Seven Fantastic Foods

Doctors and health officials tell us that what we are eating is nutritious, but this is just not the case. Inadequate mineral nutrition is a major health problem today.

by Dr. Larry Wilson — 

Certain foods and nutrients are so vital to human nutrition that consuming them can automatically extend your life and dramatically improve your health.

Some of these special foods are: sardines; organic blue corn tortillas or chips; organic carrot juice; raw, unpasteurized dairy foods; kelp; dried Botija olives; and Hawaiian Jade sea salt.

Sardines

The humble sardine is one of the best foods to consume on a regular basis and is extremely healthful for the following reasons:

1. Low in mercury. The small size and short lifespan of the sardine means that it has much less opportunity to absorb mercury. Larger fish, including salmon, can concentrate mercury up to a million times more than sardines. Most sardines are also wild-caught rather than farm-raised. Farmed fish are usually not fed a high-quality diet.
2. High in vitamin D, calcium, RNA/DNA and omega-3 fatty acids. Sardines are a wonderful source of all of these hard-to-find nutrients that everyone needs today.
3. Bioavailable selenium. The whole fish, and especially the skin, contains an abundance of a bioavailable form of selenium. This is an important mineral that is very hard to find in our food supply.
4. Developmental food. The particular nutrient content of sardines, as opposed to other fish or seafood, assists in the development of some higher brain centers. These brain ganglia greatly enhance the activity of the nervous system and brain (which is why I refer to it as a developmental food). Eating sardines can enhance your brainpower much more effectively than taking drugs or herbs.

Fresh sardines are ideal, but any canned variety will do. Check the expiration date for freshness. Adults may have three cans of sardines per week.

Organic blue corn (tortillas or chips)

Organically grown blue corn is one of the finest foods for several reasons:

1. A wide variety of nutrients. The most important nutrient is a highly available form of selenium, which is often missing in our food supply today. Most selenium present in foods and supplements is not well utilized, such as that found in most meats, Brazil nuts, yeast and several other foods. Selenium in blue corn is far more absorbable for most people.
2. High in antioxidants, which give it the blue color. These nutrients are also found in some bluish fruits, but the fruits are too yin (in Chinese medical terms this means they are expanded, cold and generally unhealthy). Cooked organic blue corn is much less so.
3. Low in gluten. Corn is much better tolerated than wheat, for example, which can be harmful because it is so hybridized, and high in gluten and glutamine.
4. Reactions to corn chips. Some people do not like corn chips because they are made with refined vegetable oils. However, this can easily be balanced by consuming extra omega-3 fatty acids in the form of sardines, or by taking a supplement of fish oil, flax seed oil or hempseed oil. Other omega-3 fatty acid sources do not seem to work as well or are toxic, such as krill oil.

Some people react to corn, perhaps due to its rather high glycemic index and the fact that it turns to sugar quickly, upsetting the body and fueling yeast growth. This sensitivity usually goes away quickly with a nutritional balancing program. If possible, consume about two to three bags of organic blue corn chips or one package of organic blue corn tortillas weekly.

Organic carrot juice

Ten to 12 ounces of either fresh or store-bought carrot juice daily, (less for children), is another excellent food item. However, do not consume more than 12 ounces daily in most cases, as carrot juice is extremely sugary and yin.

Carrot juice is rich in a bioavailable form of calcium. It is also  high in many other nutrients. If you make it yourself, you may add a few spinach leaves, Swiss chard, fresh ginger root, beet greens or other greens. However, avoid adding fruit to the mixture; as it unbalances the juice.

An alternative to carrot juice is one or two ounces of fresh or frozen wheatgrass juice. This is not quite as good as carrot juice, however.

Suggestions for juicing carrots:

• Use a juicer, but not a blender like the Vitamix®. Blenders do not break up the carrots well enough to extract all the nutrients. They also mix the juice with too much water and air, leaving the carrot pulp intact, which is undesirable.
• Try to have your carrot juice alone rather than with other foods or beverages. Wait at least 15 minutes before eating or drinking anything else to give the juice time to be absorbed.
• People with yeast problems or sugar sensitivity may not tolerate carrot juice well. In that case, drink one-half or one-third of the juice, put the remainder in the refrigerator and drink the rest every few hours. This will prevent you from overloading your bloodstream with sugar in a short period of time. Be sure your juice is fresh. If store-bought juice does not taste good, it may be moldy or contain pesticides.

Raw, unpasteurized, non-homogenized dairy

Raw dairy products are incredibly nutrient rich. They are high in calcium, magnesium, zinc, sodium, selenium, dozens of other trace minerals, and other nutrients that our bodies require.

Some doctors believe that raw dairy products are unsafe. In my 30 years of medical experience, this has absolutely not been proven. Pasteurized milk is far more unhealthful because this process allows the farmers to be lax with cleanliness practices and to sell milk from diseased cows. They pasteurize the milk to try to kill the germs.

Pasteurization was needed several hundred years ago, but today, supported by a large lobbying effort, it is mainly an excuse to sell bad products. Milk is a living food, and pasteurization damages the availability of its calcium and protein. This process also destroys most of the omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and other nutrients, rendering the milk an unhealthy concoction that often causes allergic reactions.

People who are allergic to regular milk can generally consume raw dairy products. If they cannot, most soon develop a tolerance to them when they follow a nutritional balancing program.

Limit your raw milk intake to about 8 ounces daily. More is too yin. You also may have some raw yogurt and raw cheese, especially full-fat goat cheese. If raw dairy products are unavailable, the next best choice is often Horizon®, Straus® or Cadia™ brands of organic dairy products.

