The Health Plus Letter
April 7, 2009 Vol. 7, No. 10
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher
Table Of Contents
New This Issue
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Your Weekly Health Tip: Preventing Cancer
Self-Care Tips For Managing Stress
The Human Energy Field – An Interview With Valerie Hunt, Ph.D.
Guidelines For Choosing A Holistic Physician
A Health Plus Treat: Poached Salmon in Creamy Asparagus Sauce
Recommendations
Medical Freedom
Contact Information
New This Issue
Welcome to another issue of the Health Plus Letter. This week, given the stressful times we are living in, I’m sharing self-care tips that will help you better manage stress. You’ll also find guidelines you can use for choosing a holistic practitioner, and learn why maintaining a healthy weight is an important step you need to take to help prevent cancer. I’m also including an excerpt from the interview I conducted with Dr. Valerie Hunt a few years ago that was included in my book Health on the Edge. What Valerie has to say is more pertinent than ever, in my opinion.
And you’ll also find a recipe for a delicious poached salmon in creamy asparagus sauce, plus my latest recommendations.
As always, if you like what you read, please feel free to share this issue with others and invite them to join you as a subscriber to the Health Plus Letter. Thanks for reading!
Quote Of The Day
“Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”
-- Albert Einstein
Fast Fact
Due to biochemical individuality, the amounts of specific nutrients required for health can vary by as much as 700 percent from person to person.
Source: The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health by Larry Trivieri, Jr.
Your Weekly Health Tip: Preventing Cancer
Want to improve your odds of not getting cancer? Then make sure you do what it takes to achieve and maintain your optimum weight level. That's because recent research published in the prestigious medical journal Lancet shows that being overweight can increase the risk of a dozen types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, kidney, and thyroid gland. This finding is based on data compiled from 141 studies that tracked nearly 300,000 people on four continents for up to 15 years. The studies clearly show that overweight people have a higher risk of developing these 12 types of cancer. The researchers who evaluated the studies believe that extra fat cells associated with being overweight or obese cause hormone levels to change, thus triggering the formation of cancer cells.
Unabashed Plug
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Self-Care Tips for Managing Stress
Stress has been linked as a co-factor in 95% of all disease. Because of this, learning how to effectively manage stress is a hallmark of holistic medicine. The first step in doing so lies in identifying the specific stress factors that are affecting you, as well as how these stressors manifest in your life.
Types of Stress
Stress factors fall into four broad categories: physical stress, psychological stress, psychosocial stress, and psychospiritual stress.
Types of physical stress include trauma (injury, infection, surgery), intense physical labor/over-exertion, environmental pollution (pesticides, herbicides, toxins, heavy metals, inadequate light, radiation, noise, electromagnetic fields), illness (viral, bacterial, or fungal agents), fatigue, inadequate oxygen supply, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), hormonal and/or biochemical imbalances, dietary stress (nutritional deficiencies, food allergies and sensitivities, unhealthy eating habits), dehydration, substance abuse, dental problems, and musculoskeletal misalignments/imbalances.
Psychological sources of stress include emotional stress (resentments, fears, frustration, sadness, anger, grief/bereavement), mental stress (information overload, worry, guilt, shame, jealousy, self-criticism, perfectionism, anxiety, and a sense of not being in control), and perceptual stress (beliefs, attitudes, world view).
Psychosocial stress can be caused by relationship difficulties (friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, employer), lack of social support, and isolation.
Types of psychospiritual stress include a crisis of values, meaning, and purpose; joyless striving (instead of meaningful work); and a misalignment with one’s core spiritual beliefs.
Poorly or improperly managed stress takes a toll on the body and can manifest symptoms, such as headache, heart palpitations, pain, constructed throat and breathing, clammy palms, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, allergies, asthma, hypertension (high blood pressure), and gastrointestinal disorders, including diarrhea. Prolonged stress can result in suppressed immune function, increasing susceptibility to infectious and immune-related diseases and cancer. Emotional stress can also result in hormonal imbalances (adrenal, pituitary, thyroid, etc.) that further interfere with immune function.
