“What’s for dinner?” is the question I hate answering sometimes at the drug rehab where I cook. People’s comments and reactions are predictable after twenty years of professional cooking.

“Oh, we’re having turkey-it’s going to make everyone sleepy.”

I was very concerned when I first heard about the dangers of turkey eating because I personally had consumed so much in my lifetime. Luckily, I did not experience the drowsiness or coma problem but strangely I did suffer from becoming very lean, hard and muscular.

I have noticed that turkey does not have a warning label so I will warn you.

Use extreme caution when eating turkey! Do not combine with alcohol and use caution when driving motor vehicles or operating heavy machinery.

There is a way to eat turkey safely. You need only have processed deli turkey on bread and call it a “sandwich”. Apparently, this helps negate the drowsiness side effect.

I am a turkey warrior.

“You still haven’t gotten a turkey yet?” my friend asked. We have been on many turkey hunts together. He has shot many turkeys while I have gone home cold, tired and turkeyless.

The wild turkey is an especially vile fowl I have hunted unsuccessfully for many years. Gobbling, scratching at me and laughing with their tryptophan running high, flying away unscathed every time while I unload a volley of lead shot at close range.

“The turkeys are too smart for you dad.” My daughter said once in an amused tone.

Perhaps the wild turkeys know me and heard about my lifetime of murdering their domestic white feathered cousins. Many, Many turkeys have been sent to their death in ovens by the All-American Lifetime Chef Ian Kelley. The Godfather of Fowl. The Master of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. The Captain of Cranberry Sauce. I have spilled more turkey than most people have cooked.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only appropriate day’s to eat the deadly fowl. Often I will serve Turkey Dinners on unapproved days because of my lust for revenge on the evil beaked birds.

“ I didn’t know it was Thanksgiving.” Is the usual response I get from concerned customers. Apparently this is the one day when most Americans throw caution to the wind and eat the deadly poultry.

People please.

What the heck is wrong with turkey? Only the very ignorant would eat turkey only once a year.

If I hear this one more time:

“Oh My! The turkey will make me sleepy.”

My silent rage may explode into something like this:

Yes, you moron it will knock you right out. It may even put you in a coma or kill you so you better be careful. In fact it probably would be safer to smoke some marijuana, drink some alcohol, or take some opiates. Surely that won’t make you sleepy. But Turkey should be eaten very sparingly so as to not be put into a coma-like trance, or perhaps you should only eat it on Thanksgiving, this is the day when you are allowed to eat it safely. I am sure that it’s not overeating that makes people sleepy. Not the three scoops of mashed potatoes, the four slices of pumpkin pie. No it is definitely the turkey that is the culprit.

Let’s put the sleepy turkey myth to bed and enjoy some delicious turkey today. Your body will thank you for it.

“The Good is the Enemy of the Best” Father Martin- famous addiction recovery speaker.

The “Supplement Empire” has complete control over “Natural Bodybuilding” just as much as regular; anything goes “steroid-growth hormone bodybuilding”. The distinction in natural bodybuilding is that you must prove that you have been drug-free for 5-7 years.

Full-page color ads depicting the natural pros in all their glory endorsing the whey, creatine, or other chemical products fill the so-called “Natural Bodybuilding” magazines. The publishers of the magazines are also the owners of the supplement companies so it is very important to them that you do not hear my message or read my book. The TRUTH is realized not learned. If you read my book “The Organic Body” or study the information on my website you may break through the supplement hoax and realize the TRUTH. The purveyors of protein powders don’t want that. The crafters of chemical creatine don’t want that. I want you to realize the truth and enjoy a happy, healthy life free from chemicals. To experience the joy of self esteem from having the body of your dreams without sacrificing your health or wellness.

After competing at my seventh bodybuilding competition, the OCB “Spirit of America” in Cape Cod, I was exhausted. Lying coma-like on the bed of my hotel room and feeling discouraged about my chances of ever winning a pro qualifying show the though of giving up crossed my mind.

Dedicated practicing of my Batman posing routine didn’t matter when my music CD just froze up and died just after walking on stage. Taking it in stride I finished with no music while several sympathetic members of the audience half-heartedly sang the batman theme song for me. . I placed 4th out of 11 competitors in my class which was not bad considering the quality of my competition. I had posed well but it wasn’t enough. I already knew what it would take to win. I need to get bigger. For a tall guy I am a little light on muscle in the upper body.

