An Eggsample of Misinformation

by Namaste Publishing Staff

Quite a few years ago I bought an electric egg cooker, because I enjoy both boiled and poached eggs. It was in the shape of a hen, sat on my counter, and worked well for a time. Its ability to cook eggs with a firm white and soft center was so much more reliable than plunging the eggs into water that, when it wore out, I went out and bought another. The new model was in the shape of an egg. A few days ago, it too burned out.

So I scoured the kitchen shops, and in process of seeking a new egg cooker got into a conversation about eggs.

“I always cook my eggs hard boiled,” said one of the staff.

“I eat the white,” said another, “and throw out the yolk.”

“Why do you throw out the yolk?” I quizzed.

“Oh, all that cholesterol,” the person explained. “I don’t want to get cholesterol into my arteries. That’s why I never eat the yolk.”

Cholesterol has been big news for the past several decades, and eggs got a large slice of the blame for clogged arteries. This is why, throughout North America, you can find “eggbeater” breakfast offerings at restaurants, billed as “reduced cholesterol.”

As for cooking at home, recipes advise that we can “reduce the number of fat-filled egg yolks in baked goods” by substituting two egg whites for one whole egg. Alternatively, there are those low-cholesterol powdered or frozen egg substitutes. Or, says the advertising, you can buy a drug that blocks the absorption of cholesterol and eat your eggs anyway.

Whichever of the choices above you elect, you’ll be shortchanging your health. That’s because eggs were jumped on unjustly as a cause of heart disease, the result of faulty research. If you test powdered eggs that have been oxidized, you’ll certainly come up with a bad reading! Many industrially-modified foods are harmful to the body.

You may be surprised to learn that in a book packed with over 450 pages of information, health researcher Ron Garner devotes only two pages to the bugaboo of cholesterol. That’s it—two pages. Conscious Health, you see, isn’t backed by research carried out by people with a profit in mind, and it doesn’t focus on the latest fad as a “cause” or “cure.” It takes a wholistic approach to health.

The body needs cholesterol, and when it doesn’t receive an adequate amount from your diet, it manufactures it. Cholesterol is a key ingredient in health—especially the health of your brain.

You don’t want too much cholesterol. Gallstones, for example, contain a lot of cholesterol combined with calcium salts. But the reason people get gallstones isn’t a simple matter of eating too many eggs. It’s because their diet is overly acid-producing instead of tipped slightly in favor of alkali-producing foods. (If you want to learn how to alkalinize your body for better health, it’s covered extensively in Conscious Health.)

Eggs can be a regular part of an overall balanced diet, in which lots of fresh vegetables are eaten, and they can be consumed both raw and lightly cooked. They are a nearly perfect source of protein.

But it’s a matter of how the eggs are produced, and how they are prepared. If you are eating regular store-bought eggs, from hens in cages, you are not getting the healthy kind of egg that you get when an egg is produced by hens running around in a field. You are receiving a lot of chemicals fed to hens that exist in continuously stressed conditions—hens that amount to nothing but laying machines.

You’ll want to buy organic eggs at the very least. But even more preferable, find a local supply of eggs from hens raised outdoors on pasture, and not given chemicalized feed. If you can’t find local eggs, you can buy pastured eggs online (simply type “pastured eggs” into Google, for instance).

Eggs from a healthy supply can be eaten raw if you like them this way. Generally, the less cooked foods are, the better they are for us. But healthily-raised hard boiled eggs, while not as nutritionally available to the body, are not harmful as part of an overall healthy diet that contains a good proportion of raw plant foods to sweep excess cholesterol from the body.

It’s vital not to allow eggs to oxidize. Once you crack an egg, eat or cook it immediately. When the yellow starts to darken from standing, it’s oxidizing—just like an apple does if you leave it sitting out after you cut into it. Oxidized egg yolks are not healthy.

Eggs that are naturally raised and untampered with—which leaves out the packaged kinds on supermarket shelves—will serve your body’s needs well when combined with a wholesome diet of the kind recommended in Conscious Health.

