Discover the nutrient benefits of soaking raw almonds!

Discover The Health Benefits of Soaking Almonds

Almonds are considered, by nutritionists, to be the healthiest, most nutritious nuts of all.

Almonds are a rich source of protein containing fiber, omega-3 and 6 fatty acids, vitamin E, magnesium, calcium, and zinc.

Almonds are also difficult to digest because of an enzyme inhibiting substance in their brown coating.

The enzyme inhibitor is there to keep the almond more intact until it is ready to sprout into a tree.

For humans, the inability of the nut to release its enzymes interferes with the digestive process makes digestion more difficult, and creating the loss of nutrient value of the almond.

Solution? Soaking eliminates the problem.

The key to maintaining the nutrient value is to only use almonds that are raw.

The eating and soaking process are practically useless if the almonds are pasteurized or roasted since both processes destroy the almonds healthy enzymes.

No Enzymes — No Digestion!

Unfortunately for us, a recent law requires all almonds grown in the U.S. to be pasteurized.  And yet the USDA still allows these processed almonds to be called raw even though they no longer are.

Don’t be fooled.  The so-called raw almonds found in health food stores are all pasteurized!

The law is weird. Almond farmers can sell raw unpasteurized almonds from roadside stands or mail order but not to food distributors or markets.

Another good source of true raw unpasteurized almonds is imported raw almonds.  You can find them at www.livingnutz.com, (they are reasonably priced) or Google raw almonds on the Internet and several other sources will show up.

All almonds have the protective brown skin which contains the harmful tannic acid and enzyme inhibitors.

Soaking removes harmful tannic acid and enzyme inhibitors making the nuts easy to digest and releasing their full nutritional value.  Soaking also makes the nut softer and easier to chew.

Always chew nuts thoroughly, whether soaked or not. Big chunks of un-chewed nuts can be hard on the digestive tract.

In addition, all nuts contain phytic acid in their outer layer or bran.  Untreated phytic acid can form insoluble or nearly insoluble compounds with many metal ions, including those of calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc.  These compounds reduce dietary availability.

Soaking decreases the levels of this phytic acid.

Procedure:

Soak the almonds in cool water and drain the soaked water after 20-40 minutes. Add fresh water and continue the soaking for another 8-12 hours.

Be sure the water covers all the almonds.  Cover the bowl with something breathable like a cloth towel and leave the bowl in a warm place (room temperature).  In the morning you can drain the water and eat them.

Eating 6 soaked almonds in the morning is recommended by many nutritionists.  If you have soaked more nuts than six, refrigerate them after draining and drying on a paper towels.

If you want to continue to sprout them, you can.  They make one of the best sprouts.  Being that the almond skin is potentially irritating to the lining of the stomach and intestines, the almonds should be blanched following the soaking.

To blanch almonds:

• Place the soaked almonds in a saucepan of boiling water for 7 seconds.
• Immediately remove from heat and drain.
• Cover almonds with cold water to cool.
• Press each almond between thumb and forefinger to slip off skin.
• Dry almonds on paper towels.

You can also try blanching them in hot water from your faucet for 15 – 30 seconds.

The same soaking benefits apply to most nuts with a brown skin, but not to nuts with white skin like macadamias or pine nuts.

Taking the time to soak your almonds before eating is always worth the effort.  So be sure you soak them first to obtain the fully enhanced benefits of this power food.

Get your day off to a roaring start.  Add 6 blanched raw almonds to your oatmeal in the morning.

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2010 – All Rights Reserved

Note: Good Health Supplements are dietary supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals as necessary on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Individual results will vary and statements mentioned are anecdotal and may not represent typical results.

Magnesium and Vitamin D-3 Connection

Vitamin D deficiency, the cause of probably 60% of the diseases in the U.S. and the world today, is a bit more complicated than appears on the surface.

Most people believe that just taking a vitamin D-3 supplement will eliminate their deficiency in two to three months by raising their D-3 levels to “normal”, and expect all of their health problems to disappear.

That’s the quick fix syndrome, and I wish it were so.

You can improve the quality of your health by just taking a vitamin D supplement, but better still, by taking care to include the other missing ingredient in your diet, the mineral magnesium, you can really raise your overall health and the quality of your life.

