The promises are enticing. Whether you’re looking to shed unwanted pounds, get a quick energy jolt, build muscles, or fight the aging process, protein drinks are being boosted by some supplement makers as a scientifically proven way to quickly achieve your goals.

The products, sold as ready-to-drink liquids or powders that you mix with milk, juice, or water to make shakes, attract not just athletes and body-builders but also baby boomers, pregnant women, and teenagers looking for a shortcut to a buff body.

Some ads say that protein supplements, in flavors such as strawberry and vanilla cream, can be a nutritious and time-saving snack or meal replacement.

Marketing for Energy First Pro Energy Whey Protein Isolate says the protein supplement is “ideal” for pregnant women and growing children, and also offers this promise for aging adults who use it: “You will rarely if ever be sick and you will begin to look and feel years younger.”

In a testimonial for BSN Lean Dessert Protein Shake, “fitness celebrity” Jennifer Nicole Lee says, “Being a busy mom with 12-hour workdays, I rely upon my Lean Dessert Protein to get adequate amounts of protein without wasting time on creating complex meals ….”

Another product, Muscle Milk, boasts on its website: “Designed after one of nature’s most balanced foods: human mother’s milk…”

But our investigation, including tests at an outside laboratory of 15 protein drinks, a review of government documents, and interviews with health and fitness experts and consumers, found most people already get enough protein, and there are far better and cheaper ways to add more if it’s needed.

Some protein drinks can even pose health risks, including exposure to potentially harmful heavy metals, if consumed frequently.

All drinks in our tests had at least one sample containing one or more of the following contaminants: arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. Those metals can have toxic effects on several organs in the body.

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(Source: Consumer Reports Magazine)

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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If you’re hurting, sit down. Meditation can reduce pain by 40 percent, a new study finds.

In fact, meditation produced a greater reduction in pain than even morphine or other pain-relieving drugs, which typically lower pain ratings by about 25 percent, says lead study author, Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., of Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Zeidan taught study participants how to meditate during four 20-minute sessions. Then, while meditating, the subjects had a hot, 120-degree pad placed on their right calves for about 6 minutes while undergoing PASL MRI scans—a form of functional MRI testing that better captures longer brain processes.

Every subject felt less pain while meditating than before their meditation training.

“What our study found is that you only need a small amount of training—just over an hour’s worth—to be able to meditate in a way that successfully reduces pain,” Zeidan says.

If you continue meditating regularly, the pain relief affects last even longer. “The incredible thing about proper meditation is that the more you do it, the more it becomes a part of you,” he continues. “There were prior studies on monks who had incredible amounts of meditation training, and they didn’t even have to meditate to reduce pain. It had become automatic.”

The PASL MRI scans showed meditation works by affecting the brain on multiple levels. “It shuts off the primary somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for feeling sensation, while at the same time activating other parts of the brain responsible for attention, mood, emotions and reward processing,” Zeidan says. “We don’t know 100 percent how meditation shuts off the primary somatosensory cortex, but we think the activity of the other brain regions lowers its activation.” Previous research has also found that meditation actually changed the makeup of your mind.

While Zeidan is reluctant to prescribe meditation as a lone painkiller, he does note it has its place. “It can reduce the need for medication, and ultimately lower related costs. Plus, there are absolutely no side effects outside of improved well being.”

If that isn’t enough to convince you, meditation has also been shown to reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, and even lead to better sex. Ready to give it a shot? Here’s a course in mindfulness meditation 101.

Assume the Position

“You can lie down, walk, eat, or sit,” Dr. Zeidan says. Do whatever makes you comfortable and makes it easy for you to focus.

Feel Your Breath

Focus on your breath—and this is important—how it feels. “Follow it as it enters at the nose, notice any tingling, scan your body for sensations,” Dr. Zeidan says. “This is where you should transition from thinking to observing,” offers Mallika Chopra, daughter of Deepak and creator of intent.com along with a series of meditation videos. “Once you get into a rhythm with your breath, observe how your breath moves in and out, noticing how it makes your body feel.”

Racing Thoughts? Let Them Go

If you get distracted, don’t worry about it—and definitely don’t feel guilty, notes Chopra. “You could experience a million thoughts in one sitting, and it’s important not to ignore them,” Zeidan says. “Instead, acknowledge them, and realize they’re just a moment in your life. If you’re angry, for example, acknowledge that, but then see your anger as a moment, and let it pass.” A trick to keep from dwelling on a thought: If you notice your mind wandering, go back to observing your breath.

(Source: Men’s Health, by Lara Rosenbau)

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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It’s not good for your health to drink more than one cup of coffee a day, and I drink at least two—so I am going to do a little lifestyle makeover myself. The excuse I use is that I juggle college and a professional life, so of course I need the boost, right? Wrong. The reality is that I don’t need to depend on caffeine for energy, and neither do you if we get enough rest, exercise, and eat right.

Below is a summary for Eat to be Fit-The Truth About Fat Loss , by Michael J. Foley with Pat Walsh. I recently made Pat and Mike’s acquaintance and thought this first-person account had some great insight on the subject of chemical addictions, and what we can do to overcome them:

Overcoming Alcoholism and Nicotine Addiction with Nutrition and Fitness

Toward the end of 1999, when I was 54, my doctor said “Your liver is failing; unless you stop drinking, you’ll die.” At the time I didn’t believe I was an alcoholic and thought I could stop drinking “on my own.” I was also smoking a pack a day.

On October 7th, 2001, at the age of 56, I had my last drink. A couple of weeks later I had my last cigarette.  My recovery included losing 30 pounds of fat, reducing my blood pressure, healing a failing liver, eliminating chronic bronchitis, adding hours to each day and years to my life. What I learned about the importance of nutrition and exercise during those 22 months may be helpful to others struggling to quit harmful substance addiction.

Quitting smoking and drinking is not unusual; completely eliminating the cravings for these unhealthy substances is unusual. Nutrition and fitness are not the first things most people think of when they consider recovery today, but I wonder how a physical disease like alcoholism can be truly overcome without careful attention to the physical needs of the human body. I hope my experience brings more attention to this crucial aspect of recovery.

My Drinking Heritage and History

Alcoholism runs deep in my family. Both of my grandfathers, hardworking family men when sober, became violent, destructive and abusive when drunk. My uncles were drunks, too. As a child I was fearful and nervous around these men, but as I grew up I didn’t connect my own heavy drinking with them. My behavior when drinking was different, so I thought I was different.

My parents drank with their friends, often becoming loudly drunk, but I can’t say for sure that they were alcoholics. They drank mostly on weekends while I was growing up. Alcoholism was not talked about in our family, but drinking was a big part of everyone’s life, including mine.

I was an alcoholic from the time of my first drink of straight whiskey, probably around the age of 5 or 6. It was the remedy for toothaches, sore throats and to help me go to sleep on occasion. I loved the way it tasted and made me feel: warm, fuzzy and relaxed. It took away the pain of my frequent sore throats—transporting me from the dismal, often stressful surroundings of my home to a place of peace and quiet. Alcohol comforted me and I couldn’t get enough of it.

I smoked my first cigarette when I was ten and enjoyed the different kind of buzz I got from that. My parents both smoked and it was easy excitement to sneak cigarettes out of the packs they’d leave lying around. When I met my future husband at age fourteen I quit smoking because he didn’t smoke. I didn’t take up smoking regularly again until I was in my mid-forties. Then I smoked a pack a day or more and was completely hooked.

I was a “maintenance drinker” most of the time. I drank every day as an adult and tried to control my intake so I wouldn’t become drunk. Fortunately, during my three pregnancies I had no desire to drink alcohol. I can remember taking a sip of wine and not liking it.  So I rarely had even a small drink while pregnant; but as soon as my healthy, perfect babies were born, I went back to my previous levels of consumption.

