Friday, August 26, 2011

Organic Farmshare-Why Everybody Needs to Own a Local Organic Farm

Current conventional farming methods employ a host of practices and synthetic chemicals to produce our food at the cost of destroying the very source of that food: our soil and waterways. The impacts on our health from the long-term consumption of nutritionally depleted, chemically grown and processed food are also becoming increasingly evident.

Our soils are being propped up with fertilisers produced from fossil fuels. The food that is grown in these depleted and chemically laden soils comes nowhere near to providing the nutrients that we need for health, reproduction and longevity.

A massive 60% of our food costs goes directly into distribution and handling. In other words, $60 out of every $100 you spend on food goes on getting that food from the farm to your plate.

Organic Farm Share is a local food system that utilises regenerative and integrated farming practices, which return necessary nutrients back into the soil. This is achieved through organic farming, polyculture planting, the use of beneficial bacteria, animal integration, and localised compost systems.

Through Organic Farm Share’s unique and localised distribution system, food-miles and packaging are significantly reduced. Your food is brought directly to you from the farm ensuring fresher healthier food, a substantial financial saving, and regeneration of the environment.
Our farm is situated in Northern NSW 14km south of the Queensland border. Our organic farm will service owner-members in the Byron Bay, Gold Coast and Brisbane areas with our unique organic food delivery system.

Organic Farm Share blends a unique form of enterprise with the values of a co-operative. Taking back the control of our food supply and establishing regional food security can only be truly achieved through participation, or more specifically, ownership. If we own the business that owns the land where our food comes from, we are directly connected to our food supply, and many of the existing barriers to establishing a successful local food system are eliminated.

Participation and its benefits


We currently (1 August 2011) have 148 owner-members and as membership is limited we will close the first stage of our offer on 20 October this year.
Organic Farm Share, the first of its kind, is a publicly owned farm project with
the aim of ensuring food security for our community, the regeneration of land,
and positive financial returns to our owner-members.

Whilst there are numerous environmental, health and social benefits to
participating in Organic Farm Share there are also a number of personal ones.

By joining Organic Farm Share, you gain :
·         pride in ownership of a regenerative enterprise
·         partnership in an enterprise that contributes to the local economy and employment
·         a place you can visit, stay and enjoy with your family and other owners
·         a share that can appreciate in value
·         the convenience of buying your groceries from one place (one stop shopping)
·         a 5% - 7% rebate of all purchases annually & profit share
·         supply of a comprehensive variety of organic food at the best prices.
Where to from here
If you would like to know more, come along to one of our Kitchen Table
Talks. A list of them can be found on our website at :
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us in any of the following ways :
Telephone : 07 5630 3891 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            07 5630 3891      end_of_the_skype_highlighting Email : hello@organicfarmshare.com

Fasting and Colonics: The 7 Day Detox Program

“Purging the bowels eliminates the source of poison, thereby permitting blood and energy to regenerate naturally. By cleansing the bowles we repair the body” Chai Yu-hua
You will need…..
* Psyllium seed husk (intestinal Cleanser)
*Bentonite (removes toxins from your entire digestive tract)
*Supplement-Organic Super Greens (wheatgrass, spirulina, barley, chlorella) or greenlife (wheat, oat, rye and barly grasses)
*Colonics
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time.There are many different ‘Fasts’ out there; water fasts, juice fasts, the lemon/maple syrup/cayenne fast, raw milk only fast, rice only fast etc. Why fast?
Daniel says that the modern lifestyles put tremendous toxic strain on our vital organs and glands. The stomach is perpetually stuffed with denatured foods taking in incompatible combinations, the liver is swollen and strained with the effort of breaking down massive intakes of proteins and fats as well as drugs and poisons, the pancreas balloons to abnormal size owing to the constant demand for digestive enzymes to process enzyme-less foods, and the colon gets lined with layer upon layer of glue like crud that poisons the bloodstream.
Of all the vital organs in the body, the one that suffers the most abuse from modern dietary habits is the colon.
The following "Fasting and Colonics" excerpt is from the The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity:
Fasting and Colonics
If you stand long and still enough near rivers, lakes and ponds where herons and similar long-beaked birds fish and feed, you will notice a curious habit.
From time to time, a heron will suck up a beak full of water, twist its neck around and insert the beak into its own anus, squirting the water deep into its bowels to flush out the putrid debris and other residue from its fish-based diet.
Who taught these birds to do that? Nature did... and a Taoist respects no teacher more than nature.
The very sound of the word colon prompts embarrassment these days. Many people can't even bare to look at a picture of a colon, let alone talk about their own. Suggest that someone run 5 gallons of warm water through it, and embarrassment turns to suspicion or sheer panic.
American doctors are reluctant even to discuss the matter, and they flatly refuse to administer colonic irrigations to patients on request. They believe, as one New York physician put it, colonics 'went out with the horse-and-buggy' a century ago.
American doctors also reject nutritional therapy, herbal remedies, fasting, therapeutic breathing, meditation and other 'outdated' methods that they no longer understand, nor want to understand.
In Russia however, it remains standard procedure in all hospitals and clinics to administer a thorough colonic cleansing to all patients, regardless of their ailments, immediately upon entering any hospital. Russian physicians realize that no cure for any ailment can be properly administered to a filthy, highly toxic body, which simply cannot assimilate and utilize medications.
Nor does a body devitalized by chronic toxemia have sufficient strength and energy to fully recover from such radical procedures as anesthesia, surgery and chemical therapy.
As a case in point for colonics, take pneumonia. At the turn of the century, before cancer and heart disease replaced it, pneumonia was the biggest killer in America.
Back then, Dr. J.H. Tilden of Denver, Colorado, who specialized in pneumonia and treated more patients for this disease than any other physician on record, never lost a single patient to this dreaded ailment. He achieved his remarkable record by relying entirely on fasting and colonic irrigations, followed by strict diets of raw natural foods. Today, pneumonia still takes a heavy toll among the elderly and weak, despite all the modern drugs used to treat it.
In 1935, at the age of 40, V.E. Irons suffered from a rare and extremely painful form of arthritis now known as 'ankylosing spondylosis'. This condition is caused by unassimilated calcium (such as that from pasteurized milk) being deposited on the spinal vertebrae, where it gradually builds spurs that cause the entire spine to stoop forward, until, after 10-20 years, the victim is bent over double for life.
Having been told that there is no cure, Irons went off to research his conditions on his own, and, like anyone else who looks hard and long enough for the real source of chronic degenerative disease, he found it lurking in his own clogged colon. As he recalls:
"Within two months I had no more pain from displacement and with 14 months practically no spurs. All done with home colonics, fasting and natural food- no drugs!"
 Colonic must not be confused with enemas. At best enemas flush out the rectum and a small part of the descending colon; but they do nothing for the transverse and ascending portions where years of afoul debris, toxic waste, and impacted feces have accumulated. Enemas can also be a real mess to handle.
Colonics, on the other hand, send water coursing all the way through the entire length of the colon in a continuous flow, gently.
So, if you wish to rid yourself of he 5-15 pounds of hard, rubbery, toxic waste impacted in your colon owing to a lifetime of wrong eating habits, and simultaneously eliminate the source of most of your chronic ailments, discomfort and fatigue, while also preserving youthful vitality and prolong your life, order a Colema Board.
The 7 Day detox fasting and colon cleansing programme
This is an integrated system of self-purification that combines the benefits of fasting, fibrous intestinal cleansers, nutritional supplements and daily colon irrigations. It is complete program of blood and tissue detoxification that rejuvenates each and every organ, gland, tissue and cell in the body.
Why seven days? Seven is a sort of 'magic number' throughout the realm of nature.
Women's menstrual cycles occur in four units of seven, as does the moon orbit around the earth.It takes exactly seven days to cleanse the entire bloodstream by fasting, and it requires seven days to thoroughly rid the lymph of toxins.On a larger scale, it takes seven months to balance the endocrine system through proper nutrition and exercise and seven years to replace every cell in the body.
This particular program was developed by V.E.Irons, who explains it as follows:
"For seven days, you eat nothing at all, but you won't feel hungry because you take an intestinal cleanser. This is a powder that's ground from a special grade of Psyllium seed. The cleanser clings to the colon walls, holds moisture there, and softens and loosens the waste matter. Add to that the herbal cleansing supplements that break down the mucus that lines the stomach walls, the duodenum, the small intestines and the colon, plus colonics which flush it all out of the body, and you have the essence of this program.
The Intestinal Cleanser (Psyllium seed husk) should be taken five times a day, every three hours. You put a heaping teaspoon of Cleanser in a jar with a good tight cover. Add ten ounces of water, with a little bit of your favourite fruit or vegetable juice for flavour.
You also add a tablespoon or two of another product called Bentonite, which is made from volcanic ash. Bentonite is like a magnetic sponge that removes toxins from your entire digestive tract. Shake the mixture well and drink it. Then follow it with a glass of water.
A seven day fast sounds severe, but it’s really not too bad because the intestinal cleanser swells up in your system, so that you feel full. Also you take tablets of a supplement called Greenlife (you can also use Organic Supergreens), which is concentrate of the juices of wheat, rye, oat and barley grasses."
During the 7-day fast with nutritional supplements and intestinal cleansers, you administer to yourself two 5-gallon colonics per day on the colema board, which works entirely by gravity, not pumps or attend a colonic irrigation clinic.
To the 5 gallons of warm (100-105°F) water you add some strong boiled coffee, which stimulates the bowels' natural peristaltic contractions and contains acids that help throw out mucus and cleanse the colon wall.
If you are overly sensitive to caffeine, you may substitute fresh garlic juice, fresh lemon juice, or Bentonite or Epsom salts.
The Intestinal Cleanser and the Bentonite are remarkably effective cleansing agents. Powdered Psyllium seed husk is almost 100 percent pure fibrous bulk. It is not absorbed or digested but instead expands in the gut and dredges your bowels of debris as it passes through. When it reaches the colon, the warm water from the colonics helps it loosen impacted toxic wastes from the colon wall and propel it out through the rectum.
Bentonite, which is derived from volcanic ash, contains an ingredient called montmorillonite, a molecule of which is 1/500th the size of a water molecule and carries a negative charge that is 200 times greater than its positive charge. It's minuscule size enables it to reach into nooks and crannies of your tissues that even water cannot penetrate, while its strong negative charge enables it to pick up 200 times its own weight in toxic positive ions. As we have seen, pollutants always take the form of big, bulky positive ions, and these are readily neutralized by active negative ions. Bentonite works in the bowels along with the Psyllium seed powered, but it also enters the bloodstream to neutralize and facilitate rapid elimination of the toxic wastes that enter the blood from the cells.
Some advocates of fasting, such as Paul Bragg, do not recommend colonics or any supplements whatsoever during cleansing fasts. Instead, they advise nothing but distilled water. However, four, five, or maybe six water fasts are required to remove the same amount of toxic waste from the colon as one fast supplemented intestinal cleansers and colonics.
·         The first day is simple. It takes at least 24 hours for the body to commence detoxification and start pouring toxins into the bloodstream for elimination.

