Apologies for the super-short newsletter today but I just saw this and had to share it with you.
Fitness author Jon Benson sent this out and I thought it was both hilarious and powerful.
Ready?
“A study in Psychosomatic Medicine has confirmed that people tend to consume food in order to self-medicate their feelings of stress or anxiety.
They call it “emotional eating.”
I know… it’s a real shocker. ; )
But this isn’t meant to be cute or light about this diet-wrecker.
This is the number one reason diet- plans fail… I’ve seen it way too many times.
In case you missed it, here’s Jon’s short story about overcoming emotional eating and getting in touch with a better way to make food work for you… not against you…
Enzymes are energized protein molecules that carry the body’s life force. They are involved in every action and reaction that occurs in every single function and cell of the body. We cannot live without enzymes. If we suffer from enzyme deficiency, our health deteriorates. Degenerative diseases are a direct result of insufficient enzyme levels. All other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and also hormones need enzymes to carry out their functions. Enzymes are the body’s labor force. The life energy of enzymes is what sets enzymes apart from all other nutrients.
Types of Enzymes
Enzymes fall into three basic catagories of enzymes:
1. Metabolic Enzymes – These reside in your body and their function is to build and repair cells and tissues. They are also a large part of our immune systems. Metabolic enzymes carry out the body’s work.
2. Food Enzymes – These enzymes reside in raw food (not cooked or processed). Food enzymes aid in the digestion and assimilation of the food’s nutrients. Heat of over 118 degrees fahrenheit will destroy live enzymes.
3. Digestive Enzymes – These enzymes assist in the breakdown of cooked (or dead) food. Cooked food has no live enzymes to assist in the breakdown of the dead food so the body must supply the enzymes. Digestive enzymes are limited in the body and if pushed beyond their reserves will borrow from the metabolic enzymes which sets the cycle for degenerative disease.
Diagram Human Digestive System
As you can see in the above diagram, The human digestive system is very complex. There are many parts with different functions that all contribute to the desired final result – complete digestion and absorbtion of the nutrients from the food we eat. With todays “modern” foods, it is obvious as to why we need to supplement with a digestive enzyme formula. This digestive system blend must contain at least, the 7 main digestive enzymes to ensure complete digestion and utilization of food nutrients. Without it, we are destined to suffer from digestive system problems. Why Supplement with Digestive Enzymes?
If you eat cooked or processed food, you need additional digestive enzymes. Our bodies were not designed to eat dead food. The act of eating dead food places an additional workload on the body’s stores of digestive enzymes and after some time, will be required to “borrow” from the body’s metabolic enzymes. By depleting the metabolic enzymes, you are now setting yourself up for degenerative diseases.
There are only two animals on earth that suffer from degenerative disease and premature death – mankind and our pets. This is a direct result of our “dead food” diets and digestive enzyme deficiency. Aside from cooking food, irradiation, pasturization (which is cooking = dead milk), processing and chemical food additives all destroy enzymes. You can see why our bodies cannot keep up with their repair and rebuild functions.
It is estimated 65 million Americans suffer from digestive problems. Antacids, laxatives, fiber, prescription and over the counter medications are used to mask the real problem – insufficent digestive enzymes and incomplete digestion of food. These products alone fill an entire isle in the grocery and drug stores. Antacids are actually the worst thing you can take as far as digestion of food. It neutrilizes your stomach acid which is an essential part of the digestion process. Now the body has to work even harder “trying” to breakdown the food in the intestines (food is supposed to be mostly broken down before it hits your intestines). Incomplete digestion causes many ailments further down the line (intestines) and affects the entire body’s health.
Seven Digestive Enzymes and What They Aid
1. Protease (digests proteins): anxiety, low blood sugar, kidney problems, water retention; depressed immunity, bacterial and viral infections, cancer, appendicitis, bone problems such as: osteoporosis, arthritis, and bone spurs.
2. Amylase (digests carbohydrates): skin problems (rashes, hives, herpes, canker sores), liver and gallbladder disease.
3. Lipase (digests fats): high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue, spastic colon, and dizziness.
4. Cellulase (digests fiber): gas, bloating, acute food allergies, facial pain or paralysis, candidiasis (yeast infections).
5. Sucrase (digests sugars): lung problems, asthma, bronchitis, seizures, hyperactivity, mood swings, insomnia, depression, chronic diarrhea, and dizziness.
6. Lactase (digests dairy products): Relieve discomfort caused by lactose intolerance
7. Invertase (breaks down sugars): Splits sucrose into glucose and fructose – an acidic environment occurs without the action of Invertase.
In Europe, martial artists use enzymes to speed up recovery from injuries. On average, the recovery time is cut in half. An injury that would sideline an athlete for 2 weeks would now only take 1 week before they are healed! Enzymes are the “repairers” of the body. Enzymes taken on an empty stomach go straight to the blood to digest undigested food particles in the blood and tissues, repair tissues, attack parasites and more.
Natural nutrition supplements are the best form for your body. Our bodies were created to receive our nutrition from food. Unfortunately, today’s food is devoid of the nutritional levels they once had. Farmland soils are depleted of minerals. Modern farming methods destroyed the ecosystem of the soil. Microorganisms that assist the breakdown and absorption of soil nutrients to the plants root systems have been destroyed.
