More and more, researchers are discovering ways that herbs and spices boost health.  They provide benefits for various health concerns from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.

The main reason they are health benefitting is due to the high concentrations of phytochemicals they contain. Phytochemicals are powerful substances found in plants that have health boosting qualities such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and immune boosting.

Try adding liberal amounts of these spices and herbs  to your foods daily:

1) Cinnamon. Cinnamon helps keeps bllod sugar down and is anti-inflammatory.  It helps the body buffer the acid glucose and in turn helps to reduce the body’s need of acid binding cholesterol, which may protect from heart disease and diabetes and improve the health of those already suffering from these acidic symptoms. Cinnamon may also help in weight loss by reducing dietary and metabolic acid.

2) Cilantro. Like other dark, leafy vegetables, cilantro is high in vitamins A and K, as well as beta-carotene. It also contains a natural antibiotic called dodecenal, which was shown in a study to be more effective than a prescription antibiotic at buffering acid and biologically transforming the bacteria Salmonella.

3) Garlic. Ancient Egyptians used garlic to treat heart disease, and modern science has found it to be a potent antioxidant which lowers dietary and metabolic acid and thus is anti-thrombotic.

4) Ginger. Ginger is a powerful anti-inflammatory which combats dietary and metabolic acids that cause inflammation. It also soothes queasy acid stomachs due to motion sickness, morning sickness and post-operative nausea – all acidic conditions.

5) Parsley. Parsley has high amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin that promote eye health as well as large amounts of vitamins A and K. It may be useful in combating the acids that cause cancer, heart disease and allergies.

6) Rosemary. The phytochemicals or anti-acids in rosemary cut the cancerous-inducing acids contained in all meats. It may also aid diabetics and slow the aging process by reducing dietary and metabolic acids.

7) Turmeric. The active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin, is an extremely powerful anti-inflammatory. It may play a role in buffering the acids that cause ALL cancerous conditions and reducing the buildup of acidic plaque in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s.

**  To get a lot of these in one power punch, try making a pesto with cilantro or parsley and add garlic,ginger, and maybe even turmeric!

(For pesto, also combine in a food processor with raw soaked nuts such as cashews or walnuts and use fresh extra virgin olive oil.  Store in glass jar in fridge!)

Our amazing supporters and TeamFD Athletes Michael Kantor and Don Bowie are taking on an incredible TeamFD Challenge. They will be climbing the highest volcano in the world (22,615ft) carrying mountain bikes to the summit.  They will then ride down the mountain and 187 miles across the Atacama Desert to the ocean, setting multiple world records in the process.

You can read more about the expedition at www.donbowie.com.

Please donate now to help Don and Michael reach their goal of raising $115,000.  That’s $5 for every foot they are attempting to first climb, then descend on mountain bikes. Your generous support helps send all of our participants on their OWN week-long first descent.

DONATE HERE. - http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2011/fd/summit2sea/kantor/

We are so thankful at First Descents for athletes like these two who take on a challenge that will inspire others to do the same.

What better time than the New Year (post holidays) to spend a week doing a light cleanse and get back on track with eating a healthy diet.  This “plan” can be simple and flexible, as no need to get stressed about it.  This is not about portion control or counting calories, instead it is about eating clean!

Foods to Avoid:

Refined white sugars, added sugars
Refined flours, wheat products
Deep-fried foods
Meats, especially highly processed and non-organic
Dairy, especially non-organic
Fast food
Refined salt (ie. regular table salt)
Overly processed and packaged foods
Coffee (especially non-organic) and heavily caffeinated drinks
All chemicals in foods and beverages (ie. artificial sweeteners and alcohol)

Recommended Menu:

-Upon waking drink large glass of warm or room temperature filtered lemon water
-Drink a cup of mint, licorice, or green tea
-Have a clean fruit/vegetable smoothie with hormone free whey protein, raw nuts and seeds, nut milk, greens, etc for breakfast
-Have a large glass of filtered water before and between meals
-Have a clean vegan soup, green salad with lots of veggies, seeds, sprouts, and olive oil, sprouted veggie wraps or sandwiches for lunch and dinner
-Enjoy a cup of peppermint tea before bed

After a week or so you should feel better, lighter, clear headed, and realigned with healthy eating habits!

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions!  Happy New Year! – Googley (zenfitnut@gmail.com)

Team FD has yet again broken its fundraising goal for 2011. With a record number of participants at the ING New York City Marathon raising more than $100,000 at the event, Team FD pushed past the $750,000 mark for the year – well beyond our original $300,000 goal.

Twenty Team FD runners took to the NYC streets on November 6, including seasoned runners, first time marathoners, past FD participants, cancer fighters, survivors and family members. Together, the runners raised a total of $113,677 at the NYC Marathon.

