http://www.verb-goodbelly.com/
Q: I’ve seen this one but reluctant about it because of the high simple carb content per serving (insulin resistance for example) Have you run into any blood sugar problems drinking this juice?
A: That's interesting that you would mention that.
But from what I know about insulin production, it is not static, meaning, that if you eat a food that is say, sugar or juice, which has "simple" carbohydrates, it will in fact spike your blood sugar if consumed on an empty stomach. Insulin production is affected by all of your food eaten throughout the day. This is a very simple yet important fact about blood sugar that is over looked by the carb-counting, weight-loss industry. If you consume something like this 30 minutes before or 30 minutes after a meal that is comprised of whole, unprocessed carbohydrates, adequate protein and fat, then there should be a negligible, if any, affect on blood sugar. This is also why blood sugar readings by diabetics need to be taken in the AM on an empty stomach, and before and after each meal. This is also why, unless under special circumstances, I never recommend fruit-by-itself or fruit juice as a snack on an empty stomach; only preceding a meal or following a meal.
Food does not exist in a vacuum. What we eat works in synergism in our bodies. This is why the "mono-diet" of the modern American culture is so harmful, not necessarily because of the "quality" of the diet, but because most people's diets are incomplete; they eat too much of one type of food or nutrient at the wrong times of the day.
Eating fruit or drinking juice on an empty stomach and not following it or preceding it with a full meal will most certainly result 30 minutes later in a drop in energy, a feeling of sluggishness, and if this habit is repeated consistently over time, insulin resistance. No matter who it is, it's always 30 minutes later. Perhaps it is a signal from the body telling us to balance out the sugar content from that fruit or juice with a full, satisfying meal.
Truthfully, I have not had any problems from this product, because I use it properly. I drink it in the AM, and I drink it before dinner. I must say, my digestive system has VASTLY improved. I was taking DDS-1 acidophilus supplements for a while with no noticeable improvement. But I discovered this little juice with the oat-based cultures in it and in a very short time my digestive health really improved. I don't know if I told you this, but I have had a history of digestive problems (which is what inspired me to get into my line of work). In the cold weather, I would have the chick pea miso soy-free soup, and that would work wonders for me as a healthy fermented food. But if it got too hot (as it does in the south) I can't drink something like that. So finding this product really helped with the situation. What I like about it is that it's pretty much just cultured oats mixed with organic juice. It tastes great and a little bit goes a long way. I think the sour flavor really works with sweet foods, so I think this is pretty balancing. As far as juice products go, this is very, very high on my list. Even though juices aren't "technically" whole, I still think that in order to create balance in one's diet, properly consumed, high quality simple-carbs in the form of an enjoyable juice can really be beneficial to someone. Especially if you are a high energy guy like me!
Michael
Staff of Life Nutrition Consulting Inc.
2/9/09
Savior In A Bottle
I just read a product description on a website that went something like this:
In today’s world, people eat very fast and don’t chew their food, so digestive support enzyme pills may be needed.
So, the problem is that people have poor digestion because they are eating too fast and not chewing their food, right? Lemme see if I am following this correctly: the solution is not slowing down and chewing your food, but to buy a bottle of pills that just merely covers up the real problem?
How is that different than the “symptom control” methodology used by allopathic medicine? How is this ideology promoted by the supplement industry any different than the Pharmaceutical industry:
"People have health problems that stem from a poor diet, lack of exercise, and unhealthy lifestyle habits, but instead of helping people change those things for the better, let’s just make a bunch of pills that don’t really cure anything but make it “appear” as if they are getting healthier!"
Do you see the mentality and the line of thought here? The problem is caused by personal lifestyle choices and poor education on the importance of food and conscious eating, but these people would have you believe that in order for you to feel better you need to buy their pills BUT NOT change your own habits. What they are doing is enabling people to continue to make the same mistake over and over again, because if they correct the mistake, supplement sales go down.
