Fall Fun and Food Wisdom

Fall Fun

Fall has definitely arrived. Most of the leaves have come off the trees and the garden has been harvested. Now is the time to have some fun in the kitchen and be creative in a way that promotes your health goals.

Join me for a few days of fun in the kitchen as I review some tips and tricks for meal preparations and have some special guests join me to share their recommendation. A new topic will be presented each day. Sign up today to get access to the Fall Fun videos and additional content.

You will also be able to engage on a new group page, Food Wisdom by Dr. Noel Aldrich, for continued discussion and posted recipes.

Here are the topics we will cover:

Meat Hacks

Simplify your protein prep.

Bean Tricks

Make legumes enjoyable!

Olive Oil Expert

Great resource!

Fungi Fun

What to do with mushrooms!

Spice it up!

Flavor is where the variety happens!

Food Wisdom

Food Wisdom by Dr. Noel Aldrich is a private Facebook group page to help promote additional whole food resources for your health journey. Nutrition is designed for healing. Healing is a journey of discovery and perseverance. Old habits need to be removed and new habits that support quality of life need to be encouraged. The purpose of Food Wisdom is to provide encouragement on your healing journey and provide a deeper “why” behind the principles in your food practices.

Click the link below to join the group discussion at Food Wisdom by Dr. Noel Aldrich

My Virus Journey

Here we are, 2 years into this unreal experience changing everything in our lives because of the unknown. Though extra-ordinary efforts have been made to attempt to “control” the spread of the virus, you might get the impression that all attempts have been futile. But there is a great deal of knowledge that has been gained, and now I have had some personal experience to add to that mountain of knowledge.

There is Hope

First of all, if you have not followed my earlier blog posts, you can check out the recommended supplements that will improve your experience and help you get through the flu season and the COVID challenges much more easily. Check out the “Anti-Virus Protocol”

The Start of the Journey

The virus came through our household at the beginning of the week. Everyone in the household, except for me, identified the typical symptoms - fatigue, muscle aches, and loss of taste. I did not have any symptoms until Saturday evening when I spiked a fever. By Sunday morning, I also had fatigue, muscle aches, and a stabbing headache on the right side of my head.

During the first part of the week, I noted that my family members did not have great appetites, which is not unusual when you don’t feel well. As my symptoms came on, I continued a practice of taking a digestive enzyme, first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach. I take this enzyme about 1 hour or more before any breakfast is consumed.

Enzymes breakdown large molecules for reuse.

My purpose in taking the digestive enzyme on an empty stomach was to allow the enzymes to move into the blood stream and begin to breakdown any “loose” proteins that were floating around. I was curious if the digestive enzymes might break down the excessive virus proteins being made and reduce the overall symptoms I was feeling.

This use of digestive enzymes is known as “proteolytic enzymes.” This can be a helpful practice for cleaning the blood vessels of plaque buildup or fibrin clusters. Proteolytic enzymes are being researched for benefits related to heart disease, but I have not seen the application to virus symptoms.

Step 2: Fasting

Since my appetite was not as strong and I did not have a lot of energy to make food anyways, I decided to do a simple water fast and see what would happen. As I progressed to 20 hours with only water and some Vitamin C, I noted that I did not feel as fatigued and the muscle aches were decreasing. By 24 hours, my stabbing headache was gone.

I broke my fast at 30 hours, and had an evening meal before bed. Before I went to sleep that night, I could tell that the headache was returning. The next morning I took some pain reliever for the headache and ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I had some more energy, but I did not have relief of the headaches without medication. So I decided to try fasting again with my 2nd fast starting after the evening meal.

The next day, I only had water and herbal tea along with some Vitamin C. Again, around 20 hours with no food the headache began to disappear. This confirmed for me that the headache activity was closely related to blood sugar levels, which typically reach low levels after 20+ hours without food. I continued the fast until the next morning, completing 36 hours with only tea and water.

Stimulate and Relax

Fasting is a combination of resting your body and focusing your body on specific tasks.

After this 2nd fast, I felt like my body was beginning to recover. The headaches did not return and there was no muscle aches, fever, and limited fatigue. All together, the virus battle had taken about 5 days. There was still some residue to cough out of my lungs, but I never had any severe breathing issues.

