We received an email yesterday from Dr Steven Joyals publicist, who, besides promoting his new book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Diabetes, also explained how the doctor is a big advocate of the significant health boosting properties of common herbs and spices. We wanted to know more, so had a quick chat to the doc…

TGD: How did you come to be an advocate of adding spices to the diet in order to achieve good health?
SJ: The scientific data in support of spices like curcumin, ginger, rosemary, cumin, and cinnamon is strong.

TGD: How are spices best consumed for maximum impact?
SJ: Fresh or dried, spices have a wealth of health benefits. Scientific research suggests that spices/herbs like marjoram, thyme, and rosemary may help reduce the formation of cancer-causing substances called heterocyclic amines in grilled or broiled foods.

TGD: Have we come full circle, understanding perhaps what our ancestors did, that spices have profound health-boosting properties?
SJ: Before the pharmaceutical companies found disease profitable, ancient traditions like Ayurvedic medicine understood the value of herbs and spices in helping to maintain optimal health.

TGD: How can spices help someone with diabetes?
SJ: Cinnamon and cumin are two spices with interesting anti-diabetic properties. Scientific data suggests that these two spices can help support healthy blood sugar levels and reduce the oxidant damage from diabetes. Efficacious doses are about two teaspoons daily.

TGD: What are your must-have spices for your rack and why?
SJ: Ginger (anti-inflammatory), cumin (support healthy blood sugar levels, anti-oxidant), cinnamon (anti-oxidant, supports healthy blood sugar levels), tumeric (curcumin) {anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-oxidant), rosemary (anti-oxidant, anti-cancer) are all great spices and herbs for supporting optimal health.

TGD: Turmeric is often a spice touted for its amazing healing properties. What is it about turmeric that has such a big impact on the body?
SJ: Turmerics “secret” is curcumin, and this interesting ingredient has anti-cancer properties, antioxidant properties, and anti-inflammatory properties. In fact, several experimental studies, as well as human clinical studies, show benefit for curcumin in Alzheimers disease, a devastating neurological illness!

I understand theres an issue with the herbicide atrazine showing up in dangerous quantities in drinking water, mostly throughout the central U.S. Why is this happening and whats being done about it? – Marcus Gerde, Spokane, WA

Atrazine is an herbicide that is widely used across the U.S. and elsewhere to control both broadleaf and grassy weeds in large-scale agricultural operations growing corn, sorghum, sugar cane and other foods. While its use is credited with increasing agricultural yields by as much as six percent, there is a dark side. The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reports that atrazine exposure has been shown to impair the reproductive systems of amphibians and mammals, and has been linked to cancer in both laboratory animals and humans. Male frogs exposed to minute doses of atrazine can develop female sex characteristics, including hermaphroditism and the presence of eggs in the testes. Researchers suspect that these effects are amplified when atrazine and other harmful agricultural chemicals are employed together.

Atrazines wide use makes its impacts that much scarier. NRDC reports that it is the most commonly detected pesticide or herbicide in U.S. waters, with the highest levels found in Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska. The Southeast also faces atrazine overload issues. What irks many public health advocates is that, even though study after study implicates atrazine in a long list of environmental and health problems, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still allows farms to apply 75 million pounds of it each year. The European Union banned atrazine in 2004 due to persistent groundwater pollution there.

Critics of the EPA accuse the agency of selling out the health of the American people so industrial agricultural companies can make big profits. Indeed, in 2003, the EPA estimated a total annual economic impact, if atrazine were to be banned, of over $2 billion, including a yield loss plus increased herbicide cost averaging $28 per acre. In 2006, the EPA concluded that triazine herbicides (such as atrazine) posed “no harm that would result to the general U.S. population, infants, children or other…consumers.”

In light of the EPAs refusal to consider a ban on atrazine, NRDC and other groups have taken up the cause of educating consumers about the dangers posed by our national addiction to dangerous herbicides and pesticides, and lobbying elected officials to add their voices. President Obama has promised to take a hard look at atrazine, but it remains to be seen how long it will be before any such review takes place.

