Category Archives: Book Fair

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A Story from Ukraine

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Ahhh. Nothing better than curling up with a cup of tea and a good book that promises to send me on a journey through time and landscapes!

It’s been a while since I’ve allowed myself the luxury of getting lost in a story – especially in an historical fiction story that edifies and entertains. It’s one of my favorite genres.

The last time my leisure reading was fiction was in 2021, when Miranda J. Chivers released her first book in the Russian Mennonite Chronicles, Katrina’s Dark Shadow: 1915-1917: The Early Years in Ukraine.

While reading this sweeping tale set in Ukraine, I was just beginning to hear the latest rumblings of renewed tensions between Russia and Ukraine, which then came to a dramatic head with Russia’s invasion in February, 2022.

Chills ran down my spine as aspects from this work of fiction, born from history, began to be replayed in the current day headlines right in front of my eyes on the screen. The terror of approaching takeovers and destruction does not change over time. Confusion, misery, and the strength of the human spirit are timeless.

Imagine my delight when learning that the sequel, Katrina’s Dark Journey: Labor Pains – Ukraine 1918, was now available.

The scene had been set in the first book, and now the central figures in the historical drama now flee for their lives. The following is a quote from a recent review:

“The novel weaves together two parallel narratives, one following Katarina and her sister’s harrowing journey through the lawless steppes and the other focusing on Peter’s search for answers in the aftermath of his mother’s death. The story’s inception lies in Peter’s determination to unravel the mysteries surrounding his parents’ deaths and the whereabouts of Jacob. This pursuit leads him down the path of transcribing Katarina’s diaries, a task that proves more challenging and emotionally taxing than he could have ever imagined. As Peter delves deeper into the enigmatic diaries, the lines between reality and illusion blur, leaving him frustrated, confused, and searching for more answers to fill in the missing clue.

Katarina’s Dark Journey by MJ Krause-Chivers is a powerful and haunting exploration of survival, faith, and the unyielding human spirit set against the backdrop of war-torn Ukraine in 1918 and post-war Munich. The story’s strength lies in its vivid portrayal of the character’s struggles and the rapidly changing political landscape of the time. The historical descriptions provided in this book are both enlightening and essential. It immerses readers in the Russian Civil War, offering a nuanced understanding of the political turmoil that swept through Ukraine during this era. This serves as a poignant reminder of the turbulent journey Ukraine endured on its path to independence. Readers are sure to be captivated by the character’s struggles and the vivid portrayal of a pivotal period in Ukraine’s past.”

Both of MJ Krause-Chivers’ books are currently priced at $.99 as Kindle books. Each title is stand alone but reading them together to catch the full sweep of the story would illuminate, edify, and entertain. You will not be disappointed.

Now, where’s my tea?

In health which includes leisure reading –

Deidre

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ADDENDUM:

As a follow-up to last week’s post about nasal washes, please note what a reader just shared with me and please do not make the same mistake. Distilled water or water that has boiled for several minutes should be the only water options used – never tap water.

A reader just shared this with me:

“I’ve used Neil Med Sinus Rinse for years. It’s fantastic. I talked my husband into using it. He did for awhile, then he got a nasty sinus infection that he can’t get rid of. I discovered he’d used tap water. Now he won’t rinse at all but keeps running to the doctor for antibiotics or uses allergy pills. I warned him about using tap water but he rarely listens to me. I believe it’s important to remind people not to use tap water.“

Blogging for good health!, Exercise, Habit Building, Titles Worth Reading

Something to Ponder …

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Age old question

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

As a child, after hearing this the first time, I filed the question away next to the one, ‘does the tree falling in the forest make any noise if no one is there to hear it?’

There’s an extension to this line of wondering about physical laws involving mind and body. Does the mind lead the body, or does the body lead the mind?

Another “hmmm.”

I’ve long been a proponent of the leadership of the mind; but hearing Hal Elrod, of the Miracle Morning fame, address my author group recently, I came to appreciate how changing behavior first can lead the mind into new ways of thinking.

One can argue, the body will not move without the mind telling it to move. But in consistent movements that we initiate, new thought patterns can emerge that can boost not only thinking, but bodily health. Hal Elrod has stories to tell about his early survival of a head on car crash and in his surmounting a rare and aggressive form of cancer to become a bestselling author using such an approach.

