The finish line

The JOOS Reboot has ended...3 weeks and 10 lbs later...I must say, this experience was more than worth it! 3 weeks ago I gave up Meat, Wheat, Dairy, Artificial and heavily Processed foods, artificial sugars and caffeine. Additionally, I was having 2 JOOS per day...one in the AM and one in the PM. My biggest meal was in the middle of the day and snacks whenever I was hungry. The adjustment was a bit of a challenge at first but became more comfortable by the second week and somewhat of a habit by the end. I am now 2 days PR (post reboot) and I continue to observe many of the same principles that have made me feel so strong and healthy over the past few weeks. I have experimented with adding the "restricted" foods back onto my plate in a singular fashion as a way of examining how they make me feel. I have noticed that my body/mind has become much more aware and sensitive to the effects of food. Caffeine makes me wired (these effects were previously dulled due to the amount of coffee I was drinking prior to the reboot), Fish Taco's seemed to work well for me, Sweet tastes are much more noticeable and Beer made me feel a little bloated (several more tests needed to confirm this one!). Other than feeling great and losing a few pounds (not my primary intention going into this), I am definitely noticing an increased mindfulness around my eating choices. One thing that I am wrestling with, however, is what exactly is it that is causing me to feel great? Was it the JOOS? Was it the 1 big meal per day? or was it the elimination of a particular food that my body had a hard time digesting? Truthfully, I believe it is probably a synergistic combination of everything but I believe that the 2 biggest factors for ME were the mid-day big meal and the 2 JOOS daily. The mid-day meal was very satisfying and only left me slightly hungry in the evening. The JOOS and a small snack would hold me over and my body became primed to maximize its healing time while I was sleeping. I believe that this is why I was waking up with so much energy. I guess the interesting thing for me was that while I missed coffee,pizza and grilling a burger on the back deck during a beautiful summer evening...I also felt so damn good that I had to wonder which activity was serving me better. Yes, I will go back to enjoying those items once again, however, it will be tempered by my knowledge of the effect that it has on my system. There is most certainly an awareness within me that will guide my eating based on intuition, experimentation and listening to my body. Great experience and one that I will look forward to doing again soon...Thanks to those who have checked out the blog....blogs are an interesting concept to me (feels very self-important at times), oh well.. maybe i'll cover that one on my next post. Be Well -Dan

End of 2nd week on the Reboot

Today marks the 15th day of the Reboot. Started off the day at 6:00am when I woke up on my own (no alarm or crying baby)...still having loads of energy in the morning and not waking up hungry. This morning I had a JOOS Green Lemonade (Apple, Celery, Cucumber, bok choy, kale chard , collards, ginger, tumeric, lemon and lime). The joos was delicious, but I must admit that it tasted rather sweet to me. It is interesting how the sensitivity of my palate to sugar has changed over the past couple of weeks. Things that I once found to "normal" tasting, now taste sweet...amazing how desensitized we can become to the "experience" of our normal routine. In any event, energy has been steady throughout the day...even directly after lunch (which was usually a time in the past that I would hit a wall). At night, my sleep has been solid and I have been falling asleep seconds after my head hits the pillow. All in all, the reboot is making me feel great. 1 more week to go...I'll keep you posted.

Week 1..done!

Week 1 of the JOOS Reboot has come to an end and I am still alive. In fact, very alive! Tons of energy, enjoying the fresh JOOS first thing in the morning as a great way to jumpstart the day (it's much easier than eating 2 pounds of fruits and veggies first thing in the morning!). The energy that I have can only be described as "grounded" and "sustained". Very few fluctuations throughout the day and when I get into bed at night....i'm out. I'm not sure if this is related to the lack of caffeine but I must imagine this has something to do with it. I weened myself off the java to avoid headaches and now I am going without it. Of all the things that I had to part with for the reboot...coffee is the hardest. Interestingly enough...it is more of the tradition of having coffee that I miss more than the "kick" it gives me. So now, as I sit in a coffee shop writing this blog, I am doing so with an iced passion tea rather than a coffee...tasty, but not the same. I don't want to talk about it anymore or I'll cave-in.
I have received several questions from friends and family about the Reboot so I will use this space to answer some of them.

