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 Jon Burras |
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21 Points of Health
1. Relaxation 2. Nutrition 3. Expansive Movement
4. Willingness to change
5. Attitude
6. Rest 7. Cleansing
8. Supplements
9. Breathing 10. Emotions
11. Recovery from Addictions
12. Balance
13. Lymphatics
14. Circulation
15. Tone
16. Flexibility
17. Sexuality
19. Body Work
20. Spiritual Connection
21. Hydration
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Workshops and Retreats
Coming Soon!
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THOUGHTS TO PONDER
Struggle is always an option in life but never a requirement
Jon Burras
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Email Archive
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How Important is Food?
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Did you know that ninety-four out of one-hundred medical doctors never take a single course on nutrition while in medical school? The six-percent who do study about food almost always take a nutrition course as an elective, not as a required course. Yet most people receive the bulk of their nutritional advice from their medical doctor.
While there are many other important elements to good health, food plays a vital and necessary instrument in our existence. We need food to live. We need healthy food to thrive.
Unbeknown to many, the world's food supply is quickly changing, and not for the better. Due to the factory farming and commercialization of food production, the overall quality of food has declined in the last fifty years. With the addition of untested genetically modified food crops the human population is now being treated as guinea pigs for the experiments of food scientists and multi-national corporations. This newsletter takes a deeper look into the importance of food.
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The History of the Food Pyramid
You might remember that pyramid-shaped structure that had recommendations of which foods you were supposed to eat. Have you noticed how it continues to change over the years? Did you know that the food pyramid was created with the help of many different industries? The beef, poultry, dairy, grain and other industries all collaborate with the United States government to see how much of a share they can have in the nation's consumption of their product. If it were up to each industry themselves, they would recommend a far greater amount than what is being allocated.
In other words, what you see in the food pyramid is food politics at its best. Based on current trends and public opinion, the government negotiates with each industry for its rightful place on the pyramid. These are not sound decisions based on the health of the nation. These decisions are based on how much each industry can lobby and influence members of the commission responsible for creating the food pyramid.
For instance, in 1977 a new food pyramid was released that proclaimed that animal products were a harmful source of food. Several industries (beef, dairy and egg) complained loudly to their government representatives that they would lose business if this model were allowed to continue. Needless to say, the government quickly revised the food pyramid to suit all parties involved-except the eating public.
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Why Organic Food?
As chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides are tilled into farmland year after year, the once bountiful soil begins to change. These unnatural ingredients change the constitution of the soil, killing many of the beneficial worms and bacteria necessary to break down the soil into a healthy growing environment. As a consequence, many fruits and vegetables, while they might look the same on the outside, are quite different on the inside.
For instance, wheat grown in today's high-tech non-organic farm contains about 9 percent protein. Back in 1900, wheat consisted of 90 per cent protein. Chemicals placed on the soil have eroded the mineral content that much. You would need to consume 10 slices of bread today in order to achieve the same nutrients as were
available nearly one-hundred years ago.
In another example, back in 1948 spinach was measured as having 158 mg of iron per 100 g of
spinach. Today's spinach crop derived from the modern non-organic farm claims to have only 1 mg of iron per the same 100 g of spinach. So you think that organic crops do not matter?
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How Do You Know What is Certified Organic?
With the organic food movement on the rise there has come into place a system to label and certify whether or not that product actually is organic. Many products claim to be organic but are not. Here are some suggestions.
If the package says, "100% Organic," then everything in that package must be organic, (except for salt and water).
If the package says, "Certified Organic," then 95% of all ingredients contained within must be organic, (except salt and water).
If the package says, "Made with Organic Ingredients," then at least 70% of those ingredients must be certified organic ingredients, (except for salt and water).
In addition, organic produce will have a 5-digit label on it beginning with a "9". For example, an organic watermelon might have a label such a "97356." A conventionally grown fruit or vegetable will have a label with 4 digits, (i.e. a conventional peach 6721). A genetically modified fruit or vegetable will have a 5-digit label beginning with an "8." (For instance, a genetically modified summer squash might have a code of "89376").
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Who Owns Life?
In 1980 a remarkably unconscious thing happened. In a landmark decision the Supreme Court of The United States determined that life could now be patented (Diamond Versus Chakrabarty). This was the beginning of the bio-tech revolution. This was also the end of plants and organisms belonging to nature and the people of the planet.
Bio-tech and pharmaceutical companies would not have much success (or profit) if they could not own what they were researching. Others would quickly copy their results and profits would be squashed. These giant companies travel the world to remote regions and take plant species or organisms back to their laboratories and synthesize the fundamental properties of each plant or organism. They then file a patent to protect their exclusive rights to grow, manufacture or sell that plant or organism.