“This is the second year Team FD has participated in the NYC Marathon, and this year our team really went above and beyond to raise the fundraising bar. Each runner brought in more than $5,000 each! Altogether the team will send 113 young adults fighting and surviving cancer to a First Descents week-long program,” says First Descents Founder Brad Ludden, who also ran the marathon. “Team FD is a huge part of the reason we’ve totally crushed our fundraising goal this year. This is why First Descents continues to grow even in a down economy.”

Team FD is made up of athletes and cancer survivors at all levels of competition, each sharing the goal of supporting First Descents and the young adult cancer population. Team FD is all about challenge. It’s about each individual picking an activity which represents a challenge to him or her, training for it, setting a fundraising goal and completing that challenge. For more information on joining Team FD click here.

We had an amazing Team FD presence at the NYC Marathon on Sunday! The weather could not have been more perfect for our 20 runners in the race.

A special thanks to Gary Alecusan, Noah Bremen, Courtney Ludden, Brad Ludden, Eva Ho, Rebekah Koenigbauer, Joel Appel, Jamie Malin, Andy Glick, Marty Janis, Rich Rhodes, Kelly Gallagher Crowe, Dan Crowl, Lindsay Snow Osborn, Kammi Reiss, Kyle Costello, Tricia Staible, Abby Staible, Julie Wellman, David Gordon, Brian Novak– who ran a combined 497.8 miles and have raised over $113,000 to date! 

If you haven’t already seen the NY Times late edition from Sunday click on the link below. Team FD was on the front page!!  Way to represent Team FD Kammi!! http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/11/06/sports/07marathon_ss.html?ref=newyorkcitymarathon

Are You Ready to Accept the Challenge?

What is it?  Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon & 1/2 Marathon

When is it?  October 9, 2011

The Details:  First Descents is proud to be an Official Charity Partner at the 2nd Annual Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon & 1/2 Marathon. Challenge yourself to 26.2 or 13.1 miles and listen to great music while running. In order to receive a guaranteed First Descents entry* you must commit to raising a minimum of $300 for First Descents.  

Team FD Schwag:  The $300 you raise covers your race entry fee and in addition to that you will also receive a Team FD t-shirt, the exclusive Team FD Tech Shirt and a pair of Teva shoes – YES, shoes!  See below and click on the link for more details. AND everyone who signs up by Sept 30th will be eligible to win an IPAD 2!!  We will be having a raffle on October 1st and everyone who registers with Team FD – Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon & 1/2 Marathon has a chance to win!

Training: For the first time ever we will be offering training sessions for all of our runners who live in the Denver area! We will start our training sessions on August 3rd, if we have enough people signed up.  These group runs are for seasoned runners and those new to the running world. We will continue to meet every Wednesday up until the Big Event. If you can’t meet us in person, no worries, our amazing trainer has offered to do on-line training help as well!

For more information, or to receive a registration form*, please e-mailTeamFD@FirstDescents.org.

Happy 4th everyone!  This posting is part of an article on choosing meat (if you are a meat eater)from a website called natural news (www.naturalnews.com).  It truly is important to choose the healthiest meat possible if you choose to be a meat eater!  There is a huge difference on your health between grocery store non-organic red meat (that is not organic, not local, and not fed or treated well) and organic grass fed meat (ideally local is even better).    Also, when it comes to eating organic, it is probably more important to choose organic meat, dairy and eggs over organic produce!  As always, if you have questions, please email me anytime at lisanielsen22@yahoo.com.  Enjoy the article and enjoy the holiday!  Happy Summer!  xo Googley

Fresh meat versus processed meat: Here’s why it matters

(NaturalNews)
Every July 4th, Americans gobble down enormous quantities of meat. Some of it actually from animals. The rest comes from factories that assemble bits and pieces of meat scraps, using chemical additives to make the final substance resemble something edible. That’s where hot dogs come from… and sausage, pepperoni and deli meats.

If you’re eating hot dogs this Fourth of July, you’re engaged in acts of nutritional tyranny against your own body. So if you eat meat, eat fresh meat, not processed meat. Here’s why:

Red meat versus processed packaged meat

Countless scientific studies have concluded that eating red meat is bad for you. But in those studies, researchers routinely fail to differentiate between processed junk meat versus free-range, grass-fed organic beef which isn’t processed with chemicals. And in doing so, they cast a dark shadow of doubt over all red meat when the reality is that there is a huge difference in the health impacts of fresh meat versus processed factory-made meat.

Just like the primary health risk of smoking cigarettes is from the chemical additives, not merely the tobacco (http://www.naturalnews.com/032795_t…); the primary health risk from eating red meat is from the chemical additives, not from the meat itself.