Nate in Boston wrote:
"To do the cleanse, you have to go somewhere every few days to buy the JOOS?" and "What are you eating for lunch while on the reboot?"

Dan:
Thanks for the questions Nate. I signed up for the JOOS Reboot on www.drinkjoos.com and selected the "depot" that I wanted my JOOS delivered to . I pick mine up at The Body Workshop in Dedham which is the most convenient depot to where I live. On pickup mornings (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) I pop over to TBW to grab my JOOS, exchange a "good-morning" with Frank (great dude who owns TBW) and set off with enough JOOS to last until my next pickup day. The payment however, does not take place at the depot locations, rather it takes place when I place the order on the website. The second part of your question regarding Lunch....For the most part, lunch consists of a grain like brown rice or quinoa (pronounced keen-wah, a delicious high protein grain and is loaded with calcium and other key nutrients), veggies and beans. I'm not a huge fan of tofu but I have used it sparingly. I have found that most ethnic restaurants offer several selections: Thai, Mediterranean, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Italian are all great options. This time of year is great for the Reboot because there is an abundance of fresh, local produce. We get ours from www.whitebarnfarm.org which is a small 4+ acre farm run by friends of ours Chris and Christy. If you are ever near Wrentham on a Tues, Wed, Fri or Sat...it's well worth stopping by their roadside stand.

Rory in New York wrote: "How does the JOOS taste" and "anything scary happening in the bathroom?"

Dan:
Thanks Rory- thanks for getting right at the good stuff. For me, the JOOS tastes great. My wife got me into juicing our own fruit and veg. about 3 or 4 years ago so I am used to the non-sweetened, non-industrialized, non-full of crapizized (my own word) taste of fresh juice. For some reason, the JOOS just tastes better than ours (and is much easier to clean up!). When the Reboot starts, the joos' start out sweeter (because they contain apple). As your body begins to adjust to being without excess sugar while on the Reboot, the amount of apple is decreased because you no longer desire such a sweet taste. By the middle to end of the cleanse, you are drinking JOOS that contains no apple and more green leafy vegetables (quite possibly one of the healthiest foods on earth). The amazing thing Rory is that I have met so many people who told me that before they start the reboot they could barely stand to take a sip of JOOS yet by the end of 3 weeks, they were physically craving it. It is pretty amazing how the human body responds when you treat it well.
The second part of your question made me laugh but it is a very valid question and probably one of the best indicators for me as to how this is working. I'll do my best to address this accurately while offending as few people as possible. The Reboot is a total body cleanse and not a colon cleanse....with that said, there have not been any total "blowouts" if you will (a welcomed relief for me as I have known several people who have done the colon cleanses and couldn't be more than 5 feet from a bathroom). I am in the "office" 1x a day and it is a casual affair that takes place first thing when I wake up (as apposed to having to be coaxed with a couple sips of coffee as in the past). Lastly, I would mention that there has been virtually no odor....almost as mind blowing to me as the fax machine.

more Q&A soon...

Reboot day 6- The International diet

6 days into the Reboot and feeling great. For those of you just joining the blog, I have embarked on a 3 week JOOS Reboot and have agreed to document my experience here on the JOOS Blog.

A little under a week ago, my wife, Jess and I committed to drinking 2 JOOS' per day and eliminating Meat, Wheat (gluten), Dairy, Refined Sugars, Processed Foods, Artificial Sweeteners and Caffeine (Jess went cold turkey on the coffee..I have been weening myself) from our diets. Today, on day six, we are both feeling GREAT...good energy level- especially in the AM and sustained throughout the day (including a workout). I have learned that I need to consume additional food on days that I exercise as I was getting light-headed after I workout. Mentally, I have a solid degree of clarity due, most likely, to the foods I am eating (and more likely, not eating) but also to the fact that there is an added degree of mindfulness applied to my food choices. I have enjoyed putting together our "big" meal of the day as I have been forced to utilize new ingredients and leverage multiple spice combinations to create delicious and nutritious feasts. Interestingly enough, if I think back on the meals that we have had since the Reboot started, almost all of them have been influenced by the cuisine from cultures outside of America. Mexican (Beans, Rice, Salsa & Guac), Thai (Green curry vegetables), Italian (Rice Pasta with Eggplant, portabella mushrooms & Garlic in a San Marzano and basil sauce) and Indian (Potato and garbanzo bean curry) flavors have been on call as I have struggled to find a solid American meal (Burger & Fries??) that satisfies the parameters of the Reboot. I find this quite interesting as I believe it speaks to a much larger issue in our culture around the sourcing, quality and cost of the "typical" American diet.