If more people in America were properly educated about food and creating lifestyle habits that are supportive to one’s goals, then there would be a much lesser need for supplements, pharmaceuticals, and invasive surgeries. You don’t need to be a nutrition expert to realize that most people are taking pills, supplements or otherwise, because they have very unsupportive lifestyle habits and uninformed or misinformed nutritional approaches or are just negligent in their choices.
When are we going to step up and start taking responsibility for our own fate? Why do we look for our savior to come in a bottle? Why do we know what the real problem is, but avoid doing anything about it and then spend exorbitant amounts of money on all kinds of pills, then complain about not having any money?
The truth is, folks, that if you are having digestive issues and you also just happen to be a “fast eater” who “doesn’t chew well enough”, maybe it’s time that you stopped and took a few minutes to eat your food. How’s about trying to chew your food so that you can have an easier time digesting it?
If you aren’t chewing your food and are eating too fast, then it doesn’t matter what sort of uber-healthy diet you are eating because anything you eat that is not chewed in the correct manner will do more harm than good. The partly chewed food will cause added strain on the pancreas and the stomach, which could lead to bloating, gas, upset stomach, and even acid reflux later on.
This is precisely the reason why in our Nutrition Education programs, we spend a full MONTH on setting goals, creating goal and lifestyle-supportive habits, conscious eating, and of course, proper chewing. These are all basic Macrobiotic principles that are actually universal to a successful, happy, and healthy way of life.
God gave you teeth! Use them! Chew your food! It’s healthy, and you’ll save money!
For more information please contact us to learn more about the “Foundational Habits of Sustainable Health”. If there is anything that you learn from Staff of Life Nutrition that could really help you change your life, it’s this.
Michael Joseph
Staff of Life Nutrition Consulting
In today’s world, people eat very fast and don’t chew their food, so digestive support enzyme pills may be needed.
So, the problem is that people have poor digestion because they are eating too fast and not chewing their food, right? Lemme see if I am following this correctly: the solution is not slowing down and chewing your food, but to buy a bottle of pills that just merely covers up the real problem?
How is that different than the “symptom control” methodology used by allopathic medicine? How is this ideology promoted by the supplement industry any different than the Pharmaceutical industry:
"People have health problems that stem from a poor diet, lack of exercise, and unhealthy lifestyle habits, but instead of helping people change those things for the better, let’s just make a bunch of pills that don’t really cure anything but make it “appear” as if they are getting healthier!"
Do you see the mentality and the line of thought here? The problem is caused by personal lifestyle choices and poor education on the importance of food and conscious eating, but these people would have you believe that in order for you to feel better you need to buy their pills BUT NOT change your own habits. What they are doing is enabling people to continue to make the same mistake over and over again, because if they correct the mistake, supplement sales go down.
If more people in America were properly educated about food and creating lifestyle habits that are supportive to one’s goals, then there would be a much lesser need for supplements, pharmaceuticals, and invasive surgeries. You don’t need to be a nutrition expert to realize that most people are taking pills, supplements or otherwise, because they have very unsupportive lifestyle habits and uninformed or misinformed nutritional approaches or are just negligent in their choices.
When are we going to step up and start taking responsibility for our own fate? Why do we look for our savior to come in a bottle? Why do we know what the real problem is, but avoid doing anything about it and then spend exorbitant amounts of money on all kinds of pills, then complain about not having any money?
The truth is, folks, that if you are having digestive issues and you also just happen to be a “fast eater” who “doesn’t chew well enough”, maybe it’s time that you stopped and took a few minutes to eat your food. How’s about trying to chew your food so that you can have an easier time digesting it?
If you aren’t chewing your food and are eating too fast, then it doesn’t matter what sort of uber-healthy diet you are eating because anything you eat that is not chewed in the correct manner will do more harm than good. The partly chewed food will cause added strain on the pancreas and the stomach, which could lead to bloating, gas, upset stomach, and even acid reflux later on.
This is precisely the reason why in our Nutrition Education programs, we spend a full MONTH on setting goals, creating goal and lifestyle-supportive habits, conscious eating, and of course, proper chewing. These are all basic Macrobiotic principles that are actually universal to a successful, happy, and healthy way of life.
God gave you teeth! Use them! Chew your food! It’s healthy, and you’ll save money!
