Alternative Grains to Wheat that are Gluten-Free

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Increasing variety of natural, whole foods gives your body more variety in minerals, enzymes, energy and healing power. Unfortunately, refined, processed wheat has become the staple food in many people’s diets today. Of course, wheat also contains gluten, a protein that can weaken the micro-villi in the small intestine, decrease absorption rates and over time can also weaken the peristalsis function of the colon. Even if you’re not intolerant to wheat or gluten, adding different grains to your diet is a good idea.

All information in this article is for educational purposes only.
It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

Whether you cook your grains or eat them raw (usually sprouted or soaked) is entirely up to you. Either way, your body will benefit from having less wheat and gluten. Don’t be afraid to add a cooked grain, such as quinoa or brown rice, to a delicious raw vegetable salad for a half-raw, half-cooked meal. Especially when transitioning to a high-raw diet, cooked grains can help you feel full and keep you on the path of natural, whole and pure foods.

Keep in mind that gluten is also found in kamut, spelt, barley and rye. If you are looking for a total gluten-free diet, you should avoid those grains as well.

Gluten-Free Grains

Buckwheat

Technically buckwheat is not a grain. It is actually a fruit seed related the the rhubard family. It has a nutty taste and goes well with root vegetables like carrots or beets, onions and mushrooms. Buckwheat is high in protein (particularly lysine), is a rich source of B vitamins, and is high in manganese and tryptophan. Because of it’s high amounts of flavonoids, particularly rutin, buckwheat helps maintain blood flow, strengthens the blood and protects the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from free radical oxidation into potentially harmful cholesterol oxides. All these actions help to protect against heart disease.

Buckwheat is called ‘groats’ when unroasted (raw) and ‘kasha’ when roasted. In cooked food, buckwheat can be served as an alternative to rice or made into porridge. Buckwheat flour is great for making ‘healthy’ pancakes. As a raw food, buckwheat groats can be used to make a ‘raw’ porridge by soaking the groats overnight and adding cinnamon, dates, raisins and raw honey or agave.

Quinoa

Quinoa is a food from the ancient Incas, and although considered a grain, it’s technically part of the Chenopodium plant family. Quinoa has a light flavor and nice texture when cooked; it’s also easy to sprout. Quinoa is consider a complete protein, meaning that it includes all nine essential amino acids. This makes it a great choice for vegans, vegetarians and raw foodists who are concerned with getting enough protein in their diet.

Quinoa is also a very good source of manganese as well as magnesium, iron, copper and phosphorus. Can you imagine how much nutrition your body will get? You can make a delicious quinoa salad with finely chopped red bell pepper. tomato, cucumber, chopped parsley, raw apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper and sea salt.

Brown Rice

Brown rice has a much higher nutritional value than white rice because the outer layers of the grain are still intact. The processing and refining of white rice strips the rice of its nutrients. Brown rice is naturally high in B1, B3 and B6 vitamins as well as manganese and selenium. It is also a good source of dietary fiber.

Add some cooked brown rice to a salad of chopped cucumber, tomato and grated carrot. Drizzle with a mixture of tahini, water, squeezed lemon, cayenne pepper, cumin and salt. This makes for a healthy lunch or a great fast dinner. You can also use brown rice as a side dish to a main meal, adding some chopped scallions and minced garlic for flavor. Let your food be your medicine!

Corn

Many people forget about corn as a healthy grain option to add to the diet. Corn is naturally high in magnesium and helps to stimulate bowel function. It’s great for anyone suffering from constipation. Corn is an ancient grain that is high in B vitamins and carotenoid antioxidants and is another good source of dietary fiber.

Corn on the cob can be eaten either cooked or raw. If raw, simply cut the corn off the cob and add it to a salad. You can even eat the raw corn on it’s own with a dash of cayenne pepper and salt for a fantastic afternoon snack. Add raw corn to a fresh homemade salsa for some real raw food bliss!

A great snack for kids as a healthy alternative to potato chips or pretzels is to make homemade popcorn using the real kernels popped on the stove. Transfer the cooked popcorn to a serving bowl and drizzle with organic virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and nutritional yeast for a yummy ‘cheese’ flavored treat.

