MYSTAGOGY: Abba Sisoes on the Remembrance of Hell
If anyone is thinking about their mortality, this might be a little tidbit that will inspire.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Friday, April 8, 2011
About PTSD
By Elizabeth Szlek, LMHC
For most Americans, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not changed our lives appreciably. By this I mean, if we are not acquainted personally with someone serving in the military, we may not have realized the personal devastation these two wars are bringing to thousands of families across our land. As a counselor of returning veterans, I can tell you that effects of modern combat are absolutely horrific. I am not even talking about the physical wounds, which number in the thousands, or perhaps hundred of thousands. I am more familiar with the trauma injuries, and especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (PTSD).
While Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is being called the “signature injury” of the Iraq war, PTSD has been with us since the time of Homer, who wrote about it in the Iliad. Since war began, soldiers have been traumatized by it. It seems that normal humans simply cannot bear for long, the horrors of war. For everyone except the sociopathic, the human mind will eventually just go “off line”.
Traumatic Brain Injury results when the brain is forcefully slammed against the inside of the skull, usually because of a violent explosion or impact, such as a roadside bomb. PTSD can occur without any concurrent physical injury, or it can accompany TBI.
What is PTSD?
Looking at the words, we can see that PTSD follows some kind of physical or psychological shock.. It could be the result of a crime such as rape, or witnessing a horrific natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina. It can also occur in soldiers who have been trained to override their natural aversion to killing, and who go beyond their personal moral codes to commit acts of violence, or who witness ghastly events.
This problem among soldiers, as I have said, has always been part of military life, even though it has not always been fully understood. In the Civil War, the problem was called “soldier’s heart”. During World War I it was called “shell shock”, and then in World War II, “combat fatigue”. Following the Viet Nam conflict, the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder evolved, and that is how we look at this problem today. PTSD has been taken out of its formerly military context, and is applied to all sorts of civilian trauma, as well. However, military psychiatrists have stated that every single soldier will eventually develop PTSD if left in intense combat situations for too long. This astonishing fact should be made known to those who might think a soldier “weak” or worse, when the symptoms of PTSD occur.
PTSD occurs when a person is not able to properly process the events around them. It is a state of intense overwhelm, and because of this, the precipitating event seems to remain in the victim’s present, rather than receding into the ever more distant past. Such symptoms as nightmares of the event, and flashbacks take over the life of a badly traumatized person, and they cannot seem to break free of the terror they once experienced. When veterans return home, neither they nor their families are normally prepared to deal with this spiritual, emotional and psychological condition, and many families break apart.
There are, however, new methods, which do not rely on drugs, to help PTSD sufferers. I am committed to helping veterans, their families and others who wish to break free of this debilitating condition. The use of psychiatric drugs is increasingly being seen as a harmful method of dealing with PTSD, and many veterans are dying from unexplained causes following drug treatment for PTSD. I will continue this story in my next column, so please stay tuned!
Elizabeth Szlek is a Tricare Provider, and welcomes your comments and questions. She is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, and can be reached at (315) 768-8900 or info@thedoorcounseling.com.
For most Americans, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have not changed our lives appreciably. By this I mean, if we are not acquainted personally with someone serving in the military, we may not have realized the personal devastation these two wars are bringing to thousands of families across our land. As a counselor of returning veterans, I can tell you that effects of modern combat are absolutely horrific. I am not even talking about the physical wounds, which number in the thousands, or perhaps hundred of thousands. I am more familiar with the trauma injuries, and especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (PTSD).
While Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is being called the “signature injury” of the Iraq war, PTSD has been with us since the time of Homer, who wrote about it in the Iliad. Since war began, soldiers have been traumatized by it. It seems that normal humans simply cannot bear for long, the horrors of war. For everyone except the sociopathic, the human mind will eventually just go “off line”.
Traumatic Brain Injury results when the brain is forcefully slammed against the inside of the skull, usually because of a violent explosion or impact, such as a roadside bomb. PTSD can occur without any concurrent physical injury, or it can accompany TBI.
What is PTSD?
Looking at the words, we can see that PTSD follows some kind of physical or psychological shock.. It could be the result of a crime such as rape, or witnessing a horrific natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina. It can also occur in soldiers who have been trained to override their natural aversion to killing, and who go beyond their personal moral codes to commit acts of violence, or who witness ghastly events.
This problem among soldiers, as I have said, has always been part of military life, even though it has not always been fully understood. In the Civil War, the problem was called “soldier’s heart”. During World War I it was called “shell shock”, and then in World War II, “combat fatigue”. Following the Viet Nam conflict, the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder evolved, and that is how we look at this problem today. PTSD has been taken out of its formerly military context, and is applied to all sorts of civilian trauma, as well. However, military psychiatrists have stated that every single soldier will eventually develop PTSD if left in intense combat situations for too long. This astonishing fact should be made known to those who might think a soldier “weak” or worse, when the symptoms of PTSD occur.
PTSD occurs when a person is not able to properly process the events around them. It is a state of intense overwhelm, and because of this, the precipitating event seems to remain in the victim’s present, rather than receding into the ever more distant past. Such symptoms as nightmares of the event, and flashbacks take over the life of a badly traumatized person, and they cannot seem to break free of the terror they once experienced. When veterans return home, neither they nor their families are normally prepared to deal with this spiritual, emotional and psychological condition, and many families break apart.
There are, however, new methods, which do not rely on drugs, to help PTSD sufferers. I am committed to helping veterans, their families and others who wish to break free of this debilitating condition. The use of psychiatric drugs is increasingly being seen as a harmful method of dealing with PTSD, and many veterans are dying from unexplained causes following drug treatment for PTSD. I will continue this story in my next column, so please stay tuned!
Elizabeth Szlek is a Tricare Provider, and welcomes your comments and questions. She is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, and can be reached at (315) 768-8900 or info@thedoorcounseling.com.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Get The Salt Out!
By Elizabeth Szlek
You know there is a problem in the American diet when NBC Nightly News does a whole piece on it. Some weeks ago, I watched them go on and on about the fact that the American diet contains too much salt. They hit some of the obvious targets, like fast food and other processed foods, but, of course, they didn’t really give the whole salt story. Things are a lot worse than you might expect out there in salt land, and no one is telling the truth to us all. To find out what is really happening you have to go to those more obscure sources, like the books you find in the health food stores, or the web sites which rise up in counterpoint to the major media outlets on the web. When you get to these places, you tend to get a little angry, because you realize that you have been skipping down a garden path to nutritional hell!
But We All Need Salt!
Yes, of course, salt is a necessary element in the diet of all animals. We need it to live. Salt is, of course, sodium chloride, and throughout man’s time on earth, he has spent much of his energy seeking salt. I never really knew this fact until I read Mark Kurlansky’s simple titled epic saga, Salt. In this book you find the entire world history of empires which rose and fell upon the ability to find and sell salt. Salt figures in many world events as an economic force and source of great wealth, for the simple fact that before the days of refrigeration, it served as the main preservative of food in all nations. Salting meat, and preserving vegetables in salt, known as pickling, kept people from starvation for thousands of years. But, in this day and age, salt is rarely used for these purposes, and few of us make salt cod or sauerkraut our main dietary staples. Yet, the American diet is more loaded with salt than ever before. Where does it all come from?
It is estimated that 90% of the American diet consists of processed foods, and, as in millennia past, it is salt that is doing the preserving. We just aren’t tuned into this fact, and are gleefully consuming two or three times the amount of salt we need, each day.