Man made vitamins (chemical form), while basically similar in atomic structure to the natural form, are missing the natural co-factors that accompany the natural form. A good example is, our bodies need salt. What we buy in stores as salt is actually highly refined into sodium chloride. Natural salt contains every mineral our bodies need. You can be sodium chloride toxic at the same time lacking all the naturally accompanying salt minerals. Not to mention the balance / lack of balance of minerals (especially sodium/potasium or magnesium/calcium balance).
The human body is an amazing creation of interdependent systems that performs millions and millions of functions (chemical, electrical, mechanical…). It is a self repairing machine if it has the required nutrients and is not compromised by toxins and pollution. It even has the ability to repair damaged DNA!
Unfortunately we live in a toxic environment and our food supply no longer provides all the nutrients we need.
Processed foods with man-made chemicals in the form of preservatives, artificial flavoring, artificial colorings, artificial sweeteners and more is poisoning our bodies. This is adversely affecting every bodily function. The toxic chemicals in our food, water, air, in our homes, cars and workplaces is continuously assaulting our bodies. I wonder why there are so many “dis-eases”, “afflictions”, “conditions” that did not even exist a hundred years ago?
By providing our bodies with what is required, our bodies can repair themselves as they were divinely designed. I am going to provide a very basic description of the needed nutrients for vital wellness.
Macro-nutrients of our food are: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. I believe everyone has the basic concept of what each of these are and do. I will not go into explaining the functions of these here. All you need to know at this point is all three are required for fuel, growth and repair.
• Vitamins – Required for virtually every metabolic process in the human body – conversion of food to energy, bodily repair, growth… Vitamins for the most part must come from food or supplemental vitamins must be taken with food (the body can only produce a few vitamins of it’s own). Vitamin’s functions alone could (and does) comprise many books.
• Minerals – People know less about minerals than vitamins but they are every bit as important (you can not live without them). They are essentially the catalyst of just about every chemical reaction in all of the bodily systems. Minerals must be supplied through food and supplements as the body cannot make it’s own minerals (it can rob minerals from another part or system of the body – NOT GOOD). Minerals that the body can use are plant based and our soil is devoid of minerals therefore lacking in our food.
• Antioxidants – Anti-oxidants scavenge and reduce the rate of oxidation (burning or rusting). It does this by neutralizing free radicals that rob electrons from molecules. Certain vitamins, enzymes, phytonutrients, polyphenols, xanthones… are antioxidants.
• Phytonutrients – Less is known about phyto-nutrients but their importance is being proved every day. The FDA says they possess anti aging and cellular repair properties. Phytonutrients consist of many other classifications of nutrients, anthocyanidins, bioflavonoids, Flavanols, OPC, ellagitannins, Resveratrol, proanthocyanidins… Some of the beneficial properties that these amazing phytonutrients possess are – anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-mutagin, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-tumor… Get the idea?
• Water – Water is probably next to oxygen in importance to the living body. The human body is mostly water. Our water supplies are polluted and even municipal water systems cannot remove all the toxins. Chlorine added to municipal water is estimated to cause 10,000 bladder cancer deaths each year. Chlorine is hard on our arteries and blamed for much of the arterial scarring and plaque buildup as a result. Most water is clustered too large to enter cells and therefore almost everyone is dehydrated at the cellular level. Greenwood Health Systems has a functional water product that corrects this problem.
It is called M-Powerment Water.
• Enzymes – Responsible for every single reaction in the body. Most enzymes come from food – problem is, cooking foods kills all enzymes. Processed foods are also totally devoid of enzymes. The digestion of food requires enzymes (which are lacking in our diets). If the enzymes required for digestion are lacking in our food, they are taken from our body’s store of metabolic enzymes (used for growth and repair). Most digestive problems are the result of the incomplete digestion of the food we eat. Heartburn, acid reflux, indigestion are common symptoms of lack of enzymes. There is a finite amount of metabolic enzymes in our body (pancreas and liver mainly) once completely depleted, our bodies rapidly deteriorate.
• Super foods – Superfoods are not a particular type of nutrient. Super foods are food sources in nature that contain extraordinary amounts of nutrients. Super foods can consist of all of the above nutrient catagories in one food source or a combination of many super-foods working together synergistically.
• Greenwood Health Systems carries several natural nutritional products that you will not find anywhere, that compares with potency, quality or price. A one time administrative fee of $30.00(Not paid by you – out of any commissions you may make – no out of pocket expense) and you have access to their products for up to 50% off. Your first order, you can buy 2 get one free. Check their ingredients and you will see they are superior to anything out there. The details of the products down to the vegi-caps (not animal based gelatin capsules) show how much went into the development of these products. If you have any questions, contact me and I will be happy to answer or get the answers for you.
• You can get the same Greenwood products above without having a monthly $40 autoship or the admin fee by going to this link (you will pay a bit more though).
In summary, today’s food is devoid of the nutrition it once contained due to farming methods used that have left our soils “dead”. Minerals have been used up and not replaced in our soils. Pesticides and herbicides have killed beneficial soil based organisms (bacteria, fungus / mycelium, worms and other symbiotic organisms) that assist in plants assimilating minerals and other nutrition from the soil. To achieve required levels of nutrition (far higher than the RDA which is actually the minimum requirements) we need nutrition supplements.