As I sit in the Denver airport this morning, nursing a sinus infection and lacking quality sleep, I will be seeking a bit of privacy to meditatively revisit a practice I shared on a previous post about Amy Cuddy, who also embraces the concept of the body leading the mind. Here are excerpts from that post:

Amy Cuddy’s book, Presence, puts science into what I’ve known all along. While we have long been stoked in the ‘mind over matter’ dogma – which is certainly well documented – and I know can work miracles, Cuddy’s proven approach, however, shows that the body can LEAD the mind.

Her tale of personal transformation is also beautifully told in her TED talk which is the 2nd most viewed TED talk and can be FOUND HERE:

In her book, Cuddy shares studies she and others have conducted as she gently peels away each application of how we view ourselves, present ourselves, and how others perceive us because of our presence.

The studies Cuddy shares, demonstrate that body positions of strength, (Wonder Woman, Superman, more expansive sitting positions with arms away from the body and legs not intertwined), result not only in a mindset of strength, but produce positive brain chemistry changes.

The ‘victory stance’ is genetically ingrained. People around the world, across cultures, and even the blind who have never seen a victory stance, naturally assume that pose after great personal accomplishments – feet apart, chin slightly elevated, with hands thrown up in the air outstretched.

It’s universal.

Looking forward to a challenging day? In private, assume your Victory Stance and hold it for two minutes. Claiming that victory – in advance – helps assure a more positive approach on your part and sets up those you are working with or influencing to see you as a person of strength.

The very act of smiling and standing with confidence redirects the body’s chemistry to a positive flow. Why not boost your confidence by holding a power pose for 2 minutes at the start of the day?

I don’t feel like Super Woman at all right now, but here I go to assume my power pose for two minutes. I need all the help I can get! Maybe I’ll be feeling more energetic for my next flight.

In health –

Deidre

PS – It helped. Two minute Victory Stance poses done twice during my long layover in Denver seemed to help me over the hump of fatigue and my next flight was restful and relaxed. Where did I do these poses? Ahem. In the privacy of a women’s restroom stall! My hands were not thrust in the air over the stall walls, they rested on my hips – just to be discreet.

NOTE: Okay, I can manage a lot of things, but finding a picture of a pair of hands over top a bathroom stall is, well, a wee bit above my purview. I just decided on a pretty picture instead. Use your imaginations here. You can thank me later. Sheree

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Blogging for good health!, Habit Building, Stress Reduction, Titles Worth Reading

Meet the Author!

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Don’t you love it when someone shares a book title with you, thinking you may love it as well? I am much more motivated to get a book based upon personal testimony. And what if you get to meet the author himself to get an inside glimpse of why he wrote it?

That’s what we’ve got today!

Barrett Huang just released a new workbook whose title caught my eye, DBT Workbook For Emotional Eating: Stop Compulsive Overeating and Quit Your Food Addiction with Proven Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills for Men and Women.

This DBT term was new to me. Most of us have heard about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and if you have attended a therapy session, chances are it was based on the precepts of CBT, which focuses on changing problematic thinking. Among other things, this newer therapy, DBT, is best known for its success with eating disorders.

Mission Harbor Behavioral Therapy

After reading the sample, I was sold on purchasing this helpful guide. Our philosophies of starting with how we think about ourselves and how we perceive our circumstances were perfectly aligned. Was I a proponent of DBT without knowing it?

There was something else that lit up memories in my mind as I read about his approach to achieving a healthier lifestyle – it reminded me of Noom.

I used Noom a few years ago as an accountability buddy for losing the weight I had gained as a caregiver – even those who write about health sometimes need a helping hand. Many of my approaches and exercises felt familiar and brought back the sense of calm control I had over my eating through my previous training.

According to this review, Noon Diet Review, Noom does use DBT.

One thing I did not have with Noom, was a workbook. I love having a workbook component to my learning, and Barrett Huang’s latest book checks off all the boxes for building personal skills and mindsets.

He reveals his approach to weight loss and overall health through telling his own story and progresses to the evolution of his successful methods. I could see the familiar patterns with his weight loss struggle, reflected in so many people I know or have met.