Day 3

As my first Reboot heads into the weekend, I'm feeling pretty good (although this beautiful Friday afternoon weather most certainly evokes my subconscious desire to reach for a beer while listening to the Redsox game and grilling something that was once swimming or grazing). I am becoming very aware of benign habits that I have developed over time...things like eating at a certain time of day regardless of whether or not I'm truly hungry, associating certain situations with certain foods (thinking about Buffs Pubs wings during last nights Patriots Game) or simply the subconscious visits back and forth between the fridge and pantry thinking that something was just going to magically appear in the time since I had last checked (usually under 10 minutes earlier!).

In addition the benign habits, here are a couple of quick additional observations on my first 3 days of the JOOS Reboot. First of all...I feel way more "conscious" about the way I am eating. Making decisions about what travels past my lips has moved from the sub-conscious to a point where I actually take a moment to ponder whether or not I am "allowed" to eat certain foods. Fortunately, I happen to be a food lover (with the exception of Goat Cheese...which I think tastes like dirty socks) so the Reboot has been more of a quest to determine what i CAN eat versus a struggle to eliminate things that I CANT. My big meal of the day (usually taken between the hours of 10 and 3) has consisted of brown rice, lots of veg, beans and fruit. I happen to love all of these foods so finding something to satiate my appetite has been no problem. This is a great time of year to Reboot since some many delicious fruits and vegetables are in season and can be purchased locally. One great thing about the JOOS Reboot is that it is not a starvation cleanse...rather it is an exercise in mindful food selection. I have been joking with Jess and calling it the "EATboot", with the idea being that you must EAT, but you also must avoid: mEAT, whEAT, swEET and anything from a tEET (dairy).
Ok, looking forward to sharing more next week. I have been getting lots of questions about the JOOS Reboot so I will try to answer some in future posts. Be well. -Dan

Day 1 in the books

Dan here...
So Day one of the Reboot is a thing of the past. I felt pretty good for the most part yesterday, however, last night I could have literally eaten my own leg (but of course...no meat!). My hunger was most likely out of habit more than anything else but nonetheless, I ended up having some veg & hummos to avoid going absolutely crazy. I woke up this morning feeling quite good. I had more more energy than usual (anyone with young children knows what kind of energy you have first thing in the morning!) and I attribute it to not having a large meal close to bedtime and giving my system the optimal recovery time during the night. I have met many people who have done "fasts" where they go for extended periods of time without eating as a way of cleansing the body...while this act of starvation ranks up there on my list of things that I have zero interest in doing (along with running a marathon, knitting and wearing a Yankees hat), I do believe that occasionally not eating food between the hours of 6pm and 6am gives your body a 12 hour fast and allows it to do it's thing...setting you up for optimal performance the following day. More to come

Ready...Set....REBOOT!

Hey There-
It's Dan here...Regional Manager for JOOS, getting ready to embark on a 21 day JOOS Reboot. I will use this space to periodically document this experience as both a personal account of my dietary transformation as well as an opportunity to educate others on the Reboot experience. My wife, Jessica, and I decided to do the Reboot together...sort of a buddy system kind of thing. Her experience with the Reboot will be slightly different from mine as she is currently nursing our daughter and will need to to modify her food intake accordingly.

