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A Conscious Health Moment 
May 2007
In This Issue
A Consumer's Dilemma
Case Study
Is Organic Worth It?
Sprouts
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Simply refer one person who books a one hour session and you get a free 30 minute metaspace balancing session as a thank you.
Quick Links About Us
TJ
This edition of the newsletter is dedicated in the memory of TJ- one of my clients who sadly passed on recently.  His personality will live on eternally though as he was as "human" as I've ever seen a dog be.  I am grateful to have been able to make his last days with us more comfortable, and am always going to remember his antics.

A Consumer's Dilemma

Last week, I saw a headline that caught my attention.  It was "Vitamin overuse tied to men's cancer risk."  The article talked about how researchers found that men who "took too many" multivitamins had higher risks of dying from prostate cancer.  Read article here

 

Rather than speak to the study itself, and all the nutritional/herbal approaches to cancer, I am sharing this as an example of what I encounter all the time in my practice.   And that is, "I heard XYZ is linked to ABC disease" or "I read that ABC herb is dangerous."

 

As a natural health educator, this fundamental issue is at the core of what I teach people. 

 

According to the book Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, people now spend more money on alternative health practitioners out of pocket, than they do on visits to regular doctors.  The reason?  They are getting results.  Their family members are experiencing results.  It's progressed from the distant "I heard of someone who felt better after using natural alternatives" to having a personal experience with natural methods, whether it be themselves, a family member or close friend. 

 

But then listen to any news broadcast, or read any newspaper, and it does not seem to correspond.

 

There, they hear a natural remedy is dangerous, or that it is unproven, etc. It is no wonder they are confused!

 

This topic is one that could take months for me to write about, so I will keep my message simple.

 

Understand that the media is not motivated to report on natural remedies, unless there is something purported wrong about an herb, etc.  Occasionally, you will hear something positive, which usually causes a consumer frenzy, and then not long after that, the finding is "disproven" or negated in some way.  (St. John's Wort and its use with depression is one example from the mid 1990's. ) Aside from the reality that bad news is what "sells" and gets people's attention, it does not take very long watching television, or flipping through a magazine, to see that the overwhelming majority of advertisements stem from one particular industry.  I wonder how quickly a magazine would stay in business if it were to report the literally millions of stories worldwide of people using natural methods to address health concerns? 

 

I'll leave it at that.

 

So what is the best way to deal with the misinformation that we are bombarded with?  First, recognize it for what it is, and know that information reported in the media is not law and the ultimate end all for information.  And secondly, if you want to do something for yourself in this arena, find a natural health practitioner who can help you sort through the myths, the reality, and the vast array of unknowns.   Their training and personal experience with clients are more relevant to you, and your health, than any eye catching headline.

Client case study: Balancing for a Beloved Pet

"I called Erika because my dog, who was very old, was starting to have challenges walking.   He had been going to acupuncture treatments for over 6 months, and they had been helping his symptoms.  However, his next appointment wasn't for another week, so I asked Erika to use LIFE System on him.  Two days later, I spoke with her and she told me that she had done the session on him the previous day.  Immediately I asked her "What time did you do that?"  Turns out that the previous day had been the worst day yet, he was hardly moving and stayed on his bed that whole day.  We went out for the afternoon.  When we returned, we noticed he was perky and up and about - the same way he is after having an acupuncture session.  We assumed he had gotten some good rest, but it turns out that it was exactly in that window that Erika had worked on him.  The results were so noticeable that we continued with several sessions after that which also provided visible relief from his discomfort." 

                                                                           - B. Boston, MA

"I called Erika because my dog, who was very old, was starting to have challenges walking.   He had been going to acupuncture treatments for over 6 months, and they had been helping his symptoms.  However, his next appointment wasn't for another week, so I asked Erika to use LIFE System on him.  Two days later, I spoke with her and she told me that she had done the session on him the previous day.  Immediately I asked her "What time did you do that?"  Turns out that the previous day had been the worst day yet, he was hardly moving and stayed on his bed that whole day.  We went out for the afternoon.  When we returned, we noticed he was perky and up and about - the same way he is after having an acupuncture session.  We assumed he had gotten some good rest, but it turns out that it was exactly in that window that Erika had worked on him.  The results were so noticeable that we continued with several sessions after that which also provided visible relief from his discomfort." 
                                                                           - B. Boston, MA

 

Erika's comment:  This is a great example of how I work with clients - both animal and human (though mostly human) - as approximately 90% of my LIFE sessions are conducted in metaspace mode, which means that the client does not have to be physically in San Diego to experience balancing.  Where they are located has zero bearing on their results with the LIFE System, and often, clients prefer to do the sessions from the comfort of their own home, either on the computer with a Web X conference watching the session, or not even participating at all.  I leave that preference up to the client. 

