Dear Friends,

This month, the UW Alumni membership pamphlet is offering the opportunity of a lifetime to Take That Trip You’ve Always Wanted! I glanced at one of the choices—Fly by Nomads private jet and spend a week of luxury cruising through the Society Island (you know, Tahiti and Bora Bora). Sounded good—beautiful lagoons, rain forests, snorkeling on the coral reefs. And yet, no mention of the cuisine and so I wondered, would it the authentic old time Polynesian foods or the modern version?

Last year we went with our good friends and their parents to Oahu, Hawaii. Dohrea and I have lived in Hawaii couple of times over the past 30 years. My first time there was in 1966, as part of my Peace Corps training. I lived for three months on the beach of the tropical side of Molokai and loved every moment of life on the island. It was all for the purpose of getting us in shape for our forthcoming life in Micronesia, where we were to spend the next two years of our lives. I love Hawaii and wanted to show our friends and their parents the real Polynesia and in particular their wonderful foods, so we made arrangements and look them to the Polynesian Cultural Center. What a shock! I will never forget the smells and sight of the food served for dinner—a disaster!

I signed us up for the dinner buffet—the route that tens of thousands of tourists take each month and their authentic dining experience. Dohrea had the buffet twenty years ago and told everyone how authentic the food was—we all looked forward to the experience. But, what we encountered was a highly processed refined food buffet, filled with extra sugar, soda pops, white rice, etc. There was little we could eat. How sad that this is presented as the diet of the Polynesians’ culture! But it is true—that is precisely what it has become, and why they are suffering with the rest of the world with the typical chronic diseases.

I contrast this with my experience in Micronesia—two years living on the island of Yap. We talk about the Paleo Diet, the Yapese had one and so did I for the two years living among them. This was 1966 – 1968; the Peace Corps initial entry into Micronesia under the mandate to bring the Yapese into the modern world. My job was to conduct an epidemiological study of the disease patterns amongst the Yapese as it relates to their life style. I interviewed and studied the lives of over a thousand Yapese people while living with them for two year. What was their health like? What was their diet like?

My research found that there was no heart disease, arthritis, or diabetes. There was one case of cancer, and one person who was morbidly obese. I found no allergies amongst the children or ADHD type syndromes. They had some gastrointestinal issues related to roundworm infections that were mostly with children and quite easily dealt with. They were an active, happy, very fit, strong people.

The diet in Yap was the epitome of organic, sustainable, local, fresh and alive—it was Paleo. Everything came from the land and the sea. About the only thing they cultivated was taro, everything else grew natural and wild and they knew how to consume and use it all. Cocoanut husks were used to make a fire. They would take freshly caught fish, throw it on the hot embers and cook the whole fish. We would peel off the charred scales and eat the wonderful cooked meat and entrails (except the gall bladder) inside. Usually cocoanut meat was eaten with meals along with many types of taro, or breadfruit from the trees, or various kinds of root vegetables. Many times they would bake fish and bananas wrapped in banana leaves. The variety from the ocean and the land was amazing. I wished I had been a better student of all the different kinds to describe them to you. Back then; the diet was an incidental consideration as related to their health. Now of course we know that it was instrumental. What was sad was that one of the industrious Yapese had created a small store in our area and had secured cigarettes, spam, condensed milk, sugar and alcohol to sell to his fellow citizens. The camel had his nose in the tent.

Here is a photo of these beautiful people. I would like to go back, after 40 years, and do a follow-up study on where the Yapeses people are health wise today.

So, let’s think about their diet back in the mid 60s when I lived there as compared to the modern “Polynesian diet” at the cultural center, which is, unfortunately, the diet of the rest of the world today.

The Yapese had no refined grains, but only fresh fruits and vegetables, much of it eaten raw (but cooked too). No refined carbs—their glycemic load was low. They had omega three from the sea—their brains were sharp and healthy. They lived with nature; their vegetables and fruits were packed with antioxidants and micronutrients. The diet naturally shifted their body tissues toward an alkaline pH. Even with worms their gastrointestinal health seemed strong. There were no complaints of constipation. They had tons of natural fibers in their diet.

