Natural News ~ Orthorexia Nervosa –New mental disorder aimed at people who insist on eating a clean diet

The label “orthorexia nervosa” is not brand, spankin’ new, but I do appreciate how Mike Bundrant explains the concept, spin and issues with this “diagnosis.”  Question: if you’re mentally ill for wanting to eat only clean, healthy foods, then what does that make you if you’re so into fresh, organic foods that you grow them yourself with heirloom seeds in your own garden? Oh, right, according to the government, that makes you an agri-terrorist. Because organic, healthy foods and heirloom seeds are much more dangerous than glyphosate, Agent Orange derivatives, pesticides, terminator genes and genetic drift. And people who eat healthy food are much crazier than drone operators who bomb weddings. Glad we got that straightened out!

Orthorexia Nervosa –New mental disorder aimed at people who insist on eating a clean diet

By Mike Bundrant

(NaturalNews) In a world where meaning is malleable, you can twist the truth however you want. You can create a story to make worthwhile endeavors look bad. You can make harmful practices appear attractive.

The mental health system has recently taken a shot at making healthy food choices appear dangerous, if you can imagine, especially when those choices are your top priority.

Clinicians are actively diagnosing patients with orthorexia nervosa, the extreme desire to eat pure food.

This is not a parody. It’s actually happening.

If you have a strong desire to eat pure, uncontaminated food, then you could be suffering from a mental disorder per this new medical labeling trend.

According to the Guardian: Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soy, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out.

Doctors and mental health professionals are very concerned, of course, as orthorexia nervosa seems to be ‘on the rise.’ Ursula Philpot, chairperson of the British Dietetic Association mental health division, was quoted as follows:

I am definitely seeing significantly more orthorexics than just a few years ago. Other eating disorders focus on quantity of food but orthorexics can be overweight or look normal. They are solely concerned with the quality of the food they put in their bodies, refining and restricting their diets according to their personal understanding of which foods are truly pure.

Philpot further asserts:

Those most susceptible are middle-class, well-educated people who read about food scares in the papers, research them on the internet, and have the time and money to source what they believe to be purer alternatives.

Are you with me? If you are well-educated, like to do your own research and eat only foods that you (all by yourself) determine to be healthy and pure, then it is safe to say that you are at risk for ‘catching’ orthorexia nervosa.

Yes, orthorexia, is something that you can catch like a disease, according to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA). On the NEDA website, they ask the questions: Why does someone get orthorexia? This positions orthorexia as capable of latching onto you like a cold.

Other authorities position orthorexia as a brain disorder

A 2013 study associated orthorexia with impaired executive functioning (based on self-reporting). This means, according to researchers, that the better you do with cognitive tasks, including planning and decision-making, the less likely you are to have orthorexia.

So, if you’re high functioning and smart, you shouldn’t have problems eating chemically-laden food, at least once in a while.

If your brain is not functioning properly, then you’re very likely to begin insisting that everything in your diet consist of real food.

I don’t know if orthorexia nervosa is a grand conspiracy – another way to misle innocent people into eating junk. If it were a conspiracy, it would be a brilliant one. I can’t imagine a better message from the likes of big food and big pharma.

We could boil down this message as follows:

Hey, we’re busy profiteering by infecting the planet and the food supply with chemicals. If you insist on avoiding our noxious faire, then you’re a mental case. Your brain has gone haywire and you should seek professional help from one of our mental health representatives.

When you arrive, you will be diagnosed mentally ill, of course. But don’t worry, we have pills for that. We’ve got you covered! Soon, your brain will be corrected and you’ll have no problem eating our crap.

Do you have orthorexia nervosa?

WebMD can help get started down the path to diagnosis. Just ask yourself the following questions, per their website:

• Are you spending more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food?

• Are you planning tomorrow’s menu today?

• Is the virtue you feel about what you eat more important than the pleasure you receive from eating it?

• Has the quality of your life decreased as the quality of your diet increased?

• Have you become stricter with yourself?

• Does your self-esteem get a boost from eating healthy?

• Do you skip foods you once enjoyed in order to eat the “right” foods?

• Does your diet make it difficult for you to eat anywhere but at home, distancing you from friends and family.

• Do you feel guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?

• When you eat the way you’re supposed to, do you feel in total control?

Are any of these leading questions? You be the judge.

The ‘symtoms’ are common

There are people out there that experience anxiety about chemicals in their food. There may be people who are obsessive about eating only 100% pure food – and will go to any length to avoid food manufactured with impure ingredients. This may mean avoiding food at social gatherings, refusing certain foods prepared by others and taking considerable time planning and preparing meals.

Are all natural health advocates candidates for this diagnosis?

Natural health lovers be warned. One nutritionist says that you are in danger if you eat only healthy food. To quote Jennifer Culbert (SAR’09), a registered dietician:

So if someone cuts out processed food, or things that are genetically modified, or not grown organically, the danger is that they can become malnourished or underweight.

Got it? You must eat processed food, GMO’s and plenty of non-organic ingredients in order to avoid malnourishment.

How much more ridiculous can we get here, folks? My brain is spinning as I pick myself up off the floor. Laughing your ass off is dangerous, too. You can fall out of your chair.

