by Anna Hunt, Awareness Junkie

To many people, news and research about the positive effects of superfoods are sufficient motivation to eat healthy. Yet, sometimes we need a stark reminder of the dangers of processed foods to stay on track with our diet goals.

When you go into the grocery story, an overwhelming majority of the foods sold have been altered form their natural state. Typically, this is done to make things more convenient for the consumer.

One can categorize processed foods into groups. First, there are minimally and semi-processed foods. These include frozen vegetables, fruit juice, roasted nuts, white rice, etc. These are typically very similar to natural foods and are most-often an acceptable part of a healthy diet.

The second category are ultra-processed foods. In this category, producers use chemicals, food additives, nitrates, salts, food dyes, etc. in the production of food products. Five of the most-commonly eaten foods in the U.S. are all ultra-processed: sugary soft drinks, cakes and pastries, burgers, pizza, and chips.

Below are three pieces of recent research that emphasize what might happen when your diet consists of too many of these ultra-processed and chemical-ridden foods.

Heavenletter #3935 Published on: September 3, 2011

You are growing in love and wisdom right and left. And the growing is not always easy. Your ego is being wracked right and left, and that is how you grow. Ego is forced to step aside, at least for a while, and you see yourself rising to the sun. You did not get burned. Your ego did.

Ego doesn't go up in flames without a fight. I talk about ego as though you have no responsibility for it. Never mind, you are learning to get along without it or without so much of it.

You are really beginning to learn that there are no affronts to you, only to your ego. Oh, beloveds, think of what it will be when ego no longer pesters you and gets the best of you and when you stand above it. Picture yourself standing tall, ego on the floor beneath, and with your foot on ego, you keep it down. Now ego submits to you, instead of your submitting to ego. Now you have risen, and you are vaulting across the Universe knowingly with Me.

by Jessie Klassen

An easy exercise to develop communication skills with Nature

-excerpt from “The Sapling”

Nature has lessons for those who listen, and communicating, interacting, and listening to Nature is easier than we think. Infact, it’s natural for us to do so.

This exercise is great for children and adults alike.

Science has proven that trees can talk to one another, but just in a different way than we can. Old trees help seedlings, and healthy trees will help sick trees to recover.

Resource sharing happens all through the forest. This is why it is so important to honour and respect all plant life, no matter where they are in their life cycle, because they all play a very important role.

Nature is also aware and sensitive to our feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Trees are able to sense our energy and communicate with us, as long as we are open to the possibility.

This article was written by Ali Le Vere for Greenmedinfo.com. It’s republished here with their permission. For more information from Greenmedinfo, you can sign up for the newsletter here.

When people come to me for holistic health advice, my main objective is to provide evidence-based health information supported by the scientific literature. One of the quintessential pillars of my mission is to share those practices with empirical validation in order to elevate therapeutic nutrition to the same perceived mainstream legitimacy as any other science-based discipline.

Oftentimes, however, people thank me and say that they will see what their primary care physician, or worse yet, their specialist, has to say about it. Although I always advocate that you run any intervention or modality past a licensed physician for contraindications and medical advice, I can’t help but flat-out cringe when they tell me they will solicit natural health advice from their allopathic doctor, due to the shortcomings of biomedical education in true lifestyle- and diet-based preventative medicine.