All About Olive Oil

We have a farm in the foothills of California and produce an award winning extra virgin olive oil. People  often ask us what is extra virgin and why is it better. Here are the facts.

Extra virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing of the olives using only the press. There is no extreme heat or the use of solvents. In addition the olives are pressed shortly after they are harvested. Our olives are hand picked. It takes all day to pick the crop. They are taken to the press that night and pressed the next morning.

Extra virgin olive oil has the lowest acidity and is the most flavorful. It is also the most expensive.

Virgin olive oil is the next grade down,. It does not qualify to be extra virgin usually because the acidity is too high or it does not pass the flavor test.

A product labeled 100% pure olive oil is the oil extracted from further pressing using heat and solvents. This is a lower quality oil and must be refined to remove impurities.

This description may not apply to olive oils imported into the United States. An import labeled extra virgin mosts likely is not extra virgin. In fact it may not even be pure olive oil. It may be olive oil diluted with cheaper grades of oil in order to make a less expensive product. This deception has been extensively reported in the American press.

Dirty Money

If you are a fan of crime movies you understand that the term dirty money refers to illicitly gained money that needs to be laundered. Well here is a different take on this subject. I am referring to all paper money that you handle.. Paper money harbors many types of bacteria. This can be a health problem that can lead to serious infections.  Remember your mother''s advice to wash your hands frequently. It is true in many ways.

The lead researcher in this study that analyzed the paper money advised people to routinely wash or disinfect their hands after handling paper money. Personally I think this is good advice on a subject that I had never considered  and I intend to follow it.

Mom;s advice was right on the money.

Can You Prevent Getting Alzheimer's

The question today is whether you can prevent developing Alzheimer's disease. The answer is a resounding no, but you can decrease the possibility of developing dementia. A recent study published in the JAMA correlated  risk factors for amyloid deposition in the brain with  the actual deposition of amyloid. The deposition of amyloid in the brain is responsible for Alzheimer's disease.

The risk factors were smoking,obesity, hypertension, diabetes and an elevated cholesterol. People who were obese at midlife were twice as likely to have elevated brain amyloid levels compared to those  who were of normal weight. Having two or more of the risk factors tripled the likelihood of developing brain amyloid deposition.

The findings can be summarized like this.. Alzheimer's dementia is a terrible disease. Some day there may be a treatment for it, but until then do everything you can to keep your brain healthy, and pay attention to these risk factors. For more information go to our blog at trienergeticsblog.com.

Here Is Another Reason To Exercise

There are many reasons to exercise, and there is no good reason not to exercise. However, here is a reason to exercise that you may not have thought of. Exercise now and continue to exercise in order to prevent the functional decline that occurs when you get older.

A large study done at Duke University documented the functional  in strength, endurance and balance that occurs from midlife on. To that list I would add mental. Your best weapon to fight the cognitive decline that many experience is exercise. Physical exercise for the body refreshes the brain and mental exercise strengthens it.

Remember the adage "Use it or lose it." This is as true now as it has been for years.

Can You "Cheat A Little" When You Diet?

Here is a question for you. When you go on a diet do you need to toe the line and never deviate? Remember we believe that diets don't work because over 90% of the people who go on a diet regain the weight unless they also change their lifestyle.

With that in mind our advice as stated in our books on health and wellness is that when you diet it is permissible to "cheat" 10 per cent of the time. We were criticized for this outrageous statement. The comments ranged from "what a stupid statement" to something like this. "Hey stupid either you diet or you don''t. There is no mister in between."

Now we are vindicated by an Australian study that shows that having "cheat days" helps you lose weight. This study published in the Journal of Obesity showed that dieters who took cheat days lost more weight than dieters who never deviated from their diet. Knowing this may help you the next time you decide to diet and have a yearning for a forbidden food.

How Much Exercise Do You Need

You might think that it would be easy to answer a simple question like this.  How much exercise do you need? Actually this is a very difficult question that requires careful thought and a clear definition of what your goals are. For those who are exercising to maintain flexibility and good health the answer will be completely different than for someone who is exercising to lose weight or to build more muscle. The tendency for most of us is to exercise more than we need to in order to achieve our goals.

