Helofuud.com

A lit­tle known fact about our obses­sion with “Milk for strong bones” is that it is one of the biggest mis­un­der­stand­ings in nutri­tion today. We have become crazy with the idea that you have to con­sume dairy prod­ucts for good health and noth­ing could be fur­ther from the truth. con­tinue reading…

If there is one thing I can pre­dict with­out any pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence in envi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ters it is that this trav­esty is going to rip­ple through the food chain in a way that our planet has never seen before. We have all seen the images of the birds and the dol­phins  but what we haven’t seen are the sub­tle and less vis­i­ble impacts of the gulf’s ecosys­tem at the lower lev­els. It goes way beyond even the fish, crabs, and shrimp. This is destroy­ing the chain right down to the micro­scopic level. Algae and inver­te­brates that are invis­i­ble to the naked eye are being tainted and killed. This will carry a toll way past our din­ner plates.

Over 80% of our global oxy­gen sup­ply is pro­duced by algae. Much of that comes from the oceans. I am not sug­gest­ing we are going to suf­fo­cate as a result of the oil spill but these micro­scopic impacts are going to have a long reach­ing influ­ence on count­less other things. To most they will seem  sub­tle but they will be enor­mously sig­nif­i­cant nonethe­less. It will be a but­ter­fly effect.

On a macro­scopic  level, the seafood indus­try will be pushed to other areas of the world with peo­ple who seek out new places to make their liv­ing. This will lead to over fish­ing and har­vest­ing and that will fur­ther lead to more prob­lems in the food chain. I sus­pect the Atlantic region will be the first to feel those impacts. We already strain the ecosys­tems of our oceans through over-harvesting so I cant even begin to imag­ine what will hap­pen with this ele­phant thrown on top.

As the demand for untainted seafood goes up along with the prices, peo­ple will likely seek out fresh­wa­ter fish as an alter­na­tive. This will lead to a greater con­sump­tion of farm raised fish which is about as bad as it gets when it comes to our mod­ern day food sup­plies. Wild caught any­thing is infi­nitely bet­ter than farm raised anything.

As peo­ple move away from seafood and fish out of fear this will drive up the demand for other things such as beef and chicken. This will lead to even more antibi­otic filled –corn raised live­stock to meet those demands. Again, the influ­ences of the oil spill  will be long felt and fre­quently unrecognized.

If you enjoy eat­ing any­thing that comes from the water I sug­gest stor­ing a lit­tle away for the future in your freezer. Don’t go out and buy all you can find or over­stock as this will sim­ply accel­er­ate the inevitable tragedy to come. Just store and extra fil­let or two away so that when the price goes through the roof or it sim­ply isn’t avail­able any­more you can enjoy it one last time. Am I being too omi­nous or over react­ing? Per­haps, but frankly I am ter­ri­fied by what lies ahead for our planet and our health.

On a very per­sonal and imme­di­ate level — today I took  my kids to the beach on the Gulf of Mex­ico. The area we fre­quent has not been affected yet but it is just a mat­ter of time before it is. I don’t know how many more times we will be able enjoy our beau­ti­ful gulf before the dead gulls and tar balls begin wash­ing up on the shoreline.

Dis­as­ter or cat­a­stro­phe just don’t seem to be big enough words to describe it any­more. BP execs have taken a strong posi­tion on “mak­ing this right” which is wise. I am sadly pes­simistic about the depth of their pock­ets and their abil­ity to cover the full scope of this over the long haul. I hope for all our sakes that my pes­simism is ill placed.

Video: CNN –Dr. San­jay Gupta on pes­ti­cides in produce.

Do you really need to wait for a study to be done or for the gov­ern­ment to tell you that con­sum­ing pes­ti­cides is a bad thing? If you wouldn’t spray a can of Raid into your mouth, don’t eat some­thing that has been soaked in it please.

In the video Dr. Gupta failed to note any­thing about GMO and in par­tic­u­lar the GMO corn he noted as being one of his favorites. That said, this was  main­stream news media and I don’t expect them to tackle some­thing so big or scary as Mon­santo. If noth­ing else  Dr. Gupta’s clout will sim­ply help to fur­ther aware­ness about organ­ics and that is a good thing.

