Gut Feelin'

08/03/2022

In September 2019 my father passed away just days before his 85th birthday. My parents were high school sweethearts. For the first time in the life of my mother, she was alone. In an effort to find company, she’d try to admit herself, repeatedly, into the hospital. We, her children, talked with her to determine how we can help her. She didn’t want to live with any of us. There’s an assisted living seniors residence in her town. She looked over and decided to stay. She likes it there. She’s made a lot of new friends comments on how nice the people and staff are. She loves that the location is in her home town.
She doesn’t cook anymore. There’s a kitchen staff that makes breakfast, lunch, and super served in the dining room and everyone enjoys. My mom often comments on how good the food is.
She also comments on how she’s gained over 20 lbs since she arrived.
She’s now taking a pharmaceutical load of pills each day, pills for cholesterol, pills for diabetes, pills for mini strokes, pills for the rash on her legs. I ask her if she knows what these pills are all about and she said she has no idea. She just takes them in trust because they give them to her. She moves and walks like an old lady now with her walker and shuffling feet. There is no hop, skip or, jump anymore.
Is it for the loss of her life companion that she declines? Is it for the natural of aging that she declines? Or is it the change of diet, eating institutional foods instead of homemade foods that she declines?

08/01/2022

Have you been outside today? This week? This month?
Have you ever thought of the benefits about being outside? Both physical and spiritual?
When I first step outside, I often pause, close my eyes and feel the wind and sun kiss my skin and hair. I take a deeper breath and feel the fresh air pass through my nostrils and nasal cavity. My lungs express gratitude and approval. As good as indoor air is, outdoor air is superior even in Smogville. In winter I’ll occasionally open all of my windows and door for about 5 minutes to get an exchange of air. (This short time does not impact the heating bill by anything significant.) This air exchange gets me feeling awake rather than drowsy or what many call, the winter blues. Going for an outdoor walk is peaceful, destressing. It is not the same as pacing the hallways of my home.
Outdoors, you get to extend your horizons. Walk a street or path you’ve not takin before. See strangers living their lives. A store owner opening her boutique. Construction workers building an apartment complex or boarding the windows of another that was victim to blight.
See animal tracks in the snow. Hear the music of the birds. Watch the squirrel that’s watching you. Say “Hi squirrel.” Lift a rock and see the pill bugs, worms, ants, grubs. Imagine living their life. Stop and watch the activities in a field. Are there any crickets? Watch a spider design a web, butterflies fluttering about, a field mouse trying to hide, a cat.
Notice the aged urban tree, the lawn flowers, the grass, and the weeds. Imagine being the dandelion that flowers before you. Feel the wind blow your leaves, the water you drink from the soil, the bee that sips your nectar, the ant that explored your stem, the last time it rained, the fear of the lawn mower.
When you are in your home for too long, you become focused on your own worries. It’s mentally healthy to explore and think of others be they stranger, animal, or tree. As you make your way home, think of how you not only benefited spiritually by going for a walk and exploring, but you also physically helped yourself with exercise and essential nourishing natural vitamin D.

07/29/2022

You brain is hungry. It needs to be constantly fed. If you feed it substandard food, it will build a substandard brain. If you eat junk food, then your brain can develop a rash, just like junk food can cause a rash on your skin. This brain rash will leave you feeling stressed and have difficulty feeling safe and valued.
Your brain needs physical and spiritual food. I’m going to address the physical foods that your culture thumbs down and shouldn’t.

Physical
• CHOLESTEROL
• SATURATED FAT
• CALORIES
• SALT
• Omega3 fat
• Fresh air
• Sunshine
• Protein
• Water
• Trace minerals
• Sugar

Spiritual
• Feels safe
• Feels valued

All of the items above are important for brain health. The UPPERCASE ones are no more important than the others but they are the nutrients most avoided or shunned by our culture. It is not required of us to consume sugar to get the sugar the brain needs. Your body will make the required amount of sugar as it measures and regulates sugar levels (Unless there’s been a sugar crash. Sugar regulation is another topic.)

CHOLESTEROL
Your brain is always changing and making new cells and connections. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be able to learn or remember. It always needs high quality nutrition to build high quality new cells.
Every cell in your body, including your brain cells, uses cholesterol for its structure.

SATURATED FAT
Your brain has a lot of electrical activity. Your brain uses saturated fat to insulate the wires of the brain so that they don’t short circuit. Saturate fat makes up over half of the brains mass.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322081

CALORIES
Your brain is an energy hog. It uses 20 - 30% of your energy consumed. If you’re minimizing your calorie intake, you’re starving your brain. Consciousness exists in a continuum of time. Time is the medium of energy transfer. Without energy, calories, you cannot experience and have mental thought.