I saw an interesting study recently that illustrates this point  Researchers at Duke University wanted to determine how much brisk walking was needed to improve blood sugar control in people who were pre diabetic. They divided 237 people into 4 groups. the first group reduced their caloric intake and briskly walked 71/2 miles a week. The second group did not control their caloric intake and briskly walked 71/2 mile a week. The third group briskly walked 11`1/2 miles a week. The fourth group jogged 111/2 miles a week.

After six months group1 had the biggest improvement in blood sugar control followed by those in  group three who did a high amount of moderate exercise. The group that jogged 111/2 miles a week did not do as well as the group that walked  71/2 miles a week. This showed that there was no additional benefit from the increased energy expenditure.

Consider this when you set your exercise goals. More is not necessarily better. For more information on healthy exercise go to trienergeticsblog.com.

Diets Do Not Work

For years we have been teaching that diets do not work. In the next series of posts I will begin by taking a look at some common diet myths. A diet myth is a bit of misinformation that is packaged to convince you to accept it as the gospel truth. Diet myths are propaganda carefully crafted by advertising campaigns. Even though they sound convincing they will send you down the wrong road.

Here is the first diet myth.

When you diet you lose weight. Yes you will lose weight when you diet because you are restricting calories. What you are not told is that the weight loss is only temporary if you don;t make lifestyle changes.

A staggering 98% of those who diet will gain the weight back. Exercise is the biggest factor in determining whether a dieter gains the weight back. Those who exercise in addition to changing their diet are far more likely to keep the weight off. 

Do You Love Eating Meat?

Most people love eating meat and those who love it eat eat a lot of it. In our health books we advise our readers to  minimize eating red meat and to avoid processed meat. Now there is new evidence that eating red meat can shorten your life.

An article in the British  Medical Journal reported the results of following more than 500,000 people for an average of 16 years. They found that the people who at the most beef had a 26% higher mortality rate than those who seldom ate beef,

We advise you to pay attention to this study because poor eating habits can literally kill you.This was a large study and although it has flaws the message is clear.

 Go to our blog trienergeticsblog.com for more information on healthy eating.

Nutritional Tips For Eating To Fight Inflammation

You can decrease inflammation in your body by following some simple eating guidelines.

1) Take adequate amounts of omega 3 fatty acids either by eating cold water fish or by taking a fish oil supplement. This should be at lease 2.5 grams of EPA and DHA/

2) Reduce your intake of omega 6 fatty acids. It is difficult to do this in America because we are constantly exposed to and encouraged to eat foods that are high in omega 6 acids. This includes fried fast food, foods cooked in sunflower and vegetable oils,

3) Eat a diet rich in fiber or take a fiber supplement.

4) Reduce your intake of starches. This means white bread, most processed foods and most baked snack foods.

For more information on healthy eating go to trienergeticsblog.com.

Do Nitric Oxide Supplements Really Work?

The buzz around the gyms and weight rooms is that if you want a shortcut to bigger muscles, more vitality and increased sexual performance you should use nitric oxide supplements. These supplements are marketed under a variety of names. They have one ingredient in common. It is L-arginine.

The amino acid L-arginine stimulates the production of nitric acid in the body. Don't confuse nitric acid, a vasodilator, with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) that is used by many dentists for anesthesia. The theory behind the use of nitric acid stimulators is that by dilating the blood vessels in muscles that have been exercised more nutrients get to the muscle and it grows faster.

By the way, the mechanism of action of Viagra and Cialis is also to stimulate vasodilation in the male sex organ in order to enhance an erection.

The question that we ask is whether nitric oxide stimulators really do what some say they do. The bottom line answer  is that a fair amount of research has been done in order to determine if taking a nitric acid supplement results in bigger muscles or better exercise tolerance. The results have not been promising. If you are inclined to try one of these supplements you will find that they are pricey and you may not be able to determine the amount of L-arginine in it. A more cost effective solution would be to buy  L-arginine capsules produced by a reliable manufacturer.

