Integrate

Improving dietary habits may be a bit of an up and down process. Please try to be patient and kind to yourself along the way. Enjoy your progress, envision your better future!

Contents

  1. Home Cookin'
  2. General Dietary Suggestions
  3. What about Vegetarians?
  4. Toxic Exposure
  5. Stress & Distress
  6. Energy
  7. Nutritional Supplement Roulette

Home Cookin'

Learning how to obtain and prepare nourishing food is an essential step towards self-sufficient health maintenance. If you're a strategic parent, children who learn to cook also learn to make better food choices (two for one).

Learning to cook has many benefits.

Improving your health depends on eating high-quality, nutrient-rich, natural foods. Learning to avoid foods that harm you is best accomplished by preparing your own meals. Initially, the switch to a diet filled with wholesome nutrient-rich foods from a typical Standard American Diet (SAD), or even a well meaning ‘health-food’ diet, can be a bumpy road. It's pretty easy to understand why. Changing established habits and educating yourself can be difficult, it will take some time. And, there are hidden obstacles:

  1. Many industrially processed "food" products contain chemical ingredients engineered to make them physically addictive (intentionally). Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
  2. Strategic industry-funded campaigns of misinformation confuse consumers.
  3. Industrial agriculture produces and aggressively markets toxic, nutritionally deficient dairy, meat, vegetables, grains and fruits. Food borne and water borne chemicals and toxins are a major exposure route for everyone.
  4. People are accustom purchasing low-cost of processed foods, a misleading falsehood, perpetrated by government subsidies (our taxes) to industrial agriculture. Also, the environmental despoliation brought about by industrial food production, and the unspeakable harm inflicted on animals raised in CAFOs — all these things make the true cost of cheap grocery store food beyond calculation.
  5. Lifestyle habits that are unhealthy, are still habits. Habits are hard to change.

With perseverance and courage you can overcome the hurdles and stumbling blocks. You will quickly discover that you become more capable, more resilient, happier, healthier, and enjoy more energy. These are the incentives that continue moving you forward.

Back to Top
You are what you eat — so don't be fast, cheap, easy, or fake. Anonymous

General Dietary Suggestions

The following guidelines are general, and fine for most people. It is very important to eat foods that are raised sustainably. That is, organically grown, pasture-raised, grass-fed, GMO and antibiotic free.

Meal Simplification

puzzle

Keep it simple. Start with choices that promote good health.

Try to keep your meals simple. Simple meals are easier to digest (and to prepare). E.g.;

  1. One cooked vegetable with chicken, fish, lamb or beef.
  2. One cooked vegetable with eggs (omelette).
  3. One cooked vegetable with a wild rice and bean combo (for a complete protein).

Keeping food combinations simple is particularly important for the very young and very old. Also for anyone with a dysfunctional digestive system. The fact that gastrointestinal drugs are on a list of the 20 top selling prescription drugs, indicates that millions have a compromised digestion. Add to this the multitude of popular over-the-counter drugs sold for diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, acid reflux and so on. Unfortunately, pharmaceuticals effect symptoms and can often make the underlying cause of the problem worse.

Back to Top

General Food Recommendations

  1. Vegetables
  2. Simple Carbohydrates
  3. Complex Carbohydrates
  4. Dairy
  5. Protein
  6. Fats
veggies!
Vegetables
The importance of eating your vegetables can't be overstated. Cooked vegetables are easier on the digestion than raw veggies, and cooking kills parasites and bacteria that may have escaped your washing techniques. Vegetables provide many nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fiber. You obtain more nutrition from cooked vegetables compared with raw, you'll eat a lot more when they're cooked (steam a pot full of fresh spinach, you'll see what we mean). If you are unaccustomed to eating a lot of vegetables, try juicing for a concentrated, tasty drink!
Simple Carbohydrates (aka, sugar)

Try to eliminate ALL simple carbohydrates including, sugar and sweets, candy, cookies, pastry, sweetened cereal, and on, and on... Especially avoid anything with high-fructose corn syrup (the mainstay of most processed foods and drinks). Don't drink calories (i.e., soft drinks, sports or energy drinks, mocha frappuccino, etc.). Instead replace them with plenty of clean water. A daily glass of carrot juice is a sweet treat instead.