A high-functioning alcoholic, I began attending college at night when my children were babies. I earned a BS degree in Accounting, with honors, while working part time to pay my tuition. I was recruited by a large insurance company upon graduating at age thirty and had a successful 25-year career in information technology.

Being an active, secret alcoholic consumed a lot of time, attention and energy. And it produced enormous guilt. The first drink after work felt so good, so right—I could hardly wait for it. But with the ones that followed life became shadowy, thoughts grew murky, reactions and responses less and less appropriate.

Although I performed well at work, my emotional development was stuck somewhere back in my youth. Instead of learning how to cope with the normal ups and downs of life, how to relate well to others and figure out who the heck I was at significant times in my life, those life-lessons so important for growth toward maturity were drowned out, submerged by my ever increasing reliance on alcohol.

During many years of heavy, daily drinking and in spite of many disastrous consequences, including being arrested at age 34 with a blood alcohol level of .33, I steadfastly denied my alcoholism. I refused to accept the obvious, even after my younger sister died at age 40 of alcoholism and crack cocaine.

I was able to retire early at age 54, in the summer of 1999. Then, without a job to go to, without anyone relying on me for their care (my children were grown, out on their own and I’d been divorced for years) I could drink and smoke as much as I wanted without worrying about anyone noticing my overindulgences.

Recovery

What happened to make quitting booze and cigarettes possible for me after a life of slavery to these addictions? It happened almost by accident. During one of my longest attempts to stay sober, after learning my liver was failing, I read an article about a woman who started lifting weights in her sixties and I was inspired to try it. I had two young grandsons and wanted to get healthy so I could enjoy playing with them.

I signed up for a 1-month membership at my local gym, the Lifestyle Fitness Center on Warren Avenue in Portland, and began working with a personal trainer who helped me learn to use the weight machines and free weights. She introduced me to the nutrition/fitness counselor at the gym, Mike Foley, and recommended his 12-week program which included eating nutritious foods every 2-3 hours, all day long.

Mike and I developed a daily eating plan together using foods I liked. It included three meals and three healthy snacks with the exact amounts of calories, proteins, fats and carbohydrates I needed to be healthy. It also included the time of day that each meal or snack was to be consumed. I had to keep track of everything I ate, writing it in a journal which he reviewed once a week. I also had to drink two quarts of plain water every day. No junk food or sugary snacks were allowed. These were all drastic changes in my eating habits, but I was able to assimilate them with Mike’s help during weekly consultations.

My exercise regimen included working out with weights for 30 minutes three times a week, and doing 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise (walking) four times a week. In the beginning I found all of this was a lot of work and had to push myself to go out walking with no destination in mind, no goal but to walk for 30 minutes. It felt strange, it all felt very strange, but I was determined to try. To my surprise, I felt better right away.

I began to realize all sorts of unexpected benefits from following this program, but the miraculous freedom from addictions didn’t happen overnight. After weeks of sobriety and healthy living I tried to drink like a “normal” person and failed again. But I had written a short article describing how much better I was feeling with improved eating and exercise habits, and after reading it, Mike asked me to write a book with him.

During the months that followed, I had many weeks of sustained healthy living interspersed with horrible binge drinking episodes that left me more dysfunctional and sicker than ever. Although Mike and I met every week to work on the book, I tried to keep my drinking secret, as usual. I was immersed in the process of learning and writing about nutrition and exercise, continually trying to apply the principles to myself, but still thinking I could someday drink like a normal person. Although I failed over and over, the memory of how good I felt while following the exercise and eating plan, and not drinking, kept me returning again and again to the healthy lifestyle.

Finally, in October of 2001, when we had finished writing, I tried once more to drink like a “normal” person and had one of my worst binges ever. I knew then that I could never drink again. It took that final attempt for me to finally accept my alcoholism. I made it my top priority to follow Mike’s healthy lifestyle program 100% and within two weeks smoked my last cigarette.

During my first year of sobriety I never went for more than three hours without a healthy snack (which always included protein as well as carbs), because if I did, the old cravings would immediately start again. I avoided sugar and other high-glycemic foods, knowing by then the importance of keeping my blood-sugar levels steady. I realized that my eating and exercise routines were helping me stay emotionally balanced and learning to cope with life’s ups and downs in a more productive way than I ever could when drinking and smoking.

I found a powerful weapon to keep cravings at bay while improving my quality of life in every way: healthy eating and consistent exercise. Although every human being is different and addictions are serious, complicated illnesses that exert a terrible grip on the spirit and free will of the addicted person, we all need good nutrition and exercise habits to be healthy. I hope someday information and counseling on nutrition and exercise will be available to each person struggling to break addictions and live a full, healthy life.

*Eat to be Fit-The Truth About Fat Loss, by Michael J. Foley with Pat Walsh, is available at Amazon.com

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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Summary

Unprocessed foods.
Whole foods.
Local foods.
Microwaved foods.

Which one of those is not like the other?

When we use a microwave, what purpose does it serve? Are we using it to reheat our “unprocessed food” leftovers from a recipe we made after shopping at the farmers market? Or are we using the microwave to get that Pop-Tart juuuusssst right?

Up to 93% of American homes have and/or use microwaves, so obviously there is something appealing about them. But do any of us really know the long-term health implications of repeated microwave use? And does microwaving food affect the nutrients it contains?

How microwave ovens came to be

Percy Spencer was building radars in the 1940s and discovered that microwaves from radars melted a candy bar in his pocket. Fast forward seven years and we had the first “radarange” in 1947 at a Boston restaurant. It weighed about 700 pounds and cost nearly $5000.

People weren’t excited about cooking food with “radar,” so the name was changed to “microwave oven”. The first popular microwave for home use was introduced in 1967. As more women were entering the workforce, anything that saved time in the kitchen was welcome. An advertising campaign coincided with housewives using microwave ovens followed by young female sales personnel travelling around North America proclaiming their benefits.

The original microwave oven patent

How microwaves work

Inside-out cooking

Conventional cooking transmits heat to the outside food by convection (baking), radiation (broiling), or conduction (frying). This heat then makes its way to the inside of the food. This can take a while, as anyone who’s frantically tried to roast a semi-defrosted turkey can attest.

Microwaves, by comparison, start on the inside of the food.

Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic energy (radiation), like radio waves or light waves. When absorption of microwave energy interacts with molecules in food, heat is generated and the food is cooked (think of rubbing your hands together really fast).

The source of radiation in a microwave oven is the magnetron tube, which converts an electric current to electromagnetic radiation. Microwaves can travel through glass, but metals reflect them. This is why microwave doors have a metal screen.

Energy use

Because they heat the food from the inside out (rather than outside-in), microwave ovens have a better cooking efficiency (the % of energy that heats food during the cooking cycle) than electric or gas convection ovens.

Microwaves also use less electrical power than conventional type electric ovens.

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The effects of microwaves on food

Nutrients

Although you may have heard that microwaves kill nutrition, that doesn’t seem to be true.

Microwave ovens usually don’t destroy nutrients in food. And in some cases, preparing food in a microwave might actually promote nutrient retention.

Nutrients are leached from food during any form of cooking, especially when the food is cooked for a long period of time with high amounts of water. So, for example, boiling carrots might strip nutrients much  more drastically than microwaving them, because the carrots’ nutrients might get washed away with the boiling water.

However, since we haven’t discovered all the compounds that make up food, we’ll likely never know all of the outcomes that microwaving has on nutrients.