Out With the Trans Fats?

By Namaste Staff Writer

McDonalds has announced that it is switching from cooking oil that contains trans fats to a an oil that doesn’t. The move was initially to comply with a New York law that prohibits the use of trans fats. In light of the fact that more cities are considering banning trans fats, McDonalds has chosen to gradually phase the new oil in nationally.

Wendy’s already switched from hydrogenated fat to a blend of corn oil and soy oil, which has zero trans fats. Taco Bell has also switched, among others. McDonalds will use a blend of canola oil that also contains corn and soy oils.

All of this is meant to reassure us that eating fast foods is okay. We are assured that the chains are “watching out for our health.”

Trans-fatty acids have been useful to the fast foods industry because they have a long shelf life. But the U.S. government now says there is no safe level of trans fats. They are known to promote heart disease.

But are the new oils particularly healthy? And, even if they are free of trans fats when cold, are they still free of trans fats after being heated to high temperatures?

There are other problems with the oils that are now replacing the hydrogenated fats that are known to be so harmful.

When oils are refined, as most cooking oils are, they lose nutrients. When they are heated to high temperatures, they form chemicals, such as acrylamides, that can be harmful—even cancer-causing. And when they become rancid, they introduce large numbers of damaging free radicals into the body.

Fries may well be one of the most damaging “foods” a person can put in his or her body. No only are the fats harmful, insulin levels are adversely affected. There’s simply nothing redeeming about such a diet.

It’s also the case that the Western diet generally contains an imbalance of Omega 6 fats and needs to be balanced by a lessening of vegetable oil consumption and an increase in Omega 3 fats.

There are times when you will want to fry. Rather than using canola, corn, soy, safflower and other polyunsaturated oils for cooking—which contain high amounts of Omega 6—it’s preferable to opt for coconut oil. At low temperatures, olive oil is a good oil to use. But when heated to high temperature, it too becomes harmful. Coconut oil remains stable even at high cooking temperatures.

Coconut oil should be organic, virgin, and unrefined. You can find such oil in your local health food store or order it online. There are many misleading myths about coconut oil, but it is a highly beneficial oil. Some have found that they can lessen or even eliminate thyroid medications by regular consumption of coconut oil.

Butter is also useful for sautéing food. Raw, organic butter, now available online, is your best choice.

Avoid the “fast” variety and eat real foods.

Feeling Healthy

by Namaste Publishing Staff

Thanks to tireless research, people who are willing to think in new ways, and those who have the ability to bring together our best minds to pool their insights, there is a growing awareness of the connection between an individual’s health and emotional and social factors.

We are increasingly realizing that our mental state, coupled with our social environment, cannot be ignored when seeking the causes and treatment of disease. In recognition of this link, the nonprofit Heal Breast Cancer Foundation is granting awards to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to this aspect of health research.

In Beverly Hills on February 22, a gala evening will honor seven individuals for their work. One of these is the Namaste author Eckhart Tolle, whose book The Power of Now has enabled people worldwide to bring stillness and calm into their lives.

The link between emotional, social, and biological factors in health is highlighted by another Namaste publication, Ron Garner’s Conscious Health. Fifty pages of this insightful book address the issue of our beliefs and feelings, and how they help make us either well or sick.

Dietary information, medical examinations, and the advice of health professionals are aspects of what it takes to be healthy, but they are not the whole picture. Becoming conscious of the link between the state of your mind and social life, and the state of your health, is also a key factor in being well.

For instance, if you are not living authentically, so that your days don’t reflect who you really are, you are harming your health. If you hold beliefs that have a negative, fear-generating impact, you are harming your health. If you tell yourself all kinds of self-limiting statements, you are harming your health.

When we live our lives in a condition of resentment or resistance, as so many do, this damages the body’s ability to function optimally. On the other hand, when life is lived with gratitude and thankfulness, every cell of the body is nourished. This is because cells don’t simply work in a mechanical manner but respond to the emotional and social environment in which they are immersed.