SALT
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/how-to-prevent-an-electrolyte-imbalance
Salt is a natural electrolyte. It provides the electrical connections that allows your neurons to communicate with each other. Without salt our brain can’t connect with itself or your body.

You know your brain is sensitive to what is in the bloodstream. You know that pills, injections, co***ne, ma*****na, pain killers, hallucinogens, uppers, downers, psychotic drugs, alcohol, ni****ne influence your brain’s abilities and health. Food also changes the contents of your blood stream and which in turn affects your brain’s abilities and health. Avoid the junk foods that can cause your brain to develop a rash. Feed your brain the healthy nutritious foods it requires.

The brain is the main organ of the central nervous system. It regulates thought, emotion, and our physiological processes. What do we really know about it?

07/27/2022

You so got this. Our culture promotes three macro nutrients. fat, protein, and carbohydrates (carb’s).
You’ve been told for decades that fat is bad, so you eat minimal fats and lots of protein and carb’s.
Now, you’re being told that carb’s are bad. So that leaves you with protein. Thus, you’re looking for artificial sources of high protein such as protein shakes. And now you’re being told that a pure protein diet is poisonous. Your body resists trying to use protein for energy. However, if protein is the only option as you’ve been seriously starving for weeks or have only been consuming protein, without fat and/or carb’s, then your body will use the protein for energy. A by-product of this process is ammonia which is very dangerous to the brain. Your body’s hoping that your liver and kidneys still function well enough to evacuate the ammonia. So to avoid this, eat something other than protein each day. But what?
The good news is saturated fat is actually an essential nutrient. You need fat. Carb’s are not essential.
The body uses saturated fat for many processes: energy, immune system, breathing, beating your heart, reserves for famine, underlay of skin, electrical insulation for your brain and nerves, neuroplasticity. Your brain is mostly made of saturated fat and DHA (omega-3 fat). You brain needs fat to learn.
So! You need proteins and fat. Eat healthy fats, such as saturated and omega 3 fats, with your protein for your brain. You so got this.

07/25/2022

What is dietary fibre? Most people cannot answer this question. To them it’s a word to describe something that we need for our health. By this understanding fibre is a nutrition even though it’s never mentioned as a nutrient. Many say it is a carb as it is listed under carbs in the nutrition label.
Fibre is anything you eat and your digestive system is unable to digest; so it is passed through. Thus there is no nutritional value to fibre.
It’s not a mistake that we cannot digest it. We were never meant to eat it. In fact fibre has been defined as an anti-nutrient. Not only can’t you digest it but it has been known to prevent you from digesting valuable micro nutrients that you ate.
Fibre been known to damage your digestive system. A damaged gut can fail to properly filter the food supply and garbage migrates into the blood stream and can interfere with many of the body’s functions including the brain.
Most of the fibre you eat is plant cellulose. When I first learned this, it left me thinking. We can digest animal cellulose but not plant cellulose.
Plants that are especially high in cellulose are grasses. We are not designed to eat grass. We do not have a mature cecum like a horse or a rumen like a cow as part of our digestive system. Culturally, grasses have become a major part of what resides on the shelves of our stores. A list of grasses that are presented to us as food: sugar cane, wheat, flour, oats, barley, corn, rice, bamboo. We cannot digest raw wheat. If you put a person in the middle of a wheat field to eat wheat and only wheat, they will get very sick and die of starvation.
Fibre is not a nutrient. You do not need any fibre.

