Dear Friends,

We are living in monumental times. There is a crack in our universe, an opportunity for us to go into another dimension.

I am a baby boomer, a child of the 60s, the hippy generation. A senseless war in Vietnam was raging, the youth of America were forced to serve and they revolted against the establishment—the corporate, governmental and cultural powers that were sending us to die in a senseless war.

We turned inward, through mind-altering drugs initially, in an attempt to discover who and what we were. We embraced the spiritual traditions from the East—Zen, yoga, meditation, fasting, macrobiotic, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam.

Our lives were transformed; medicine embraced holistic, integrative practices. East met West, changing and touching us all deeply.

In the early years of the hippy revolution, we experienced heady high hopes for the future with love as the centerpiece of the movement. But that didn’t last long. We became centered on love of self, not love of the other.

By the 80s, the light that illuminated change was snuffed out and we descended back into the mainstream as the dominant cultural, governmental, and corporate powers reprogrammed us to get back into the rat race of consumerism—make all the money to buy more and more stuff. The brief opportunity of loving concern for others was gone.

But now, in 2011, the light has dawned again. There is a crack again in our universe brought on by in large the young people in the Middle East, standing up and revolting against the establishment, demanding freedom, equity, a better life.

Are we going to seize this moment and jump on board? What are we to stand up against? Who is oppressing us? I would venture to say it is the transnational corporations and their bedfellows—governments in the West and the East, democratic and totalitarian alike, who allow the Monsanto’s of the world to go unheeded. In our own country we live unsustainable lives. Our ecological footprint is destroying the ecosystems in the air, land and sea. We support totalitarian leaders all over the world in order to get cheap oil, minerals, and other resources to feed our consumerism. People are starving, suffering, diseased—because of our practices.

But young people are again standing up to fight. The Middle East is aflame with the desire for freedom and a better life. It is a time for activism; to get involved, get off the sidelines and take part in a cause—to embrace something worthy of our existence.

We in the health field are acutely aware of the sickening of the human population. We have a front row seat. But, this chronic illness goes beyond our human race; it is particularly affecting all of the higher phyla. Even in our oceans, where oceanographers are now predicting that all larger species of fish and mammals will be gone in the next 50 years if we don’t achieve a dramatic turn around. How can we each get involved? This needs to be our mantra.

For ourselves, we are in the business of food, the business of viewing food as medicine. Just imagine what our world would be like if we mandated worldwide the production of food by organic means—that organic farming was the law of the land. Here in America, we talk about changing to clean energy—sustainable energy. Just imagine what a revolution for a totally organic America would create. Heaven.

The good news is that this movement for good change is happening all around us. A billion peasants from all over the world are a part of the Via Campesina movement, corporations all over the world are setting goals for sustainability through the Natural Step, human being are encouraged to slow down and cook meals with natural organic foods through the Slow Food Movement. Below in Green Facts I’ve given you links to seven exciting life-changing organizations. Check them out. Let’s make it our mantra to ask: how can I get involved? Where does my soul desire to participate?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

What makes our Therapeutic Foods therapeutic? The environment that they are grown in; free of herbicides and pesticides, and soil that is rich in nutrients. We select varieties of plant that have especially high actives, and use food-processing technologies that don’t damage protein structures and other sensitive nutrients. We don’t use excipients. Our product is 100% food. All this takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to produce because our food system today is not set up on a large scale to produce such quality. On the bigger activist scale this is our mission, to make farming an organic process that is available to every human being.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This beautiful creature is of course a spotted hyena. Spotted hyenas are the largest of three hyena species. Brown and striped hyenas are the other two. Although hyenas appear similar to dogs, they are actually more closely related to cats. They live throughout much of Africa and eastwards through Arabia to India. Spotted hyenas live together in large groups called clans that may include up 80 individuals and are led by females.

Spotted hyenas have good hearing and sharp eyesight at night. They are fast and can run for long distances without tiring. Packs work together effectively to isolate a herd animal, sometimes one that is ill or infirm, and pursue it to the death. The victors often squabble over the spoils, either among themselves or with other powerful animals like lions.

There are so many wonderful groups to get involved with. Here are seven powerful organizations from around the world to become very familiar with: The Natural Step, Via Campesina, Slow Foods, Permaculture, Heifer International, TEDx, Ecoliteracy and CSAs.

Dear Friends,

What makes food therapeutic?