·         The second & third days are the most difficult. By then you bloodstream will be carrying up to ten times its normal load of toxins, as the entire body excretes accumulated poisons into the blood for disposal. You will feel weak, fatigued, stiff, light-headed and perhaps nauseous, much like a heavy hangover.This is not due to nutritional deficiency, so do not make the most common mistake of first-time faster, which is to break the fast prematurely by eating something to 'pick you up'.The moment you eat something, the unpleasant symptoms of detoxification disappear- not because of the nutrients in the food but because the food signals the body to halt the detoxification process and gear up for digestion and metabolism instead.The worse you feel during the first three days, the more toxic are your tissues, and the better the programme is working. Hang in there and you will soon feel better than ever!

·         During the first fast with colonics, the first two or three days often fail to produce the dramatic evacuations of foul toxic wastes expected.That's not because your colon is clean, but because the dried mucus and toxins are so deeply impacted in the folds of your colon that it takes six to eight colonics just to start jarring them loose. One of Ions most severe cases failed to evacuate anything of significance through four full 7-day programs, but then on her fifth fast an avalanche of black hard poisons came pouring out with every colonic. Generally, you will start passing these toxified encrustations of mucus on the fourth or fifth day and continue to do so till the end of the cleanse. This deathly junk is collected in a colander under the colemna board, and you should carefully inspect it after each session. By seeing what comes out of you each time, you will be strongly motivated to continue through to the end of the program.

