Meditation

When I was a young boy, about seven or eight years old, my dad would often meditate. He would lay on the ground or on a bed that served as a couch in the living room. Sometimes I would join him. We would lay next to each other, each with a hand on the other's belly noticing each other's breath and slowing it down. I remember that I was usually much better at slowing my breathing down.
Today sometimes I meditate and when I attempt to breathe evenly and slowly I begin to feel the sort of anxiety you get when you feel like you don't get enough oxygen. I ponder why it was that I could slow down my breathing so much and without the sense of anxiety when I was a kid. I thought maybe it was the innate innocence of childhood that let me relax so completely and trust myself in my breathing. I thought it was maybe because as a child I had less things to feel anxious about.
But that wasn't the case. At that time my parents had just recently divorced and so I had plenty of anxiety in my life. So maybe I was able to relax so freely and breathe so slowly and evenly because breathing together, you connect. And connecting with my father put me at ease, made me feel like everything was going to be just fine.
Whatever it was, the experience left a lasting impression. I remember something that I believe is part of the very essence of meditation: a very deep connection with yourself and your own body. Unless you stop and take five and actually pay attention you often notice very little of your own body. But set aside some time and focus only on your breathing and you can connect with yourself in a whole new way.
What's amazing, is that there have been several studies conducted, that show a direct effect on the immune system from meditation. Not only does meditation result in measurable increases in activity in areas of the brain that are associated with positive moods and optimism, but there many experiments that have shown meditation leads to improved immune system function and response.
So, give yourself a bit of time... to connect with yourself. It's good for you!

The Value of Friends

A large scale study of nurses in the US found that women with breast cancer who could name ten friends had a four times higher chance of surviving than those who could not. It didn't matter if these friends were close by, it was simply the sense of connectedness that was important. A study done in Sweden on 736 men found that friendships had as strong an effect on health as being married, while the feelings of isolation and loneliness are matched in their adverse affect on health only by smoking.

To me this means we are all connected and this connection is vital to our survival. It means I must remember to reach out. I have had quite the journey over the last few years with cancer and I have also been blessed with incredible support from friends and my family. The experiences I have shared with the people around me deserve more than what I intend to write here tonight. Tonight I happen to be really full, because some wonderful friends took us out for dinner (Indian food! ;-) and now we going do play some games.

But I hope you think about your connection to the world and people close to you! If you're feeling strong, be a rock for someone who's having a hard time. When the time comes around and you feel like curling up in someone's arms and crying, then hopefully you'll have someone who will be your rock!

Peace and Love!

Fighting Cancer With Curry

As I was sitting in the kitchen at 7 am, thinking about what to write about today, Jenna shared her excitement with me about the fact that the "The East-Indian Lady" might be at the Farmer's Market today. We don't know the east indian lady's name, but we are huge fans of her and the food she makes and sells. She comes to the Kamloops Farmer's Market every two weeks from Revelstoke a sells pakoras, samosas, chutney and a whole bunch of sauces and dips that you can take home.

So there we go, I have my topic for today: Turmeric! It is the most powerful anti-inflammatory food ingredient there is! It has been written about in medical texts in China, India, Tibet and the Middle-East for over two thousand years. The important molecule in terms of inhibiting cancer is curcumin. Beyond the anti-inflammatory effect, it has several other capabilities that affect different mechanisms of cancer growth. If you want a better understanding of some of these mechanisms or cancer in general, I recommend the book 'Anticancer - a new way of life' by David Servan-Schreiber M.D., Ph.D.
In India people consume, on average, 1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric a day. They are generally exposed to more environmental carcinogens than us , yet here are some surprising stats from the Anticancer book: "...Indians have one eighth as many lung cancers as Westerners of the same age, one ninth as many colon cancers, one fifth as many breast cancers, one tenth as many kidney cancers, and one fiftieth (yes 1/50!) our rate of prostate cancer". Kudos to our brothers and sisters in India!
There was a study done in 2005 on mice who no longer responded to Chemotherapy with Taxol (while Taxol is considered effective against metastatic breast cancer, it actually works in less than 1/2 of cases). In the study, curcumin reduced the spread of metastases impressively and any micro tumors that could still be found did not grow and were therefore no longer a threat.
Here's the deal though: you are actually better off eating delicious indian food than taking capsules of only curcumin. Researchers in Taiwan found out that it's not absorbed by your intestines very well unless it is mixed with pepper or ginger. In fact pepper increases the body's absorption of turmeric by 2000 percent!
Ok, I say it's time for a stroll down to the Farmer's Market. I am ready for some delicious Indian food for breakfast!




