Today, the Food and Nutrition Board has Failed Millions…
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following was released today by the Vitamin D Council:

After 13 years of silence, the quasi governmental agency, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), yesterday recommended that a three – pound premature infant can take virtually the same amount of vitamin D as a 300 pound pregnant woman. While that 400 IU/day dose is close to adequate for infants, 600 IU/day in pregnant women will do nothing to help the three childhood epidemics most closely associated with gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiencies: asthma, auto-immune disorders, and, as recently reported in the largest pediatric journal in the world, autism (1). Professor Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina has shown pregnant and lactating women need at least 5,000 IU/day, not 600.

The FNB also reported that vitamin D toxicity might occur at an intake of 10,000 IU/day (250 micrograms), although they could produce no reproducible evidence that 10,000 IU/day has ever caused toxicity in humans and only one poorly conducted study indicating 20,000 IU/day may cause mild elevations in serum calcium but not clinical toxicity.

Viewed with different measure, this FNB report recommends that an infant should take 10 micrograms/day (400 IU) and the pregnant women 15 micrograms/day (600 IU). As a single 30 minutes dose of summer sunshine gives adults more than 10,000 IU (250 micrograms), the FNB is apparently also warning that natural vitamin D input – as occurred from the sun before the widespread use of sunscreen – is dangerous. That is, the FNB is implying that God does not know what she is doing.

Disturbingly, this FNB committee focused on bone health, just like they did 14 years ago. They ignored the thousands of studies from the last ten years that showed higher doses of vitamin D helps: heart health, brain health, breast health, prostate health, pancreatic health, muscle health, nerve health, eye health, immune health, colon health, liver health, mood health, skin health, and especially fetal health. Tens of millions of pregnant women and their breast-feeding infants are severely vitamin D deficient, resulting in a great increase in the medieval disease, rickets. The FNB report seems to reason that if so many pregnant women have low vitamin D blood levels then it must be OK because such low levels are so common. However, such circular logic simply represents the cave man existence of most modern day pregnant women.

Hence, if you want to optimize your vitamin D levels – not just optimize the bone effect – supplementing is crucial. But it is almost impossible to significantly raise your vitamin D levels when supplementing at only 600 IU/day (15 micrograms). Pregnant women taking 400 IU/day have the same blood levels as pregnant women not taking vitamin D; that is, 400 IU is a meaninglessly small dose for pregnant women. Even taking 2,000 IU/day of vitamin D will only increase the vitamin D levels of most pregnant women by about 10 points, depending mainly on their weight. Professor Bruce Hollis has shown that 2,000 IU/day does not raise vitamin D to healthy or natural levels in either pregnant or lactating women. Therefore supplementing with higher amounts — like 5000 IU/day — is crucial for those women who want their fetus to enjoy optimal vitamin D levels, and the future health benefits that go along with it.

For example, taking only two of the hundreds of recently published studies, Professor Urashima and colleagues in Japan gave 1,200 IU/day of vitamin D3 for six months to Japanese 10 year-olds in a randomized controlled trial. They found vitamin D dramatically reduced the incidence of influenza A as well as the episodes of asthma attacks in the treated kids while the placebo group was not so fortunate. If Dr. Urashima had followed the newest FNB recommendations, it is unlikely that 400 IU/day treatment arm would have done much of anything and some of the treated young teenagers may have come to serious harm without the vitamin D. Likewise, a randomized controlled prevention trial of adults by Professor Joan Lappe and colleagues at Creighton University, which showed dramatic improvements in the health of internal organs, used more than twice the FNB’s new adult recommendations.