Self-Examination and Belief Management
The first step in managing stress is to determine what factors are acting as stressors in your life. To determine the various causes of physical stress, you may need the assistance of a holistic physician/healer who can help you determine if you are being affected by the physical stressors mentioned above. If so, he or she can help you devise a health plan to eliminate or minimize your exposure to them. The stressors outlined above in the other three categories can usually be pinpointed by being honest with yourself and taking time for self-reflection. Review the lists above and ask yourself if anything within them is a factor in your life. If so (again, being honest), what steps can you take to deal with them more effectively?
Here’s a hint. Often the reason for psychological, psychosocial, and psychospiritual stress has far less to do with the stressors in those categories than it does with our beliefs and judgments about them. As a case in point, let me share an example from my own life. A few years ago, just prior to New Year’s Eve, my car needed to be towed to a service station because my mechanic suspected I had a timing chain problem that could seriously damage the engine if left untreated. However, because he was so busy, it took over a week before he found time to even begin investigating what was wrong. As it turned out, I was without my car for three weeks, because he had to order parts before he could fix it. Given the delay, I eventually became impatient about the situation. Then I had the following dream:
I found myself walking along a busy local thoroughfare in cold, blustery weather in order to go shopping. I was immediately aware of my attitude, which was one of “no big deal.” And as I realized this, I heard my inner guidance providing the following explanation: “Nothing in life that happens to you is positive or negative, but for the way you judge it.” In other words, I am completely free to interpret - or judge - my life situations however I so choose. And it’s the choice I make that will determine if the situations I find myself in stress me out or not. Intellectually understanding and accepting this concept is one thing. Actually applying it is another! As it happens, the day after the dream I actually did find myself having to walk to the grocery store. Given the weather conditions at the time, prior to the dream, I probably would have grumbled about having to do so. Instead, I chose to make the walk through the snow and wind an adventure and really enjoyed the walk each way. In fact, I felt like a child again, recalling how much I enjoyed being out in winter storms when I was much younger. So, instead of creating harmful biochemicals from being upset about having to be out in the cold, I wound up filling myself with positive endorphins and even had fun to boot.
The point of all this is that each of us at every moment is free to choose what we believe, think, and feel about our experiences. Doing so consciously and positively can pay big dividends when it comes to managing stress.
Setting Realistic Goals
It’s quite possible to subject yourself to stress simply by setting unrealistic goals for yourself. Pioneering stress researcher Hans Selye, M.D., pointed out that overly ambitious goals and personal objectives that exceed a person’s experience and skills commonly increase stress. He also advised limiting stressful situations to more manageable times whenever possible. To this I would add that it’s important to honestly examine the goals we set for ourselves. Have you chosen your goals because they are congruent with who you truly are and are things you truly want to accomplish? Or have you set them because of social pressures, for example, fitting into a societal norm? If the latter, you might want to rethink such goals to see if you would be better off discarding them.
A Progressive Relaxation Exercise
Whenever you notice that you are under stress, the following exercise can help you restore a sense of ease and well-being.
Find a quiet place with soft lightning. Sit in a comfortable chair, with your eyes closed and your feet flat on the ground.
Become aware of your breathing. Take a few deep breaths and mentally say “Relax” each time you exhale. Do this for a few moments.
Then become aware of your facial muscles, noticing any stress in them and in and around your eyes. Create a mental picture of this tension-such as a rope tied in a knot, or a clenched fist-and them imagine ease flowing into whatever picture you’ve created. If you imagined the knotted rope, for instance, imagine it untied and setting comfortably.
As you do so, also allow yourself to experience the feeling of your face and eyes becoming relaxed, and feel a wave of relaxation spreading throughout your body.
Tense your eyes and face, squeezing tightly, then relax and again feel the relaxation spreading through you as a wave of soothing energy.