Corn can be genetically modified which is definitely a concern, but keep in mind that genetically modified wheat will soon be produced for mass consumption too. At least corn is less processed than refined white flour and doesn’t contain gluten. If possible, buy corn from your local farmer and be sure that he is not growing ’roundup ready’ corn (ie, genetically modified and owned by Monsanto).

Millet

Millet is a fantastic gluten-free grain, naturally high in protein, phosphorous, iron and B vitamins. When cooked, millet has a sweet buttery taste. Millet can be sprouted and eaten raw; hulled millet should be used for cooking.

Cooked millet can be served as a breakfast porridge with a variety nuts and chopped fruits. Ground millet can be added to bread and muffin recipes as an alternative to wheat. Sprouted millet can be blended with flax seed, carrot pulp, rosemary and cayenne pepper and then dehydrated for some yummy raw food crackers.

Why is wheat so bad for you? William Davis, author of the book Wheat Belly, explains it well. He says, “Eliminating wheat is the easiest and most effective step you can take to safeguard your health and trim your waistline. An interesting fact: Whole wheat bread (glycemic index 72) increases blood sugar as much as or more than table sugar, or sucrose (glycemic index 59). So, when I was devising a strategy to help my overweight, diabetes-prone patients reduce blood sugar most efficiently, it made sense to me that the quickest and simplest way to get results would be to eliminate the foods that caused their blood sugar to rise most profoundly, in other words, not sugar, but wheat.”

Davis also states,” Whether it’s for convenience, taste, or in the name of “health,” Americans have become helpless wheataholics, with per capita annual consumption of wheat products (white and wheat bread, durum pasta) having increased by 26 pounds since 1970. If national wheat consumption is averaged across all Americans – babies, children, teenagers, adults, the elderly – the average American consumes 133 pounds of wheat per year. (Note that 133 pounds of wheat flour is equal to approximately 200 loaves of bread, a bit more than half a loaf of bread per day). Nobody becomes diabetic by gorging on too much kale. But plenty of people develop diabetes because of too many muffins, bagels, breakfast cereals, pancakes, waffles, pretzels, crackers, cakes, cupcakes, croissants, donuts and pies.”

With rates of diabetes, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), colitis, celiac and cancer going through the roof and increasing every day, isn’t it time we started to make some serious changes to our diets?

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How to Improve Your Detox: Top 5 Detox Tips

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All information in this article is for educational purposes only.
It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

Taking the time to do a detox is a commitment to health. The money spent is an investment in your future. Energies used to travel are well worth the effort.

Finally, you have the opportunity to recharge, rebuild, cleanse and heal.

With a ‘reboot,’ moving forward, you can continue with positive change in all areas of your life. With all things considered, don’t you want to get the most out of your detox?

A few simple tips can help you maximize your results.

Eliminate Salt for 1-week before

Don’t forget to do your work at home. It doesn’t matter how mant fasts you’ve done; everyone needs to prepare correctly for a detox just the same.

For at least 7 days before the start of your program, eliminate all salt from the diet. Keep in mind that most salt is hidden in foods and not actually added. Look out for restaurant food, airplane food, sauces, salad dressings, curries, pickled foods and packaged snacks.

Having no salt in the diet allows the body to start loosening built-up plaque and toxins in the colon. A no-salt diet for 14 days as a pre-cleanse is ideal, but at a minimum, try to commit to 7 days. By doing so, you will maximize your results during the detox.

Bring Herbal Teas

Most detox programs offer various fresh juices in addition to herbs and detox drinks. They also allow for herbal teas using fresh or dried herbs, but often charge more for tea or may not mention that organic herbal teas are permitted. Herbal teas support the organs during the cleansing process, and even better, they provide a nice flavor to enjoy while fasting!

Be sure to buy organic and bring a variety of flavors to choose from. Peppermint or ginger tea are great for nausea. Turmeric tea is very cleansing for the liver and tastes delicious! Parsley or uva ursi tea help to support the kidneys. Juniper berry tea is excellent for the heart and circulation. Coriander tea supports heavy metal detoxification. All can be bought as dried tea bags at any local health food store.

Avoid Gossip, Drama & Violence

Many people successfully achieve the physical act of detox, but leave behind the emotional and spiritual sides. I can’t even count how many nights over the years that I’ve seen a tv room packed with fasters, all eyes fixed on a horror flick or violent drama. How can the body let go and heal when the mind is being distracted with such images?

