have kidney disease". That is, if our society wasn't completely brainwashed by unrealistic ideals and a tendency to connect the bulge on your waistline with self-worth.

Health care professionals need to get the big picture of how we are contributing to poor body image and unconsciously sending a message to our clients of connecting bodyfat% with their worth as human beings. 

As a health practitioner or parent it is NOT OK to ignore the fact that someone is fat. 

And it is NOT OK to ridicule it either, of course. 

It is never OK to ridicule, whatever the matter is, so that's really not the point of this post.

Facts are facts.

If someone is overweight, we need to explain this to them in a neutral manner: that this will in fact kill them. And that's a fact. Curves are hot and scrawny is not. But come on now - we all now the difference between having curves and being obese. Obesity is a disease that needs to be targeted as such. Not a freakin' mental illness or taboo. 

Especially professionals working in the eating disorder field get terrified of ever mentioning to a client anything about too much weight, as they fear this could trigger relapse.

But guess what: clients are not stupid. And they are not going to trust someone who tells them that every shape and size is great. Every single one of us knows what size we feel most comfortable being, and we need to connect this with what is realistic considering the demands of our lifestyle.

Nervous Nellies

Messed up and sick body images that can only be achieved by starving yourself on a less than 1500 kcal diet is not something that anyone should aim for. That is where we as health care practitioners must work with the client on a wake-up call. If you are not an athlete or paid to starve yourself like every runway model these days do (often suppressing hunger pans with coke or "getting off" on starving themselves due to genetically elevated serotonin levels, which I have written about in another post on this blog), then don't go there. You cannot lead a healthy and balanced life with a bodyfat% in the single digits or a BMI below 18 (and don't forget the BMI was developed to also cater for small-framed asians - so if you are a of a big-boned caucasian descent, BMI of below 20 is probably not happening without a struggle for it). No - those people who claim that they are naturally that scrawny, often use drugs to mess with their body's set-point - and that includes cigarettes. 

Having too little fat makes you a nervous nelly. Your nerves need a bit of fat on your derriere to be cool and collected. And that's a fact.

But in the end: fat is just that - fat. It's like your doctor telling you, you have kidney disease. And hey, you need to do something about it. Or else, it sure as heck will do something about you.

Reframing our minds to accept the fact that fat is just fat and NOTHING else value based, is probably one of the biggest paradoxical obstacles right now in the health field. This is key to developing a streamlined approach to how we attack this epidemic in a tasteful and neutral manner. Without sweet lies that no-one really believes in, and that only makes for a distrustful relationship between health care practitioner and client.

Your Health: Understanding Conflicts of Interests in Medicine

There is big money in keeping you sick, fat and depressed.
Trust is vital when choosing your health care practitioner.

New York Times recently published a great article that explains the importance of finding a health care practitioner that is not bribed by the pharmaceutical industry and thus has your health interests as her core focus rather than wallet.

Be wise when choosing whom to trust with your health, for some people it is more worth having you sick and going to them for symptom management. And what about the meds you are taking? If you are working with someone with financial interests in the pharma then more likely than not, what you are being prescribed is not based on efficacy but the commission that that person gets from prescribing it to you!
At best it's worthless meds you are being prescribed, but often meds such as Statins could kill you: Statins have statistically been shown to lead to a higher death rate, simply due to the fact that this medication inhibits the body's production of CoQ10 (vital for your heart muscle) along with suppressing the inflammation marker that cholesterol is, but does NOT treat the underlying cause of elevated LDL and thus the inflammation persists!

Please repeat and read this again, and let it sink in til you really understand this!

Cholesterol is you body's defense mechanism against inflammation - yes, I'll repeat it a million times: It's the inflammation you want to target NOT the marker and defense mechanism!
And that's why people on Statins typically have ongoing issues with their other inflammation markers still being high such as c-reactive protein, homocysteine etc.

Read the entire article in The New York Times here.

References:

Benefits of High Cholesterol

By Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD ~ People with high cholesterol live the longest. High Cholesterol Protects Against Infection. Is Atherosclerosis an Infectious Disease? 

Cholesterol Levels & Cardiovascular Disease

By Duane Graveline, MD MPH ~ Despite the glowing reports statin drugs receive in the press for their risk reduction in stroke and heart attack, strong evidence exists that they do so independently of cholesterol manipulation despite the past 35 years of vilification of this substance. 