Finally, the FNB committee consulted with 14 vitamin D experts and – after reading these 14 different reports – the FNB decided to suppress their reports. Many of these 14 consultants are either famous vitamin D researchers, like Professor Robert Heaney at Creighton, or in the case of Professor Walter Willett at Harvard, the single best-known nutritionist in the world. So, the FNB will not tell us what Professors Heaney and Willett thought of their new report? Why not? Yesterday, the Vitamin D Council directed our attorney to file a federal Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the IOM’s FNB for the release of these 14 reports.
I, my family, most of my friends, hundreds of patients, and thousands of readers of the Vitamin D Council newsletter, have been taking 5,000 IU/day for up to eight years. Not only have they reported no significant side-effects, indeed, they have reported greatly improved health in multiple organ systems. My advice: especially for pregnant women, continue taking 5,000 IU/day until your (OH)D] is between 50 ng/ml and 80 ng/ml (the vitamin D blood levels obtained by humans who live and work in the sun and the mid-point of the current reference ranges at all American laboratories). Gestational vitamin D deficiency is not only associated with rickets, but a significantly increased risk of neonatal pneumonia (2), a doubled risk for preeclampsia (3), a tripled risk for gestational diabetes (4), and a quadrupled risk for primary cesarean section (5).

Yesterday, the FNB failed millions of pregnant women whose as yet unborn babies will pay the price. Let us hope the FNB will comply with the spirit of “transparency” by quickly responding to our freedom of
Information requests.

John Cannell, MD
The Vitamin D Council
1241 Johnson Avenue, #134
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

(1) Cannell JJ.. On the aetiology of autism. Acta Paediatr. 2010 Aug;99(8):1128-30. Epub 2010 May 19.
(2)Karatekin G, Kaya A, Salihoglu O, Balci H, Nuhoglu A. Association of subclinical vitamin D deficiency in newborns with acute lower respiratory infection and their mothers. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009;63(4):473-7.
(3) Bodnar LM, Catov JM, Simhan HN, Holick MF, Powers RW, Roberts JM. Maternal vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of preeclampsia. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007;92(9):3517-22.
(4) Zhang C, Qiu C, Hu FB, David RM, van Dam RM, Bralley A, Williams MA. Maternal plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations and the risk for gestational diabetes mellitus. PLoS One. 2008;3(11):e3753.
(5) Merewood A, Mehta SD, Chen TC, Bauchner H, Holick MF. Association between vitamin D deficiency and primary cesarean section. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2009;94(3):940-5.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

Julie Burns, MS, RD, CCN, founder of Sportfuel and Eat Like the Pros and Liberation Wellness blogger, will be speaking Thursday, November 4th at National University of Health Science in Lombard, IL. The meet and greet will start at 7:00pm followed by a lecture at 7:30pm. If you can’t make it in-person, you are also able to register via LIVE WEBCAST!

REGISTER TODAY!

 
Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

During intensive training, one’s body needs a variety of different macronutrient and micronutrient sources to provide the body with the needed fuel to replenish depleted stores and allow for recovery. Each individual and training intensity is unique based on the event and thus there is not necessarily a standard percentage of dietary carbohydrate, protein and/or fat that may be applied to every athlete training. With this said, it is important to look at the different macronutrients and your particular training regimen to decipher what percentages are appropriate for you. Across the board, we usually see too high of carbohydrate intake and give our clients carbohydrate-controlled plans to restore gut health, decrease inflammation, and promote fat-burning.

According to two 2004 studies, one published in the International Sports Medicine Journal by Pendergast and colleagues and another in the Sports Nutrition Review Journal by Kreider and team, the first step in training for athletes should be to consume substantial calories to meet the needs of the caloric deficit your body is placed at during the intensive marathon training. Then, one must look at the composition of carbohydrate, protein and fat in the diet to ensure the body is receiving adequate proportions of these nutrients to meet their needs.

Although both studies continued to support a high carbohydrate diet pre- and post-workouts, Pendergast and Kreider did find that the percentage of dietary fat should be increased. Results indicated dietary fat intakes should meet anywhere from 30 to 50% of daily needs. This amount of dietary fat will support energy balance and provide essential fatty acids while promoting fatty acid oxidation in slow-twitch muscle fibres to provide the body with alternative energy sources during the prolonged exercise routine.