Be careful, especially when doing a detox, to avoid negative talk, images, news and events. The body is so sensitive while cleansing. The more you surround yourself with positive energy, motivational stories, happy people and inspiring thoughts, the more your body, mind and spirit will benefit.

Negative energies can attach to toxins in the body. The more you let go of those thoughts, the deeper you can go in your cleansing. It’s true! For more information on the science of this, I recommend Bruce Lipton’s Biology of Belief of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life.

Get Adequate Rest

Most detox programs offer a full day of activities to choose from, including meditation, yoga, group walks, tai chi, chi gung, pilates, water therapy, massage, colonics, nutrition talks and more. It’s easy to get quickly overwhelmed with all the choices, and you may actually find yourself feeling stressed, trying to run from one program to the next.

Be sure to listen to your body and make time for yourself, even if that means skipping a few activities. The more you rest during your detox, the more the body can internalize its energy and go deeper into healing. As Daniel Reid says in the book Tao of Detox, ‘Save you breath.’

Try to spend at least one hour a day on your own, reading a book or listening to music, without talking to or engaging with others. Getting back in touch with yourself is one of the great benefits of doing a cleanse.

Powerful Affirmations

You can easily optimize your cleanse with your choice of thoughts and words. Be sure to spend a few minutes each day focusing on what you want to achieve as a result of doing the detox. Visualize yourself at home in a continued state of excellent health, high energy and balanced spirit.

Affirmations really help in training the mind to think positive thoughts. On the first day of your retreat, write 10 affirmations of things, people or feelings that you would like to have in your life. You can write them in the form, “I am…” or “I have…” Every day, spend 5-10 minutes alone, repeating your affirmations to yourself. You are creating an energy of success that the physical body will have to follow!

Some examples include: “I am healthy, balanced and strong.” “I attract positive, loving people and relationships into my life.” “I make the best choices for my health and my body every day in every way.” “I love myself and others love and support me too.”

‘Fasting helps reverse the ageing process
for a healthier and longer life.’
-James Balch, M.D., Co-Author

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True Story of Faith & Healing with John of God in Brazil

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An inspiring read!

If you’re looking for an uplifting, inspiring story about spiritual healing, Divine connection and the power of believing, then I’ve got the book for you. Newly released by Cash Peters, ‘A Little Book About Believing: The Transformative Healing Power of Faith, Love and Surrender,’ is a personal account of the author’s visit to the Casa de Dom Inacio in Brazil, where the extraordinary faith healer John of God freely offers his healing services to thousands of visitors every year. Even Oprah did a show on this guy!

The book is quite funny because initially, Cash is a non-believing, cake-eating, over-worked, unhappy-with-his-job kind-of regular guy who happens to be open for adventure and new experiences. So he goes into this Brazilian village full of people from all over the world with an open mind, and when he leaves…well, you will see for yourself when you read the book!

This book resonated with me on many levels, especially thanks to references from Bruce Lipton, Carolyn Myss, Esther Hicks and T. Colin Campbell. It brought a lot of ideas together which reinforce the power of positive thinking and the importance of detox and a plant-based diet for long-term health and healing.

Some great quotes include:

‘How was I to know, as a mere layman, that, for many surgeons, whipping out gallbladders is their bread and butter?? Half a million gallbladders are removed every year, oftentimes unnecessarily, when really all that may have been required was a change of diet perhaps, or a thinning of the bile, or a simple flush of the system. No mention, however, was ever made to me about viable alternatives.’

‘Trust yourself. Trust life. Embrace uncertainty. Dive fearlessly in, holding nothing back. Expect a positive outcome always, and marvel at how things turn out. Remember: the unknown is where all the fun happens.’

‘All the success, wealth, power, influence, status, stockholdings, wives and homes in the world aren’t worth a red cent if you’re too sick to enjoy them.’

‘It’s not what happen to you that’s important; it’s what you do with it. Just because something seems bad, or because people tell you it’s bad – or incurable or unstoppable – doesn’t mean it is. We can, if we choose, be the architects of our own destiny.’

‘There was no cancer in ancient Egyptian times – did you know that? Scientists have run tests on mummies. Cancer is a modern plague. A sign of our times. It’s something we’re doing to ourselves. It’s environmental, it’s a lifestyle thing, it’s what we’re putting into our mouths.’