Do the same with the rest of your body, moving down from your face and eyes, to your jaw, neck, shoulders, back, upper and lower arms, hands, chest, abdomen, thighs, calves, ankles, feet, toes. Mentally picture the tension in each part of your body as you tense it, and then picture the tension melting away as you relax each body part. Do this until every part of your body is relaxed.
Rest quietly in this relaxed state for an additional 2-5 minutes, then, still breathing freely and deeply, slowly open your eyes and continue with your day’s activities, feeling refreshed and relaxed.
What follow are other self-care approaches recommended by holistic physicians for managing stress:
Diet and Nutrition
According to Dr. Konrad Kail, N.D., “Often symptoms of stress, such as anxiety, depression, allergic-like reactions, food and chemical intolerances, and hyperactivity can be explained by careful examination of diet, as well as vitamin, mineral, enzyme, and other nutrient levels.” He recommends that people suffering from stress avoid caffeine, sugar, and food additives, and eat a diet rich in fresh, whole foods, including complex carbohydrates and moderate protein.
Dr. Kail has found that many stress sufferers also have impaired digestion and malabsorption, resulting in vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Vitamin B6, for example, is usually rapidly depleted during times of stress and therefore needs to be replenished on a regular basis. Dr. Kail’s nutritional protocol includes supplements of multivitamins and minerals, especially B-complex vitamins and vitamins A, C, and E, as well as calcium.
Harvey Ross, M.D., a nutritionally-oriented psychiatrist, finds that sufferers of chronic stress also often have low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Conversely, he says, people who are hypoglycemic are particularly vulnerable to stress because they have low energy and often their thinking and concentration are impaired. To treat low blood sugar, Dr. Ross includes supplementation with multivitamins, chromium, and glutamine (1,000 mg, 3X/day, 30 minutes before each meal). He also recommends that patients eat smaller meals 5 times a day, with an emphasis on high-protein and low-carbohydrates, with frequent high-protein snacks in between meals. All sugars and processed foods should be avoided, as well.
Herbal Medicine
Herbal teas have long been valued for their stress-relieving properties. Among those most often recommended by herbalists for combating stress are chamomile (to promote relaxation and ease anxiety), passionflower (to lessen worry and promote a sense of well-being), valerian (to keep the nervous system from being overwhelmed, and to promote better sleep), and American ginseng (to protect against the effects of emotional, mental, and physical stress.)
Exercise
Physical exercise can be a very effective means of coping with and releasing stress. Not only has regular exercise been shown to reduce anxiety and depression, it also results in increased energy and improved self-esteem, and helps reduce various physical stress factors. Stretching and yoga are excellent exercises for relaxing tense muscles, while walking, weight training, jogging, and aerobic exercise all reduce stress in general.
Relaxation Therapies
Researchers in the field of mind/body medicine have long known that the body can be trained to enter states of deep relaxation, thus reducing stress. Herbert Benson, M.D. coined the term “relaxation response” to describe this process. Among the most effective self-care approaches for triggering the relaxation response are meditation, conscious breathing, and guided imagery and visualization.
Meditation has been proven to be a safe and simple means of balancing a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states to increase well-being. In addition, meditation is so effective in reducing stress and tension that, in 1984, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommended it over prescription drugs as the first treatment for mild hypertension (high blood pressure). There are many ways to meditate. One of the easiest ways is to simply sit up straight yet comfortably, with your eyes closed, and to focus on your breathing. Once learned, the regular practice of meditation can be a highly effective self-care tool for creating and maintaining health on all levels.
Conscious breathing, or breath work, involves being aware of your breath and ensuring that you are breathing freely and deeply. During times of stress, breathing usually becomes shallow, and often with pauses between the inhalation and exhalation. Simply taking a few moments to breathe deeply without pause can quickly trigger the relaxation response. Regular practice of breath work will usually also result in increased levels of energy and a greater sense of ease and joy. Best of all, it can be done throughout the day without having to interrupt your regular daily activities.