The metabolism of glucose and fructose is similar. However, fructose can induce numerous abnormalities that include fatty liver, which in turn could eventually lead to impaired liver function, cell damage, and fibrosis. Fructose metabolism has the ability to induce generation of reactive oxygen species due to increased activity of xanthine oxidase and generation of glyceraldehyde, which is an inducer of free radicals. The liver may be exposed to oxidative stress following the consumption of fructose. M. Fields, Nutritional Factors Adversely Influencing the Glucose/Insulin System

Limit consumption of fruit. Fruit affects blood sugar levels and very often can contribute to intestinal diseases such as yeast infections. It's okay to eat small servings of organic fruits, when in season, a few fresh organic berries make a nutritious treat. Dried fruit should be avoided, if you must eat it make sure that it's organic, and cook it first to kill parasites (common in dried fruit).

Fructose (the sugar in fruit) is readily absorbed and rapidly metabolized by the liver. For thousands of years humans consumed only about 16–20 grams of fructose per day, largely from fresh fruits. Western diets have resulted in significant increases in added fructose, leading to daily consumption typically in the 85–100 gram range. Exposure of the liver to such large quantities of fructose leads to insulin sensitivity, and fatty liver disease.

We evolved eating fruits only when they were ripe, thus for very short periods. Today super-sweet fruit is available 42/7, most fruit has been hybridized to maximize sweetness and to improve storage and shipping (compare the size and sweetness of a modern strawberry with a wild strawberry).

Resources

Complex Carbohydrates

Eliminate all grains that contain gluten. These include barley, bulgur, couscous, farina, graham flour, kamut, mayzo, rye, semolina, spelt, triticale, wheat and wheat germ. Most people feel better without any gluten in their diet.

Vegetables actually provide all the carbohydrates our body's need. Human's do not require any carbohydrates from grain or sugar. That said, eating a small amount of grain is okay — unless you are a fast metabolizer. Fast metabolizers should avoid grain all together. If you are a slow metabolizer, gluten free grains and starches can be eaten in small amounts. These include (organic, non-GMO):

  • Amaranth
  • Arrowroot
  • Buckwheat
  • Corn (meal, chips and tortillas)
  • Millet
  • Quinoa
  • Rice
  • Sorghum
  • Tapioca
  • Teff

Proper preparation of grains is important. A special pre-soaking procedure is usually recommended due to phytates. Always cook grains thoroughly. Avoid granola, trail mix and muesli, which may not be well-cooked and is usually rancid. Because of rapid oil rancidity, grains are best eaten freshly cooked.

Avoid wheat and spelt in all forms. Commercial wheat is highly hybridized and is unbalanced and inflammatory. Avoid all foods made with wheat such as most breads, pastries, cakes, cookies, flour tortillas, hot and cold cereals, soups and gravies thickened with flour, and most pasta. If you must have pasta, use rice or non-wheat pasta.

Modern wheat is a perfect chronic poison. The modern wheat plant was created by genetic research in the '60s and '70s. This thing has many new features, that nobody told you about. For example, there is a new protein called gliadin. Not gluten. And, I'm not addressing people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. I'm talking about everybody. Everybody is susceptible to the gliadin protein that is an opiate. The gliadin protein binds into opiate receptors in your brain. In most of us it stimulates appetite. So much so that we consume at least 440 additional calories per day — 365 days per year. Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly
Dairy

Along with the advent of modern industrial agriculture, serious health problems associated with dairy products have developed. We recommend AGAINST consumption of all dairy products from conventional, industrial, confinement dairies. Carefully sourced, raw dairy products are excellent nutrient-rich foods. This has been true for millennia. Raw dairy products are rich in calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium, selenium, dozens of other trace minerals, and other beneficial trace nutrients.

Pasteurized Milk concerns

Pasteurization allows commercial dairy operations to sell milk from diseased cows because pasteurizing kills harmful bacteria. It's integration was made possible by large-scale well funded lobbying efforts. The problem is that milk is a living food, and pasteurization damages the bio-availability of calcium and protein. It also destroys most of the omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and other nutrients. As a consequence these commercially processed milk products often cause allergic reactions for susceptible individuals. When you set pasteurized milk out on your counter, it quickly goes rancid. In contrast, clean raw milk begins to ferment and turns into healthy, edible curds and whey.