Of course, organic farmers arent waiting around for Obama to ban atrazine. By planting diverse crops, rotating them regularly and employing other age-old agricultural techniques, a new generation of American farmers is learning that expensive chemicals may not be able to boost their yields enough to warrant the high financial and environmental costs associated with constant chemical spraying.

As for you and I, the best way to prevent ingesting atrazine with our tap water is to buy a water filter that employs activated charcoal. NRDC publishes a free list of water filter recommendations on its Simple Steps website. If youre on a well, NRDC recommends having its water tested annually for atrazine and other contaminants. Even bottled water producers may not filter out atrazine from their source aquifers, so filtering at the tap is the only way consumers can be sure to remove it along with other contaminants.

CONTACTS: NRDC, www.nrdc.org; Simple Steps, www.simplesteps.org; EPA, www.epa.gov.

If there was a pump failure or major blockage in the citys sewer system, it’s not be hard to imagine what could happen. All of the pipes would back up when an immovable material came through, creating a gigantic crisis that would threaten the health of all who lived in the city.

Many of the devastating plagues and diseases that literally wiped out entire cities and communities arose from open sewers and improper waste disposal. If the sewer ever backs up, dangerous health problems occur!

Similarly in the human body, big health problems can stem from major blockages and toxic build up that occur over time in the digestive system. Think again of the analogy of your digestive tract being the “River of Life” or “River of Death” depending on what you choose to float down the river (for the most part of your life).

The digestive system can shut down if it becomes clogged with toxic residue because of nutritionally deficient “food-less foods” and “life-less drinks” ingested regularly over time. The build up of toxic materials within the bowel can cause a condition known as autointoxication as the poisons in the bowel are absorbed into the blood stream, which ends up toxicating the entire body.

Why does this happen? It’s no secret that the foremost reasons are improper eating and exercise habits. Modern civilization, especially the industrialized nations, have the greatest bowel disturbances. It’s why there is a major “war” being waged on bowel cancer. We’re told that it’s a mystery where bowel cancer comes from and yet native peoples living close to the land and nature do not experience bowel problems, and such diseases as diverticulitis and colitis are virtually unknown.

Colonic hygiene is central to the overall ongoing maintentance of health and vitality in the human body. That’s why fasting every once in a while (giving the “house a rest” from the digestion of foods) is so critical for maintaining optimal health and remaining disease-free. It’s why colonic irrigation therapy is a brilliant ancient wisdom that more and more people today are using to assist with “house cleaning”. And it’s precisely why clean water and a diet predominating in whole plant foods is so critical for maintaing a happy, healthy, clean digestive system.

The further we stray from natural foods and the more we depend upon unnatural and artificial foodstuffs, the more certain it becomes that sickness and disease increase in frequency and intensity. The way we grow, harvest, process and market our food is at the root of much disease in our population.

I don’t need to elaborate on the economic factors that today play havoc with the supply of food to the masses. But again, it’s why being self-care aware is so important. It’s why we need to THINK about what we put into our bodies and to take personal responsibility for that.

The beautiful thing is that despite the overwhelming influences of today’s commercially driven society, we also have access to so many great life-enhancing things. It simply gets down to the choices that you make for yourself.

The Importance of Cleaning House by Don Tolman

Don Tolman International publishes the popular P.O.W.E.R. (Pearls of Wisdom, Enlightenment and Results) weekly eZine with over 10,000 subscribers from all over the globe.

If you’re ready to discover the wisdom and power of Self-Care and Self-Education and receive *F.R.E.E.* tips and EVENT news from Don Tolman International, join our online community today and you’ll immediately be emailed a F.REE eBook entitled “WHAT MAKES A BALANCED DIET”. Subscribe to: P.O.W.E.R. now!

I don’t wear sunscreen and never will.

I stopped using sunblock the moment I stopped being a beauty editor a few years ago. A combination of gut feeling and research told me what I was being told to “protect” my skin with was little more than a poison (and poisonous it is).