Last night I had an amazing juicy hamburger for dinner...a final send-off if you will as for the next 21 days I will exchanging my omnivore tendencies for a diet rich in fresh, non-pasteurized fruits and vegetable Juices and free from likes of Dairy, Meat, Gluten and processed/preservative laden foods. While I have always taken an keen interest in the foods that I put into my body, the Reboot will force me to adopt a new level of "mindfulness" as I rethink my diet and reorganize my shopping list and refrigerator. The JOOS Reboot is a unique way to kickstart sustainable eating habits...which, if you are a busy human in todays society, can get out of whack every now and again. The program is pretty simple. JOOS in the AM, JOOS in the PM. Biggest meal in the middle of the day (this allows your body to maximize it's healing potential because it is not constantly diverting energy for digestion all day long). There are several other components to the REBOOT but for the sake of simplicity, that is the gist. An occasional "cleanse" or "reboot" is an amazing thing for the mind and body. It is essentially a way of stepping back from the routine and consciously thinking about a task (eating) that we all to often approach with an autopilot mentality. When you think about it....food is the fuel that determines how well our body and mind performs. For the next 3 weeks, I will be giving my body optimal fuel and nutrients in hopes of maximizing energy, increasing clarity and challenging myself to switch off autopilot and steer the ship manually.

This morning I picked up my Reboot package (6 JOOS, 1 Package of JOOS Bites and a Reboot Manual) at The Body Workshop (my local JOOS Depot) in Dedham. I kicked off the Reboot with a JOOS GREEN LEMONADE- fresh pressed juice made from Apple, Kale, Chard, Collard Greens,Celery, Cucumber, Tumeric, Ginger, Lemon and Lime. More to come soon! Be Well.....

Drinking from a toxic water bottle?

We all know that most plastics are toxic, which has prompted many of us to switch to aluminum water bottles. The problem is that there is uncertainty whether they, too, are toxic, as discussed in the following links:

http://www.ehow.com/about_5300319_health-risks-aluminum-water-bottles.html

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/165315-overview

Stainless steel is widely deemed as safe and non toxic, which is what I use for my children. There are several good products on the market, including Klean Kanteen, New Wave Enviro Stainless Steel Water Bottle, SIGG, to name a few.

8 Ways to Boost your Brain Function!

This month's Yoga Journal highlights seven ways we can keep our mind functioning well into our elderly years, according to medical experts:

1. Vitamin D: Research suggests that Vitamin D is essential for cognitive function and helps to keep our bones strong through metabolizing calcium.

2. Brain tonic: As foreign as this is to many of us, brain tonics have been around for thousands of years in Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medicine. The herb Brahmi has been highly recommended. My personal favorite is chyavanprash, which has been incredibly effective in immune support.

3. Frequent socializing, including dancing, travelling, volunteering, playing board games, etc. have been found to lower risk of dementia.

4. Positive outlook: Studies have found that negative thinking is bad for your brain! According to Jeffrey M. Greeson of Duke University Medical Center, chronic anger, hate and resentment produce stress causing your adrenals to release the hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol shrink the hippocampus and can actually lead to more negative thinking.

5. Vitamin B12: Studies have shown that B12 deficiency is linked to memory loss.

6. Regular meditation: According to several studies, meditation can keep your mind nimble and clear.

7. Frequent Exercise: Simply put, habitual exercise promotes healthy brain function.

Here is one that Yoga Journal omitted:

8. Eat Dark Leafy Greens!!! They contain antioxidants, help reduce inflammation, lower cholesterol levels and protect the immune system.

Smooth flow => Happy mood => JOOS‏

Are you feeling any of these symptoms?
• Diarrhea
• Flatulence
• Nausea
• Constipation
• Fatigue
• Iron Deficiency
• Depression
• Acne
• Fullness
• Food Allergies
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Asthma
• Autoimmune Disease

If you answered yes, there's a good chance you have poor digestion, also known as indigestion.

There are several factors that could be causing it. Here are some:

• Eating a diet high in acidic foods (e.g., animal protein, gluten products, artificial sweeteners, processed foods, dairy)
• Not enough fiber
• Dehydration - not drinking enough water
• Eating too quickly
• Eating excessive amounts of food
• Stress mismanagement
• Not getting enough sleep
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Smoking

The links below from the University of Maryland Medical Center and by Dr. John Douillard give a more thorough overview of ingestion:

http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/003260all.htm

http://www.lifespa.com/article.aspx?art_id=107&https_check=true

A major way to reverse indigestion is to eat a plant rich diet. The problem is that many of us do not like to eat vegetables. I spoke with someone the other day who said he ate "high quality steak and supplements."