Pasteurization also destroys lactase in the milk. Lactase is an enzyme in the small intestine that is essential to the complete digestion of whole milk. Lactase breaks down lactose, a sugar which gives milk its sweetness. Lacking lactase, consuming dairy products may produce the symptoms of lactose intolerance. This is why many people have digestion problems when drinking milk. Raw milk contains lactase that can help to repopulate the gut flora, improving digestion.

Lactose intolerant? Digestion Self-Evaluation

Safety and Sourcing Considerations

Safety concerns around harmful bacteria in raw milk are valid. Raw milk should only be purchased from dairies that follow strict health and safety practices and test their milk regularly for bacterial content. If you can find a reputable source for high-quality raw milk from pasture raised, grass fed cows, a small amount of milk is okay. However, if you can find raw goat milk that would be preferable. Goat milk is a better human food than cow milk because the balance of fat to protein is more appropriate, it is naturally homogenized (fat doesn't separate like milk) so the fat is easier to digest — and it is lower in sugar. Raw, non-pasturized dairy products from pastured, grass-fed animals including plain kefir (unsweetened), full-fat plain yogurt (unsweetened), and cheese provide excellent nutritional benefits.

Resources

Protein

Fish and seafood used to be one of the best foods man could eat. Now most are too toxic. Wild-caught salmon once a week is another generally safe seafood. Sardines are one of the least toxic fish because they are low on the food chain, fast-growing, and they contain abundant sea-minerals, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids. Limit your consumption of most other fish and especially shellfish, most are contaminated with mercury and other chemical and biological toxins.

Grass-fed naturally raised beef and lamb are excellent food. Naturally pastured (free-range) poultry is more important than "organic." Pastured and organic is even better. Wild game are excellent protein, make friends with a local hunter.

Avoid all industrially processed meats. Also, avoid organ meats unless you are sure they come from grass-fed naturally raised animals. Organs tend to accumulate toxins so the animal needs to be very healthy. Pork products may contain parasites that cooking does not always neutralize, pork is best avoided as well.

Although nutritious, nuts and seeds are hard to digest and contain phytates. Eat them in very small quantities. Roasted nuts are usually rancid. Nuts should be fresh and raw. Eating them as nut and seed butters allows for easier digestion. Avoid peanuts and peanut butter due to the common presence of aflatoxins.

Avoid soy protein powders. In fact, avoid soy products all together. Protein powders (e.g., whey powder) are highly processed and most contain other harmful ingredients. Obtaining your protein from whole foods is much better than processed powders or meal replacement drinks. Whole eggs, whole milk are both nutrition-rich and cost less too. Protein smoothies usually have some added sweetener, so you get an overdose of simple carbohydrates.

What about Vegetarians?

People often feel better when they first switch to a vegetarian diet. They have eliminated toxic junk foods and are eating more vegetables (good for anyone). Also, vegetarian foods are easy to digest, and most people have a compromised digestive system which makes digestion of animal proteins difficult.

Eating a vegetarian diet without compromising your health is complex and challenging — though not impossible. Most vegetarians are unable or unwilling to spend the time and effort necessary to preserve their health. After a few years they become exhausted and begin developing a host of health problems. And vegans get to this state of exhaustion even faster than vegetarians. But even when the proper precautions are observed, without the metabolic information hTMA, you cannot be sure you are giving your body what it needs. If you are a vegetarian and want to know whether your body is absorbing and retaining the nutrients it needs, we recommend you work with a qualified practitioner.

Fats

Fats are extremely important, especially for fast metabolizers and children. Children, when healthy, are naturally fast metabolizers. A fast metabolism requires some fat with every meal for the pure energy it provides. Most people need between one and three tablespoons of fats daily. Eliminate deep fried foods (e.g., french fries). The oil is often overheated, rancid and damaged. Be sure to get enough omega-3 fatty acids in your diet. Sources of good fats and oils include:

  • Organic raw certified dairy products (keifer, yogurt, cheese)
  • Organic hemp seed oil
  • Safe fish
  • Organic eggs from hens that receive greens and insects in their diet (pastured/free-range)
  • Organic meats
  • Organic extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil
  • Organic nut and seed butters (small amount)
Back to Top

Toxic Exposure

Eliminate, and/or mitigate exposure to toxins the best you can.