Recent research continues to investigate the macronutrient compositions of diets for athletes. Newsom and colleagues in 2009 examined varying diets with differing macronutrient compositions in nine non-obese sedentary males. Through their research, Newsom and his team found that eating a low-carbohydrate diet with excess calories provided from fat post-training enhanced insulin sensitivity. Having a higher insulin sensitivity provides excellent health benefits, such as decreasing one’s chance of developing Type II Diabetes and other co-morbid conditions such as heart disease. Furthermore, with a lower insulin level in the body, less gastrin is secreted for digestion, decreasing the amount of acid present within the body. This too will aid in athletic performance and achieving success at your competition for your body will be ready to compete with less acid build up. These findings aid in making a strong step forward in supporting the switch from the carbohydrate loading trend to eating more natural, high-fat earth based foods pre-, during, and post-training!

Michael Phelps, an Olympian swimmer and one of the top world champion athletes, attributes his tip-top body condition for competition to the high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet he adheres to during his training regimen. Although every athlete is unique, it is important for you to consult with a nutrition professional to find the right dietary training program that works for you. Maybe it isn’t about consuming that plentiful pasta meal before a race, but rather a grass-fed steak to balance energy expenditure with energy intakes to compete at your optimum level!

If you are an athlete, or perhaps training to be one (!!), I invite you to work with us at SportFuel. You will find that our approach is unique and effective. Contact us at jenny@sportfuel.com.

Thank you to Elizabeth Zabel, SportFuel Dietetic Intern for her work with this post.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

Senate Bill S510 Will Make It Illegal to Grow, Share, Trade or Sell Homegrown Food
by Steve Green

S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010,  may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US.
“If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes.  It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.”  It is similar to what India faced with imposition of the salt tax during British rule, only S 510 extends control over all food in the US, violating the fundamental human right to food.”  ~ Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower.

Monsanto says it has no interest in the bill and would not benefit from it, but Monsanto’s Michael Taylor who gave us rBGH and unregulated genetically modified (GM) organisms, appears to have designed it and is waiting as an appointed Food Czar to the FDA (a position unapproved by Congress) to administer the agency it would create — without judicial review — if it passes.
S 510 would give Monsanto unlimited power over all US seed, food supplements, food AND FARMING.

History
In the 1990s, Bill Clinton introduced HACCP (Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points) purportedly to deal with contamination in the meat industry.  Clinton’s HACCP delighted the offending corporate (World Trade Organization “WTO”) meat packers since it allowed them to inspect themselves, eliminated thousands of local food processors (with no history of contamination), and centralized meat into their control.  Monsanto promoted HACCP.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton, urged a powerful centralized food safety agency as part of her campaign for president.  Her advisor was Mark Penn, CEO of Burson Marsteller*, a giant PR firm representing Monsanto.  Clinton lost, but Clinton friends such as Rosa DeLauro, whose husband’s firm lists Monsanto as a progressive client and globalization as an area of expertise, introduced early versions of S 510.

S 510 fails on moral, social, economic, political, constitutional, and human survival grounds.
1.  It puts all US food and all US farms under Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, in the event of contamination or an ill-defined emergency.  It resembles the Kissinger Plan.

2.  It would end US sovereignty over its own food supply by insisting on compliance with the WTO, thus threatening national security.  It would end the Uruguay Round Agreement Act of 1994, which put US sovereignty and US law under perfect protection.  Instead, S 510 says:

COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS.
Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.

3.  It would allow the government, under Maritime Law, to define the introduction of any food into commerce (even direct sales between individuals) as smuggling into “the United States.”  Since under that law, the US is a corporate entity and not a location, “entry of food into the US” covers food produced anywhere within the land mass of this country and “entering into” it by virtue of being produced.
4.  It imposes Codex Alimentarius on the US, a global system of control over food.  It allows the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the WTO to take control of every food on earth and remove access to natural food supplements.  Its bizarre history and its expected impact in limiting access to adequate nutrition (while mandating GM food, GM animals, pesticides, hormones, irradiation of food, etc.) threatens all safe and organic food and health itself, since the world knows now it needs vitamins to survive, not just to treat illnesses.