Many people find guided imagery and visualization to be an easy way to learn to relax. A typical guided imagery technique, according to Martin L. Rossman, M.D., a pioneer in this field, is to close your eyes, take a few deep, easy breaths, and recall a time when you felt relaxed and peaceful. As you do so, imagine yourself being back there, noticing in detail the sights, sounds, and smells of the time and place you’re recalling. Focus especially on the specific feelings of peace and relaxation that accompanied this event and allow yourself to bring them into the present. With practice, you will be able to do so at will.
Laughter
Laughter, in my experience, is one of the most overlooked yet powerful forms of self-care. Research has shown that genuinely felt laughter reduces stress and the production of stress-related hormones, while simultaneously enhancing immune function. Just as importantly, laughter and a healthy sense of humor provides us with what psychologists call “cognitive control” over life events. Although events in our external world are often beyond our control, we can nonetheless influence our emotional response to them by shifting the perspective from which we view them. Laughter does just that. Moreover, your ability to laugh at a stressful situation or problem, and even yourself, can give you a feeling of power and imbue feelings of hope and a positive attitude. To cultivate more laughter in your life, train yourself to look out for humorous situations throughout the day, and cultivate a relationship with the childlike “inner clown” within yourself to become more playful and more open to the lighter side of life.
(Parts of this article were adapted from the 2nd edition of Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, co-written and edited by Larry Trivieri, Jr.)
Unabashed Plug
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The Human Energy Field – An Interview With Valerie Hunt, Ph.D.
(Dr. Valerie Hunt is one of the most brilliant healers and researchers I have ever met. 87 years young, Valerie if professor emeritus at UCLA, where she was the first scientist to satisfactorily prove the existence of the human energy field, more commonly referred to as the “human aura.” Since that time, Valerie has remained in the forefront in the field of energy medicine, and today her ongoing research is making clear how and why understanding of the human energy field is of paramount importance not only to optimal health, but to spiritual awareness and the very essence of our Being.
What follows is part one of an interview I conducted with Valerie that is featured in my book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium. To learn more about Valerie, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/advisoryBoard/ValerieHunt.cfm.)
Q: Your research shows that disturbances in the body's bioelectromagnetic field, rather than biochemical imbalances, are the primary cause of disease and malfunction. That being the case, how did biochemistry come to be the underlying basis for the diagnosis and treatment methods of orthodox or conventional medicine?
A: We got into this state back in the 18th century, when medicine started to become more serious about finding scientific evidence to support medical theory and practice. At that time, the field of chemistry was the most scientifically advanced, well before the study of electromagnetism occurred. The researchers of that era began to investigate biochemical changes, and when they did their experiments, they could see biochemical differences. That's where it started. In addition, there was already a body of established scientific evidence regarding the mechanics of alignment and things of this nature in the scientific literature, dating much earlier than the 18th century. Having these two basic references and scientific information to go on, they grabbed it, and that was the basis of the biochemical paradigm.
It wasn't until the discovery of the atom early in the 19th century, that we started really understanding electromagnetism, but by this time the biochemical paradigm was already locked in. The first research into electromagnetism was also concerned only with material substance; it had to do with atoms and the physical things of the earth. The study of bioelectromagnetism, the subtle, invisible energy fields which enfold and animate physical matter, is much more recent than that, such as the work done by Nikola Tesla in the 1950's.
So this is a brief history of why energy field medicine, alternative medicine, or whatever you wish to call it, has been late in coming. The chemistry is there and we need to be concerned about it, but it is not our primary concern and it certainly is not the cause of illness. It's a downstream cause. Even the biochemists say that all chemical reactions have to have a catalyst in order to occur. You can't just put two substances together, you have to have a catalyst, and the catalyst is electromagnetic energy. When the pattern of the electromagnetism is disturbed in the body, you will get disease and malfunction. And this electromagnetic pattern can be disturbed in a number of ways: genetically, due to the nature of the tissue, although I don't think that's a major factor; experientially, due to lifestyle patterns; or emotionally, which I think is the primary factor. What happens is there is a disturbance that occurs in the electromagnetism of the tissue, which will eventually alter the chemistry. And actually this goes clear to the DNA. I predict we will learn before long that the DNA is reprogrammed by the emotional organization of the energy field. I am not saying this simply. I have had experiences here.