Protein

Protein quality seems to be fine with microwave heating. Some data indicates that amino acids and vitamin B12 may be converted to inactive forms.

But on the flip side, availability of some amino acids might be improved, since no surface browning occurs. And microwave heating might lead to destruction of trypsin inhibitors in beans. Bonus!

Breast milk

Microwaving breast milk breaks down the antibodies and vitamin B12 (this also occurs with conventional boiling, but it takes about 25 minutes or more).

By the way, speaking of organic fluids, heating blood for transfusions in microwave ovens can result in hemolysis (but hasn’t been shown to damage DNA).

Food safety and carcinogens

Microwave cooking forms fewer nitrosamines and AGEs on meats than conventional cooking methods. For more on AGEs, see here.

Taste

Taste preferences are individualized. Still, restaurants usually don’t advertise “microwaved green beans” on the menu.

Microwave cooking doesn’t result in surface drying or browning reactions, so this alters the flavour and appearance of foods (especially meats and breads).

Some microwavable foods will come with a gray paperboard for heating. This paperboard contains an extremely thin metal coating of resistant polymer film which absorbs microwave energy, converting it into heat for browning. Certain additives can also be put on the surface of food to achieve this effect. Gosh, now I’m having flashbacks of microwavable pizzas in junior high.

The health effects of microwaves

Ahhh, the 1980s. Micro Machines, slap bracelets, American Gladiators and Hans Hertel.

Wait… who’s Hans Hertel? Well, Hertel and Bernard Blanc, two Swiss scientists, did some experiments with microwave cooking. They found subjects to have lower hemogloblin and higher white blood cells and blood cholesterol after eating microwaved food. However, this data was never published in a peer reviewed journal.

The Swiss appliance industry wasn’t excited about these results and took the scientists to court. Hertel and Blanc were convicted of interfering with commerce, but the ruling was later reversed (see reference section for more info).

Electromagnetic radiation

When microwave ovens were first available to the public, tests showed that they leaked excessive electromagnetic radiation. This type of radiation is non-ionizing, which means that it isn’t the type of “radiation” you’d associate with Homer Simpson and Chernobyl — it’s in the form of waves.

Early microwave ovens worked by sending wavelengths similar to many of today’s phones (915 mHz). The main difference between phones and ovens is that the power needed to operate a microwave oven – about 1000 watts – is much greater than that needed for a cell phone. Cell phones operate with less power but at the same wavelength as microwave ovens.

In the United States, the FDA allows some radiation leakage. In the 1970s, Consumer Reports declared that microwave ovens were “not recommended,” and the Soviet Union actually banned microwaves for a short time (no countries ban them today).

Exposure to radiation is highest within two inches of the microwave. Yet, the amount of electromagnetic radiation we are exposed to from microwave cooking is less than cell phones (measured cumulatively).

When our body absorbs microwave radiation, we take on the energy as heat. Some tissues are sensitive to this. Strong fields of electromagnetic radiation may raise cancer risk, affect the nervous system, and promote other problems (such as Alzheimer’s disease). There is a correlation between microwave cooking and oral cancers/salivary gland tumors, but this might be due to the production of heterocyclic amines in food. Some data indicate that cooks may have higher risks of cancer due to microwave radiation exposure, but the body of evidence is still not clear on this.

If our only exposure to electromagnetic frequencies is via microwave cooking, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal. But add up total exposure and it becomes a concern.

We absorb EM radiation from power lines, cell phones, airplane flights, computers, fridges, and so forth. There is growing evidence that effects of microwave radiation add up over time.

However, the radiation from microwave ovens alone is so low that it shouldn’t damage DNA. And there is no legit data indicating a direct negative impact of microwave ovens on human health.

“We don’t have a solid position on the possible health risks from exposure to microwaves due to inconclusive research. The real question remains whether there could be cumulative effects.”
–Norbert Hankin of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Center for Science and Risk Assessment

Plastics

Many plastics, when heated, release toxic and endocrine (hormone) disrupting compounds into the food. So don’t microwave food in plastic, especially in plastic containers not labeled “microwave safe”. And styrofoam… well, just don’t go there.

The term “microwave safe” has mixed support – some say it’s legit, some say it’s not regulated. And by the way, exposing plastic to any type of heat (in the oven, microwave, campfire, etc.) has the same negative outcome. Microwaving just speeds up the process. And most of us aren’t likely to try to use Tupperware as a frying pan. (Well, at least not after the… unfortunate… incident.)

Dyes haven’t been approved for microwave use, so don’t assume you’re problem-free if you’re using coloured paper towels or paper containers.

Bacteria

Food heated in a microwave oven can have uneven temperature distribution. The food (or part of the food) with the highest water content heats up the quickest. This is why many oven models include a rotating tray: it distributes the waves more evenly.

Uneven food temperatures may allow microorganisms — including Salmonella, Listeria, Clostridia and Campylobacter — to survive.

So when you’re cooking or reheating, make sure the food is thoroughly heated, and occasionally turn or stir food if possible.

The great exploding cup of tea

Heating up liquids in the microwave can prevent bubbles from forming. The water can become overheated past the boiling point. When the liquid is agitated (say by stirring it or dropping a bag of tea in it), it can erupt. So watch out and don’t set your tea to “volcanic”.

Summary and recommendations

Microwave ovens usually don’t destroy nutrients in food. If using a microwave helps you eat more nutritious foods and less junk food, then keep it. But there are potential harmful effects from too many electromagnetic frequencies, and doing without a microwave is one way to limit exposure.

If you use a microwave:

• Don’t heat food in plastic.
• Make sure food reaches 160 degrees F in all areas (you have a food thermometer, don’t you?).
• Cover food to help ensure uniform cooking.
• Allow the food to sit a few minutes after microwaving.
• Microwave food only as long as necessary, with little to no cooking water.
• Keep the microwave out of high traffic areas.

If you don’t use a microwave:

• You can eat leftovers cold. If you don’t have to reheat – don’t. Each time we reheat, no matter the method, we are going to lose nutrients.
• Try the stove, including steaming or stir-frying.
• Use the oven, including baking and broiling.
• Consider a toaster oven, which uses less energy than a conventional oven. (Heck, consider a solar cooker. Just sayin’.)
• Heat water in an electric tea kettle.

Resources

Video – History of the microwave oven
What happens to food in the microwave and in slow motion
FDA – Microwave Oven Radiation

Article written by Ryan Andrews from Precision Nutrition

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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References

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The Effect of Income on Appliances in U.S. Households. March 26, 2009.

Microwave Oven – Wikipedia.

O’Connor A. Really? October 17, 2006.

Howard BC. Seven surprising facts and myths about microwave ovens. July 14, 2009. The Daily Green.

Song L & Thornalley PJ. Effect of storage, processing and cooking on glucosinolate content of Brassica vegetables. Food Chem Toxicol 2007;45:216-224.

Cross GA & Fung DY. The effect of microwaves on nutrient value of foods. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 1982;16:355-381.

Heimbuch J. Microwave or toaster oven, which is the greener kitchen gadget? April 22, 2009. Tree Hugger.

Microwave ovens and their hazards. Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. November 2, 2004.

Sugarman E. Warning: The electricity around you may be hazardous to your health. Simon & Schuster. 1992.

David D. Disconnected. Penguin Group USA Inc. 2010.

Levitt BB. Electromagnetic fields. A Harvest Original. 1995.

Allen KJ. Is your kitchen microwave safe? The Environmental Magazine. August 31, 2004.

Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. Hertel v. Switzerland. 1998. No. 87.

Taghavi N & Yazdi I. Type of food and risk of oral cancer. Arch Iranian Med 2007;10:227-232.

Steneck NH. The microwave debate. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1984.