For more information please contact us to learn more about the “Foundational Habits of Sustainable Health”. If there is anything that you learn from Staff of Life Nutrition that could really help you change your life, it’s this.
Michael Joseph
Staff of Life Nutrition Consulting
2/7/09
Looking perfect, or being happy-which do you chose?
Each day I look around and I see all sorts of interesting things people are doing to "look" perfect or to have that "look" that their favorite celebrity has. Just recently I read an article on a popular website about a certain "body type" being "in" for women. The article made references to two actresses who were, coincidentally, stick figures with skin and hair and wearing Versace. The article went on to say that "hips and the hour-glass figure of Marilyn Monroe-types are 'out' and the rectangle body types like Keira Knightly are 'in'"
What have we come to as a society where we actually start picking certain body types as if they are some "fad" or "trend", like some new style of hats, that we are all supposed to now regard as "attractive"? Well, what if you aren't that particular body type? Are you totally screwed? Does this mean that you aren't attractive?
Oh that's it....now that you don't have that Gumby-like rectangle look, you ain't gonna get no dates. No one is going to want to so much as touch you because you remind them of Marilyn Monroe with your hips and boobs!!
So, this is where we get people, mostly women, even though there is a growing number of men with this problem, with serious body image issues. They start making all kinds of unnecessary sacrifices to get "that look", which includes cosmetic surgery, crash dieting, and over-training at the gym.
Look, I know this sort of stuff has been going on throughout history, but in this day and age, with the power of the Internet, the obsession with "what do I eat to lose weight", and insurance companies covering "weight loss surgery", it has reached an all time high. Did you know that the 'weight loss' surgery, known as bariatric surgery, reduces the size of one's stomach to that of a golf ball? So, this means that overeating (as many of us do from time to time) can actually result in regurgitation! That's medically induced Bulimia!! And it's covered under most insurance plans!!!
At what point does someone completely forsake their "happiness" to look "perfect"? I know beauty has it's price, but what if that price is eternal misery? What if one's fate is to forever be trapped in some narcissistic shell where the only thing he or she has is the reflection in the mirror? Eventually, that image fades...then what?
As for the rest of us, I'd rather be ten pounds overweight and happy than be of perfect body shape and miserable while always trying to meet these unrealistic standards put on us by people who are probably miserable themselves to begin with. I'd rather sit and eat a robust, healthy meal and go back for seconds instead of saying "er...I'm on a diet, so that means I have to punish myself with my food so I could look like Brad freaking Pitt".
Enough is enough. The reason why it is so hard to lose that "last 10-15 pounds" is probably because you really don't have to lose it to begin with. They just tell you that you have to so you keep buying their diet books and you keep buying their weight loss products. Here is a newsflash: those last "10 pounds" never come off because that whole idea is one of the greatest myths ever told in the history of western civilization. How many times have you heard someone who looks just splendid say to you "eek...I need to lose ten pounds", and you replied "um, from where? You gonna cut off a foot or something?" This whole idea of the perfect body or the ideal body type is a myth perpetuated on us by the wellness industry to sell gym memberships, books on weight loss, supplements, weight loss products, and pre-packaged diets called "nutri-"whatever that you'll have to buy for the rest of your life or else the dreaded weight will return (if it ever came off in the first place). They play on our fragile self-images and try to convince us that no matter what we do, we'll never be like that chick or that dude on the cover of that "fitness" magazine, so we have to keep buying their products....or worse, get a new and trendy "weight loss surgery" that essentially turns you into a deflated mylar balloon and sucks the energy and life right out of you (but hey, thin is in!).
The Fat Person In the Mirror
What this all amounts to is that we all need to reflect on who it is we are looking at in the mirror. Is that who we chose to be or is it what someone else wants us to be? Do we truly love ourselves, regardless as to what we see in the mirror-if we are ten pounds overweight, or ten pounds under weight? Or if our hair is thinning? Or if we have wrinkles? Do we really accept the person we are looking at as a whole and complete being, regardless of what "they" say? So we really "need" to lose all of that weight (if there is in fact any weight to lose at all)?