Q: What you are saying, then, is that the primary cause of all disease occurs first and foremost in the field. Correct?
A: Absolutely. Many people are coming to that conclusion theoretically. I'm coming to it through my research.
Q: Conversely, then, for healing to truly occur, it has to occur in the field, as well.
A: All healing that takes place in alternative medicine is electromagnetic. Whether it's the laying on of hands, Tai Chi, meditation -- everything that takes place, Even the thought process, or the person's intent or spiritual state, changes the electromagnetic field and changes it almost instantaneously. Now if it stays changed and improved, the body heals itself, and the chemistry reorganizes. This biochemical reorganization is the effect that medicine is working upon. Medicine has never, ever cured anything. The body cures itself. Sometimes, in emergency situations, we need the offset of biochemistry, but not as a cure of disease. It never has cured disease, and it never will cure disease. Only if the field changes will there be a true cure.
For example, I can measure the energy field of a person who has had cancer but that cancer, according to chemistry, is in remission. I can tell you if the person still has a cancerous field, and until that cancerous field goes, I don't care if there is remission or not, biochemically, as long as the field does not change, it's going to recur.
And the reason they have cancer is because the field is a very high, very weak field. They're sweet, dear, lovable people. That's their emotional orientation. They aren't aggressive, and they don't have lower frequencies, which have to do with tissue vitality. Without the tissue vitality, the cell becomes cancerous. But the difficulty is that some of these people would almost rather die than to give in to the very intense, angry, and hostile emotions which they have.
Q: Would you say that those emotions are basically suppressed?
A: Yes, they are suppressed as their consciousness soars, staying in what they perceive to be the more positive emotions. I have measured the fields of people with cancer many, many times, and it's always the same pattern. I've never, ever seen a cancer person whose field had the full spectrum of electromagnetic energy, from its lowest to its highest. Never, ever.
Q: Are you saying that cancer is a passive/aggressive disease in the sense of the person's emotional make-up?
A: I wouldn't say passive/aggressive. I would say it's passive, not aggressive.
Q: How did your research shift into this area of the field?
A: My academic background is as a neurophysiologist, and I was also a registered physical therapist. I was working in electromyography and electrocardiography, and I was interested in the patterns of electromyographic energy in the body that were related to emotions. Eventually, I established a pattern of emotions connected with neurological energy. In the process, I was the first researcher to have a telemetry, electromyography instrument. This was when the first astronauts went into space. They had to have monitors of their basic health -- the heart rate, the blood pressure, and the galvanic skin response -- sent from space. They did this using telemetry, which is a radio frequency instrument system. It would send a signal on an FM frequency down to the earth, where NASA would record the FM frequencies and know what was happening to the astronauts.
When I heard about this, I got in touch with NASA and the young scientist who had first made that telemetry instrumentation, and I had him build for me the first telemetry electromyography instrument. This meant I could test a person using an FM frequency, a radio frequency, process the data through my instrumentation and record it. And when I did this I found the electromagnetic energy field.
This was in early 60's, and I thought, "Oh my God, what have I got here?" So I brought in researchers from the university's chemistry, physics, and engineering departments. I said, "What have I got, an artifact?" And they kept saying I didn't, that my equipment was working fine. They tested everything, and finally I realized I was dealing with a new kind of energy in the body.