The 50s was a heady time for the hard sciences of chemistry, physics, pharmacology and the beginnings of industrial agriculture. We were beginning to “feel our oats,” chemistry was to make our lives better, antibiotics were going to eliminate all diseases, industrialization of agriculture, along with the use of herbicides and pesticides was going to create a world of food abundance—enough to feed all the world’s people. There would be no hunger. Add to this imprudent progress, the giant food processors and their highly processed food—nature was under our thumb. Or so we thought. Doctors even recommended that babies should be fed on formulas as technology could do as well or better than breast milk.

When we look at the question of what makes food therapeutic, it makes sense to start with our first food, breast milk or the bottle, and ask the question: Which is better for the neonate—the formula or mother’s milk?

In 2008, Harvard Professor Allan Walker MD was the Macy-Gyorgy Award Lecturer at The International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation meeting in Perth, Australia. This award, given every other year at the international meeting, honors senior scientists who have made outstanding original scientific contributions to the study of human milk and lactation, and whose papers have appeared in excellent peer-review journals.

Dr. Walker’s talk was entitled, Breast-Feeding: A protective Link Between Mother and Child. His hypothesis was:

Breast milk provides a protective link from mother to newborn in the extra-uterine environment and helps to prevent age-related clinical diseases.

His research evidence was fascinating and convincing. Regarding clinical disease protection, he focused on two conditions: inherited disorders and neonatal infections. In the first condition, inherited disorders, Dr. Walker lectured about acrodermatitis enteropathica and congenital hypothyrodism.

Acrodermatitis is a congenital genetic disease characterized by a lack of an absorptive receptor in the intestines for zinc. Therefore neonates become zinc deficient and develop dermatitis and bloody diarrhea. This occurs if they are formula fed, but if breast fed, there is no evidence that the defect exists because the mother’s milk contains the zinc and the receptor, both of which are transferred to the baby.

With congenital hypothyroidism there is an absence of the hormone thyroxin which is central in the early development of the brain. There is no evidence of this condition in breast-fed infant as the milk contains thyroxin.

In regards to neonatal infections, children who are breast-fed have less diarrhea than bottle (formula) fed babies. In a large study in the Philippians (J. Pediatrics 1990; 16: 707-710), where the government mandated over a three year period, to exclusively breast feed. Comparing then to formula feed, the breast-fed babies had 4.35% complications, whereas the bottle-fed babies had 89% complications. If we look at mortality—100% of the babies who died with this condition were formula fed.

Amazingly, the composition of breast milk changes as needed as a function of age. The neonates intestines turns cells over very slowly compared to an adult, and this condition is prolonged in formula-fed babies. However, when the neonate is breast-fed, the breast milk causes a maturation of their epithelial surface.

All infants lack IgA producing plasma cells. As a result, antigens crossing the epithelium are not contained, and therefore enter into circulation causing a systemic immune response—an IgE mediated allergic response. However, in breast-fed babies, antigens and bacteria are handled through the maternal gut, passed into the mother’s blood stream as IgA producing plasma cells, and the IgA is then secreted into the breast milk and thereby protects the neonate’s gut.

The breast-fed neonatal GI tract membrane is further protected by the colonization of good bacteria. Breast fed infants have a strikingly different gut flora than bottle fed infants. Breast milk contains high levels of non-digestible oligosaccharides. When ingested they pass into the intestines and stimulate the growth of the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera. Breast-fed infants have very high levels of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, while bottle-fed babies have high levels of Enterobacter and Enterococcus. The pH of the gut of milk-fed babies, due to the lactic acid producing Lacto and Bifido, has an acidic milieu, whereas the bottle fed babies gut is alkaline. The colonization of the GI membrane by these lactic acid producing organisms and the acidification of the membrane provides protection from GI tract pathogens—enabling a pronounced reduction diarrheal diseases.

Much more could be said, but is there any question today as to which is more beneficial for the neonate—breast milk or formula? Medical science clearly acknowledges today the benefits of breast milk over formulas. Mother nature has given us life and has provided what we need to be healthy.

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

The Original Synbiotic Formula is wonderful for the neonate. It provides organic oligosaccharides in the soluble inulin fiber derived from organic chicory root, and it provides the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera of lactic acid producing bacteria. For the young neonate just a little on the end of your finger in sufficient. As they get old mix 1/4 teaspoon in a glass of water. They will even eat it by the spoon. It takes good. Babies love it.

