Main Causes Of Death

Well, ain't this blog a downer!  After all, who wants to think about the  top three main causes of death.  Unfortunately, when I saw this list the other day in a class I took, I was kind of shocked.

Maybe you're not as shocked as I am.

In fact, as I look at this list, I'm thinking to myself that many of them could probably be altered.  In a way, it feels like they are something we can do something about in this country.

Yet, why do we not do the things that we need to do to make ourselves truly more healthy?

Top three main causes of death

1. Heart Disease
2. Cancer
3. Medical Errors

Before reading any further, take a look at the list again. 

Let it sink in for a few moments.

Heart Disease

Heart Disease is something that can be impacted I think by lifestyle and healing those rough experiences in your life.  If you don't eat right and push garbage into your body, you're only going to get garbage out in the way of disease, illness and in this case, heart disease.

There are far too many broken hearts out there and hearts that have had to endure far too much pain.  In fact, if you read the ACE study, you'll see how past experiences and trauma physically impact the body.  Take a look at an earlier blog post I wrote on "The Bomb In The Brain" for more details.

The point is, there are things that we can do and change in our daily life that will impact our body in a positive way.  We only have one heart and if we beat the crap out of it every day of our lives, can we expect any different result?

If we are living a sedentary lifestyle with no activity, a poor diet, and not dealing with things in our life, we're just setting ourselves up for this ultimate cause of death.

You may want to read Jeff's article on The Truth About Sugar and Heart Disease.

Cancer

Next up is Cancer.  We had a personal loss in our family with this one and it is not easy to watch someone go through it.  Cancer is growing to alarming rates.  When I was a kid, it was something you heard people getting every now and then.  Now, it seems as if everyone knows someone with cancer or who died from cancer.

While I realize a lot of research is still going into this, there are lifestyle things that we can do to change it.  Again, if you fail to take care of your body and your mind, you are just setting yourself up for failure and disease at some point in the future.

One of the last things a family member said to me before she passed away was to cut down on sugar.  I have been trying to do that, but I also know that some of the stuff that goes in our food is no more healthy than sugar.  If you're not reading the labels on what you buy at the store or paying attention to what you eat in restaurants, you're walking into a mine field.

What we are doing in this country is not working and in order to change things, we need to change our approach.  I don't believe taking more medications is the answer.  This is my personal opinion and belief.   I believe there are other ways to take care of ourselves that are natural, not for the profits of a pharmaceutical industry.

Each day, we do our smoothies made from fresh and whole vegetables and fruits found in our local grocery store.  We blend it up and it helps not only digestion, but we just don't get flu and colds like we once did.  No, I do not buy into the flu vaccinations either.  I do natural stuff instead and even if I pick up a little virus, usually by the next day, it is improving.  We have seen remarkable effects of doing these smoothies and I would urge you to read my blog post on "Healing Diseases With Smoothies"

Medical Errors

The last one up on the list is medical errors. This one shocks and horrifies me, especially knowing just how addicted we are these day to surgeries and procedures.  I know that in Florida as a Licensed Massage Therapist, we are required to take CEU's on medical errors to renew our licenses.  I'm sure most of the medical professional in this state are required to do that as well.  I'm not sure what other states require.  Obviously the training is not working!

Just think about this for a moment.  Someone's death has been caused by a medical error and it is the third leading cause of death.  It is mind blowing to me.  I can't even begin to comprehend this.  Yet, we are looking for surgeries and procedures to help save us from ourselves.  Take a look at Dr. John Sarno's book, The Mind Body Prescription. It is mind blowing some of his pioneering discoveries that are still being ignored to this day.

Instead of taking care of ourselves and realizing that we are in control of our health, not our doctors, we're opting for surgeries and procedures that are putting us at risk of death through medical errors.  Does that make sense to anyone?  Perhaps, there is a different way we should be doing things with our health?

Health Care System

We are reaching a critical mass period I think in our health care system.  No, it is not the fault of some politician or some company or whatever it is you may feel.  It is the result of each one of us not taking care of ourselves and being so numb and disconnected to our body, that we don't see what is happening until it is too late.