Now, forty years ago, I didn't know much about meditating, or Far Eastern literature, or mystical ideas. I just knew I was onto something. So I brought in Rosalyn Bruyere, a very top aura reader, and had her read the energy radiating from the body at the same time I recorded energy from surface electrodes. I also brought in healers and people with polio, or who were paralyzed. I just ran the gamut, because at first I didn't know what I was doing. But pretty soon I seemed to know exactly what I was doing. I was measuring an energy field that was in the form of light that radiated from the human body. It could be seen by aura readers and could be altered and changed by psychic healers, by hands-on healers, by all kinds of energy techniques. And it was extremely dynamic. It changed, and would frequently go back to where it was. Eventually, I found that I could measure the resting energy signature of a person. With some people I could get the signature in about fifteen minutes, which meant that, no matter what I did with them, they always had this dominant signature. But for others, it would take five or more recordings until I could find their signature - they were so dynamic and so changeable. This, of course, was good. Such people are not stuck with just one way to play the game. They can play it in all kinds of ways. Under new situations, emotional or physical, they can adjust the electromagnetic field so that they can cope, they can handle, and they can desirably work in the electromagnetic milieu of the world.
Q: In other words, their adaptive skills are optimal.
A: That's right. They are absolutely optimal, in all areas. I call these kinds of fields ideal. Now, what is an ideal field? Health first and foremost is health of the electromagnetic field. You're not going to have health if you don't have health in the electromagnetic field because this is the source. Biochemistry never gives you source. It is legion that some people who go to their doctor find that everything, biochemically, checks out fine. Then they may walk out of the office and die of a heart attack because their fields are not dynamic, and optimally adaptive. The models that we have which say healthy heart rates, blood pressure rates, etc., should conform to a certain standard measurement are stupid. A healthy blood pressure is one that can shoot to the top, and drop to the bottom, and stay somewhere in the middle. It is more often that the people who can't do that are the ones that die suddenly, not necessarily the ones who have what they call high blood pressure.
(My interview with Valerie continues next issue.)
Unabashed Plug
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http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.
Guidelines For Choosing A Holistic Practitioner
How does one go about selecting a holistic practitioner? This is a questions that I’m often asked, and it’s an important consideration. Just because a person bills him- or herself as an alternative or holistic physician, does not necessarily mean he or she is any more competent than a conventional physician might be. Moreover, many alternative physicians do not practice holistic medicine, which treats the “whole person.” Instead, while they may substitute safer substances such as nutrients or herbal remedies in place of prescription drugs, their focus remains allopathic, meaning, like conventional MDs, they are doing little more than treating symptoms. As a health care consumer, you need to determine if that is all you are looking for. If not, you will want to work with a practitioner who takes a more “whole person” approach and, ideally, is skilled in a variety of therapies. What follow are some more guidelines for choosing wisely:
Continue to educate yourself about the general principles of holistic medicine. If I do say so myself, a good place to start, in addition to this newsletter, is by reading the books I’ve written or co-written. In particular, I recommend my books Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide and The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health. Once you’ve selected a practitioner to work with, don’t be shy about asking him or her questions. I find that the best physicians I know are also excellent educators who are willing to make time to address their patients concerns and questions. This is as it should be, since the root word for doctor is docere, which is Latin for “to teach.”
Select a practitioner with a diverse background and expertise in a wide variety of healing disciplines, or who is part of a holistic clinic that offers such services. Ideally you’ll want to work with someone who combines the best of both conventional and alternative medicine, who also has a lot of experience in the therapies offered. To find out, simply ask how long a practitioner has practiced the therapies he or she employs. Generally, the longer they have done so, the better.
Choose a practitioner with whom you feel comfortable and have a good rapport. This is very important. Your physician can be brilliant, but if you don’t feel comfortable around him or her, you will likely experience stress and anxiety during your office visits, which can impede the healing process. My friend Dr. Valerie Hunt has shown that certain physicians are simply inappropriate for certain patients because of the way their energy fields affect each other. When that is the case, Valerie says, no matter what the physician does, the benefits for the patient will always be less than ideal. So “trust your gut” and if you feel uncomfortable, find someone else to work with.