The guy who deservedly won the tall class was my height with 20 pounds more muscle than me. Gaining 20 pounds of muscle naturally, without supplements, will be a daunting task that could take me years of overeating and intense training. I’m not sure if I want to.

Should I just give up?

Who would care?

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the TV. It was on to keep me company but I had not been watching it. Snapping into awareness I sat up to watch the interview.

“You had some rough times and hard criticism early on in your political career Governor, why didn’t you just give up? After all you’ve already experienced great success. Why do you care? You could just walk away from politics.” said the reporter plainly.

“I have learned from being an athlete that if you have a worthy goal you should never give up on it. You need to just learn from each defeat and come back stronger and more determined to reach your goal.”

“I realized that my ideas and political agenda were good and I should not give up on it, it would just take time to win. We have proven here in California that you can care about the environment and be pro-business at the same time.” Said Schwarzenegger confidently.

The universe told me what I needed to hear from someone I respect enough to hear it from. My Organic Bodybuilding concept is good and I have done good with it, but I won’t stop at just being good, I will strive to be the best.

“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” Napoleon Hill

Entering the polygraphers’ hotel room two weeks later at the INBF Northeast Classic in Marlboro, Massachusetts I received my next message from the universe.

Intense and assertive, he seemed to have me figured out before he even attached the test equipment. He was a Psychologist and former school principal; an odd man who I am sure has made many people feel anxious and uncomfortable. He looked at you and knew the truth. He didn’t really need the polygraph equipment.

“It’s a self-selected journey towards a perfection you will never attain.” He said authoritatively and later repeated many times.

“What do you mean?” I asked dumbly.

“You people don’t present it well either. You tell people it’s about the diet or the supplements or the training…when it’s really about the journey. You people are even misunderstood among other fitness people. 99.9% of people out there misunderstand bodybuilders and fitness competitors because you don’t present it as the journey towards perfection that it is.”

My mouth was open. I was dumbfounded. I hadn’t examined why I liked competitive bodybuilding so much. I remembered why I started doing it a year ago. It was to promote my book and make a name for myself as an author, speaker and health advocate. I didn’t know if I would like it or not.

Competitive bodybuilding is art and all the competitors are artists- sculptors of their own bodies. Many will do whatever it takes to win this body-sculpting contest, even sacrificing mind and body wellness with drugs and chemicals.

I had gotten discouraged when I realized that most competitive bodybuilders-even drug free competitors- were not interested in natural/holistic health and were not going to be easily convinced they could live without chemical supplements and denatured protein powders. It doesn’t matter. Nine competitions later people know me as “The Organic Bodybuilder”. The people who want what I have seek me out and my clients have been very happy, healthy and successful. I feel great about the value I have contributed to their lives. This is what matters.

By being true to myself and creating value honestly through my writing I have enjoyed the most exhilarating year of my life. Even without winning any big competitions or pro cards. Without getting recognized in any “Natural Bodybuilding” publications. Simply by pursuing my self-selected journey towards perfection. I am an artist creating a sculpture of integrity-The Organic Body Winning and recognition is not as important to me as keeping my integrity and living my truth.

Like it or not- LIFE IS A COMPETITION.

Accept this and don’t shrink away from your destiny or be less than who you are for the sake of others.

Use your own mind to decide what you believe not the opinions of others.

It is the desire to compete or be the best in all aspects of life that drives us to create value and live purposeful lives.

Honesty, Love and Purpose are the values that produce happiness.

Seeking the best is a law of survival. Seek out the best in life and never stop being true to yourself whatever that looks like.

These are the great secrets to happiness in life.

That’s right. I guarantee you will lose 10, 20, maybe even 30 lbs. of body fat if you strictly follow these 3 simple rules, unless, of course, you are already at a very low body fat percentage. If this is the case then you can use this plan to get down to super low body fat to showcase your abs or start dieting for a fitness competition.

People often ask me what they should eat to “lose weight”. I tell them:

First; get processed foods, fast foods and excessive alcohol out of your life, you will probably lose 10 lbs. or more just by doing this.