Meditation For Insomnia

Do you go to bed and find that your overactive mind will not shut down? As a result you toss and turn, are up frequently and do not get a good night’s sleep. You wake up fatigued and wish that you could back to bed.This is the story of a classic insomniac. Could this also be your story? What do you need to do to get a good night’s sleep. I suggest that you try meditation. 

This is a technique that we have been teaching for years with amazing results.Meditation is a way to evoke the relaxation response, a term coined by Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.

Dr. Benson directed a study of 49 middle-aged and older adults who had trouble sleeping. Half completed a mindfulness awareness program that taught them meditation and other exercises designed to help them focus on “moment-by-moment experiences, thoughts, and emotions.” The other half completed a sleep education class that taught them ways to improve their sleep habits.

Both groups met six times, once a week for two hours. Compared with the people in the sleep education group, those in the mindfulness group had less insomnia, fatigue, and depression at the end of the six sessions.

The findings came as no surprise to Dr. Benson “Mindfulness meditation is just one of a smorgasbord of techniques that evoke the relaxation response,” says Dr. Benson.

The relaxation response, a term he coined in the 1970s, is a deep physiological shift in the body that’s the opposite of the stress response. The relaxation response can help ease many stress-related ailments, including depression, pain, and high blood pressure. For many people, sleep disorders are closely tied to stress, says Dr. Benson.

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on your breathing and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present without drifting into concerns about the past or future. It helps you break the train of your everyday thoughts to evoke the relaxation response, using whatever technique feels right to you.

We have been teaching mindfulness meditation for years and a description of the technique we use is in our book Live Longer Live Healthier.

THE POWER OF MEDITATION

Meditation is an alien concept to many people.  It may invoke the image of wearing a long white robe while sitting with crossed legs in an oshram while chanting in a foreign tongue. In reality meditation is a simple method of creating the relaxing response by sitting quietly and breathing slowly and deeply. I will discuss the technique in more detail in later blogs.Before I do that I would like to discuss some of the benefits of meditating. 

For example do you suffer from chronic pain? Chronic pain, can go on for months, years, or longer and can become so ingrained within our psyche that we feel it is simply a part of who we are. It can become our identity. A recent Gallup-Healthways survey found that 47% of people experienced some form of chronic pain within the past year. Mediation can be a powerful tool to reverse chronic pain. This is how it works.

1. Meditation “rewires” the brain’s pain circuitry. Neuronal pathways within the brain get programmed every time you expect pain to occur — in time, less and less stimulus is needed to trigger the pain reflex. Eventually, the simple thought of pain becomes the true source, not necessarily the ailment itself. Thinking of pain creates more pain, put simply.

A 2011 study at Wake Forest University (Zeidan & all) had 18 chronic pain participants undergo 4 days of meditation training — before and after training, their brain activity was measured using advanced MRI brain imaging technology. The findings of this study are powerful, the subjects’ “brain pain centers” were 57% less active after meditation. Keep in mind, participants only had 4 days of meditative experience. Can you imagine reducing your chronic pain by half in less than a week? 

2. Meditation unhooks your emotional reaction to pain. Pain clinic doctors know all too well — patients who no longer have the original condition which created their pain, yet they still hurt. Why? Put simply, these patients are stuck in a brutal feedback loop, without even realizing it. Their anticipation of pain creates stress, stress leads to physical tension within the body — especially near the painful area, which ultimately leads to more pain.

When you meditate you learn how to emotionally detach from your negative thoughts and physical sensations, You get to where you no longer expect pain, nor resist it when it occurs. By becoming a passive, impartial observer of your mind, suffering is no longer a function of pain. The simple awareness of sensation, without labeling every little thing you feel as “good” or “bad”, is intoxicating and empowering.. Meditation enables you to become mindfully aware of just how much pain there truly is, and how much you are generating via your though processes. The difference is likely much bigger than you think.