Lopez-Berenguer C, et al. Effects of microwave cooking conditions on bioactive compounds present in broccoli inflorescences. J Agric Food Chem 2007;55:10001-10007.

Schmidt-Pokrzywniak A, et al. A case-control study: occupational cooking and the risk of uveal melanoma. BMC Ophthalmology 2010;10:26.

Ohlsson T & Bengtsson N. Microwave technology and foods. Advances in food and nutrition research 2001;43:65-140.

Cross GA, et al. The effect of microwaves on nutrient value of foods. CRC Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 1982;16:355-381.

Driskell JA, et al. Effects of induction, conventional, and microwave cooking on sensory qualities and carotenoid retention in selected vegetables. Poster. J Am Diet Assoc 2006;Suppl 2:106:A-42.

Schardt D. Microwave myths. Nutrition Action Healthletter. 2005:10-12.

Kadey M. Inside the microwave. Experience Life. Jan-Feb 2012.

Is “experience” or history a better path to understanding Zen?

I think it depends on your definition of what Zen is. Is it an experience? Or is it a doctrine/philosophy? Or… is it both? I believe it’s both to lesser and greater degrees, and because this implies that there are two fundamentally opposed approaches to understanding Zen (i.e. objective and subjective), there will naturally be conflict amongst their respective experts. In this essay I will tease out what Zen is and discuss the consequences if we use only one approach to understanding Zen. I will also make the case that if you had to choose only one approach, why experiencing/practicing Zen trumps the research method using academic discipline. I will conclude by making the case that there is a place for a “Middle Path” approach, which is the optimal approach.

Let’s look at the history of the word itself.

The word “Zen” is Japanese for a style of Buddhism that came to fruition in China. When Buddhism arrived in China, the Chinese had to find a way to talk about these new ideas for which there were no Chinese words, so they imported the words along with the ideas. As the story goes, in the 5th century, an Indian monk named Bodhidharma came to China. Bodhidharma stressed meditation so much that he supposedly cut off his eyelids to keep from falling asleep when meditating. His style of Buddhism came to be known as the Meditation School, or “Chan” for short. Many Chinese intellectuals, poets, and artists were attracted to Chan’s simplicity and spontaneity, perhaps because it reminded them of their own Taoist tradition. Chan became a great influence in Chinese culture. Since China was the dominant nation of the day, many of its neighbors borrowed and learned from it. Many Japanese went to study in China, and eventually, Chan Buddhism was brought to Japan by a monk named Eisai in the 13th century. The Japanese, who had already imported Chinese characters into their own language, learned the character for “Chan” and pronounced it “Zen.” Zen became very influential in Japan, perhaps even more influential than it had been in China. In fact, it became so well-known that many people in the West think of it as a Japanese concept. Just as the Japanese borrowed the word from the Chinese, who borrowed it from the Indians, we have borrowed it from the Japanese, and now Zen is an English word. That is the meaning of the word “Zen.” As for the concept that this word is trying to convey, let’s turn to Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Shih. According to Dr. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki and his disciples, “Zen is illogical, irrational, and, therefore, beyond our intellectual understanding.” Hu Shih takes offense to this claim and believes that Ch’an (Zen) “can only be understood only in its historical setting.” If Zen is an experience, then Suzuki is closer to the truth. If Zen is a philosophy and a doctrine, then Hu Shih would seemingly be correct.

So what is Zen? Is it an experience? Or is it a doctrine?

Zen is the transmission of the Buddha’s enlightenment itself, and is transmitted outside of words, direct from the mind of the teacher to the mind of the student. This means that Zen is ultimately an experience. However, there’s more to the story…

Zen is an experience, that is invoked and cultivated by the daily practice of Zazen (seated-meditation), which is directed, in part, by doctrine.

Overtime, Zazen produces self-mastery with regard to composure and tranquility of mind, but these are by-products of Zazen rather than its goals. The goal is the experience of enlightenment. This means that Suzuki is correct in his claim that the experience of Zen itself, especially enlightenment, is beyond our intellectual understanding. However, I think much can be gained by looking at the historical context of Zen and in what ways the doctrine drives the practice of Zazen, which is critical for the occurrence of the experience of Zen in the first place. What are the consequences if we use only one approach to understanding Zen? Generally speaking, we are at risk of rigid and egotistic thinking. Suzuki and Hu Shih are great examples of people who represent this kind of thinking. They rigidly hold on to the perceived superiority of their respective approaches in the name of human ego. To claim that you KNOW something is an especially limiting way of being in this world. This is the number one consequence of adopting one approach (either experience or academic), and could hold you back from discovering new “truths.” To say that you have an understanding of Zen and that you are open to new ways of thinking about Zen allows for the opportunity of deeper comprehension and appreciation. One problem that may arise from an academic only approach would be insensitive conclusions made about Zen as a result of the reductionistic nature of the scientific method. Reducing Zen to names, places, and dates could easily miss the qualitative aspects of Zen—its “soul” if you will. It’s the qualitative aspects are what hold belief systems like Zen together. It’s what keeps practitioners coming back for more. Additionally, there is an animate connection/bond that comes to life when a group of people experience the same kind of experience as one another. The only genuine way to gain access to understanding this connection is to experience it for yourself. On the other hand, if you’re a practitioner of Zen and choose to neglect the historical aspects you may be subject to any shortcomings or misleadings that your particular sect/temple expresses. You also may miss out on the cultural richness of what Zen has to offer.

As it has been explained in this essay, there are two distinctly different ways to “know” about Zen. I’m going to argue that the kind of knowing that gives someone the most direct and deepest form of understanding is kind that is only gained by experience. The practitioner knows what it’s like to have the experience of practicing Zen, whereas the academic knows about the practitioner who has the actual experience. It’s not the same thing. Observing a thing is not experiencing it. Hi Shuh’s takes this a step further and claims that the experience of Zen is beyond intellectual inference, I tend to agree:

If we are to judge Zen from our common-sense view of things, we shall find the ground sinking away under our feet. Our so-called rationalistic way of thinking has apparently no use in evaluating the truth or untruth of Zen. It is altogether beyond the ken of human understanding. All that we can therefore state about Zen is that its uniqueness lies in its irrationality or its passing beyond our logical comprehension.

The primary goal of Zen is to attain enlightenment.

It is not to write a dissertation on how Zen spread throughout the East and arrived in the United States, or to understand it from any other academic standpoint. Can someone attain enlightenment and achieve the ultimate goal/experience of Zen without pursuing the religion from an academic approach. Yes, they can. Can someone attain enlightenment (according to Zen doctrine) without having the “Zen” experience? No, they can not. Even though academic study of Zen may deepen a practitioner’s understanding of the religion from a historical and cultural standpoint, it is not a necessity to have the unique experience of enlightenment that Zen reaches for. Practitioners simply don’t have to be concerned with the academic discipline. Academics on the other hand have things laid out in the opposite direction. They don’t have to experience Zen or attain enlightenment to write their academic papers and acquire their academic degrees. Why? Because they have a different objective than the practitioner. In fact, in academic inquiry there is little room for subjective expressions of knowledge and so there is little to no incentive for the academic to experience Zen for themselves other than to observe the religion, even if participating, from an objective distance. For instance, this very paper that I’m writing had instructions to not include any personal thoughts, experiences, opinions, etc. because it’s an “academic” paper. That’s too bad because I have some interesting experiences to share regarding my own meditation practice that would be relevant to the subject of Zen practice. I would argue that I know much more about meditation, which is the focal point of Zen practice, than the academic who reads about other’s experience with meditation. The experiential form of understanding (i.e. experience) gains access to a direct knowing about something that is intimate, practical, and most advantageous. If you wanted to sail across the world would you prefer to go with someone who has experienced this kind of voyage several times, or a UM grad who has a degree in sailing with no actual experience? This to me illustrates why experiencing Zen trumps learning about it in class.