Supplements are not substitutes or replacements for foods!

JOOS is one of the best ways to enrich your body with the highest quality vegetables!

What are you waiting for to feel your absolute best? ORDER JOOS!

Should we really be grazing?

A doctor friend of mine told me he was astounded how much weight he lost just by eating a sensible lunch daily.

American doctors, nutritionists and trainers recommend that we should eat several small meals throughout the day. My question is if we're the only country in the world that grazes, could this be a factor in our being over-weight?

We need to give our metabolisms a break in order to burn fat. At the same time, we have to eat regular meals in order to keep our metabolisms function optimally. So what is the balance?

In most countries, people eat small breakfasts and dinners and hearty lunches. Sometimes they'll have a healthy mid-morning and/or mid-afternoon snack. Portion control is paramount. As a rule of thumb, we should wait 4 hours in between meals.

Most of us Americans eat minimally or starve ourselves throughout the day and then binge at night. Equally taxing on our metabolism is fasting, which is why on the JOOS Reboot we stress the importance of eating a sensible lunch.

If you're looking to get on track to optimizing your metabolism so that you can lose weight, improve your energy levels and even get a good night's sleep, they try doing the JOOS Reboot!

The Buried Truth about Lyme's Disease - A letter from Wendy's Father!

Dear Friends,

The truth about Chronic Lyme Disease is harsh, frightening, and at this time somewhat hopeless, as AIDS was a couple of decades ago. I’ve observed that though Chronic Lyme Disease has been around for decades it’s pretty much not understood by most Americans. I know that AIDS hasn’t been cured but it is now rarely deadly and is treated as a chronic condition similar to diabetes. Some day this will be the case with Chronic Lyme Disease.

Recently one member of our Wednesday Wheeler bike club, who hasn’t been riding with us lately, sadly wrote about the announcement I sent:
“It really struck home since it sure seems like I am the same boat as your daughter -- obviously there is no treatment since I know you must have pursued all avenues. It was pleasure knowing you and cycling/hiking etc.”
Unfortunately he now has a debilitative disease that the many conventional M.D.s he has seen failed to diagnose, which he suspects is Lyme.

I’ve decided to send this short essay (below) on Chronic Lyme Disease to my physician and health professional friends, most of whom are not Lyme-literate but might be in a better position to contribute to attaining the critical mass needed to cure this evasive and dreadful cluster of associated tick-born diseases. I’ll also send it to those of my friends expressing their sympathy on my daughter Wendy’s death, who may have told me that they didn’t know Lyme could be fatal.

Lyme disease is the fastest growing reportable infectious disease in the U.S. based on an analysis of CDC reported cases, which are recorded on a passive, not mandatory, reporting system. The CDC has acknowledged that reported statistics greatly understate the true incidence of the disease. The actual number of new cases probably exceeds ten times that number, or about 200,000 new cases per year. Massachusetts ranks fourth nationally in incidents of reported Lyme disease cases, behind Pennsylvania, New Jersey & New York.

A physician friend of Wendy’s who has been struggling successfully with Chronic Lyme Disease is planning to write a book and I agreed to collaborate with her on a chapter devoted to Wendy and her painful journey.

Thank you again for your friendship and your sincere expressions of sympathy. The world has become colder and lonelier for me and the many others, friends and family, who knew and loved Wendy.

~Sumner
________________________________

http://www.lymememorial.org/The_Buried_Truth.htm
The Buried Truth:


How is it that a ‘difficult to catch and easy to cure’ disease can claim so many lives? The answer is, at once, so simple yet extremely complex. It is this very dilemma that keeps the truth buried.

The simplicity relies upon the fact that Lyme and other tickborne associated diseases can be lethal. They are stealth pathogens that invade the body and wreak havoc on every inch of its systems. They know no boundaries, pass through all barriers and essentially use the patient's own immune defense forces as ammunition against them.

The complexity lies within the bacterial, viral, protozoan or microbial ability to become covert and therefore evade the most common diagnostic criteria and most standard treatment protocols. ‘Lyme disease’ for most infected patients is rarely only the bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi. We are now finding that most patients harbor a collection of multiple diseases that can be contracted by a single encounter with the most notorious vector- The Tick.