3. Meditation cleanses the pain sufferer’s hormonal environment. Encoded within our DNA, our ancient ancestors handed us down their “fight or flight” response, which for them was very necessary, with all of the predators they had to keep an eye out for on a daily basis. However, in the modern age, being at the top of the food chain, we tend to use this instinct at times when its not needed. When we unnecessarily activate our fight or flight response, it can cause a cataclysm of problems within the body, like the over-release of harmful stress hormones, which ultimately nourish the neuro-chemical environment for pain to flourish.

One chemical of particular importance to pain sufferers, cortisol, can raise your blood pressure, worsen inflammation, elevate heart rate, and contribute immensely to the never-ending pain anticipation feedback loop. An incredibly significant discovery, Dr. Vincent Giampapa, M.D. a well-known longevity researcher, discovered that meditation lowered cortisol levels by about half. By balancing the pain sufferer’s hormonal chemistry, meditation dramatically reduces pain on all fronts. 

4. Meditation releases chemicals far more powerful than the strongest painkillers. Today, the standard pharmaceutical pain treatments have a broad range of potency and effectiveness. However, most all share similar negative side effects, including an escalating dependency, high levels of addiction, numbing of the senses, and masking the symptoms rather than fixing the real problem. Nobody wants to live their life feeling like a mindless zombie.

Luckily, you don’t need to take a pill to create lasting pain relief. It can come from within. Meditation has been proven to healthily and naturally release “feel good” endorphins, which are up to 100 times more powerful than modern medicine’s best painkiller, morphine. Plus, mother nature’s pain reliever has no side effects. No need to fill a pain prescription at the pharmacy, meditation allows you to tap into endorphins’ massive healing power any time you want.

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO OUR NEW WEBSITE: trienergeticsblog.com

Nuts to You

Do you eat nuts? How often? Why do we ask? Well there is some important new information that links eating just one ounce of nuts a day to a 29% decreased risk of heart and a 15% lower cancer risk. As an extra bonus those who ate an ounce a day had a 22 % lower decrease in mortality from all causes. This may seem to be almost too good to be true but the data looks good to us. So grab a handful of nuts and smile.

Can You Get Rid Of The Pain Without Hurting Yourself ?

The FDA  recently announced that most non steroidal anti-inflammatory pain relievers (NSAIDs) will need to carry a stronger warning on their labels about the increased risk of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes. These drugs include ibuprofen and naproxen. Aspirin and acetaminophen are not included.

It has been known for some time that the NSAIDs create increased risks of these problems especially when taken at higher doses or long term. People with pre-existing cardiovascular disease are at even higher risk.

The small print on their labels has been outlining this risk, but the new warning will not only be stronger but will also state that the risk can increase as early as during the first weeks of NSAID use. If there is any question in your mind about the advisability of taking NSAIDs please discuss the risk benefit issue with your physician.

How Do You Avoid Added Sugar In Foods?

How do you avoid getting excess sugar in your diet? Most of us know that sugar is a risk factor for many diseases and some of us are aware that we need to be mindful  of the risk and avoid extra sugar whenever possible. How do we do this. Here is an example of why this is not an easy question to answer.

A recent article in a Canadian medical journal reported the results of examining 40,000 products found in major Canadian grocery stores. They found that two-thirds of all the packaged foods and beverages contained sugar in one form or another. This included snacks, candies, bakery goods, breakfast cereals, soft drinks, baby foods, condiments, sauces and spreads.

Our response to this is wow! Eating can be like gambling in a game when the dices are loaded against you. As far as we are concerned your only recourse is to be acutely aware and avoid as many as these foods as possible. Also read the labels carefully.

Your life matters.

Share Your Thoughts On Female Obesity

We know that there is an obesity epidemic in this country, We also know that obesity does not discriminate. It occurs in men, women and children of all ages. Nevertheless, here are some numbers to think about.

 Almost 10% of American women are now in the highest category of obesity.

What does that mean? Well for example a woman 5'4" tall would weigh more than 233 pounds if she were in this category!

What about the remainder of women?