Cholesterol Myths

By Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD ~ Exposing the fallacy that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. 

Homocysteine

Medical Journal of Australia

This article is early 2004 and the benefits of controlling homocysteine is becoming more evident daily. There is no safe level of Hcy but optimal levels are <6.3 mg/dL.

Homocysteine

Life Extension article ~ Updated: 01/20/06

Both cardiovascular and Alzheimer's disease have now been linked to the accumulation of a toxic amino acid called homocysteine.

Homocysteine Metabolism:

Nutritional Modulation and Impact on Health and Disease

By Alan L. Miller, N.D. and Gregory S. Kelly, N.D.

Is atherosclerosis caused by high cholesterol?

By Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD ~ The role of LDL-cholesterol for atherosclerosis growth has been exaggerated, a finding with consequences for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

LDL Cholesterol: "Bad" Cholesterol, or Bad Science?

By Anthony Colpo ~ Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons - Fall 2005

Stop the whining already!

One thing that really bogles my mind is people who choose to whine and complain about their misfortune in life.

It's as if they want to emphasize that the cards they have been given are just so much worse than anyone else's and that life is just so very unfair. Please!

Even if that were true, so what? And most often it is not true; fact is that you just don't know every other card that other people have been dealt, so their struggles in life may not be visible to you. And really, this shouldn't matter anyway - in the end, you are you, and you only have yourself to be accountable to when all is said and done. Can you look yourself in the mirror at night and be proud of what you see? If not, it's time to change your game. Yes, my friend it really is - because nothing good comes from self-hatred. You're going to attract a lot of douche bags into your life and suffer a lot of misfortune if you lack basic self-respect. And no one with self-respect will allow oneself to sit there like another brat and throw a fit.

People who are winners are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, they simply understand the game of life and choose to play their part instead of standing by on the sideline complaining about the players.

Only people who are afraid of greatness choose to stand by and whine about those who risk and participate. Criticizing every little flaw and misstep.

Stop wasting your life on hating
- it's tearing you apart and slowly eating you up from inside.
Is that really what you want in life?

And it's pathetic, along with being a very nasty trait. Life is tough enough as it is that we really should focus on helping each other excel instead of secretly hoping they fail so that we can feel better mopping around in our own insecurity and misery (yes, that's why we looove love to see Britney's weight gain and Angelina's drug use plastered on the front page of the gossip magazines, isn't it).

We all have unique abilities we just have to care for them and to choose to participate rather than being a passive bystander, tearing others' efforts apart when all we ourselves add to this world is negativity, spending most of our so-called work-time gossiping and eating doughnuts. Imagine what you could use that time on if you decided to feel passionate about something for once in your sorry life. Imagine all those minutes - well, hours isn't it (yes, bear with me here, I too have a streak of ADD, why hours spent on gossip seems like a lifetime for me) - that you are busy stalking your exes and those girlfriends of yours that you secretly envy on Facebook - imagine using that time building your dreams - whatever they may be. All you have to do is to take that first step... yes it seems a mountain at first, and that's why you must break it into smaller achievable and measurable steps. And THAT my friend, is what makes a winner.

The choice is yours!

Life is short, choose your destiny, be your own carpenter of life and get inspired by other people to risk solid ground and go after your dreams!

Stop sitting there and whining over why life is not handing you more on a silver plate - you're not 5 years anymore so step up to the plate and you will find deep satisfaction in taking charge of your life and reaping the results that go with it!

But also know that yes, you will fail. You will get rejected and you will fail a million times.
That's just a risk you have to be willing to pay to achieve your peak potential in life. You do not get anything worth having for free. You just have to understand that there is nothing shameful in losing everything and starting over again and again. And again.

The more you get used to trying... and falling, the better you learn to recover and then suddenly you figure out the right way that leads to the top.
And there is no way in hell you will get to the top at the first attempt. Most of us give it perhaps one try max and then rationalize our failure with "well, I guess I just wasn't cut for it".
That's nonsense.