This is why when I work with clients who want to lose weight, I always ask "Why? Why do you want to lose weight?"many times, the answer has nothing to do with what they want, and everything to do with what is expected of them.
The funny part is that many of them really don't need to lose weight for health reasons; they are perfectly healthy and are at a perfectly healthy weight. They just think they are overweight because of what someone told them or what they read somewhere. They don't feel attractive. They don't feel "right". They look at themselves in the mirror, and they see a fat person. So, they try to starve that fat person, or they punish that fat person by forcing it to eat a fad diet. They put all sorts of pressure on that fat person in the mirror to magically become the "thin" person in the mirror, and when they don't, they ridicule and punish that person by more extreme diets, more extreme exercise programs, and more and more.....
20 years ago this behavior pattern was called an "eating disorder". That's right. Look it up. Eating disorders are not just anorexia or bulimia, but by definition, the above scenario is in fact a mild form of anorexia...which just happens to be created by the weight loss industry to keep you nice and scared so you keep buying into their unscientific diets and buying more of their books and products.
So, ask yourself, is that "fat person in the mirror" really you, or is it someone that somebody else wants you to believe is you? Do you really want to lose weight, or are you only trying to because you feel it is expected of you? Maybe the weight you thought you needed to lose really wasn't there to begin with, but was just a figment of your imagination created by someone who has a vested interest in you believing it was real? And if you want to lose weight, do you think it could be much easier and much more fun if you didn't put so much pressure on yourself to be "perfect"?
The truth is, no one ever needs to lose as much weight as they think they do. We always add 10 pounds when we look in the mirror. What we need to do before ever embarking on any weight loss or wellness program is to take stock of who we are and what we want. Anything we get out of such a program should be of our choosing. We must love and accept ourselves for who we are before doing anything for self improvement; this way, we'll get a really clear idea of what we really need to improve! Many, many times, it's not the weight that needs to be lost, but our own preconceived ideas of who or what we are supposed to be; that negative conditioning that makes us feel like we are broken, incomplete, fragmented, or just plain ugly. The opposite can also be true, where we think we are super-perfect. The truth is probably somewhere down the middle between those two extremes. But it is only when we take an honest look at who that "fat person" in the mirror is and get a clear assessment of who that person truly is will we know if we really need to lose that last 10 pounds.
Michael Joseph
Staff of Life Nutrition Consulting Inc.
What have we come to as a society where we actually start picking certain body types as if they are some "fad" or "trend", like some new style of hats, that we are all supposed to now regard as "attractive"? Well, what if you aren't that particular body type? Are you totally screwed? Does this mean that you aren't attractive?
Oh that's it....now that you don't have that Gumby-like rectangle look, you ain't gonna get no dates. No one is going to want to so much as touch you because you remind them of Marilyn Monroe with your hips and boobs!!
So, this is where we get people, mostly women, even though there is a growing number of men with this problem, with serious body image issues. They start making all kinds of unnecessary sacrifices to get "that look", which includes cosmetic surgery, crash dieting, and over-training at the gym.
Look, I know this sort of stuff has been going on throughout history, but in this day and age, with the power of the Internet, the obsession with "what do I eat to lose weight", and insurance companies covering "weight loss surgery", it has reached an all time high. Did you know that the 'weight loss' surgery, known as bariatric surgery, reduces the size of one's stomach to that of a golf ball? So, this means that overeating (as many of us do from time to time) can actually result in regurgitation! That's medically induced Bulimia!! And it's covered under most insurance plans!!!
At what point does someone completely forsake their "happiness" to look "perfect"? I know beauty has it's price, but what if that price is eternal misery? What if one's fate is to forever be trapped in some narcissistic shell where the only thing he or she has is the reflection in the mirror? Eventually, that image fades...then what?
As for the rest of us, I'd rather be ten pounds overweight and happy than be of perfect body shape and miserable while always trying to meet these unrealistic standards put on us by people who are probably miserable themselves to begin with. I'd rather sit and eat a robust, healthy meal and go back for seconds instead of saying "er...I'm on a diet, so that means I have to punish myself with my food so I could look like Brad freaking Pitt".