So inspired by his workbook, I reached out to Barrett Huang, and he quickly accepted my invitation to share a little bit extra with foodtalk4you readers. He writes:

“I like that Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) focuses on accepting your thoughts, feelings, and actions while also striving to improve them. Many therapies tend to place excessive emphasis on fixing issues rather than taking a step back and accepting things as they are.

DBT can be applied to various aspects beyond just emotional eating, including anxiety, depression, and BPD, to name a few. Emotional eating often serves as a coping mechanism to deal with uncomfortable emotions.

Some of the skills DBT teaches include:

Mindfulness: This helps you develop greater mindfulness and presence in the moment. You learn to appreciate the things you have and avoid getting caught in a cycle of overthinking.


Distress tolerance: You learn effective ways to cope with uncomfortable emotions and situations without resorting to impulsive behaviors that could be harmful.

Emotion Regulation: This skill focuses on understanding and managing your emotions more effectively. You learn how to label and handle your emotions, identify triggers, and employ coping techniques.

Interpersonal Effectiveness: A significant aspect, this skill helps you enhance your communication and relationship-building abilities. It involves expressing your boundaries, feelings, thoughts and needs to others.


Hence, DBT offers a balanced approach by addressing both acceptance and change, rather than focusing solely on one aspect. Additionally, I find DBT to be highly adaptable and capable of being tailored to various situations. Ultimately, you acquire the tools to become a more resilient and adaptable individual, capable of navigating life’s challenges.

I aimed to create a DBT workbook that is not only easy to follow and implement but also interactive. This workbook is crafted with personal stories and practical worksheets and exercises. Its approach is designed to assist readers in transforming their relationship with food for the better. Drawing from impactful personal anecdotes and incorporating well-established DBT lessons for emotional well-being and stress management, this workbook provides the tools needed to embark on a journey of lasting change.”

If this sounds like something that would help you or someone you know, please check out his book using the links provided. You can discover more about Barrett Huang and his many other books, mostly aimed at helping children and adults using DBT, by going to his website.

In health –

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Habit Building, Stress Reduction, Titles Worth Reading

How Deep Are Your Roots?

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Recency is the bedrock for remembering – that which is recent, is easiest to remember.

Amit Sood’s uplifting post, Resilient Option, got me to thinking. He used the word ‘recency’ in teaching his lesson aimed at building personal resilience. In his Day 24 insight for Week 4, he reminds listeners that trees don’t grow deep roots during the storm.

We must concentrate on building ourselves up each day – not just when we might need the results.

He cited studies proving that students who employed daily reminders of personal values, reflected honesty in their behaviors better than a group of students who completed an intensive course on integrity a few months ago.

To start a daily habit of building positivity and resilience, he recommended journaling about three core values in our personal and professional lives. Brilliant! This concept ties into my post for June 20, 2023, (<click), in which I introduce the concept of reading a personal intention statement at the start of each day.

This daily practice has been a game changer for me – augmenting every good mindset I give myself. Maybe some of the ideas in my intention statement are not 100% fulfilled, but I BELIEVE them all, and I see how each intention is coming into focus more and more.

Maybe we have not made up with someone over a recent disagreement; but saying, “I seek peace with everyone I am blessed to meet,” is just the message needed to move us toward harmony with other people.

Our mind believes what we tell it!

Perhaps we struggle with eating food that is not healthful, but a daily reminder that, “I am grateful for my life and health. I am learning how to honor my body by eating the kind of food that helps it,” will nudge us toward food that gets us to that goal.

To assist you in either journaling about your core values or in creating that daily reminder through a spoken intention, we are including a handy download of Core Values that can be the springboard for your self-nourishing message.

Download Core Values below:

CORE VALUES LISTDownload


In health –

Deidre

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Blogging for good health!, Stress Reduction, This -n- That, Titles Worth Reading

And Now – The Holistic Angle on Caregiving

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For certain, there’s more than one way to tell a story!  

As a practical, roll-up-my-sleeves author who reaches out to caregivers with a skills-oriented how-to approach, I was delighted to become aware of Ilene Nathanson’s book, Caregiving Confidential: Path of Meaning, because of her different style and message. 

Weaving true story vignettes that walk the reader through the unfolding of several common pathways to caregiving, Dr. Nathanson’s passion for the holistic needs of caregivers and care recipients is evident on each page. 