So what does this all mean for us? It means we must make a strong move in the direction of local and sustainable. When we buy organic from our local farmers we are supporting their efforts to put out quality food. This way we keep our money circulating within our local economies rather than give away our resources to some corporate food giant 2000 miles away. We are bringing into our home produce that tastes better, getting our bodies conditioned back into what real food can be. We are saving our environment by reducing transportation cost—the agriculture industry is one of the highest consumers of fossil fuels. Finally, we are setting an example to others that is can be done.

How is you garden growing? How is your CSA doing?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

In a study entitled Metabolic and Physiologic Improvements From Consuming A Paleolithic Hunter-gatherer Type Diet, in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition Feb 11, 2009, Frassetts et al. described the following:

Participants consumed a Paleolithic diet of lean meat, fruit, vegetables, nuts and excluded nonpaleolithic foods, like cereal grains, dairy and legumes, for 10 days. Compared with the baseline (usual diet) we observed had significant reductions in BP associated with improved arterial distensibility, significant reduction in plasma insulin verses time AUC and large significant reductions in total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides.

In all, these measured variables, all participants had identical responses when switched to the Paleolithic Type Diet. That is they all had significant improved status of circulatory, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism/physiology.

In the Therapeutic Food Line we are not advocating going back to a totally Paleolithic diet as the only way to regain ones health. We acknowledge the evolution of society as well as the human body and the food changes that have paralleled each other. Therefore, we recommend raw or fermented dairy for those who can handle them. Whole grains and legumes as well are important sources of nutrients that have evolved with agriculture.

Our mantra is to eat whole food, not processed food, eat fresh, eat local, eat organic. The nutrient density of this kind of food is vastly superior to conventional supermarket food. At this point who can say they consistently accomplish this? Few of us I’m afraid.

The Therapeutic Foods product line and platform augments the food density load that one needs to achieve through correct eating enabling the body to function at it full capacity.

• The Wild Blueberry helps the brain and help digestion too by participating in stimulating healthy Phase I Liver Detox functioning.
• The Cruciferous Sprouts help digestion by kicking Phase II Liver Detox into gear and by protecting the body from carcinogens.
• The Fructo Borate increases the footprint of the steroid hormone in the blood, increased DHEA, Vit D and other steroid hormone levels and it protects against osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
• The Chromium BioOrganic with Beet enhances sugar metabolism maximizing insulin efficiency. You can even loose weight with it.
• And the seven Synbiotic Formulas do what they do—protect the gastrointestinal tract. Do go to the Library in our website and read the dossier on each and you will realize the amount of thought that we have put into the creation of these products—The Therapeutic Foods Library.

The Last Quiz Answer: This amazing picture of a lamb feeling good is from the National Geographic 2009 Best Photo Collection.

This is out second season with Helsing Junction Farms CSA. I love their newsletter and how they take us right to the farm with them. Here are a few excerpts: Greetings from Helsing Junction Farm! Despite the chilly February like weather things are growing, albeit slowly. Fortunately some plants really like this type of weather, those that do are the greenest of greens that only occurs on a steady diet of rainwater. Of course the tomatoes are off in the corner having a shiver while the flea beetles party on, but that’s farming in the good ole’ PNW for you. As farmers you tend to pay a lot of attention to the weather and this really does seem to be one of the worst springs ever, though we have finally finished planting almost all 30 acres. If memory serves, a few sunny days and we’ll hardly remember that it was ever cold and rainy. The first boxes will contain pink radishes, arugula, green butter head or red blushed oak leaf lettuce, bok choy, broccoli, strawberries and more. This summer we will be offering an optional organic fruit share in conjunction with The Okanogan Producers Marketing Association (OPMA), a Co-op from Okanogan made up of 6 small organic farms. The Co-op was formed to give voice to these farms, which grow excellent quality fruit and heirloom varieties but can’t compete against the large scale farms in the area. Some of the types of fruit that will be included in the share are peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums, pluots, apricots, blueberries, raspberries, apples, pears, melons and grapes. The fruit share is designed to feed 2-3 people and will contain 2-4 varieties of fruit per week. It will cost $15 per week/$225 for the season (15 weeks). I love these guys!