We are also finding that ticks are not the only vectors that carry these multiple diseases. Mosquitoes, lice, biting flies, fleas, chiggers, mites and sand flies are only a few of the known carriers. We also know that some tickborne diseases can be passed from person to person via sexual transmission, by congenital means, through blood transfusion and with organ transplants.

Animal to human transmission is also reported via exposure to infected animals such as squirrels, dogs, cats, birds, sheep and cows among others.

Tickborne diseases claim lives in many ways. The length from infection to fatality varies widely with the nature of each disease and with each patient. Some diseases are quick to claim lives and others linger at length until the patient’s body gives in to the devastation or the patient’s spirit gives in to the desperation.

It is not uncommon to see another cause of demise listed on a death report for the tickborne disease infected patient. Once the body becomes immunocompromised and multi-systemic infection occurs, the door is left wide open to other possible conditions that complicate the patient’s original diagnosis and prognosis.

Even under the most optimal conditions: with a swift diagnosis, the best of possible protocol plans and attentive physicians, the eradication of tickborne diseases is subject to the individual’s response to treatment.

Unfortunately, most patient care does not fall into the optimal condition category. Many go for weeks, months, years and decades before a proper diagnosis is made and a treatment plan is initiated.

These patients have endured dozens of physicians still clinging to misinformed protocols backed by misguided political forces. They have also been ravaged by inconceivable insurance nightmares that have led to extreme social, financial and personal loss.

The truth of what plagues their lives has been lurking underneath multiple misdiagnoses, indescribable pain to mind, body and spirit, denial of the patients' own experiences and the continued prevalence of a simple myth that pleads to be uncovered and recognized for exactly what it is…The Buried Truth.

-Melanie Reber
© 2006 The National Lyme Disease Memorial Park Project

Top 6 Ways to Get Your Family to Eat Healthy

Jan brings treats (e.g., cookies, crackers, juice boxes, etc.) to the play ground for her 3-year-old daughter, Samantha. Jan complains that Samantha is a picky eater and will not eat dinner at night.

Susan cooks multiple meals for three children at dinner time. One child doesn't like fish, another doesn't like rice and the third doesn't like chicken. Unsurprisingly, none will eat vegetables.

Stacey fills her cabinets with processed snacks. The kids eat them liberally. Stacey says she doesn't like to argue with them so she lets this slide. Like Susan, she wonders why her children do not like to eat vegetables and are overweight.

Carole takes her two girls for pizza, but won't eat a piece herself because, she tells them, she's on a "diet."

These are all true stories, but I've changed the names in each. All are loving mothers with good intentions.

I was very fortunate to grow up in a healthy household and have a mother who instilled in my brothers and me a balanced relationship with food. This is what she did:
1. She cooked one dinner and would say, "You get what you get."
2. She didn't bring snacks to the playground (although she did bring water). We went to the playground to play - not to eat.
3. She always kept fresh cut carrot and celery sticks in the fridge.
4. Most nights we had a home cooked dinner as a family and she gave us sensible portions.
5. We had our share of pizza, submarine sandwiches and fast food. Once in awhile, we'd go out for ice cream as a treat.
6. She role modeled for us a balanced eater. The question is, are you that role model to your children?

We'd love to hear your suggestions!

We will sorely miss Dr. Wendy Kagan Snyder

Today was one of the toughest days I've every experienced watching a beautiful and loving mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend buried after losing her battle to Lyme disease. Who knew how debilitating a mis-diagnosis of Lyme Disease could be!

Wendy is pictured above teaching a class about healthy living. Unfortunately, that's not enough.

I urge you to learn more about Lyme disease at http://turnthecorner.org/content/learn-about-lyme and please donate generously.

Bill Maher on health and wellness!

Can good health be boiled down to such a simple equation as:

Health = Nutrient Rich Food + Exercise + Stress Mgmt

The answer, according to many esteemed medical schools such as Duke, Harvard and UMich and many others, is YES!

The problem is that the pharmaceutical companies have convinced us that meds lead to good health.

As Bill Maher says in this provocative clip (link below), "If you believe you have to take all the pills the pharmaceutical companies say you do, then you're already on drugs."