Let’s be fair, though

The originator of the term is one Steven Bratman, MD. Dr. Bratman has taken some heat for his new term. On his website, he explains very carefully that he never intended for his concept to applied to anyone who is merely pursuing health by eating well. It was only intended for those who are suffering from an over-focus or “unhealthy obsession” with pure food.

I understand. I am sure there are those who take it too far. Not by eating only 100% real food 100% of the time, but by alienating others in their life who choose to eat a conventional diet. After alienating those around them, the health obsessed individual could get pretty lonely. This could be a valid concern.

Additionally, I am sure it is possible to become so paranoid about your food the even the purest and healthiest food choices available become suspicious. At this point, you might begin to dangerously restrict your diet.

Another fair point: Orthorexia nervosa is not an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM). It is merely used by clinicians, but not officially sanctioned by the APA.

Fair enough. The problem, however, is that clinicians are using it as a practical diagnosis and some of them appear to quite sloppy about it, in my humble opinion.

For example, one registered dietitian, Julie Upton, reported to the Huffington Post, “We have no specific criteria [for orthorexia], but we know it when we see it.”

And thus the problem with the mental health system in general and with mental “disorders.” The labels are there. If you get one, then you are officially mentally ill. You have a brain disorder. Yet, there are rarely, if ever, tests to validate the so-called brain disorder prior to prescribing meds.

There are pills to chemically alter your brain, but no tests. Have you ever had your child diagnosed as ADHD and put on psychiatric drugs? What tests were done to determine the physiological necessity of the drug?

In the case of orthorexia nervosa, there apparently aren’t any criteria for diagnosis. Clinicians “just know.” How dumb do you doctors, dietitians and counselors think we are?

The other problem is this: There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating a 100% clean, healthy diet 100% of the time!

Check the reference links below and you will discover that I am not making this stuff up.

Hey! Are you an orthorexic?

Sources:

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

http://www.orthorexia.com/

http://www.webmd.com

http://www.bu.edu

About the author:
Watch the free video The AHA! Process: An End to Self-Sabotage and discover the lost keys to personal transformation and emotional well-being that have been suppressed by mainstream mental health for decades.

The information in this video has been called the missing link in mental health and personal development. In a world full of shallow, quick-fix techniques, second rate psychology and pharmaceutical takeovers, real solutions have become nearly impossible to find. Click here to watch the presentation that will turn your world upside down.

Mike Bundrant is co-founder of the iNLP Center and host of Mental Health Exposed, a Natural News Radio program.

Follow Mike on Facebook for daily personal development tips.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/048886_orthorexia_nervosa_healthy_food_brain_disorder.html#ixzz3TtkVCHez

Vandana Shiva ~ Decolonize the Mind

From the YouTube channel description:

Published on Feb 21, 2014

Most of our cultures across the world have believed in Mother Earth as a Mother and it’s only in this period of the rising of industrialism and capitalism and colonialism that the idea as the Earth as a Mother was destroyed in order to turn the Earth into a reservoir of resources to be exploited.

Right now we can see Mother Earth is rising and say you are an immature spoiled kid and you are going to far and every time a disaster in my view is Mother Earth shaking us up to say get your a[ct] together.

75 % of the food comes from small farms, those who use 25 % of the land and 25 % food comes from those who use 75 % of the land. If those who only providing 25 % food using 75 % of the land controll 100 % of the land, they will bring the foodsupply to 33 %, which means all of the planet is destroyed.

It is the monoculture of the mind which prevents to see the diversity. It is only organic, biodivers and small which will feed the world.

The new science of false objectivity, the new science of false rationality of a tree or nature defining as death, that science was a very patriarchal science and it required women to be killed as witches. The witchhunts, the colonization and the destruction of Nature are the three colonizations, it is a colonization of the mind.

During the ‘Voedsel Anders Conferentie’ in Wageningen in the Netherlands, after planting of a so-called food forest, Migarda Raphaëla, Robin Bukenya and Roland van Reenen had this intriguing conversation with the Indian scientist and activist Vandana Shiva. It was an honor to share the richness of diversity both natural as human. If only we could decolonize our minds, diversity will feeds us in so many ways!

ANH ~ Monsanto “Goes Organic” and Wins “Sustainability Award” –Right!

Thanks for taking that 1984 Doublespeak just a bit too far! The following article has accomplished what months of my own warnings and alarm soundings have failed to do: convinced some locals that “sustainability” does not always mean what they assume it means. We need to peek “Behind the Green Mask,” and write our own definitions and protections, lest our “Sustainable City” and “Responsible Regionalism” usher in an entire fleet of Trojan Horses.

UPDATE: I’ve just learned that Monsanto is now an official backer of Agenda 21!

Monsanto “Goes Organic” and Wins “Sustainability Award” –Right!
ANH-USA.org

This isn’t a spoof. In addition to this story, we’ll provide you with a round-up of GMO-related news, including why your neighbor may shortly be planting GMO grass right next to you. Action Alerts!

We won’t spend time in this article reiterating past research on why genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are dangerous—you probably already know that they can randomly produce toxic effects; introduce alarming levels of chemicals into our ecosystems and diet; and have been shown to cause serious health problems—but there have been some recent developments in GMO politics, science, and regulation that we want to share with you.