Benefits of Fasting

Fasting is a simple, productive way to signal to the body that a “clean-up” activity needs to take place. When we fast, our body will begin to use up the energy stored within the body to keep things going. The energy most easily removed from storage is called glycogen and is stored in your liver and muscles. If you have consistently eaten regular meals every day of your life, you have probably never had a day when your glycogen storehouse was empty. Usually about 24 hours of fasting is needed to totally use up the glycogen stored away in the body. For many individuals, this is about the time when a headache is experienced, as the body makes a significant shift from depending on glycogen to burning fat.

Within every one of your cells, there are tiny mechanisms that are “garbage disposal units.” These garbage disposal units move through the cell and clean up any leftovers and recycle what can be used. When you fast, your cell will begin to clean up the space more aggressively, looking for any resources that can be recycled. This recycling mechanism gets triggered when we fast, and can significantly impact the effect of a virus or a bacteria invader.

Fasting in Practice

I went on to do some more research and found a clinic in Germany that is using Fasting to help the “long-haulers” of COVID. These are patients who still have COVID symptoms months after the initial infection. These patients have not had their taste return, they still experience headaches, and energy levels are still low.

I have personally experienced the benefits of a short term fast to help resolve the effects of viral infection within a short time. There are many other benefits associated with fasting including:

• Reversing Diabetes

• Detoxification

• Increasing Human Growth Hormone production

• Reducing chronic anti-body production

If you would like more information about how to effectively use fasting to manage your health, please contact Nutrition Proportion at the contact information listed below.

Anti-Virus Protocol

Our world is filled with many viruses. We are simply focused on THE VIRUS right now. But the truth is your body is exposed to different viruses on a daily basis, and your body knows how to succeed in eliminating the threat to your health.

Your immune system is a complex defense operation that can succeed in eliminating viruses, bacteria, fungus, and cancer cells. The only thing your immune system needs is for you to provide the resources to maintain the proper function of the immune system. When you start to experience symptoms of illness - runny nose, sore throat, swelling, pain, increased temperature - your first response should not be panic, but make a priority to provide the resources so these symptoms can resolve quickly.

ANTI-VIRUS PROTOCOL

The Anti-Virus Protocol is no secret, and has already been demonstrated effective against the current virus challenge and all variants. As we move into the next flu season, you want to be sure you have these supplies on hand.

KEY RESOURCES

1) Vitamin C

The least expensive and most easily obtained supplement, and also very available in many fruits and vegetables. Vitamin C is THE nutrient that helps your immune system to knock out the bad guys. Vitamin C helps the immune cells to capture and digest any items that are not supposed to be inside you. When Vitamin C decreases, action of the immune system begins to decline.

During the first days of the COVID outbreak, medical doctors in China and South Korea reported significant improvement among patients who were given high doses of Vitamin C. Vitamin C is important to control inflammation and keep the immune system from getting out of control.

Sources of Vit. C

Broccoli, Red Bell Peppers, Oranges, Lemons, Strawberry, Kiwi

Vitamin C Supplement should be plant sourced for highest quality.

Supplement amount: 250 - 500 mg per dose You may repeat dose up to 4 times a day.

2) Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient of your immune system because this vitamin is able to enter the control center of your cell to “turn on” and “turn off” what needs to happen. Just like a chef in the kitchen controls the stove top for what heats up and what cools down, so Vitamin D is able to direct the priorities of the cell to make sure it functions just right.

In recent studies of hospitals admitting COVID patients, the majority of patients had a deficiency of Vitamin D. Those patients with a blood measurement less than 30 ng/ml of Vitamin D had the highest risk of death from COVID complications.

Sources of Vit. D

Cod Liver Oil, Pasture raised eggs, Pasture raised whole milk, Liver, Butter

Supplement Amount: Adults - 2000 IU daily

Children - 1000 IU daily

May be increased during symptoms of illness

3) Zinc

Zinc is a vital mineral for immune function. It helps activate more than 200 different actions of body chemistry. One of these actions is to help the cell recognize what to produce and what not to produce. This is important when your cell gets a message to produce virus material. If more virus material gets produced then your illness will get worse. Zinc helps the cell to recognize that it should not make more virus material. This message is then removed and the cell health improves, which makes your health improve.

Sources of Zinc

Beef, Lamb, Pork, Garbanzo beans, Lentils, Pine nuts, cashews, and pasture raised eggs.

Supplement Amount:

Adults: 11 mg / day Children: 8 mg / day

Tolerable upper limit - Adults: 40 mg / day

- Children: 22 mg / day

Additional Recommendations:

In addition to these three vital nutrients, there are specific actions you can take to speed the healing process, or even keep things in balance so illness does not start.