Radio Inter­view with Dr. Cor­dain author of the Paleo Diet

I recently came to appre­ci­ate how much grains had an impact on my health after stray­ing from our diet on a few occa­sions with desert when we went out for din­ner. Both times I strayed the arthri­tis in my neck flared up within a day or so in a very notable way. This is the same arthri­tis that I was told would lead to fus­ing my ver­te­brae together within 5 years of my diag­no­sis. That was three years ago. I guess we will see where I am in another two years.

The dam­age to my neck has already been done through years of abuse with my diet. The dif­fer­ence now is that the chronic pain no longer exists.  Three years ago the pain was high enough that I almost did the surgery for relief. This is one instance that I am glad I procrastinated…

I have often strug­gled with how to put the basics of what I have learned into a sin­gle post. I think the new page on helo­fuud is the clos­est I have come so far with­out writ­ing a full on the­sis. If you are look­ing for some rapid changes to your health and weight this plan will help get you there. If you aren’t in a hurry you can spread out the time frame to fit your own per­sonal goals too.

Always con­sult a physi­cian before start­ing a new eat­ing plan. (I really hate that I even have to put that there)

click here for The Helo­fuud Thirty Day Plan

Soy — the Deadly Poison

Sorry to link this but my video up-loader seems to be act­ing up.

I hope that peo­ple will at least some­day rec­og­nize that their cats and dogs shouldn’t be eat­ing corn, soy, and rice based foods col­ored with Red 40. Even if they don’t rec­og­nize this point for their own health, at least most can see the logic for their pets. Does this even make sense? There are good pet foods out there but you have to seek them out and you will pay a lit­tle more for them. Read the ingre­di­ents on your pets food and ask your­self if it sounds like foods they would eat if they had a choice in the wild. I promise you they wouldn’t pick high fruc­tose corn syrup over a piece of beef. Isn’t Fido worth it?

I am often asked to pro­vide a list of (click here->) the foods we eat and do not eat. Here is that list.

I am sure I have omit­ted some things but the major foods are there. It may seem extreme but it really isn’t. It is a lit­tle chal­leng­ing at times only because the bulk of mass pro­duced foods are not tai­lored to this lifestyle.Even so, it is quite easy to stick to once you under­stand the effects that cer­tain foods have on your health.

If you are inter­ested, do a lit­tle research. I did. It is no coin­ci­dence that this lifestyle is a com­mon choice amongst can­cer patients. It is easy to see why when you start tak­ing a close look at what is in the foods you are eating.

I have been doing some research into this in an effort not to sound like a paranoid-hypochondriac when I finally do post, but I hon­estly don’t think the infor­ma­tion can wait.

Besides this recent news arti­cle I have found that this phe­nom­e­non isn’t iso­lated to apple juice and peo­ple need to know about it.

Below are links to the news arti­cle, pod­cast, and a research study on arsenic in bev­er­ages that I am still review­ing. You can decide for yourself.

Arsenic Lev­els High in Apple Juice, St. Peters­burg Times Finds — Audio Version

St. Pete Times Article

Arsenic in Com­mer­cial Bev­er­ages Study

con­tinue reading…

“But they are picky eaters!” This is the com­plaint I often hear from par­ents when dis­cussing ways to help their chil­dren make bet­ter food choices. What most par­ents fail to real­ize is that this is a learned behav­ior not a genetic trait. The good news is that par­ents can help their kids to UN-learn this behav­ior. The key to suc­cess lies in the com­mit­ment to be a strong par­ent, even when your kids are con­vinced you are evil incar­nate for not let­ting them have Pop Tarts instead.

When my kids were old enough to start adopt­ing their own opin­ions about foods my wife and I estab­lished a few sim­ple rules. These were the “Rules of Engage­ment” that we reminded our chil­dren of in a calm and “mat­ter of fact” tone when chal­lenges arose. If you make eat­ing any­thing into a trau­matic event you are going to fail, so don’t over-react. Remain even tem­pered but diligent.

con­tinue reading…