Instead of giving children drugs, why don't we give them all a Newfoundland puppy?

No child has a deficiency of Adderall but many children can most certainly have a deficiency of the neurotransmitter Dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical messenger in the brain that creates focus, initiative and drive. ADHD and ADD are low-Dopamine syndromes. Dopamine deficiency can be caused by emotional or physical trauma as well as by a diet low in animal proteins and dairy products or alcohol and drug use coupled with a low-protein diet. B Vitamin deficiency can also be a contributing factor to low-Dopamine syndromes as microwaved foods are depleted of B Vitamins during the cooking process and many children today are fed almost entirely from the microwave. B Vitamins are an essential dietary co-factor to Dopamine production.

Alcohol consumption washes B Vitamins out of the system and teenagers experimenting with alcohol are at a very high risk for Dopamine deficiency. RX Drugs can work if administered properly but why administer drugs to children and young adults that deplete their systems of available Dopamine which is how these drugs work? Adderall and Ritalin work by using the body’s available stores and do not actually put any Dopamine back into the system. Crystal Meth works exactly the same way.

If a child is exhibiting symptoms of low-Dopamine then there is already a deficiency and drugs will not fix this and in fact will further deplete already limited stores. Once the available Dopamine runs out, the child associates using the RX drugs with the feel-good focus they provided and addiction ensues. This is why people “crash” on RX and recreational drugs alike: because the drugs deplete them of Dopamine that they were already low on in the first place! The best way to address a Dopamine deficiency is with food: Meat, Wheat and Dairy to be specific as these are the best dietary substances for providing a human with adequate supplies of Dopamine; nothing else puts it into our bodies, certainly not stimulants.

Providing a supportive, loving environment that speaks openly and honestly about the mental and physical health risks of alcohol and drug use will also prevent the use and abuse of RX and recreational drugs. Use and abuse of RX and recreational drugs can ultimately lead to suicide in at risk teens because of the chemical imbalance that using creates. Making sure that children and young adults have homemade food (not microwaved) might also help tremendously. We have to stop drugging our children into a chemical imbalance and start feeding them the foods that put Dopamine back into their systems. A great place to start is by first understanding how neurotransmitters work and then learning how to replenish them naturally with the foods we eat.

Articles referenced:

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijped/2010/767318/

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/89/3/940S.short

http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/14/2276.short

I had the great pleasure of tagging along this year at the National Western Stock Show in Denver with some Wagyu beef farmers. Wagyu is a type of beef that has its origins in Japan. The cattle are extremely docile and slightly smaller than American cattle. One of the many benefits of Wagyu cattle are that they produce excellent meat on a diet of mostly grass.

My favorite part of the event was seeing how well all of the cattle were treated, not just the Wagyu. When I first started writing my book, the focus was strictly on diet and nutrition. The more research I did, the more I found out about how well most farmers treat their animals and how all cows eat grass…contrary to popular belief.

Farms and farming are the backbone of America. No farms, no food. Raising cattle for food is an honorable and time honored profession. I saw hundreds of cows in Denver and all were treated with kindness and respect. Beef is a human’s most nutritious food and is a very important aspect to both physical and mental well being.

The next time you have a cheeseburger, rest assured that cow was treated with kindness and respect. This summer, go see for yourself at your local county fair how animals are really treated and don’t forget to thank a farmer because you would not be here without them.

First day back at the gym 2013!

When I first moved to Austin, Texas in 1994, I had the great privilege of living walking distance from an Austin original: Big Steve’s Gym. Big Steve was a real person, probably 62 or 63 at the time and still lifted weights everyday. The gym was a dive and also known as the local “Gay” gym which I didn’t really catch on to for  several years. In addition to being way divey and way cool, Big Steve’s was notorious for “Juicing” which again, a fact I was quite oblivious to.