I was immediately drawn into her narrative style that cleverly brought me through the broad range of circumstances that will, ultimately, confront us all – maybe several times in our lives. 

There is no escaping the issue.  

We are all aging.  

Our needs, and the needs of our loved ones, are going to evolve – and most of us are unprepared. 

As a retired chief administrator of graduate social work at Long Island University, with a strong passion for gerontology, her guidance and teaching skills continue in this book and in her co-founding of the New Aging Partnership.  

Did you know that the phrase “aging in place,” is the buzz word not only for longings of the heart, casual conversations, and policy makers, but is also the focus of dozens of new and old industries? 

Retirement communities have been with us for decades, but now there are real estate agents focusing on senior needs, downsizing specialists, senior service agencies, and more – who are all swooping in to meet the unfolding needs of this growing niche market.  

Sandwich generation families are rewriting the book for taking care of parents/grandparents, while juggling the demands of their own children, plus full-time jobs in or outside of the house.  

The dynamics of multi-generational households are different than in previous years. 

This is why Caregiving Confidential is a beautiful place to start. Enjoyable to read and laced with poignant humor – Ilene Nathanson’s book is always spot on. Like me, you will not want to put it down. 

I consider it to be the perfect flashlight for us to use as a primer for this timely topic and a great place to start the aging conversation in our own families. 

We are all about sharing here at foodtalk4you. Please share this post using the options under the MORE button below. 

In health –  

Deidre  

Blogging for good health!, Habit Building, Stress Reduction, Titles Worth Reading

A Little Sneak Peak …

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Last week, I mentioned our good news about Toolkit for Caregiver Emotions, being available for pre-order on Amazon, and it occurred to me it might be nice to share a snippet of that book with you today.  

Here is the first part of Chapter 2, where I introduce readers to the first technique we do as an exercise that: 

1) Assists people in understanding how much control they have over their emotions  

2) How to create an accepting mindset and environment for emotions, and  

3) How to, at least temporarily, let it go.  

I am also introducing caregivers to the idea that they count. Their total health is a valid focus that needs to be recognized, so they can successfully be there for their loved one/patient.  

Here is your peek inside of Toolkit for Caregiver Emotions: 

Chapter 2 

Are you drowning? 

We caregivers of loved ones often think we should just soldier on in silence. Don’t complain. Don’t reach out for help. Just do the job. Any feelings we experience about ourselves are pushed so far down they are out of sight. 

Our loved one comes first, last, and everywhere in between.  

That philosophy may work for a while … until it clearly does not. 

I can tell when it’s not working. Caregivers come to talk to me with that glazed-over, shell-shocked look, like they are drowning at sea and are going down for the third time – lacking the energy to even signal for help. 

A greater understanding of the unique caregiver emotional situation will assist you in smoother transitions through the phases of caring – and even grieving. 

I thought I had everything figured out when I started caring for my dear husband. I was a nurse who taught Certified Nursing Assistants, after all. 

Little did I know, there was still much to learn – especially about my emotional and physical needs during that blessed time of caring for him. 

You see, in a caregiving situation, there are two patients. Two patients with equally important, but very different needs. Two patients whose needs are intertwined and dependent upon each other.  

Those patients are you, the caregiver; and the loved one you are caring for. Ignore the needs and welfare of the one, and the other will not be cared for.  

I want to shine a light on the unpredictable roller coaster of often surprising and negative caregiver emotions.  

Emotions are what make us human. When we cry, we’re experiencing emotion. Whenever we are happy, sad, mad, passionate, upset – those are all emotions. 

But sometimes, negative emotions need to be reined in!  

Emotions can steal our involvement and enjoyment of the present moment. 

You see, emotions should just come and go. But sometimes, we get so uncontrollably wrapped up in our feelings, we start identifying with them.  

This is what I know – we are not our emotions; and we can – and should – control them at times. But how?  

Keep reading and follow along with the techniques I share. 

  • Copyright 2022, Deidre Edwards 

Oh, I just hope you are wanting to turn the page to read what’s next!  

And you will get to do that. My goal is to beat my deadline of August 2nd by publishing early!  