‘Life is not a competition. If you really must compete, compete with yourself. Work at being better, kinder, more loving, more grateful, more mindful, more forgiving and more generous.’

‘Your body is like an exquisite temple. It will stand firm and strong for the longest time if you look after it. Neglect it, though, and the roof caves in.’

‘Healthcare companies are in the profit business, not the people-helping business, the way their name suggests.’

‘For years I thought, ‘If only I could change him, make him understand…,’ when really it was I who needed to change and understand.’

‘Even when drug companies and medical practice do come under scrutiny, it’s always done in a deftly political way in the name of ‘balance,’ when really they’re just dodging the issues. To that end, an ‘expert’ doctor will usually be hauled in, paid to attack anything remotely alternative or groundbreaking.’

‘Fear tears down the spirit. Anger chews away at the body. You could eat all the organic fruits and vegetables in the world, and do everything else right, but if you’re anxious, angry, resentful, fearful or bitter the whole time, you are still paving a road to disease.’

‘Refuse to give (your disease) a label. Starve it of attention. Instead, refocus. Align yourself with divine consciousness, which knows only of perfect health. Let your reaction to your condition be only high-vibration thoughts.’

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Stop Premature Aging: Take this Anti-Aging Quiz and Mirror Test Now!

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Go to your mirror nude now & take this Mirror Test:

The Real Anti-Aging Test

  • Are you happy with what you see?
  • Do you look old and tired?
  • Does you body sag?
  • Do you have poor skin and muscle tone?
  • How’s your hair?
  • How’s your posture?
  • Are your eyes dull and lifeless?
  • Do you have a sallow complexion?
  • Are you trim and fit?

 

After making a careful examination of your body, how would you describe it? Youthful? Aging?

No one can answer these questions more honestly than you. You are the one that can take charge of your life!

 

Let’s go farther than mere looks.

  • How did you really feel today?
  • Are you bursting with energy and vitality or do you have bothersome aches and pains?
  • What about your joints?
  • Are you stiff and sore?
  • Does your lower back plague you with pain?
  • How did you sleep last night?
  • Did you get up fresh and feeling alive?
  • Did you go to bed tired, yet unable to sleep?
  • Did you face the new day feeling energy-less, as if you had all the energy drained away?
  • How is your appetite?
  • Do you relish every mouthful of food you eat?
  • Do you have gas pains after meals?
  • What about your elimination? Is it perfect or are your bowels clogged?
  • Above all things, were you happy today? Yesterday?
  • Or are you depressed and blue?

Do you feel that you are ageing rapidly? Is life passing you by?
Can you honestly say, “I am getting younger as I live longer”?
Or will you have to admit that the longer you live, the older you feel?
Take this quiz monthly.

-from Paul C. Bragg

Healthy Glow Keeps You Looking Young

I love this anti-ageing test. It’s a great way to check in with yourself and be 100% honest with where you’re at. People often say to me that they are healthy and they eat really well, but once we talk further, their list of ailments starts to unfold. I often wonder, do they even know what healthy feels like?

Aches, pains, poor digestion, troubled sleep and unhappiness do not make for a healthy, youthful ageless glow.

You might experience temporary results with fillers, implants or botox, but these are short-term fixes to a long-term problem: toxicity and imbalance inside the body. An anti-ageing doctor should only be focusing on the foods you eat, your lifestyle and detox plan, not on outside creams or ‘magic cures.’

The compliments that I receive the most are always relating to my beautiful skin and bright, clear engaging eyes. 10 years ago on a SAD diet, no one noticed those traits in me, because my skin was dull and my eyes were puffy! What gave me a new-found youth was regular detox and a chemical-free, natural, whole food, plant-based raw food diet. Over time, my diet has improved even more, reducing olive oil and other oils to a minimum, continuing to refine as I learn more on my journey.

Are you older or younger than you feel?

Let Your Food be Thy Medicine

The secret to looking young and feeling young lies in the quality and types of food you eat. It’s that simple. Schedule your detox to give yourself a good ‘reboot.’ Make a plan for improving the diet and lifestyle after. The skin will improve, energy levels will increase and excess weight will be lost, once and for all! Be gentle and patient with yourself. Focus on love, joy, acceptance and on the all good in your life. Watch, and people will notice the positive change in you!

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