Here are the news items we’ll cover:

Monsanto Wins Award for…“Sustainability”?
GMOs Aren’t Enough—Monsanto Wants to Monopolize Conventional and Organic Crops, Too. Action Alert!
Is Someone Growing Unregulated GMO Grass Right Next to You? Action Alert!
All Eyes on New Global Precedent for GMO Contamination
Industrial Herbicides Are Even More Toxic Than We Thought
Is Industry Persuading Scientists to Quash Chilling Scientific Findings?

Monsanto Wins Award for…“Sustainability”?

When most of us think of sustainability, we think of environmental practices that will allow current and future generations to enjoy nutritious, locally farmed foods, clean water, pure air, and a non-toxic, natural world. As the concept has developed, it’s also become applicable to other realms, including economics and healthcare. For example, ANH-USA advocates for sustainable healthcare—practices that allow you to naturally maintain your health and extend your lifespan.

To the EPA, sustainability “creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations.”

Taking these definitions into account, it may surprise you to learn that last month, Monsanto—yes, the same Monsanto whose expensive seeds caused an estimated 125,000 Indian farmers to commit suicide —was recognized as one of 2014’s Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World.

Monsanto was ranked 37th on overall sustainability, 5th among American companies, and 5th globally in the materials industry by an organization called Corporate Knights (CK), a media and investment advisory company whose flagship magazine has one of the world’s largest circulations and is published quarterly as inserts in the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail (UK).

Ubiquitous as CK is, we find their criteria for “sustainability” —also called their “key performance indicators”—more than a little absurd:

Energy productivity
Carbon productivity
Water productivity
Waste productivity
Innovation capacity
Percent tax paid
CEO to Average Employee Pay
Pension fund status
Safety performance
Employee turnover
Leadership diversity
“Clean capitalism” pay link (rewards “companies that have set up mechanisms to link the remuneration of senior executives with the achievement of clean capitalism goals or targets”)

As one University of Toronto business ethics professor noted, “Only the first four actually have something to do with what most of us mean by ‘sustainability.’ The rest are…not relevant to the question of sustainable use of resources, or to the notion of sustainable economic growth that is compatible with environmental conservation.”

And even the first four have nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with profits. After all, the award-givers define “energy productivity” as how much revenue companies can squeeze out of one unit of energy. The health of the environment literally has nothing to do with it.

For the countless natural health practitioners, organic farmers, consumers, and activists who unceasingly fight and sacrifice to “walk the walk” of sustainability, the bastardization of this important term is not a joke. It is offensive.

Perhaps “excellence in sustainability” is CK’s code for “excellence in propaganda.” As we’ve consistently reported, there is nothing sustainable about Monsanto and their GMO seeds.

For example, GMOs do not increase crop yields. A 2009 Union of Concerned Scientists report found that GMO soybeans do not produce increased yields, that GMO corn only marginally increases yields, and that no GMO crop has even been found to have intrinsic yield (meaning, yield in “real life,” and not laboratory, conditions).

We’re not quite sure who CK thinks they’re fooling, or what they get out of this nonsense. A more interesting question is why Monsanto is trying so hard to “greenwash” its image. Fonts inconsistent.

Meanwhile the Geneva-based Covalence group placed Monsanto dead last on a list of 581 global companies ranked by their reputation for ethics. For more on this, see chapter 11 of Crony Capitalism in America 2008–12, a book recently published by ANH-USA’s board president, Hunter Lewis.

GMOs Aren’t Enough—Monsanto Wants to Monopolize Conventional and Organic Crops, Too. Action Alert!

Since it purchased the company in 2008, Monsanto has been quietly cultivating its Seminis brand, as well as several other semi-anonymous brands, to breed and sell seeds that aren’t GMO.

To create these seeds, Monsanto and its minions are claiming to use nothing more than traditional crossbreeding (where plants with desirable qualities are laboriously “mated” until they yield progeny with the targeted traits). This process takes quite a bit of “time, land, and patience.”

Don’t be fooled: Monsanto isn’t using your grandparents’ crossbreeding. They’re engaging in a highly technical process that appears to takes place in a lab, not a field, and also appears to involve manipulation on the genetic level.

Worse yet, they don’t seem to want to make foods healthier. For example, Monsanto is attempting to breed fruits and vegetables that taste sweeter than their traditional counterparts. Read: they’re engineering a way to add more sugar than nature intended. The last thing that most people need is more sugar or fructose in their diet.

Is this a blatant attempt to win back the “hearts and minds” of consumers? According to one Monsanto official, “There isn’t a reputation silver bullet, but it helps.”

There is another important question to ask here: If Monsanto truly believes that GMOs are the future, why are they investing in conventional crops?

There’s no way to know for sure, but it’s possible that Monsanto doesn’t have faith in its own product: the company is already facing consumer pressure and emerging long-term health problems associated with GMOs.

For this reason, they could simply be hedging their bets. What if, in the future, the scientific consensus is that GMOs are harmful, or there’s a GMO-sparked environmental disaster, or the government decides to intervene? They may think they have to prepare for the possibility that GMOs may eventually fail. Seminis and its sister subsidies are Monsanto’s “insurance:” if GMOs crash and burn, they have a conventional cash cow to fall back on.

Action Alert! Please write to national grocery chains, and tell them you don’t want any Monsanto products—not “organic,” not conventional, and certainly not under any other name!