Second; you must train yourself to eat 5-7 times a day to speed up your metabolism. You probably will lose 10 lbs. or more just from doing this.

Third; you must train yourself to drink 1 quart of pure water per 50 lbs. of body weight daily.

Once you have mastered these 3 behaviors then you are ready to start looking at exercise and calories if you still want to.

Most people would agree that each of these 3 actions is simple but not easy.

There are hundreds of diet, health and fitness books out there that could be condensed down to this simple 3 step plan. I know these actions are not easy, they are new behaviors for most people that will require practice, but you can change.

Let me be your Success Coach.

You can make the changes in your life to have the body you have always dreamed about, but you will need to break out of your current stagnant diet and fitness routine and try something new. If you are not ready to change than even the best health and fitness experts in the world will not be able to help you.

Courage is required to change.

The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz found out that he already had the courage that he was looking for all along.

Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do something then you probably can, but if you think you can not do some thing than you probably can’t”

You can have the body you always dreamed about safely, naturally and permanently by following my 3 step plan.

You just have to have the courage to change.

Calorie Restricted vs. Food Restricted

All diets are either calorie restricted or food restricted. On a calorie restricted diet you can eat any types of foods you want but must watch closely the portions and count calories.

Weight Watchers is a well-known, popular example of a calorie-restricted diet, although they actually market themselves as a program or lifestyle rather than a diet. Calorie restricted diets (or any diets) work well and are easy for people that lose fat easily. People that don’t lose fat easily will eventually feel starved or deprived on a calorie-restricted diet. What makes this even worse is that addictive processed foods, sugar, flour, artificial sweeteners and chemicals are allowed or even encouraged “in moderation” of course which triggers addictive food behavior in most people. This almost always leads to yo-yo dieting and a life long dependence on support group meetings, lucrative branded diet products and harmful artificial sweeteners.

Calorie restriction is unnatural to the human body, which is why most people regain the lost body fat eventually on a calorie-restricted diet. The human body perceives calorie restriction as starvation and the metabolism slows as the body goes into fat storing mode to protect itself. Soon the dieter feels depressed and lethargic and returns to overeating the worst, unhealthy foods that were being avoided.

Before the Agricultural Revolution and the modern diet of today humans ate abundantly of natural foods and stayed lean and healthy. It is our modern diet of processed foods, refined sugars and grains, chemicals, and man made fats that is to blame for our obesity epidemic-not overeating.

Often people make this even worse with excessive cardio workouts (running, jogging, treadmills) and little or no strength training, which triggers the body to hold onto body fat in anticipation of further calorie restriction. A combination of starvation (calorie restriction) and cardio (endurance) training causes the body to immediately replace the body fat that is lost with more body fat. Nothing changes.

The Solution is Strength Training combined with a Food Restricted Diet.

Strength training and muscular development displaces body fat in the human body and speeds the metabolism, which increases fat burning. Cardio (endurance) training is still OK when performed moderately to enhance the Strength Training.

Add a Food Restricted Diet like mine, which cuts out processed foods, refined sugars and grains, chemicals, and man made fats and you will burn body fat safely, permanently and without starving yourself. Eat as much as you want of the delicious, healthy, natural foods and feel great the way nature intended.

In my book The Organic Body I have the Organic Body Diet and specific details and brand recommendations. I know it’s not easy to break away from processed food addiction, but you can be free and live the healthy life you have always wanted.

Boost Your Metabolism and Skyrocket your Fat Loss!

Eating 5-7 small meals/snacks a day is essential for speeding the metabolism, boosting energy levels and feeling exhilarated the way you have always wanted to feel.

This is a difficult new behavior that takes practice but the rewards are worth it. Remember to be kind to yourself while you are trying to learn new behaviors like this. I don’t always do this perfectly. Sometimes I only eat 3 or 4 times a day. I just try again the next day to achieve my ideal of 5-7 small meals or snacks each day.

I got an email from a guy recently who wrote, “ I will never be able to eat 5-7 times a day, I am too busy. But I want to know if you can still help me lose fat?”

My thought was “Not Really.” But my answer is “ How about taking some organic dried fruits and raw nuts with you wherever you go?”