Unless you're living in a cartoon, you have to perfect your skills and experience in life a zillion times before you get where you want to be. It's not about luck, brilliance or super skills in as much as it as about persistance. And that's why most of us end up with our 9-5 jobs, married to someone whom we barely recognize anymore, eating doughnuts at our desks while whining about our jobs, kids, the weather and hating our neighbor for having less cellulite. We choose this dead life, because we are lazy dogs. But being lazy leads to regret and pain in never having experienced the flavors of life - never having connected with our call in life. Never having really connected on a soul level with another human being, because we ourselves are disconnected from who we are and what we want.

Never give up. Never settle. Never think you are not worth it.

Continue walking, running, crawling, climbing... just keep moving!

If you can dream it... yes, you can achieve it!

Barbie is dead.

Cappuccino con nata

Inhaling my cappuccino con nata this morning (yes, whipped cream comes standard when asking for a cappuccino in La Gomera where my travels has currently led me to. And hey, who am I to argue with local cuisine couture) while rummaging through a German tabloid in lack of English, I stumbled upon Barbie's obituary.

Bye, bye Barbie

And that's about time.
Considering the amount of Botox needed to erase the trace of time and any sudden emotion on her face, her veins must be spilling over with nerve toxic waste, I reckon.

And god bless us all wouldn't it be nice to break the chains of the beauty, pharma and diet industry slavery and stop this idiocy of thinking that looking like Paris Hilton, Elin King, Victoria Beckham and so the list goes on, is normal. Normal? Sure - for a 16-year-old, not normal for a grown woman. King’s thighs can compete with my biceps for crying out loud.
Why these unnatural bodies are being perpetuated as the ideal is BECAUSE they are not naturally achievable! This is simply a way of manipulating your body perception and promoting poor body image; making you addicted to diet pills, treadmills, endless botox injections and self-esteem flat-as-a-carpet. Making you miserable in the skin you are in is worth big bucks - and trust me: The Don Draper gang 21st century is laughing their derrieres off all the way to the bank.


There is nothing less attractive than self-esteem flat-as-a-carpet. It is ugly.

My cappuccino AM daily dog

Ironically, the more plastic you fill in your body to make up for that lack of basic self-worth, the less connected you often fell with your true self and values. Well, afterall you are filled with artificial waste now quite literally.


Let's just say, I am not one to shed a tear at Barbie's funeral.
She has certainly played her part in perpetuating a plastic-fantastic image that has been part of grotesquely brainwashing an entire Hiltonesque generation.

Read. Eat. Breathe. A sigh of relief.

Ben Goldacre's TED Talk on Exposing Bad Science!

• Olive oil makes your skin younger. Because they eat it in Greece.
• Coffee makes you fat. Because overweight people drink more coffee (did that latte come with a... say, doughnut by any chance...?!).
• Red wine prevents heart attacks. Because they have one of the lowest rates in France. And they do love their wine (and women... So where are we going here? You tell me!)

We have all heard these statements... based on studies.

 

The thing is that these are observational studies - meaning that these are free to be interpreted by the observer.

People who drink red wine typically eat more fresh produce, have less stress, enjoy life more and so on. But disregard all this - focus on the wine. And add that half bottle of vino on top of your overstressed, neurotic, workaholic, take-out, city lifestyle. Yes, that will sure be a life saver.

 

Observational studies (ab)used to tune in on one sole factor are at best useless as their designs are flawed and in most cases funded by some food corp or pharma - and at worst increase your risk of disease, because what they chose to focus on may actually have been a risk factor rather than the healing component.

Drinking more red wine per se is not going to add years to your life on its own - anyone with a basic understanding of biochemistry will know that the type of waste products that alcohol intake leads to in your body does not equal longevity.

 

The French Paradox is based on the assumption that The French should die like flies because their diet is fat laden and rich in saturated fat. And as we have all been brainwashed into assuming that all saturated fat = bad, it's easy to focus on the wine, no? ...And I won't say a word about the fact that screams out loud HELLO! how illogical the whole saturated fat discussion is: that mother's milk is mainly saturated fat (medium chain fatty acids). Does it make sense, without going into further science here, that the type of fat we are raised upon when our brains are still developing should INCREASE the risk of disease? Mmm. Lemme think. Nope.

...And back to the French and the paradox: they actually eat cheese and cream products from cows producing mainly A2 casein (the non opioid triggering casein type) compared to Americans who mainly consume A1 cow's milk products - a newer form of casein that our genes simply have not yet adapted to. And THAT is more than likely the real secret to The French Paradox - albeit more studies are needed, yes.