How Much Is Too Much?
If we harken back to the Paleolithic Era, and look at the diet of those people, we would find that their diet was high in potassium, and low in sodium, because all natural unprocessed foods contain more potassium than sodium. In fact, a diet high in these foods would have contained about ten times more potassium than sodium, according to the author of the fine little book Get The Salt Out! This meant that our bodies learned not to hold onto potassium, but due to its scarcity, we developed a taste for salt, and a penchant for seeking it in our environment. If you’re like me, I’ll bet you never said to yourself: “I need to eat something potassium-y!” Salt, though, that’s another story. I generally go looking for salt on a regular basis, but luckily, I don’t have to find a salt lick or brine spring, I can just find my jar of macadamias!
Humans in general need about 2000 milligrams of salt a day to keep things running smoothly. That’s equivalent to about a teaspoon. Not much, especially when you consider that many foods, such as meats, already contain salt naturally.
What is the Problem with Salt?
Too much salt can wreak havoc with our bodies. Too much sodium can produce a host of life-threatening conditions, such as high blood pressure, leading to heart attack, stroke, serious kidney diseases or kidney failure, hardening of the arteries, enlarged heart and congestive heart failure.
In addition to that, too much dietary sodium increases the risk for osteoporosis and probably kidney stones, as well, because excess sodium causes calcium to be lost through the urine, and then blood levels of calcium fall, prompting calcium to move from the bones to the blood.. We all know that too much sodium causes fluid retention, and weight gain, but it also produces headaches, and stomach ulcers and stomach cancer.
There is also a genetic component to salt intake. It has been theorized that African-Americans, who greatly outpace others in developing high blood pressure, may have less tolerance to sodium, because in their native lands in Africa, they consumed largely a diet high in potassium, due to its high vegetable content.
More Bad News
For years I have been going back and forth: Should I bother using sea salt, or use the regular stuff that is dirt cheap? I really couldn’t taste the difference, and the price difference was large. Now I know the truth: Like everything else, processed salt, by which I mean refined salt is actually HARMFUL to the body, because it has been stripped of all its minerals, besides sodium and chloride, and it has been heated at high temperatures that changes its chemical structure. It is chemically cleaned and bleached, and treated with anti-caking agents, which cause it to remain in the body, and actually build up. The anti-caking agents used contain, generally, aluminum-based chemicals, and I hope you know how bad THAT is for you. Lastly, because this process makes salt bitter, some sugar is added to the salt. Contrast all that with sea salt, which contains innumerable minerals, no additives, and just plain natural salt. I’ll never go back to the little girl with her shaker again!
Processed Foods
I know I have beat this drum before, but: You have to stop eating processed foods! They are simply loaded with salt! Check out a little innocent pack of Ramen noodles: 1100 milligrams of salt! That’s half your day’s limit! But here is a real shocker: Yes, a can of cola contains loads of High Fructose Corn Syrup, but guess what else it has loads of: Salt! Few of us know this little factoid. They need the salt in there for some reason, maybe to preserve the junk in its pristine state. So, the need for more and more sugar to cover the salt.
All processed foods are teeming with sodium, but if you would just stop and read the labels of everything you eat, just once, you will begin to get an idea of just how much damage you are doing to your body on a regular basis. It is said that only 5% of our salt intake comes through the salt we add when cooking, and just 6% is added by our table salt shaker. This means that, again, 90% of our salt is from processed foods! Take stock of your salt intake and lose the processed foods! Your body will thank you!
Elizabeth Szlek is a trained chef and has taught nutrition and Healthy Cooking. She is also the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Utica, and can be reached at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
You know there is a problem in the American diet when NBC Nightly News does a whole piece on it. Some weeks ago, I watched them go on and on about the fact that the American diet contains too much salt. They hit some of the obvious targets, like fast food and other processed foods, but, of course, they didn’t really give the whole salt story. Things are a lot worse than you might expect out there in salt land, and no one is telling the truth to us all. To find out what is really happening you have to go to those more obscure sources, like the books you find in the health food stores, or the web sites which rise up in counterpoint to the major media outlets on the web. When you get to these places, you tend to get a little angry, because you realize that you have been skipping down a garden path to nutritional hell!
But We All Need Salt!
Yes, of course, salt is a necessary element in the diet of all animals. We need it to live. Salt is, of course, sodium chloride, and throughout man’s time on earth, he has spent much of his energy seeking salt. I never really knew this fact until I read Mark Kurlansky’s simple titled epic saga, Salt. In this book you find the entire world history of empires which rose and fell upon the ability to find and sell salt. Salt figures in many world events as an economic force and source of great wealth, for the simple fact that before the days of refrigeration, it served as the main preservative of food in all nations. Salting meat, and preserving vegetables in salt, known as pickling, kept people from starvation for thousands of years. But, in this day and age, salt is rarely used for these purposes, and few of us make salt cod or sauerkraut our main dietary staples. Yet, the American diet is more loaded with salt than ever before. Where does it all come from?
It is estimated that 90% of the American diet consists of processed foods, and, as in millennia past, it is salt that is doing the preserving. We just aren’t tuned into this fact, and are gleefully consuming two or three times the amount of salt we need, each day.
How Much Is Too Much?
If we harken back to the Paleolithic Era, and look at the diet of those people, we would find that their diet was high in potassium, and low in sodium, because all natural unprocessed foods contain more potassium than sodium. In fact, a diet high in these foods would have contained about ten times more potassium than sodium, according to the author of the fine little book Get The Salt Out! This meant that our bodies learned not to hold onto potassium, but due to its scarcity, we developed a taste for salt, and a penchant for seeking it in our environment. If you’re like me, I’ll bet you never said to yourself: “I need to eat something potassium-y!” Salt, though, that’s another story. I generally go looking for salt on a regular basis, but luckily, I don’t have to find a salt lick or brine spring, I can just find my jar of macadamias!
Humans in general need about 2000 milligrams of salt a day to keep things running smoothly. That’s equivalent to about a teaspoon. Not much, especially when you consider that many foods, such as meats, already contain salt naturally.
What is the Problem with Salt?
Too much salt can wreak havoc with our bodies. Too much sodium can produce a host of life-threatening conditions, such as high blood pressure, leading to heart attack, stroke, serious kidney diseases or kidney failure, hardening of the arteries, enlarged heart and congestive heart failure.
In addition to that, too much dietary sodium increases the risk for osteoporosis and probably kidney stones, as well, because excess sodium causes calcium to be lost through the urine, and then blood levels of calcium fall, prompting calcium to move from the bones to the blood.. We all know that too much sodium causes fluid retention, and weight gain, but it also produces headaches, and stomach ulcers and stomach cancer.
There is also a genetic component to salt intake. It has been theorized that African-Americans, who greatly outpace others in developing high blood pressure, may have less tolerance to sodium, because in their native lands in Africa, they consumed largely a diet high in potassium, due to its high vegetable content.
More Bad News
For years I have been going back and forth: Should I bother using sea salt, or use the regular stuff that is dirt cheap? I really couldn’t taste the difference, and the price difference was large. Now I know the truth: Like everything else, processed salt, by which I mean refined salt is actually HARMFUL to the body, because it has been stripped of all its minerals, besides sodium and chloride, and it has been heated at high temperatures that changes its chemical structure. It is chemically cleaned and bleached, and treated with anti-caking agents, which cause it to remain in the body, and actually build up. The anti-caking agents used contain, generally, aluminum-based chemicals, and I hope you know how bad THAT is for you. Lastly, because this process makes salt bitter, some sugar is added to the salt. Contrast all that with sea salt, which contains innumerable minerals, no additives, and just plain natural salt. I’ll never go back to the little girl with her shaker again!