Our body sends us messages, but more often than not, we don't hear the messages and even if we do, we don't listen.  We push our bodies beyond the limits.  We put garbage into them expecting them to just balance and keep going.  We allow the food industry to entice us with healthy stuff and then eat as if there is no tomorrow.  We sit at our computers and in front of our video games and TV, hoping that a trip to the refrigerator for another beer or more food will be all the exercise and activity we need.

Surely we can do better as humans.  Surely, our brains know much more than this.  Each one of us has a much greater impact on our health than we realize or even care to think about in a day.  We just know that we've got health insurance and our doctor will give us a pill or a surgery or a procedure to make us all better.  Unfortunately, we're living in an illusion.

It is up to each one of us to choose how we will live our life and what we will do to our mind and body.  If we choose wisely, it has good benefits.  If we continue to make poor choices, than we may become another statistic in the main causes of death.

#Health

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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The Truth About Sugar and Heart Disease

Article by Jeff Lemlich

By Jeff Lemlich. There they sit on my living room shelf:   Emmy awards, won during my time as a special projects producer for CBS Miami.  Seeing these statues should be a source of pride -- after all, everyone wants to feel appreciated.

But as I gaze upon two, in particular -- for "Heart Disease:  Beating the Odds" and "Cholesterol Counts" -- the realization hits me that maybe I'm not all that proud.  The realization hits me that we, and our viewing audience, may have been duped.

It wasn't our fault.  After all, it was a quarter of a century ago, and back then the things we reported were things that were accepted as fact.  High cholesterol leads to heart disease!  High fat diets also increase our risk!  Odds are your doctor will still tell you that these things are true.

I am not a doctor and have conducted no research, but I know what has worked for me, and I know the tricks that big business uses to advance their own agendas.  Now we are learning how, and why we have come to accept certain things as fact, when in some cases it's very possible (and likely) that exactly the opposite could be true.

Case in point:  a recent report published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggesting that the sugar industry paid tens of thousands of dollars back in 1967 for a favorable report in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.  That report minimized the link between sugar and heart health, and laid much of the blame on saturated fat.

It came at a time when there were competing studies: one looking at the relationship between high-sugar diets and the heart disease epidemic, and another that pointed to saturated fat and dietary cholesterol.   Guess which theory won out?

According to internal sugar industry documents, a top industry executive cooked up a plan to shift public opinion through "our research and information and legislative programs." (see source #1 below).   The industry then (according to the documents) paid big bucks to be able to hand-pick what was published in that study, which in turn influenced the government's dietary recommendations.

To this day, doctors still warn their patients about saturated fat, while believing that sugar promotes... umm... tooth decay.  (Then again, we still believe that fluoride in our water supply is the answer to tooth decay.   Google "the truth about fluoride" for a real eye opener.)

It was recently revealed that Coca-Cola and Pepsi sponsored 96 national health organizations, pouring lots of money into their coffers while opposing measures such as cigarette-style labels on junk food. (see source #3 below).

According to a study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, soda companies have recently been funding scientific "research" about sugary beverages.   

Is that a conflict of interest?   It sure sounds like one to me.

Studies are now pointing to inflammation -- not cholesterol, not saturated fats -- as the leading cause of heart disease.   As Harvard Medical School's Dr. David Ludwig points out, replacing fat in food products with starch and sugar corresponded with the rise in obesity and diabetes. (see source #2 below).  Ludwig points out how some of the most calorie dense foods -- nuts, olive oil, and dark chocolate, among them -- are associated with less weight gain than processed grains, potato products, and other high carb foods that are part of the government's recommendations.

In other words, we were less obese, and heart healthier, when our diets included whole milk, full-fat salad dressings, and fatty meats.  I'm not saying those things are necessarily good for you, just that they're not necessarily the boogie men we were taught to think they are.

In the '60s we were told that "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down".   We were inundated with songs in which sugar was something great -- the sweetest treat for the sweetest guys and gals.

What we didn't know was how sugar manufacturers were pulling the strings, making us much sicker as the decades wore on.   It's something that everyone needs to hear, if we have any hope of reversing this epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Yes, it  would have been nice to have had this information 25 years ago, when we researched, wrote, and produced our news reports.   We did a good job of telling the story (or what we believed to be the story) and production-wise, we probably earned the awards we received.

The news series helped my own awareness...

