What I Learned at the Landmark Forum Last Weekend

If you’ve not heard of the Landmark Forum,
it’s the leading self-improvement seminar
in the world, used to be called EST in the 70s and 80s.

I went to the graduation of a friend, and simply
had to have this technology and experience,
despite the fact that I’ve done a lot of stuff like
this, and that things are going well. (not to mention money has been tight)

Well, it would take too long to go through it all,
but suffice it to say that this seminar is not to be missed. I wanted to improve my relationships and my productivity,
but here are just some of the things I got:

1. Completed the past with both my parents (sister is next)
2. Got off the game I play of blaming others for my problems
3. Got off the idea that I can stop short of success because I could fail, I don’t deserve it, my parents don’t deserve it, the world doesn’t want me, etc. 4. Realized how short life is and that I am capable of miracles 5. Technology and a support system to have breakthroughs regularly from now on.

One more comment. A lot of people may say “I’d like to do this but I don’t want to be selfish and just spend the time and money on myself.”

Please realize that by doing this you will be able to create so much for your family, friends and community, it’s truly an unselfish act.

More information at http://www.landmarkeducation.com

Another Victim

Yesterday, a well-known and nice guy in Framingham passed away.

His daughter was our babysitter a few years ago, and we had some connection to his wife and son as well.

When the rumors were flying about his illness a few months ago, I took the opportunity to drive over to his house,
and I had a little chat with husband and wife who were enjoying a nice peaceful breakfast of bacon and eggs, his favorite.

I showed him a book, told them about my guru, and said I could be a good support person if he was interested in trying to improve his condition through improved eating and lifestyle.

They basically heard me out, but their body language said I should not expect a call.

They had a few laughs, a ski trip, a birthday party, and now he’s dead at 50.

It was his life of course, and he chose to live it the way he wanted, right up until the end.

I respect their choice, and will mourn his loss. Still, I’m bothered by it. When I’m sick, it means I’m living out of synch with nature. Chances are, I’m not the only one suffering when that’s the case.

When I am sick I seek to open my mind to what I need to change, change it, and become healthy. This way reduces suffering, for me, my family, society and our animal friends.

Anybody care to join me?

What I Stand For

I love life, but sometimes it’s very messy, and has its difficulties.

Over the weekend I obtained some clarity about my life goals over and above the little stuff, like returning that thing I bought, getting out of debt, and surviving winter.

I stand for the possibility that I can enjoy my difficulties more, and create dramatically more healing and love in my family, community and on this planet.

What do you stand for?

Milk=Godzilla

Japanese Milk Update

You thought American dairy ads were dumb?
The United States is just a cute little
arf-arf puppy when compared to the
deafening roar of Japan’s Godzilla. See:

[youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=WKVY190fFt4]

[youtube http://youtube.com/w/?v=K1Gc1d5jeVU&NR=1]

In 2009, the per capita consumption of liquid
milk in Japan was 89 pounds. The per capita
consumption of butter was 1.5 pounds while
the per capita consumption of cheese was
4.4 pounds. Ten pounds of milk are required
to produce one pound of hard cheese, and
21 pounds of milk are used to make one pound
of butter, so the equivalent milk consumption
of these three commodities (milk, cheese,
butter) was equal to 165 pounds. Americans
consume the equivalent of 666 pounds of dairy
each year.

Every year since 1946 tens-of thousands
of Japanese have been interviewed and their
diets analyzed along with their weights
and heights and other factors such as cancer
rates and age of puberty (the last measured
by the onset of menstruation in young girls).

This study includes detailed personal
interviews and is well respected and
accepted by scientists. In 1975, 21,707
persons from 6,093 households were included
in the sampling. The results of the study
were published in a respected scientific
journal, PREVENTIVE MEDICINE (Yasuo Kagawa,
Department of Biochemistry, Jichi Medical
School, Japan, 7, 205-217, 1978).

Japan had been devastated by losing a
war and was occupied by American troops.
Americanization included dietary changes.
Milk and dairy products, relatively unknown
to Japan, were becoming a significant part
of the Japanese diet. According to this
study, the per-capita yearly dietary intake
of dairy products in 1950 was only 5.5 pounds.
Twenty-five years later the average Japanese
ate 117.4 pounds of milk and dairy products.
The consumption of milk and dairy products
(containing powerful growth hormones)
represented the biggest dietary change for
the Japanese people, according to table #1
on page 206 of that study.

Tables 7 and 8 are even more revealing.
While milk and dairy consumption increased
by twenty-one times, from 1950 to 1975,
cerebral vascular disease (strokes) increased
38 percent. Heart disease increased 35 percent,
breast cancer rates increased 77 percent.

Colon cancer increased 77 percent. Lung
cancer increased by three hundred percent.