Some have dubbed this anti-nature act as "bio-piracy."...and the courts continue to ignore the far ranging implications as more and more multi-national corporations are allowed to "own" what is natural and belongs to all of humanity. If this 1980 ruling did not exist then life could not be patented and multi-national companies like Monsanto could not keep manipulating their genetically modified foods into the food supply.
Find out more about this important topic by reading an in-depth article by Andrew Kimbrell.
Learn more here...
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The Future of Food
DVD
This wonderful documentary explores the plight of both farmers and consumers as they are being squeezed by giant genetically modified food corporations like Monsanto.
See why nearly 70% of the products on grocery store shelves contain genetically modified food crops in them. Currently much of the following crops in the United States are genetically modified.
-corn (corn oil, corn starch, corn chips, corn flour, high fructose corn syrup)
-sugar beets
-rapeseed (canola oil)
-cotton seed (oil)
-soybeans (oil, tofu, miso etc.)
-50% of all Hawaiian papaya
-small amounts of zuchini and summer squash
Learn what you can do to avoid genetically modified food products. An excellent viewing choice.
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Learn more here...
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The World According to Monsanto
DVD
What if there were only one giant company that controlled the world's food supply? From seeds to farming, processing to marketing, imagine just one company having that much power over what you ate?
Sadly, that reality is not too far off. The giant agribusiness, petrochemical, seed distributor and genetically modified bio-tech firm Monsanto appears to have a goal of conquering the world's food supply.
This wonderful film exposes the government corruption and backroom deals that are allowing this to take place. This is a "must see". There are no more important issues of our time than what is happening to the world's food supply. |
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The Movie
In Theaters Now
Food Inc.
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Enjoy this enlightening film by filmmaker Robert Kenner as he explores the American food supply chain. Learn how the giant food agribusinesses have united with the government to produce more food products with many unnatural methods.
Have you ever wondered how they grow chickens with the perfect plump breasts or fruits and vegetables with the perfect shapes? There is a cost to having the perfect shapes and sizes of foods. This movie will push you to ask yourself if you are willing to keep accepting those costs.
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In Defense of Food
A book by
Michael Pollan
If you are concerned about the kinds of foods to be eaten, than this is a marvelous resource to investigate. Michael Pollan has taken the reader through the political and economic influences that have changed the American landscape in regard to growing, marketing, and consuming food. In this rivoting expose, the reader is introduced to a concept called " Nutritionalism", where food scientists have taken over from grandmother's wisdom and nature and have broken food down into components or " nutrients". Marketing companies now sell nutrients rather than food. A food, from seed to store shelf, might be so altered and processed that it faintly resembles what it used to be in years past. Nutrients are added to these heavily processed products, heavily marketed (especially to children) and called a "health food." If you wish to learn how to eat in a healthy manner than this is a sure winner. |
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Seeds of Deception
Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating
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A book by
Jeffrey M. Smith
What is a GMO? A GMO is a genetically modified organism. In this remarkable book, Jeffrey Smith raises the alarm button and brings to light a disturbing trend in food production. Bio-tech companies are turning plants and animals into factories and significantly altering the food supply, with little government oversight and even smaller amounts of long-term safety studies.
These bio-tech companies have done such crazy alterations of food like crossing a spider gene into a goat or a a jellyfish gene into a pig. They have placed foreign bacteria into such products as corn. Crossing species is hardly natural and can only have harmful long-term conswquences.
Most GMOs have not undergone much rigorous testing and a 1992 government policy ignoring any reputable science continues to be in place. As long as there "appears" to be no distinquishable difference between a natural food product and a GMO then the product is considered "safe". GMOs are considered unilaterally "safe" in America until "proven" otherwise.
Europeans have already awoken from this food nightmare and have rejected GMOs almost entirely. Americans and other cultures are still being used as laboratory guinea pigs for this freakish experiment.
Learn more here...
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Hope and Change?
Did you not think that hope and change applied to food safety as well? With an organic garden on the White House lawn one would think that President Obama would have awoken to what is happening to the food supply. So why did his administration recently approve for the full production of genetically modified sugar beets in the United States (at the request of Monsanto)?
Hint: Several members of his advisory committee on food have worked for Monsanto in the recent past.
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If you would like your voice to be heard on the subject of food safety then contact the President of the United States himself to share your concerns.
President Barack Obama's contact information Better yet. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to contact one of the President's chief advisors-his wife- (Michelle Obama), about why genetically modified products are still being allowed. Contacting someone who actually shops and prepares food for her children, (at least she used to shop and prepare food), might have more impact concerning the quality of food being grown. |
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Chipotle Mexican Grill
Chipotle Mexican Grill has made a commitment to use primarily small to mid-size local farm products that are fresh, natural and not genetically modified. Yes, fast food can be healthy!
The philosophy of Chipotle founder Steve Ellis is, "The Hallmarks of Food with Integrity include things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal."
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