The only exercise that was a part of my life immediately prior to joining Big Steve’s was cleaning horse stalls and at this time I was still a vegetarian. The guys at the gym would point out (not too politely) how soft around the middle, thighs and backside I was and suggested I try eating nothing but plain oatmeal, egg whites and chicken breasts. They also showed me some cool weight lifting moves, you know, the ones that are excellent for giving gay men great bodies. How lucky can a girl get?

There were never any women in Big Steve’s Gym  so I was left with no other option but to hire a male competitive bodybuilder as a personal trainer and worked out with him three times a week for six months. He taught me an upper body workout and a lower body workout both of which I still use today and have used on and off for the past 19 years. When he suggested that I start juicing in order to compete I said “No thanks.” and gave him the boot but kept going to the gym religiously because by then, I was hooked.

I made the switch from vegetarianism to eating meat right around the time I started going to the gym. My trainer told me I would have to start eating chicken breasts but the decision was really made after reading an article in Outside Magazine on triathlete Mark Allen. In the article Mr. Allen confessed to ditching vegetarianism citing: “No one was looking!” while training in New Zealand and told how after he started eating beef he began winning. I immediately began eating organic filet mignon and lots of raw salmon and oysters. I don’t remember eating chicken but I did eat bacon, eggs and cheese as well as cream of wheat, rice and pasta. I do remember that the Atkins Diet was huge in Austin then and Big Steve’s was home to some local celebrities who swore by Atkins. I did give up bread and sweets but ate plenty of sushi rice and baked potatoes. I noticed people who followed the Atkin’s diet had terrible breath and it wasn’t just from the Camel’s they  were smoking in between sets.

My new diet gave me tons of energy and I magically found the stamina  to start horseback riding lessons 5 times a week : 3 dressage and two jumping at the ripe old age of 25. Weight lifting had given me the confidence and the strength to start riding regularly after having been a horse groom for 7 years. I also started biking and running again and once the cardio kicked in the fat just melted off. Finally I had the beautiful body that I always wanted! It seemed like overnight I turned into a Goddess and was cast in the first of several TV commercials, won a Hawaiian tropic contest, signed with a talent agency and had a Playboy scout chase me down in a restaurant. My whole life changed for the better and it seemed like everything was really coming together until…..HIM. I met a vegetarian rock star who was into Ashtanga Yoga and decided maybe I should become a vegetarian again…..and teach yoga. Never listen to anyone, especially a man, who says they do yoga while holding a glass of white wine in one hand and a Marlboro Light in the other. Never.

Let’s just say I went from being a rising star to a falling meteor in a matter of months. I don’t know how much any of you may or may not know about a Rock-N-Roll lifestyle but my experience with it was basically the first circle of hell. It was a 360 from the incredibly healthy-and happy life that I had been living up until that point. I won’t bore you with the details but drugs, alcohol and very late nights are what we are talking about people, not to mention the fact that staying in bed until noon is derigueur. Staying in bed till noon is not my thing, at least not on a regular basis. Riding four horses before 11 am is, thanks.

I have never been very good at being cool even though I desperately wanted to yet the Rock-N-Roll lifestyle was really not my scene. I kept thinking everyone I was hanging out with would wake up and want to ride a bike or go for a run but NOOOO…Thank goodness working with horses pulled me out of the lifestyle  to some degree even though sadly I had already compromised my mental and physical health terribly in a very short period of time.

Unfortunately the damage was done and I eventually decided to leave horse riding and become a yoga teacher because this was a “Cool” thing to do. This of course is when my life wasn’t just going badly but was turning into an EPIC FAIL. There is nothing positive to say about my experiences teaching yoga and being a personal trainer in Boulder, Colorado including the fact that I have never known so many people to drink so much tequila and still be able to get up and ride their bikes 100 miles the next morning. One of the gyms I worked at required their employees to drink beer with the patrons once a week.  Required them not to drink carrot juice with them, but to drink BEER.

