Not all food cravings lead to overeating. Your body can give you legitimate cues that certain nutrients are needed, or even that a certain food will fulfill an emotional need.  If you find that a reasonable amount of a desired food satisfies you, wonderful.  Eating one cookie may satisfy a sweet tooth. But if one cookie leads to another, and another, and then, “I can’t believe I ate the whole box,” that’s a problem. Although scientists look for characteristics that separate bingers from non-bingers, given enough stress, just about anyone is likely to turn to Haagen-Dazs.  However, though stress is unavoidable and unpredictable, here are ways you can strengthen your capacity to become “binge-resistant.” Get adequate nutrition. According to food addiction expert Julia Ross, MA, MFCC, dieting, which she calls “a euphemism for starvation,” is the major cause of food cravings and eating disorders. In Never Be Sick Again, Raymond Francis agrees.  He says anyone who…

Berkeley, California nutrition writer Clara Felix was one of the early trailblazers in using nutrition to fight disease. In the late 1990s, when vitamin D researchers discovered we needed much more vitamin D than had previously been thought, Clara upped her intake to 4,000 IU per day. After three months, an arthritic knee that had failed to improve with exemplary lifestyle, good supplements and avoidance of allergens alone became completely normal again! She was delighted to report being able to squat and do deep knee bends for the first time in eight years. It's not surprising.  Vitamin D is anti-inflammatory and also plays a role in the synthesis of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints and prevents their wear and tear.   Studies have shown that having higher levels retards the deterioration of arthritic knee and hip joints. Clara also related this story about two chimps suffering from a "mysterious illness" who were…

After decades and billions of dollars spent on Alzheimer’s research with nothing much to show for it in the way of effective prevention or treatment, a UCLA researcher has broken through to produce some amazing results with a game-changing treatment program. And, wouldn’t you know it, his program has a lot in common with the Beyond Health Lifestyle! Dale E. Bredeson MD, Director of Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Founding President/CEO of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, CA, had studied Alzheimer’s for years. He saw that although many individual lifestyle factors, herbs and supplements led to minor improvements, a more comprehensive approach was needed. His program, called MEND (Metabolic Enhancement for NeuroDegeneration), is an individualized approach covering 36 different factors that can be involved in developing cognitive impairment and ultimately Alzheimer’s. The great news is that this approach halted a…

Sitting Kills, Moving Heals is the title of a book by exercise physiologist Dr. Joan Vernikos. Her argument—one that has been confirmed by other scientists in a new field called “inactivity physiology” is not that sitting is necessarily bad for us; just that we spend far too much time doing it. The real problem is inactivity. Or put another way, it’s the absence of moving against gravity in a variety of ways throughout the day. Moving in opposition to gravity stimulates certain cell functions we need to be healthy, and we need to move frequently throughout the day. An hour at the gym after work won’t cut it. Dr. Vernikos became an expert on the physiological effects of gravity while working with NASA, where she observed the health-damaging effects of weightlessness on astronauts. Living in a gravity-free environment, she says, accelerates the aging process by about ten times. Changes in muscle and bone and other detrimental physiological changes that ordinarily occur in one ye…

Allergic reactions are very taxing to the body (see Raymond Francis’ article, “The Shocking Truth About Allergies”) and getting them under control by reducing inflammation and restoring systemic alkalinity as soon as you can will not only make you more comfortable, it will minimize the serious damage that each allergic reaction causes to your overall health. Although if you’re prone to having anaphylactic type allergic responses, you should have an EpiPen handy, for most allergy attacks—itchy, tearing eyes; sneezing; congestion and fatigue—natural substances can do the job. Vitamin C and quercetin (Cell Repair Quercetin or Cell Repair Formula) are a powerful combination for subduing inflammation. Take maximum doses to nip those allergic reactions in the bud. For taking vitamin C “to bowel tolerance” click here for instructions. Allergic reactions make the body acidic, exacerbating inflammation and damage to body tissues. Many biochemical processes are hampered in an acidic…

Current medical treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) leave a lot to be desired. Although the most popular BPH medications, drugs like Proscar (finasteride), alleviate BPH symptoms (lower urinary tract symptoms, or LUTS), they are apt to produce loss of libido, ejaculatory disorders and impotence as side effects. Meanwhile, surgery doesn’t always work, and its risks—infections, loss of sexual function (up to 30% of the time), and scar tissue, which can make the problem surgery was supposed to correct even worse by further narrowing the urethra—make it a less than inspiring option. Fortunately, BPH is not a new disease. It’s been around for thousands of years, and it’s been treated successfully for just about as long with herbs that alleviate symptoms without the major side effects associated with drugs. Botanist and integrative practitioner, Dr. Andrew Weil explains why herbs are so often superior to drugs. He notes that whole plants contain many different compound…

It’s been called “the most effective, potent way that we can improve quality of life and duration of life.” If it were a drug, “it would likely be the most valuable pharmaceutical ever developed.” It isn’t a new supplement or super food, and best of all it’s free. It’s . . . exercise! In a recent issue of Time magazine, reporter Mandy Outlander explored the cutting edge of exercise research with various experts who have become increasingly excited about “exercise as medicine.” His own research prompted the rave reviews above from genetic metabolic neurologist Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky at McMaster University in Ontario. That exercise is good for us isn’t exactly news, but Dr. Tarnopolsky hopes that by pointing out all its wonderful rewards, he may motivate us enough to jump up out of our chairs and actually do it! Rewards being documented are both immediate and long-term. Right after a short exercise session, measurable results include improved mood, less arthritic and lower back pa…

What is a plant-based diet? There are different interpretations, but except for the vegan diet, which is exclusively plant, most plant-food diets are centered on plant foods, especially vegetables, using only small amounts of animal products as “condiments.” At Beyond Health, we recommend limiting animal proteins to 2-3 ounces a day, and not every day. Although on Thanksgiving, we enjoy organic turkey, we don’t overdo it. Instead, we make a feast of a beautiful salad with our delicious Beyond Health Olive Oil and Beyond Health Balsamic Vinegar and several favorite vegetable dishes. We then have a little turkey on the side. Here are two treasured vegetable recipes from our friend Bette Acuff, visual artist and artist-of-life, who brings beauty, balance and taste to all of her endeavors. CREAMY CAULIFLOWER SOUP WITH GREENS  1 tablespoon Beyond Health Olive Oil, plus more for drizzling 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup) 4 cloves of garlic, chopped Selina…

Consumers are finally beginning to bypass sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and their equally toxic artificially-sweetened alternatives. Some people are nixing coffee to avoid excess caffeine’s stressful effect on their adrenal glands. So what’s left to help you get started in the morning or to provide a rewarding pick-me-up when you begin to flag in the afternoon? Purified water is an option. It can be surprisingly energizing, and even delicious, especially with a squeeze of lemon or lime. Of course most tap water is neither energizing nor delicious because it’s full of chemicals and other stuff we’d rather not even think about. But a Beyond Health Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration System can provide you with pure, great tasting water at pennies per gallon. But what about something a little stronger? Here we come to green tea, a beverage that’s not only very satisfying but a superfood that’s been documented to help prevent just about every disease known to mankind, including…

How many times have you heard that it’s better to get nutrients from food than from supplements? We completely agree! The problem is it’s hard to find real, unprocessed, unadulterated food grown in healthy soils, harvested at its peak and quickly delivered to your table. That’s why the National Academy of Sciences says supplements are necessary. But when real food is available, there’s nothing like it, and we recommend grabbing it with both hands. That’s especially so with a super-nutritious food like olive oil. Real, extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), unrefined and made from premium quality olives, contains more than a hundred different polyphenols, vitamins and other compounds that protect and repair the body as well as act as anti-inflammatories and antioxidants. But real EVOO is rare! Philip James, a leading nutrition researcher in Great Britain, is a proponent of the Mediterranean Diet, which, you’ve no doubt heard, is one of the healthiest diets in the world. The Mediterra…

It’s Heart Month at Beyond Health. We recently wrote about magnesium and the heart—that magnesium is essential for a healthy heart, and that magnesium deficiency is often the real cause of cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and even heart attacks. Unfortunately magnesium deficiency is epidemic today! It has been estimated that 3/4 of the US population doesn’t consume the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for magnesium. So 75% of us may not even be getting enough magnesium in our diets to prevent severe deficiency disease, let alone achieve optimal health. But add to that the many factors that prevent full utilization of the magnesium we consume (see article below) and you’ve got a real problem that affects almost everyone. But how can you tell if you’re deficient? The blood test most doctors will give you won’t tell you very much.  The body does everything it can to keep blood levels consistent, and will keep pulling magnesium out…

Consuming enough magnesium is only half the battle. For our bodies to utilize it, magnesium needs to be absorbed and get into our cells. However, when you’re deficient in magnesium, you face a paradox.  Cells need magnesium to correct systemic acidity and activate an enzyme that allows them to take up magnesium! Fortunately Raymond Francis’ friend, scientist Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD, found a way around this problem, by combining magnesium with choline citrate, Dr. Jaffe estimates that most people who need magnesium need to take it with choline citrate to benefit from it. This would include about half the population and the majority of people who are chronically ill. So although you will get magnesium in our Beyond Health Multi and Bone Formula, and a little more in our Vitamin C powder or tablets, if you’re experiencing any of the symptoms above, we strongly recommend taking Beyond Health Magnesium with our Choline Citrate. Start with 1 capsule of magnesium and a teaspoon of…

