The Watershed Wellness Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue 3 March 22, 2006
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Skin Test - March 14, 2006

By: Bob McCauley

I was tested for skin carotenoids last weekend while attending the Arnold Fitness Classic in Columbus , Ohio , which was a total bust this year.  But a highlight for me was stopping by a booth that was offering the scan which uses a

low-energy blue light laser to obtain an immediate reading of the carotenoid antioxidant levels in your skin-your Skin Carotenoid Score.  The unit is made by Pharmanex .  The skin is a particularly accurate measurement of our health because it takes approximately 30 days for nutrients to reach the skin, whereas something like the blood is more immediate and subject to sudden change. 

 The person who was testing knew nothing about the machine he was using, but did know about the supplements that he was selling.  He didn't even know what the laser was measuring in my skin, but he did say there was no upper limit.  According to him, his score was quite low, only 20,000.  However, he had only started on the supplements he was selling a month earlier and they not had too much time to work.  He explained that a score of 35,000 was good and 40, 000 was exceptional.  He was working with a young lady who had a score of nearly 36,000 after taking the supplements for a year.  I filled out their questionnaire that asked if I took supplements of any kind and if not why.  I stated that I ate raw fruits and vegetables because they were far healthier than any supplements that could possibly be consumed.  The test only took a couple minutes and when my score came back 59,000, the man taking it was astonished.  His chart only went to 50,000.  He had never heard of anyone getting over 50,000.  Even the founder of the company only had a score of 48,000.  He asked what my diet was comprised of and I told him I was on a 99% raw food diet.  I didn't see a light bulb come on over his head, but one should have.  It is raw fruits and vegetables that give us youth, great skin full of antioxidant and incredible energy, not supplements.  Supplements are extracts and concentrates that look good on paper but can't supply the body with the full nutritional compliment if it is not consumed raw.  Supplements slightly prolong the inevitable slide toward old age and disease.  Raw foods lead away from that “inevitability”.  They are the only thing that gives you life and evidence of that is a carotenoid score of 59,000.  Best of all, I am no one special.  ANYONE can do what I am doing even if you are just getting started! See the Test Results Here

My Response to Dr. Andrew Weil's Assessment of Spirulina and Chlorella

By Bob McCauley

Dr. Weil does not have much to say about spirulina and chlorella, yet they are the most powerful foods known. In his Article on Spirulina and chlorella , he states the following: “ Spirulina and chlorella are two varieties of freshwater algae - primitive plants that are cultivated for nutritional use, dried and sold as dark green powders or tablets. They are very expensive and heavily promoted as miracle supplements.

Expense is relative when you are speaking about the cost of any food. You will spend $4 or $5 on a box of cereal but you will get almost no nutritional value out of that box of cereal even though the box states otherwise. This is because the body has tremendous difficulty absorbing nutrients from dead foods, especially those that have been highly processed. Like all cooked foods, the box of cereal will do nothing to improve your health. However, when you spend $40 on a large bottle of chlorella or spirulina, you have spent money on foods that can radically change your health for the better. When you think of it in those terms, a box of cereal cost a fortune because it provides the body with little nutrition and, like all cooked foods, lead to all disease. As I often state, we spend a fortune making ourselves sick when for a very small amount of money we can obtain true health, especially when we spend our money are true superfoods such as spirulina and chlorella.

No food can perform miracles of health in the body. Rather it is what the body will do with those nutrients once they have been consumed that allows the body to cure itself of any disease. Vitamin A in large doses can help a person feel better when they have a cold, but it is a band aid that can only help the body in the short term because it does not lead to true health. It fools us into thinking that taking supplements are a healthy thing to do when in fact only eating raw fruits and vegetables can lead us to being truly healthy.

Dr. Weil falls into the trap of stating that algae such as spirulina and chlorella are supplements when they are not. Spirulina and Chlorella did not earn the title of superfoods because they might be beneficial to one person, but not another. They earned that exalted title because they are the most perfect foods known, containing ideal compliments of amino acids (pre-digested proteins), carbohydrates and fats. A person could not only survive by exclusively eating these superfoods , they would be incredibly healthy doing so. Ideally, however, we should consume a broad array of raw foods in order to obtain optimal health, not limit them to certain food groups.

Spirulina and Chlorella are not supplements . Supplements are collections of vitamins, minerals, proteins and other dead nutrients. While their profile may look good on the back nutritional panel of their container, in reality these nutrients will not be assimilated by the body the way nutrients from raw foods will. There is no substitute fovr what God provides for us by way of raw food nutrients , nor is the variety limited in any way. The foods that we know and regularly consume are but a slight fraction of the plethora of foods that are available worldwide.

Supplements are produced from extracts and concentrates, which are not alive. There is no place for true supplements in the world of Achieving Great Health. Spirulina and Chlorella are often referred to as supplements, even by prominent naturalists, but this is a misnomer. For instance, I eat 3 – 5 cloves of garlic each day. One could say I am supplementing my diet with them, but that does not mean that raw garlic should be referred to as a supplement. If you were to extract the oil or specific nutrients from garlic and consume it, then that would be considered a supplement. But when the food is consumed whole with nothing extracted from it, it is not a supplement.

When alga is harvested fresh, then either powdered or tableted , it is essentially unchanged from its original state and therefore must still be categorized a food, not a supplement. Spirulina and Chlorella are whole foods and eating them is like eating a banana or apple or broccoli. You can use them to supplement your diet with the protein and other broad array of nutrients they possess, but they should always be called what they truly are: Whole Foods.

Dr. Weil also states: “They are good sources of chlorophyll, but there is little to no research supporting the claims made about the algae.”

Spirulina and Chlorella are excellent sources of chlorophyll, but that is like saying that garlic is a good source of fatty acids. Garlic has a vast array of incredible health properties beyond simply being a good source of fatty acids and so is true of spirulina and chlorella. They are the two most nutritionally dense and have the broadest array of nutrients of any foods known. I have written two books on spirulina and chlorella and of course have researched them extensively. My second book, Achieving Great Health , became a struggle for me to determine which studies not to include in my book because there are so many of them. The scientific research that has been done on Spirulina and Chlorella are scholarly, extensive and come from countries all over the world. It is astounding that a prominent physician such as Dr. Andrew Weil knows almost nothing about the two most important whole foods on the planet.

YOUR SOURCE FOR GREAT HEALTH!

Fluoride Poisons The Fruit Juice Your Baby Drinks

Kids are being exposed to harmful fluoride in what some believe are the most unlikely places and the formation of their teeth explains why, according to the Iowa Fluoride Study of some 400 kids tracked from birth through age 13.

More than a third of the children examined in the Iowa study suffered from generally mild cases of dental fluorosis , evidenced by the white streaks on their teeth. That number should alarm parents, considering the CDC reports only 22 percent of American children have dental fluorosis .

The main health-harming culprits should sound very familiar to you: 100 percent fruit juice and infant formula . Children suffering from dental fluorosis drank more fluoride-laced juices and formula as early as 6 months old than those not plagued with the condition.

Tooth problems aren't the only health connections to fluoride, as it has been also linked to cancer, low IQs, genetic disorders and muscle degeneration .

If you're at all skeptical about the harm fluoridation can do, consider this: Eleven employee unions connected to the EPA have argued for a moratorium on such programs and have asked the federal agency to recognize its cancer-causing risks .

Yahoo News March 13, 2006

EurekAlert March 9, 2006

NewsInferno.com March 14, 2006