[Laura again: How interesting and yet not surprising that the Action Alert! page comes up but then I immediately get a Yahoo notification that the page cannot be found, refusing to allow connection to the page. You might need to speak directly to your grocery store and co-op buyers to let them know of the Monsanto deception with Seminis. I, personally, would not trust anything from these lying thugs, whether they slap an organic label on it or — perhaps more appropriately — a skull and cross bones. Actually, I would trust a poison label on anything Monsanto touches.]

Full ANH newsletter and Action Alerts here.

Make Money by Helping People Grow Food in Raised Garden Beds

Here’s an inspirational interview with Jacob the Urban Farmer by John Kohler of Growing Your Greens. They cover how to put in a raised bed garden, how to trace the sun’s path, soil building, entrepreneurial tips, as well as information on Square Foot Gardening. I love solutions-oriented thinking in action:

For those of you not familiar with John Kohler, he’s been a mainstay in the raw food, juicing and gardening community for many years. I knew him when I lived in Northern California, and I’m so pleased with how he’s expanded his reach with this incredibly informative YouTube channel. Having seen his home garden and tasted his veggies, I can personally attest that he gets massive growth and grows some of the sweetest, most flavorful produce I’ve ever tasted. His channel is well worth some regular watching by anyone looking for fresher food, savings in the grocery store, more independence, a return to Nature, and the chance to make money in a faltering economy.

Eat Healthier, Spend Less

David and I attended last night’s monthly Farmer’s Market Film Series showing of “Food Stamped”. (According to the trailer on YouTube, “FOOD STAMPED follows a couple attempting to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet on a food stamp budget. Nutrition educator Shira Potash teaches nutrition-based cooking classes to elementary school students in low-income neighborhoods, most of whom are eligible for food stamps. In an attempt to walk a mile in their shoes, Shira and her documentary filmmaker husband embark on the food stamp challenge where they eat on roughly one dollar per meal. This film is a documentary work-in-progress by Shira & Yoav Potash. See www.FoodStamped.com“) I had planned to post about low budget healthy eating here anyway, so FOOD STAMPED just provided an extra nudge in that direction.

Most of my blog readers and clients have at least made the connection that fresh, local, organic, non-GMO foods make them feel healthier, more energetic, more optimistic and more in control of their own well-being. What I hear repeatedly in sessions, though, is a disconnect between what people “know” about high quality, nutrient dense food, and what their pocket book or time limitations make “possible.” Today’s post aims to share some of the cheaper ways you can bring better food into your life, along with some health habits that yield big returns for relatively small time and/or money. I’m not trying to list every single healthy diet or activity people can do, but rather focus on what clients have shared as a specific and troubling concern, namely: “How can I allocate and stretch my money so that I can spend less without compromising lifestyle and health?”

FOOD STAMPED followed the Potash’s on a week-long journey in which they attempted to eat organically for $1/meal. As they wandered around the store trying to weigh nutrient density per dollar, I had some flashbacks to times in my own life when food money was tight, including when I remained indefinitely disabled from my 1998 traumatic brain injury, and during a time when I was making a lot of money that someone else spent even faster than I could make it. In both situations — one with very little income and one with high income but little remaining food cash — I learned many of the skills the Potash’s model. Some tips from the film and my own experience follow:

1) Shop your local farmers market for lower prices and fresher foods. Go early for the freshest foods and widest selection; go later for deals when the farmers just want to move produce they’ve already harvested.

Get to know your local farmers and tell them what you like. I’ve had some farmers actually give me edible “weeds” like purslane each week. They needed to get the puslane out of their lettuce beds before it choked their crops, and I loved to eat the lemony wild bursts of Omega-3. Score for both of us! One farmer in Canada realized from talking with me that she could sell the purslane and increase her own bottom line by monetizing weeds. She ended up selling purslane for much less than her cash crop lettuce, but included a small fee just for the convenience of harvesting and cleaning it. I was happy to pay $1 for multiple meals and smoothies worth of greens!

By talking to farmers, you can also find out if they have any “seconds” they’d be willing to sell you at a lower cost. Not everything harvested looks perfect, but they may have some less pretty items lurking beneath the table or at home. Knowing that you’d be willing to settle for less image at a lower cost helps both the small farmers and you by increasing their profits while saving you money for equal nutrition.

As shown in FOOD STAMPED, many farmers markets have begun to accept SNAP (food stamp cards) and WIC credits. In Madison, our nearest walkable farmers market was just a single seller who set up shop outside the local WIC center on the day they distributed the vouchers. This seller grew things organically, but had not gone through the costly process of organic certification. Thus, they could afford to sell healthy, clean, organic quality foods at lower cost than certified organic produce. Without talking to them on a trip to the nearby library, I would never have known they were organic.

We learned last night that the Goshen Farmer’s Market vendors and Board feel so strongly about giving low income people access to high quality foods that vendors not only accept SNAP but give double the value. For every $1 in SNAP spent, Goshen Farmer’s Market kicks in an extra $1. Hard to beat that! (Buy direct from the farmers, eliminating middle man, packaging and transportation costs, and then receive double credit for SNAP.)

Ask around! Local, organic farmers markets continue to pop up all over the place, even in inner cities and former “food deserts.”