Well the bad news is that overall 40% of all women are obese! This means that they have a body mass index of 30 or higher.

We ask why this is  happening in a country that has some of the finest medical care in the world

What do you think?

Four Simple Ways To Reduce Your Risk Of Cancer

Four Health Tips To Reduce Your Risk Of Cancer

A large study published in JAMA Oncology concluded that 1/4 to 1/3 of all cancer cases and nearly half of all cancer deaths could be avoided if better lifestyle goals were followed. These goals are:

1) Do not smoke
2) Maintain a healthy weight
3) Limit alcohol
4) Exercise moderately at least 150 minutes a week or vigorously for at least 75 minutes a week        

It was also found that people who are most physically active are at reduced risk for half of 26 major types of cancer. This may be new news to some, but we sounded the alarm and had the same suggestions in our  first book TriEnergetics. Look for yourself and get more tips for a healthy lifestyle.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net

Spare Your Brain By Eating Well

Here is another reason to change your eating habits. A recent study of 967 people in their early  seventies demonstrated that those who followed a Mediterranean style diet lost less brain volume over a three year period than those who did not follow good eating habits.

The key elements of the brain sparing diet were a high intake of fruits, vegetables and legumes and a moderate intake of fish, nuts, whole grains and wine. The diet also had a low intake of red or processed meats.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergeticsblog.com

Wha You Need To Know About Supplements

The Truth About Supplements

Americans spend about $37 billion dollars a year on nutritional supplements. These range from vitamins and minerals to sleeping aids, memory enhancers and disease cures. The proportion of adults using a supplement of some kind rose from 51.8% in 2005 to 63.7% IN 2011, and this number is increasing yearly.

These numbers represent many pills and bottles that promise to do something special for us the consumer. These promises are the myth. What is the reality?

Unlike prescription medicines supplements are not regulated by the U.S. government. Instead they are looked upon as a food. Manufacturers of supplements do not need to prove that their products are effective or even safe. This allows them to put claims on their labels that are false even though regulations prohibit doing that.


 In spite of this false claims are still being made.  Why? It is because action by the government usually is taken only after many people are left holding the proverbial bag The lack of prompt action leaves all  consumers holding the bag with tens of millions of dollars spent on ineffective supplements.

An example of an advertising hoax is the number of new products that claim to boost your memory or even suggest that the product can head off or reverse dementia.Why haven't these claims gotten the attention of the regulators? We certainly do not know but hopefully some action will be taken sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile the word is buyer beware. Think carefully before you plunk your money down for some new and wonderful supplement.

Get Your Diet Back Into Omega 3 Balance

Do you want to feel better? Do you want to be healthier? The first suggestion that I would make would be to get your diet back into balance. We are raising a red flag health warning because so many people suffer from inflammatory conditions. You may be one of the many..  For example do you have arthritis, back pain, intestinal distress, or chronic fatigue? These symptoms may be caused by dietary imbalance. These are also problems that you do not need to live with.  Being out of balance with too little Omega 3 and too many Omega 6 fatty acids in your diet may be causing your problem. 

This concept is not complicated. In fact it is really quite simple. Omega 6 fatty acids are inflammatory. Omega 3 fatty acids are anti- inflammatory. You need to search out sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. By contrast we are figuratively drowning in Omega 6 fatty acids. They are everywhere in foods that we eat. They are in smack foods, in pastries, in bread, in corn oil and in many other foods, 

 Our ancient ancestors who were hunter gatherers ate a diet that had at a ratio of 1 to 1 for Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids This was  a very healthy diet, and it was easy to follow because in those days there were few sources of Omega 6 fatty acids and many more sources of Omega 3

 Those of us who eat the SAD (Standard American Diet) have reversed this ratio with Omega 6 far outweighing Omega 3. The ratio may be as high as 16, 32 or even 64 to one favoring Omega6. Changing this ration will be a problem for many of us because we are so accustomed to eating our junk foods and snacks, but the results will be well worth the effort.

Get more information in our book Live Longer Live Healthier

or visit our website at trienergetics.net