Dharma Feast Cookbook (50 page)

Liquid Minerals

Minerals build bones and soft tissue and help regulate the heartbeat. They are essential in blood clotting, nerve response, and the transportation of oxygen, among other things. The body needs them to properly use amino and fatty acids and vitamins. Our glandular system feeds on minerals. We recommend:

Youngevity Majestic Earth Plant-Derived Minerals
(liquid minerals)—In the U.S. order from their website:
www.majesticearth-minerals.com.
Click on “liquid supplement” to find product. Outside the U.S., call 00-1-801-756-4949 (corporate office).

Växa Daily Essentials—
Order from their website:
www.vaxa.com.
For international orders you will receive an email with the total cost of the order including shipping. Respond to email to confirm order.

Electrolytes

Electrolytes are necessary for nerve reactions and the electric charge that fires muscles, including the heart. Research indicates that if we don’t have enough of them we become confused or fatigued. We may also develop nervous system or bone disorders. Other symptoms of lowered electrolytes include depression, headaches, mouth ulcers, muscle spasms, overall muscle weakness, twitching, convulsions, irregular heartbeat, blood pressure changes, and numbness.

We suggest:
Ultima Replenisher,
which uses maltodextrin derived from organic corn as the chelating agent. In the U.S. order from their website:
www.ultimareplenisher.com.
Can be ordered
internationally
at
www.iherb.com.

Green Powder

We believe that green powders are the best way to give ourselves a nutritional support base because they are 99 percent absorbable. They contain highly absorbable protein and valuable phyto-nutrients such as enzymes, chlorophyll, and carotenes from herbs, algae, grasses, sprouts, vegetables, and fruits. Our recommendations:

The company
Synergy
arguably makes the best green powder in the world. In the U.S. order from their website:
www.synergy-co.com.
For international orders, please go to
www.synergy-co.com/
international.html and follow the directions for your country.

Two other excellent green powders that are less expensive than Synergy are
Dr. Schulze’s SuperFood
and
Vibrant Health’s Green Vibrance.
Order
Dr. Schulze’s SuperFood
from their website:
www.herbdoc.com

Order
Vibrant Health’s Green Vibrance
in the
U.S.
from their website:
www.vibranthealth.us.
Can also be found in most health food stores. Order internationally through
www.iherb.com.

Flaxseed Oil and/or Cod Liver Oil

These oils contain fatty acids essential to the health of the nervous and cardiovascular systems and the eyes. Fish oil is also a good source of vitamin B-12, which we need to prevent neurological damage from pernicious anemia (a blood disorder caused by inadequate vitamin B12 in the blood). Studies indicate that these oils protect cells from degenerative disease and help with depression and inflammations such as arthritis. While we don’t recommend eating fish because of the contaminants, fish oil is heavily filtered and tested.

We also recognize that recommending cod liver oil is not consistent with a plant-based diet or with the scientific arguments of
The China Study.
Some people, however, don’t absorb the fatty acids in the form they are found in flax seed oil and everyone needs vitamin B-12. It’s so important to get these that we are recommending cod liver oil just to be sure you get them.

We appreciate these:

OmegaBrite—
Their process pulls out heavy metals and other toxins found in fish. In the U.S. order from their website:
www.omegabrite.com.
Place international orders on their website and make sure to select USPS Global Priority Mail International for shipping preference.

Wholemega
is made by New Chapter. Their fish oil is pressed out much like extra-virgin olive oil. It is not chemically treated and so retains the natural beneficial compounds processing can destroy. This product is also contaminant-free. In the U.S. go to
www.newchapter.com/fish-oil
and click on “Store Locator” in the panel on the right.

Udo’s Oil
contains flaxseed and other beneficial oils. We recommend taking this product along with fish oil because it is a high-quality blend of a number of oils. In the U.S. go to their website to find a store:
www.udoerasmus.com.
To order internationally, go to
www.udoerasmus.com/
contact/contact_distributors_en.htm and click on your country.

Digestive Enzymes

Plant-based food enzymes are needed to replace the natural enzymes destroyed through cooking, freezing, or canning.

Ron Schneider’s Plant Enzymes, sold under the name
Enriching Gifts Plant Enzymes,
are, in our view, the best in the world. In the U.S. order from their website:
www.enzymesfordigestion.
com or
www.enrichinggifts.com.
For international orders, download an order form from www. enrichinggifts.com: click on “how to order,” then click “click here for a printable order form.” Fax order to the number on the form.

Food-Grown Supplements

New Chapter—
We find New Chapter to be the best source for food-grown supplements. They also have other excellent products. In the U.S. order from their website:
www.newchapter.com.
They can also be found in health food stores. For international orders, please contact them through their website (
www.newchapter.com/
contact) to find a local dealer.

Garden of Life—
In the U.S. order from their website:
www.gardenoflife.com.
They can also be found in health food stores. Order internationally through
www.iherb.com.

Food-Based Supplements

Rainbow Light—
In the U.S. order from their website:
www.rainbowlight.com.
Can also be found in health food stores. Can be ordered internationally at
www.iherb.com.

SuperNutrition—
In the U.S. order from their website:
www.supernutritionusa.com
or look for them in health food stores. Order internationally through
www.iherb.com.

Organics

When something is organic it means it was grown without using petroleum-based fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. It also means it isn’t genetically modified (GMO—see
Genetically Modified Organisms
in this chapter).