To be fair, there was some great information in there that's still relevant, such as how to read nutrition labels, and identifying some of the bad things to avoid (partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, among them).   Working on those two news series increased my own awareness, and led to a commitment to always read the label before purchasing anything. 

Yet reading a label can only go so far when there's so much confusion about what's good for you, and what's not.  I'm a firm believer in food healing, but the opposite side of the coin is also true.   Replacing highly-processed party treats with whole foods is a good place to begin.

Cholesterol counts?  Maybe... or maybe not.    Heart disease:  beating the odds?   You still can... by keeping an open mind, and not just blindly accepting what special interests want you to believe.

Guest Blogger Note:

Jeff Lemlich is an ex-news producer for Channel 4 (and at one time, Channel 6) in Miami.  He is the music historian for Florida when it comes to Garage Bands of the 1960's.  Jeff is also the author of the book, Savage Lost, and you can learn more about him on his website, SavageLost.com .  Health, well-being, and Mind Body fitness are very important to Jeff Lemlich. This blog post was written by Jeff Lemlich and I'm sharing it exclusively on the Mind Body Thoughts Blog.

Credits:

1. "Heart Disease:  Beating The Odds" aired in 1990 on WCIX-TV in Miami.   Dr. Steve Greenberg and John Roberts (now with Fox) were the reporters.
2. "Cholesterol Counts" aired both as a news series and on an installment of the WCIX public affairs show "Insight" in 1992.  Dr. Steve Greenberg and Ken Matz were the reporters , with Cheryl Stopnick providing valuable assistance.

Sources:

1. How The Sugar Industry Shifted Blame To Fat
   New York Times, September 12, 2016
   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html
2. Doctor:  Low Fat Diets Stuffed With Misconceptions
   CNN, October 13, 2016
   http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/05/opinions/debate-low-fat-diet-ludwig/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool 
3. Big Soda May Be Messing with Our Most Trusted Health Organizations
   Huffington Post, October 2016
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/soda-companies-fund-health-organizations_us_57fbee6ae4b068ecb5e0e944?

Disclaimer:

This article is meant for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice.  Please consult your medical provider for any health decisions regarding this information.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Mind Body Thoughts and Jeff Lemlich

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Is Sugar Toxic?

In an episode of 60 Minutes, Dr. Sanjay Gupta did a special that I found to be very interesting.  The topic of this episode was, Is sugar toxic?  I found this some time ago and it was very profound in my view.  While I personally have tried to reduce sugar intake and most likely consume far less than many people, it is something I struggle with in my diet.  Sugar tastes so good and it is addictive.  If you combine the addictiveness of it with emotional turmoil, it can really increase your desire and consumption in my life.

I personally never drink most sugared drinks.  If I go to a restaurant, I may have soft drinks, but I limit how much I drink.   The remainder of the time I drink water.   We don't have sugar or sweetened drinks in our house.  Most of the time I try to cut down on sugar in every way possible and in fact also we read the labels of the stuff we buy to determine just how much sugar is in a product.  It will surprise you at how many things you buy in the store that have large amounts of sugar in them.  In fact, you will be surprised at some of the stuff that has sugar added into it.

Clutter In Our Life, Part 6

Clutter #6 - Health care, Doctors, and Medicine
Part 6 of 10

At one time, I thought the only way you became healthy was going to your doctor for a checkup and then running to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions the doctor prescribed. Of course, after some life changing moments I went through, I woke up and realized that I was chasing an illusion instead of something based upon reality.

Doctors, medicine and health care do have their place. Please do not misunderstand me! However, when we fail to take care of our bodies and we fail to heal ourselves from our past, going to the doctors for answers is like jumping off the edge of a cliff and hoping we'll fly like the birds and butterflies do.

We as humans pound our bodies to death each and every day, then we wonder why we get the pains we do, the heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol problems, as well as anxiety, depression and various other conditions. Most of these things are a result of us ignoring our bodies and numbing ourselves to what we feel.

If we spent as much time taking care of ourselves as we do listening to the medication advertisements on TV, we might all be surprised at how much healthier we become. Our country is spending records amount on so called health care and in reality, we are no more healthy than we were 50 years ago.

Taking a pill or drug to treat one symptom so affects some other part of the body that the next thing we find is we are treating another system of the body. It becomes a viscious circle until one day we will find that that drugs and pills have done us in.