Currently, the odds of dying from a cancer related illness are 50%. If you have beaten the odds this far and wish to reduce your risk, hTMA can detoxify your body and fortify immune function. hTMA builds health and prevents cancer and other degenerative diseases.

Toxic Exposure Guidelines cover

Toxicovigilance Guidelines

Not only is cancer on the rise, asthma, neurological disorders (e.g., dementia, learning disorders), infertility, the list goes on. Many illnesses have been linked to caused by environmental toxins. The only way to protect yourself is first, do your best to avoid exposure, and second, reduce your toxic body burden (i.e., support your body's detoxification systems).

Chelation therapy uses chelating agents to detoxify heavy-metals such as mercury, arsenic, and lead, by converting them to a chemically inert form that can be excreted without further interaction with the body. Approved by the U.S. FDA in 1991, chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology. However, there are dangers associated with this therapy due to its aggressiveness and speed. Fortunately, hTMA is a gentle, safe form of chelation therapy. By providing the correct amounts of preferred minerals in the proper balance, hTMA fosters the excretion of toxic minerals and prevents cellular retention of heavy-metals resulting from new exposures.

Ways to Eliminate, Mitigate, and Detox
  1. Environmental Illness (an introduction.)
  2. Follow the clean-up tips outlined in the Prepare section of Nutritional Balancing.org
  3. Avoid purchasing toxic products. Reduce.org
  4. Get involved in cleaning up your community. It is important, rewarding and fun work. A critical community action is joining together to get the chemicals and drugs out of your community water supply.
  5. 50% to 90% of any pharmaceutical drug taken is excreted un-metabolized. Sewage treatment plants cannot remove these toxic drugs from the water they treat. Seek safe alternatives to these toxic drugs. Dispose of any that you have at proper toxic waste disposal sites, DO NOT flush them down the toilet. Preventing Environmental Damage from Pharmaceuticals
  6. Replace fluorescent light bulbs with LED alternatives, or even conventional incandescent bulbs. Fluorescent light bulbs are frequently defective and can emit harmful amounts of radiation. Also, they contain mercury – which is toxic at any amount. 16x9: Shedding Some Light on compact fluorescent bulbs
  7. Lobby against smart meters and other harmful electromagnetic exposures in your neighborhood (and remember that "not proven to be harmful" does not mean that they are proven to be safe, especially for children).
  8. Avoid air travel. If you do fly, choose pat-down over scan-search. Also, be aware that the air you breath is taken directly from the engines, and is unfiltered. This ‘bleed air’ is known to be contaminated with engine oil and fluid particulates. For more info:https://www.gcaqe.org/
  9. Help improve the lunch programs in your child's school.
  10. Support local farms that grow food safely and sustainably. Fatal Harvest Andrew Kimbrell
  11. Support local food markets that buy from farms that grow food safely and sustainably.
  12. Support organizations that work to protect our food
  13. Look at your workplace, what can be done to eliminate, avoid and mitigate any toxic exposure?
  14. What other steps can you think of to eliminate, reduce, and mitigate toxic exposure in your life and your community? Here are some helpful resources: About Air Toxics, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
  15. Learn from organizations that work to protect our food such as Food Whistle Blower and Food and Water Watch.
  16. Mad-as-a-Hatter Weston A. Price Foundation
Reduce Toxic Body Burden with hTMA

Balancing essential minerals with hTMA also acts as a gentle chelator. It removes accumulated toxic chemicals and heavy metals by replacing them in cellular binding sites with biologically preferred elements. The safest, most effective way to chelate heavy-metals is with results from a hTMA and the guidance of an experienced hTMA practitioner.

Back to Top

Stress & Distress

Reduce distress (as much as you can). The mechanisms of stress have been substantiated and are continually being explored, but the nutritional consequence has not been fully appreciated. We should first recognize that not all stress is necessarily bad. Dr. Hans Selye described this as "eustress." Human beings are constantly under stress. It is both inescapable and indispensable to life. Some types of stress can be motivating and positive. Distress, however, is destructive to the body and if prolonged can lead to physical deterioration.

Prolonged stress response leads to the loss of a multitude of essential minerals and nutrients. Nutritional imbalances lead to increased body burden of heavy-metals and toxic chemicals because your body does not have the resources needed to detoxify at the cellular-level.