1) Heat Protocol - keep your neck warm with a scarf for as long as symptoms are present. This keeps the temperature of your neck warm, which helps the immune cells stay active in the fight. You can also drink hot teas to keep the neck warm and the throat soothed. Do not add sugar to tea!

2) Slow down - your immune system needs all the energy it can get to remove this illness quickly. Clear your calendar, ask for help, read a book, take a nap. Your body will thank you.

3) Drink water - Your body is mostly water. Make sure to keep a fresh supply so the chemistry of this war in your body gets resolved quickly. Dehydration is one of the most common symptoms treated in the hospital. Pure water without anything added is the best to drink.

More discussion on these points was posted in a previous blog:

The Presidential Protocol and What will you choose?

For more personalized nutrition assistance, contact us by phone or email provided below.

Beware the Sweet Tooth

THE BIG QUESTION

It is no secret that sugar is a major contributor to many of our health issues today, but how often do we minimize the issue, and why do we minimize the concern? If sugar is really such a big problem, why is there not a more unified effort to do something about it?

YOUR INDEPENDENCE

Especially as adults, we like to have the freedom to make our own decisions. Making decisions is part of being an adult. When it comes to food choices, there are more options now than ever before. When you make a food decision, are you thinking long term, or immediate pleasure?

Sugar is addictive

Sugar lights up the addictive center of the brain. The same area of the brain effected by cocaine.

TO FEEL GOOD

An important reason to choose what you will eat is often related to how you feel at the time. We refer to some foods as “comfort foods” because of the connection to positive memories and feelings. Sugar increases serotonin in the brain, which results in a “feel good” response. When we depend on sugary foods to “feel good,” a food dependency develops. Serotonin can be produced naturally with a well-balanced food plan, so you will feel good naturally. When a person requires a soda, coffee latte, or donut to “feel good,” now sugar is being used to increase serotonin, and the body’s natural production of serotonin is decreased.

140 lbs per year

The average American consumes 140 pounds of sugar per year.

CULTURAL CHOICES

Access to sugar has increased world wide and may be considered the “drug of choice” in most cultures. Sweet treats are always related to celebrations, special events or occasions. Back in the 1860’s, the average American consumed around 20 pounds of sugar in a year, just short of 2 pounds a month. Now with easier distribution, and the development of corn syrup and other sweeteners, the choices for sweet things to satisfy are excessive.

CONSEQUENCES

The results of choosing sugary based foods can lead to the following results:

• Increased Inflammation (Joint pain, muscle aches, headaches)

• Increased blood sugar imbalances ( Diabetes, Fatigue, Alzheimer’s Syndrome, IBS)

• Increased cholesterol imbalances (Sugar increases cholesterol production)

• Increased weight challenges (Fat is not burned when sugar is consumed)

• Increased hormone stress (Increased insulin results in greater endocrine stress)

Healthy choices release sugar slowly

Choose those foods which will contain long chain carbohydrates resulting in a “slow release” of sugar that will not result in sugar swings.

HEALTHY CHOICES

Your body does need some sugar each day, but there are many healthy sources, which release sugar in a “slow release” way that will promote health and improve your energy levels. Quality fruits and vegetables should be consumed with each meal to ensure a steady intake of sugar, plus the vitamins and minerals that the body can use to process sugar in a healthy way. The fiber from the fruits and vegetables will also provide food for the good bacteria in your gut to improve the production of serotonin and push out the bad bacteria.

Healthy choices for releasing sugar slowly include:

• Apple (one each day)

• Broccoli

• Avocado

• Romaine

In order to use these correctly and not get bored or overwhelmed you need a plan.

LIFESTYLE PLAN

Perhaps you have never had a good example of a healthy lifestyle and what it looks like. A person with a healthy lifestyle is one who chooses foods that make them feel good for the long term, not just the next hour. At Nutrition Proportion, we help train individuals on a lifestyle plan that will:

• Establish quality food choices based on your blood chemistry

• Provide professional support from coaches who help you learn to choose for the long term

• Improve your metabolism and overall health

• Use whole foods from your grocery store and not require pills or powders

A Lifestyle to Thrive

A Metabolic Balance Lifestyle Plan can help your whole family to become more healthy, happy, and thrive.

PLAN TO THRIVE

More than 1 million individuals around the world have joined this movement to focus on healthy food choices each day. Thousands of families have benefitted from the simple principles that make this lifestyle so effective. If you would like to learn more about this program, and the way it is customized to your blood chemistry, click on the button below for more information, or TEXT us at 651-323-8163 and type “MB PLAN.”