Dear Friends,

I have a great treat for you this week: I would like to (and I am using Dohrea’s word) illuminate just a little the work my wife Dohrea has been engaged in the last few years, and share with you my delightful partner. Dohrea has been studying sociology through literature—or as she frames it: humanity’s issues through the lens literature, specifically, “the conversation” in literature about social justice issues throughout the centuries. She has always believed that a company should have a greater calling and “purpose for existence” over and above a good product line or service. Within the holistic industry we all are already engaged in a bigger and most important purpose, and yet (couple of her favorite words), we need to expand our profession into activism and education, or “enter into the conversation” by adding your voice in protest over the injustices occurring all around us. There is, after all, so much more to do. This email’s conversation then is about taking the time to reflect and possibly decide what step to take, just a little extra effort, to do just a little more.

People are starving in our world because our natural relationship with food is lost. The reality of food, on every level of its manifestation, is a fantasy created by corporations that depict food that is not food—as food. How much more crazy can our society become by eating these foods, which are not food and thinking that our body can be nourished by such nonsense? (D Bardell)

This past weekend Dohrea and I were in Washington DC attending the Food As Medicine Seminar—billed as the nation’s leading nutrition training program for physicians, medical school faculty and allied health professionals—the best introduction to medical nutrition therapy and foods for healing in the US. It is an annual event put on by The Center for Mind Body Medicine. It surpassed its billing and tremendous on all levels—great staff, great content and great food! The irony of our holistic industry is that we go to these conferences in big hotels and the food served is mainstream—whatever the hotel normally puts out. How can we nourish society when we don’t nourish ourselves? Our functions need to be the model of what our world has to do to heal—can we model and be an example by the way we behave? Not when we allow mainstream crazy notions about food to feed us during our conventions.

Not so with the Mind Body Center. The seminar was held this year at the Capitol Hilton, two blocks from the White House, and the food was holistic, organic, fresh and wholesome—a gourmet smorgasbord. They walked their talk. Their focus was the integration of nutrition into clinical practice, medical education and community health. The seminar teaches the importance of wholesome food for the restoration of health. The attendees were mostly MDs, DOs, NDs, ARNPS, Nutritionists and Registered Dieticians—300 of them. You know what fanatics we are, and I highly recommend you check them out for their next seminar. Here is a link—The Center for Mind-Body Medicine.

It has be said that 80 to 90% of the disease patterns we see in the world today can be corrected or prevented by making changes in our diets. Regardless of the countries status (first or third world, or more accurately, as I learned from Dohrea, Global North or Global South), the number one pandemic in our world today are the chronic degenerative diseases—Obesity, Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, PCOS; CVD, Stroke, High Blood Pressure; Cancer(s); Digestive—GERD, IBS, CD, IBD; Osteoporosis; Neurological—PD, AD, MS, Parkinson’s; Neuropsychiatric/Mood Disorders—the list goes on. People are not well in exponentially mounting numbers. Here are a few tidbits:

Leave your drugs in the chemist’s pot if you can heal the patient with food. (Hippocrates)

He who does not know food….how can he understand the disease of man? (Hippocrates)

The myriad of health problems associated with living a Western or modern lifestyle is largely the result of the discord between our current diet and what we are designed to eat. Food staples and food processing have altered seven crucial nutritional characteristics of ancestral hominin diets that dramatically impact health and disease. (Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet: Health implications For The 21st Century. Cordain, L et all, AJCN 2004; 81: 341-354).

So enter the conversation: how about writing to us so we can share your thoughts with everyone else? How do we in this century converse and discuss the issues of our day? I learned from Dohrea that social justice and change happened in the past when everyone was involved emotionally. They read novels, essays, and poems in past centuries, while we watch TV and go online to catch bits and pieces of news. They wrote and debated issues through literature and took their time to think through and write because adding their voice and expression meant they are doing their part in creating a better world. We are connected by wireless devices yet are too busy and therefore disengaged. But our voice is important and our mission to clean our environment and get back into a natural relationship with our earth has to succeed. How else will we gain our health and create a sane world?