That’s my conclusion after reading tens of thousands of news headlines, research reports and study abstracts: Red meat may be objectionable for lots of reasons — the ethics of raising animals in food factory concentration camp conditions, for example — but any focus on the health impacts of the meat must conclude that the chemicals are the real problem, not merely the meat. (Unless, of course, it’s meat raised on genetically modified corn, in which case the meat probably is biologically toxic, and that’s 95% of all conventional meat, just so ya know…)

It doesn’t take much sodium nitrite, for example, to greatly increase a person’s risk of pancreatic cancer or colon cancer. And guess where you find that chemical? Hot dogs, bacon, sausage, pepperoni, ham, lunchmeat and even beef jerky. It’s also in all the quick lunch trays for children, by the way. But never in the fresh meat.

People who eat fresh meat don’t poison their bodies with sodium nitrite. Nor MSG (bacon, sausage, beef jerky) nor all the other chemical additives typically added to meat products. That’s something to remember if you shop for meat of any kind. And don’t forget that unless it’s organic meat, it’s almost certainly contaminated with GMOs, because cows, pigs and chickens are all fed genetically modified corn and soy as part of their diets.

If you’re eating that stuff, you’re committing slow suicide. And maybe not even that slow, come to think of it.

People who eat their own farm-fresh meat are remarkably healthy

One interesting angle in all this is that people who eat farm-fresh meat usually don’t have all the chronic health problems of people who buy and consume processed factory-made meat. It’s the quality of the meat that makes all the difference. I know people who eat their own chickens, cows and pigs, and their health is just great! (But they wouldn’t dare eat GMO-contaminated pork sausage sold at the grocery store…)

When research says that “red meat” is linked to pancreatic cancer (for example), what they mean is processed red meat laced with chemical additives. We’re never told this, of course, because the entire medical system is so nutritionally ignorant that modern medical researchers don’t even recognize any qualitative difference between LIVE foods versus DEAD foods — nor fresh meat versus processed meat. To them, it’s all the same. So their questionnaires simply ask study participants about “meat consumption” without breaking it out into “fresh” versus processed. That’s why all meat gets a bad rap when it’s really just the processed, GMO-contaminated meat that’s the culprit.

Avoiding meat isn’t a guaranteed health strategy, either

Interestingly, avoiding meat doesn’t automatically make you healthier. While I personally follow a largely plant-based diet that’s rich in superfoods and smoothies, I’ve also met quite a few sick vegetarians and vegans who are eating processed vegetarian foods (pastas, white rice, factory-made foods, etc.) that make them look like they’re about to
die from malnutrition. An alarming number of vegetarians, I’ve discovered, are chronically deficient in omega-3s and vitamin B12. They’ve taken on vegetarianism but never learned how to pursue a plant-based diet in a healthy way.

(Veganism, when done correctly, is undoubtedly the best diet for a sustainable planet, but personally I’ve found it impossible to follow as someone who works on a ranch and engages in a fair amount of physical work each day. For me, powering my work takes a small amount of fish, fresh farm eggs, some Moxxor omega-3s and other fish oils such as those from Living Fuel. Overall, my diet is probably 95% plant based. No dairy. I do buy grass-fed free-range beef bones for my dog Roxy who greatly benefits from the raw bone nutrition.)

The real answer in all this is simple:
The QUALITY of what you eat matters more than you think.
A vegetarian living on Cheetos and Diet Coke is going to have far worse health than a farmer eating farm-fresh eggs and his own home-grown beef steaks. It’s not merely about meat versus no meat, it’s about the quality of the food (meat or otherwise) you choose to consume. From a nutritional standpoint alone, I’m convinced that avoiding chemical additives and GMOs is far more important than merely avoiding meat.

What about the ethics of eating meat? Well, that’s a question for another article.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032890_red_meat_food_additives.html#ixzz1RAikMkJK

Dear FD Family,

Yesterday was a bit surreal. I was up at 3:30 am, did some emails and head to the airport. Just another day in the office.

On my four hour lay over in Arizona, I had an interview to promote the upcoming event, Outside in Aspen and then jumped on a plane to Hawaii.
This is my first trip here and now I see what all the fuss is about. This place is INSANE! The island vibe hits instantly and everywhere you look is a view that blows your mind.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m here for work. I’m shooting with my sponsor and FD’s largest corporate partner, Teva, for their new spring/summer line.

Sometimes I wake up and wonder where I went wrong?? Why can’t I just have a normal job? Of course I’m kidding and at FD we are building a culture of living the adventure and working between sessions! This is round 1.

Happy days to all and good luck to all the FD1′ers in Estes and NC!

STOKED!

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