5.  It would remove the right to clean, store and thus own seed in the US, putting control of seeds in the hands of Monsanto and other multinationals, threatening US security. See Seeds – How to criminalize them, for more details.
6.  It includes NAIS, an animal traceability program that threatens all small farmers and ranchers raising animals.  The UN is participating through the WHO, FAO, WTO, and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in allowing mass slaughter of even heritage breeds of animals and without proof of disease.  Biodiversity in farm animals is being wiped out to substitute genetically engineered animals on which corporations hold patents.  Animal diseases can be falsely declared.  S 510 includes the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite its corrupt involvement in the H1N1 scandal, which is now said to have been concocted by the corporations.

7.  It extends a failed and destructive HACCP to all food, thus threatening to do to all local food production and farming what HACCP did to meat production – put it in corporate hands and worsen food safety.

8.  It deconstructs what is left of the American economy.  It takes agriculture and food, which are the cornerstone of all economies, out of the hands of the citizenry, and puts them under the total control of multinational corporations influencing the UN, WHO, FAO and WTO, with HHS, and CDC, acting as agents, with Homeland Security as the enforcer.  The chance to rebuild the economy based on farming, ranching, gardens, food production, natural health, and all the jobs, tools and connected occupations would be eliminated.

9.  It would allow the government to mandate antibiotics, hormones, slaughterhouse waste, pesticides and GMOs.  This would industrialize every farm in the US, eliminate local organic farming, greatly increase global warming from increased use of oil-based products and long-distance delivery of foods, and make food even more unsafe.  The five items listed — the Five Pillars of Food Safety — are precisely the items in the food supply which are the primary source of its danger.
10. It uses food crimes as the entry into police state power and control.  The bill postpones defining all the regulations to be imposed; postpones defining crimes to be punished, postpones defining penalties to be applied.  It removes fundamental constitutional protections from all citizens in the country, making them subject to a corporate tribunal with unlimited power and penalties, and without judicial review.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

In addition to this information, we want to drive home the point that it is the type of carbohydrate that is most important, although the amount will be important too, especially in the nutritionally imbalanced and toxic person. As Dr. Weston Price found, humans can survive and thrive on most any foods as long as they are from the earth,  minimally processed and properly prepared. We know that blood sugar will go up faster with processed foods. When you eat real food sources of carbohydrate, such as fruits and vegetables, the fiber content and minerals provide extra benefit. In fact, one can subtract fiber grams from the total carbohydrate grams, since this fiber is not digested. Because it is not digested, it does not affect blood sugars. Soluble fiber helps lower blood cholesterol and insoluble fiber will help stimulate peristalsis and keep your digestive tract working well.

At Sportfuel, we do nutritional testing (hair mineral analysis) to help guide our carbohydrate recommendations. This test gives us a map of what is going on at cellular level. We can see trends in:

• Carbohydrate tolerance
• Thyroid strength
• Adrenal strength
• Sex hormone balance
• Digestion
• Toxic metal load

This information will influence our diet recommendations, especially with regards to the oxidation state that our patient is in. Their oxidation state is determined by relationships between certan minerals (calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium) as well as through a Metabolic Typing questionnaire. A fast oxidizer and a slow oxidizer tolerate carbohydrates differently. A fast oxidizer burns through carbohydrates quickly, and really does best on a diet rich in proteins and fats. This is their preferred fuel. What’s interesting is that fast oxidizers crave quick energy and can get away with eating a lot more carbohydrates, but only up to a certain point. Fast oxidizers are more likely to be insulin resistant and are more susceptible to Type 2 diabetes than slow oxidizers. A slow oxidizer, on the other hand, will need some real food carbohydrate “kindling” to get their metabolism going. Many times, we will see a truly fast oxidizer that has moved into slow oxidation as an adaptive response to environment. In this case, we work to nutritionally balance this client and build up their energy systems, specifically their adrenal glands, to bring them back to their true oxidation state.