Or perhaps some apples, pears, bananas, carrots or celery. These are all easy to carry and eat on the fly. My Organic Body Diet will help you feel healthier and happier but if you want to experience fat loss you must speed your metabolism by stoking your furnace with slow burning healthy foods.

Be flexible. Be a Grazer. Try splitting meals in half and saving half to eat an hour later. Don’t let yourself get hungry. Stay ahead of your hunger by eating frequently, every 2-3 hours, and ironically you will lose fat.

If you skip this important step, your metabolism will stay slow and your body will hold on tightly to fat stores. Eating fewer meals also increases hunger and overeating, further compounding fat gain.

In my book The Organic Body I have specific diet details and recommendations for increasing metabolism and burning body fat.

I know it’s not easy to break out of life-long eating habits, but you can change and start working towards the fit, healthy body you have always dreamed of. Buy your food, plan your meals, and make it happen.

Water/Sweating

Proper hydration is absolutely essential to the successful dieter.

Fat cells store toxins and chemicals in our body and will often stay no matter how much the dieter restricts calories and exercises. Often muscle is lost instead and the fat deposits remain.

These stubborn body fat deposits can only be released after the chemicals and toxins stored in the fat cells are sweated out with a regimen of dry sauna cleansing/sweating.

The body must be supplied with adequate pure water to flush out the toxins through the largest cleansing organ-the skin.

Sweating in a sauna 3-5 times a week for 15-30 minutes would be an excellent regimen.

Often people want to substitute sweating from physical exercise (running, sports, elliptical trainers, etc.). These cardiovascular activities are good, but not as effective as a combination of strength training and water drinking/sauna sweating for melting stubborn fat deposits.

Remember that endurance exercises, like running, train the body to hold and store calories as fat, while strength training trains the body to store calories as muscle and displaces fat.

The type and quantity of water according to body weight is also very important. Although most people are chronically dehydrated, I encounter some who drink too much. Either way is not healthy. I have specific details and recommendations in my book The Organic Body.

This is the third step of my 3 step plan. I am certain that if you strictly follow this simple plan you will have amazing results and feel great-even if you do not exercise!
Live Healthy! Live Now!
Sincerely,
Ian Kelley
Chef/Bodybuilder/Health Advocate

Friends and acquaintances often ask me for nutrition and health suggestions. When I ran into a friend recently he asked me if artificial sweeteners were OK. He was surprised when I told him that artificial sweeteners were toxic chemicals that should be avoided. My friend, who holds a degree in Physical Education, had recently seen his college nutrition educator at a cafe and asked him again about the safety of artificial sweeteners. Holding up the light blue packets in his hand, the professor said “Use as much as you want-it is perfectly safe.”

Nutrition and Health educators in America are only defending what they were taught and what is written in the text books they use. I do not fault them for this, it is perfectly natural to want to believe in an education you have paid for and dedicated your life to. The problem is that most health information is misleading and biased by commercial interests. As the conversation with my friend continued I told him about the many health benefits of using organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil. He was confused and told me that his professor said coconut oil was very bad and harmful and should be avoided at all costs. Again I smiled and was not surprised.

The McGraw-Hill publishing company is responsible for most of the mainstream educational books about health and nutrition in this country. McGraw-Hill is a huge publicly trade corporation which also owns the ABC television network, BuissnessWeek magazine and many other media and information sources. Curiosity led me to the McGraw-Hill company website. The McGraw-Hill people have been kind enough to provide a lot of investor information on their website which includes photos and bios for their Board of Directors. I took a look at who comprised the executive committee because as I understand it they are the ones who make the final decisions for the corporation. The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors at McGraw-Hill has five members. One is the CEO of the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company and another is a director at the Coca-Cola Corporation-who looks like the billionaire Mortimer from the old Eddie Murphy movie Trading Places. Pedro Aspe, who seems to be some sort of politician or banker from Mexico City, is the third committee member. After researching him on the internet I still do not really understand what he does. His picture on the website says a lot about him. A nice looking lady from Yale University and a McGraw junior( nice lad but looks like he would rather be at the country club) make up the last two members. At first I could not understand why the nice lady from Yale University was there and then I saw her deferred stock compensation. Insider trading information is publicly available online at Yahoo Finance, which is where I noticed her recent payments in deferred company stock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. See for yourself what I am talking about. The information is all easily found through Google searching.