I have to admit that when read the intro on page 3 of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism in China Its History and Method, it gave me the impression that the academic and the practitioner have such fundamentally opposed approaches to the study of Zen that there was no place for the reconciliation of the two. The view points of Suzuki and Hu Shih are rigid and inflexible, and I don’t believe understanding Zen is a black and white matter. I prefer a more nuanced “Middle Path” approach. Academic knowledge and experiential knowledge are two sides of the same coin. They are just two different methods/variations of knowing about something. Both are correct. You gain the most when you integrate both approaches. The academic perception gets a good look at beginnings, the evolution, and multiple expressions of Zen. The practitioner wouldn’t have access to this kind of information and knowing, by meditation, ritual, and doctrine alone. Academic study of a religion in a specific place and time is a good reflection of what that society was going through at that time. This may not affect your practice specifically, but it may deepen your understanding of Zen from a cultural standpoint. Also, in an age where it is more acceptable to question you faith and its historical motivations and traditions, academic research can provide invaluable perspective. For the academic, experiencing Zen for yourself allows you know about the qualitative aspects of Zen. It allows you enter a realm of experience that has been celebrated for thousands of years. You get a glimpse of the soul of Zen, which cannot be put in words.

In this essay I discussed two fundamentally opposed approaches to understanding Zen (i.e. objective and subjective), and teased out what Zen is. There are obvious consequences if we use only one approach to understanding Zen and I made and argument that if you had to choose only one approach, why experiencing/practicing Zen trumps the research method using academic discipline. My conclusion calls for a “Middle Path” approach, which integrates the two approaches and provides the deepest understanding of what Zen is.

Works Cited

As you can see, I didn’t follow any formal format of citation, but for what it’s worth, my essay used the following sources:

1. Class notes (Zen Buddhism @ The University of Michigan, December 2010)
2. Hu Shih and D.T. Suzuki debate (debate on Ch’an and Zen Buddhism in Philosophy East and West, vol. 3, p. 3 an p. 25, April 1953)
3. Sharf’s article of Zen and Japanese Nationalism (Robert H. Sharf History of Religions, Vol. 33, No. 1., Aug., 1993)

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About Author

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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In other words, accepting your body as it is and spending less time thinking about it is the best way to live a leaner, healthier lifestyle.

We’re bombarded with images of unattainable, unrealistic, and unhealthy beauty. Start with an average model, who has a BMI of 16.5. Add lots of computer software and hours of editing. You end up with a distorted, imaginary, arguably non-human view of what purports to be a “normal” and beautiful body.

For some perspective, at my height of 5’8″ (173 cm), I would have to weigh 107.5 lb to have a BMI of 16.5. Since my normal weight is about 140 lb, I would have to lose all my body fat plus nearly 10 pounds of lean body tissue.

Then of course, I’d be airbrushed into oblivion. (To get an idea what is possible with digital enhancement, take a look at a weight loss session done with Adobe Photoshop software).

But here’s the paradox. Bizarrely, impossibly thin images are all around us. Yet more people are overweight and obese than ever before. Seems odd. You’d think that having more pressure would push people into the direction of losing weight, but the opposite is happening instead. Why?

Being a biologist I like to think that biology matters and can explain things more than, say, squishy things like feelings and perceptions. So I might have argued that weight loss was simply energy in (food) versus energy out (movement).

Looks like us geeks might have been a little simplistic.

In this week’s research review, we see that for people struggling with their weight, how they see their body is just as important as — if not more important than — the biology of their body.

Body image: evaluation and investment

We all went through an awkward stage as a teenagers. Heck, you may still be in an awkward stage 30 years later.

Looking in the mirror or fretting over a picture. Is that what I really look like?! The horror! If I could just lose/gain x pounds, lift this, and tuck that, THEN I would be happy. You know the drill.

Body image is how we perceive our physical appearance — good or bad — as well as how important your body perceptions are to you.  Body image is separated into two parts (aka attitudinal dimensions):

1. Evaluative body image: How you think and feel you look, as well as how happy you are with your body. This is your cognitive appraisal and associated emotions (aka what you think or feel). It doesn’t necessarily mean this is reality.

2. Body image investment: How important body image is to you and how much body image affects your daily life. Being preoccupied with the way your body looks (body concern) is a hallmark of dysfunctional body image investment. Another part of body image investment is social physique anxiety, which makes you anxious in social settings and during interactions with others because you feel that others are judging your body.

So, you might not like your body much (evaluation) but not really care an awful lot (investment). This might mean you treat your body like an ugly but necessary inconvenience, like having to clean out the cat’s litter box. Gross, but what are ya gonna do, you think.

Or, you might think you look great (evaluation) and find that greatness really, really important as well (investment), which might mean that you spend a lot of time being afraid of losing that hot bod.

Of course, many of us have the worst of both worlds. We don’t like our bodies, and because we’re so invested in body image, our perceived-grotesque physiques make us want to hide under a rock.

Whether evaluation and/or investment, we tend to think of “body image” as something that happens inside our head. But could it affect our actual bodies?

What role does body image play in weight loss?

In this week’s review, I look at whether improving body image may help women lose weight over a year-long behaviour change program.

Carraça EV, Silva MN, Markland D, Vieira PN, Minderico CS, Sardinha LB, Teixeira PJ. Body image change and improved eating self-regulation in a weight management intervention in women. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011 Jul 18;8:75.

Methods

A group of obese women went through a year-long weight loss program that focused on behaviour changes.

You may be thinking, Well aren’t all weight loss programs behaviour changes? Yes, but this one focused on self-regulation of eating (with an approach known as self-determination theory) rather than calorie counting or specific meal plans.

Our own Lean Eating program at PN focuses on eating self-regulation, which bothers some people who may be expecting a auto-pilot type of approach. What — I don’t get a list of meals? Or a meal plan to follow? You mean I have to pay attention to how my body feels and I have to make decisions!?

Now, I get that it’s often easier to let other people make decisions for you. However, the advantage of self-regulated eating is that mindful, voluntary and self-directed eating is more sustainable long-term, while fostering independence. You learn the skills you need to eat better… for life… without someone else looking over your shoulder.

Scary at first, but a lot more sustainable and useful. (Trust us. We’ve helped thousands of clients.)

Self-regulation

Several factors guide self-regulation of eating:

• confidence that you can do it (eating self-efficacy);
• consciously controlled eating that isn’t too rigid (highly flexible cognitive restraint );
• less emotional eating; less eating triggered by specific situations; and less eating because of habits (reduced disinhibition including emotional, situational and habitual cues); and
• less perceived hunger.

The women also increased their level of physical activity, but as with the eating, there were no specific prescriptions for what to do each day.

Body image sessions

Half the women also went to body image enhancement sessions to improve their body acceptance and satisfaction (evaluative body image) and decrease their over-preoccupation with appearance (investment in body image).

Exercises to improve body acceptance and evaluation included:

• looking at a mirror and systematically looking at body parts;
• making realistic goals and expectations for their bodies; and
• creating a realistic ideal body based on their parents’ weight history and their body type.

Exercises to improve investment in appearance included:

• understanding body image;
• finding the cause of the disorder (what situations — social and personal — triggered dysfunction?);
• keeping a diary to record negative self-talk and the feelings it causes;
• helping the women to cope with prejudice;
• helping the women let go of the belief they need to look different in order to be happy.

How do you measure body image?