Processed Foods
I know I have beat this drum before, but: You have to stop eating processed foods! They are simply loaded with salt! Check out a little innocent pack of Ramen noodles: 1100 milligrams of salt! That’s half your day’s limit! But here is a real shocker: Yes, a can of cola contains loads of High Fructose Corn Syrup, but guess what else it has loads of: Salt! Few of us know this little factoid. They need the salt in there for some reason, maybe to preserve the junk in its pristine state. So, the need for more and more sugar to cover the salt.
All processed foods are teeming with sodium, but if you would just stop and read the labels of everything you eat, just once, you will begin to get an idea of just how much damage you are doing to your body on a regular basis. It is said that only 5% of our salt intake comes through the salt we add when cooking, and just 6% is added by our table salt shaker. This means that, again, 90% of our salt is from processed foods! Take stock of your salt intake and lose the processed foods! Your body will thank you!
Elizabeth Szlek is a trained chef and has taught nutrition and Healthy Cooking. She is also the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Utica, and can be reached at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Why Are You Eating Soy?
By Elizabeth Szlek
As I get more and more into the whole Genetically Modified seeds thing, the tragedy that will one day unfold before us seems to creep closer. I just ordered a whole garden of heirloom seeds, and intend, to the best of my ability, to plant them and actually get some return on my gardening efforts. Past forays into vegetable gardening left me with maybe three pumpkins and a couple of tomatoes. It now looks like I really need to produce some food, and perhaps the thing that will make is possible was a big can of anti-rabbit stuff I can spray around, since my resident wild rabbits have been the main recipients of my gardening efforts to date. This year, it’s MY TURN! Which brings me back to soy: A dreadful plague upon us all. We need to look at this stuff once again and firmly fix in our minds what it is! I am turning to Kaala Daniel, whose book The Whole Soy Story is still the best source for a detailed understanding of the problems with soy.
A Very Short History of Soy
The soybean was first cultivated in China, where it was considered “the yellow jewel”, and for several thousand years it ranked with rice, millet, barley and wheat as one of the “Five Sacred Grains”. What few among us know is that soy was never eaten by the Chinese until around 2500 years ago, when the method of fermenting soy into soy sauce was discovered. No, what they did with soy was plough it into the fields, thereby enriching the soil with its nitrogen-fixing roots. Soy was understood to be completely indigestible to both animals and humans in its original state.
So, soy sauce appeared, and other fermented soy products, such as tempeh, natto and miso eventually entered the food pantry of Asians. The key here is the word “fermented”. Fermentation is a beneficial process, whereby certain qualities of a food are changed into something often more healthful or delicious. Think of milk turning into Brie, cabbage into sauerkraut, grape juice into wine, and you get the general picture of fermentation. Yeast also helps turn flour into bread, and brine turns cucumbers into pickles. With soy, though, the original product—the naked soybean -- is considered inedible, and the fermentation makes it usable by the body.
Soy traveled to Japan, and in the 12th century, the Samurai warriors imposed the ascetic diet of rice, vegetables, fish and tofu (in small amounts) upon the population, and they have more or less stuck to this program until now.
Tofu is created from soy milk by precipitating curds by the use of nigari, or magnesium chloride. The curds are then pressed into blocks, creating the famous white, cheesy-looking stuff we all know and (sort of) love. It is interesting to note that monks in Japan, who are celibate, were the first to embrace the use of tofu as a meat substitute. The soy phytoestrogens have the effect of lowering testosterone, and thus making the monks’ commitment to celibacy that much easier. Take note you tofu-munching men! You might want to reconsider your chances at creating progeny!
But I digress. Soy consumption remained a thing of Asia, for the most part, with a few bottles of soy sauce on American shelves for those occasional forays into Chinese cuisine. However, after WWII, American technology and agribusiness concurred that soy was going to provide oil for processed foods, and many millions of acres were planted. Soy oil formed the basis for most margarines (with trans fats). However, there was a problem: Once the oil was extracted, tons of waste products remained. Most of it was fed to livestock for feed, until the amount of the stuff just began to overwhelm American food processors. This is where American innovation just took over. They thought and thought, and began coming up with “food products” made from unfermented soy. Stuff like lecithin, textured vegetable protein, soy flour and soy milks, infant formula, and eventually thousands of other products that are now ubiquitous in our processed foods. Not to mention those horrible little edamame beans.
So What’s Wrong With Soy?
I only have a limited space here, and for those of you who really want to understand this in depth, please get Dr. Daniel’s book mentioned above, but there are many reasons why we should not be eating unfermented soy. The main problem is that soy contains both toxins (poisons) and antinutrients. Antinutrients are elements of a food that work against good nutrition. Here is a short summary of some of the problems soy presents to the human body.
1. Over 90% of soybeans are genetically modified. GM foods present their own problems, but in addition to that fact, all soy is prone to causing allergic reactions, and soy is considered one of the top eight allergens in our diet.
2. Soy contains goitrogens, which damage the thyroid.
3. Soy contains lectins, which cause red blood cells to clump together and may cause immune system reactions.
4. Soy contains oligosaccharides, which cause bloating and flatulence.
5. Soy contains oxalates, which prevent proper absorption of calcium and have been linked to kidney stones and other painful conditions.
6. Soy contains other antinutrients, phytates , which impair absorption of minerals such as zinc, iron and calcium.
7. Soy contains isoflavones, or phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) that act like hormones and affect the reproductive and nervous systems. These include genistein and daidzein.
8. Soy contains protease inhibitors, such as trypsin inhibitors, which interfere with the digestive enzymes protease and trypsin. This can lead to gastric distress, poor protein digestion and an overworked pancreas. This can push one towards diabetes. A friend asked if the protease inhibitors in soy were the same as those in the HIV drugs. Yes, they are the same thing, which is why many HIV patients do develop diabetes and other gastic diseases. I guess it’s a tradeoff, but one which non-HIV people don’t have to make.
9. Soy contains saponins, which may lower cholesterol (but not in a good way) and may damage the intestinal lining.
I don’t know about you, but I think this list is long enough to scare anyone! None of us need to have any of the problems listed above, and if restricting our intake of unfermented soy will do it, I’m all for it!
What to Do?
If you are a reader of food labels, you can immediately see the problem. Soy is added to EVERYTHING these days. And I mean everything. It is rare to find a food in a box that doesn’t contain soy in some form. Again, the goal for better health is to eat foods that are not processed, and which don’t even have labels. And, it is true that the “health foods” sector of the market is heavily invested in pushing unfermented soy-based foods.
There are good substitutes for the substitutes, such as almond milk in the place of soy milk. But, for most Americans, eating processed foods is a way of life, and it will take major changes to remove such unhealthy foods from their diets. Keep reading labels, and avoid unfermented soy!
Elizabeth Szlek is a trained chef and has taught Healthy Cooking and nutrition. She is also the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Utica. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
As I get more and more into the whole Genetically Modified seeds thing, the tragedy that will one day unfold before us seems to creep closer. I just ordered a whole garden of heirloom seeds, and intend, to the best of my ability, to plant them and actually get some return on my gardening efforts. Past forays into vegetable gardening left me with maybe three pumpkins and a couple of tomatoes. It now looks like I really need to produce some food, and perhaps the thing that will make is possible was a big can of anti-rabbit stuff I can spray around, since my resident wild rabbits have been the main recipients of my gardening efforts to date. This year, it’s MY TURN! Which brings me back to soy: A dreadful plague upon us all. We need to look at this stuff once again and firmly fix in our minds what it is! I am turning to Kaala Daniel, whose book The Whole Soy Story is still the best source for a detailed understanding of the problems with soy.