I believe America’s problem is that most regularly exceed their carbohydrate threshold with junk refined carbohydrates and they are at the same time severely mineral and nutrient depleted- a double whammy! Doing a hair mineral test from Analytical Research Laboratories and often a saliva test from Diagnostechs (for a deeper look into the adrenal glands, insulin, hormone balance, and digestion) will allow us to customize diet and supplementation programs to address each client’s unique needs-giving their body what it needs to efficiently and effectively heal itself. Visit www.sportfuel.com for more information on our nutritional testing and programs, which can be done remotely.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

The time is NOW to break the cycle and start on your path toward carbohydrate sobriety. Let’s understand the science behind this. Carbohydrates are quickly absorbed by your system and shoot up your blood sugar levels. When blood sugar goes up, insulin is released. Insulin is a pro-storage hormone. It promotes storage of the sugar into the cells. It ALSO blocks fat from being burned. Essentially, you are locking fat in your cells while your insulin is high. Following the spike in blood sugar, there is a dramatic fall. This leads to false feelings of hunger shortly after—another craving. The rise and fall of blood sugar throughout the day will create feelings of hunger. Long-term, this pattern can lead to obesity, cancer, heart disease, and premature aging!

The media and food industry have led us to believe that low-fat and fat-free food products are the solution. Have they worked for us so far? No! Refined carbohydrates are added to these products to make them taste good. Too many carbohydrates = fat. Any biochemistry book will tell you that. Plus, look at the ingredient labels on these products. I’ll pass. Fat really is your friend during fat loss. Sounds backwards, but it makes sense. Real food sources of fat, such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, grass-fed meats, nuts, and seeds are packed with nutrients and will keep you full much longer than a fat free snack bar would—even with the fake fiber they add in! Healthy fat also has no effect on your insulin levels, so let the fat-burning begin. Dietary fat is where it’s at!

How do you get out of your body’s way and break the addiction?
1.    Start by adding more protein and fat into your diet. Go slowly, while your body adjusts to the changes. Choose grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken and eggs, real milk, butter, ghee, olive oil, or coconut oil.
2.    Swap out refined food snacks with real food snacks. For example, grab an organic apple and natural almond butter versus packaged peanut butter crackers.
3.    Plan your proteins. Proteins such as meat and dairy can be difficult to just whip up for dinner. Planning meals will make it easier to incorporate protein in your daily life.
4.    Cook with healthful oils. Or, at least start cooking! There might only be a handful of ‘quick-service’ restaurants that provide real food to their customers and use the proper oils for cooking. At home, you’ll know the hand that feeds you!

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

Here is a recent post from Nourished Kitchen on raw milk and its benefits: I Drink Raw Milk: Fresh, Raw, Local, and Full of Fat.

To sum it all up: “Real milk – raw milk – doesn’t need fortification as vitamins, minerals and enzymes remain intact instead of broken, denatured and destroyed through heat processing by standard pasteurization or, worse yet, the extreme temperatures reached through ultra-high-temperature (UHT) pasteurization.”

My favorite real milk story is about my dad. After I gave him The Liberation Diet, he was so enlightened that he immediately took action and found a relatively close source for real milk for all of us. Once he found it, he never looked back and now both he and my mother are enjoying the taste and feeling the benefits! It’s wonderful to see people of all ages discover the power and wonders of real food, especially after years of eating industrialized chemically-laden devitalized foods.

Other members of my family have started to drink real milk as well and have had positive results too. Real milk’s healthy bacteria has helped one family member’s complexion, and its digestibility has worked wonders for another family with food intolerances.

I recommend that everyone gives real milk a try! You’re welcome in advance.

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

Before moderate and extended exercise, choose foods that contain good quality protein, some fat for flavor and protein utilization and a small amount of unprocessed real food carb. Examples include: a hard-boiled egg, some berries and a handful of sprouted raw nuts. Some may choose to include some nitrite-free organic breakfast meat too. The goal of this meal is to dispel hunger and to keep blood sugar levels stable so you will be able to tap into your unlimited fat stores for fuel. It’s important to practice your eating routine during training because everyone will differ in the timing that feels right and the amount of food that feels best. If you are competing, never try new foods on race or competition day.

