I  understand your healthy skepticism. You hear a word like “superfoods” and while a part of you lights up with anticipation, you know full-well that it sounds like another scam or new product on the market. I’m here to talk to that small part of you that just lit up with the light of possibility, and reveal how superfoods are actually a food group…and one that you’d best start paying attention to – today.

Superfoods are a class of foods that have risen above and beyond the traditional “food” label. Conventional foods give us the essential nutrients we need to survive, but superfoods deliver the things our bodies and minds need to THRIVE – in a multitude of ways. Nearly all classified “superfoods” (such as goji berries, spirulina, bee pollen, maca, aloe vera, hempseeds, etc) work to enhance the immune system in dramatic ways. They deliver the exact key players for incredible immunity, but do it in the context of an extraordinary whole food – not a refined, chemical supplement that our bodies can’t assimilate.

Superfoods go far beyond immunity, however. They deliver practical, tangible results in your health, fitness and energy levels on the spot. We can all laughingly understand that no person can feel good or perform even remotely well living off just donuts and junk food. But then we stop mid-way. If that’s the bottom end of energy and personal performance, what’s the top? It’s certainly not the traditional American or European dietary lifestyle! If we consider that (which is causing incredible amounts of disease, obesity, and unnecessary pain and suffering) as the “middle point” on the scale of energy levels and personal performance, what IS the top?

The truth is, we’re just discovering what that top is now. And a few years down the road, we’ll know even more about that peak state. As we continue evolving in our understanding of nutrition, lifestyle and the human body, we’ll continue to redefine what we think is possible. The problem right now? What we know is possible is far beyond where most people have settled. Enter: superfoods. Superfoods are the missing piece of the puzzle, the “long-lost ingredient” that we’ve been searching for. We already know that they can dramatically enhance our immunity and keep us happy and healthy all year long, but the story goes so much deeper than that.

Do you realize that you can get all the protein you need (complete proteins with all of the essential amino acids), all the vitamins and minerals you need, all of the incredible enzymes and co-enzymes missing from the conventional modern diet and so much more…all from these so-called “superfoods”? What you’ve been told you’d have to take daily supplements to get is now available in the form of raw, organic superfoods grown in pristine, fertile soils in South America and beyond – score! Who in their right mind would rather take a handful of pills than enjoy a colorful, vibrant meal of foods that could revolutionize your health and energy levels daily?

A fascinating thing that starts to happen as you get into this is the falling away of old habits and food choices. You start to realize that if you take 5-10 minutes to blend up a quick “superfood smoothie”, you’ll feel incredible for hours – and, in fact, likely the whole day! Suddenly, when you’re faced with the option to grab a quick lunch of some fast-food meal with 70+ ingredients you can’t read or understand, you’re aware of the difference in how you might feel. You start to make the choices that lead to this enhanced state of wellbeing – where you have the energy to do what needs to get done, you’re more fun to be around because you’re in a better mood, and everyday just seems to be “one of those great days” :)

This new sense of energy comes from so many individual but connected factors, ranging from eating less of the things that drain your energy in the first place to gentle detoxification of old, stored toxins currently hampering your health, all the way to weight loss and the palpable energy actually in these superfoods. Many, if not all, classified superfoods are alkaline in nature – meaning they help to balance your body’s pH level back into a more neutral state. This is becoming more and more vital as people increasingly become dramatically more acidic (a breeding ground for disease). The other part of the equation that I’ve touched on before is the importance of alkalinity in energy levels. Alkaline blood is healthy, and is better able to carry the red blood cells that deliver the oxygen we need; this, in turn, determines our energy levels throughout the day (or is at least responsible for somewhere around 90% of it).