2) Watch for sales and coupons and shop the bulk bins. I’ve mentioned before the power of visualizing what you need or want and then “asking” for that item to be on sale when you shop. David has seen me do this so often that he calls it “Laura Bruno-ing” something when an item we want shows up 25-80% off on a shopping trip. I need a little heads up to concentrate energy before we get there, but most of the time, it works. We’ll either get rerouted to a store we hadn’t planned to go but that has those items on sale, or the place we’ve intended to shop suddenly puts up discount signs or coupons on most or all of the products I’ve mentally requested. I save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars every year just with this one technique. And the best part? Sales and coupons work out to the equivalent of totally legal, tax free income.

I’ve also had good luck mentally connecting whatever money I have allocated for food and images of the foods I want. I used to do this when food money was very, very tight. The entire time of shopping, I would keep the mental connection between all the food I needed and whatever dollar amount I had. When I’d hit the checkout, I would almost always find the food tallied up to within a few pennies of the available money I had.

My dear friend, Leigh, who left her physical form in 2006, used to go one better. Disabled by cancer and fatigue, she often found herself without regular recourse to funds. She’d go to the store (and I witnessed this multiple times, plus heard her stories) without any money in her purse. She’d pick up whatever produce and other items she needed, proceed to checkout and say, “Lord, I know you provide for the birds of the air, and you’ve promised to provide for me as well. I need some provisions right now.” She’d open her purse, and if her bill was $19.11, she’d find a crisp $20 bill in her wallet. If her tally was $4.99, she’d have a five. Leigh had incredible faith, and I miss her amazing spirit, faery giggles and deep Teresa of Avila compassion. Not everyone has the gift of faith, if you pray for faith, I guarantee you’ll experience more miracles! I share Leigh’s and my own stories here to reveal what’s possible. I have never — despite some dire external circumstances — not received what I needed for healthy living and eating. Sometimes those things arrived in unusual ways, but arrive they did. I know Leigh had the same sorts of experiences on a regular basis.

More traditional methods of saving food money include doing a quick online search for a “coupon code” related to whatever you plan to purchase online, or scanning the coupon pages of local papers. I do the coupon code search, but I’m far too lazy to flip through coupon pages. I do, however, often glance through the little magazines/flyers that co-ops and health food stores have featured by the registers. You never know what little treats the Universe has in (this) store for you!

Bulk bins also offer easy, non-woo-woo savings. Compare the cost of a can of beans vs. dried beans. In addition to saving yourself from BPA-laden, cancer-causing cans (Eden foods does not use BPA, btw), dried beans will save you many dollars per pound. Soaked and then cooked ahead of time for several meals, you can enjoy their protein and nutrition without paying for the cans, labels, processing and marketing. If you do buy canned foods, consider doing so by the case, as you can usually save at least 10%. Combine that with a member appreciation day at a co-op, and you’ll multiply your savings. You can use the same method for any processed food you regularly consume. Yes, the initial cash outlay is more, but over the course of a couple weeks or months, you’ll recoup that money in savings.

3) Know where to buy which things. I prefer to buy most of my food from local, organic farmers; however, some staples like frozen fruit for green smoothies come from further away. In an ideal world, I would grow my own fruit and freeze it at harvest, but I haven’t planted fruit trees or bushes yet, so for now, I’m stuck with frozen fruit in the winter. I love to support our local co-op, but when we first got here, 10 oz. packages of frozen fruit were $5.99 each. Craziness! I wasn’t hurting for money, but that was nearly double what we paid for the exact same items in Madison. We branched out to Kroger and found 10 oz. packages of organic fruit on sale for $2.29-3.49 each. Much better: we stocked up but expressed regret that we had to spend our money at a chain store instead of the local co-op. Lo and behold, frozen fruit went on sale at the co-op … and … they started putting out coupons for it, too, making it equivalent or cheaper than at Kroger. Ask and you shall receive…

For longer term storage things, my friend Ingrid turned me onto the “At Cost Specials” on the Raw Food World. FYI, they have an affiliate program, but I’m not part of it. I’m just sharing that I’ve found their At Cost Specials quite a bargain, especially when combined with various coupon codes. At the end of December and into January, for example, they offered two months’ worth of at cost items, plus an astonishing additional 17.5% off coupon code for the entire order. For people who love organic, prepared raw foods or raw ingredients, watching The Raw Food World offers can help you build up raw staples at relatively low cost. Due to shipping, it doesn’t pay to order only tiny amounts from them, but if you find yourself with a little extra money, you can stretch that money far with the specials and get an extra 5-17.5% off, depending on the coupon code.

Another online option I recently re-discovered is the Green Polka Dot Box. You can either join for $50/year or try a trial membership of $10, which then applies towards a full membership. It’s kind of like Costco discount online for organic, non-GMO foods and products. I’ve not purchased from them yet, but plan to in the near future. In today’s crazy climate of Civil War talk, peak oil, and any number of potential grid or transportation shut downs, I like to have redundant sources of food and products on hand. Yes, I have seeds for outdoor gardens and have a small indoor, windowsill garden, but I also like the security of having some backup food in the event of hyperinflation or delayed deliveries. For many people, prepping for disasters seems out of reach, but with careful assessment of where and when to buy what, you can funnel the exact same dollars you’d spend on food into a larger volume of purchases.