After you have had your meal, your focus should be primarily on adequate hydration. Clean water with unrefined sea salt, coconut water and other hydration beverages without additives are all good options.   If exercising for less than 45 minutes at a low to moderate intensity, water is usually all that is needed. If exercising in the heat and humidity, for greater than 45 minutes, or at a higher intensity, coconut water (nature’s sports drink) or an additive free sports drink may be used to improve endurance and provide available carbohydrate. A good sports drink will have ~13-17g carbohydrates per 8 ounces.

How much fluid do you need to stay well- hydrated? Individuals will vary in their needs, but generally consuming 12-16 ounces 1 hour prior to activity taps off reserves. Continue drinking ~3-8 ounces every 15 minutes or so and don’t wait until thirsty as this mechanism is blocked during activity.  Remember that 2 gulps is about 3 oz. To determine your individual needs after a workout, weigh yourself before and after a workout and for every 1 pound lost, drink ~20 ounces of fluid. You can also check your urine color, which should be pale and not bright yellow if you are well-hydrated and not taking any supplements that may affect color.

Could you be a salty sweater and need more salt than others? After workouts, if your skin has a white film on it or if the inside rim of your baseball cap or clothes are white, you are a salty sweater and could benefit from adding unrefined Sea Salt to your water or sports drink. The unrefined salt helps to replace the minerals you lost through your sweat. Even if you are not a salty sweater, sea salt provides you with important trace minerals and helps prevent cramping, while allowing you to hold onto your fluids more efficiently.

After high intensity training, a recovery drink is crucial. This drink is designed to supplement protein and carbohydrates after vigorous training/workouts. Normally, your body takes 24-36 hours to recover from exercise and replete its muscle energy stores. By having a recovery drink within 30 minutes or less after a workout, you can reduce recovery time in half.

A typical recipe for recovery drinks is as follows:

0.5g/kg of lean mass = grams of protein
•    Undenatured whey protein isolate
•    Avoid soy protein isolate

1.2g/kg of bodyweight = grams of carbohydrate
•    Organic whole fruits (fresh or frozen)
•    Organic 100% fruit juices
•    Desiccated honey
•    Maltodextrin

Carbohydrate and protein needs will vary based on training level, intensity, current body composition, and goals. Additional glutamine, glycine, carnitine, and other add-in nutrients may be added for some individuals. However, do not add excessive amounts of fats/oils (flax/fish oil, coconut milk) right after training as research suggests that it may slow carbohydrate and protein repletion to the muscle.

After moderate or low intensity routines, you do not necessarily need a recovery drink, but should strive to replace fluids and eat real food to provide the nutrients and nourishment your body needs and wants. Laying a strong foundation for wellness and to fuel sport begins with eating real foods and avoiding processed foods and added sugars. We started Eat Like the Pros, an organic meal delivery service in the Chicagoland area, to make premium fuels, as nature intended, available and convenient. On our website (www.eatlikethepros.com), we have sample Pro Plans to guide you. If you live in the Chicagoland area within our delivery area, you may be able to order our Eat like the Pros meals too!

Jenny Westerkamp, RD is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant for SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros, both based out of the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition practice, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Jenny is also the co-founder of All Access Internships, a website dedicated to serving the dietetic student community. She enjoys writing about real food and has contributed a variety of websites, newsletters, online magazines, and blogs.

As a new mother with three infants, I quickly realized that having a regular sleep routine was on par in importance with a good diet. While every family is different and will pick and choose what resonates  with them, my husband and I found the tips in the book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child”, by Dr Marc Weissbluth, to be tremendously important in instilling a good sleep routine in our home. Just realizing we needed a routine that did not vary for naps and bedtime was key for us–be it a bath, book and prayer or song or anything you choose.Remembering that we, as parents, are in charge of setting the sleep protocol and not the child, is helpful with implementation and necessary for success.