Living and working in Boulder as a fitness professional wasn’t all that different from having a rock-n-roll lifestyle except the music people listen to in Boulder is bloody awful, they would rather hut ski than have sex and as a woman you are not allowed to look hot. Drinking beer  while simultaneously playing the banjo and climbing a fourteener is considered a good first date but whatever you do, DO NOT dress sexy as a single woman on a Friday night because obviously you are a prostitute, duh. People in Boulder don’t find cleavage attractive, they find veins popping out of your arms when rock climbing attractive. Hut skiing?!?! A dozen smelly people in a cabin during a blizzard…playing a banjo? I’ll take hot water, my own bed , a good book and a razor to shave my legs with, thanks.

The bottom line is this: Being a fitness professional was neither fun nor healthy. Extreme dieting is as fashionable amongst fitness professionals as extreme sports are and in all honesty, I was a grand champion at starving myself into extreme sick and crazy. When the depression and OCD became unbearable after 3 years on a mostly raw food diet, I had to find a way  out and to feel better. The way out was of course, drum roll please, a cheeseburger. Wheat, meat and dairy showed me the way and Hallelujah! I have been saved ever since. May I never go hungry on a vegan/raw food diet again! Don’t worry, I won’t. You can quote me on that one because frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn about fad diets and fashionable eating disorders.

The picture I posted above was taken earlier in the day today. This is me with my post-Christmas belly on. In the past 36 hours I have eaten: Half a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies, homemade Pho soup, a cabbage and chicken salad with papaya poppy seed dressing, a coca cola, a cheese omelet, a pancake with butter and real maple syrup, 2 sausage links, a huge bowl of oatmeal, coffee with milk and enough honey to give a honeybee diabetes, a huge glass of orange juice, an enormous amount of camembert cheese with an equally enormous helping of french bread, a double Good Times cheeseburger with a small fresh cut fries, a soft boiled egg, steamed greens and two pieces of white bread with full fat cream cheese and jelly. All wheat, all full fat dairy and nothing sugar free. Ole!

Eat Meat, Wheat, Dairy and Be Happy!

I care more about the way I feel than the way I look which is why I choose to eat meat.

One of the tag lines we have become accustomed to hearing in association with vegan and raw food diets is the whole “Feel and Look Sexy on a Vegan Diet!” HA! I have to say that while on a raw food/vegan diet my feelings were decidedly un-sexy. The depression and anxiety I was experiencing during that time was excruciating. Who cares about beautiful skin and being a size zero if you can’t stop crying!!

We have to look at the “Whole system” as Dr. Temple Grandin says. Our emotions are made of animal proteins literally and this is how humans have evolved over several hundred years. The early part of the 20th century is referred to as “Dopaminergic” because of greater quantities and access to life enriching red meat and pork products. The concept of “Romantic Love” as we know it evolved out of a more nutritious diet including animal proteins and feelings of empathy and compassion derive directly from the essential amino acids found in greatest quantities animal proteins.

Why be sexy and skinny if you don’t have a moral and conscientious backbone to back it up? Beauty is as beauty does and the truth about beauty is that we are only as beautiful as we feel. The short term benefits of rapid weight loss and healthy skin do not outweigh the long term emotional benefits of sufficient quantities of dopamine and serotonin. A lack of dopamine creating meat and dairy products in the system contributes to the development of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases in later life as well as ADHD and Impulse Control Issues for adolescents. A lack of serotonin creating animal proteins in the system contributes to depression, anxiety and insomnia as well as to anger issues, violence and inappropriate sexual behaviors. Serotonin is the “Pro-Social” neurotransmitter that encourages loving behaviors such as monogamy and pair bonding and calms us down with it’s self control inducing properties. we make better lifestyle choices with sufficient quantities of serotonin floating around our brains and in our bodies.

As we look in the mirror, don’t forget to look inside. How do you feel? Putting our feelings first allows us to shine from the inside. Don’t ignore science when making dietary choices. Science is clear: Humans are better people because we eat meat, not in spite of the fact.

My horse never argues with me about her diet, she is happy to have sugar cubes as treats!

This morning while walking the dog, one of my neighbors who is quite overweight shared with me how she fell off her Vegan diet over the Holidays due to a steak and lobster birthday dinner before Christmas. When I suggested that she try walking an hour a day she immediately went into a tirade about how she CAN’T possibly walk that much. So I suggested two 30 minute walks…this was met with much vocal resistance as well…

She and I have already discussed how serotonin is the only dietary substance that shuts the appetite off and that the best way for a human to acquire sufficient quantities of serotonin is from consuming animal proteins and cooked carbohydrates. We have also talked about how all humans have evolved from eating animal proteins and how eliminating animal proteins from the diet can wreck havoc on our dietary aspirations as well as our mental health because without it, we can’t possibly turn the appetite off and how low serotonin causes depression, insomnia, anxiety, weight gain and even suicide.

She went on to elaborate on how the Vegan diet works and she is the one who messed up so it’s not the diet’s fault but hers. This is where I would have liked to have asked her: “Well is it working for  you NOW?” But I did not. I did make the mistake though of suggesting that she might be arguing for her limitations by defending all of the reasons she is overweight instead of doing something differently. Oh boy. I really got an earful then! Low Serotonin City is where she is apparently happy living and wo be to those who suggest otherwise. I chose not to inform her that irritability is the number one symptom of low serotonin, ahem.

There are attainable answers to our problems including our weight gain and loss issues. What is surprising though is how most people tend to guard their limitations so tightly, becoming fiercely protective when a simple change that might help matters is pointed out to them. People in general tend to become defensive when you point something out to them that they know to be true yet have no intention of changing. This “changing” is also known as “Leaving your comfort zone” and let’s face it, that’s the only place where change happens. You can not keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result including staying stuck in patterns surrounding dietary habits, weight loss, addiction issues and depression.

I remember being a 23 year old, slightly chunky, quite depressed vegetarian who lacked any sort of ambition or self discipline. Life sucked. I was very unhappy. Nothing was working. I looked at myself in the mirror one day and then looked at a Victoria’s Secret catalog then looked back in the mirror. I then looked myself straight in the eyes and said aloud: “I want to look like that.”  My motivation was to be feminine and attractive and for me that decision was the beginning of everything in my life starting to change for the better.

I had to let go of all of my vegetarian, slightly chunky, marijuana smoking friends since they were happy being unhappy and start exercising instead of hanging out with them eating cheetos. I took a 6 week intensive ballet class and then began Mountain bike/training racing and Triathlon training/racing finding to my surprise success at both. My new found confidence (and self esteem coupled with a small bottom and shapely triceps) gave me  the courage to leave the East Coast and drive to Texas in order to take a job training horses, my life’s dream come true. With a constant commitment to health and well being over the next two years, I developed a Victoria’s Secret body and today, almost twenty years later , still have one. Go team lasting change.

When my life fell apart 6 years ago and I almost died on a Vegan diet, I realized that the life I had been living as a vegetarian was not working but understood innately that I did have the power to change it. The decision that had been made several years prior to go back to a vegetarian diet had affected my health so adversely that I had to stop working with horses (because I kept fainting while riding!) was not working. It was time to stop defending my limitations and realize that change needed to take place. The realization that I had lost my body and my happiness was not any fun, I was miserable. And this misery was all because  of following trendy nutritional advice given in popular diet books that insisted on the elimination of animal proteins…in order to be thin and beautiful…which I had been…until I became a vegetarian again.  Huh?

Going back to vegetarianism had taken me farther away from the life I had originally desired and had been steering me in a direction that I most decidedly did not find to be enjoyable, satisfying or productive. The low serotonin state that the absence of all animal proteins had left me in was causing me to make poor social choices and these choices were resulting in unhappy, drama filled relationships with individuals who had substance abuse issues. I found myself treating my ongoing and ever present anxiety and depression with alcohol and marijuana along with the unhappy, codependent relationships as a chaser. Oh joy!! Once I figured out that the vegan/meat free diet was ruining my health and causing me to throw my good sense (and frontal lobe) down the drain, I took the initiative to stop starving myself and instead looked for answers to my emotional and physical problems in my diet . I did this by reincorporating plain, old, boring, normal food. Go figure.

As soon as I started eating meat, wheat and dairy again I felt better. The motivation when I first lost weight and changed my body in my early 20′s was to feel better and to be beautiful so I worked backward and started there. I set some goals, incorporated strategies that worked and got my body, my happiness and my life back on track. I overcame inertia and initiated change by first learning about the importance of eating animal proteins: how tyrptophan makes serotonin and how serotonin makes happiness.

By eating all of the meat, wheat and dairy that I wanted and by ignoring all of the hip and happening, cool diet advice I was able to get both my body and mind back to a happy place. Doing my own research into the science of nutrition made me aware of how I and so many others have been sold some pretty big vegetarian myths for a very long time. These myths were  not just affecting our physical health but our mental health as well. Prozac and Red Wine had become the solutions for problems caused by a lack of meat, wheat and dairy. It seemed as if all of the books were encouraging women to take the drunken, medicated path rather than the butter, brie and cheeseburger path. Why wasn’t there a book out there that told the truth about food???

While writing my book, I found out some basic truths about food and nutrition: Humans need to eat meat, wheat and dairy every day. We need some form of animal protein and a cooked carbohydrate as part of a healthy, normal diet in order to live a happy, healthy, normal life. No food group elimination is necessary unless a food ingested causes a persons throat to close and the need for an Epi pen. Period. I found out quickly that it wasn’t just my physical and emotional health that changed for the better when I ate normal food but my social life changed rapidly as well. We are who we surround ourselves with and that is a pretty basic truth. Our peer group provides us with emotional nutrition, choose wisely.

My past athletic success’s were my Northern Star so I stayed away from people who were (and still are) unhappily sitting on barstools being bitter, drunk and ironic while simultaneously starving themselves into depression and ill health on the latest elimination diet. I love exercise and have lots of energy so why ruin feeling good and my physical appearance with booze and late nights? I know, all of the cool people are doing it but why end up going to an early grave by being popular? Cool is not for me and neither is the low-serotonin state brought on by denying the body of proteins and drowning ones sorrows with controlled substances and excessive use of alcohol. Happy, healthy and beautiful is how I choose to live my life  and that is and will now always be the life  I insist on living with others. No exceptions.

So it does make me a little sad when I talk to people who defend their limitations and stick with what’s not working. By continuing to do what does not work we only reinforce the limiting belief that the power to change lays outside of ourselves and not from within. We all have the power to change for the better and a nutritious diet that includes animal proteins provides the raw materials needed to biochemically do so. What are your motivations? Can you set some goals based on those motivations? What is your strategy for accomplishing those goals? Start there. Stay positive, and if your like me, grab a copy of Victoria’s Secret and head to the gym. Make sure you have a cheeseburger after the gym though…the serotonin found in a cheeseburger creates positivity and serotonin will most certainly will help you achieve your goals!

For beautiful skin and hair at any age eat plenty of fruits and vegetables...along with steak and potatoes.

The warm, delicious and yummy facts about food include this simple truth: we need it all. Animal proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables are all essential to the human diet. We discussed in the “Food Serves Two Purposes” blog entry about how protein is the perfect nutritional source for cellular replenishment and repair and how carbohydrates create glucose which is the substance that is the body’s preferred energy source. Can the body use protein for energy? Sure in a starvation or fasting situation. This is called ketosis and was what my cardiologist told me was happening when my heart condition was first diagnosed; he told me that my body was eating my heart muscle because of the lack of animal proteins in my diet at the time and because the Raw Food/Vegan diet I was following restricted the intake of cooked carbohydrates.

So now that we know how and why meat and carbohydrates are essential to the human diet, what about fruits and vegetables? Vegetables are every bit as important to humans as meat and carbohydrates due to their potassium, magnesium and folic acid content. Potassium and magnesium are electrolytes and are responsible for our heart rate and are often found occurring together naturally in the food we eat. Blood pressure is a measurement of how much potassium is in the blood as compared to sodium. Blood is water based not fat based and potassium is the element that binds water to blood. The more potassium you have, the more water  your blood contains and the lower your blood pressure is because your blood is more fluid. The less potassium you have, the thicker the blood hence  the term “high blood pressure” because the heart has to work harder to move the blood around the body.

Magnesium is a nutritional co-factor to serotonin production and is found in greatest nutritional quantities occurring in leafy, green vegetables such as chard, kale and spinach. magnesium is also responsible for soothing the myelin nerve sheaths. What does that mean in normal speak? Magnesium reduces pain from headaches and other muscle aches and in fact, headaches and muscular tension can be and are often caused by a lack of magnesium in the diet.

Vitamin C is responsible, along with iron, for collagen production which effects both the skin and hair. A lack of vitamin C in the diet can cause premature aging and inhibit the healing process throughout the body due to inflammation and abrasions as well as even more serious injuries like puncture wounds, limb trauma and post-op incisions. Citrus fruits not only contain the greatest quantities of Vitamin C but are also extremely high in potassium and in some case Folic acid.

Folic acid is a B vitamin that was first concentrated by the greatest nutritional scientist of our time, Roger J. Williams. Dr. Williams laboratory discovered and compounded more vitamins and their variants that any other laboratory in the world. In fact Linus Pauling replaced him at  Oregon State  when Dr. Williams was awarded his own institute at the University of Texas at Austin. Folic acid is responsible for baby’s being born birth defect free. The amount of folic acid circulating in the mothers blood stream weeks before conception can make the difference between a healthy pregnancy and the development of birth defects in utero. Folic acid deficiency causes more birth defects than any other nutritional deficiency. Even though Folic acid is found in sufficient quantities in animal proteins it was named after “Foli-age” because it is so highly concentrated in leafy greens.

Magnesium, Folic Acid and Vitamin C are all considered to be the least toxic of nutritional supplements and can be safely supplemented with vitamins by following FDA guidelines. What is important to note here though is that these nutrients have been found to have a more beneficial effect on our health when consumed as foods. They are also all water soluble which means that they are easily lost in the cooking process. Leafy green vegetables should never be cooked longer than three minutes and NEVER microwaved as microwave cooking can quickly leach out valuable nutrients. Fruit should always be eaten raw in order to gain the greatest nutritional benefits from vitamin C and potassium.

So wether you are having steamed spinach, chard or kale with your steak and potatoes, know that you are doing your heart and your blood pressure , skin and hair a great service!

Homemade Vietnamese Buns on the way!

A carbohydrate is defined as any food that turns to glucose in your stomach. Pasta, rice, potatoes, bread and sweets all turn to glucose when eaten. Glucose is blood-sugar that is stored in the liver as glycogen and is the main source of energy for the body and the brain. Glucose creates a substance called ATP, adenosine triphosphate. ATP fuels neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, and transports proteins as well as conducts electrical impulses. The availability of glucose is important when it comes to our emotions, decision making and impulse control. Our brain  uses  ATP as fuel and needs a constant supply and will only use protein as a fuel source when the body is lacking in glucose. The brain prefers to use glucose as an energy source over protein which is one of the many reasons carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy diet.

One of the things we know about carbohydrate derived glucose is that it works better with proteins than other types of sugars such as mannose, sucrose, fructose and lactose. Studies have shown that the addition of glucose to proteins is often essential to their function. This process is called: glycosylation. Simply put: it is just as important to eat carbohydrates as it is to eat proteins and their is no valid nutritional reason to eliminate either of them from your diet.