What happened to young girls and the impact
of milk consumption on puberty is even more
dramatic. In 1950 the average twelve-year
old girl was 4’6″ tall and weighed 71 pounds.
By 1975 the average Japanese girl, after
guzzling a daily diet of milk and dairy
products containing 59 different bioactive
hormones, had grown an average of 4 1/2
inches and gained 19 pounds. In 1950 the
average Japanese girl had her first
menstrual cycle at the age of 15.2 years.
Twenty five years later, after a daily
intake of estrogen and progesterone from
cow’s milk, the average Japanese girl was
ovulating at the age of 12.2 years, three
years younger.

Never before had such a dramatic dietary
change been seen in such a unique population
study. Such statistics, which do not lie,
remained buried in this 1978 scientific
publication.

NOTE: There were other significant changes
in the Japanese diet from 1950-1975. Japanese
ate less grains and more meat. Here is a
summary of those per-capita food consumption
changes.

1950 1975

Milk and Dairy 5.5 lbs 117.4 lbs
Meat and Poultry 6.8 lbs 51.6 lbs

Rice 272.3 lbs 199.6 lbs
Barley 51.4 lbs 1.2 lbs
Green-Yellow Veggies 60.8 lbs 38.8 lbs
Potatoes 102.6 lbs 49.0 lbs

SUMMARY: Milk/Dairy/Meat consumption
increased from 12.3 pounds per person
to 169 pounds per person, an increase
of 1,274 percent!

Grains, potatoes and green/yellow
vegetables decreased from 487.1 pounds
to 288.6, a decrease of 41 percent.

Before 1946, when Japanese milk consumption
was nil, breast cancer was virtually unknown
and death from heart disease was a rare
event. In 2009, 8 women per 100,000 were
diagnosed with breast cancer (21.2 per
100,000 in the USA) and deaths from heart
disease were 30 per 100,000 (106 per
100,000 in the USA).

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com

Health Yourself!

Greetings!

My friend Howie Axelrod of Ashland, is a great guy and a world traveler. His nature photographs will be on display from Jan. 19 through Feb. 28 in the ground floor gallery at the Ashland Library at 66 Front Street, Ashland, MA. This is the 3rd consecutive year that the library has displayed my work.

(Mon Closed | Tu-Th 10am-8pm | Fri 2pm-5pm | Sat 10am-5pm | Sun Closed

This show highlights men, women and children from around the globe, often in native dress. Subjects include Maasi tribesmen and tribeswomen, children living in jungle huts along the far reaches of the Amazon, a shaman at work in a Guatemalan street market, colorful Kuna Indian men, women and children of the remote San Blas Islands, even a snake charmer in a Moroccan souk.

People are Howie’s natural and favorite subject. His photographs portray the boundless diversity that we as humans bring to this planet. It is Howie’s wish that your mind and heart are touched in the same way that meeting and photographing the people of planet Earth has enriched him.

Please forward me your natural ideas that deserve some attention.

Sincerely Yours,

David Kagan, B.S., M.B.A, Health Educator
david
www.kaganmedia.net

Staples In Every Kitchen
If you believe in balanced eating, perhaps you also believe that Salt (yang) and Sugar (yin) can be our downfall.

While a diet rich in whole grain products and well cooked vegetables, beans and soups, etc. is great, sometimes this is not possible, or conflicts with our desire to eat socially. When this happens, there are many foods and remedies that can help. We all should know about them and keep them on hand. A few staples…

1) Umeboshi Plums-In addition to being wonderful for creating delicious dishes, sauces and dressings, these are like nature’s tums. After a rich meal (salty or especially sweet), they can fix an acid condition in minutes. They are expensive, but last a long time. Available at Whole Foods and online. Avoid those with MSG.

2) Daikon (Japanese white) Radish-These are long and sometimes have greens on the end, and look like horseradish. They are spicy, especially the fat ones, and when finely grated. Mix with shoyu (healthy soy sauce) and serve with animal foods (e.g. Japanese restaurants), or afterwards. This helps to digest animal fats. Also great cooked, pickled and dried, or in stirfries and soups. Available at Whole Foods or Asian groceries.

3) Kuzu Root-This white rock (or powder) is found in abundance down South in Louisiana, and eases digestion after oily foods. Mix a heaping teaspoon with water, add to a pot with an 1/2 cup of water and heat stirring constantly. If you want to counter salt, add a 1/2 cup of apple juice, cook one minute and drink. If you want to counter sugar or oil, add umeboshi plum (and no apple juice), cook for a minute, then add a few drops shoyu and drink. Eases constipation, and digestion. Effective when done upon rising.


Crazy Night, Meet Mellow Morning

Greetings! The weekend is a wonderful thing, eh?

Like most of you, I took the opportunity on Friday night to be festive, i.e. to overindulge with food. First go around, I had a small plate of veggie lasagna (yes, it had cheese; but I was at my daughter’s shabbaton, a special one-a-year celebration at the synagogue; and this was the healthiest choice). A couple of tater tots, some rice pilaf and a cup of water were all fine. If only it had stopped there.