You see, the sun is a life-giver. Without it, we’d be on our way out. The amount of sun we can tolerate depends on various factors from skin type to foods we include in our diet. But somewhere along the way, we’ve been told to fear the sun. Cover up and slather up the marketing hype tells us, and we’ll be doing a great job of protecting ourselves from that nasty cancer-causing ball or fire in the sky.

So why, was my question, had the skin cancer rates skyrocketed? Why were we being told to suddenly be scared of the very thing that gives life to the planet and everything on it? Dollars of course. Scare the masses and they’ll buy the product.

Here’s an excerpt from Natural News:

The idea that sunscreen prevents cancer is a myth. It’s a myth promoted by a profit-seeking tag-team effort between the cancer industry and the sunscreen industry. The sunscreen industry makes money by selling lotion products that actually contain cancer-causing chemicals. It then donates a portion of that money to the cancer industry through non-profit groups like the American Cancer Society which, in turn, run heart-breaking public service ads urging people to use sunscreen to “prevent cancer.”

With all of the chemicals that make up the hundreds of sunscreens on the market, it begs the question to be asked. What happens to all of those chemicals when you put them on your body’s largest organ, the skin? Well, not only are we told to put them on our skin, we’re told to wear them in the sun. So effectively, we’re baking ourselves with toxic, cancer-causing chemicals.

Another excerpt from Natural News:

The scientific evidence, however, shows quite clearly that sunscreen actually promotes cancer by blocking the body’s absorption of ultraviolet radiation, which produces vitamin D in the skin. Vitamin D, as recent studies have shown, prevents up to 77 of ALL cancers in women (breast cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, brain tumors, multiple myeloma… you name it). Meanwhile, the toxic chemical ingredients used in most sunscreen products are actually carcinogenic and have never been safety tested or safety approved by the FDA. They get absorbed right through the skin (a porous organ that absorbs most substances it comes into contact with) and enter the bloodstream.

We need the sun. The days of fearing it are long gone for me. So what happens if I’m going to be out in the sun for hours? Sure, I wear sensible clothing and a hat. I also regularly include foods in my diet that prevent sunburn such as spirulina. As per my past post, I apply extra virgin coconut oil to my skin daily which, as a bonus, works as a natural protector if I’m to spend many hours in the sun.

Sunburn only happens due to nutritional deficiencies. Since becoming vegan and eating (mostly raw) plant-based foods I rarely experience sunburn. Pretty neat, I reckon!

I am very concerned about the amount of chlorine in my tap water. I called my water company and they said it is safe just let the tap run for awhile to rid the smell of the chlorine. But that just gets rid of the smell, perhaps, not the chlorine? – Anita Frigo, Milford, CT

Thousands of American municipalities add chlorine to their drinking water to get rid of contaminants like nitrates, arsenic and pesticides. But this inexpensive and highly effective disinfectant has a dark side. “Chlorine, added as an inexpensive and effective drinking water disinfectant, is also a known poison to the body,” says Vanessa Lausch of filter manufacturer Aquasana. “It is certainly no coincidence that chlorine gas was used with deadly effectiveness as a weapon in the First World War.” The gas would severely burn the lungs and other body tissues when inhaled, and is no less powerful when ingested by mouth.

Lausch adds that researchers have now linked chlorine in drinking water to higher incidences of bladder, rectal and breast cancers. Reportedly chlorine, once in water, interacts with organic compounds to create trihalomethanes (THMs)-which when ingested encourage the growth of free radicals that can destroy or damage vital cells in the body. “Because so much of the water we drink ends up in the bladder and/or rectum, ingestions of THMs in drinking water are particularly damaging to these organs,” says Lausch.

The link between chlorine and bladder and rectal cancers has long been known, but only recently have researchers found a link between common chlorine disinfectant and breast cancer, which affects one out of every eight American women. A recent study conducted in Hartford, Connecticut found that women with breast cancer have 50-60 percent higher levels of organochlorines (chlorine by-products) in their breast tissue than cancer-free women.

But don’t think that buying bottled water is any solution. Much of the bottled water for sale in the U.S. comes from public municipal water sources that are often treated with, you guessed it, chlorine. A few cities have switched over to other means of disinfecting their water supplies. Las Vegas, for example, has followed the lead of many European and Canadian cities in switching over to harmless ozone instead of chlorine to disinfect its municipal water supply.