Take a serious look at the Clinical Notes this week: we discuss the Wild Blueberry Extract and the Wild Blueberry Daily. The brain is the center of our universe. When it goes—we are no longer who we are. Find out why the blueberry is a therapeutic food that protects and heals the brain.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Lets take a look at what the experts say about the medicinal value of Blueberries:

In 1999 a USDA study showed that a diet rich in blueberry extracted reversed some loss of balance and coordination and improved short-term memory in aged rats. This was the first study to actually demonstrate a reversal in dysfunctions of behavior, going further than earlier studies that linked high-antioxidant fruits and vegetables to prevention of function loss only (Journal of Neuroscience, Sept. 15, 1999).

A 2003 Tuft’s study showed blueberries enhanced memory-associated neuronal signaling and alternations involved in certain neuronal activities and concluded it may be possible to overcome genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s Disease through diet. (Joseph JA et al. Blueberry supplementation enhances signaling and prevents behavioral deficits in an Alzheimer’s Disease model (Nutr. Neurosci J6, 3: 153-62, 2003).

A 2005 study to investigate blueberry’s ability to ameliorate age-related deficits in neuronal and behavioral functions, examined whether short-term supplementation with blueberries might enhance the brains’ ability to generate a heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) mediated neuro-protective response to stress. Hippocampal (HC) regions from young and old rats fed either a control or a supplemented diet for 10 weeks were subjected to an in vitro inflammatory challenge (LPS) and then examined for levels of HSP70 at various times post LPS (30, 90, and 240 min). While baseline levels of HSP70 did not differ among the various groups compared to young control diet rats, increases in HSP70 protein levels in response to an in vitro LPS challenge were significantly less in old as compared to young control diet rats at the 30, 90, and 240 min time points. However, it appeared that the blueberry diet completely restored the HSP70 response to LPS in the old rats at the 90 and 240 min times. This suggests that a short-term blueberry intervention may result in improved HSP70-mediated protection against a number of neurodegenerative processes in the brain (Neurobiol Aging. 2005 Apr 30).

What does it means?

HSP70- Members of the Hsp70 family are strongly up-regulated by heat stress and toxic chemicals, particularly heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, mercury, etc. Hsp70 was originally discovered by FM Ritossa in the 1960s when a lab worker accidentally boosted the incubation temperature of Drosophila (fruit flies). When examining the chromosomes, Ritossa found a “puffing pattern” that indicated the elevated gene transcription of an unknown protein[3][4]. This was later described as the “Heat Shock Response” and the proteins were termed the “Heat Shock Proteins” (Hsp).

Hsp70 proteins can act to protect cells from thermal or oxidative stress. These stresses normally act to damage proteins, causing partial unfolding and possible aggregation. By temporarily binding to hydrophobic residues exposed by stress, Hsp70 prevents these partially-denatured proteins from aggregating, and allows them to refold. Low ATP is characteristic of heat shock and sustained binding is seen as aggregation suppression, while recovery from heat shock involves substrate binding and nucleotide cycling. In a thermophile anaerobe (Thermotoga maritima) the Hsp70 demonstrates redox sensitive binding to model peptides, suggesting a second mode of binding regulation based on oxidative stress.

The Alzheimer’s Facts from Scientific America, June 2010:

As the US population ages-along with that of the rest of the world, the number of new Alzheimer’s cases will soar because the incidence increases with age. In 2010 an estimate39 million people in the US are senior citizens, a figure that will more than double to 89 million by 2050.

Age is the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer’s. The numbers’ of people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s will increase by nearly 50% during the next 20 years. Statisticians predict that by the middle of the century the global prevalence of Alzheimer’s will quadruple reaching 107 million.

Alzheimer’s researchers believe that much of the disease pathology-accretions of aberrant proteins and loss of brain cells or circuits-begins well before the memory loss become apparent.