For whatever reason (I’d like to think it was because I had the stress of “behaving” and being polite to some of the least enlightened people I can think of), it was enough, and when they said we could go back for seconds, I got a fish stick, more tater tots, a small piece of (farmraised) salmon, and some apple juice (I wanted cola, but even in my weak state, I’m not going to put high fructose corn syrup into my body) and enjoyed every bite. Dayenu.

If only I had known the education program (on Israel’s “seven species”) also included tasting such foods as: barley beer, almonds, olives, chocolate covered pomegranite seeds, and fig newtons, I might not have overdone myself at dinner. Suffice it to say I was was overstuffed Jew by 8:30.

But by the grace of the universe, the sun also rises. I slept until 7:40, did ten minutes of do-in, stretches, breathing and affirmations, and I was motivated to take care of my body. Here’s what I went on to do:

1. Feed the cat and turn on the turtle light
2. Make miso soup: fill a small pot with water, add wakame flakes, turn on to boil. Chop some
scallions and collard greens, and mix a teaspoon each of white miso and chick pea miso (remember, I’m
trying to stay light, not be hardcore healing like I would with barley miso; it’s even called “mellow white miso”) 3. Take out yesterday’s rice, add a few drops of water and put on low heat.
4. Go outside and get the newspaper, doing a few more stretches and loosening up my liver with a few taps.
5. Back to the soup. Grab some warm water from the pot to create a miso slurry, add in the veggies to boil gently for one minute, add in the slurry and turn off after one minute. 6. Set the table.
7. Ring the bell.
8. Enjoy a wonderful breakfast with my darling wife and my amazing teenage son, while my ten-year-old daughter wakes up among good friends.

One mellow morning, resulting in a great day.

(message here–give yourself regular healthy habits, and they can make a big difference)

The New War On Drugs

Remember when we were worried about Columbian drug lordsand neighborhood crack dens? You don’t hear much about either any more.

Now, everyone’s on drugs and it’s okay. Only it’s really not okay, we just
haven’t been hit with the meltdown from it yet. But make no mistake, it’s coming.

Just like cancer gives us warnings years and sometimes decades earlier,
with rashes, allergies, colds, fevers and the like, this disease has its symptoms.
In all likelihood, we’ll ignore them also, and then the situation will be much more costly.

Top Ten Symptoms of Impending Doom from Medication Overload in The U.S.

10. Nobody is talking about the War on Drugs anymore. In fact, CA has over 1,000
marijuana stores. Get this–they plan to pay off their deficit through them.

9. Guess what’s now in virtually all our public water systems? That’s right, medications,
for cholesterol, ADD, even erectile dysfunction. Still want your eight glasses of water today?

8. More sick days from school and work, despite the fact that people REALLY need this job,
and kids here are not keeping up with students from other countries, in subjects like Science and Math

7. Kids here are not only falling behind their counterparts in Europe and Asia, but they are falling asleep!
Yes, some of it is stress, and some of it is overeating before bed, but drugs are also wreaking havoc
with sleep patterns, and this causes more accidents, more violence, and more obesity.

6. School systems are going broke, catering to “special needs” kids. Sure, this is a good cause, but what
if we caused it with our overmedicating these kids?

5. Have you heard about the wife and husband on trial for murder of their youngster who was on at least
three medications so they could collect more money from the state?

4. You cannot watch a television show or read a magazine without seeing multiple ads for medications.
The front promises a satisfying Saturday night, or the ability to get through the day, but the back warns
of possible side effects, many times including DEATH!! How is it that sales of these drugs are going up?

3. For a while, doctors were overwhelmed by patient visits, and considered limiting their patient loads. Now,
they love it, because they are getting kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies. Gotta pay off that Mercedes somehow!

2. CVS stock is through the roof, and they are responsible for more construction projects than any other
company. Go figure!

1. The healthcare bill just fell on it’s face. But do you see any crying out from doctors, hospitals or drug companies?
Nope. Cuz now they are likely to keep charging exorbitant prices, and overprescribing to make a buck.

Chew On This…

Went to a networking meeting this morning. Met some lovely people in a lovely town in Metrowest.

My product/service is probably the most esoteric one that was introduced to the group. Most people were concerned
with how to sell to businesses, because one sale could bring in some good dough, and lead to repeat business. Nothing wrong with that.

I too want to reach businesses, to help them reduce stress and sick days and healthcare costs, and improve morale and productivity and loyalty, through healthier food options and work environment.

But more importantly, my message is to the individual: “Your daily habits (eating, self-care, exercise, consumption) help create your health, and also can have an impact on the world around you.

The single biggest piece of advice most people can use may be this…’

CHEW YOUR FOOD WELL, PARTICULARLY GRAINS. This helps you get more nutrients, eliminate toxins, and focus on your work and relationships.

Have room for one more? Try this one…

TRY LISTENING TO SOMEONE YOU LOVE TONIGHT, WITHOUT ANSWERING, OR JUDGEMENT. That’s hard to do, but can be very helpful to someone.

Enjoy…