07/22/2022

Generally the food that is good for the body is also good for the brain. Or the food that is good for the brain is also good for the body. However every time you eat a food that awakes your brain, it makes you gain weight. And every time you eat rabbit food to lose weight you feel numb, brain fog, depressed, and very hungry. It seems impossible to get your calories low enough to control your weight and still have it high enough to properly service your brain. Something’s wrong. What’s wrong?
You count your calories. If calories-in less calories-out is a plus you gain weight, if minus you lose weight. So if you feel like you are heavy, then you ration your servings. You buy low calories-per-mass foods, like lettuce, to control calories in. You run, skip, work hard, and do the treadmill to burn calories, to increase calories-out. How simple is that? We are always looking to live on the minimum number of calories needed. Stop it. You are starving your brain.
The calories-in calories-out paradigm as a means of controlling weight is wrong and hurts your brain. Let me explain.
Sitting on your office table is the gift from a work college, Newton’s Cradle, which you opened today. You gently launch the steel ball on the right end. Click! The steel ball on the left end rises gently. Click! The steel ball on the right rises gently. Click gently left, Click gently right… Again, you start the cradle with a higher launch on the right. Click! The steel ball on the left rises higher. Click! The steel ball on the right rises higher. Click higher left, Click higher right …
Newton’s Cradle mesmerizes. You try different patterns with different amounts of energy. But did you notice. Surely you noticed. Well, it’s too obvious that it doesn’t need any mention. But it needs to be mentioned. Listen carefully. No matter how much or little energy you’ve launched, Newton’s Cradle’s weight (its mass), stays the same.
Calories are a measure of energy, not mass. A kilogram of butter has far more energy, than a kilogram of lettuce, which your body can use for fuel.
You need calories; you need calories. Without energy you will die. With low energy, you get weak, tired, hungry, brain fog, and stress. About 20 to 30% of your energy intake is used by your brain. That’s significant. Without energy your mental spirit cannot experience time. Stop limiting calories. Let your body tell you when you’ve had enough calories and not some calorie tally chart or app.
If you are trying to control your mass then it is mass-in, mass-out, so you are looking for foods that are high in calories per mass like full fat butter. When you eat high in calories per mass you will get sufficient calories with less mass-in. Energy burning tread mills don’t remove mass. Breathing, sweating, and going p*e helps you lose mass.
A major portion of your energy is used to control your body temperature. Your body temperature is monitored and controlled by your body. If you perform a calorie burning exercise, like a tread mill, then your body temperature will start climbing. This causes the body’s temperature controller to use less energy thus your total energy consumption is the same to keep the same body temperature. And you weigh the same.
For losing weight, a tread mill is futile. I’m not saying there is no purpose for a tread mill. There are excellent reasons to exercise, use it or lose it. Keep your back strong but that’s another topic.

07/20/2022

Cholesterol

“Honey Nut Cheerios can lower your cholesterol.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFSKnmYqTA

There are numerous commercials that promote the lowering of cholesterol as a healthy wise thing to do. The commercials imply their products are valuable and essential aids for this “heart healthy diet” cause.

The cereal box itself with small font says “Can help …” followed by bold large UPPERCASE font “lower cholesterol”. The script says “Can lower…” The whole presentation wants you to have the feeling that it will, but the word “Can” negates the entire guarantee. This shows you that the commercial makers know that the relationship between their product and cholesterol is actually pretty sketchy.

There is no scientific experiment that shows what you eat will significantly change your blood’s cholesterol levels, nor would you want it to. Your liver can and will adjust for any extra or lack of dietary cholesterol. In fact your liver can make several time the cholesterol than you can ever eat. Why on earth would your liver ever do this? Because your body needs cholesterol. Cholesterol is actually good for you. It’s essential for your life. Every cell membrane in your body uses cholesterol. When a cell is damaged from a cut or bruise or inflammation or whatever, extra cholesterol is brought to the damaged site for restoration. And cholesterol is not just for repair but for basic upkeep from the natural wear and tear of being a physical entity.

Cholesterol is a major material to building your brain. Your brain is always getting rewired. That’s how it learns. If there wasn’t enough cholesterol to rewire our brain with, it’s not going to rewire very well and your mental spirit will be seriously affected. Thank goodness you have a liver that makes cholesterol.

You do not need to worry how much cholesterol you eat nor about your cholesterol levels. Do not be duped by the lower-your-cholesterol scam.

07/18/2022

Just another same o same o day! You weigh yourself; feel disappointed. Have a bowl of healthy granola cereal with low fat milk, nutritious vitamin C rich orange juice. And, of course, the essential pick-me-up caffeinated coffee with low fat cream and artificial sweetener.

At lunch, you have the veggie wrap and your favorite sports drink from the local delicatessen.

By mid-afternoon, you’re feeling low, so you go to the vending machine. Choices: Corn chips, baked chips, assorted chocolate bars, energy drinks, sugar free gum, bottled spring water, Vitamin water, crunchy cookies, a walnut brownie. Yes, a walnut brownie, $3.00! You rationalize. You‘ve been eating healthy all day. That’s a long time. You deserve this decadent brownie as a rightful reward for the healthy eating you’ve done. Besides! It’s got nutritious walnuts in it. So, it’s still healthy because the walnuts will cancel the sugar in it. Of course! Yeah! So, it’s OK. Go on. Go on.

Sold!

You reach into your wallet, take out $3.00 and make the purchase. You open the packaging and get a scent of its sweet aroma. Mmm! In minutes, the brownie is consumed. You’ve just had your daily fix. You feel much better though. For a short while!