True health information is out there. It is just hidden and obscured by corporations who stand to lose millions in profits if large numbers of people make healthy lifestyle changes. Millions of dollars will be lost as more people discover the truth about healthy coconut oil and abandon cheap GMO soy and corn oils. Millions of dollars will be lost as more people discover the truth and throw away Aspartame and other chemical sweeteners. Empower yourself, Change your future, Extend and enjoy your life. Discover the underground world of holistic health and organic foods that supplement and food companies are hiding!

Sincerely,

Ian Kelley
Chef-Bodybuilder-Health Advocate
www.organicbodybuilding.com

Food and supplement companies want us to believe that obesity is our own fault and is caused by overeating alone. It’s not. They want us to believe that cancer is just a random unexplainable phenomenon. It is not random and unexplainable at all. The truth is that obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes and most other diseases are primarily caused by processed foods and chemicals.

Processed Foods and Chemicals are poison! The problem is there is no money in healthy food, The richest corporations in the world are chemical, pharmaceutical and processed food companies like Kellogg’s, Nabisco, General Mills, Monsanto, Archer Daniels Midland, Coca-Cola, Dupont, Eli Lilly and many more. If you watch the stock market you may know already that these companies, and others like them, are extremely profitable. Foods that come from nature can not be patented, spoil quickly and are not lucrative at all. This is why you don’t hear much about them. Natural foods are not altered, preserved with chemicals, or mass produced in a factory. If a food or supplement is marketed, advertised has a name brand or is sold by a publicly traded company then avoid it. Stop by your local health food store, coop or farmers market instead and discover the secret world of holistic health and nutrition.

Lyprinol is the brand name of a supplement alleged to be the concentrated marine lipid oil from New Zealand Green-Lipped Mussels. Like so many other natural supplements I have tried it does not live up to the hype. When I received the brochure and it had a picture of a smiling doctor in a white coat I should have known. I discontinued using my other supplements that I take for joint pain, arthritis and inflammation while using the Lyprinol for around 6-8 weeks. I would describe it as somewhat effective for arthritis and inflammation, but not nearly as good as the varying combination of supplements that I usually take and recommend in my book. I would recommend the actual Green-Lipped Mussels, which I have seen for sale at my favorite Asian market or the powdered capsules instead.

Hoodia has become very popular as a natural diet supplement. When you get your hands on the real thing (there are many cheap, ineffective versions) it is effective as an appetite suppressant. I tried it and it suppressed my appetite. It probably can be used safely by people who have a fast or normal metabolism, but these people are rarely interested in Hoodia because they are already thin. The problem, and reason why I do not recommend Hoodia, is that it causes people to eat less frequently which slows down their metabolism. Most people get very excited at first. The Hoodia is working, they are going whole days barely eating anything and losing weight. Then they stop taking it and their metabolism is slower than ever, all the weight is regained and more. The cycle of YO-YO dieting continues. The problem is not really the Hoodia; it is the way people try to use it as a magical pill to replace healthy eating habits. If you are trying to lose fat you must train yourself to eat 5-7 small meals/snacks a day to reset your metabolism. There is no shortcut around this.

Supplements will never be as good as whole foods! I was talking to a friend once who was suffering from depression, ADHD and untreated alcoholism. He told me he was going to admit himself to a treatment center where they would counsel him and put him on pharmaceutical drugs. I knew that he had family in Alaska so I suggested that he go stay in Alaska with family for a couple of weeks and eat 2 pounds of Alaskan Salmon each day. The fresh air, peaceful environment and high dose of natural Omega-3 Fish Oil would probably have cured him. He went to the treatment center. Since we all can’t go to Alaska on retreat there is a need for whole-food supplements. The food that the supplement came from would always be better but this is not always practical in our modern world.

If you do not believe that sugarless gum is addictive try giving it up for a month. If you find you could take it or leave it then great. Instead you will probably mysteriously find yourself buying some at the store and as you are chewing it you will vaguely remember that you were going to give it up for a month!