The Last Quiz Answer:

The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata&mdash. It is nocturnal, feeding almost exclusively on ants and termites. Its keen hearing warns it against lions, wild dogs, hyenas and pythons. The Aardvark excavates burrows in which to live. Their main burrows are deep and extensive. Their old burrows are inhabited by warthogs and wild dogs. Aardvarks only pair during the breeding season; after a gestation period of 7 months, one cub weighing around 2 kg is born, and is able to leave the burrow to accompany its mother after only two weeks, eating termites at 14 weeks, weaned by 16 weeks. At six months of age it is able to dig its own burrows. Aardvarks live for up to 24 years.

The TEDxManhattan Seminar, on February 12th, 2011, was a fantastic event. It was entitled, Changing The Way We Eat. The speakers were excellent and in next weeks Forward Thinking I will share some of the highlights. Click on this link and you can download the talks.

Dear Friends,

Dohrea is a voracious reader. A book to her is like a cool drink of spring water on a hot day. Last night as I looked through her latest pile of new books to be read, I picked up one called Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, and read the endorsements:

A page turning novel as well as an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Sophie’s World, with more than 30 million copies in print, has fired the imaginations of readers all over the world.

So I began reading the first chapter: fourteen year old Sophie goes to the mail and opens a mysterious letter addressed to her that asks the question, Who are you? This will initiate a journey of self- discovery through studying the history of Western philosophy.

In 1968, I had just returned to the U.S. from two years of living in Micronesia, to a teaching job in a New York City high school. I was in The Big Apple and going through re-entry culture shock. I came across The Book by Alan Watts, with a subtitle, On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are. This book, along with another, The Three Pillars of Zen by Roshi Philip Kapleau, challenged me to ask the proverbial, Who am I question. I embarked on a ten year journey into Zen Buddhism.

One of the traditions in Zen is the Zen koan: the Zen Master gives the student a single question to meditate on—i.e. the classic koan: What is the sound of one hand clapping. I studied under a couple of Roshis (Zen Masters), lived in several Zen monasteries and meditated on my breathing and my own personal koan: How do I realize Buddha while looking at a tree?

I lived at the Maui Zen Center in Makawao, Hawaii with Roshi Robert Aiken, his wife Anne and a number of young sanyasins (students). Roshi Aiken had been a University of Hawaii professor, was a Buddhist scholar, writer and poet. One of his Haiku poems that I’ve quoted before—in the July 30th, 2009 Forward Thinking–goes like this,

Watching gardeners label their plants I vow, with all my being, to practice the old horticulture and let the plants identify me.

Two week ago we talked about ecological redundancy and going organic totally. Last week we discussed the food cycle and trophic levels. This week I want to ask you a question. Your koan is: What makes a food therapeutic?

Next week let’s share our thought?

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

My morning Therapeutic Foods routine—one tablespoon of Beta Glucan Synbiotic Formula, one teaspoon of the No. 7 Systemic Booster, four capsules of the Cruciferous Sprout Complex and one capsule of the Wild Blueberry Daily. Mix the Beta Glucan and the No. 7 is a big glass of water and swig the rest down. It tastes good as is but you can add fresh or frozen berries, fresh drinking coconut water, or make a smoothie of your choice. Try it for a couple of months and see how you body feels.

The Last Quiz Answer:

Warthogs live in groups called sounders. Females live in sounders with their young and with other females. Females tend to stay in their natal groups while males leave but stay within the home range. They are the only pig species that has adapted to grazing and savanna habitats. Their diet is omnivorous, composed of grasses, roots, berries and other fruits, bark, fungi, eggs and carrion. A warthog is identifiable by the two pairs of tusks protruding from the mouth, which are used as weapons against predators. The lower pair becomes razor sharp by rubbing against the upper pair every time the mouth is opened and closed. They range is size on the upper end to 5 feet in length and 170 lbs. in weight.

The International Living Building Institute has a dandelion for its logo. The metaphor of the flower, rooted in place, and yet harvests all energy plus water, is adapted to climate and site, operates pollution free, is comprised of integrative systems … is their vision for the buildings of the future. It is awesome—they are practicing the ancient horticulture. See this very important video.

Dear Friends,

Carbon is an amazing atom! It spends millions of years moving through the earth in a complex cycle. It is the atom of life—organic chemistry is carbon chemistry. Living organisms depend on the carbon cycle, and a healthy carbon cycle depends on living organisms. As I stated last week, the massive loss of species in the last four decades has caused a serious disruption in the carbon cycle. This must be corrected now because we are already starting to cycle towards the world’s sixth mass existion.