The inclusion of these magnesium laden healthy and tasty raw vegetables in your diet will result in turning a small health correction into a full blown shot-in-the-arm!  This can positively impact your longevity.  The supporting science is well documented.

Magnesium is the key factor in converting vitamin D-3 into 1,25D₃ the only form of vitamin D the body can use.

Magnesium from supplements does not work well because the body has a difficult time  metabolizing minerals that are not combined with food.

As such, magnesium laden vegetables are the simplest, easiest, and most efficient way for the body to build up a sufficient store of magnesium to meet the body’s various every day needs.

Having a deficiency of magnesium is not only harmful to the body, it is wasteful; your body will not be able to convert all of the vitamin D-3 you are getting, from supplements or sun, into its useable form.

Like so many North Americans:
•    You are probably eating too many grains and cheese,
•    You are not getting enough magnesium-rich foods.

Whole grains ARE healthy to eat, but not too much of them.

Grains, like cheese, are acid forming, especially soft cheeses.

So too are meat and fish, pasteurized fruit drinks, most processed foods, fast foods, sodas, coffee, tea, and power drinks.

Are you asking yourself “So What”? What has acidity got to do with vitamin D and magnesium? A whole lot!

Let me explain.

Think of how meat tenderizer works.  You pick up a cheaper cut of beef from your local butcher.  You know it’s tough, so you coat it with meat tenderizer and let it sit.

When you think it is ready, you broil it or whatever, and it is tender as can be.
What happened?  The highly acidic meat tenderizer attacked the tough sinews between the cells tenderizing the beef to the extent that you can cut it with a fork.

The acid tenderizer is so effective, if you left it on the beef long enough, the beef would dissolve and disintegrate.

The same would happen to your organs if the acid from acid forming foods you eat were not neutralized with the minerals magnesium, potassium or calcium, which are alkaline.

One of your body’s highest priorities is to protect your organs from destruction.

If you do not give your body enough alkaline forming foods to provide your body with sufficient neutralizing alkaline minerals, your body will strip the minerals from your bones and muscles in order to protect the organs from destruction.

If the acid content of your body is overwhelming, and your body cannot supply enough minerals to neutralize the acid, your body will then encapsulate the acid molecules in fat cells and keep them encapsulated until it builds up excess alkali.

Only then will your body release and neutralize the excess acid it has been storing to protect itself.  One of the side effects of storing acid in fat cells usually results in weightgain or obese.

Why am I telling you this?

Because the more acid there is in your body, the more magnesium, potassium and calcium your body will need to neutralize all the acid.

You need to know that your body is desperate to neutralize this acid and will take these minerals from anywhere it can get them.

This action is vital to your very existence!

Osteoporosis, which is so common today, is a result of your body stripping minerals from your bones creating holes in them and making them brittle.

Another result could be the softening of your bones called osteomalacia which will dangerously weaken your skeletal structure.

To make matters even worse, fewer minerals would be available for other vitally essential uses in your body as your body’s first priority is neutralizing its excess acid.

A prime example being the need for magnesium to convert the vitamin D-3 into the active form, (1,25D₃), which is the only form of D the body can use.

You cannot make up a magnesium deficiency by taking more vitamin D-3.  If the D-3 is not converted, your body cannot use it.

Here are some of the problems you may encounter if your magnesium level is low:

•    Your body will have trouble converting Vitamin D into the form it can use to create its amazing benefits.
•    Your body won’t be able to produce ATP (cells power engine)
•    Your body will decrease expression of Vitamin D receptors which impairs receptor signaling.  Poor signaling interferes with the normal workings of bodily functions.
•    Your body will limit the use of what calcium and magnesium is available.  Suppress the release of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and calcitonin, hormones that help regulate the metabolism of calcium and magnesium.
•    Your body will compromise the activity of enzymes that regulate your membrane mineral pumps that are vital in keeping potassium inside the cell and sodium outside the cell as well as performing other functions.
•    Your body needs magnesium for more than 300 enzymatic reactions.
•    Your body loses much needed potassium and calcium via your urine.