4) Grow your own food. No, not everyone has their own garden-friendly yard, but more and more communities have begun offering cooperative gardening opportunities. Even if your community doesn’t have something like that, you can grow food in your windowsill, talk with a neighbor about using their sunny yard in exchange for shared harvests, or volunteer at a local farm in exchange for food. Our local Clay Bottom Farm, for example, offers food in exchange for work. David and I plan to spend some time there, not because we need the food, but because we want to learn more about gardening/farming. I’m a gardening nerd with limited real world experience. The chance to interact with people who actually know what they’re doing feels like a huge blessing, and the fact that doing so will result in free produce? Wow! Even better. Ask around. If it doesn’t exist yet, maybe your asking will prompt a new program or opportunity for you and others!

If you think you live too far north to grow things in winter, Four Season Harvest is a wonderful book that reveals how to grow all year round from Maine south — without heated greenhouses or extra lights. It turns out that most of the US is located further south than the famous year round gardens of Southern France. Cold frames can protect from the colder temperatures, but light, not cold, tends to be the limiting factor in winter growth. Four Season Harvest tells you how to provide seasonal veggies year round.

5) Get a tongue scraper. This suggestion falls more in the “save money on supplements while improving your health” category. Each night, your body naturally detoxes all sorts of yuck that shows up in the morning on your tongue. You can buy and follow expensive cleansing protocols — and I am a fan of some of these, too — but you can also purchase a one-time tongue scraping device for very little money and unburden yourself of all the toxins so carefully purged overnight. This simple act of scraping your tongue will also eliminate bad breath, improve your overall oral health, and help reduce the bacterial, fungal, viral load in the beginning of your digestive system. All for a one time purchase of $10-16. I’ve used a curved “V” metal one with plastic handles for many years.

6) Practice oil pulling. This is another one of those supplement money savers. I had tried oil pulling years ago, have clients who swear by it, and recently got major synchronous nudges to start oil pulling again. You can find out all you need to know by clicking here. According to Dr. (med.) Karach, “[T]he Oilpulling heals totally ‘head-aches, bronchitis, tooth pain, thrombosis, eczema, ulcers and diseases of stomach, intestines, heart, blood, kidney, liver, lungs and women’s diseases. It heals diseases of nerves, paralysis, and encephalitis. It prevents the growth of malignant tumors, cuts and heals them. Chronic sleeplessness is cured.’ …

“Oilpulling is a age old Ayurveda process, it works on the ROOT CAUSE and helps body in its healing process, hence takes significant amount of time in giving you the desired results. The time it takes depends on an individual. Hence pl. don’t expect a MAJIC PILL kind of treatment overnight.”

In a world of expensive dental treatments, including (often toxic) whitening processes, and the ongoing correlation between gum disease, tooth decay and issues like cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, oil pulling offers extremely cheap insurance against some of the biggest offenders. I’ve been using organic, extra virgin coconut oil this time, but in the past I’ve used olive oil as well as the more traditional sesame oil. My teeth feel both stronger and whiter, and I’ve noticed I have even greater mental clarity, regardless of what I eat. I’m not offering medical advice here, but you can consider oil pulling at the very least a low cost healthy habit for gums and teeth, and … depending on if you believe all the anecdotes and research out there … a miracle cure. Your choice. 🙂

7) Start rebounding. I’ve written about rebounding (bouncing on a trampoline for your health) before. Not only is it a fun way to exercise, especially in the winter, but it also moves your lymph — a key to strong immune function. You can often find rebounders or mini-trampolines at garage sales or on craigslist. You could even sign up for freecycle.org and request one. Worst case scenario, you can find one for around $50-$150 on Amazon. With regular rebounding, you can slim cellulite appearance, massage your lymph system, activate your spine and cardiovascular system, and de-puff your face. Think of all the savings on flu medicines and eye creams. 😉 For those who prefer similar benefits without the activity, a simple skin brushing practice will accomplish much the same lymph movement, while also shedding off toxic layers of dead skin.

* * *

I hope these tips empower you to healthier living in all areas, including financial. I feel so grateful to be in control of my own money and health these days, but frugal, sustainable, self-sufficient living skills also help me to live more abundantly and joyfully in the now. Some simple habits don’t necessarily take any (or much) extra time or effort, but they yield experiences and cash flow for things I value. I love helping others realize that yes … life can support you in your quest for healthier, happier, easier living … and no, that doesn’t need to cost a fortune or require a huge income. Priorities and preferences! Know what they are, commit to them, and you will find your way.

Peace!

Update on the Liens Filed Against All 12 Federal Reserve Banks

Many people have asked me, either in blog comments, sessions or personal conversations if I can “prove” David Wilcocks’ announcement of liens being filed against all 12 federal reserve banks. The short answer is, “No, I can’t, but my gut tells me this ‘Plan’ is legit.” I decided to share unproven — and perhaps, as yet, unprovable — information here, because it seemed important to share. If you don’t choose to believe it, I won’t feel offended. In fact, I applaud people doing their own research — online, via their own insider contacts, actively seeking Truth, and most importantly, getting quiet within themselves so that they can hear and sense their own inner polygraph.

For most people, tuning into a disinfo detector might feel difficult to impossible, because their whole lives from education to TV to media to GM foods and pesticides to medicines to chemtrails to group think peer pressure have been designed to force them to swallow lies and call these food. If you eat mostly or all junk food, then it’s difficult to know which specific foods have caused your irritable bowel syndrome, mind fog, arthritis and overwhelming fatigue. Everything gets all muddled up in there, and symptoms pile upon symptoms.