Kelp

The sea vegetable, kelp, is another wonderful food. It can be a life-saving supplement and I recommend it for everyone, as it is a rich source of hundreds of trace and ultratrace minerals. It is also better than most mineral supplements, including earth-based products like fulvic and humic acid, zeolite, sea-based minerals and others.

One of kelp’s most important roles is to provide bioavailable iodine, a mineral that few people are getting enough of from their food. Because kelp is more physiological than most other iodine-containing sources, as well as more balanced, it does not cause toxicity. Moreover, it contains a very bioavailable form of calcium not found in most foods.

Kelp is also a source of many phytonutrients that are hard to find in other foods. Thus, it provides a host of nutrients at a very reasonable cost.

Kelp versus “green superfoods.” Kelp is the best green superfood. It is preferable to other sources because:

1. Green superfoods often contain dangerous chelators such as chlorella, cilantro and zeolite.

2. They contain algae, which are less compatible with human physiology. The common spirulina, chlorella and blue-green algae become toxic in the body.

3. Kelp does not go rancid as fast as the others do. The salt content in kelp preserves it longer.

4. Kelp is far more yang than the others, which makes it a more balanced and healthful product.

5. Kelp contains many more alginates than the other green superfoods. This compound protects the body against mercury and other toxic metals present in most sea vegetables and foods. The other green foods either contain none of this chemical or much less of it. This is why I never recommend other sea vegetables, even though they are nutritious foods.

Reactions to kelp. Kelp is a powerful food supplement and herb. Occasionally a person may have a negative reaction to kelp, but in most cases, it is mild and temporary. The cause is often the removal of an iodine antagonist, either a bromine, fluorine or chlorine compound. Iodine is stimulating in a few instances. If this is the case, just reduce the amount of kelp consumed for a while, and then increase it very slowly. Most everyone is eventually able to tolerate kelp.

Adults can work up to about 1,500 mg of kelp daily, taken in divided doses with meals. Children also need kelp but should take less, depending on their weight and size. Children under three years old usually do not need it.

Botija olives

A few Botija olives each day are an excellent choice during a nutritional balancing program. Botijas, an older variety of olives, are less oily and less hybridized than other olives. Vegetable oil is a yin substance, and these olives are much more yang than most others due to their lower oil content. This is one reason why they are the only olives to eat regularly, although the other varieties are fine occasionally.

Botija olives offer many more benefits compared to other olives and foods. They contain a rare form of selenium that is highly absorbable by our bodies. This is their main benefit, although they are also very nutritious in general, as are most olives.

Unfortunately, other types of olives are best eaten only occasionally because most are processed with regular salt and possibly harmful chemicals; moreover, the fermented ones are too yin to be eaten on a regular basis.

Botija olives come from Peru and are sold fresh or dried. The best and most yang Botija olives are dried, either with or without the pits. If you buy the ones with pits, you can crack open the pits with a nutcracker and eat the seeds as well. A good place to buy them is online at www.vivapura.net out of Patagonia, Ariz., or call 877-787-6457. Eating a few of these olives per day is a superb source of energy.

Hawaiian Jade sea salt

Natural sea salt is essential today as a source of trace minerals. All of our food is low in minerals, due to the use of industrial farming methods that emphasize high crop yields, rather than producing nutritious food.

The truth about the low mineral content of our food is known in some circles. Some doctors and health officials tell us that what we are eating is nutritious, but this is just not the case. Inadequate mineral nutrition is a major health problem today.

Unrefined sea salt is an excellent source of trace minerals, along with kelp and sardines. Salt, in particular, helps maintain the body’s electrolyte and osmotic balance. It has an alkalinizing effect on the body, as well. It is also an extremely yang food, which is needed today due to radiation poisoning of the entire world’s population.

The sodium it contains is critical for osmotic balance and to solubilize minerals in the blood. Sodium deficiency causes other minerals to become biounavailable and to precipitate into the soft tissues and elsewhere. All of the above are very important reasons to use sea salt on your food. It is far better to avoid table salt, a thoroughly ruined junk food that has been stripped of most of its vital minerals.

Avoiding sea salt, as some doctors suggest, is foolish. Reasonable and moderate use of a high-quality, unrefined or sea salt has little or no effect on blood pressure. In fact, its high magnesium content can help lower blood pressure and prevent toxic metal buildup that can cause high blood pressure.

If you already have high blood pressure, you may need to use less. It is still better than potassium salts and most other store-bought products. You will get plenty of potassium from the other 70 percent of your diet, which should be cooked vegetables.

The best sea salt is Hawaiian Bamboo Jade sea salt, or just Hawaiian Jade sea salt. It is an old formula that is extremely balanced. You may use it instead of all other salts, for both cooking and salting your food.

Hawaiian Jade is superior to other popular sea salts, which are fine, but not as good. These other salts include Celtic salt, Himalayan salt, Redmond Real Salt, Pacific Salt and others. You can purchase Hawaiian Jade sea salt by calling 954-275-4478, online at www.thespicelab.com or from other distributors of fine sea salts.

Dr. Lawrence Wilson has a medical degree and has been in the health field for more than 25 years. His books include Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis, Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners, Healing Ourselves and Manual of Sauna Therapy and The Real Self. He also co-authored Toxic Metals in Human Health and Disease and contributed to The Dangers of Socialized Medicine. www.drlwilson.com or 928-445-7690.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 30, Number 2, Apr/May 2011.