A Very Short History of Soy
The soybean was first cultivated in China, where it was considered “the yellow jewel”, and for several thousand years it ranked with rice, millet, barley and wheat as one of the “Five Sacred Grains”. What few among us know is that soy was never eaten by the Chinese until around 2500 years ago, when the method of fermenting soy into soy sauce was discovered. No, what they did with soy was plough it into the fields, thereby enriching the soil with its nitrogen-fixing roots. Soy was understood to be completely indigestible to both animals and humans in its original state.
So, soy sauce appeared, and other fermented soy products, such as tempeh, natto and miso eventually entered the food pantry of Asians. The key here is the word “fermented”. Fermentation is a beneficial process, whereby certain qualities of a food are changed into something often more healthful or delicious. Think of milk turning into Brie, cabbage into sauerkraut, grape juice into wine, and you get the general picture of fermentation. Yeast also helps turn flour into bread, and brine turns cucumbers into pickles. With soy, though, the original product—the naked soybean -- is considered inedible, and the fermentation makes it usable by the body.
Soy traveled to Japan, and in the 12th century, the Samurai warriors imposed the ascetic diet of rice, vegetables, fish and tofu (in small amounts) upon the population, and they have more or less stuck to this program until now.
Tofu is created from soy milk by precipitating curds by the use of nigari, or magnesium chloride. The curds are then pressed into blocks, creating the famous white, cheesy-looking stuff we all know and (sort of) love. It is interesting to note that monks in Japan, who are celibate, were the first to embrace the use of tofu as a meat substitute. The soy phytoestrogens have the effect of lowering testosterone, and thus making the monks’ commitment to celibacy that much easier. Take note you tofu-munching men! You might want to reconsider your chances at creating progeny!
But I digress. Soy consumption remained a thing of Asia, for the most part, with a few bottles of soy sauce on American shelves for those occasional forays into Chinese cuisine. However, after WWII, American technology and agribusiness concurred that soy was going to provide oil for processed foods, and many millions of acres were planted. Soy oil formed the basis for most margarines (with trans fats). However, there was a problem: Once the oil was extracted, tons of waste products remained. Most of it was fed to livestock for feed, until the amount of the stuff just began to overwhelm American food processors. This is where American innovation just took over. They thought and thought, and began coming up with “food products” made from unfermented soy. Stuff like lecithin, textured vegetable protein, soy flour and soy milks, infant formula, and eventually thousands of other products that are now ubiquitous in our processed foods. Not to mention those horrible little edamame beans.
So What’s Wrong With Soy?
I only have a limited space here, and for those of you who really want to understand this in depth, please get Dr. Daniel’s book mentioned above, but there are many reasons why we should not be eating unfermented soy. The main problem is that soy contains both toxins (poisons) and antinutrients. Antinutrients are elements of a food that work against good nutrition. Here is a short summary of some of the problems soy presents to the human body.
1. Over 90% of soybeans are genetically modified. GM foods present their own problems, but in addition to that fact, all soy is prone to causing allergic reactions, and soy is considered one of the top eight allergens in our diet.
2. Soy contains goitrogens, which damage the thyroid.
3. Soy contains lectins, which cause red blood cells to clump together and may cause immune system reactions.
4. Soy contains oligosaccharides, which cause bloating and flatulence.
5. Soy contains oxalates, which prevent proper absorption of calcium and have been linked to kidney stones and other painful conditions.
6. Soy contains other antinutrients, phytates , which impair absorption of minerals such as zinc, iron and calcium.
7. Soy contains isoflavones, or phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) that act like hormones and affect the reproductive and nervous systems. These include genistein and daidzein.
8. Soy contains protease inhibitors, such as trypsin inhibitors, which interfere with the digestive enzymes protease and trypsin. This can lead to gastric distress, poor protein digestion and an overworked pancreas. This can push one towards diabetes. A friend asked if the protease inhibitors in soy were the same as those in the HIV drugs. Yes, they are the same thing, which is why many HIV patients do develop diabetes and other gastic diseases. I guess it’s a tradeoff, but one which non-HIV people don’t have to make.
9. Soy contains saponins, which may lower cholesterol (but not in a good way) and may damage the intestinal lining.
I don’t know about you, but I think this list is long enough to scare anyone! None of us need to have any of the problems listed above, and if restricting our intake of unfermented soy will do it, I’m all for it!
What to Do?
If you are a reader of food labels, you can immediately see the problem. Soy is added to EVERYTHING these days. And I mean everything. It is rare to find a food in a box that doesn’t contain soy in some form. Again, the goal for better health is to eat foods that are not processed, and which don’t even have labels. And, it is true that the “health foods” sector of the market is heavily invested in pushing unfermented soy-based foods.
There are good substitutes for the substitutes, such as almond milk in the place of soy milk. But, for most Americans, eating processed foods is a way of life, and it will take major changes to remove such unhealthy foods from their diets. Keep reading labels, and avoid unfermented soy!
Elizabeth Szlek is a trained chef and has taught Healthy Cooking and nutrition. She is also the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Utica. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
Monday, February 28, 2011
TEDx in Oneida County: Changing the Way We Eat!
By Elizabeth Szlek
If you were watching the Foodshed Buying Club website in the past few weeks, you would have noticed an invitation to join others in watching a TEDx event at the Cornell Co-operative Extension, on February 12 of this year. Now, you might ask, what is TEDx? I admit, this was my first TED conference, but the founder of the Foodshed Buying Club, Shulamis Giordani, has been participating in TED events for some time. She just managed to bring it all to us in the Oneida County for a full day – for free!
TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a non-profit group devoted to ideas worth spreading. They have been at it since 1984, but I must admit, it didn’t make it onto my radar since this event about food. TEDx events are a more recent development, and they are always locally sponsored. The originating group for this event was TEDxManhattan, but the beauty of this kind of production is that it is broadcast in real time all over the world, so everyone present is seeing and experiencing the same event, all at once. The program lasted a full day, from 10:30 AM to around 6:30PM, but not to worry, the organizers had lined up several noteworthy businesses to provide free breakfast, lunch and a snack. The Rosemont Inn, Nail Creek Pub, the Bagel Grove, Slow Food Mohawk Valley and Jennifer Nutt came up with some wonderful eats for the large crowd who assembled for the event.
So, as we all watched the big screen in front of us, the day began with the host, environmental activist Laurie David, welcoming all of us around the world. From then on, there were a series of short talks, usually lasting about ten minutes, punctuated by Ethel ( the too-cool-for-school string quartet), and food!
The first session of TEDx consisted of views on “What happened?” to our way of eating. Talks ranged from a British professor, Carolyn Steel, showing how food shaped the cities we live in, to a report from MacArthur genius Cheryl Rogowski declaiming about the need to “respect the soil”, and eat seasonally. A woman from west central Illinois demonstrated the horrors of the factory hog farms which moved into her neighborhood (a NIMBY issue if I ever heard one!), and there was an enlightening talk on the American Farm Bill, and how little goes to the small farmers, versus Big Ag. The final speaker for the morning session spoke about the federal school lunch program, and the fact that one third of American kids are obese, and pointing out that some kids eat most of their meals at school, so it is really time to take a look at the nutrition kids receive in these all important meals.