Enough is enough. The reason why it is so hard to lose that "last 10-15 pounds" is probably because you really don't have to lose it to begin with. They just tell you that you have to so you keep buying their diet books and you keep buying their weight loss products. Here is a newsflash: those last "10 pounds" never come off because that whole idea is one of the greatest myths ever told in the history of western civilization. How many times have you heard someone who looks just splendid say to you "eek...I need to lose ten pounds", and you replied "um, from where? You gonna cut off a foot or something?" This whole idea of the perfect body or the ideal body type is a myth perpetuated on us by the wellness industry to sell gym memberships, books on weight loss, supplements, weight loss products, and pre-packaged diets called "nutri-"whatever that you'll have to buy for the rest of your life or else the dreaded weight will return (if it ever came off in the first place). They play on our fragile self-images and try to convince us that no matter what we do, we'll never be like that chick or that dude on the cover of that "fitness" magazine, so we have to keep buying their products....or worse, get a new and trendy "weight loss surgery" that essentially turns you into a deflated mylar balloon and sucks the energy and life right out of you (but hey, thin is in!).
The Fat Person In the Mirror
What this all amounts to is that we all need to reflect on who it is we are looking at in the mirror. Is that who we chose to be or is it what someone else wants us to be? Do we truly love ourselves, regardless as to what we see in the mirror-if we are ten pounds overweight, or ten pounds under weight? Or if our hair is thinning? Or if we have wrinkles? Do we really accept the person we are looking at as a whole and complete being, regardless of what "they" say? So we really "need" to lose all of that weight (if there is in fact any weight to lose at all)?
This is why when I work with clients who want to lose weight, I always ask "Why? Why do you want to lose weight?"many times, the answer has nothing to do with what they want, and everything to do with what is expected of them.
The funny part is that many of them really don't need to lose weight for health reasons; they are perfectly healthy and are at a perfectly healthy weight. They just think they are overweight because of what someone told them or what they read somewhere. They don't feel attractive. They don't feel "right". They look at themselves in the mirror, and they see a fat person. So, they try to starve that fat person, or they punish that fat person by forcing it to eat a fad diet. They put all sorts of pressure on that fat person in the mirror to magically become the "thin" person in the mirror, and when they don't, they ridicule and punish that person by more extreme diets, more extreme exercise programs, and more and more.....
20 years ago this behavior pattern was called an "eating disorder". That's right. Look it up. Eating disorders are not just anorexia or bulimia, but by definition, the above scenario is in fact a mild form of anorexia...which just happens to be created by the weight loss industry to keep you nice and scared so you keep buying into their unscientific diets and buying more of their books and products.
So, ask yourself, is that "fat person in the mirror" really you, or is it someone that somebody else wants you to believe is you? Do you really want to lose weight, or are you only trying to because you feel it is expected of you? Maybe the weight you thought you needed to lose really wasn't there to begin with, but was just a figment of your imagination created by someone who has a vested interest in you believing it was real? And if you want to lose weight, do you think it could be much easier and much more fun if you didn't put so much pressure on yourself to be "perfect"?
The truth is, no one ever needs to lose as much weight as they think they do. We always add 10 pounds when we look in the mirror. What we need to do before ever embarking on any weight loss or wellness program is to take stock of who we are and what we want. Anything we get out of such a program should be of our choosing. We must love and accept ourselves for who we are before doing anything for self improvement; this way, we'll get a really clear idea of what we really need to improve! Many, many times, it's not the weight that needs to be lost, but our own preconceived ideas of who or what we are supposed to be; that negative conditioning that makes us feel like we are broken, incomplete, fragmented, or just plain ugly. The opposite can also be true, where we think we are super-perfect. The truth is probably somewhere down the middle between those two extremes. But it is only when we take an honest look at who that "fat person" in the mirror is and get a clear assessment of who that person truly is will we know if we really need to lose that last 10 pounds.
Michael Joseph
Staff of Life Nutrition Consulting Inc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