Foodtalk4you subscribers can assist us in getting this book into the hands of the over 50 million caregivers – in America alone – by joining the launch team. Very soon, we will send out information on how you can get an inside look at a book and participate in its success.  

There will be opportunities for getting FREE autographed copies for launch participants. Yay! 

UPDATE!!

Dear Readers – It’s a humble little burnt orange banner, but it means so very much:

“#1 New Release in (the category of)  Physician and Patient Caregiving”

This means YOUR pre-orders for Toolkit for Caregiver Emotions are enabling others to see this book on Amazon so much easier! In the coming weeks, I’ll be dedicating myself to publishing before my projected date of August 2nd because more and more caregivers need this message of hope, understanding, and techniques.

A change in our health status can come in the blink of an eye – not only do we need to be prepared for the physical tasks of caregiving, but we need the mental and emotional skills to stay sane, not feel alone, and to strengthen life-long resilience skills. The third title in my Caregiver Series will do that.

I just cannot say, “Thank You” enough! 

In the meantime, it’s time to get up from this desk, do a minute of planks, and go for a walk before the temperature decides to return to winter.  

Boing! That’s springtime in the Northern Hemisphere! 

Pssst! You have my permission to share this post using the options under the MORE button below. 😊 

In health –  

Deidre  

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Change is Good!!

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It’s not a word on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Kaizen. It comes from two Japanese words “kai,” meaning ‘change,’ and “zen,” meaning ‘good’.

Many of us bristle at the very thought of change. Status quo is the word of the day for many.

But change is as natural as the different seasons in nature – morphing almost imperceptibly into something different. In our own lives, each day is unique, and each phase of our journey is new. We’ve never been here before. Change is our normal state.

Kaizen has also come to mean the process of continuous improvement. Since the early days of Toyota, the Japanese manufacturer was one of the first organizations to embrace the idea that perfection is not a fixed destination – as life evolves – our needs, visions, and approaches change – and so must our methods and products.

Therefore, change can be good.

There’s a lesson to be learned by the way nature changes that we can take into our own efforts for self-improvement.

What is that lesson? Sustainable change – or a process of changing that can be sustainable – must happen gradually.

We don’t jump from frozen ground to full-bloom spring, do we?

Taking the smallest, measurable step each day is enough to get us there. When we show up every day to take our efforts and results just a little farther down the road, that’s exactly what we want.

Sustainability is the key.

If we make our steps giant, challenging leaps, there’s a good chance we will not return the next day. Skipping one day makes starting the next time harder, and makes creating excuses to skip again very alluring and justifiable.

In that vein, the five-minute arm workout I shared with you last week is a perfect example of sustainability. There’s not a big commitment, this routine can be done any time of day or night, and I seem to naturally improve and expand what I do with no special effort.

There’s that Kaizen Principle at work in a simple arm routine.

Yesterday, I morphed a few moves to create a half-dozen more. So fun to do, and variation keeps things fresh!

Try taking a hammer curl to a full overhead arm extension and back again. Then extend that combination to a triceps extension: three moves in one loop.

Add another triceps move by standing upright, arms at the side holding weights, then bend elbows slightly while moving arms back. Hold that position and extend arms back straight. Pause. Flex at the elbow and keep pumping back, pausing at full extension 10-15 times.

If you would like to learn more about the Kaizen principle, I’d like to recommend this book: One Small Step Can Change Your Life The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer.

I like what I read in the sample, so I have ordered a copy for myself.

My weights are moving around the house like Elf-On-The-Shelf! They are right where I can see and use them the most.

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In health –

Deidre

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Pea-Green Boat

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Sailing along … 

Sharing my beautiful appetizer recipe, Basil Boats, a couple of weeks ago, got me to remembering a comforting story from my childhood and that of our children.  

Do you know this one? 

“The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat. They took some honey, and plenty of money wrapped up in a five-pound note.” 

The cadence of this poem’s lines introduced me to an appreciation of more sophisticated writing – way above, Little Bo Peep – and opened up an understanding of foreign economies and cultures.

“Mommy, what’s a five-pound note?” 

I naturally read this classic to our children, and we even started to memorize the lines. 

A quick search on Amazon rewarded me with a beautiful The Owl and the Pussy Cat available in a board book version – excellent for unskilled page turners who might also gnaw the edges as they check for flavor. 

I was so happy to find this old friend, that I ordered it for my granddaughter who is just turning one today!  

Happy birthday, sweet one! Grandma can’t wait to read this to you! 

There was another classic recommended- Wynken, Blankenship, and Nod, HERE – that I knew about but was not a part of my childhood. That one was ordered as well for bedtime reading.

While The Very Hungry Caterpillar HERE is at the top of baby and young children’s reading lists these days, a blast-from-the-past can touch minds and hearts as well.  

If your young one’s imagination needs a jump start and their taste buds are curious for new flavor combinations, you can try making your own little Basil Boat like I did using a slice of peach inside with a custom sail message from the owl to his sweetheart.  

Perhaps a few drops of honey on the peach slice could add to the experience…It’s a tasty treat when the story is finished. 

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In health- 

Deidre 

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Blogging for good health!, Habit Building, This -n- That, Titles Worth Reading

“Open Wide!”

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Few people seem to get too excited about dental care.

If you haven’t developed the habit of regular flossing – chances are, you dig your heels in by saying, “Meh. I’ve never gotten into that so much – it’s not for me.”

BUT…

What if I were to share with you some things I am just learning about good teeth through the eons, good teeth today, the cheap way to improved teeth, and … what new research has found in the brains of Alzheimer’s victims that goes back to their mouths!

This is shocking!

Let’s start with A BOOK I’m reading by a Canadian author who reveals the results of Dr. Weston Andrew Price’s quest to answer the simple question, “Why were his patients experiencing so much dental decay?”

Dr. Price traveled the globe studying people who were not exposed to the influences of modern civilization. Good thing he was doing this in 1899, because the spread of modern civilization today is so complete, there are hardly any corners of the world left untouched.

The bottom line of Dr. Price’s investigations is that once introduced to a modern diet, patterns of change result, predictably, causing dental caries (cavities), gum disease, heart disease, crowded teeth, smaller jaws, infections, and more.

The patients of Dr. Price were not living on Mountain Dew and McDonalds. What was modern about the diets of North Americans in the late 1800’s? This was the time when a major shift to white flour, white sugar, white rice, vegetable fats, and the introduction of canned foods, occurred.

What was missing in the late 1800’s from previous diets were vast resources of minerals, water- soluble vitamins (B and C) and especially fat-soluble vitamins – all sacrificed in the name of longer shelf life, and in creating filling foods that easily survived unrefrigerated transportation.

While Dr. Price could not pinpoint the exact identity of his dietary activators, (later identified as Vitamins A and D), he knew that restoring certain elements to his client’s diets would transform their dental health better than merely filling and pulling teeth.

He started prescribing diets high in fish eggs, egg yolks, some organ meats, and – especially –    butterfat from cows grazing on rapidly growing green grass.  

Fast forward to 2007, and another element Dr. Price had called Activator X is identified as Vitamin K, which is a group of K vitamins K1-K7.

Vitamin K, Vitamin D, Vitamin A, and even chlorophyll, all does an intricate dance with each other that facilitates processes mandatory for our strong bones and teeth, healthy heart, arteries, and other things.

Turns out, Vitamin K2 is needed to put the calcium into our bones and teeth. A diet low in K2 results in the calcium getting put into the linings of our arteries – that’s called atherosclerosis. Bones without a supply of calcium equal osteoporosis.

In fact, K2 deficiencies are also associated with:

  • Increased risk for breast, prostate, liver cancers
  • Diabetes
  • Varicose veins
  • Wrinkles
  • Dental caries
  • Chron’s Disease

Bottom line? We can gulp all the calcium we want, but without proper levels of K2, that calcium will be routed away from the bones and teeth only to land in the soft tissues and linings of our arteries.

That’s the Calcium Paradox.

I had drastically cut back my calcium supplementation that was supposed to help with my bone issues because I feared clogging up my coronary arteries.

Another tidbit to consider is oral hygiene and what we are feeding our bodies to enable unusual bacterium in our mouths. It’s all being studied further after what scientists found HERE and I quote:

“Scientists have previously found that this species of bacteria, called Porphyromonas gingivalis, can move from the mouth to the brain. Once in the brain, the bacteria release enzymes called gingipains that can destroy nerve cells, which in turn can lead to memory loss and eventually Alzheimer’s.