The carbon cycle can be thought of as the flow of the energy of life. The flow of energy is synonymous with the flow of food—life is one big feeding cycle. The Sun is the first food for life, and the first life to consume the Sun’s energy is the cyanobacteria, protists, algie and the terrestrial plants. These life forms make up the base of the food chain—the primary producers.

The Greek word trophic (defined as referring to food or feeding) is used to describe the feeding process of life. Autotrophs are the organisms that support all other trophic levels, either directly or indirectly, by synthesizing sugars and other organic molecules, using light energy and inorganic minerals derived from the air, land, or sea. They form the base or the beginning of the food chain. The number of steps an organism is from the base of the chain is the measure of its tropic level.

The autotrophs are the primary producers. The primary consumers are the herbivores that consume primary producers. Terrestrial insects, snails, grazing mammals, seed-eating birds, aquatic zooplankton, and certain kinds of fish are examples of herbivores. Secondary consumers are the carnivores that eat herbivores such as lions, sea stars, many species of fish, and insect eating birds. Tertiary consumers are the carnivores that eat other carnivores. Finally, we have the detritivores. These are the consumers that derive energy from organic wastes and dead organisms, converting organic molecules of carbon and other minerals back into inorganic mineral forms. The detritivores are life forms such as bacteria, fungi, and also scavengers such as cockroaches and bald eagles.

Carbon is the basic buiding block of life. Carbon atoms are found everywhere on earth. They make up the earth plants and animals, stored in the ocean (the carbon sink), the atmosphere, and the crust of the earth. As Fritjof Capra says in his book, The Web of Life,

We tend to believe that plants grow out of the soil, but in fact most of their substance comes from the air. The bulk of the cellulose and the other organic compounds produced through photosynthesis consists of heavy carbon and oxygen atoms, which plants take directly from the air in the form of CO2. Thus the weight of a wooden log comes almost entirely from the air. When we burn a log in a fireplace, oxygen and carbon combine once more into CO2, and in the light and heat of the fire we recover part of the solar energy that went into making the wood. (page 178)

A multiplicity of life forms is manditory to keep the carbon cycle healthy for life. All life forms depend on all other life forms. Because of the rapid loss of species to extinction over the last several hundred years, our systematic destruction of forests, and the burning of fossil fuels, the carbon cycle is out of balance as CO2 levels have climbed by over 30% in the atmosphere. The earth has not experienced CO2 levels this high for several million years.

In our Forward Thinking, February 3rd, 2010, I introduced you to Dr. Peter Ward, PhD Astrobiologist and Paleoentologist, whose thesis is that when the CO2 levels reach 1000 ppm there will be no ice left on the planet, sea levels will rise by two-hundred and fifty feet, toxic bacteria will dominate, ensuing a mass extinction of most of all higher species—the earth’s sixth mass extinction. The CO2 levels are now at 350 ppm and rising. Unless we do something to restore the carbon cycle to function in our favor, we will reach the 1000ppm level in about a 100 years. We have our work cut out for us!

Sincerely yours,

Seann Bardell

BioImmersion.com

Clinical Note:

Increasingly, it is recognized by mainstream medicine that what we eat is extremely relevant as to our possibility of developing cancer in our life. If a diet is highly skewed towards the consumption of cancer promoters then one is at a higher risk. The beauty of the Therapeutic Foods Line is the power of life it embodies—a live anti-promoter. The Wild Blueberry Daily and Wild Blueberry Extract block the initiation, promotion, and progression stages of cancer. The Cruciferous Sprouts Complex augments the body’s Antioxidant Defense System—a crucial defense system against cancer developing. The Organic Chlorella alkalinizes our tissues, highly important for cancer prevention. And, all of our seven Synbiotic Formulas work towards the prevention of cancer by detoxifying carcinogens and creating metabolites such as butyric acid—well established for its anti-promoter activity.

The Last Quiz Answer:

This beautiful, skilled female lion is zeroing in on her family’s next meal. All of the pride’s lionesses are related, and female cubs typically stay with the group as they age. Females are the pride’s primary hunters, working together to prey upon antelopes, zebras, wildebessts, and large grassland animals. Lions love warthogs for dinner but they are far from an easy meal. A full grown male warthog can easily kill a lion. Here in this clip you will see lion versus warthog.

The Food Revolution lands in LA. Have you tuned into Jamie Oliver and the Food Revolution? If not you are in for an important treat. If so, you know what I am talking about. As Jamie says, This food revolution is about saving America’s health by changing the way you eat. It’s not just a TV show, it’s a movement for you, your family and your community. Take a second, click on the link and watch the video.