As your energy skyrockets and disease starts getting stopped in its tracks, you’re also getting re-mineralized. With mineral-deficient soils and foods as the norm, you’ll find that this aspect makes all the difference in the world. And when I say re-mineralization, I don’t just mean your bones and teeth. I’m talking your whole body, which includes your hair, skin and nails, muscle tissue quality, your organs, etc. Just one word of warning: as your body becomes increasingly nourished and revitalized, your mind follows in turn. With an incredible diet comes incredible mental performance, and it has been noted that superfoods in particular can lead to a re-evaluation of values in your life. What’s important to you at any given moment is determined by the state that you’re in…change the state, and you change the game at a fundamental level. The catch? The first move is up to you.

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

==========================================================

==========================================================

Here’s the problem: millions of people are suffering from depression, anxiety, “feeling down” and irregular moods. They just don’t feel like themselves, and as much as they want to be that bright, smiling person for everyone around them, they just don’t feel up to it. Hear me loud and clear: this is a problem that shouldn’t be taken lightly – and that I’d personally like to see solved.

How you feel day-in and day-out, or your “state”, is the single most important factor in terms of the results you’re able to produce in your life. If you feel exhausted and irritable all day, even with great intentions you’ll end up avoiding anything that might “set you off” – in other words, important phone calls you could’ve made, meetings you may have set up with friends or clients, or just being productive at all! Your neurochemistry determines how you feel right now, and this state determines how you interact with both others and yourself. In short? Your state is directly responsible for your decision-making processes.

Enter pharmaceutical drugs. Millions of Americans are turning to heavy anti-depressants and mood-altering drugs to find relief. Do I blame them? Absolutely not. Acknowledging that you’re not acting like yourself and that you’d like to move forward toward change is the exact step that’s needed here. This life is too good to miss, and everyone should be playing all-out with everything they’ve got! With that being said, many people are unaware of healthier and dramatically less expensive alternatives (we’ll explore what’s being called the top alternative in just a moment).

First, let’s get the straight facts on anti-depressants and mood-regulating drugs. The reason many people stop taking anti-depressants is because of the heavy side effects. The most common are sexual side effects (not fun), consistent nausea and fatigue/drowsiness, trouble falling asleep, dizziness or blurred vision, and dry mouth. Some may seem to be worth the advantages in mood enhancement, but are you aware that you can likely bypass all of these side effects entirely? My focus is on the end result or solution – and getting there in the healthiest possible way (it may just happen to be incredibly more cost effective :)

What I’m talking about here is supplementing with 5-HTP. 5-HTP is manufactured in the body from the amino acid tryptophan (usually found in poultry, red meats, nuts, seeds and several other foods), and is the intermediary between tryptophan and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Serotonin is largely responsible for your mood, but also determines the amount of melatonin you have available when the sun goes down (your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep). Because a restless night’s sleep can make your mood and mental performance even worse, regulating serotonin and melatonin levels is essential to breaking the vicious cycle and getting on track (both physically and mentally).

Most popular anti-depressants treat the uptake and regulation of serotonin directly, while some newer and less popular drugs pinpoint other essential neurotransmitters, like norepinephrine and dopamine, to produce different results. What’s important is this: your serotonin levels determine your mood, or “state”, which in turn determines how you interact with others and make decisions throughout the day. The end result you’re looking for is healthy serotonin levels and a healthy mood. Double-blind, placebo-controlled studies verify that supplementing with 5-HTP acts as an anti-depressant and helps regulate serotonin levels far more naturally – likely without the side effects, or with far fewer.

5-HTP is an option you may not have been familiar with, yet the largely untapped potential in mood regulation, treating depression, allowing people to feel good and find relief from anxiety, and fall and stay asleep is refreshing to say the least. It’s my hope that you’ll be better off for being familiar with this information – whether it helps you directly, or indirectly through helping friends and family. Realize we have incredible options at our fingertips…it’s just a matter of looking for them.