The 1:30 Post-lunch session began with a revelatory speech by Dan Barber, a restaurant owner who traveled to Spain and found a wonderful fish on his plate from a sustainable fish farm at the end of the Guadalquivir River, where it runs into the sea.
The beauty of this fish farm is that it has developed into a complete self-sustaining loop, with the birds feeding on the fish, dropping their waste into the water, where it feeds the algae, which are eaten by small fish and other sea life, which is then eaten by the fish. No feeding of farm fish, as in America or other venues, is needed. This fish farm, unlike those which actually feed chicken-based feed to the captive fish, does not need to feed the fish at all, and therefore, no antibiotics or other nasty additives are found in the fish so farmed. This represented, for me, the most wonderful segment of the entire day, and one which lead to speculation as to why we cannot duplicate this system somewhere in America.
Local food advocates also presented their views on how Americans need to use all available land to “grow their own”, especially organically. We have seen the rise of community gardens in Utica, and it seems we are on the cutting edge of food thinking with such wonderful programs. Urban farming, edible schoolyards, mobile greengrocers and the CSA gardens must be the wave of the future! It was reported that in 1986 there were exactly two community gardens in America – but today, there are over 4800! This movement is especially important, but the organic farming movement still only represents 1% of all food produced in America. We should all prevail upon our elected officials at both state and federal levels to encourage the development of more sustainable and organic farming.
The final segment of the second section was by Josh Viertel, President of Slow Food, USA. He called slow food, or anything that is the opposite of “fast food” a “gateway drug” to activism and involvement in helping to preserve and protect real foods grown on smaller farms, free from pesticides and toxins. As encouragement to those fighting for preservation of healthy food choices, his take was this: “First they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win!” Let’s hope the food activists, and all of us, take his advice to heart, and begin talking, writing and working to keep real food in our stores and in our homes.
Fortified by bacon chocolate chip cookies made by Jennifer Nutt, the assembled group advanced to the final afternoon session. Dr. William Li gave a short talk entitled, “Can We Eat To Starve Cancer?”, which was fairly removed from the general trend of the rest of the segments, focusing on the discovery of anti-angiogenesis foods. For me, this was the most intriguing idea of the day.
Dr. Li’s research has shown that the development of cell groups into life-threatening cancer tumors depends upon the tumor’s ability to grow new blood vessels, called angiogenesis. He has discovered that a host of “regular” foods, such as blueberries, kale, grapes, shrimp, cheese and many others, actually contain substances called anti-angiogenesis agents, which actually prohibit the development of these tumor blood vessels. Therefore, while the threat of cancer may be present, it never materializes, and the person goes on with life unaffected. This is truly a revolutionary view of disease, by a typical allopathic doctor, but is seems to provide wonderful new ways for people to both protect themselves, and deal with early stage detected cancers. You can find his speech on the internet by Googling Dr. William Li and cancer. No doubt Dr. Li will be making the rounds of all the talk shows soon.
The day ended with more talks concerning finding funding for food-based businesses, growing foods in hanging gardens in urban windows, and other imaginative segments, including a man who grew a truck garden – in the bed of his truck!
TEDx in Oneida County was a triumph of organization, by Shulamis Giordani, owner and founder of the Foodshed Buying Club. She did a marvelous job of bringing the world to the cozy room at Cornell Co-operative Extension, and in doing so, it is hoped she helped all present change the way they eat!
Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, NY. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com
If you were watching the Foodshed Buying Club website in the past few weeks, you would have noticed an invitation to join others in watching a TEDx event at the Cornell Co-operative Extension, on February 12 of this year. Now, you might ask, what is TEDx? I admit, this was my first TED conference, but the founder of the Foodshed Buying Club, Shulamis Giordani, has been participating in TED events for some time. She just managed to bring it all to us in the Oneida County for a full day – for free!
TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a non-profit group devoted to ideas worth spreading. They have been at it since 1984, but I must admit, it didn’t make it onto my radar since this event about food. TEDx events are a more recent development, and they are always locally sponsored. The originating group for this event was TEDxManhattan, but the beauty of this kind of production is that it is broadcast in real time all over the world, so everyone present is seeing and experiencing the same event, all at once. The program lasted a full day, from 10:30 AM to around 6:30PM, but not to worry, the organizers had lined up several noteworthy businesses to provide free breakfast, lunch and a snack. The Rosemont Inn, Nail Creek Pub, the Bagel Grove, Slow Food Mohawk Valley and Jennifer Nutt came up with some wonderful eats for the large crowd who assembled for the event.
So, as we all watched the big screen in front of us, the day began with the host, environmental activist Laurie David, welcoming all of us around the world. From then on, there were a series of short talks, usually lasting about ten minutes, punctuated by Ethel ( the too-cool-for-school string quartet), and food!
The first session of TEDx consisted of views on “What happened?” to our way of eating. Talks ranged from a British professor, Carolyn Steel, showing how food shaped the cities we live in, to a report from MacArthur genius Cheryl Rogowski declaiming about the need to “respect the soil”, and eat seasonally. A woman from west central Illinois demonstrated the horrors of the factory hog farms which moved into her neighborhood (a NIMBY issue if I ever heard one!), and there was an enlightening talk on the American Farm Bill, and how little goes to the small farmers, versus Big Ag. The final speaker for the morning session spoke about the federal school lunch program, and the fact that one third of American kids are obese, and pointing out that some kids eat most of their meals at school, so it is really time to take a look at the nutrition kids receive in these all important meals.
The 1:30 Post-lunch session began with a revelatory speech by Dan Barber, a restaurant owner who traveled to Spain and found a wonderful fish on his plate from a sustainable fish farm at the end of the Guadalquivir River, where it runs into the sea.
The beauty of this fish farm is that it has developed into a complete self-sustaining loop, with the birds feeding on the fish, dropping their waste into the water, where it feeds the algae, which are eaten by small fish and other sea life, which is then eaten by the fish. No feeding of farm fish, as in America or other venues, is needed. This fish farm, unlike those which actually feed chicken-based feed to the captive fish, does not need to feed the fish at all, and therefore, no antibiotics or other nasty additives are found in the fish so farmed. This represented, for me, the most wonderful segment of the entire day, and one which lead to speculation as to why we cannot duplicate this system somewhere in America.
Local food advocates also presented their views on how Americans need to use all available land to “grow their own”, especially organically. We have seen the rise of community gardens in Utica, and it seems we are on the cutting edge of food thinking with such wonderful programs. Urban farming, edible schoolyards, mobile greengrocers and the CSA gardens must be the wave of the future! It was reported that in 1986 there were exactly two community gardens in America – but today, there are over 4800! This movement is especially important, but the organic farming movement still only represents 1% of all food produced in America. We should all prevail upon our elected officials at both state and federal levels to encourage the development of more sustainable and organic farming.
The final segment of the second section was by Josh Viertel, President of Slow Food, USA. He called slow food, or anything that is the opposite of “fast food” a “gateway drug” to activism and involvement in helping to preserve and protect real foods grown on smaller farms, free from pesticides and toxins. As encouragement to those fighting for preservation of healthy food choices, his take was this: “First they ignore you, then they fight you, then you win!” Let’s hope the food activists, and all of us, take his advice to heart, and begin talking, writing and working to keep real food in our stores and in our homes.