Choose to explore therapies in which you have confidence. It is vital that you believe in the healing approaches you choose to explore. Faith in your whatever approach you choose, whether conventional or alternative, can make a big difference in how well and quickly you respond to it. Equally important, be sure to work with physicians who also have faith in their treatment methods. This is especially important if you have a serious illness, since research has shown that patient outcomes are influenced more by physicians’ beliefs and expectations than they are by what patients expect and believe. (This is particularly true of oncologists and cancer patients, and may explain why so many people with cancer that has metastasized tend to have survival rates that dovetail very closely to their doctors’ expectations.)
Lastly, use your common sense. If a practitioner is making claims that sound too good to be true, then most likely they are. Don’t allow yourself to be persuaded by hype. Insist on the facts and, if in doubt, ask if you can speak with other patients who might recommend the practitioner you’re considering. The time and energy you invest in these guidelines can make a big difference in your health.
A Health Plus Treat: Poached Salmon in Creamy Asparagus Sauce
Ingredients:
1 lb salmon steak (two steaks)
3/4 cup sliced purple onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
1 cup vegetable bouillon stock
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-3" fresh stem of thyme
1 cup chopped asparagus
In a 9” x 12” Pyrex baking dish place onion rings on the bottom of dish. Season fish with salt and pepper and place each steak on the bed of onions. Add the stem of thyme, parsley and vegetable bouillon; sprinkle the asparagus on top of the vegetables and fish steaks. Cover the baking dish and poach in a preheated 375º F oven for 20 minutes. Reserve the steamed asparagus for the creamy asparagus sauce.
Creamy Asparagus Sauce:
1 cup chopped and steamed asparagus
3/4 cup creamy soy milk
3/4 cup fish and vegetable bouillon stock
2 tbsp mirin (unsweetened rice syrup)
1 tbsp white miso and 3 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp oat or barley flour
1 tbsp shallot minced
1/4 tsp celery seeds
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
In a large saucepan, add the oil and flour with stirring over medium heat for two minutes. Next, add creamy soy milk and fish stock; simmer for eight minutes with stirring. Season sauce with shallot, celery seeds, white pepper and salt. Cook for additional five minutes. Remove sauce from heat and stir in mirin and miso paste. Put the chopped asparagus and the creamy sauce into a food processor; puree until smooth. Serve the sauce warm with poached salmon.
This recipe comes from the eBook Burton Goldberg's Definitive Guide to Arthritis, available at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Arthritis-Book-Info.cfm
Recommendations
Books
The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield. Pressfield is my favorite historical novelist because of his ability to make past events become vividly alive. In this, his fifth novel of ancient Greece, he tells the tale of Alexander the Great’s attempt to conquer Afghanistan. Told from the perspective of a new recruit, it’s a gripping account of an event in history that has many parallels today.
Meat: A Love Story by Susan Bourette. Bourette is an award-winning investigative reporter. A few years ago, she wrote an expose of the conditions in a Canadian slaughterhouse. So revolted by what she discovered while working undercover there, she resolved to become a vegetarian, but in less than six weeks she gave up. Instead, she embarked upon an odyssey to learn all she could about how meat is raised, prepared, and cooked, while at the same time searching for a way to satisfy her appetite for meat in the way that doesn’t conflict with her rejection of how most meat in North America is harvested. It’s a fascinating journey and the information Bourette imparts in the process is well worth knowing. I highly recommend it.
Medical Freedom
Please contact and support the following organizations dedicated to protecting our health freedoms.
Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org
Alliance for Natural Health – http://www.alliance-natural-health.org (The leading organization fighting to preserve health freedom in England and the EU.)
Institute for Health Freedom – http://www.ForHealthFreedom.org
International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com
And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.
That’s all for this week.
Health and Blessings!
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
Contact Information: Due to the inordinate amount of spam my email account receives, I no longer use it to receive emails. To contact me, please visit www.1healthyworld.com/contactus
Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 3 Greenwood Court, Utica, NY 13501. It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.
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