Wild Blueberry Daily contains per capsule 150 mg of blueberry extract and 350mg of the whole blueberry. The extract is the purple part where are the polyphenols are. It takes us ¾ of a cup of blueberries to fill one capsule. ORAC per capsule 2000. No excipients, flowing agent or fillers of any kind. The berries and extract are freeze-dried. Based on the work of Dr. James Joseph 150 mgs of the extract may be enough to protect human beings against neurological conditions such as AD. (Click on this link to the Wild Blueberry Dossier) in the BioImmersion Library. Take one or more capsules a day.

Wild Blueberry Extract contains per capsule 500 mg of blueberry extract. It takes us 1 and ¼ cups of blueberries to fill one capsule. ORAC per capsule is 4000. No excipients, etc. Use for treatment of neurological disease and conditions of chronic inflammation. Works throughout the body and especially the brain. Protects against cancer. Take one or more capsules a day.

The Last Quiz Answer: This amazing picture of a rhino mom and baby is from the National Geographic 2009 Best Photo Collection. Due to relentless poaching the numbers and distribution of black rhinoceros have declined by 96% between 1970 and 1992—placing them on the endangered list. They are easy targets for poachers and the horn is greatly valued in Chinese medicine. Protecting them effectivly is very expensive and requires a lot of man power. (WWF)

More Tidbits from the Food as Medicine Seminar What is this? Amyl acetate, Amyl butyrate, Amyl valerate, Anethol, Anisyl formate, Benzyl acetate, Benzyl isobutyrate, Butyric acid, Cinnamyl isobutyrate, Cinnamyl valerate, Cognac essential oil, Diacetyl, Dipropylketone, Ethyl acetate, Ethyl amyl ketone, Ethyl butyrate, Ethyl cinnamate, Ethyl heptanoate, Ethyl heptylate, Ethyl lactate, Ethyl methylphenlglycidate, Ethyl intrate, Ethyl propionate, Ethyl valerate, Heliotropin, Hydroxy-phenyl 2-butanone (10% solution in alcohol), alpha-ionine, Isobutyl anthranilate, Isobutyl butyrate, Lemon essential oil, Maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, Methyl anthranilate, Mehtyl benzoate, Methyl cinnamate, Methyl heptine carbonate, Methyl naphthyl ketone, Methyl salicylate, Mint essential oil, Neroli essential oil, Nerolin, Nervl isobutyrate. Orris butter, Phenethyl alconhol, Rose, Rum ether, y-indicalactone, vanillin, solvent. The answer is: Artificial Strawberry Flavor

Dear Friends,

Is this not an absolutely precious picture? Don’t you love it? Nothing nurtures us and protects us like the love of our mother. We stand ready to defend her at all costs.

But what about Mother Earth? She provides us with food, shelter, clean water, clear air and beauty—the magic of Mother Nature is all around us. How have we stood by her, defended her, protected her?

Over the Memorial Day weekend I watched video footage of the Vietnam War. We dumped millions of tons of Agent Orange on Vietnam and cluster bombs in Laos—all in the name of freedom for the people of Southeast Asia of course. Even today, thirty years later, the land and its people are still suffering. The Red Cross says that now over one million citizens of these two countries are disabled. Let’s don’t even get into the two wars that we are now engaged in in the Middle East. Isn’t it in large part for our ability to get their cheap oil?

Now we have the multinational oil giant BP in our Gulf. What used to be beautiful sacred waters, one of the greatest and most important wild life habitats in the world, is now in jeopardy because of our need, our addition for oil energy at any cost—the explosion of one platform and here we are.

To add insult to injury BP is using untested amounts of dispersant that don’t allow the oil to come to the surface where it can be skimmed off. Now instead we have whole columns of water from the surface down to a depth of 5000 feet of oil and water mixed. How is this affecting all sea life? We don’t know. BP doesn’t know. There is now fear that this toxic mix is moving into the Caribbean and even the Atlantic.

Think about it, we have another 5,000 of these platforms in the Gulf water, and even with this monumental disaster people are still defending the absolute necessity of maintaining off shore drilling. Frankly we are all part of the problem. We need a sea change, a shift in our consciousness. Perhaps the moment has finally arrived where we are willing to face the fact that we can not slap Mother Nature in the face without severe consequences.