Monsanto, the corporation that developed and marketed Aspartame, has made incredible profits from the sale of this insidious addictive chemical among others. Most chemicals and synthetic drugs are very cheap to produce so the profit potential is enormous when they are legalized and well marketed. I will be researching Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland (they brought us margarine!) and writing about both corporations in the future but I encourage you to take a look for yourself. Google them, read about them on Wikipedia, check out their corporate profits on Yahoo Finance and you will start to see how these corporations have gotten rich by poisoning us for the last century.

Popular myths and “facts” about health and nutrition which are really biased opinions are created by the media or fad diet gurus. Foods are often promoted as healthy choices because they are cheap or government subsidized not because they are really top picks for optimal health. The problem with using the media (television news, internet news, magazines, newspapers, etc.) for your health, fitness, and nutrition information is that they are biased towards there advertisers. Wouldn’t you be if you were in there shoes? The biggest media advertisers these days are large publicly traded pharmaceutical, processed food and soft drink companies. It would not be good business for the media to print or air anything that negatively effected there advertisers, they would surely be upset and start talking to the competing networks. News stories have to be carefully censored to not upset important, high paying customers.

On the cover of “BusinessWeek” several months ago I saw the title “The Organic Myth.” So I picked up the magazine and read the article. Debunking organic food and saying that buying organic was not worth it was the focus. The article was well designed to make the reader believe that all organic food is a scam and that you should just relax and keep eating the same way you are eating. Diane Brady, senior editor at BusinessWeek, reports the fact that large food corporations are now trying to cash in on the organic food movement and creating and promoting organic brands at your local supermarket. Assuming that everyone shops at supermarkets, Ms. Brady only makes one negative reference to “hippies with Birkenstocks, wilted, rotten produce and co-ops.”

You will not find very much good, healthy, food at any major supermarket anyway, just aisle after aisle of processed snack foods, soft drinks and cereals. The “health” food or “organic” produce is usually relegated to a small section and I question even the quality of these products based on the way major supermarkets buy. Supermarket buyers are always trying to buy products cheap to manage there departments efficiently and pass on the savings to you. Sounds good right? Wrong. What this means is it is always about the money and rarely about the food quality or about your health.

Take charge of your health and do some shopping at your local Health Food Store or Co-Op where they care about your health and make conscientious decisions when they do there buying. Yes, it is more expensive, but not as expensive as chronic diseases like diabetes, cancer, obesity or heart disease brought on by a lifetime of poor diet choices. It is amazing to me how much money people will spend on their car or their home but balk at the idea of increasing there food budget. We have gotten used to living on cheap, unhealthy, convenient food in America and this is our downfall and the cause of our diseases. Pharmaceutical companies will continue to prosper because they have many new drugs to “help” you after you get sick.

The two biggest helpful things that I started doing were to shop primarily in health food stores and avoid the news media. Take a closer look and I think you will probably start to see what is true and what is biased.

While Researching “BusinessWeek” to find out why they might not like the Organic Food Movement, I found some interesting information that will be the topic of my next health newsletter.

The “BusinessWeek” magazine is owned by a conglomerate media company known as McGraw-Hill who also owns the ABC television network. You may recognize this name because they are responsible for a large amount of our school text books and educational materials used throughout the USA. IF you went to school in America you probably learned from their text books in the topics of history, health, nutrition etc. You may be very interested to know who sits on there Board of Directors and controls the company!
Ian Kelley
Chef/Author/Health Advocate
www.organicbodybuilding.com

First of all the FDA approves pharmaceutical drugs based on biased research from the same companies developing the drugs. They are an ineffective agency that really does not regulate anything. In the news report by CBS they did a really good job of grouping all supplements together and portraying them as unhealthy, dangerous and ineffective, while portraying doctor prescribed drugs as safe, effective and really your only choice if you want to be safe. Nothing could be further from the TRUTH! The TRUTH is that pharmaceutical drugs, chemical supplements and cheap synthetic vitamins are unhealthy, dangerous and ineffective! These misleading fear tactics work really well at getting people to not explore alternative health options that might save their lives or spare them horrible side effects from doctor prescribed drugs and OTC medications. Randall Fitzgerald summarizes the truth well in his recent blockbuster book “The Hundred-Year Lie” which you must read to truly understand how “food and medicine are destroying your health.” From his book:

* Not all synthetics, at least as far as we know, are toxic to us.
* Not all naturally occurring substances from nature are benign.