Organic farmers use natural fertilizers such as cow manure and seaweed. These add trace minerals and vitamins to the dirt, which are then pulled into the foods as they grow. Most organic farmers also rotate their crops so the soil doesn’t get depleted. Industrial farms put genetically modified seeds in petroleum-fertilized soil which has been stripped of nutrients. The vegetables and fruits grown in such soil are, therefore, also mineral- and vitamin-deficient. They also absorb whatever chemical fertilizers and pesticides were used on them, transferring them directly to whomever eats them. The soil on commercial farms is often so depleted that it literally will not grow a plant without the petroleum fertilizers. Critics of such farming say that on commercial farms the only purpose of the soil is to hold the plants upright.

We recommend buying organic food as much as possible, and non-GMO food all the time. We do not recommend making “organic” a “religion” by obsessing to make sure every last bit of food we buy is organic. However, fruits and vegetables, which are mostly water, take in a greater quantity of pesticides and chemicals than other foods. At least try to buy organic strawberries, squashes, potatoes, and thin-skinned fruits like grapes, because chemicals soak right into them. If your children drink milk or eat yogurt and cheese, buy organic because conventional dairy products are filled with hormones and antibiotics. (See
Dairy Products
in this chapter)

While labeling is not uniform throughout the world, we can ask the knowledgeable owner or buyer at a health food store what definitions mean in the country we are shopping in.

The following are three categories of organic labeling and what they mean in the United States:

"100% organic”
Has not been produced using sewage sludge, ionizing radiation, artificial growth hormones, genetically modified crops, and most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. If it’s a processed food, it must contain 100-percent organically-produced ingredients.

"Organic”
The product consists of at least 95 percent organically-produced ingredients. Any remaining ingredients must consist of nonagricultural substances approved on the national list of products that are not commercially available in organic form.

"Made with organic ingredients”
The product contains at least 70 percent organic ingredients. These ingredients can either be listed individually or as a group as in “soup made with organic peas, potatoes, and carrots” or “soup made with organic ingredients.”

Processed products that contain less than 70 percent organic ingredients can’t use the term “organic” anywhere on the label. They can only identify the specific organic ingredients in the ingredients list.

Genetically Modified Organisms

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is one in which one or more genes from an outside source (either from the same or a different species) have been added to a food through genetic engineering. These genes make a plant or animal resistant
to insects or bacteria or make them grow faster, among other uses.

Because of the way GMOs are spoken about and marketed in the U.S. many people tend to have a feeling of “no big deal” about them. Yet
the advice of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine is to avoid GMOs.
The Center for Food Safety (
www.centerforfoodsafety.org)
states, “A number of studies have revealed that genetically engineered foods can pose serious risks to humans, domesticated animals, wildlife and the environment. Human health effects can include higher risks of toxicity, allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and cancer. As for environmental impacts, the use of genetic engineering in agriculture could lead to uncontrolled biological pollution, threatening numerous microbial, plant and animal species with extinction, and the potential contamination of non-genetically engineered life forms with novel and possibly hazardous genetic material.”

Barbara Kingsolver, respected author and biologist, says in her essay,
A Fist in the Eye of God:

‘Single transplanted genes often behave in startling ways in an engineered organism, often proving lethal to themselves, or sometimes to neighboring organisms. In light of newer findings, geneticists increasingly concede that gene-tinkering is to some extent shooting in the dark. Barry Commoner, senior scientist at the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College, laments that while the public’s concerns are often derided by industry scientists as irrational and uneducated, the biotechnology industry is—ironically—conveniently ignoring the latest results in the field “which show that there are strong reasons to fear the potential consequences of transferring a DNA gene between species.”

According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture statistic released in 2010, 70 percent of corn, 78 percent of cotton (cottonseed oil), and 93 percent of soy are genetically modified. These crops show up in almost every processed food on the market unless it is certified organic. GMO soy is even found in mainstream baby formulas. By-products of these crops include hydrolyzed vegetable protein, high fructose corn syrup, natural flavorings, soy lecithin, and vegetable oil (which is soy oil). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) representatives have admitted that everything that contains corn or soy in any form—soy lecithin, hydrolyzed soy protein, etc.—and does not explicitly say “non-GMO,” is GMO.

There is massive resistance in the European Union population to GMO crops, so virtually no GMO are grown. Of 331 billion acres of farmland in the 27 E.U.-membership countries, only 247,000 acres total are permitted to grow GMO crops. The resistance is so strong that the National Institute for Agrarian Reform (INRA), which functions in many countries in the E.U. and employs over 1,800 scientists, has stopped researching GMO crops. But Monsanto, a major GMO seed producer, has submitted an application for authorization every year since 2009.

The United States is the only first-world country that does not label GMO foods. But, since most of the GMO crops of the world are made into animal feed, products from animals that eat these feeds contain GMO residues. There are no laws stating these products must be labeled as GMO.

Other labeling gaps exist. For example, foods imported from other countries—especially the U.S.—often contain ingredients made from GMO crops but are not labeled as such. Another gap is ingredients that have been produced with GMO bacteria or yeast, such as flavor enhancers and vitamins; or with GMO soy, such as soybean oil and soy lecithin, which are in almost every processed food.

There are hundreds of genes being spliced into agricultural products across the board both in
the United States and Europe and most of them are genes that we would not normally eat in any food, such as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Bt is a soil bacterium that produces toxins which kill certain insects. The specific genes responsible for this are pulled out of the bacteria and put into corn. The corn then produces an insecticidal toxin that kills those same insects. When we eat Bt corn, we are also eating this toxin, which in the normal course of our lives, we would never ingest. In an article entitled “Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada,” published in
Reproductive Toxicology
in May 2011 (Vol. 31, Issue 4), scientists found evidence of the Bt toxin in the blood of pregnant women and their fetuses, as well as in non-pregnant women, despite Monsanto’s assurance that Bt would not survive the digestive process in humans.