Come back tomorrow for part 7 of this series, Clutter In Our Life. Below are the various parts to this series that you can read as well.

Clutter In Our Life Series
- Introduction
Part 1: Spending our hours watching TV news
Part 2: Keeping Ourselves Constantly Busy
Part 3: Numbing Ourselves
Part 4: Following Blindly
Part 5: Food Choices
Part 6: Health care, Doctors, and Medicine
Part 7: Hydrating Our Bodies
Part 8: Thinking We Have The Answers
Part 9: Exercise Is For Another Day
Part 10: We Fail To Evolve
- The 30 Day Challenge


Blog Post & Images (c) 3/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Most Diseases Are Reversible With Food

Did you know that most diseases are reversible with food? According to Jeff Primack, from QiRevolution.com, he has developed Food Based Healing Smoothies that have helped many people.

Just attempting to eat healthy is not enough because so often we either process, freeze or mutilate our food to the point of losing so many of the important nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Just because we eat frozen vegetables or processed foods with healthy things in it, does not mean we are eating healthy.

Fruits and Vegetables contain naturally occurring photochemicals which Jeff calls, the spark plugs of the immune system. Humans do not generally get enough of them. Phytochemicals hide in the cellulose fibers of seeds, stems, skins and rinds of the fruits and vegetables we eat.

When is the last time you ate the entire apple including the seeds, stems, and apple peelings? Do you realize that the best part of the apple is in the seeds, stems and skin? Or you ate an avocado with including the seed and shell? What about the cucumbers that you buy in the store where you normally peel off the skin and eat the inside? (granted a waxed cucumber is probably not the best thing and our food industry is determined to wax every cucumber sold or charge outrageous prices for ones they don't). Just think of the fruits and vegetables you eat and how much of the "good stuff" of these do you throw away?

What Jeff Primack teaches, is how to make a smoothie using a high powered blender (found on Amazon - Blendtec TB-621) and dumping in all the fabulous phytochemical rich foods. We've been doing this for almost two years and not only does it really (and I mean really) help digestion, but we don't get the colds and flu like everyone else is getting. In fact, I overheard a conversation the other week about how these two people had been through two or three rounds of a cold and flu and it was almost foreign to me what they were talking about. If I feel anything like a cold or flu coming on, the smoothie usually knocks it out so quick that whatever was hitting me comes and goes within a day at the most.

At first, I wasn't sure if I could drink the smoothies. They taste good but sometimes you get ingredients that have off flavors and then it makes it hard to drink the smoothie. Once I got accustomed to it, I really don't mind it at all. It is part of our routine in the morning and we have gotten the prep work down to a science now so that it is not hard to prepare the stuff to put it in the blender. Our biggest problem is living in an area where produce in the stores is sometimes difficult to find. Sad that this happens, but it is true so it makes it a challenge at times.

There are so many nutritional things out there from Green Drink Mixes to Juice Plus to NingXia Red to Healthy Chocolate and so many other things. I know all these places have their research and their success stories and so on and so forth. I'm happy for them. However, when you have to start spending considerable money each month on a processed product that you can only buy from certain places or through some Multilevel Marketing (MLM) system, the questions in my mind run over each other trying to get answered! Sorry, but I'm just not into buying a product that someone claims and regurgitates the claims that it is the best thing since oxygen was discovered!

With the smoothies, I am using natural food that I can buy at my local market or I can grow on my own. I put it in a blender for a couple of minutes and drink it. That is all the processing there is. There is no heating and cooling and pressing into a pill or powder. There is no freezing or bottling and letting it sit in a warehouse or on a truck. There is no wondering what is truly in the product because I can see with my eyes and with my hands, just what is going into what I am consuming.

Even if phytochemcials are not something I specifically know about, it is not hard for me to understand how eating whole, natural and fresh fruits and vegetables is very healthy for a person. We've all been taught that we need to eat our veggies, so it is not difficult to understand how beneficial this is. If you're skeptical, than why not put it to the test? What do you have to lose? After all, I don't make any more money telling you about this if you do it or you don't do it. I'm just passing along something that I do and have had very positive benefits from.

Here are some examples of specific foods for specific diseases.