You might be wondering how you measure body image and the different parts that make it up. There are a series of questionnaires and scales to indicate someone’s body image.

For evaluative body image, one of the more interesting and easy scales to use and understand is the figure rating scale (Figure 1). This provides a series of body outlines numbered 1 (very thin) to 9 (very heavy).

Participants pick the number they think fits their actual body size, and then they pick the number that represents their ideal body size. The bigger the difference (self-ideal discrepancy) the more body image issues a participant has.

Keep in mind this is perceived body size, not real body size. People may actually be their ideal body size but not think so. If you think you’re a 9 on the scale but you’re really a 1, you’ve definitely got a problem.

Body image investment is assessed using questionnaires that ask things like:

• How often do you feel fat when taking a bath?
• How often has your body shape/size kept you from concentrating?
• How nervous do you feel about your body in social settings?

Figure 1: Figure Rating Scale. From Bhuiyan et al, 2003.

Results

Improved body image

The body image sessions worked. The women in these sessions improved both evaluative body image and body image investment.

Improved eating self-regulation & weight loss

Improving body image also improved eating self-regulation. With better eating, there was better weight loss.

The body image group lost 7.3% of their body weight, while the control group lost only 1.7% of their body weight.

It makes sense that better eating means more weight loss, but seems odd that a better body image would help weight loss. Wouldn’t you think that people should lose weight first… and then feel better about their bodies?

Not in this case. The group that got care, counselling, and compassion kicked ass. Goes against the drill sergeant/tough love approach, doesn’t it?

Using a mathematical model (partial least squares) the researchers found that changes in body image investment was a little more important for weight loss than body image evaluation. In other words, to lose weight, it’s more important to let go of rigid investment in body size and shape than it is to always feel great about yourself.

(After all, remember our hypothetical people who feel good about their body, but are afraid of losing it? They’re much more likely to rigidly control their eating and exercise, which sets them up for problems like diet rebounds, exercise compulsions, and binge eating later on. Plus, if you’re not as invested in your body image, you realize that small things like day-to-day weight fluctuations aren’t that big a deal.)

Conclusion

You’d think people would be motivated to change if they were unhappy with their body. In fact, the opposite is true: Greater body image dissatisfaction actually hinders weight loss.

You may need a certain amount of dissatisfaction with your current body if you want to change it, but more isn’t better. Pointing out that someone is overweight or obese, or beating up on yourself, doesn’t make you more motivated. Nor does it help you get leaner.

We know this to be true. In Lean Eating, we use an “awesomeness-based coaching” approach. We don’t spend time pointing out your “flaws” or “problem areas” (imaginary or otherwise). We find what’s already awesome about you, right now, no matter what your body looks like… and help you do and feel more of that.

(And just a warning: We have a Five-Pushup Rule in Lean Eating: Self-criticism gets you five pushups. We know that negative self-talk doesn’t do you any good. So we pushup that nasty stuff right outta you.)

This study shows that improving body image helps with weight loss. And it seems that spending less time worrying about how your body looks and how other people may scrutinize your body is a bigger part of the puzzle than how unhappy you are about your body.

Want to lose weight?

• Stop obsessing about your body. If possible, try to get “outside yourself” — into a bigger world full of activities, experiences, social causes, and other things more interesting than whether you can see your abs.
• Pursue self-acceptance, self-care and self-compassion… not self-criticism.
• Pay more attention to what you eat — eat slowly and mindfully.
• Move your body more.

Simple, but not necessarily easy.

Bottom line

Whether you’re coaching a client or are interesting in losing weight yourself, improving body image can help you lose weight.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, accepting your body as it is and spending less time thinking about your body can improve your weight loss. You still have to eat a little less and move around a little more… but at the very least, you’ll also like yourself at the end of the day.

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About Author

Helen Kollias, Ph.D. has earned a doctoral degree in Molecular Biology from York University (2006) with a specialization in the area of Muscle Development and Regeneration. Prior to her doctoral work, Dr. Kollias completed a Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry at the University of Waterloo (2000) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Lethbridge (1996).

As a result of her academic training – covering exercise physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and biomechanics – Dr. Kollias has aquired a broad scientific knowledge that ranges from the cell to the whole body.

Although some folks are either all brain or all brawn, don’t let Dr. Kollias’ solid academic training fool you. In addition to the brains, she’s played varsity soccer, is a certified Level II NCCP (National Coaching Certification of Canada) soccer coach, and has coached both soccer and basketball. Further, she’s been involved in fitness and weight training for over 16 years, working, at one point, as a personal trainer.

Nowadays, Dr. Kollias is a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, studying Myostatin signaling and Muscular dystrophy.

In addition, she lends her considerable talents to the Precision Nutrition team as the Director of Research. In this role, she’s found a way to fuse her academic background in scientific research with ‘real world’ applications to create cool new experiments.

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References

Bhuiyan AR, Gustat J, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. Differences in body shape representations among young adults from a biracial (Black-White), semirural community: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2003 Oct 15;158(8):792-7.

I wasn’t aware fasting was used as a weight-loss plan until I read the “Intermittent Fasting” article on the Mindful Muscle blog. And, having read it, I found myself wanting to know more about supposed benefits and risks. My impression, from the article, was that outside of spiritual benefits, fasting was not an ideal method of weight loss.

Upon further research, what I found was contradictory. There were those who lauded fasting and those who emphatically denounced it. One aspect that appears to be universal—at least universal in the articles I delved through—is that no one actually prescribes it as a weight-loss method. Those who recommend fasting usually do so because of its supposed cleansing benefits, not because it was a guaranteed pound-shedder. To be honest, I find that a relief; the idea of not eating for a long period of time to lose weight just sounds too much like anorexia or starvation to me.

The Spiritual Side of Fasting

With the intent of centering oneself through fasting in a spiritual context, however, I can understand and appreciate the testimonies of practitioners. Depending on one’s religious or spiritual knowledge, many people have some familiarity of when fasting occurs today. Be it the fasting on Good Friday for many Christians, or the month of Ramadan for Muslims, it is still a prevalent practice in the religious realm. Its history is far reaching; ancient tribes, including Native Americans, would fast for a number of reasons, including penitence, fertility, and protection. (…fasting.html)

I read of one Christian man’s personal account of prayer and fasting as a means to finding answers from God. My first reaction, since the man also mentioned how historically fasting was often employed by Christians for answers, was that fasting for answers sounded a lot like a magic eight ball—hope you like the answer you get … and that it makes sense… But after thinking about it for awhile, and reading more and more how fasting is used a tool for centering oneself, I realized fasting and praying were more like remembering one’s goals, ethics, or hopes. It was a way to connect to higher thoughts and beliefs. As a Catholic, I practice fasting before mass and on days like Good Friday as a method to reflect upon Christ’s sacrifices and cleanse the soul, so to speak. I’d never thought to use fasting to find answers within myself, though I’m sure it isn’t just Christians who employ it for such purposes; there are also the accounts of less religious, more spiritually-oriented people using fasting as a means of centering themselves and focusing on higher thoughts.

A little more research revealed some nuances of spiritual fasting. For example, while Catholics may employ fasting as a reflective tool or to better empathize with the impoverished, the Eastern Orthodox may use fasting as a way to fight gluttony. Likewise, while the Jewish may use fasting as penance, Mormons may use it to pray for a special request. Buddhists and Hindus use fasting as a spiritual renewal of the mind—but this isn’t to say these benefits or tools don’t or can’t cross over into other religions. It was eye-opening, though, to see which religions emphasize what through fasting.

Fasting for Good Health

And while some would use the word “purification” to describe fasting, in terms of the mind and soul, it’s also the word used to describe the physical benefits of fasting—at least, if you’re a believer in the benefits of fasting. There is evidence that it can be both harmful and beneficial, depending on its length.

According to the studies I’ve read through, short-term fasting poses little threat unless one is already emaciated, on drugs, or pregnant. Short-term fasting is between twenty-four and thirty-six hours of abstaining from food. It seems that longer fasting (over several days) helps the body to cleanse itself of toxins. What I’ve gathered, however, is that there seems to be more advantage to shorter fasting periods with periods of caloric restriction; the lab results of Roy Walford and Richard Weindruch’s* studies point to this.

They performed tests on rodents, giving one group the all-access-buffet pass, the other group a restricted but still nutritive diet after hours of fasting. I think you can guess where this might be headed.

The rodents that fasted and were then given smaller portions of food than those rodents that ate whatever, whenever, had longer lives and less ailments. The researchers also had a group where adult rodents’ diets were changed from the unhealthy variety to the restricted and fasting diet. Problems like tumors or disease began to clear up and they, too, had longer lives than those that indulged their appetites.

If the improved longevity of rats’ lives doesn’t justify cutting out unnecessary treats in your life, there was another study, this time on humans, that shows how the food people eat can affect life expectancy.

In the late 19th century Sir Robert McCarrison** observed northern and southern Indians  and their eating habits. He found the northern Indians looked healthier than the southern Indians and discovered the diet of the northerners was richer in vegetables and fruits, with less intake of meat, than the southerners.

Okay, I’m not done spouting rat studies just yet because McCarrison took what he saw in his human observations and put them to the test. He fed one group of rats the exact same diet of the northerners, the other the diet of the southerners. The “northern” rats were healthy, happy little rodents with low mortality. The southern rats? They developed diseases … and they turned on each other. Perhaps the key to peace among men—and rats—is more vegetables.

McCarrison even did a study comparing an Indian diet to a British diet (you know, tea, biscuits and marmalade, meat, that sort of thing). According to the results, the British will soon eat each other.

All joking aside, though, this study certainly is fascinating and is convincing if one wants proof that a more balanced and restricted (this is where the fasting comes into play) diet correlates to a longer life with less health problems. There are numerous other studies that prove fasting is healthy and leads to a longer life with less problems (for a good summary of these studies, go here: http://www.systemanorway.com/default.asp?iId=JLHLK).

On the flip side, however, there are those that believe by fasting, especially for too long, the body is being deprived of nutrients. This leaves the body vulnerable and susceptible to illness.

Fasting as a Diet Fad

There’s also the danger of doing it for the wrong reason. There are celebrities out there who have had fasting-diets and there are people who try it for themselves, hoping to end up with the same results. This is starvation, not fasting, because the incentive is to lose weight and lose it fast—fasting for more than three days will definitely lead to problems, including liver damage, anemia, and muscle breakdown to name just a few.

Conclusion

The incentive of the person fasting makes all the difference. When one’s goal is not to lose weight, but to gain clarity of mind or to improve the quality of one’s life, there are definitely going to be advantages. For the person whose incentive is, let’s say, shallow, though, I think the fasting-diet would be yet another disappointing fad.

Bearing this in mind, it’s hard for me to enthusiastically recommend fasting, despite being convinced that the studies on longevity and better quality of life are proof that what we eat and how often we eat affect us. If a person truly employs fasting in combination with healthy caloric restriction, I can find no fault. With our culture’s obsessive dieting trend, though, I would rather recommend fasting for its mental merits. But at least we know, while we fast, there are physical benefits being gained in addition to our spiritual cleansing!

* For more on Weindruch and Walford’s research, go here: http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=496
** For more on McCarrison’s research, go here: http://180degreehealth.blogspot.com/2008/02/robert-mccarrison-straight-nutrition.html

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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Following a cloud with our eye and drifting through the sky with it can be an easy and relaxing meditation.

When people use the phrase “head in the clouds,” they usually refer to a mental state that appears to be drifting rather than concentrating. For this reason, putting our heads in the clouds can be a wonderful meditation tool. Whether puffy and white or tinted with the colors of dawn and dusk or shades of gray, those vaporous sky dwellers can remind us of so many things about life and about ourselves.

For this meditation, we can find a physical place to relax and look upward, or we can look to the skies from within our imaginations. Directing our thoughts to the endless of expanse of sky that clouds inhabit, we feel our souls expand to reach beyond any seeming limitations. Following the clouds, we are free to unleash our imaginations. We may choose to merely drift along with them for a time, enjoying their distanced perspective on the world. Or we can look for messages in their fantastical shapes, or feel the joy of bounding between their immense billowy puffiness. However we interact with them, we do so from a peaceful place.

Clouds drift above the hustle of the world below, knowing they belong to another realm that cannot be affected by its frenzy, reminding us that peace is always available to us. By directing our vision beyond the ordinary, clouds also remind us of the illusion of appearances. While appearing to be solid, their vapor and mist appear like cotton balls ! from below, giving little indication of the heights they reach. Sometimes they may cast shadows, leaving us in shade, but like life’s difficulties clouds change shape and move onward, revealing the shining sun, twinkling stars, and blue sky that are behind them.

When a ray of light breaks through the clouds, their dramatic filtering only makes the light more beautiful by contrast, just as we can shine more brightly in the midst of life’s challenges. When we allow clouds to offer us a welcome respite, they help us visit the realm of illusion to see the truth beyond.

**To read more articles like this, please visit the DailyOM by clicking here

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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It is easy to do, doesn’t require any radical change to your diet, and will have a more profound affect on your well-being than any standard “diet” could ever have.

Your body’s chemistry and the acid-alkaline balance

The human body is a very finely tuned machine. It is highly adaptable, to new environments and situations, but only when it’s internal environment is in balance. For example, the human body operates effectively when it is held at an internal temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Above 104 degrees, or below 97 degrees, and you will experience some significant problems. Your body is even more sensitive to acidic conditions, than it is to temperature.

The blood in your body, which makes up about 8% of its total weight, is a key regulator and indicator of your overall health. The blood is the medium through which oxygen and other nutrients are delivered to each and every cell in your body. In order for the blood to do its job effectively, it needs to be maintained in a very specific pH range. Specifically, a pH of 7.36-7.44; which is slightly alkaline. Even a minor deviation from this small range can be DEADLY.

You may remember from junior high science class that pH (and alkalinity) is measured on a 14 point scale, from 0 to 14; where a low score is extremely acidic (e.g. hydrochloric acid) and a high score is extremely alkaline. Pure water is neural, with a score of seven. You’ve heard about acid rain and environmental conditions that are causing death of all life in many of our world’s great waterways. Now imagine the same thing happening to the waterways inside your body, i.e. your bloodstream. It isn’t a pretty story, but there is something you can do to fix it, RIGHT NOW.

The foods you eat have a major impact on your body’s acid-alkaline balance. Digestion of processed foods, for example, will create acidic byproducts that flow into the bloodstream. The more processed foods (sugars, refined carbohydrates, etc.) you eat, the more acid-byproducts will be created and the more acidic your bloodstream will become.

In fact, it is not just processed foods that are acid-forming. Many animal products (e.g. high protein foods) starches and grains are also acid forming. Nitrogen, a byproduct of protein digestion, is acidic. Caffeine is also highly acid-forming.

On the contrary, fresh vegetables and fruits (especially citrus fruits like lemon) are highly alkalizing to the body. The most alkaline foods are leafy green vegetables (wheat grass, spinach, kale, etc.).