A clear voice in the corrective process is Chris Hedges. He is intense and right on the mark. I have included a link, in Green Facts below, to a talk that he gave in Seattle last year. Do take the time to listen to it.

In 2004 after over thirty years in the holistic industry we decided that it was important for us to launch a medicinal product line that focused on whole foods. It was only too clear that the mounting levels of pollution, pathogens, stress, poor life style and dietary choices were the leading causes for the pandemic of chronic illness aflicting the world. The question we asked ourselves was what collection of foods, consistently used in our diet, could protect and even reverse this chronic disease pattern? And, our answer has been the creation of the Therapeutic Foods Line. In the next few weeks we will be drilling down into these products and introduce you to some new ones that make up the Therapeutic Foods Platform.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

On the right we have two sets—on the far right the American Pedigreed Probiotic Collection (four items) and adjacent to them the Bulgarian Pedigreed Probiotic Collection (three items)—products that focus on the gastrointestinal tract. However, because these good bacteria are combined with the Therapeutic Foods you get the multidimensional medicinal effects of the foods for the gut and other systems of the body.

In the middle we have the Anti-oxidant Defense Group divided into two sets of two—on the right the Cruciferous Sprouts powder and capsules, and to their left the Wild Blueberry Daily and the Wild Blueberry Extract. Next week we will begin our detailed discussion with the Wild Blueberry because of its power to help the protection and even the regeneration of brain and nervous system function. And, I think we can all agree that there has never been a time in our memories where clear thinking is needed in the world.

To the left of the Blueberries are our patented mineral formulas—the Fructo Borate Complex and the Chromium Bioorganic with Beet. Key master minerals for healthy functioning of many of the body’s system.

And, last but definitely not least, we have our broad spectrum antimicrobial—Garlic, Organic, Freeze Dried. For the previous several Forward Thinking Newsletters we have focused on garlic and why specifically the garlic we are offering is so exceptionally potent.

Coming into the Therapeutic Foods Platform in the next few weeks is our new Organic Chlorella Product that we are very excited to be offering. More on that later.

The Last Quiz Answer: I don’t know if you can see it here exactly but the mother Canadian Goose has her left wing spread out over her babies protecting them, conforting them. This amazing picture is from the National Geographic 2009 Best Photo Collection.

Chris Hedges gives us a glass of cold water in our face to wake us up—Chris Hedges Talk at Seattle’s Town Hall. Tremendously articulate, he lays out a large part of our problem in this talk that is based on his new book—The Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy ad the Rise of the Spectacle.

Dear Friends,

It came to my attention that after over a year of publishing our weekly newsletter, it needs a name! So this Memorial Day Weekend of 2010 we christen it—Forward Thinking.

Our world today needs a good dose of forward thinking, doesn’t it? Economic systems failing, human health collapsing, ecosystem disasters intensifying, geo-political conflict mounting—our flawed worldviews are bearing their fruits. We need a new working paradigm that will right this experience we call life. We all need to become trans-cultural and local at the same time. What do you think?

At BioImmersion we try to contribute to the betterment of human life in two ways. One is through the creation of foundational foods and their medicinal platform, and the other, is to educate on the meta-issues, the over-arching causes for human suffering—social inequity, economic un-sustainability and environmental deterioration. Our purpose is that through growing awareness, we can spawn activism within the holistic community. Forward Thinking highlight these activities.

We would like to open up the conversation—to hear more from you! Tell us about your thoughts, ideas and actions in response to the topics presented. How do we right our corporate ship—this world we live in together?

Do keep the foregoing invitation in mind as I continue our discussion on garlic, overview the Therapeutic Foods Platform in Clinical Notes, and give you, in Green Facts, a very special link to a talk given by Hernando de Soto entitled: Shadow Economies.

I am excited to hear from you!