Kiwi - Helps to reverse Asthma
Avocado: Helps reverse heart disease, plaque in arteries and losing weight
Asparagus: Naturally Reverse Cancer & Detoxification
Bitter Melon: Naturally Reverse Diabetes and Improve Blood Sugar
Reishi: For Reversing Heart Disease, Chest Pains, Asthma & Depression
Maca: For Energy, Better Sex, Menopause, Fertility

Take a moment to look at Jeff's website along with the videos that he has put up on YouTube. It will explain much more and will give you further insight into the healing smoothies. If you want to get the smoothie formula book that I use, see the image link below to purchase this on Amazon.


Further Reading
1) Food Based Healing And Smoothies
2) Smoothies, A Year Later
3) Qi Revolution - Jeff Primack
4) Food Based Healing Introduction

Blog Post & Images (c) 2/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

High Pulse Rate And Heart Disease

According to a recent article published on MSNBC, Guys, These 7 Quick Checks Could Save Your Life, there was a very useful statistic regarding heart rate. According to researchers in Italy, having a resting heart rate (pulse) over 70 bpm (beats per minute) increases your risk of dying of heart disease by 78%. If you stop and think about that, this is a statistic that will get your attention.

A resting heart rate is the rate at which your heart beats while you are at a complete rest. The best time to check this is in the morning after a good night of sleep and before you get out of bed. Another time to check it would be after meditation or a relaxing massage. Any time where your body is at a resting state is where you will find your resting heart rate (resting pulse).

The heart generally beats around 60 to 80 times a minute. This is the heart rate or pulse that we all hear about. The terms are usually interchanged but basically they mean the same thing. Your resting heart rate is dependent upon your age, your activity level and how much stress you have residing in your body. You can strongly influence what your heart rate or pulse rate is by exercising regularly and getting bodywork done on yourself such as massage to help you release built up stress in your body.

Unfortunately, most of us do not even know what our pulse rate is. We go through our days hoping that everything is ok and if we feel sick or out of whack, we then schedule an appointment to see a doctor. By then, we could have already taken steps to lower our pulse rate but for some reason, in our culture, we do things backwards. Most people have a pulse rate that is very high and many have a pulse rate that is in the 90's or even 99 and above. When you get into the range of 99, you are entering dangerous territory with your life and your health.

For most of my life, my pulse was probably very high but I didn't realize it. Every time I went to the doctor, they would check it and even though it was high, it always was attributed to the fact that I have a big fear of doctors. My anxiety level goes through the roof the moment I walk into a doctor's office. However, even though my pulse showed that it was high, no one figured it out for most of my life. In the following blog posts, you'll quickly see how I learned about it and what I did to work on it.


1) Finger Pulse Meter, Know What's Going On

2) Why Is My Pulse High?

3) The Pulse Of Autonomic Arousal



The biggest thing you can do to help yourself is knowing where your pulse is at. That is why I bought the Finger Pulse Oximeter. Ok, I know that sounds like an advertisement and it is, but it is also what really helped me. This little pulse meter allowed me to begin checking my pulse at different times of the day or night and I was surprised at just how high my pulse was for most of my day. Even at a time of rest, it would remain around 99 bpm. Once I knew that my pulse was high, I could begin working on it. Until that point, I was not even aware or conscious that it was.

Since this time, my pulse now stays down around the higher 60's to lower 70's. It isn't exactly as low as I want it to be but going from 99 bpm pulse rate down to 70 is a big improvement. I am continuing to make changes in my life to help improve this and to better my overall health. Of course, until I started to measure my pulse, I had no way to know just how dangerously I was living. I urge anyone reading this to begin checking their pulse frequently and see where you are at. Once you do that, you too can take appropriate actions to help reduce your pulse rate and improve your health.



*Read other articles on Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Food Based Healing & Smoothies

In May, I went to a Qigong Seminar at the Orlando Convention Center put on by Jeff Primack from the Supreme Science Qigong Center. It was a great seminar and one particular part of it was about food based healing. I will be honest in saying that sometimes I'm a little skeptical about these food based healing/nutritional programs. There are just too many out there claiming that their nutrition concepts and their products are by far the best thing since oxygen was created. With that said, this presentation was not "radical" statements but more down to earth, logically conceived thoughts. So it had my attention. We had considered "juicing" and "juice plus" and the "green drink" before this but were not completely sold on the concept of these things. Plus they were processed products being sold by some company that was getting rich off the concept. I really have a problem with that when it comes to my health.