As a sports nutritionist who works with both young and adult athletes, we always ask about sleep habits as we want to enhance recovery, promote lean mass and health. We ask these questions about sleep:

• Do you sleep well?
• Do you have trouble falling asleep?
• Do you stay asleep?
• Do you have insomnia?

We ask about the number of hours slept on average and if they wake up tired on a regular  basis. Some of our professional male athletes may even have night sweats awakening them due to years of poor sleep and taxed  adrenal glands that require nutritional support. We also ask if they sleep in a dark room and if they get out in the daylight for at least 30 minutes daily to set their circadian clock.

The right foods will also help children adapt to a sleep routine and to sleep long and deep. What children (and adults!) eat affects  hormones, including serotonin, which helps you feel good and sleep well. If the habitual diet is loaded with sugars and processed foods (most foods marketed to kids), kids will have blood sugar imbalances (think crabby kid!), inflammation and tissue damage, which will all adversely affect sleep. The bottom line: Eat Real Food!  Getting plenty  of organic pasture-raised animal protein, (beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck. whole eggs, fish, etc), lots of colorful vegetables with butter, some fruit, nuts and seeds, and really limiting  the processed sugars and grains will help our children to sleep well and be the happy and healthy children they were meant to be!

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.

What are some proven techniques to change your subconscious programming?

Human connection is always critical—and when we desire to make any kind of change, we need all the support we can get! By surrounding yourself with people that support your journey, you will find that you begin to attract people that are also working toward self improvement and true inner balance. At SportFuel, when our clients undertake a Nutritional Cleanse, (a large lifestyle change for most!) we teach them to be aware of “energy vampires”. What are “energy vampires and who are yours? You probably know them well–those people that try to suck the life out of you –people continually spewing negative thoughts. Of course, we all have negative thoughts as our mind is always thinking so the thoughts themselves are not the problem. It is our processing and rumination of the negative thoughts that, if not curtailed, can begin to become our reality. Remember that YOU are in charge of what you think about and YOU CAN control what you think about. At SportFuel, we use the Cleanse period to also establish a better awareness of how you nourish yourself, what you are thinking as you nourish differently, and then finally making the connection to how you feel when you nourish lovingly with real foods. The following are a few techniques to explore to help you move toward establishing healthy subconscious programming:

The BodyTalk System:

This concept works to synchronize and balance the body-mind. The body is a complex system with interconnected physiological, biochemical, emotional, environmental, hereditary, and genetic components. The BodyTalk System taps into our “innate wisdom” about our own health. With neuromuscular biofeedback, a protocol of questions, and healing through body ‘tapping’, the body-mind complex is reconnected, which fosters healing and balance. It is a noninvasive and safe complementary or stand-alone treatment.  (See http://www.bodytalksystem.com/learn/bodytalk)

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT):

EFT is an alternative psychotherapy and the theory is that negative thoughts and emotions can cause disturbances in the body’s energy field. Practitioners use acupuncture points to manipulate the body’s energy field, all while the patient focuses on a specific memory, so that essentially, a psychological problem is alleviated. Many SportFuel clients have benefited from learning and using this technique. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Freedom_Technique)

Hypnotherapy:

Hypnotherapy done correctly can bring a person into a deep state of relaxation and an altered state of consciousness, helping a person become exceptionally responsive—although the practitioner is certainly not in control of their mind. Instead, they teach patients how to improve their own state of awareness, which in turn can positively affect their own bodily processes and responses. One hypnotherapy technique involves remembering an event that lead to a negative reaction, and then separating that from the learned behavior and replacing it with a healthier behavior. (See http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/hypnotherapy-000353.htm)

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel and Eat Like the Pros®, both located in the Chicago suburbs. SportFuel is an integrative nutrition consulting firm, while Eat Like the Pros is an organic meal delivery service. Julie’s past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes.