What yogurt should I be eating?

What yogurt should I really be eating?  Unfortunately, this isn't an easy question to answer.  This post will cut through all of the confusion for you.  When you are asking this question there are things that you should want to avoid, I've compiled a list below.  If you're like me and you want to know the research, it's all there and detailed in previous posts that I refer to.  If you're pressed for time (like most of us are) and simply want to get to the link of how each yogurt graded out, it's provided toward the bottom.

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup.  You'll want your family to steer clear of this one for all of the reasons outlined in my January 31st blog post entitled "Downfalls of High Fructose Corn Syrup".  Link here

2. Aspartame.  All of the terrible side effects of this poisonous ingredient which is also found in most gum and nearly every diet soda can be found in my February 7th blog post entitled "Aspartame, how it was approved and what it does."  Link here

3. Artificial Colors.  The downfalls of this ever present ingredient in our food supply can be found in my February 2nd blog post entitled "Six ingredients to stay away from".  Link here

4. GMO Ingredients.  GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism.  Consuming these can compromise your immune system, break down your digestive process, damage your DNA and a host of other ramifications.  I cover this in more detail in my April 9th blog post entitled "Consequences of the Monsanto Act passing."  Link here

5. Milk Protein Concentrate.  MPCs are created by putting milk through an filtration process that
strips smaller molecules to create a dry product that is forty percent protein or more. This is much
easier and cheaper to ship but lacks the nutrients of unprocessed dairy products.

6. GM Feed for Cows.  This is when the milk used in the making of the yogurt is from cows that are fed GM (Genetically Modified) feed .  Meat or milk from animals that are fed these transfers to us when we consume it.

I had crossed off all of these criteria when it came to choosing our yogurt except for this last one when it came to settled on Chobani.  Unfortunately, I recently learned that they are likely using milk from cows being fed GM feed.  For that reason, they will not make it into our shopping cart until they make the change. We're moving on to Stonyfield as they are given an "A grade" and lack any of the things to avoid listed above.

Here's the list of how each company graded:

What yogurt should I eat?

I would stick to only the options that are given an "A grade" on this list for the sake of your family's health!

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* Information in this blog provided by http://gmoinside.org/how-does-your-yogurt-stack-up-when-it-comes-to-gmos/

KEEP CANCER OUT OF YOUR LIFE

It's been a long time coming for me to get back to blogging on ways to keep you and your family healthy! With the summer behind us, it's time to get back to sharing with everyone.  It's been a challenging summer for us to say the least, which is why it's been a while since posting.  For those of you who follow this blog, the main motivation for starting it was my wife's breast cancer diagnosis last fall.  Well, our family was hit again this summer when my youngest son Kyle (14) was diagnosed with a brain tumor this summer. 

It was crushing for us to say the least, and our lives will never be the same as a result.  He has recently started chemo, but has also started high school and is not only playing soccer for the freshman team, but was named team captain as well.  His attitude has been amazing, and it has positively impacted everyone that he comes in contact with who knows his story.  My wife Deb's breast cancer recently took a turn for the worse when the cells migrated to her lymphatic ducts.  We had to switch gears (and oncologists) to start with a new plan of action to defeat her cancer and move forward.  

Going through this experience has changed me completely, and my only focus now is to learn everything that I can about this dreaded disease to cure my family in the least invasive and most successful way possible, while sharing what I know with everyone that I can.  Along with our challenges, we have heard too many other families facing similar issues.  When I recently heard about a 17 year old girl having to face a double mastectomy, I was crushed.  It simply doesn't have to be this way if we educate ourselves more about the causes.

I have learned so much about cancer over the last year, and want everyone to know that we can turn the tide against the rise in cancer.  But if you or someone you know gets it, it doesn't have to be a death sentence if you simply understand the causes, what to do (and not to do) if you do get it, and most importantly, how to avoid getting it in the first place!  This is my new life's mission along with promoting overall health and wellness to everyone that I can reach. Implementing these strategies allowed my wife to get through some of the worst chemo that you can face, and is allowing my son to live a relatively normal life while facing his regimen. 

Along the way, I have learned that when it comes to what we allow in our food, and how we treat illness in this country, our current system is completely broken.  For as long as we can remember, our medical establishment has preached that the only way that cancer can be treated is with the BIG 3, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.  Well I'm here to tell you that this couldn't be further from the truth.  The FDA, the big drug companies, and nearly all doctors who practice oncology would like you to think that, but when you understand cancer for what it is, you realize you need much more than just these to overcome cancer.  Some people have even beaten cancer altogether without resorting to any of these.  It's been done countless times.  Our family has elected to go the integrative route, incorporating SOME of what the doctors recommended, while also implementing a more integrative / holistic approach to improve results.

Over the next few months, I will be sharing a number of things with you that I think will help to maintain the health and well being of your families by doing the most important thing that you can.  STRENGTHENING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM to the highest level possible.  There are so many things working against us when it comes to doing this, but there are things that we can do to fight back, and we will cover these in detail in subsequent posts.  For now, I want to highlight something promising that recently was shared by Johns Hopkins when it comes to beating cancer.  It is the closest thing to truth that I have seen come out of the "medical establishment" when it comes to this topic, and it gives me hope that we might finally be turning a corner.  Here's what they had to say:

AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY TO TRY AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHNS HOPKINS IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY …


1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.


11. An effective way to battle cancer is to STARVE the cancer cells by not feeding it with foods it needs to multiply.

What cancer cells feed on:

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Note: Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is sea salt or Himilayan salt.


b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells will starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes t o nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water--best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines will become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.

Anger, unforgiving and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

I am impressed with the fact that someone in the medical community is finally stepping up and addressing actual causes of cancer vs. simply wanting to treat it.  As you can see from this article, cancer is simply a symptom of our immune systems breaking down and allowing these cells that we all carry to multiply into tumors.  This can be attributed to stress, toxins in our food, toxins in products that we put on our skin, and in our cleaning products, etc.  If we keep our immune systems high, our levels of stress low, avoid these toxins as much as possible, and stick to a moderate workout routine of some sort, our chances of ever having to face this in our lives becomes minimal.  

Our family has not only addressed many things discussed in this article in our lives, but has gone even further.  Despite her setbacks, Deb will tell you that she's never been healthier as a result of the changes that we have made.  Despite facing chemotherapy, Kyle's immune system is being kept very high through eliminating the bad things and implementing the good things in his diet.  I have implemented most of these strategies as well, and have never felt better in my life.  We will cover all of this in detail in the weeks and months to come.

Please share this blog with anyone that you know that is facing illness (especially cancer), as we take our mission seriously to help as many people possible with maximizing their chances of winning their fight.  If it is something pressing that can't wait, and they would like to contact either of us personally, they can do so at the following contact info:

Marty Loughlin
marty.loughlin@gmail.com
815-690-3810

Deb Loughlin
kvdeb@yahoo.com
815-690-3910

We're looking forward to sharing what we've learned in the face of our challenges, and making a difference in people's lives!!

Yours in health,

Marty

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