Personally, I am using it on our dog, Cody, who has large tumors on his kidney and liver, and others have noticed a "spontaneous" significant improvement in his energy level and movement. 

Question mark Ask Erika

"I know eating organic is better, and what I would ideally do.  But the store that is most convenient to me does not carry organic foods.  I am too busy to drive out of the way to an organic store, plus, it's a lot more expensive.  Is it really that much better?  Is it worth the extra hassle and expense?"

 

This is a question that I get almost every day, so if you happen to be someone who has wondered about this, you are in good company.

 

My response to someone who is asking this to me has two main points:

 

1.  Eating organic is a bargain.

  

I know, I know, organic food costs more.  On the surface, that is true - one pound of organic vegetables costs more than one pound of conventionally grown vegetables. 

 

But - what are you paying for when you buy that one pound of vegetables?  My philosophy on that is you are buying life-sustaining nutrients.  It has been proven that organic food contains exponentially more nutrients than the same food grown conventionally.  The reason for this is that produce grown with herbicides and pesticides lacks the inherent "strength" in its own plant to fight off natural predators, such as bugs and bacteria.  They have adapted over time to their environment and have essentially gotten "lazy" and therefore, they don't need to create the nutrients and phytochemicals that contain all the wonderful goodies that we want when we consume them.  

 

The result?  Less nutrition per pound of food.  Don't quote me here (because I have seen different exact figures in this area) but we are talking in the ballpark of a 6-10 fold difference.  Meaning, that an organic apple is approximately 6-10 times more "nutritious" than a conventionally grown one.   (The exact number means less than the point I'm trying to make.) 

 

Therefore, you need to eat less of it.  One of the reasons we as a society eat as much as we do is that much of the food we eat is lacking nutrition, and is therefore less satisfying, so we eat more.  Therefore, you also buy more non organic food which in the end, is a wash financially.

 

Another point - calorically, organic and non-organic is essentially the same.   So you get more nutrients per calorie of food.  In Clinical Nutrition terms, that concept is called nutrient density.

 

Have you noticed that conventionally grown strawberries lack the flavor of their organic counterpart?

 

The next time you think to yourself that organic costs too much, think of this paradigm shift.

 

If organic food was priced based on its nutritional content, it would cost about 10 times more than it does now.

 

Hence, the bargain. 

 

2.  What you don't know CAN hurt you. 

Many of us are busy and honestly do not make the time to make it a priority to learn more.  After all, our health is pretty good and we don't have any major complaints, so what we are doing must be working, right?

 

Wrong. 

 

Disease conditions can be present in your body for 5-10 years before they manifest in symptoms. 

 

One way you can take some control of this is with what you put into your body.  Hippocrates said "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food."

 

Once you educate yourself about this topic, I have found that the choice is easy.  I know it was for me.  Even though I have always been health conscious, and thought I was eating "well," I did not realize the extent to which I was not.  Once I learned more, it became clear that what I thought were healthy eating habits, were actually violating several foundational tenets of obtaining optimal health. 

 

I have clients who have taken the time to learn more, and they have often commented on that idea as well.  The sad thing is how many well intentioned people don't even have the information, and are unknowingly impacting their health, and their children's health, in a negative way.

 

So rather than summarize the points made by educators in this arena, I simply suggest to my clients that they make the time to learn more.  That way, they can at least understand the value of organic versus non-organic foods and decide what is best for them and their family.  I can tell them what I believe is best, but until they make the decision themselves, they are unlikely to make any long-standing changes.

 

There are countless resources available to those interested in starting this learning.  Some resources to start:  Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, Food Politics, by Marion Nestle, The Natural Cures they Don't Want you to Know About, Kevin Trudeau.  For those of you who are more visually oriented, Super Size Me, (a documentary) is another good starting point.


  

I know, I know, organic food costs more.  On the surface, that is true - one pound of organic vegetables costs more than one pound of conventionally grown vegetables. 