In this study, researchers looked for evidence of this process in human brains. They examined the brains of 53 deceased people who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and found high levels of gingipain in almost all of them. They also noted that the amount of gingipain tended to rise over time, which suggests there may be a tipping point when dementia symptoms first begin.”

The take-aways from this week’s post are:

By eliminating sugar, white rice, white flours, vegetable fats, and processed foods from our diet we will not only boost oral health, but also general health.

Consider supplementing with Vit K2 by reading Rheaume-Bleue’s book to get the full scope of how seriously our modern diets are causing a host of preventable diseases and conditions.

Brush and floss those pearlies, folks.

In health and personally taking 100-200 mcg K2 every day –

Deidre

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To my European readers, Rheaume-Bleue’s book, Vitamin K and the Calcium Paradox has been translated into Italian and Polish.

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Blogging for good health!, Habit Building, Titles Worth Reading

Playing The Game Of Clue

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We are presented with a victim covered in band aids.

Every year, more and more band aids are applied to stop our victim’s various leaks. Each effort is quelling one leak, but more leaks keep popping up.

What is the cause?

Are we so busy treating the symptoms, that a true understanding of the causes for our collective diseases are being ignored? Or maybe truly fixing the cause is not financially advantageous to those who are supplying their vast resources of expensive band aids to us?

We explored leaky gut last year HERE, but now I want to soar even higher for an even broader, 50,000-foot view.

Ever wanting to learn more about health and wellness, I have discovered Metabolical by Robert H. Lustig, MD. He compliments my messages in Toolkit for Wellness– our being designed for good health and eating an anti-inflammatory diet – and focuses his prescription for health into 1) protecting the liver and 2) feeding the gut.

In his scholarly book, he peels back layer-after-layer of the band aids to reveal the long-ignored causes. His descriptions of the intricate physiology of cells and body systems underscores my determination to not use band aids – but to prevent needing them in the first place.

Lustig calls this solving the problem upstream – at the source of the trouble.

Where’s the trouble?

In the food.

Processed food, specifically.

Not vegan vs. keto vs. organic vs. fill-in-the-blank.

This is not a new message, I know. Hang with me for a moment.

Lustig supports his conclusions that 75% of the US health dollars and 50% of the world’s health dollars go towards efforts to medically “fix” the host of chronic non-infectious diseases that affect modern society: diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

These fixes are failing at dizzying speed as numbers of cases rise every day despite all the money being spent AND as our life expectancies shrink.

He likens our efforts to medically “fix” these and other noncommunicable diseases that plague us as “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” for all the good they are doing.

Even cancer, autoimmune disease, dementia, and psychiatric disease is being shown to be processed food related, and more cases of advanced disease processes of all kinds are being seen in teenagers.

As I have long said, we are not crumbling genetically – we are feeding our bodies the wrong food. These startling statistics are simply the culmination of 40-50 years of relying upon food-like substances, not real food.

I’m just on page 55 so far, but the over-arching message is that the chronic diseases of today are a result of abnormal metabolism in different cells and different organs of the body. Abnormal metabolism becomes metabolic syndrome which is the springboard for insulin resistance, diabetes, and fatty liver disease – and obesity.

Abnormal metabolism is set aright not by a fix of pills, (band aids), but by food choice.

What’s for dinner tonight? Is there added sugar and/or salt to the ingredients list? When was the last time any of us cooked a meal totally from real/whole food with no labels?

I’ll be sharing more from his book in future posts but let me leave you with Lustig’s experience with trying to advance treatments for his pediatric diabetic patients.

After years of falling in line with the likes of the American Diabetic Association and others who rested their diabetes approaches on “covering” blood sugars with appropriate amounts of insulin, Dr. Lustig proposed something novel: How about decreasing the need for insulin by NOT eating sugar?

He was regarded as if he had sprouted horns.

Why?

Because some studies have not been conclusive as to what raises blood glucose levels. Really? Oh, you mean the studies that were backed by food interests – including Pepsi? Hmmm…

The studies not backed by food/beverage interests did show that sugar causes diabetes (Type 2).

Ta-da!

Food for thought, dear readers. That’s why we call this foodtalk4you.

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In health-

Deidre