A negative flow of emotions disrupts the functioning of cells. They are literally bathed in the harmful chemicals such emotions trigger. In an average human body there are something like 100 trillion cells. Yet, when you experience negative emotions, the effect in the body is all but universal. Many of the cells that are the building blocks of life are instantly affected by detrimental emotions. And all it takes to trigger such emotions is the wrong kind of thought or a disempowering conversation!

What we say, and how we say it, affects our health by sending a chemical surge throughout the body. How we feel affects our health. The social situation in which we live and work affects our health. Research is showing us that these aspects of everyday life are far more powerful than we have imagined and work to undo our dietary and exercise efforts when we don’t attend to them.

Conscious Health is a powerful book not simply because of the health information it contains, but more especially because it will help you to begin listening to your own body. It will show you how to pay attention to what your body is saying to you so that you can take charge of your wellbeing.

What’s right for one isn’t necessarily right for another. There’s no “one size fits all.” But as you become conscious—aware—of all that goes into the makings of your health, you can tailor your lifestyle for your unique makeup.

We are deeply grateful for Eckhart Tolle and the wonderful insights he shares with us in The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, A New Earth, and his many DVDs, which can be found on the Namaste Publishing website.

We are also grateful for Michael Brown’s The Presence Process, another amazing tool to help us become calm, peaceful, and in tune with our deepest selves.

These wonderful gifts work in a beautiful synergy with the wealth of helpful information Ron Garner shares with us in Conscious Health.

Light and Dark

by Namaste Publishing Staff

“Stay out of the sun,” we’ve been warned for a generation or more now. The sun is blamed for skin cancer, especially the deadly melanoma.

Recent research has been throwing a little light on the topic of sunlight, however—and it doesn’t conform to the traditional advice.

The fact is, we need sunlight, and we need it in its unfiltered form, unblocked by suntan lotions. Apart from the fact that lotions can be harmful because they can be toxic and are absorbed through the skin, they block out the vital light that is actually a preventative against many cancers.

There’s a difference between tanning for the sake of appearance, and getting enough sun to promote health. Says health researcher Ron Garner in his book Conscious Health, “Moderate exposure of skin to the sun is healthful in many ways, but must not be overdone.” You don’t want to burn your skin.

Ron suggests the use of hemp oil if you have had sufficient exposure and need protection. This oil has a natural protective factor of 15. It’s also beneficial to the body.

Vitamin D is emerging as a major weapon in the arsenal of anticancer agencies. Sunlight is the best source to obtain this vitamin. But if you receive an inadequate supply of light, in Conscious Health Ron shows how you can supplement through diet.

Just as we need sunlight each day, we also need complete darkness at night. Our bodies manufacture melatonin at night, which is a known cancer preventative, as well as performing many other restorative tasks. We also rest more deeply in a truly dark room.

But it seems that in the modern home, achieving a completely dark sleeping environment can be difficult and requires a little effort. Clocks, computers, night lights, skylights, stray light through an inadequately curtained window—all of these disrupt the body’s rest and lessen the benefits derived from sleep. Cover sources of light or pull plugs out of electrical sockets so that your room is dark. Especially don’t leave your computer running with a screensaver if it’s in your sleeping quarters.

If you have children, it may be a challenge to get them to sleep in a completely dark room because we have become so accustomed to artificial light in our culture. But especially during the first two years of life, light at night is known to damage an infant’s eyesight. Gradually lowering the lights over a period of days or weeks is an approach that may work, until the room is dark.

It’s also a good practice to begin lowering the lights as the evening moves toward bedtime, signaling to your own body that it is approaching the time for sleep.

It’s especially important, if you are a shift worker, to ensure that when you are asleep during the daytime, your room is thoroughly darkened. The body’s circadian rhythms are governed by light.

Light and dark—we need both. But in today’s society, we too often receive neither in uncompromised form. So enjoy the sun in moderation, and turn out those artificial lights at night. Light and dark are important factors in promoting good health and the ability to function well.