That is a long list of nasty happenings, but not a complete one.  These will have long term nasty effects on your health.

Magnesium is an antacid.  You need antacids in your body —- magnesium, potassium and calcium—-the kind that come from food, not drugs, to neutralize acid waste.

The more antacids you make available in your diet the less you have to take from your body stores (bones and muscles).

The purple pill, Tums, and other over-the-counter antacids are not the solution!

These are just chemicals that will neutralize the acid in your stomach, disrupt the digestive process and minimize your body’s ability to extract much needed nutrients from the food you eat.

To get enough magnesium in your diet so that your vitamin D functions properly, and to facilitate all important enzymatic reactions, you must eat magnesium rich foods to balance the acid-base in your diet to reduce the loss of magnesium and other alkaline buffers in your urine.

Here’s is what I suggest:

•    Eat lots of fruits and magnesium rich vegetables such as spinach, bok choy, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard.  Mix them in with your organic salad greens.
•    Have at least one banana a day.
•    Eat a hand full of nuts a day.  Ten to twelve.
•    Minimize eating cheese and especially do not eat processed cheese.
•    Don’t use processed salt.  Use only sea salt.
•    Avoid fast foods, all processed foods, and pasteurized orange, grapefruit and other juices.
•    Eliminate soda and power drinks from your diet and minimize the intake of coffee.
•    Eat only lean meat and or wild fish and free range chicken.
•    Eat as much organic as you can.

Your body is a highly complex marvel of functionality.  It requires you to understand and provide what it needs to keep it functioning at its peak to allow you to live the vibrant healthy life that is available to you, just for the taking.

Don’t be like the average Joe who knows more about, and spends more on, his car then he does his body.

Take your vitamin D-3 and make sure you eat enough magnesium rich foods.

Supplements alone will not do the job.  Your body works best in an alkaline state, pH 7.3, so do your best to keep it there!  Increase your intake of magnesium rich vegetables.

Help us at Good Health Supplements solve the country’s health care problems —– follow our advice and ——- STAY HEALTHY!

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2010 – All Rights Reserved

Note: Good Health Supplements are dietary supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals as necessary on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Individual results will vary and statements mentioned are anecdotal and may not represent typical results.

Stopping Cancer, Heart Disease and 100 Other Diseases On 26 1/2 Cents A Day?

Can you imagine the world-wide media explosion if a drug company announced it had developed a single pill that would substantially reduce the risk or prevent breast, colon, prostate, 14 other cancers, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, PMS, MS and other autoimmune disease, as well as flu, colds, other respiratory diseases and, last but  not least — Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and possibly ALS?

Can you imagine the euphoria to having access to such a miracle pill?

Well — guess what—that miracle is here NOW!  TODAY!

It is the miracle of vitamin D-3 and we not only have it, we have it in liquid form at a cost of only pennies a day.

It is estimated that about 60% of the diseases in the world today are probably vitamin D-3 deficiency based —as it has been well established that most people in the U.S. and around the world are vitamin D-3 deficient.

Can you imagine people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s taking a fall and not breaking a hip, or other bones because their bones are so strong?

Can you imagine not having to worry about the swine flu or any other kind of flu because your immune system is so strong?

In the last 10 years a whole new science has burst open upon the world.

It is the scientific study of the effects of the hormone known as vitamin D-3 on the body.  Yes, it is a hormone, not a vitamin.

D-3 impacts your heart, organs and most every tissue and cell in your body.

It is anti-viral, bacterial and fungal.

It regulates normal cell death thus maintaining life saving control over cancer.

It protects against gum disease and helps keep your muscles strong.

Vitamin D-3 is the most impactful and wide reaching nutrient for your body and you can have this incredible protection for as little as 26.5 cents a day.

That’s $7.95 for a month’s supply of 10,000 IU liquid vitamin D-3 per day at the special multiple bottle price for the NEW Mirimmune Super D-3.

That is 26 1/2 cents per day and no shipping cost in the U.S. and Canada.

Is your life worth 26 1/2 cents a day?  Are you dancing in the street yet?

Well you should be because this is the greatest medical discovery of the 21st century and the drug companies haven’t yet figured out a way to take it away from us!