[Source] http://www.naturalnews.com/028533_depression_amino_acids.html

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

==========================================================

==========================================================

I felt right at home the second I walked through the door. On one side was a cozy, dim-light cafe and on the other was a loose-leaf herbal shop full of containers with the freshest, most natural herbs around. The shop is called Passiflora in New Hartford, CT and it was the scene of Wednesday’s lunch :)

I couldn’t help but feel reconnected to my passion for  natural health and lifestyle. Here were hundreds of different herbs, each one with its own unique effect on our minds and bodies – and each combination its own as well. When I see people immediately go to the drug store or opt-in for prescription or over-the-counter medications for things like stress, anxiety, sadness, or even the common cold or flu, I have to wonder if they even know about nature’s prescriptions at all. There are thousands and thousands of herbs out there that can give us so many of the results and benefits we’re looking for through chemical creation today. If you’ve been caught up in the system at an unreasonable level, let this serve as a wake up call!

Many people forget that you CAN take herbs for things like sadness and depression. There are certain herbal teas that have been known for ages to boost your mood and happiness – without any of the side effects that can otherwise ruin your life while you stay happily afloat with medications. This can be life changing for someone caught in this vicious cycle, and without the drastic change in personality that so often comes with prescriptions today. But the benefits don’t stop there.

What about daily stress levels? We all know there are millions of people who smoke cannabis regularly for stress relief and/or a significant mood boost. If you’re caught in a discussion with someone proclaiming that natural herbs just aren’t effective and it’s all cultural myths, realize this fact – people are using them in dramatic ways every day…and they are working. However, you don’t have to become illegal just to get your hands on some effective herbs. There are scores of natural remedies for stress and anxiety relief that not only relax your body physically, but help to calm, clear and still your mind. With the pace of much of the world today, that’s becoming all too essential.

One popular tea you can easily find at your local health food store – or even possibly the supermarket – is peppermint tea. Get a high-quality, organic peppermint tea to really feel the effects. Peppermint is an incredibly soothing herb that not only tastes great and leaves you with fresh breath afterwards, but actually relaxes you while leaving you clear-headed. It’s the perfect evening wind-down – and not only is it all-natural, it’ll hardly cost you a thing! Try that compared to prescription medication :)

I’d love to continue both researching and personally experimenting with various herbal remedies (I have peppermint tea all the time, among many others I’m currently trying out). If you’re interested in what I’ve shared above – or other herbal uses you’d love to hear about – please leave me a comment below. Is there anything specific you’d like to know that I could address in a future blog post? Let me know!

Get out there and pick up your own natural herbal remedies today – whether it’s peppermint tea or anything else. Jump into the fascinating world of natural cures and nature’s original prescriptions :)

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts, ideas and opinions on this post!

==========================================================

==========================================================

The benefits of seaweed just keep piling in…have you tried it yet? If you missed the background, kelp would be my #1 pick to get you moving and feeling better in no time. You can look back to past posts for more information on kelp and other healthy seaweeds, but today we’re going to look at some new research on a certain fiber in kelp that helps significantly with weight loss – something many of you have asked for advice with.

According to Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor at Natural News, recent studies at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have identified a specific fiber in kelp that helps the body to absorb less fat…by up to 75%. After testing more than 60 fibers in the laboratory, the research team discovered that alginate (that specific fiber in kelp) actually helps prevent fat uptake and storage in the body vastly more effectively than harmful, over-the-counter, anti-obesity treatments. I hope you heard that clearly – it’s natural, healthy and far more effective than conventional treatments!

People everywhere are desperately turning to the next solution for fat loss – and growing frustrated because the product either doesn’t work, or it works with side effects WORSE than the extra weight itself. Here’s my advice: go natural. Many times the reason for issues with weight control isn’t the actual main food itself; it’s just the additives, preservatives and other miscellaneous chemicals that wreak havoc on your body.

Go from the packaged turkey or chicken with 10-15 ingredients on the label to fresh, organic poultry (with just one ingredient, by the way!). Instead of snacking on a trail mix with 37 ingredients – almost none of which are why you bought it in the first place – buy the fresh, organic nuts, seeds and fruits yourself. Many times it’s these simple changes that will allow you to not only have more health and energy, but also get rid of the blockages to fully being able to control your weight. Your hormones will thank you!

On an ending note, Dr. Brownlee (head of the research time) and his colleagues are now excited to get this research out there and applied in the real world. They see many possibilities in adding this natural fiber into the foods people are already eating on a regular basis. The benefits are two-fold: one, there’s a greater chance of lowering and/or avoiding obesity, and two, consumers get all the benefits of a diet higher in fiber. We know that a diet high in fiber not only helps with blood sugar control, but can aid in weight loss and control, lower LDL cholestrol levels, and even slash the risk of colon cancer. How’s that for a natural fiber found in seaweed?

So where to go from here? Continue making simple, easy switches and pay attention to the ingredient labels on the foods you buy each week. Go simple and go natural, and be easy on yourself. And, if you’re feeling adventurous, add in some seaweed to a smoothie or your favorite dish this week!

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts, ideas and opinions on this post!

==========================================================

==========================================================

If you haven’t heard of meridian tapping or EFT, today’s the day I change your life. People from all over the world are discovering this incredible tool for personal transformation on every level. Emotional blockages like fear of heights, being afraid of spiders/cats/dogs, public speaking, and more are all being cleared and erased…permanently. Still, that’s just the tip of the iceberg – interested?

As you’ll see in the video above, tapping involves the stimulation of the body’s energy channels, or meridians (hence “meridian tapping”). By stimulating these channels while working through emotional blockages and challenges, we’re able to rapidly heal emotional wounds at a core level. I’m sure you’ve seen that for the little things in life, we can often think them out or talk it out with a friend. But what about the bigger challenges? You can talk it out all day long, but in the end it’s still at the forefront of your mind – and, following, your body.

EFT gives us the tool we’re looking for here. One of the quickest ways to try it out and get incredible results is on stress and anxiety; tapping has been proven to be incredibly effective at not only lowering stress in your mind AND body, but actually turning that around into a balanced, neutral state or even genuine happiness! The biggest barrier to meridian tapping isn’t the use of the tool itself, however…it’s you.

I want to ask you a serious question: how open are you to new ideas, tools and paradigms? When you read the words above, when you watch(ed) the video at the top, did your belief system immediately tune out and scream “that’s not possible”? You may consciously want to enjoy the video and research this area more, but your mind may be getting in the way. Why you’re lucky? Because awareness is one of the most powerful tools for personal change. Simply becoming aware of the fact that your mind is experiencing resistance changes everything; it allows you to pursue what you consciously choose to, not what you can currently “believe” based on past experiences.

The world is changing quickly, and with it comes incredible changes in how we live our lives. Meridian tapping is changing the entire paradigm of how we deal with emotions, fears, phobias, physical disease and so much more. It’s my sincere hope that you’re open to this awareness and choosing to follow it down this new path unfolding in front of us.

Please leave your comment below about meridian tapping and EFT, other tools for emotional balance, what you thought about the last few paragraphs above, or anything else related that would be of interest to the community here. It’s these discussions that really get some exciting new information out there!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts, ideas and opinions on this post!

Something you may or may not be aware of is the fascinating field of oxygen therapy that has emerged over the last few decades. Why is it gaining momentum in the health world? While the therapies come in many forms, they all come back to one guiding principle: oxygen kills disease. How can they hold up this bold claim? We know for a fact that most of the harmful organisms in our bodies (many types of viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc) are anaerobic- that is, they don’t breathe oxygen. In fact, oxygen completely kills them off! On the other hand, we’ve found out that many of the beneficial organisms in our bodies actually thrive on oxygen…aerobic organisms. Through our conscious intake of oxygen, we’re actually able to help determine the internal environment of our own bodies, which is where all the action really takes place.