The Therapeutic Food Platform

Our criteria for excellence

Many factors come into play in the selection of a food for the Therapeutic Foods line. Our criteria is rigorous: we research the food’s historical use, the scientific discoveries surrounding it, the soil location and composition, climate, varietal differences, harvest date and post-harvest handling, and finally the manufacturing technology into a supplemental form. Because it is food—we honor its cyclical nature and the powerful attributes nature provides us for our survival and good health.

Our Garlic serves as a great example of this process.

Garlic is an important therapeutic food as it is one of the most researched plants. Much scientific research in the 20th Century has been conducted on it, confirming its effectiveness—as of 1996, 1158 pharmacological studies and 650 chemical studies have been published.

The majority of the analytical and pharmacological research on garlic has focused on its sulfur compounds, not only because of their high abundance in garlic (the sulfur content of garlic is four times greater than other high sulfur vegetables and fruits), but because they are compounds that have powerful pharmacological activity.

First, we take great care in our sourcing.

In garlic, about 85% of the alliin and other cysteine sulfoxides are found in the bulb. Remember from our discussion last week that alliin is the major precursor molecule for the formation of allicin—garlic’s strongest and most important antimicrobial compound. The amount of alliin present in the bulb increases several fold in the four weeks prior to harvest time. Furthermore, alliin increases about 25% during the typical curing process (whole plants dried in the shade for at least two weeks). Finally, extending the normal harvest date by 2 weeks—until the plants are almost completely brown—increases the content of these compounds an additional 20% on a dry weight basis.

Secondly, we employ the absolute “state of art” manufacturing methods for drying and encapsulating in order to preserve the actives of these high potency cloves.

Freeze drying is clearly the best method of drying to achieve the maximum yield of alliin in the dried powder. However, the amount of alliin present after the drying can vary considerably depending on the care used in slicing and handling of the cloves. The slices can be dried faster if the slices are thinner, but more slicing increases the alliin loss. This is where technology comes in and the utilization of state-of-the-art facilities.

We are able to dry the uncut whole clove at extremely low temperatures until the clove is reduced into a frozen powder. With this process 100% of the alliin is preserved, as no moisture is present to enable the crushed clove to react.

Finally, we encapsulate without using any flowing agents such as mag. stearate. This necessitates encapsulating machines to be run at a much slower speeds which means lowers temperatures, again maximizing the alliin yield in the finished capsule. The net result is 4-5 cloves of garlic in each capsule with an alliin content of 20,000 ppm and above—two and half times higher than the standard high potency found in the marketplace. Feel a cold coming on? Take couple capsule and experience the Russian Penicillin effect.

Across the board each of our therapeutic foods comes under the same rigor of sourcing, handling, and manufacturing. Our wild blueberries come from Nova Scotia, rated by the USDA as the number one berry in North America for their ORAC values, due to their unusually wide diversity of anthocyanins. Our cruciferous sprouts were selected for their high levels of glucosinolates, maximized by harvesting them on the third day of their growth. The net result of such rigor enables us to make the claim that the Therapeutic Foods Line is the strongest whole food supplement in the marketplace today. Good food is important!

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

The need to harness the power of foods is founded on the paradigm principle that the pace of life will in fact become faster and although we purpose to slow down and properly eat 5 to 9 organically produced fruits and vegetables a day, hormone and antibiotic free meat and dairy, fermented foods and wholesome organic grains, nuts and seeds—it is not enough. We need more. We designed the Therapeutic Foods Line to deeply nourish and combat the growing multi-factorial assault on our bodies (The Therapeutic Foods Paradigm Principle).

Next week’s Forward Thinking will focus on the selection of medicinal foods that together create a powerhouse therapeutic platform. You will get reacquainted as to how they synergistically work in concert to Help Your Body in our world today.

The Last Quiz Answer: Nothing like the heart of a mother! It transcends all boundaries. This amazing picture is from the National Geographic 2009 Best Photo Collection.

In the midst of what seems to be growing darkness in the world today, there is an increasingly bright light that illuminates our darkness! Hernando de Soto and his organization shine the light and bring us hope. Here is a fascinating talk he gave at the Rainier Club in Seattle this past January 29th, 2010, entitled: Shadow Economies. Enjoy! What do you think?