Watch Goldacre explain crap science in TED terms:

 

The Essence of LifeStylism: Narcissistic Autonomy.

Lifestylism. 

Now what is this term, veering on the edge of pretentiousness, really a cover for?

The word lifestylism seems to have found its roots in anarchist literature. The Nutrition Doctor uses it as a medical doctrine related to healthy living from a holistic perspective incorporating body, mind & soul. It is not about promoting a narcissistic isolated focus only on you; it is impossible to live a fulfilling, sustainable life without engaging the people around us. 

While the debate about 'lifestylism vs. social activism' has been raging all around us, many people have missed the simple fact that there is no 'unbridgable chasm' between the two ideas. In fact, they are meaningless without one another. Engaging in social activism without changing your lifestyle to fit with your revolutionary principals makes one a hypocrite. Similarly, to try to live in a revolutionary way, while not engaging in social activism leaves one only further alienated.

The Nutrition Doctor is your LifeStylist.

Your lifestyle should be a manifestation of your values. If you care about animal rights then your lifestyle should reflect this by you fighting for animals. If you care about your children's health, then you should set an example and take care of your own body. Actions speak louder than words is the key to understand the term lifestylism, and why this overlooked behavioral approach to coaching is the only way to successfully reach your goals in life. Forget the one way monologue couch sessions at your shrink's - you need to evaluate, assess and come up with an action plan with a partner in order to style your life the way you want it.
Say NO to more endless venting sessions ending in loads of talk, but absolutely no action and impact.
Say YES to your personal LifeStylist. Download Meet Your LifeStylist here!

Monopolizing misery.

Meet client A: She is  21, comes from a wholesome family, tall and slender, has a loving and handsome boyfriend and her dad’s credit card in her pocket. And yet she cries herself to sleep every night, covers the mirrors in self-hatred and does coke on the weekends. She has no deep traumas. Spoiled brat, is she?

Meet client B: She is 23, sexually abused by her dad since her mother died when she was in her early teens. Everyone can understand that she cuts herself to distract herself from the emotional pain, prefers vodka over water and can’t hold a job (...).

Question: Who has the right to pain of the two? 

Answer: Both. Pain is in perception. Life hurts. Everyone cries. And they both hurt equally much. It is not what you go through in life, but how you deal with it.

Everyone has the right to pain, ironically people somehow tend to compete in that area, addicted to misery and yearning for pity: Demanding the right to misery, insisting that certainly their situation is unique; their life is so much tougher than anyone else’s (...)

If there is one thing I have learnt in life, it is that everybody hurts sometimes. No one hurts more than others. And yet it seems that there is this competition going on “who has it tougher”. I don’t get it: Aren’t we supposed to change what we don’t like in life, instead of continue being in a situation that cause us to complain day in and day out.

Isn’t insanity defined by the very act of doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different outcome...?

If so, insanity is the new normalcy. 

And that is just plain sad. It is certainly nothing to brag about.

Animals know pain, but no self-pity.

If you don’t like the cards you have been dealt, then play a different game.

Why continue to play a game that you hate? That makes no sense.

Only humans tend to be addicted to misery and demand pity. It is an incredibly selfish act, this trying to manipulate others via emotional pornography. Everyone deserves empathy and love, but using emotions to manipulate is pure selfishness.

I have never seen an animal feel sorry for itself. They take the hits, and then they move on. Kittens tumble and fall, and their mothers watch from a distance, ensuring that they can handle the hit, but don’t intervene unless a matter of life and death. They learn from an early age that “hey, life hurts, and it’s going to kick you til you lie down, so you might as well learn to protect yourself, lick your wounds, and then get back up”. Even when animals die, do they demand pity and cry? No, they carry themselves with pride, and bundle up to die. That is life. Death is a natural part of life. And if one has faith in God, then death is not the end.

Pain is universal, it’s not a competition about who hurts the most - because everyone hurts. It is about finding a solution and healing the scars: Everyone deserves to be loved. And oftentimes those who cry in silence need it more than those who open the watergates in public in a vain attempt to gain pity and attention.


If you need help to redesign your life, contact your Life Stylist - we can help you out of misery. We understand the biochemical and emotional complexities when changing your life, whether you a struggling with an addiction due to an imbalanced brain chemistry or stuck in self-destructive black/white addictive thinking causing fear and anxiety to take up your focus.