As for getting rid of the chlorine that your city or town adds to its drinking water on your own, theories abound. Some swear by the method of letting their water sit for 24 hours so that the chlorine in the glass or pitcher will off-gas. Letting the tap run for a while is not likely to remove any sizable portion of chlorine, unless one were to then let the water sit overnight before consuming it. Another option is a product called WaterYouWant, which looks like sugar but actually is composed of tasteless antioxidants and plant extracts. The manufacturer claims that a quick shake of the stuff removes 100 percent of the chlorine (and its odor) from a glass a tap water. A years supply of WaterYouWant retails for under $30.

Of course, an easier way to get rid of chlorine from your tap water is by installing a carbon-based filter, which absorbs chlorine and other contaminants before they get into your glass or body. Tap-based filters from the likes of Paragon, Aquasana, Kenmore, Seagul and others remove most if not all of the chlorine in tap water, and are relatively inexpensive to boot.

CONTACTS: Aquasana, www.aquasana.com; WaterYouWant, www.wateryouwant.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com.

Photo: Getty Images

As Christmas day nears, I’ve been thinking about jolly ol’ Santa and his love for milk and cookies … how his turning vegan could be the biggest gift to vegan activists everywhere.

Imagine the influence he’d have. Children worldwide would be begging their parents for freshly-made almond milk with a side of raw vegan truffle balls, forget the cows, thank you very much.

So, without further adieu, here is my letter to Santa this year-10 reasons he should go vegan. I just hope he gets it on time…

1. Your cholesterol levels, Santa, would be back to normal. No more need for those pesky GP visits and poisonous pharmaceuticals;

2. Your energy levels would skyrocket, especially if you adopt a mostly raw diet. Raw, live foods are packed with enzymes, which are the givers of life. Kids everywhere want to see you around for a long time to come. Eating raw and vegan is healthy for you, animals and the planet.

3. Santa, I know you love animals. What bigger gift could you give to them than not eating or wearing them?

4. I don’t mean to be rude, Santa, but being overweight is a serious risk to your health. Did you know tummy fat raises your risk for high blood cholesterol by about 50 percent? A healthy vegan diet will have you at your optimal weight in no time.

5. Most cookies are laden with butter and processed sugar. Many of the mass-produced kind are even worse, with ingredients made up of numbers and boasting names impossible to pronounce. Santa, do you know where your cookies came from?

6. Drinking cows milk has been linked to all sorts of dis-eases, including asthma, osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes and more. Making milk from nuts is a cinch and doesn’t require harming animals or using massive amounts of the earth’s energy.

7. I hate to be the one to break it to you Santa, but that big fur collar that keeps you warm as you deliver your presents once belonged to real, live animals – defenseless creatures who were tortured and skinned without a second thought. I’ve also been told that fur has formaldehyde in it, which has been known to cause cancers. I don’t want you getting sick, Santa.

8. I know eating on the run must be tempting to a busy man like you, Santa. But I think you should know that fast food meats have thousands of additives that are addictive and fattening. Much of the meat on menus today are also full of pesticides and hormones.

9. Bacon and pork may be tempting, but did you know that pigs are more intelligent than dogs? Word has it they are intelligent as a three year old. I know you’d never eat a three year old, would you, Santa?

10. Those fancy leather seats in your sleigh may be comfy Santa, but did you know how many cows died to make them? If you compare your ride to the average Mercedes Benz, my guess is around seven.

So Santa, if you’re reading this, I urge you to take the pledge. Go vegan in 2010. Imagine the energy you’d have delivering presents next year. Those rosy cheeks would have a truly healthy glow, Mrs Claus could learn new culinary skills, whipping up raw vegan recipes to share with the elves. I’m certain Rudolph would be grateful too, knowing for certain he won’t be re-named venison when it’s time for retirement.

And to PETA, I think I’m onto something. I’ll let you take it from here.