Maher continues, "There is no money in healthy or dead people: The money is in the middle, people who are alive, sort of, but with one or more chronic conditions that puts them in need of (medications)."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot6x7cx9f7k&feature=player_embedded

Sugar even in sushi rice? Really!

I was astounded to hear how much sugar is added to sushi rice at a recent presentation I attended by a top Sushi in Boston. He recommended to add 1/4 cup sugar to 4 cups of rice. I had always thought of sushi as a relatively healthy food, but this revelation made me think twice.

I have been particularly sensitive to the poison of sugar after watching Dr. Robert Lustig's lecture, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth," on YouTube. As I wrote in the JOOS newsletter, it's worth the highly educational 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology.

Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, which is one of the best medical schools in the country. He published his first paper on childhood obesity a dozen years ago, and he has been treating patients and doing research on the disorder ever since.

Find out why there are epidemic rates of obese 6-month olds!

Improve Digestion + Reduce Stress = Decrease Cholesterol

Stress and poor digestion raise cholesterol levels. Simply put, high levels of stress and/or poor digestion ultimately cause free radicals that damage the healthy cholesterol (the LDLs) and they, in turn, irritate the arteriole wall. This causes the cholesterol to clump and accumulate causing arteriole disease, as shown in the picture above.

Meditation is an excellent way to reduce the stress, but with our busy schedules, many of us find it difficult to find the time.

We need to make certain that our bodies have the ability to detoxify well, which is why it is especially crucial for all of us busy people to nourish our bodies with the highest quality, nutrient rich foods.

JOOS to the rescue!

JOOS is an alkalizing beverage, which neutralizes the free radicals and improves our digestion, enabling a healthy detoxification of our systems.

The Battle of the Sodas: Why do you drink poison?

Studies are coming out showing the correlation between drinking soda and heart disease, stroke and other diseases. The link below is a study by one of the researchers, Dr. Mitchell Elkind of Columbia Medical School, who stated, “What our study shows is that drinking diet soda may be associated with an increased risk of vascular events, by which we mean strokes, heart attacks, and other causes of death that can be due to vascular disease.”

While diet soda doesn't pack on the weight as does non diet soda, it is still filled with artificial ingredients that can wreck havoc on our systems and interfere with all of our metabolic (that is digestive) processes in our bodies.

What bothers me greatly and what I find so irresponsible is, with so many studies showing the ills of drinking soda, then why aren't medical doctors warning their patients? The fact is, most of them don't know. You know the phrase, "buyer beware?" Well, this time, it's "patient beware!"

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/09/diet-soda-linked-to-higher-risk-of-heart-attack-stroke/

The 3 Simplist Rules to reading labels that could save your children's health

Yesterday I was at a friend's home and she showed me the label of a muffin product that she thought was healthy. On the box, it read,"healthier than eating an apple," which in itself is a warning. As we read the label, there were countless ingredients that were barely readable, another big warning.

These foods can make us sick!

I take my children food shopping as often as possible because this is the best way they can learn how to eat foods that make their bodies strong.

Here are the 3 simplest rules to reading ingredients:

1. Stay away from foods with labels that say "high fructose corn syrup" and "trans fat" because those ingredients are poison.

2. If the ingredient list is long or if there are ingredients with names they are unable to read, there's probably a lot of chemical additives in the product, which means they could be risking their health by eating it.

3. Ingredients are listed on the label according to quantity, so if corn syrup is the first item, chances are that is not a healthy food.

What do you look for when reading a label?

The most telling question of all: Do you feel like you're deserving?

Kate Middleton was the pinnacle of poise and regalness at her wedding today, but from what we've seen of her over the years, this is not a surprise. To me, she acts like she is deserving of a happy and fulfilling life and I say this in the most positive way. Her figure is deserving of every superlative. She has a beautiful, warm, captivating smile. No wonder Prince William fell in love with a woman of pure beauty and grace!

As I write this, I wonder how many of us feel like we're deserving of a life of ease with a beautiful figure and surrounded by a loving family?

I heard a trainer say that the clients who have the most success with weight loss are those who feel like they are deserving of it. Are you?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!