The beautiful ladies at Pam's Curry stand at the Kamloops Farmer's Market.


My friend Will and I enjoying delicious pakoras and chutney. Yum!

Flo's Notoriously Delicious Salad Dressing

It's a busy day today, so I decided to finish my rant about essential fatty acids with a recipe. Also I was doing a bit more reading and there seems to be some evidence that omega-3s from fish have greater health benefits than plant-based ones. The plant based omega-3 fatty acids need to be converted by the body whereas the ones found in fish oil are already in the right form. You can get fish oil in bottles, they have lemon and orange flavors to help you get them down, or there are capsules as well (which yours truly sells).
At any rate, I hope to have instilled in you some interest in this and I hope you've learned a few things. The over consumption of inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids creates a world of pain, literally.

So, on to my salad dressing. It's delicious and healthy so give it shot:

-Equal parts flaxseed and olive oil (you can also use a bit of grape seed oil)
-Dash of sesame oil
-Balsamic vinegar
-Generous dash of soy sauce or Bragg
-Garlic, crushed
-Dijon mustard, about 1 or 2 tsp (too much makes it bitter)
-Italian seasoning and any fresh herbs you might be growing such as basil, oregano, rosemary...

Here are a few extra tips to take a salad from mediocre to awesome:

Grow basil so you can add some dress to the salad, also I've been using some mint here and there and goes really well with summer!

Candied Walnuts. Walnuts are super healthy for you and when you wrap them in caramelized maple syrup.... Look out! The trick is to use low to medium heat and keep stirring until they have caramelized. Also add a little salt and pepper at the start.

Alright, off to work.... Thanks for reading and let me know how your salad turns out!

Omega cont.

Yesterday I talked about the food chain and how what animals eat affects not only them but also the eggs and milk they produce. I mentioned that the omega fatty acids are essential, meaning the body can't make them. This is key because it means our intake of them directly reflects the ratio of them in our bodies and this continues down the food chain. So animals are fed diets high in omega-6s, which are inflammatory, cause coagulation of the blood and stimulate cell growth (be it fat cells or tumor cells). They then produce eggs, milk and meat that is high in omega-6s. Most people in North America eat a lot of meat, consume dairy products, eat a fair bit of eggs and on top of that we fry a lot of our food. Frying unfortunately damages omega-3 fatty acids and you lose the health benefits.
I hope you are beginning to see why this is worth talking about. Between 1970 and 2000 Americans lowered their fat consumption by about 11 percent and even lowered their total calorie intake by 4 percent. Meanwhile obesity went up 31 percent in the same time span. This is referred to as the American Paradox, which is no longer just affecting Americans, but Europeans also.
Another fact that underlines how the whole food chain is affected by our industrial animal feeding practices, is that the amount of fatty tissue in children under one doubled between 1970 and 1990. French biochemist and farming engineer Pierre Weill, who researched this phenomenon, said "Between 6 and 11 months of age, you can't blame McDonald's, snacking, TV and lack of physical exercise!".
So fat and calories alone are not the issue and if you are trying to loose weight but have high concentrations of inflammatory, cell growth promoting omega-6 fatty acids in your body, well it might feel like a bit of an uphill battle!
But enough of the ranting, time for some concrete tips on how to be healthy! Below is a picture taken from the Anticancer book (http://www.anticancerbook.com/) again, which shows the Anticancer plate. Really it could be called the pro-health plate. It's a food guide that gives you the big picture of what might be a pretty healthy way to eat.

This gives a bit of guidance and maybe I'll leave you with a few concrete tips on increasing your omega-3 intake and decreasing the amount of omega-6 fatty acids.
1) The following are high in omega-3s: Flaxseeds and Flaxseed oil, Olive oil, Walnuts, Fish, Beans and Tofu.
You can take flaxseeds, grind them in a coffee grinder and add them to yogurt (preferably organic), a bowl of fruit or even a shake. Use flaxseed oil in your salad dressing but don't use it for frying and keep it refrigerated.
2) Toss out sunflower oil, choose to buy animal products like meat, eggs and dairy from organically raised, grass fed or flaxseed fed animals, don't use margarine (I might have to write a post just about this one).