Your face is just fine, but you'll have to put a bag over that personality.

Los Angeles is infamous for its not-yet-out-of high-school boob jobs and model/actress/waitress Barbie dolls.

New York is known for its fair share of Botox filled ladies-who-lunch-and-only-god-knows-what-else gold-diggers.

These godforsaken cities filled with man-made creations, gravity defying skyscrapers and the obsession with anti-aging, have such a draw to them that whatever goes on in the rest of the world, and however messed up their respective economies may be, they remain the capitals of the world. A weird love-hate relationship has always existed when it comes to New York and Los Angeles.

Either you love what they stand for or you absolutely hate it. There is no middle-ground. Everything is taken to extremes. That goes for the quest of ultimate bodily perfection as well.

So much time, money and energy is spent on perfecting what was perfect to start out with from the hands of our creator - quite frankly it is insulting. On so many levels.

Extreme measures, such as risking the dangers of liposuction with a body-fat% already below the thirties and Botox injected in girls in their twenties driven by vanity, insecurity and oftentimes a generous amount of self-hatred,  is not based on respecting your body; it is abusing your mind and soul and disconnecting from true meaning - losing yourself along the way.

And that always makes me want to say, “You know, your face is fine, but you’ll have to put a bag over that personality… because that is just one uglyass personality.”

The Price of Vanity...

30 % of women would trade at least one year of their life to achieve their ideal body weight and shape.

Kelly Brook: Does having a slamming body equal happiness?

Latest research conducted for new eating disorder charity The Succeed Foundation, in partnership with the University of the West of England (UWE), has found that 30% of women would trade at least one year of their life to achieve their ideal body weight and shape.  The research has also found that in order to achieve their ideal body weight and shape:

-- 16% would trade 1 year of their life
-- 10% would trade 2-5 years of their life
-- 2% would trade 6-10 years of their life
-- 1% would trade 21 years or more of their life

The survey conducted at British Universities by Dr Diedrichs also discovered that in order to achieve their ideal body weight and shape, 26% of the women surveyed were willing to sacrifice at least one of the following:

-- £5000 from their annual salary (13%)
-- A promotion at work (8%)
-- Achieving a first class honours degree (6%)
-- Spending time with their partner (9%)
-- Spending time with their family (7%)
-- Spending time with their friends (9%)
-- Their health (7%)

The survey results suggest that body dissatisfaction was common among the women surveyed, with 1 in 2 women saying that more needs to be done on their university campus to promote healthy body image.

-- 46% of the women surveyed have been ridiculed or bullied because of their appearance.

-- 39% of the women surveyed reported that if money wasn't a concern they would have cosmetic surgery to alter their appearance. Of the 39% who said they would have cosmetic surgery, 76% desired multiple surgical procedures. 5% of the women surveyed have already had cosmetic surgery to alter their appearance.

-- 79% of the women surveyed reported that they would like to lose weight, despite the fact that the majority of the women sampled (78.37%) were actually within the underweight or 'normal' weight ranges. Only 3% said that they would like to gain weight.

-- 93% of the women surveyed reported that they had had negative thoughts about their appearance during the past week. 31% had negative thoughts several times a day
-- When asked which celebrity has the perfect body Kelly Brook came top of the list. Let's hope she found happiness and not just another Botox needle addict.


Looking great and feeling great do go together, as it shows when you treat your body with respect. But exchanging years of life for perfection screams out loud that we are not connecting the dots: If you fail to heal your inner wounds and the reason why you are struggling with emotional eating, then you will end up a shallow, hollow shell with little else to offer than firm buttocks. And when all is said and done... we all end up like raisins in the end. So finding that internal happiness before you pursue the body of your dreams should always come as step 1.


That is why a Life Stylist is key to make for lang-lasting change and permanent weight-loss success.
When you radiate happiness from within it shines through. And you will want to treat your body with respect.

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/221215.php 05 Apr 2011 

CHANGING THE WAY WE EAT: TED MANHATTAN 2/12/11

 Last weekend I spent my free-time - rather than being outside and sucking up some much needed sun-rays in anticipation of spring - inside a dark, old building in midtown Manhattan with approx. 200 other people attending the TEDx event "Changing The Way We Eat", bringing together some of the brightest minds and first-movers in various health related disciplines.

