GOVERNMENTS HELPING TO GROW FOOD GARDENS FOR PUBLIC USE ON PUBLIC LAND

This is one of the greatest ideas I've heard in the last years:

There are a few local governments across the US who thought of giving public land a better use. Check it out HERE. They thought, if we own some public land, why don't we give it a public benefit use? Why don't we create public gardens maintained by volunteers in which we can grow fruits and vegetables and let anybody partake of those foods? Homeless people can come anytime and get a fresh, healthy piece of fruit or vegetable while looking for a job, instead of having to ask for money to eat all day long. Working people can take a break from their jobs and just enjoy some fresh air while eating a just about picked apple, instead of the unhealthy and heavily processed fast food meal most Americans choose for those breaks...

I see a country changing with initiatives like this one. I see a healthier country, a more productive country. I see people spending money on important things instead of degrading ones. I see a government that cares about people instead of monetary interest, and serves people and not corporations. I see communities getting closer to each other, growing together.

GROWING YOUR OWN GARDEN AND STORING FOOD

There is something I didn't include on my WORD OF WISDOM post, and it is about growing your own garden and storing food. This is part of the Word of Wisdom as well, as been counseled by the prophets, but now it is under danger of being banned by the government. I want to start with a quote from President Spencer W. Kimball:

"The Lord has urged that his people save for the rainy days, prepare for the difficult times, and put away for emergencies, a year’s supply or more of bare necessities so that when comes the flood, the earthquake, the famine, the hurricane, the storms of life, our families can be sustained through the dark days. We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard. Even those residing in apartments or condominiums can generally grow a little food inpots and planters. Study the best methods of providing your own foods. Make your garden as neat and attractive as well as productive. If there are children in your home, involve them in the process with assigned responsibilities.

CAFE JANAE

Thank you all for visiting my blog, and specially for making my post about the WORD OF WISDOM so popular, it's truly a pleasure for me to be able to spread the word about this amazingly Godly law.

Well, today I want to talk about the importance of learning how to use wholesome, raw, and nutritious ingredients to make amazingly tasty meals. A great source of inspiration is Janae A. Devika, a raw food and whole food chef in the Utah area and owner of CAFE JANAE. She is so concerned about health in our society that she offers these free introductory classes on how to prepare great, tasty, meals and desserts made with only raw and full of life ingredients like different kinds of nuts, raw honey, fruits, etc. Go to her website and sign up for updates on those classes and many other things she offers.

THE FORGOTTEN WORD OF WISDOM

"A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels" Proverbs 1:5 and also: "...seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith" D&C 88:118

So in order to follow this counsel, I've been thinking for a while now, that I wanted to share my personal thoughts on the word of wisdom with all my friends that believe in it, that believe it was God given. I repeat, they are my personal views from all I have been able to study! So let's move on...

"The Word of Wisdom", for those of you that have never heard of it, was a revelation given by God to the LDS prophet Joseph Smith, the person known to have been the instrument in the hands of the Lord to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this latter dispensation, or in other words, in recent times, after it was lost. This revelation was given on February 27, 1833 in Kirtland, Ohio, and I'm going to share a few parts from it (for the complete revelation go HERE).

CACAO

Cacao, cocoa, or raw chocolate, is the second SUPERFOOD in the list. What? Chocolate is healthy? Really? Yes, and no. Cacao is healthy in its raw form, and I will list all the properties it has in just a minute, but the commercial chocolate we can buy at the normal grocery store is not healthy, in fact is very unhealthy, for many reasons.

First of all, commercial chocolate is just a reflection of chocolate, since most of those products at the store only have a very low percentage of cacao on them...so the higher the percentage, the less unhealthy the product is. Second, the way they prepare commercial chocolate kills the majority of the properties of cacao. They follow a roasted, boiled, heated, process that eliminates almost all the good properties of cacao. Third, all those products, come with their share of unhealthy additives, preservatives, and empty calorie ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, and many other "bad stuff". So if you ever had any hopes that I was gonna tell you that your usual chocolate candy bar you have everytime you visit your favorite insurance agent (inside joke), or everytime you wait for your car to get washed, or anytime you open your pantry and think nobody is watching...then you're gonna have to wake up from your dreams, cause they are NOT healthy!

THINK ABOUT IT!

Today, my beautiful wife Janeen and our daughter Annabelle, left me alone for their monthly girl Munoa lunch, and I decided I should go to the movies, since it's an almost impossible task having Annabelle with us.