Here is something I do, but admittedly it's a bit hard-core, I mix about 2 tbsp of flaxseed oil with almond milk, a bunch of Turmeric (has great Anticancer properties), a pinch of cayenne pepper and about 20 drops of cumin oil. I blend it using an electric milk frother and away I go... This might not be for everyone, but for someone with cancer, I think it's perfect.

Cheers!

Omega fatty acids

First off, I tried to come up with a better title! Something witty, smart, with a pun, but then I remembered that it's 5:30 I got dinner on the go and there is big box of apricots that either I will deal with or the fruit flies will. So I got stuff to get done and therefore you will just have to put up with a boring title today.
About six months ago, all I knew about omega fatty acids was that they put the number 3 ones in some eggs and it was implied that this was a good thing! I have since learned a bit more about them and I have come to two conclusions about this topic: 1. It is worth knowing about and 2. It's not all that complicated.
So if you want the skinny on the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, READ ON!
The omegas are essential fatty acids, meaning the body can't make them and we need them. There are omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids and I'll focus on the 3s and 6s. Below is an image from the book Anticancer written by David Servan- Schreiber M.D., Ph.D. It gives you a good impression of the importance of the omega balance.

So omega-6s cause inflammation, coagulation and stimulation of cell growth. All bad news for healthy hearts, losing weight and not growing tumors. Omega-3s balance out these effects and since we need both of these essential fatty acids all is well if we keep the balance intact. In other words a 1 to 1 ratio of the two is perfect.
However, the average North American diet contains 20-30 times more omega-6s than omega-3s! And this is not just because of what we eat, it's also what is eaten by what we eat. Confused? Hang in there! A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that eggs from chickens that were fed a diet of corn, which is a universal practice today, contained twenty times more omega-6s than omega-3s. The same is true for cows, who are fed corn and soy vs. being grass fed, their milk and all subsequent milk products are high in omega-6s and of course their meat is as well. However, if cows are fed a diet that is supplemented with flaxseeds then their milk becomes balanced in terms of omega-3s and Omega-6s. So as it turns out, "what goes around comes around" applies to how we treat our food!
Ok, I think this topic might be suitable for a bit of a mini series. So stay tuned for some more info on this tomorrow. Don't worry I'll give lots of tips to help you get a good balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!

The Big Bold Goal

I have had this blog for several months now and have done nothing with it. I decided that I wanted a blog, created it, wrote the first entry and told no one about it. Pretty safe, no knows, no one can tell me it sucks. So today I am writing my second entry and I am declaring my intention to write everyday for 90 days. That means in 90 days this blog will have 91 entries and it's safe to say that some may very well suck. But hopefully I will have found my voice and hopefully some of the readers have gained value in reading this blog or they have at the very least been entertained.
If you are reading this you probably want to know what I plan on writing about to decide if you are going to continue to read it. This blog is about Health first and foremost, so I will try to write mostly about that. I see myself creating categories and sharing information I have learned about healthy living. I may share some recipes, or write about a fascinating study on the effects of meditation on the immune system. I may share photos or videos that I take myself or ones I find elsewhere. I hope that in reading this blog you, the reader will find little nuggets of information that will help you live a little healthier.
I'd like to thank my friend Shawna for providing me with the encouragement I needed to get going. Thanks Shawna, you rock!

Here's a little health tip for today's entry: start your day with a lemon drink. Squeeze half a lemon (preferably organic) into a glass, grate some fresh ginger into it (we keep ours in the freezer, which keeps it fresh and makes it easier to grate), add a bit of cayenne pepper and fill up with warm water.
Why should you do this? Lemon is alkalizing (that's a good thing) and this drink will stimulate bile production. Think of it as the glow plug for your diesel engine stomach. My Naturopath Dr. Jones calls this "a quick and easy method to flush your liver each day as well as 'warm up' your digestive tract." You should have this drink about 15 to 20 min before you eat breakfast every morning. The reason the water needs to be warm is that cold water will cause the muscles in your digestive tract to contract and that is counterproductive to what your are trying to achieve.