“However broadly speaking, the evidence indicates that most naturally occurring foods and medicines are healthy for us, as they have been for our species for thousand of years, while many if not most synthetic chemicals in foods and medicines pose some health risk.”

One of the REAL problems with the natural supplement industry not being regulated is that the same vitamin companies that produce cheap, ineffective synthetic vitamins are producing cheap ineffective versions of herbal supplements. Many natural, herbal and whole-food supplements are safe and have tremendous health benefits and could seriously improve or even save someone’s life. The effectiveness of natural supplements, however, varies greatly by the brand and manufacturer and in general you should avoid anything made by a large publicly traded company. What happens is someone walks into a store and buys the cheapest bottle of ‘St. John’s Wort” or some other herbal supplement. They take it for their malady and after a period of time say “This stuff does not work; I think I will go see my doctor.” This product was probably made by a company that cares little about the quality or freshness or else it would cost more. They may have gotten the herb from a questionable source that was cheaper or figured out they could make more money by using an ineffective part of the plant like the stem. There is a huge difference in effectiveness based on freshness, quality, and the method prepared. A freshly squeezed shot of wheat grass for example would be much better than wheatgrass powder or pills.

The problem is natural remedies and whole-food and herbal supplements compete directly with the pharmaceutical industry, which I am guessing is CBS’s biggest advertiser. In the CBS news report there was an alleged number of deaths from adverse effects of natural or herbal supplements. The number was made to look really large and bad by making it over a large span of time. I do not remember the exact numbers used in the report but I do know that MANY, MANY more people have died from adverse effects and reactions from doctor prescribed drugs! Look it up for yourself but I will let you know ahead of time you will find very little negative information about legal, patented prescribed drugs that the pharmaceutical companies make millions on. The “War on Drugs” in this country is a war against naturally occurring drugs that Big Pharma can not patent and profit from! I am seeing in the drug rehab where I work a dramatic rise in people addicted to these doctor prescribed drugs because people are being reassured that they are safe and good by doctors and the media. This news story is incredibly well orchestrated propaganda; do not believe what you hear on the news. I will be writing another article in the near future about BusinessWeek’s story called “The Organic Myth” that will blow you away! Don’t believe the media! Their news stories are mostly just advertising in disguise or Big Business Propaganda. I do not fault them for this it is just the American Way in the “Land of Opportunity”. I love America, capitalism, free enterprise, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and Liberty and Justice for all. We can not blame governments, corporations and political leaders for lying to us. We can only blame ourselves for not wanting to see the truth.

Every exercise consists of two parts; the positive, or concentric, contraction and the negative, or eccentric, contraction. The positive contraction occurs, for example, when you curl a weight up close to your shoulders (biceps curl), press a weight away from your body (chest press) or curl a weight toward your butt (leg curls). The negative contraction occurs when the weight travels in the opposite direction, as in the examples above, when you lower the weight. Another way to look at these two movements is muscle shortening (positive) and muscle lengthening (negative).

Did you know that muscles can handle about 25-30% more resistance performing negative contractions than they can performing positive contractions? That’s why it’s so important to emphasize the negative contraction! When you emphasize only the positive contraction, like many people do, and neglect the negative contraction, you deny your body at least 50% of the benefit of doing an exercise.

One way to emphasize the negative contraction is to perform “Negatives”. When you do Negatives a spotter or spotters do most of the positive lifting and you do most, if not all, of the negative movement. Another way to emphasize the negative contraction is to slowwww down when you’re performing this part of the movement. Typically we spend 1-2 seconds lifting a weight; try spending 5 seconds lowering it, especially on that last rep when you’ve reached failure.

In addition to getting better results, being negative about your workouts is a great way to spice them up, and who doesn’t like a little spice in their life!
__________________________________________________

Larry Mindell is an AFAA Certified personal Fitness Trainer at the Sports & Fitness Edge of Essex, in Essex Junction, Vermont. He can be reached at (802)879-7734 ext. 287 and at larry@mindell.us.