If you go to qigong.com you will see much of the information that he presented in the seminar on this topic. In a nutshell, it is taking vegetables, fruits and herbs with the use of a high powered 3 hp blender to make smoothies. As he explained, this is not the same thing as juicing or taking supplements or other products. By using raw vegetables, fruits and herbs intact, you get the most benefit because of the phytochemicals that are located within the skins, stems, seeds, etc. The parts that most in our society discard as waste is where the true health benefits of these food items are located. Juicing removes these things and so while you are getting fresh juice, you're missing out on some of the greatest naturally occurring compounds for healthy living. Even all of these supplements, health candies and foods and all the other products on the market, do not have what you can find in raw foods. Processing does nothing positive to foods and so with the 3 hp blender, you're able to keep the foods intact but masticated enough where your body can easily and quickly digest them. I know I'm glossing over the fine details here but if you go to the link at the beginning of the paragraph, you'll see the details behind what I'm saying.

One of the biggest things that got everyone's attention towards the end and had people hysterically laughing was when he said if you do the smoothies every day, you will have big bowel movements (increased digestion). Amongst the gasps in the audience, he assured people that this was a good thing because it removes toxins from our body. Someone asked him how long that took, and he said when he first started doing the smoothies, it was the very next day. We found the same to be true basically. You do not necessarily need to go out and purchase things like Activia to do what natural foods from the grocery store can do for you.

Another thing he shared was that in his smoothie recipe book, there are many recipes that help people recover from all kinds of health conditions. Not only does it help but many people have reversed cancer, diabetes, heart conditions, and so on. I have no way to prove that but he has stated that many people have shared with him how the smoothies not only helped them but it reversed these serious conditions.

The thing I like about this is I am not buying some supplement that has been processed from someone that is getting rich from me. There is just too much of that out there and every time I see it, my eyebrows raise a few feet in the air. There are many claims made and there are many getting rich off of those claims. I have tried these things too and again, I'll just ask that you really and truly consider the "marketing" of these so called cures.

The smoothies are simple. It is pretty simple to cut things up and prepare. We use a recipe that is just for general health and includes the following items - cucumber, avocado, beet, fuji apple, corn, strawberries, lime, cilantro, rosemary, basil, mint, Goji berries, distilled water. Of course if you want the exact amounts, the recipe and more information can be found in the Smoothie Formulas book by Jeff Primack. Almost all of these products we buy in our local grocery store so it isn't like we have to purchase anything real expensive from any one person. The Goji berries are the only thing we have to go to a health store to buy.

Like I said, it isn't easy to prepare this and only takes a few minutes. We purchased the Blendtec 3 hp blender which isn't cheap but it grinds all of this up into a smoothie. Most regular blenders just wouldn't have the power to do that. We drink around 20 ounces of it a day or sometimes more depending upon the quantity made that day.

When we considered doing this, I thought I was going to not want to eat anything else after drinking that much smoothie. I was surprised that within a short time, I am hungry and have a strong desire to eat. This may be due to the fact that the food is so highly digestible in this state that the body absorbs it quickly.

If you do these smoothies, you won't be disappointed and it will not take long for you to see the results. Plus, there is no way I would normally eat all of these ingredients every day. I had never eaten beets or avocados before in my life. The herbs, especially the mint, helps give it a good flavor along with the strawberries. We're learning how to make it so that it tastes a little better to us as well but it has become part of our daily routine.

So, don't just take my word for it that it has helped the both of us greatly, but check it out and read more about it. And if you are wanting to enhance the health of your life, try it out for yourself and see if you don't see the benefits from it!

And NO, I do not make one cent on recommending this or writing this post. I am just doing it because we are pleased with the results. In fact, we purchased our blender directly through the online Target store website and got it a little cheaper plus had free shipping. I would recommend though that you purchase the smoothie recipe book or other information he has so you'll understand what you are doing better.

Just a final side note - the blender for this works in making all kinds of things. It is so simple to use, clean and it will blend anything together you put in it. It is an amazing blender!

For Further Reading: Smoothies, A Year Later