The topic was sustainability and how what we choose to put on our plate has a direct impact on environment, human and animal rights, politics - not to mention our waistline.
Things that go beyond skin depth and vanity issues. Yes, cellulite sucks, but get over yourself already, there are more important things going on than what is happening to your thighs. Yet, most of us choose to live in denial of how we can make an impact by making a conscious choice every day with regard to what is on our plate.

Consider this...

When choosing meat from factory-farm raised animals you are supporting animal cruelty, ingesting endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. Yummy. We all know that we are what we eat, and the same goes for animals - toxins are accumulated in their tissue and you are forking it down and accumulating all that garbage they have been fed up with by the mouthful! These animals are so poorly treated and their nutrient profile so lacking in key nutrients that it is basically like eating a plate of neurotoxins. That, and it's fattening - because ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS wreck havoc on your appetite-control system and fat-burning hormones! Messing up your brain and biochemistry is what really is adding inches to our waistline, and as long as we keep sticking to counting calories in vain in the aim for a super model waistline, we are completely missing the boat. Look at all that fat-free, low-cal diet food on the supermarket aisles... if this was really the solution to your chubby hubby, then we wouldn't be growing fatter faster than you can say Haagen Dazs. Eating factory-farm raised meat that is loaded with antibiotics and toxins is making you fatter, sicker.. and probably also "stupider".

So in your quest to save dollars on food by choosing factory-farm raised meat instead of the seemingly in the moment pricier humanly raised meat products, you actually end up having to spend MORE money on those diseases you will end up with - later!

Now wait a minute! Did you really get this? 

SUFFERING. Is this what YOU are supporting? 

YOU SAVE MONEY in the end by spending a few dollars more and choosing humanly raised meat products! Think about it like an insurance - you pay a small premium to avoid going bankrupt when disaster hits. Except this is different - because unlike regular insurance, you WILL be spending an obscene amount of money on your health, if continuing to ingest those pesticide and antiobiotic-filled factory farm meats! This is not a question of if, but WHEN your immune system breaks down!

Not to mention that you have to live with this on your conscience, because this is what you have chosen to support when you buy factory-farm raised meat from animals that are:

• Kept in small cages or jam-packed sheds or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can't even turn around or lie down comfortably
• Deprived of exercise so that all their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption
• Fed drugs to fatten them faster and keep them alive in conditions that could otherwise kill them
• Genetically altered to grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they naturally would (many animals become crippled under their own weight and die just inches away from water and food)

You, as a consumer, have the power to change - not only your own brain, body and life - but SOCIETY!

You are not a victim of society. Society is screwed, yes. Our values are sick and most people have a severely distorted body image and value set. But stop blaming society, because YOU are part of society - meaning, you have the power to take control of your health and your choices reflect your value set.

Stop talking about change - it's a waste of time and energy. Talk is cheap and it leads to nowhere. You need to step up to the plate and take ACTION! Yes, it's only one small step, yes, you are not going to change your own life or society over night.. but taking that first step leads to the next... and every great journey starts with one small step... you have the power to change. You have the power to influence other people with your behaviors.

So stop for a second and think about this: How are you contributing to society? 
Are you tearing it down and indulging in the all too easy cheap way out of talking and complaining about everything that is seemingly beyond your control and thus spreading negativity in a world that is already overflowing with pessimism and a mindset of victimization and helplessness?

Feelings. You are not the only one who has them!

And yet, you look at your offspring and have the audacity to complain that they are not leading healthy lives but already at an early age seem to be turning into small fast-food addicts with ADD like behaviors and little empathy for their peers and animals.

Well, look in the mirror - you molded them... they are simply copying your behaviors! Start by changing your own ways, and you will see that the power of change penetrates every aspect of your life and influences your surroundings far beyond what comes out of your mouth.

Actions speak louder than words 
After all, when everything is said and done, we are only mammals... driven by senses and basic instincts; regardless of whether we try to disguise this fact by hiding behind oversize Chanel shades and Calvin Klein power-suits. Trust is based on instincts and actions - not empty words and half-hearted promises.

So, what's on your plate tonight? 
Are you supporting animal torture and inhuman work conditions?
The choice is yours - and not making a choice is also a choice.

You have the power! 


Start by taking back control of your health!