Back to Top
balance

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving." — Albert Einstein

Energy

All biological processes are dependent on having adequate energy, and cellular energy is the source.

Many repair activities happen during sleep. So, contrary to the common idea that we sleep because we are exhausted, sleep requires energy.

Even the conversion of food into energy, requires energy. Removal of waste products created by cellular activity requires energy. The less energy you have available, the more dysfunction occurs. And without adequate energy for basic functioning — the cell dies.

Increased functioning of the thyroid and adrenal glands occurs in the alarm stage of stress (i.e., flight of fight). This hyper-state leads to chronic-fatigue syndrome (adrenal insufficiency) and ultimately to under function, or hypo-thyroid or hypo-adrenal states, commonly experienced as burnout. This is a sign of poor stress response and immune dysfunction, both of which can lead to degraded performance, and illness of all types. Achieving and maintaining a balanced P.A.T axis optimizes cellular energy. And functional hormonal response enables emotional stability.

hTMA data provides information needed to support your specific biochemical needs. Diet alone is not enough, because it's simply not possible to control the precise mineral levels and ratios through your meals alone.

Back to Top roulette

Nutritional Supplement Roulette

How does one decide what nutritional supplement to take?

Research has led to an appreciation of biochemical individuality. Each one of us has unique metabolic needs. Minerals affect nutrient absorption and utilization, an effect that can be detrimental or beneficial. Nutrients can have both stimulating and sedative effects of upon metabolism. And the interrelationships between vitamins and minerals can be synergistic or antagonistic.

The majority of multiple-vitamin and mineral supplements are potentially harmful, as they contain ingredients that have antagonistic interrelationships. It is important to understand that with each mineral, multiple factors need consideration to determine its therapeutic efficacy for a specific individual. This complexity is one reason why hTMA is such a valuable tool for clinicians. It provides scientifically objective data about an individual's mineral imbalance profile, so therapy can be accurate and specific.

The synergistic and antagonistic effects of nutrients affect different people differently.

Supplements and Metabolism

A person who has a fast metabolic rate should avoid excessive intake of the stimulatory nutrients (such as vitamins A, B1, B3, B5, B6, B10, E, phosphorus, sodium, potassium, iron, manganese and selenium). They should instead be supplementing with the sedative nutrients (such as vitamins B2, B12, D, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper and chromium), but only at the proper levels and in proper ratios with other nutrients to balance their bio-individual excess and deficiency.

A slow metabolizer, on the other hand, would be adversely affected by the sedating supplements calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12. This can lead to depression and other health dysfunctions.

Calcium Supplementation
Excess calcium intake can produce a phosphorus and magnesium deficiency, resulting in symptoms almost identical to that of a calcium deficiency. A continued loss of magnesium will contribute to increased sodium retention and eventually a vitamin A deficiency. Chronically low magnesium levels can lead to irritability, insomnia, increased blood pressure, tremors, muscle spasms, noise sensitivity, excessive perspiration and body odor.
Zinc Supplementation
If taken over an extended period of time, zinc supplementation can create a copper and/or iron deficiency. It can also cause a sodium to potassium imbalance. Excess zinc accumulation can lead to lowered resistance, fatigue, hair loss, prostatitis and other symptoms.
Individual Response to a Supplement
How an individual's metabolism functions explains why some people feel better on certain supplements while others feel worse on those same supplements. Response and reactions depend on specific and individual biochemical makeup, including how much stress you are under and your ability to recover from various stressors.
Taking supplements without having accurate metabolic profile data is not recommended. Many nutritional supplements are not benign, especially when taken in combination. They should be considered medicine, because if a supplement is contraindicated it can cause you harm.

Laboratory hTMA provides important information regarding your biochemical individuality (metabolic profile). A best-guess approach to nutritional supplementation often creates deficiencies and excesses. Randomly taking supplements without an individualized biochemical analysis and scientific guidance risks harm.

You may hear that zinc is good for you, that vitamin D is good for you, or that we are all deficient in magnesium. You may be seduced by 2-for-1 sales on supplements. But as you can see from the examples above, taking any of these might be a big mistake for you.

To prevent harm and realize maximum benefit, we recommend that you do not take any nutritional supplements without your hTMA results, and the guidance of an experienced practitioner.

Find a hTMA Practitioner Back to Top