Fortified by bacon chocolate chip cookies made by Jennifer Nutt, the assembled group advanced to the final afternoon session. Dr. William Li gave a short talk entitled, “Can We Eat To Starve Cancer?”, which was fairly removed from the general trend of the rest of the segments, focusing on the discovery of anti-angiogenesis foods. For me, this was the most intriguing idea of the day.
Dr. Li’s research has shown that the development of cell groups into life-threatening cancer tumors depends upon the tumor’s ability to grow new blood vessels, called angiogenesis. He has discovered that a host of “regular” foods, such as blueberries, kale, grapes, shrimp, cheese and many others, actually contain substances called anti-angiogenesis agents, which actually prohibit the development of these tumor blood vessels. Therefore, while the threat of cancer may be present, it never materializes, and the person goes on with life unaffected. This is truly a revolutionary view of disease, by a typical allopathic doctor, but is seems to provide wonderful new ways for people to both protect themselves, and deal with early stage detected cancers. You can find his speech on the internet by Googling Dr. William Li and cancer. No doubt Dr. Li will be making the rounds of all the talk shows soon.
The day ended with more talks concerning finding funding for food-based businesses, growing foods in hanging gardens in urban windows, and other imaginative segments, including a man who grew a truck garden – in the bed of his truck!
TEDx in Oneida County was a triumph of organization, by Shulamis Giordani, owner and founder of the Foodshed Buying Club. She did a marvelous job of bringing the world to the cozy room at Cornell Co-operative Extension, and in doing so, it is hoped she helped all present change the way they eat!
Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, NY. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Twin Crises in America
By Elizabeth Szlek, Licensed Mental Health Counselor
I met last night with a group of women in a lovely Victorian home in Rome. We had met before, to discuss the problem of what kind of diet is the most healthful, and this meeting was a general discussion, which lasted for several hours.
The group was varied. There was a young mother, who was nursing her five-month-old son, as we spoke. He is doing very well! There was an older woman who, like me, is of Polish extraction. But, she had the blessing of growing up on a farm. Her family ate bacon every morning. She looked very healthy, and, this remarkable woman had given birth to seven children! Others had different stories, but we all were joined together in the search for the “right” way to eat. We want to eat in order to give our bodies the nutrients it needs. Quite a novel world view in our country, where eating to enjoy oneself seems to be the way to go!
The Case of Paul
A lot of issues coagulated (if that is the right word) for me yesterday, when I met a new client, Paul. Here, in one person, I saw the twin crises of mental health and diet come together in his "story", which is this: Paul began drinking lots of soda when he was a teenager. At that same time, he became very anxious, and was told he had anxiety issues. Soon after, he began to be medicated for his anxiety.
The medication didn’t really help, but Paul began drinking, and became violent when he did so. Eventually, he was placed in a mental hospital, and has been a chronic mental patient since that time. He showed me the long list of medications he is taking, and I mean a really, really long list.
I asked Paul about his diet, and it seems that it consists largely of Coke! Cans and cans of Coke, every day. Like, maybe, ten cans. And, of course, he is still anxious a good bit of the time. He has never really had any good counseling, but has had psychiatrists who, being stumped, give him more and more psychotropic medications. He has been told he is bi-polar, schizophrenic, and all sorts of other things.
But, guess what? I don’t believe any of it. To me, Paul is very likely hypoglycemic, and that’s it!
Hypoglycemia? What is it?
Of course, most of you know what hypoglycemia is: Low blood sugar. But how, you might say, could such a simply diagnosis escape the notice of all those scores of medical professionals who have been dosing Paul with drugs for the past years?
You all remember the old adage: If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail! That is, if you are an allopathic doctor, or a psychiatrist, and someone comes in with a problem, you look for the drug to fix it! Except, drugs are usually not the solution. Food is the solution, or more properly, nutrition.
Here’s the thing: Hypoglycemia looks exactly like anxiety! Trembling, confusion, racing thoughts, feeling like you are going to pass out, chills, you name it! Low blood sugar is a terrible thing to experience. But, if a psychiatrist saw you experiencing low blood sugar over a long period of time, he or she would probably give you a diagnosis such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or maybe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. These disorders do exist, but in the case of Paul, I’m pretty sure his ingesting lots of sugary sodas caused his “psychiatric” symptoms. Why do I say this?
When someone drinks a can of soda, the sugar rapidly enters the bloodstream. To counteract this surge of sugar, the pancreas releases a lot of insulin, to bring the blood back to normal. Some people just cannot handle this kind of sugar attack, and their insulin removes TOO MUCH sugar, bringing sugar levels quite low. All of the “anxiety” symptoms appear, and in addition, the adrenal glands release epinephrine and norepinephrine, which cause hyperfocussing and other excitatory responses. Because this represents a state of arousal, cortisol, the stress hormone, is also released. And, to top it off, the brain sends out the exicitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, to really crank things up! If a child went through this pattern, we would call him or her “hyperactive”, and likely, this kid would be given some drugs to “calm down”.
So, once the body is in this state of low blood sugar, what do you think the natural response would be? Well, if you were a soda addict, you would go and get another can of Coke! If you were indulging in alcohol, you would go get another drink. And the cycle would continue.
The Horrible Triad
We have now identified three conditions that all lead to this kind of hypoglycemia. One condition is diabetes, the other is obesity, and the last is alcoholism.
It has been shown that kids who become hyperactive almost always have family members who suffer from these conditions, and now, it makes sense to me. All these people have trouble with sugar consumption. This leads to an inescapable conclusion: We all eat too much sugar, and it is wreaking havoc with our bodies and minds.!
Last night we were discussing the “holidays” of American life. Think about it: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. What do all these have in common?
Publicly sanctioned ingestion of candy! Candy, candy, candy! And, of course, the rest of the year Americans can fall back upon their sodas, pastries and snack cakes for that little “boost” of sugar.
The Twin Crises
So, why am I talking about the “Twin” crises in America. Simply because when someone who has trouble with sugar goes to a doctor, or worse, a psychiatrist, the old hammer comes out. Some kind of toxic medicine is given them for the problem.
I probably don’t have to remind you that in medical school, newly minted doctors have suffered through maybe a couple of hours of nutrition training. Tops. It just isn’t seen as very important.
However, when 25% of American children are on some kind of toxic medication, and 60% of adults are overweight or obese, and 75% of violent criminals are hypoglycemic, and children are becoming diabetic at shocking rates – well, perhaps it is time to stop medicating and start looking at the underlying cause of all these afflictions. Perhaps it is time to stop subsidizing the production of sugar, and start taxing heavily, as we do tobacco, anything containing the stuff! Maybe, even, it is time to train our doctors thoroughly in the wisdom of proper nutrition.
Maybe we don’t need anti-psychotic medications, when research shows that 100% of so-called schizophrenics are allergic to gluten. Maybe we don’t need Prozac when it has been shown that omega-3 oils alleviate depression. Maybe we don’t need Ritalin when it has been demonstrated repeatedly that taking toxic substances out children’s diets restores them to normality.
It is obvious that the aims of Big Pharma and Big Food have converged and produced a huge crisis in health in America. Please take some time to learn exactly what your body needs to perform properly. Food is not fun, it is the stuff of a healthy body and mind!
Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, NY. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
I met last night with a group of women in a lovely Victorian home in Rome. We had met before, to discuss the problem of what kind of diet is the most healthful, and this meeting was a general discussion, which lasted for several hours.