 

But - what are you paying for when you buy that one pound of vegetables?  My philosophy on that is you are buying life-sustaining nutrients.  It has been proven that organic food contains exponentially more nutrients than the same food grown conventionally.  The reason for this is that produce grown with herbicides and pesticides lacks the inherent "strength" in its own plant to fight off natural predators, such as bugs and bacteria.  They have adapted over time to their environment and have essentially gotten "lazy" and therefore, they don't need to create the nutrients and phytochemicals that contain all the wonderful goodies that we want when we consume them.  

 

The result?  Less nutrition per pound of food.  Don't quote me here (because I have seen different exact figures in this area) but we are talking in the ballpark of a 6-10 fold difference.  Meaning, that an organic apple is approximately 6-10 times more "nutritious" than a conventionally grown one.   (The exact number means less than the point I'm trying to make.) 

 

Therefore, you need to eat less of it.  One of the reasons we as a society eat as much as we do is that much of the food we eat is lacking nutrition, and is therefore less satisfying, so we eat more.  Therefore, you also buy more non organic food which in the end, is a wash financially.

 

Another point - calorically, organic and non-organic is essentially the same.   So you get more nutrients per calorie of food.  In Clinical Nutrition terms, that concept is called nutrient density.

 

Have you noticed that conventionally grown strawberries lack the flavor of their organic counterpart?

 

The next time you think to yourself that organic costs too much, think of this paradigm shift.

 

If organic food was priced based on its nutritional content, it would cost about 10 times more than it does now.

 

Hence, the bargain. 

 

2.  What you don't know CAN hurt you. 

Many of us are busy and honestly do not make the time to make it a priority to learn more.  After all, our health is pretty good and we don't have any major complaints, so what we are doing must be working, right?

 

Wrong. 

 

Disease conditions can be present in your body for 5-10 years before they manifest in symptoms. 

 

One way you can take some control of this is with what you put into your body.  Hippocrates said "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food."

 

Once you educate yourself about this topic, I have found that the choice is easy.  I know it was for me.  Even though I have always been health conscious, and thought I was eating "well," I did not realize the extent to which I was not.  Once I learned more, it became clear that what I thought were healthy eating habits, were actually violating several foundational tenets of obtaining optimal health. 

 

I have clients who have taken the time to learn more, and they have often commented on that idea as well.  The sad thing is how many well intentioned people don't even have the information, and are unknowingly impacting their health, and their children's health, in a negative way.

 

So rather than summarize the points made by educators in this arena, I simply suggest to my clients that they make the time to learn more.  That way, they can at least understand the value of organic versus non-organic foods and decide what is best for them and their family.  I can tell them what I believe is best, but until they make the decision themselves, they are unlikely to make any long-standing changes.

 

There are countless resources available to those interested in starting this learning.  Some resources to start:  Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, Food Politics, by Marion Nestle, The Natural Cures they Don't Want you to Know About, Kevin Trudeau.  For those of you who are more visually oriented, Super Size Me, (a documentary) is another good starting point.


Sprouts 
Sprouts

Mung, alfalfa, garbanzo, the list goes on and on.  These are as easy way to add protein and vitamin-rich ingredients to any sandwich or salad.  They are essentially "concentrated" food entities - as they contain the stored nutrient potential of the mature plant.  As they are living, they contain the active enzymes that help with their digestion and assimilation, making them more bioavailable to your body.  They are high in chlorophyll, vitamin C, E, K, calcium, phosphorous, iron, and fiber.  Also, the B vitamin content in sprouts is greatly increased, in some cases more than tenfold of what the dry seeds contain. 

The key with sprouts is to eat them fresh - as they can spoil pretty easily.  A simple way to do that is to grow your own.  It only takes a few days to yield a crop, and it's a fun project to do with your kids.  

Empowering you I want to thank my friends, family, colleagues, and clients for your support and the opportunity to share what can be very powerful information.  It is my sincerest hope and prayer that my efforts to educate and share information about how everyone can make a difference in their own health and that of their family will be impactful.  Natural practices through nutrition and energy work have changed my life and I am excited to share options and information with others in the hopes that they, too, may experience what I have.   Information is one thing - it in the application of that information where the magic lies. 
In abundant health,
Erika
 
Contact Info:
Erika Elmuts, C.N.
Clinical Nutritionist & Quantum Biofeedback Practitioner
The Conscious Health Group
(858) 720-8578 (p)
(858) 605-4299 (f)

The information contained is meant for educational purposes only, and is not intended as a substitute in any way for consultation, diagnosis, or treatment by a licensed primary care health provider, such as an M.D.

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