Take some BigPharma drugs to mask those symptoms, and a host of side effects jump into the mix, until soon you’re taking drugs to combat the side effects of other drugs. Digestion becomes compromised. So does the body’s natural protection system — the immune system. Immune and autoimmune diseases result, in which the body embraces toxic substances, attacks itself, and/or rejects or fails to assimilate real nourishment. We live in a world of obese, starving people. In this state, the mental, emotional, and spiritual immune systems become compromised, too. As within, so without. As above, so below. Everything interconnects. In this state, discernment of true, nourishing, real information becomes very difficult to accomplish.

What can you do, and what does this have to do with the 12 liens?

First of all, on the physical level, you can start cleaning up your diet. Realize that GM foods modify your DNA, not just the food itself. In fact, some of those modifications contribute nothing to the food’s ability to grow, resist bugs, or stay fresh longer, but they do influence the human endocrine system. Scientists have found that imbalances in the endocrine system and associated physical, mental, emotional and spiritual symptoms correspond very closely to ancient teachings in yoga regarding the chakra system. You can begin to clear your chakras by clearing your diet of GM foods, pesticides and known toxins like fluoride. Fluoride in water calcifies your pineal gland, one of your prime centers for spiritual downloads and Divine connection.

Brain fog from fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, both largely related to Candida overgrowth, affects the ability the see clearly — on all levels. Candida also vibes with a “victim mentality.” The more Candida someone has, the more stuck they feel. I see this so often in Medical Intuitive sessions that the second someone starts to whine or bemoan how everything’s conspired to keep them down, I know they have Candida overgrowth. I wouldn’t even need my intuition to recognize that fact, but later tests and healing results confirm my suspicion. If you want to rise out of feeling oppressed and victimized by the 1%, you can work to rebalance your gut ecology. Cleanse the parasites and Candida and watch your inner perspective and external reality shift, too.

Second, you can start exposing yourself to Truth, so that you become familiar with it. Don’t start out with the tricky stuff like a Ben Fulford report or channeled material that requires honed discernment to pull out disinfo Ben may have accidentally received or that a channel knowingly (or more often unknowingly) filtered through his or her own old programming. Pure spiritual information can come through garbled, even if it’s initially accurate! If a person has not dealt with certain major blind spots, then they may unconsciously filter or alter an otherwise good message. To some extent this is human nature, and it doesn’t mean to throw out all channeled material. Unless you know the channel or feel confident in their life process, ability to step outside ego, and general good will and desire for your freedom, then I wouldn’t start with trying to discern that kind of material. Doing so would be equivalent to trying to climb Mount Everest when you’re just learning how to walk.

Instead, turn to Nature, which offers its own order and strength of being. When you surround yourself with pristine, unadulterated Nature, you reset your own inner ability to recognize Natural Order. Truth needs no adornment, just like wildflowers and forests have their own, gorgeous, unique signatures. They feel like a sigh of relief compared to carefully manicured lawns. It takes less work to tell the truth than to lie. Think of how things snowballed if you’ve ever told a little or not so little white lie. How often have you needed to remember your cover? How many other lies spilled from that original moment of untruth? Now think of lawns, which are inherently unnatural. How much effort goes into suppressing weeds? How many pesticides, back breaking efforts to pull out weeds, fertilizers, leaf raking and artificial watering sources are required to keep that lawn looking like a good, old fashioned suburban patch of green? Nature does not apologize and doesn’t need to control. It just is.

If you want to learn more about Nature’s ability to self-correct, I strongly recommend the permaculture book, Gaia’s Garden. It will change the way you see our world, and give you much hope for a recovery to truth and Natural Order. Nature always wins. When you surround yourself with Nature, you remember who you are. Then you become stronger than anyone trying to control or overwhelm you. Sure, Nature gets trashed, but it recovers. Nature is incredibly resilient, and the wilder, the better. When you become like a wild thing, you will recognize when someone or something tries to control you through words, images, foods, or emotional programming. You might not know why, but something just won’t feel right. Trust yourself enough to remove yourself for awhile and return to Nature. Take a walk, pondering your questions. See how you feel about information you’ve received when you’re in the context of Natural Order instead of sitting at a computer in an artificially lit room plugged into the power grid.

Examine your knee-jerk reactions, and ask to have appropriate humility and confidence. In his poem, “The Second Coming,” William Butler Yeats says, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are filled with passionate intensity.” So true! But not always true. In order to recognize where you fall on that continuum, you’ll need to make a real assessment. How badly do you want to know Truth? How much effort and intention have you devoted to finding it? Do you regularly clean your mind and body? Do you question authority from more than just a Left-Right, Liberal-Conservative, Good-Bad perspective? If you find yourself locked into a duality mindset, then you’re not ready to trust those knee-jerk reactions.

If, on the other hand, you have sincerely tried to find Truth, and you have actively cleared your system of known interference, then I would suggest another step at this point. Talk with Archangel Michael and ask him to clear “all inappropriate cords.”