However, after the movie, I took my electric VECTRIX scooter to pay a visit to the antique stores in downtown Provo to browse for a new book shelve for my disorganized office full of books. On my way there, I thought I had to find a place to have lunch, since Janeen was already enjoying her own one. I decided to look for a healthy place to stop by and grab something, but I wanted to find a new place, since we always visit the same 3 of 4 restaurants that are relatively healthy in the Provo/Orem area. So there I was, enjoying my scooter drive on a beautiful sunny fall day, trying to find a place to nutritiously feed myself. Now, I come from a scientific background, and I'm used to pretty difficult problem solving, but I gotta tell you, finding a healthy restaurant nowadays is an impossible task! I kept on looking and looking, but all I saw was the same kinds of chain restaurants, with a slightly different name tag, but with the same menu.

GOJI BERRIES

Well, a few of you have begged me not to take so much time in between posts, and I'm trying to leave my writing laziness behind and move my butt in order to enlighten you with the most precious knowledge there is about food.

We are talking about Goji Berries today, which makes number one SUPERFOOD in many health nut books. These are consider fruit, and there is an estimated eighty-five species of them or more just in North and Central America. They were supposed to be brought by people who migrated from Asia, but you never know. These berries, because of the strength and nutrients they possess, they easily adapt to different kinds of environments, desserts, tropical, and freezing winters areas. It has been grown by Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan people for an estimated five thousand years.

SUPERFOODS

There are different kinds of foods:

1. BAD FOODS: These are the foods that not only they don't help you get nourished but actually corrupt your body with poisons, toxins, excitotoxins, empty calories, and substances that interrupt the normal functioning of your digestive and physiological system, cell metabolism and wellbeing. They shouldn't even be considered foods and they should be vanished from the market. Unfortunately, they have control over the food industry and are present in people's everyday's lives, and hence the reason for all important autoimmune diseases that affect us nowadays (Cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, etc.). These foods can be found at pretty much any chain restaurant (with a few exceptions), some other restaurants that are not part of a chain, all processed foods we find at the supermarket, especially those that include high fructose corn syrup, refined sugars and flours, other products that have been sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and other products to increase production and durability in an unnatural way, and of course all GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms), like many of the corn and soy products that are not organic.

OBESITY

35% of Americans are obese, and 65% are overweight. These astounding statistics are terrifying since obesity should be a rare thing; and actually, up until about 100 years ago, it was. So what has changed in the last century that has made us be so unhealthy, with autoimmune disease percentages increasing every year, cardiovascular disorders killing millions of people, and all kinds of symptoms attacking the population as if it was the normal thing to have headaches, sinus infections, allergies, insomnia, etc.?

People have to start wondering what has changed in the las decades that has provoked such a horrible state of health, especially in this nation. Really, what do you think? I wanna know your opinion! If you are still wondering, I'm going to suggest a couple of things or more:

FASTING

Fasting is the oldest remedy to cure yourself from diseases, and even better, to prevent yourself from getting sick.
Our bodies retain a fair amount of toxins since we are born, and because we eat all the time, and do other things our bodies need to work on, it cannot focus solely in the process of eliminating those toxins. We can detoxify our bodies through our diet, but even that is not as effective as fasting.
Water fasting, is the process in which a person eats nothing accompanied by drinking a good amount of water throughout the day, at least half your size in ounces, as I mentioned in my last post: "WATER".
For people not used to fasting, I recommend starting to fast twice a month for 24 hours. Then you can start fasting once a week from 24 to 36 hours, and when your body gets used to it, and has cleansed part of your toxins, you can continue fasting once a week and then every two or three months do a 3 to 4 days fasting.
The preparation and closing of the fasting is as important as the fasting itself, because if you don't prepare your body with good foods before starting the fast it won't be as effective, and if you don't break your fast with the right foods your body can get loaded of new toxins and big discomfort can take place instead of peace, relaxation, and the feeling of being clean.

WATER

Water is the essential constituent of life, and the primary stuff we are made of. We need water! But how much? The minimum amount we should be drinking a day would be half our weight in ounces, in other words, if I weight 200lbs, then I should be drinking 100 ounces of water a day as the minimum amount.
Without enough water our body reaches a state of dehydration in which one or more physiological functions are sacrificed, therefore we feel fatigue, discomfort, and eventually we become "sick".
Signs of dehydration are not so obvious if we are not used to drink a lot of water. Whenever our mouths are dry is already too late and we are in a more advanced state of dehydration.

WELCOME!

Welcome all!!
This is the AMCNutrition blog.
My name is Angel M. Cicero, and I'm a Health and Nutritional Coach.
I got my Bachelors of Science in Physics at Utah State University, and a Masters of Science in Renewable Energies at the Universidad Europea de Madrid.