As we all know, weight loss is a HUGE market. There are 1,001 products and programs out there that promise to help our increasingly obese nation shed excess pounds. But, as Raymond Francis pointed out in his breakthrough book, Never Be Fat Again, most of them miss the mark. The only truly effective way to lose weight and keep it off is by addressing excess weight as a health issue. By shifting your focus to becoming truly healthy, the pounds fall off by themselves or are lost with minimal effort. Our bodies were built to be self-regulating. When each one of our cells is operating as it should, our appetites are regulated to eat only what we need; our thyroid glands regulate metabolism so that we burn most of the calories we consume as energy to maintain body temperature and to use as fuel; and many other body systems that affect weight, such as blood sugar, hormone balance, and pH, are regulated as well. The result? An ideal weight. So the trick to losing weight and keeping it o…

Who wants to bet that a thick, juicy steak would satisfy your appetite more completely than a bowl of beans and peas? If you bet on the steak, you would be wrong. A recent study proved it. The reason beans and peas were more satisfying?  Fiber! Researchers fed 43 healthy, normal-weight young men a pork/veal dinner. The meal was 19% protein, 53% carbohydrate and 28% fat, and supplied 6 grams of fiber. The men’s appetites were then scored every half hour for the next three hours. At that point, they were given a second meal and told to eat as much as they wanted. The next day, the same men were fed the same meal, except that the meat was replaced by beans and peas. Although the percentages of protein, carbohydrate and fat were the same as in the first meal, the fiber content was now 25 grams.  The men’s appetites were again monitored, and after three hours they were given a second meal and told to eat as much as they wanted. The results? The men reported being less h…

Children’s energy and zest for living make us adults feel alive and joyful. They seem to epitomize good health. But appearances can be deceiving. Like most Americans today, our children are suffering from poor nutrition and toxicity, the two causes of disease. And while children may appear invulnerable, nutrient deficiencies and toxic exposures are taking a silent and sometimes not-so-silent toll. The truth is that even though the knowledge exists to raise strong, healthy children, it is difficult to find a truly healthy child. Child poverty is a significant problem in the US, but even the children of affluent and highly-educated parents have multiple nutrient deficiencies based on government standards, which are already too low. Meanwhile, chemical use in America has gone up 2,000% over the past half century. More than 85,000 synthetic chemicals (only a tiny fraction of which have been tested for safety in humans) are now found in our air, water, soil, food, household furnish…

It may seem like a simple mathematical equation:  One pound equals about 3,500 calories. If you want to lose one pound, you simply eat less and/or exercise more so that you consume 3,500 less calories than you’re burning. But the truth is more complex. Although if you eat less and exercise more, you can lose weight, most people who take this limited approach have a hard time and often wind up like our friend Debby who reported, “I exhausted myself losing five pounds, but they found me again!” As Raymond Francis says in Never Be Fat Again, overweight is a disease, a disease that can only be cured by normalizing body chemistry. This is done by permanently adopting a holistic lifestyle that supplies the body with all the nutrients it needs to be healthy, and eliminates toxins that interfere with good health. A body in optimal health sustains self-healing, self-regulating mechanisms that automatically shed excess pounds and then maintain a healthy weight. Regular exercise is…

Beyond Health exists for one purpose: to help you get healthy and stay healthy. We’re here with information, products and the enthusiasm that comes from seeing and experiencing the dramatic changes in health and well-being that are possible. (That’s why we call it “beyond” health: we help people go “beyond” what they previously thought possible.) What we need to complete the picture is you! Your participation and feedback allow us to continue to improve our service. So we’re inviting you, as 2017 begins, to consider us your partner on a journey toward becoming stronger, healthier and happier. Let us know how we’re doing in meeting your health needs. We’re available by phone or email, and we want to hear from you. Has a supplement helped you? We want to know! Or has it not lived up to your expectations. We want to know that too. Often a little counseling will solve the problem. Do you have a criticism, suggestion, or question? Althou…

This month our Beyond Health Journey to become stronger and healthier has been all about taking time and space to relax, regroup and renew yourself. Whether that’s the traditional two weeks of vacation or taking time out of your day to have a “mindful cup to tea,” a bike ride, or simply a few minutes to sit outside in the sun (preferably barefoot), it all counts as a deposit in your health bank account. One more way you can build up your health savings account is by pacing yourself at work. You’ll also improve your productivity.  Who wouldn’t want to get more work done in less time, and feel healthier and happier to boot! Many of you know that sitting for prolonged periods of time isn’t healthy, and, based on the science, at Beyond Health we’ve recommended getting up and moving around a bit every fifteen minutes or so. But the mind needs a break too also. Over time, the quality of our attention diminishes unless we take short rest breaks. A 1999 study by Cornell Univers…