But where do we take this information from here? Do we breathe more deeply? Do we need to get ozone treatments? In fact, oxygen can be derived in a large number of ways, and we can also enhance our ability to absorb the oxygen already available to us. Dramatically improving our health through higher oxygenation doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult in the least if we can take the time to learn more about the process and its roles in the body. The first major point is the one mentioned above, being that oxygen kills off harmful organisms in the body, while allowing beneficial ones to thrive. This alone has huge implications, seeing as anaerobic organisms are responsible for a great deal of the disease and illness we’re seeing more and more of every day!

Another point that really doesn’t get the attention it deserves is the correlation between oxygen and energy levels. It has been said that up to 90% of our energy comes from oxygen! While many take energy for granted or assume it comes only from what we eat or drink, oxygen is in fact our main source of energy. The oxygen we take in allows our minds to function at peak performance, in turn benefiting every bodily process controlled by the powerhouse that is the human mind. In other words, when the brain has access to more oxygen, it can do its job better- and that means it’s better able to build and maintain a strong, healthy, vital body.

At A Glance: Reasons To Up Your Oxygen Intake

–> Increased Energy, Stamina & Endurance
–> Increased Nutrient Uptake (Getting In Vitamins, Minerals, Etc)
–> Better Sleep & Stronger Immune System
–> Enhanced Learning & Concentration
–> Improved Memory & Brain Function
–> Accelerated Healing & Recovery Of The Body
–> Stronger Heart Muscles & Lower Blood Pressure
–> Better Circulation
–> Internal Cleansing Of Toxins & Anaerobic Organisms

The list of benefits can be astounding for something so simple that we often take for granted! Unlike activites such as exercising and stretching, which we consciously choose to do, oxygen is an automatic part of the health equation; we’re always taking in oxygen through breathing and other means, but it’s up to us to take control of that process and get the results we’re after. So we’re back to the question posed earlier: how can we increase the level of oxygen in our bodies?

As it turns out, all exercise increases the flow of oxygen to the brain. That’s one of the main reasons to maintain a consistent, weekly exercise routine- even if it’s just minutes a day, the benefits can be enormous…it’s not all about building muscle! All forms of exercise including yoga, weight training, running, kayaking, and even playfully chasing after the family pet can provide the benefits of oxygenation at some level. Part of the reason for this is the deep breathing caused by exercise, which of course moves more oxygen through the system. This statement reveals yet another way to get more oxygen: deep breathing. By changing from the habit of short, shallow breaths to taking longer, deeper breaths we can completely change our oxygen intake in seconds. Note that both exercise and deep breathing are completely free and take very little time out of our days (we breathe anyway!). These are two great ways to realize the benefits of higher oxygenation.

Exercise and deep breathing aren’t the only ways, however; you may recall the oxygen therapy mentioned at the start of this page. Oxygen therapy is the process of using oxygen in a therapeutic way to help foster good health in the body. While many people have found success in turning to oxygen therapies for healing ailments and disease, even the healthiest of people can benefit as well. For those interested, there are many methods to be explored and certainly some will work for some people, while not for others- it all comes down to what you’re comfortable with and what makes sense to you. Either way, it’s a fascinating field to look into, and certainly for further investigation into this vital aspect of health.

One last thing to be aware of, relating to oxygen, is that not all air is created equal! It’s common sense that the more toxins and pollutants there are in the air, the more work our body has to do to process and eliminate those toxins. The easiest way to maintain radiant health and vitality is to breathe in the highest quality air possible as much as possible. Any wooded area is a great place to be in, even if just for a brief hike, walk or jog; this is mainly because the trees themselves give off more oxygen, but also because these areas are naturally less polluted than the surrounding communities and cities. Trips to the beach and the mountains are also great for getting some oxygen into the system, and it really is fascinating how we tend to do these things instinctively. In short: breathe the best quality air possible and increase the level of oxygen in your body to start seeing some real changes in your life!

Unleash Your Vitality,

– John Brackett

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts, ideas and opinions on this post!