This kind of cord cutting won’t cut supportive, loving relationships, but it will begin what needs to be an ongoing clearing process of energy vampires. Our government, media, education system, CFR, advertising, corporations, religions and ethers are filled with pathological narcissists eager to devour you as a tasty snack. They won’t completely destroy you, because they want you alive enough to continue to feed them, but not so alive that you can run away. If you’re on a long enough leash that you’ve never pulled, then you might not even realize you’re on a leash. Cut all inappropriate cords — daily, at least every morning when you wake up — and see if your convictions shift. People and entities feeding on you send confusing messages your way through those feeding tubes/leashes — messages designed to cultivate loyalty and a sense that you need them.

If you regularly cut cords, walk in Nature, eat real food, and actively seek Truth, even if that challenges your core beliefs, then you can afford to trust your gag reflex. If you can’t swallow something, then it probably “ain’t right.” Do you need to know exactly why? No, not initially.

If you started eating food laced with arsenic and lead and your initial reaction was to gag, would you continue eating the food until you knew exactly which poison it contained? Or would you stop eating it right away and then throw it out or have it tested? If you swallow too much poison at once, you’ll have a harder time with the toxins; if you swallow too many lies at once, you’ll have a harder time finding your way back to truth. If you feel alone in the world because your gut reaction/gag reflex tells you very different things than even “Lightworkers” or self-proclaimed evolved people believe, don’t judge yourself. You don’t know their inner discernment process, and you can’t control it. You can only control your own filters, by regularly cleaning them.

You can also pray. If you feel confused about religion and don’t know whom to pray to, I would suggest a generic “Holy Spirit, please guide me to the right words and the right information. Please help me to know what I need to know in this moment.” You don’t need complex names or hierarchies to get help. You can simply intend that you’re receiving something holy and that filters out a whole bunch of potential deception, obligations, resistance or confusion. What’s the point of praying for guidance if you’re simultaneously wondering if the one your praying to is part of the plot trying to deceive you? When you pray, connect with the purest source you can imagine, and hold the intention that your body, mind, emotions and spirit have already begun working in harmony with the highest good of all.

Learn to read energy. This skill takes some time, but it will serve you well in your discernment efforts. It will allow you to see and hear beyond words. Lies register in the aura as well as in body language and level of nervousness.

If you know confirmed, compulsive liars, observe how they operate. When you know they’re lying, look a few inches above their head. Feel how you feel inside when this known lie comes out of their lips. Explore the surrounding area to see if little notes or ironic signs seem to indicate the opposite of what they share. Lies stick out. If you observe in a non-attached way, you will begin to register those energetic anomalies. If you widen your gaze, you will begin to see how the Universe slips in Truth despite the liar’s best attempts to suppress it. In general, lies feel garbled, like static, whereas the energy of Truth feels clear. If you’re a truthseeker surrounded by liars and disinformation, Truth will hit you as relief. Follow that relief.

What about those 12 liens and the “Plan”? Again, I cannot verify those liens and all that David Wilcock and insider Drake have shared. From the internet research I’ve done, it appears that lien filing is at least a 7-step process. The first step of sending those letters would not result in the actual liens going into the public record. This link here talks about the steps involved in this process. I do, personally, feel the dominoes have begun to fall, but please use your own discernment and do your own research.

I will say that I don’t post things on this blog that set off my own inner polygraph. I have an extremely strong “gag reflex,” to the point where things like the History is Being Made post would normally not make it past the first few minutes with me. For a variety of reasons, not all intuitive, either, Drake strikes me as legit.

First of all, he doesn’t turn my stomach. Huge plus in his favor. And highly, highly unusual. Sometimes I regret my gag reflex because so much of our contrived world makes me want to puke.

Second, I’ve known a lot of veterans in very deep ways and have spent more time than most people as an observer in VA hospitals. What Drake shares about veterans agrees with what I’ve seen, sensed, heard and felt over the years.

Third, Drake encourages everyone to “do your own research,” “get off the couch,” “get to know your neighbor,” and “develop your local community.” These are not things pathological narcissists and their lackeys want you to do! “Divide and conquer,” isolation from other influence, and centralized control are the calling cards of narcissists and their disinfo agents. Drake tells people that no one will do things for them. “In order for the Plan to work, people have got to get up off the couch.”

In a nation of couch potatoes, mesmerized by media, internet, two-party politics, victim/abuser/savior paradigms, and Facebook, suggesting people go outside and chat with their neighbors is a radical thing! Who knows what people might discover when they start talking to others face to face? Maybe their internal lie detectors will start working again, because they can see triggers like body language, facial expression and time delays — none of that available online. NWO cronies don’t want people to feel empowered. They do want people to fight each other so that the NWO can declare martial law and take over every aspect of your life. People don’t automatically want to kill each other when you get to know the Other. The desire for knee-jerk violence and killing happens when you allow something external to turn your neighbor into a caricature of everything you’re taught to hate. Finding the humanity, the soul, in other people will help reclaim our nation and our world from “Corporations are People” thinking.

Time will tell if this “Plan” comes to full fruition, but this I know: the seeds have begun to sprout. I’m reminded here of the parable of the sower:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” Matthew 13:3-9

Nature will do her thing. Real seeds scattered on good soil grow. These seeds don’t strike me as GMO’s, but the real deal. Will they all grow, and will the plant look exactly like the picture or the parent plant? I don’t know, but the more people picture freedom and improve their own inner terrain, the more likely we’ll see freedom’s fruit.