How do you know if your body is acidic or alkaline? You can test yourself by measuring the pH of your urine or saliva (less accurate) using pH strips from any pharmacy. The most accurate method is to test the blood. Most clinics that do blood-work should be able to do this for you. Of course, there is an even easier way to know if your body is alkaline. Just think about your diet. Are you consuming a lot of caffeine or alcohol? How about meat? How about breads, pasta or other starches? If so, you’re body is probably struggling to keep itself in an alkaline state. The impact on your overall wellness is too great to ignore.

The impact of an out-of-balance body

As I said before, the human body is highly adaptable. A mildly acidic condition for a short period of time will not have a big affect on your body. However, most people have extremely poor diets and highly stressful lives, which leads to chronically acidic conditions. This can be devastating to your body and overall well-being. Some of the negative affects include:

• bloating and water retention
• acne and other skin conditions
• weak hair or nails
• trouble maintaining weight
• trouble losing weight
• joint pain
• headaches
• irritability
• cramps
• indigestion
• frequent colds
• allergies

Weight gain and/or loss are some of the more apparent conditions. Are you having trouble losing those final 10 pounds? Or are you having trouble gaining lean muscle mass? Your body might be in a chronically acidic state.

When the body is in a acidic state, it will do whatever it takes to protect itself. For some people, this means retaining water and fat close to the body organs to protect them from the acid. For others, this means flushing the body of water and excess weight to “purge” itself. If you are underweight or overweight, you could have an acidic condition in your body.

Furthermore, in acidic body environments, pathogens such as yeasts and bacteria will thrive in your digestive tracks. In fact, research has even shown that cancer cells thrive in acidic environments, but perish in alkaline environments. As these pathogens thrive in your body, they will steal away the precious nutrients and energy that should be going to your body! If you wonder why all the food you eat doesn’t seem to give you energy, here is your answer!

The body was created to hold a slightly alkaline state for a reason. It is in this state that it is highly disease resistant, capable of repairing itself and energetic. Luckily, you can take a few easy steps today to start the healing process.

**To read the rest of this article @ Set Higher Standards, click here!

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About the “Seeker” of this Article

Chris Willitts is a social entrepreneur, fitness enthusiast, and expert of consciousness. He is also the founder of Mindful Muscle and teaches a pioneering meditation class that blends shades of positive psychology into the course called Meditation Illuminates. Chris’s academic background is in consciousness studies and Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Be sure to check out Chris’s recent mindfulness project called Mindful Strength, a revolutionary mind-body system of meditation and strength training.

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Learning and understanding my own processes definitely affects my ability to maneuver and flow with greater ease and to create my own magickal life experience. Yet, there is still a collective timing for the really big things that has a design to it and cannot be premature. While we have specific paths and purposes, these are always linked to a higher good service, which will be a connective thread to bringing about the greatest collective web experience. And this cannot be forced or rushed.

This creates a need for embracing the perfection of each moment and always being mindful of living from the highest vibration and your highest potentials as you can, in order to not only create a personally fulfilling life, but to be of greatest service in helping that collective timing. Aligning with this is an all-encompassing, co-supportive experience, where portals will open once the collective is ready to walk through. This does not mean you can’t create and walk through portals on your own, but when the meaning and symbolism behind the experience is tied to service, then it is something that will require Divine Timing, aided by continually operating at full throttle you! So it’s never license to take an “I don’t care” or “I’m just one person, I can’t possibly affect the whole” attitude, as the more you each do your parts, the more you can simultaneously help affect the collective timing, as well as your own. When more people are ready, more portal opportunities open for us all.

Timing is definitely something to honor and not force, as well as trusting what you feel and learning what those feelings mean. I’ve seen this take place with so many of my major focuses, including my paintings and book, which all carry very deep collective healing energy. Many times, regardless of my own healing and understanding, my paintings, as well as book, were delayed and drawn out (sometimes months or years), as their collective impact was huge and I could not rush the healing process for others. Hence, they evolved in Divine Timing and I had to learn to embrace patience and come to understand the perfection that took me out of ego and into unconditional compassion.

You have to learn to get out of your own way in order to embrace a greater-you experience. What I have found is that if you flow and don’t force, then the process will be much easier and efficient, as well as enjoyable. The energy percolates during what seems to be the waiting period and much is actually getting done and lining up in unseen ways. Then, when you finally sit down to do something, it flows with effortless and seeming magick. This continually happens with each new journey I embark on.

It’s like being part of an alchemical pool of energy that we are all simultaneously elemental ingredients and co-magicians of.

Each portal requires varying ingredients, but when the ingredients reach just the right energetic mix, the portal does open. However, it is important to be conscious of embracing that moment, when it does, and walking through.

There may be times of dread and frustration, fear and impatience, as you move through the process of not knowing how to maneuver and learning to embrace this new flow. Ideas may only be seeded in you as an inspiration, an essence feeling, or abstract channeling, yet not come to fruition immediately. Take heed of these seedling thoughts and feelings, as they are setting up what is to come, as if you get a glimpse of the future before it happens, in order to create the space to grow into.

Any time you may try to sit down to do something and it feels forced or like a horrendous ordeal, heed that feeling and turn your attention elsewhere. It is not time. It means it is not yet ready, or there is something more to understand, see, or process. The universe is always trying to say… “Not yet. Just wait. It will come.”

For me, when I hit those closed and hard doors, I wait and devote that creative energy wanting out to other things, letting it percolate and build, while I listen for the next opening that welcomes me through. What once was a dreaded frustration of postponement is now an exciting burst of joy in presence and beauty, as I unwrap an artistic creation, layer by layer.

Embracing the perfection of Divine Timing is the message here that we can utilize in any and all areas of our lives. If something consistently feels forced, it likely isn’t time for one reason or another and likely you are going against something rather than flowing with it. The reason will become clear later. When we listen, magick unfolds and synchronicity can then take place in the most joyful of ways. If one thing isn’t working, work on something else, as there are probably elements of yourself you will discover in the process, or pieces that are needed before you can embark on the really challenging thing. Then the challenge becomes a piece of cake! - an extension of you in natural flow and synchronously symbolizes the now we are in. If you step into the rhythms and cycles (just like nature) and work with them rather than against them, you will find things much more effortless, fulfilling and ultimately more potent. This is a time of harmonic convergence and you are learning to integrate into this return to natural harmony, while releasing the old struggle you have become accustomed to. Step back and listen to what your heart is telling you. You will find the answer in this place you have forgotten to value and trust.

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About the Author

A native Southern Californian, Tania Marie, is a visionary artist, designer, Reiki Master Teacher, intuitive healer and writer, as well as vegan raw foodist and world traveler. Her paintings, sacred tattoo designs, crystal pendants, articles, intuitive healing work and heart channeled inspirations have supported many people globally to find meaning, magic, joy, love inspiration and healing in their lives. Tania is the owner of Emerald Bridge, a compassionately conscious business which fuses visionary services and creations. Her ground-breaking and powerfully inspiring book, Spiritual Skin, is creating a transformative wave across the world, as it creates a new paradigm bridge between physical and spiritual through a thorough, transformatively healing and inspirational exploration of sacred tattoos.

A chameleon in life and art, her work is an organic, etheric synergy of “living art” with endearing depth. Tania has received notability as “one of the most inspiring modern artists of our time” and “one of the most intriguing and vivid visionary artists.”

Her heart channeling creations inspire people around the world to connect with their essence and joy, while supporting compassionate, conscious awareness. Tania’s devoted passion and service are to focus on heart-based projects intended to help support global peace, return to natural harmony and compassionate synergy.

Tania can be commissioned for events, paintings, design projects, as well as can be contacted with requests on classes of interest, including Reiki and art.

For more information about the book please visit: www.spiritualskin.com

For more information on Tania and her work please visit: www.taniamarie.com

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