·         If by the seventh day you are still expelling a lot of waste, you may choose to continue the program for up to 10 days, or else stop and wait for your next cleanse. Do not attempt to fast more than 10 days by yourself until you have done at least half a dozen 7-10 day fasts. The less toxic your system becomes, the easier it is to maintain fasting, and longer periods of healthy therapeutic fasting.

·         Don't expect to get everything out during the first cleanse. It takes about four 7-day programs, with mini-fasts in between and careful attention to diet and lifestyle to effect a thorough cleansing of the colon and completely detoxify the tissues.One Master Faster recounts how, after five years of four annual 7-day fasts, he went on a 10-day fast, on the seventh day of which "I had a terrific bowel evacuation, and at the end of this evacuation, I felt a heavy cool sensation in my rectum and out passed a third of a cup of quicksilver [mercury] from the Calomel [a medication] that I had taken during my childhood". When it comes to purifying your body from a lifetime of self-pollution, "once is not enough!"

·         If you are afraid to administer your own colonics with the colema board, then look for a qualified colonic therapist and have him perform the first series for you in a clinic. After that you will realize how easy and safe it is and you can do the next series at home.

·         The programme is safe and effective for children, women, and the elderly. For children aged 4-10, cut the dosage of supplements and intestinal cleansers by half.

·         Consume no solid food whatsoever during the programme. Except for an ounce or two of juices to make your intestinal cleanser mixture more palatable, avoid all solid foods. Besides cleansing your colon, you will want to give all your digestive organs and all your vital glands a complete 7-day rest so that their tissues may be detoxified and their damaged cells replaced. If you 'cheat', you'll only be cheating yourself.

·         Excessively obese and/or chronically ill persons should not attempt a 7-day fast the first time. Such persons are so permeated with toxins that a 7-day fast would raise the toxin levels in the blood to dangerous or even fatal levels.

·         Pregnant or lactating women, diabetics, hypoglycemia, Wilson's disease, severe CBS, degenerative AIDS, or surgery recovery victims should not engage in this kind of cleansing. Over 65 should also not do this programme.

·         If you feel that your body is extremely polluted with poisons, start out with several 3-day fasts spread over a period of 3-4 months, with a diet of mostly raw vegetarian foods in between (at least 50% of your food intake). This programme will detoxify your tissues sufficiently for you to tolerate a complete 7-day fast.

·         Everyone should always use the internal intestinal cleansers AND administer home colonics during their fasts to facilitate rapid excretion of poisons. Colonics flush the accumulating toxic debris immediately out from your system.

·         Break any cleansing fast with first fruit, one type only, and then a light meal of raw vegetables, especially carrots, cabbage and lettuce, followed a few hours later with either some fresh mild fruit again (apple, grape, watermelon, pear, etc., but no dried fruits or oranges) OR a couple of lightly steamed vegetables, such as squash, tomato, string beans. If need be, however it would be preferable to avoid, have a few slices of well-toasted whole-grain bread with a little bit of nut butter but no dairy butter. Thoroughly toasting bread coverts much of the hard-to-digest starch into readily digestible sugars. Brown rice and a nice salad would be preferable to any toast.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Sugar Poison and How to Avoid It