The group was varied. There was a young mother, who was nursing her five-month-old son, as we spoke. He is doing very well! There was an older woman who, like me, is of Polish extraction. But, she had the blessing of growing up on a farm. Her family ate bacon every morning. She looked very healthy, and, this remarkable woman had given birth to seven children! Others had different stories, but we all were joined together in the search for the “right” way to eat. We want to eat in order to give our bodies the nutrients it needs. Quite a novel world view in our country, where eating to enjoy oneself seems to be the way to go!
The Case of Paul
A lot of issues coagulated (if that is the right word) for me yesterday, when I met a new client, Paul. Here, in one person, I saw the twin crises of mental health and diet come together in his "story", which is this: Paul began drinking lots of soda when he was a teenager. At that same time, he became very anxious, and was told he had anxiety issues. Soon after, he began to be medicated for his anxiety.
The medication didn’t really help, but Paul began drinking, and became violent when he did so. Eventually, he was placed in a mental hospital, and has been a chronic mental patient since that time. He showed me the long list of medications he is taking, and I mean a really, really long list.
I asked Paul about his diet, and it seems that it consists largely of Coke! Cans and cans of Coke, every day. Like, maybe, ten cans. And, of course, he is still anxious a good bit of the time. He has never really had any good counseling, but has had psychiatrists who, being stumped, give him more and more psychotropic medications. He has been told he is bi-polar, schizophrenic, and all sorts of other things.
But, guess what? I don’t believe any of it. To me, Paul is very likely hypoglycemic, and that’s it!
Hypoglycemia? What is it?
Of course, most of you know what hypoglycemia is: Low blood sugar. But how, you might say, could such a simply diagnosis escape the notice of all those scores of medical professionals who have been dosing Paul with drugs for the past years?
You all remember the old adage: If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail! That is, if you are an allopathic doctor, or a psychiatrist, and someone comes in with a problem, you look for the drug to fix it! Except, drugs are usually not the solution. Food is the solution, or more properly, nutrition.
Here’s the thing: Hypoglycemia looks exactly like anxiety! Trembling, confusion, racing thoughts, feeling like you are going to pass out, chills, you name it! Low blood sugar is a terrible thing to experience. But, if a psychiatrist saw you experiencing low blood sugar over a long period of time, he or she would probably give you a diagnosis such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or maybe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. These disorders do exist, but in the case of Paul, I’m pretty sure his ingesting lots of sugary sodas caused his “psychiatric” symptoms. Why do I say this?
When someone drinks a can of soda, the sugar rapidly enters the bloodstream. To counteract this surge of sugar, the pancreas releases a lot of insulin, to bring the blood back to normal. Some people just cannot handle this kind of sugar attack, and their insulin removes TOO MUCH sugar, bringing sugar levels quite low. All of the “anxiety” symptoms appear, and in addition, the adrenal glands release epinephrine and norepinephrine, which cause hyperfocussing and other excitatory responses. Because this represents a state of arousal, cortisol, the stress hormone, is also released. And, to top it off, the brain sends out the exicitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, to really crank things up! If a child went through this pattern, we would call him or her “hyperactive”, and likely, this kid would be given some drugs to “calm down”.
So, once the body is in this state of low blood sugar, what do you think the natural response would be? Well, if you were a soda addict, you would go and get another can of Coke! If you were indulging in alcohol, you would go get another drink. And the cycle would continue.
The Horrible Triad
We have now identified three conditions that all lead to this kind of hypoglycemia. One condition is diabetes, the other is obesity, and the last is alcoholism.
It has been shown that kids who become hyperactive almost always have family members who suffer from these conditions, and now, it makes sense to me. All these people have trouble with sugar consumption. This leads to an inescapable conclusion: We all eat too much sugar, and it is wreaking havoc with our bodies and minds.!
Last night we were discussing the “holidays” of American life. Think about it: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. What do all these have in common?
Publicly sanctioned ingestion of candy! Candy, candy, candy! And, of course, the rest of the year Americans can fall back upon their sodas, pastries and snack cakes for that little “boost” of sugar.
The Twin Crises
So, why am I talking about the “Twin” crises in America. Simply because when someone who has trouble with sugar goes to a doctor, or worse, a psychiatrist, the old hammer comes out. Some kind of toxic medicine is given them for the problem.
I probably don’t have to remind you that in medical school, newly minted doctors have suffered through maybe a couple of hours of nutrition training. Tops. It just isn’t seen as very important.
However, when 25% of American children are on some kind of toxic medication, and 60% of adults are overweight or obese, and 75% of violent criminals are hypoglycemic, and children are becoming diabetic at shocking rates – well, perhaps it is time to stop medicating and start looking at the underlying cause of all these afflictions. Perhaps it is time to stop subsidizing the production of sugar, and start taxing heavily, as we do tobacco, anything containing the stuff! Maybe, even, it is time to train our doctors thoroughly in the wisdom of proper nutrition.
Maybe we don’t need anti-psychotic medications, when research shows that 100% of so-called schizophrenics are allergic to gluten. Maybe we don’t need Prozac when it has been shown that omega-3 oils alleviate depression. Maybe we don’t need Ritalin when it has been demonstrated repeatedly that taking toxic substances out children’s diets restores them to normality.
It is obvious that the aims of Big Pharma and Big Food have converged and produced a huge crisis in health in America. Please take some time to learn exactly what your body needs to perform properly. Food is not fun, it is the stuff of a healthy body and mind!
Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, NY. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Myth of the Chemical Imbalance
By Elizabeth Szlek, Licensed Mental Health Counselor
I am sure that most of you can conjure up a lovely, production-value-laden commercial for some kind of psychiatric drug. Somewhere in the message you hear the words “chemical imbalance”, and begin absorbing the meme (propaganda) that when someone has a mental illness, it is due to a chemical imbalance in their brain. This all sounds rather reasonable, and scienc-y, doesn’t it? Who are you to question a huge pharmaceutical corporation raking in billions on each little pill every year? Or, God forbid, question the most powerful people in America – psychiatrists? Psychiatrists can meet you and decide you need to be locked up, and you WILL be locked up. Even common criminals have a better shot at freedom than those who seem too different.
Well, I am here to tell you that our society has constructed a house of cards called Biopsychiatry, and it is possible that the first gusts of wind have already started blowing, ready to collapse it.
What is a Chemical Imbalance of the Brain?
First off, let us state that our brain is the most complex entity in the entire known universe. No one understands completely what is going on. We do know that the brain makes use of upwards of two hundred neurotransmitters, or chemical messengers, which keep things running smoothly. However, most psychiatric drugs operate on just a handful of these transmitters. What psychiatric drugs do is load the brain up with selected transmitters, and send the brain into a chemical imbalance. Did you get that? The chemical imbalance did not exist until a drug designed to enter the brain actually enters the brain. Now, you actually DO have a chemical imbalance. Actually, to be more specific, you now have brain toxicity or poisoning, because these drugs are composed of toxic chemicals, such as fluoride, found in Prozac and other anti-depression drugs.
Once a drug has entered the brain, NO ONE KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN! By this, I mean, no one can remotely imagine the effect it will have on the individual, because we are all different. Basically, though, we can assume one of three general effects:
1. The person will say that s/he feels “nothing”. The perception of “no effect” probably means that this person has a very well-functioning liver, because this organ is responsible for cleaning toxins out of the body. These are the lucky ones.