There this belief that If you’ve eaten a serving of supposedly healthy food then you’re OK to treat yourself to a bit of junk food. Right?

No! It doesn’t work that way. It’s not good food cancels bad food.

Take a litre, of clean drinkable water. Add just a brownie size of muddy dirt and stir. It’s still mostly water but you’re not wise to drink it.

If you eat, what you’re not designed to eat, your blood becomes polluted like the pitcher of water. It takes time for your body to filter out and clean up the mess.

07/16/2022

Anxiety attack

I’m asleep. As I awake, I feel my weight nestling into a couch. Then, I could feel and hear my heart pounding, pounding. Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Fear filled my veins yet I felt the softness of the couch cushion against the side of my face. My hands were sweaty. Thump, thump, thump, thump!

I dread hearing my heart. The air felt so comfortably cool. I pry open an eye, then the other. Daylight illuminates. I’m in the living room. I see the clock, 5:00 PM. Thump, thump, thump, thump!

There this sense of imminent danger yet nothing can be seen. Trouble is near. Real trouble! I can almost touch it. With some effort, I seat myself and take a few long deep breaths. My brow drips a drop of salty sweat, slightly stinging my eye. I feel helpless. I couldn’t see well and my sweaty hands only aggravated the eye more. There’s constant pressure inside my chest, like a heavy weight resting on it. Thump, thump, thump, thump!

The clock has a second hand. I wonder about my heart. Worried, I search for my pulse in my wrist. Found it. I watch the second hand approaching the top. Ready! Ready! Count! 1, 2, 3, 4 …24, 25, 26 beats in 15 seconds. I take a moment to wrap my brain around this. Ah! 104 beats/minute! 104! Woe! That’s fast for just waking up. I mistrusted my calculations and repeated the measurement. 108 beats/minute! Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Oh my! I’m discontent and consider laying back down but the couch has a wet imprint where I was lying and my clothes are damp as well. I don’t know what to do. I shiver. Am I having a fever? I don’t feel like I’m having a fever. I press my hands down on my knees to help stand up. I walk cautiously to the washroom, relieve my bladder, wash and dry my hands, and blot the stinging salt from my eye with a square of toilet paper. I get the thermometer from the vanity drawer. 36.2⁰C! Normal for me! Thump, thump, thump, thump!

The chest pressure persists. Hopelessness scares me. I start massaging my chest with my fingertips trying to sooth it. It helps but not enough. I’m frustrated, frightened. Thump, thump, thump, thump!

07/13/2022

You are intelligently designed.

A printer is designed with specifications. Some specifications are performance. “This printer prints at 30 pages per minute.” Other specifications are measured and automatically controlled such as operating temperature. “The heating elements operate at 80±10⁰C”. And other specifications are not controlled such as the environment. “Operates properly between 5⁰C and 40⁰C.” ambient air temperature.

If the printer operates outside the environmental specifications then it can have trouble maintaining the temperature of the heating elements and be unable to print 30 pages per minute.
You, like a machine, are designed with specifications.
Performance: You can run up to a sp*ed of 24km/hr.

Auto-controlled: Your body temperature is 37±2⁰C.
Environment: You can survive ambient air temperatures between 5⁰C and 40⁰C without protection.

If you operate outside the environmental specifications then you can have trouble maintaining the temperature of your body and be unable to run 24km/hr.

Listen! You are not designed to get chronically sick. You are habitually doing or experiencing something outside the specifications of your design that is causing your sickness or stressed spirit to persist.

Not just you! There are more people today as a percentage of the total population with stress, anxiety, depression, bipolar, Alzheimer’s, digestive issues, arthritis, diabetes and other symptoms, that in turn hinder the quality of their and your life.

One absolutely essential category, of your environmental specifications, is your diet. Your diet affects all of your organs including your brain. And if your brain is not nourished properly it can fail to function properly and your spirit feels stressed.

Each creature, including you, has a diet designed to provide the beneficial needs for both itself and its surrounding ecosystem.

We, as a culture, are consuming numerous foods that exceed the specifications for the diet we are designed to eat. We do this blindly because our culture promotes a distorted list of beliefs about food.

Eat what you are designed to eat. Don’t eat what someone else designed for you to eat.

A printer comes with an owner’s manual. We read it when there is something wrong, a paper jam.

Handed down generation to generation from the beginning of mankind; preserved, unmarred, buried by the dusty distorted superstitions about food from numerous cultures and especially our culture today; resides an owner’s manual, instinct, that comes with your gut. Its ancient universal language is feelings. How’s your gut feelin’?

07/12/2022

07/12/2022

07/07/2022