By Eeka King B.H.Sc (Acup)
As a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner I often give people some dietary and lifestyle advice as an adjunct to their treatment. It gives the patient the opportunity to take some responsibility of their health and also greatly enhances the good work we are doing with acupuncture and herbal medicine. Diet and lifestyle factors have a big impact on the state of our health and wellbeing (along with constitution, emotions, environmental factors etc) and can contribute too many of our imbalances and diseases. One of the most common dietary changes I encourage people to make is to avoid/reduce refined & processed sugar or artificial/synthetic sweeteners and to only choose natural whole sweeteners. Below I will have a look at why sugar is so bad (I would go so far as to say evil) for the body and give you some better sweet options.
Commercial sugar as we know it comes in many forms with varying degrees of processing and refining. Basically sugar comes from the sugar cane; the cane juice is stripped of its molasses content (the dark rich part which is full of vitamins, minerals and is extremely high in iron), then heated at extreme temperatures which kills the enzymes and everything that’s good about it. That is what is called raw sugar. The processing continues from there with more refining with chemicals such as sulphur dioxide, lime, phosphoric acid, bleaching agents & viscosity reducers to get white sugar and then more processing to get castor sugar and then more again for icing sugar. Brown, turbinado or demerara sugar is simply refined, processed sugar with some of the original molasses added back into it (unfortunately, still bad for you). When natural sugar is refined and concentrated, the life force is dispersed and the natural balance upset.
Refined sugar is an evil poison that creates havoc in the body. Only during the last century has man’s diet included a high percentage of refined carbohydrates (sugars and flours). The amount the average westernised person consumes per day is astonishing. You only have to take a look into any supermarket aisle to get a good idea-it’s in everything. In nature, sugars and carbohydrates (the energy providers) are coupled with vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, fat and fibre and support life due to its body building and digestion enhancing components. Digestion of refined sugar (along with refined flour) is detrimental to life because it draws on the body’s own store of vitamins, minerals and enzymes for proper metabolism. Slowly and slowly you are robed of your good health.
Sugar heats the body up, suppresses the immune system, interferes with and lowers absorption of vitamins and minerals (especially calcium, magnesium & vitamin E), destroys fertility and feeds cancer cells and Candida. Sugar is one of the biggest contributors to all of our modern dis-eases. Coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, weight gain and obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis etc have a direct link to sugar consumption. Sugar creates mood swings, hyperactivity, poor concentration and ADHD in children as well as allergies and eczema. Sugar damages the internal organs and can cause hormonal imbalance, periodontal disease, tooth decay and premature aging. Once refined, sugar is no longer a food- it becomes a highly addictive drug.
“The difference between sugar addiction and narcotic addiction is largely one of degree.” - William Dufty, Sugar Blues.

Natural sweeteners may be defined as a product that comes from nature that hasn’t been altered terribly and which the nutrients have not been removed, or the nutrients may be even more concentrated due to boiling down and evaporation. Therefore, if you are going to consume a sweetener, it is best if it comes from the fruit, herb, or vegetable kingdom and be as raw/living as possible (not overheated, and not overly processed) for optimum health.

Rapadura Sugar- Dehydrated cane juice granules                 
Rapadura sugar (Gur in India), is unrefined dried cane juice which is made by simply evaporating the water from the whole sugar cane juice. This whole sugar is actually highly mineralised and nutrient dense and has a balanced reaction in the body. It has a gorgeous golden colour and a unique caramel flavour. It is the perfect product for baking and the sweetening of food and drinks. Simply substitute 1 cup of rapadura for 1 cup of other sugars (e.g. white/raw/brown) in any recipe. You can buy it from most health food stores.
Honey
Raw Honey has many amazing health benefits. When it has not been heated it is loaded with amylases, nutrients and enzymes that digest carbohydrates. So it is also best to only use it in desserts that do not require heating.
Maple Syrup
The concentrated sap of huge deciduous trees, maple syrup is rich in trace minerals, brought up from below the ground by the tree’s deep roots. It imparts a wonderful flavour to cream based desserts and may be used in baked goods such as muffins and pancakes. Make sure you buy the real maple syrup (it is quite expensive) and not the common one as it is only flavoured sugar with a plethora or other nasties.
Stevia
Stevia is a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant and can be used by those who have sensitivity even to natural sweeteners. A little goes a very long way- a pinch of stevia is equal to a spoonful of sugar. As it does not add bulk, it is difficult to use successfully in baked goods; but is a good sweetener for salad dressings, whipped cream and pie crusts etc.
Other sweeteners that may also be used in moderation include coconut palm sugar, date sugar, molasses, malted grain syrups, sorghum syrup. Please avoid all other imitation sweeteners, including Agave (way to processed and high in fructose to be good for you)-so make sure you do your homework before you buy.
There are plenty of sweet foods in nature and when you get yourself off the sugar addiction you will be amazed at how sweet fruit, vegetables and grains actually are. Sweeteners (natural) can be kept to a minimum and only used on holidays or special occasions.  According to Chinese medicine, long as we balance the sweet taste with the other four (sour, bitter, salty and pungent), we will maintain good health!

© Eeka King 2011 For Bayside Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine Clinic