2. The second class of people “feel different”, and for whatever reason, they attribute these new feelings to the efficacy of the drug. It is doing what the psychiatrist said it would do. Now, there is a placebo effect here, as well as the actual effect of the drug. This means that you can give some people a pill composed of sugar, and when they take it, they feel a lot better! But, of course, they have taken a toxic substance that is indeed affecting their brain, so, for some, they think that a good thing is happening to them. It’s not, though, because they are putting a toxic substance into their brain, and many changes are occurring in the brain which are not good. The brain is being at least temporarily changed to accommodate itself to the toxin. Neuron receptors are being pared back to prevent overload of a particular neurotransmitter, and sometimes these do not grow back. After long-term psychiatric drug use, dementia occurs, which means the brain has lost significant cognitive functioning. I had a client who had taken Xanax for over twenty-five years. She couldn’t remember how to fix dinner any more. 25% of the children in America are taking powerful drugs. How long will it take some of them to become demented?
3. The third response to psychiatric drugs is the one we all fear the most. This response is that the person’s liver absolutely cannot metabolize the drug. Toxins build up in the brain, and chaos results. In this class we find those who “go postal”, those who hallucinate, become psychotic, kill and maim themselves or others, go out and commit inexplicable crimes, and do all sorts of other horrible things. It is a fact that the majority of school shooters have been exposed to psychiatric drugs, and every time you hear of some very weird shooting or killing, you should first think: “Was this person on psychiatric or street drugs?”, because usually, that is the case. I know a woman whose daughter, age twelve was a lovely, happy girl, a good student, who went to her family doctor because she has warts. The kindly physician questioned her about school, and she admitted to some disappointment about something happening at school. He decided she was “depressed”, and gave her a prescription for Zoloft. Within days, she was found dead in her room, having hanged herself. This is the power of psychiatric drugs on those who cannot metabolize them. One to two percent of people cannot metabolize these drugs. Millions are taking them every day. You can expect more horrific stories to appear regularly. But now, you don’t have to shake your head in wonder at the nonsensical nature of the crimes. It makes sense.
Myth and Truth
So, there is no inherent chemical imbalance in the brain that requires the correction of psychiatric drugs, but there is something happening to millions of brains around the world. The truth is that our brains are mightily affected by our nutrition, and millions of people are simply malnourished. Translating this into simple terms, this means that for the first time in history, large portions of the population are not giving their brains the nutrients it needs to function properly. This is the little secret that is coming out day by day. Every day or so I receive another notation that a study has been conducted that finds, for example, that lack of sufficient vitamin D is responsible for depression, or that so-called schizophrenia is ameliorated by ingestion of the fat-soluble vitamins.
This is the movement that may soon demolish the entire biopsychiatric house of cards, with their hundreds of different “disorders”. Nutrition will be seen to be the key to mental health, and the “cure” for mental “illnesses.” If there is something called a chemical imbalance of the brain, but which is really a nutritional deficiency, it will be corrected not by toxins, but by foods!
Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
I am sure that most of you can conjure up a lovely, production-value-laden commercial for some kind of psychiatric drug. Somewhere in the message you hear the words “chemical imbalance”, and begin absorbing the meme (propaganda) that when someone has a mental illness, it is due to a chemical imbalance in their brain. This all sounds rather reasonable, and scienc-y, doesn’t it? Who are you to question a huge pharmaceutical corporation raking in billions on each little pill every year? Or, God forbid, question the most powerful people in America – psychiatrists? Psychiatrists can meet you and decide you need to be locked up, and you WILL be locked up. Even common criminals have a better shot at freedom than those who seem too different.
Well, I am here to tell you that our society has constructed a house of cards called Biopsychiatry, and it is possible that the first gusts of wind have already started blowing, ready to collapse it.
What is a Chemical Imbalance of the Brain?
First off, let us state that our brain is the most complex entity in the entire known universe. No one understands completely what is going on. We do know that the brain makes use of upwards of two hundred neurotransmitters, or chemical messengers, which keep things running smoothly. However, most psychiatric drugs operate on just a handful of these transmitters. What psychiatric drugs do is load the brain up with selected transmitters, and send the brain into a chemical imbalance. Did you get that? The chemical imbalance did not exist until a drug designed to enter the brain actually enters the brain. Now, you actually DO have a chemical imbalance. Actually, to be more specific, you now have brain toxicity or poisoning, because these drugs are composed of toxic chemicals, such as fluoride, found in Prozac and other anti-depression drugs.
Once a drug has entered the brain, NO ONE KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN! By this, I mean, no one can remotely imagine the effect it will have on the individual, because we are all different. Basically, though, we can assume one of three general effects:
1. The person will say that s/he feels “nothing”. The perception of “no effect” probably means that this person has a very well-functioning liver, because this organ is responsible for cleaning toxins out of the body. These are the lucky ones.
2. The second class of people “feel different”, and for whatever reason, they attribute these new feelings to the efficacy of the drug. It is doing what the psychiatrist said it would do. Now, there is a placebo effect here, as well as the actual effect of the drug. This means that you can give some people a pill composed of sugar, and when they take it, they feel a lot better! But, of course, they have taken a toxic substance that is indeed affecting their brain, so, for some, they think that a good thing is happening to them. It’s not, though, because they are putting a toxic substance into their brain, and many changes are occurring in the brain which are not good. The brain is being at least temporarily changed to accommodate itself to the toxin. Neuron receptors are being pared back to prevent overload of a particular neurotransmitter, and sometimes these do not grow back. After long-term psychiatric drug use, dementia occurs, which means the brain has lost significant cognitive functioning. I had a client who had taken Xanax for over twenty-five years. She couldn’t remember how to fix dinner any more. 25% of the children in America are taking powerful drugs. How long will it take some of them to become demented?
3. The third response to psychiatric drugs is the one we all fear the most. This response is that the person’s liver absolutely cannot metabolize the drug. Toxins build up in the brain, and chaos results. In this class we find those who “go postal”, those who hallucinate, become psychotic, kill and maim themselves or others, go out and commit inexplicable crimes, and do all sorts of other horrible things. It is a fact that the majority of school shooters have been exposed to psychiatric drugs, and every time you hear of some very weird shooting or killing, you should first think: “Was this person on psychiatric or street drugs?”, because usually, that is the case. I know a woman whose daughter, age twelve was a lovely, happy girl, a good student, who went to her family doctor because she has warts. The kindly physician questioned her about school, and she admitted to some disappointment about something happening at school. He decided she was “depressed”, and gave her a prescription for Zoloft. Within days, she was found dead in her room, having hanged herself. This is the power of psychiatric drugs on those who cannot metabolize them. One to two percent of people cannot metabolize these drugs. Millions are taking them every day. You can expect more horrific stories to appear regularly. But now, you don’t have to shake your head in wonder at the nonsensical nature of the crimes. It makes sense.
Myth and Truth
So, there is no inherent chemical imbalance in the brain that requires the correction of psychiatric drugs, but there is something happening to millions of brains around the world. The truth is that our brains are mightily affected by our nutrition, and millions of people are simply malnourished. Translating this into simple terms, this means that for the first time in history, large portions of the population are not giving their brains the nutrients it needs to function properly. This is the little secret that is coming out day by day. Every day or so I receive another notation that a study has been conducted that finds, for example, that lack of sufficient vitamin D is responsible for depression, or that so-called schizophrenia is ameliorated by ingestion of the fat-soluble vitamins.
This is the movement that may soon demolish the entire biopsychiatric house of cards, with their hundreds of different “disorders”. Nutrition will be seen to be the key to mental health, and the “cure” for mental “illnesses.” If there is something called a chemical imbalance of the brain, but which is really a nutritional deficiency, it will be corrected not by toxins, but by foods!
Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.
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