10 Reasons Santa Should Go Vegan from Diary of a Vegan

By Rhonda Locklair

I have started several articles on my favorite subject of Laughter Yoga, but repeatedly ended up stuck. Stuck?!? That just seems impossible being that I could talk endlessly on the subject. Also impossible because I am an incredible research nerd and would love to spout out numerous quotes and research findings on this topic.

I’ve stalled all the way around trying to decide what would be the best approach to this and I finally figured out that I would just have to let the research wait for now. In my quest for valid information about this topic, I am going to finally let it all rest and just write from my heart and tell my story of Laughter Yoga. All the research can wait for later.
Laughter Yoga found its way into my life at a time when I needed it probably more than I have ever needed it. I had first become aware of Laughter Yoga several years ago, but had no way at that time to attend any classes, but I knew that it was something that I wanted to pursue one day, how, I did not know.

I researched it on the internet and found Dr. Katarias site. I was so intrigued because it truly made sense to me. As a long time off and on student of yoga it made incredible sense to me. As a student of life it made even more. Fast forward a few years as I was presented an opportunity to become a Laughter Yoga leader myself. How everything fell into place for this was nothing short of divine timing.
While sitting under my gratitude tree grieving for my father who had recently died of cancer after a four year long good bye period, I had a sudden thought that I should really go take a class in Laughter Yoga. I knew that the timing in my life was perfect for it and that there was an incredible strong pull for it to happen, but had no idea how it would happen due to many life circumstances at the time.

Fifteen minutes later I went into the house and started to check emails. During the time that I had sat beneath my tree grieving and feeling gratitude for my father, I had received an email from a friend that I had met on line through a social site in which we shared our common interests (we are both art-o-mat artists).

She had shared with me that she was a Laughter Yoga Teacher and I had expressed interest because of my research. What a great surprise to find out that she would be teaching a class in a few months and invited me to attend. I was dumbfounded that this had literally fallen into my lap at the time that I sat there trying to focus on gratitude in my time of grief. In that brief flash of time laterally everything had changed for me. What was an impossibility in my eyes had suddenly become very possible.
So fast forward a couple of months and I am on a plane flying literally into a blizzard. Airports were being shut down and every single flight that I had, all three, were late. I was running between each one on course with my new destiny. It was a crazy trip that forever altered my life. I met my dear friend Laura Gentry (of the Iowa Laughter Yoga School) in person and she is now one of my best friends, I became a Laughter Yoga Leader and was able to reconnect with another dear friend that met me along the way for this life changing journey.
I do feel “called” to do this work that I love so much. So all in all this first article of many that I hope to share about Laughter Yoga isnt really that much about the exercise at all, but about my personal journey with Laughter and how it has literally fallen into my lap over and over again as a healing tool, coping mechanism and way of life. I have personally used it every way possible from pain management to exercise and everything in between I could and will share volumes about all of these and much more. I now lead workshops on various techniques of Laughter Yoga from Stress Management, Creative thinking and even Laughter Yoga boot camp.
Why do I feel so compelled to share this wondrous tool? I literally cant see where I cannot use it. It works for everything. Everyone can do it and this awesome tool is powerful beyond measure. It keeps finding its way into more and more of my life, so at this point I have decided to just follow the lead and see where it will take me.

Since agreeing to write articles on this subject it has repeatedly found more and more avenues to be included in every aspect of my life. I have recently agreed to post Laughter Yoga videos for a forum for a 100 day raw food challenge. Every book and magazine I pick up offers more and more information and research for me to share on this subject. It is literally at every direction I turn and I am so excited to share this tool and its incredible benefits.
So much for an article jam packed with information, research and health benefits. I felt compelled to tell my side of the story which is multifold. Being in a state of wonder and gratitude even in the worst of times can unfold a future that you can never imagine and the impossible can literally happen in the blink of an eye that change your world forever; laughter being the bridge that connects between barriers, both real and perceived.

The Barefoot Artist Rhonda Locklair is an artist, raw foodist, Laughter Yoga leader and self-confessed “gratitude goddess having the best day ever”. Rhonda is a regular contributor to The Green Dove, with Laughter Yoga from the Heart her first installment.

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