So let’s make hay while the sun shines!

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2010 – All Rights Reserved

Note: Good Health Supplements are dietary supplements and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Any statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Readers should consult appropriate health professionals as necessary on any matter relating to their health and well-being. Individual results will vary and statements mentioned are anecdotal and may not represent typical results.

All living things contain enzymes, whether plant or animal. No enzymes — no life — plain and simple.

Practically every chemical reaction in our bodies is a result of enzymatic action. The digestion of our food is mostly dependent on enzymes.

It is not so much how healthy we eat as to how well our food is digested so that we can absorb the nutrients in the food. We can only do that when we have enough enzymes in our digestive system.

Digestion is the first step in transforming food into the living tissues of our bodies and into the fuel needed to keep those tissues functioning. It is here we need to pay particular attention.

It is impossible to be in perfect health with poor digestion.

Why? Because digestion itself refers to the breaking down of food into particles small enough to enter our cells. Absorption, an integral part of digestion, has to do with the transferring of these minute food particles into our circulation so that these food nutrients can be carried to every cell in our body.

Both digestion and absorption are performed by the digestive system.

Where do enzymes come from?

Our body makes many of the enzymes we need to digest our food. Food itself contains enzymes unless we destroy the enzymes through heating or through processing.

Our bodies cannot make all the enzymes it needs to digests its food and must rely on the help it gets from the enzymes in the food we eat.

It is important to know that enzymes are easily destroyed at temperatures beyond 118°F. This is why a diet of mostly processed foods, which is usually heated beyond 118°F, and pasteurized (160ºF) such as milk and juice lead to digestive problems and poor nutrition.

Food with no enzymes is known as dead food.

A good example is the pasteurized orange juice of which we drink tons in this country. Being pasteurized (dead food), all of the enzymes have been destroyed and drinking this juice is like pouring pure acid down your stomach making it difficult for your body to digest.

Fresh squeezed orange juice (live food) is full of enzymes, easily digestible, providing your body with much needed healthy nutrition.

Here are two important questions:

• Why does poorly digested food have a negative impact on your immune system?
• Doesn’t poorly digested food just pass through your colon and out as waste?

The surprise answers:

• When food is not properly digested, we create “digestive luekocytosis” in which your white blood cell count increases after a meal. (White blood cell count is increased to counter the undigested food your body views as an invader.)
• Because these incompletely digested food molecules are unable to be absorbed through the pores of your intestines into your blood stream, the body then identifies this particulate matter as foreign objects, your immune system forms circulating immune complexes around them. (That’s your immune system’s army surrounding these foreign objects in an attempt to destroy them.) Your immune system now tries to do a job it is not designed to do. It mobilizes white blood cells in an attempt to digest food, stressing your body’s energy and your immune system, doing with great difficulty, what enzymes do very easily and naturally.

It’ a fact, you use 80% of your body’s energy to digest food alone.

With food enzymes present to pre-digest the food, (food that hasn’t been heated or processed) digestive luekocytosis does not occur. Proper digestion now allows your immune system to focus on disease prevention — rather than digestion.

Eating an abundance of raw food such as mixed greens and fruit will measurably improve your digestion. This is especially true because as you age your body begins making fewer and fewer enzymes and is less tolerant of eating dead food.

The practice of enzyme supplementation is a good one to follow. It is the key to assuring complete digestion, absorption, transportation, and the use of the nutrients you consume.

To further aid the digestive process and to help prevent acid reflux, the enzyme supplements you take should contain betaine hydrochloride.

Curing acid reflux with antacids only makes matters worse long term and further starves your cells of nutrients they need to properly function and keep your body healthy.

Antacids negatively interfere, short circuiting the digestive process, preventing much of your food from being broken down to a particle size your intestines can absorb.

Repairing your digestion with enzyme supplementation, eating at least 50% raw food, and eliminating processed and fried foods from your diet will turn your digestion around quickly and lead you back to a healthy body.

To reinforce that statement, know the fact that enzymes are also responsible for elimination of waste and toxins in your body.

To your good heath & longevity.

Ira Marxe
“The Good Health & Wellness Guy”

Copyrighted © 2009 – All Rights Reserved