Is Anxiety Is Draining Your Brain?

 It doesn’t have to. Here’s help

By Markham Heid

How’s this for unfair: Women are twice as likely to suffer from anxiety disorders than men are, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. And to top it off, new research finds that those frequent bouts of worrying may be making it hard for your brain to complete even the simplest of tasks.

10 Silent Signals You’re Stressed

It’s no secret that feeling anxious isn’t exactly enjoyable, but Michigan State University researchers wanted to find out exactly what goes on inside an anxious brain. They asked 149 men and women who suffer from anxiety to complete a series of puzzles, while tracking the electrical activity in their brains.

 The results: Although men and women performed equally well on the simple puzzles, women’s brains were much more active. Later, when the puzzles became more difficult, the women performed worse than their male counterparts.

13 Little Ways To Be Less Anxious 

Why? The researchers speculate that the energy used up on simple tasks robbed the anxious women of the brainpower needed to complete more difficult tasks. In other words, although your brain is technically an organ, it mimics a muscle in that it can be worn down by too much work. And, like carrying around an extra 10-pound weight, anxiety makes everything your brain does more difficult. 

But not to worry; you can learn to get a handle on your anxiety with a few easy tips:

Control your breathing. Although you’ve probably been told to breathe deeply when trying to calm down, the opposite is actually true, says Alicia Meuret, PhD, a psychologist and anxiety specialist at Southern Methodist University. “Deep breaths worsen hyperventilation and anxiety-associated symptoms such as shortness of breath and a racing heart,” she says. So how should you breathe? Slowly and shallowly, Dr. Meuret recommends. Try to take in as little air as possible, keeping in the oxygen for a second or two before exhaling, she advises. This will keep your body’s supply of circulating carbon dioxide at its proper level, which will calm you down, she says.

 Which Type Of Anxious Are You?

 Try an easy meditation technique. Learn to trigger your body’s “relaxation response,” says Herbert Benson, MD, director of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Repeat a relaxing mantra or think about a place that makes you feel calm,” Dr. Benson says. This type of simple meditation has been shown to reduce both anxiety and stress, according to a study from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.

 See more green. Researchers at Kansas State University found that hospital patients who kept green plants in their rooms reported reduced levels of pain and anxiety, and had lower blood pressure. Plus, dozens of studies have shown similar correlations between exposure to nature and reduced stress and anxiety.

Read more: http://www.prevention.com/health/health-concerns/toll-anxiety-takes-womens-brains#ixzz1zH5l79dl

5 Signs You've Had Too Much Caffeine

You may love caffeine’s feel-good effects, but overdosing can harm your physical and mental health. Here’s how to tell if you’re overdoing it

You know you’re a caffeine addict when your eyes won’t open before you’ve taken your first sip of morning Joe, or if your co-workers call you “Crabby” when you skip your afternoon Diet Coke. While the best part of waking up may indeed be Folgers in your cup, being over-caffeinated may also be harmful. “Studies have found that some caffeine can improve mental acuity and performance throughout the day, but too much caffeine can negatively impact your mood, energy, and even health,” says Erin Palinski, RD, CDE, CPT, who has a private practice in New Jersey.

 Enjoying a latte probably won’t hurt you, and may even have surprising health benefits such as lowering your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Just keep in mind that—as with most delicious things in life—it is possible to have too much of a good thing.

“Some research has linked high doses of coffee to infertility and increased risk of hip fractures in older women,” says Keri M. Gans, MS, RD, CDN and author of The Small Change Diet. “If you stop drinking coffee abruptly, you may experience irritability, fatigue, headaches, and even depression.”

 So how much caffeine is too much? The American Dietetic Association recommends having no more than 300 mg a day, or the amount in about two or three 8-ounce cups of coffee. Even if you’re not a java lover, you may be getting caffeine from sneaky sources unknowingly: Sports drinks, supplements, and even certain medications contain caffeine.  

Sneaky sources of caffeine include: 2 tablets Excedrin for headaches; 130 mg

Vital Energy water; 150 mg

 16-ounce Snapple ice tea; 42 mg

 1 cup Ben & Jerry’s No Fat Fudge Frozen Yogurt; 85 mg

1 cup Dannon Coffee Yogurt; 45 mg

Barq’s Root Beer; 22 mg

 Hershey’s chocolate bar, 12 mg

For perspective, one 8-ounce cup of coffee can have anywhere from 125 to 150 mg.

While caffeine’s effects may be different for different people, here are some common warning signs that you may have overdosed

Here are 5 signs s you are getting  too much: Sneaky sources of caffeine include:

• 5 Signs You've Had Too Much Caffeine

• 1. You hit an afternoon slump.

• 2. You’re peeing orange.

• 3. You can’t sleep.

• 4. You feel anxious.

• 5. You have heartburn.

Moderation is Key!!

Read more: http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/5-signs-youve-had-too-much-caffeine?cm_mmc=MSN-_-Product-_-How%20to%20Get%20Your%20Best%20Night’s%20Sleep%20Ever-_-5%20signs%20you%20had%20too%20much%20caffeine#ixzz1zH0Q3b6t

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Recovery at it’s Best!

Calvin Brown is leaving The Circle. The Peers will have a void that will be hard to fill, and will miss his presence in many ways.

In Peer, we define recovery simply: We see recovery as being able  to restore  your life to the path you intended for yourself .  Calvin is the role model for this definition at its’ best.

In Calvin’s  time  with us he has shown all of  us that  with the right attitude, engaged support and relationships, planning and action step implementation…well anything is possible.

Calvin, started  in our PSR program, moved  to Peer. At Peer he became a forceful positive  role model, becoming the President  of an amazing and active  Peer  group.  Calvin has been the editor of our Newsletter and gets it out every month without fail! Calvin was also a powerful force in getting our blog off the ground.

Calvin also contributed  to the Per group with leadership qualities and  provided many ,helpful skills groups  for his peers.

 Through positive  engagement, he  was  encouraged  to try becoming a Certified Peer Specialist. Calvin thought this  may help him, unsure of  what role being a CPS would have.

Calvin became  CPS. A great one at that. He also became an instructor  for other CPS candidates.

Calvin thought it might be a good idea in the mist of all his other goals to complete is associates degree…he did this December 2011.

Calvin also received a job at our 4 Corners  Program .Calvin is the driving force behind the peers newly developed fitness program.

Calvin was able to participate in a peer panel at the National Conference and has  represented himself and his peers exceptionally well.

Amazing, right? We could not be more proud of and  for him.

Well what is amazing is that Calvin, has  embraced his recovery and  from the beginning ,knew he had long term goals.  Excelling in all his efforts, Calvin, still felt he had  to complete his original goal …To complete his 4 year degree.

Calvin applied  to and was accepted to school in North Florida and  he  will be  going to school in a pre  med. program with the hopes of finding his future in the medical field…Like his dad.

We feel 100% that whatever direction Calvin chooses will not only be the right one, but he  will excel at it.

With heavy hearts, all of the Peers say Good Luck , we know  you can do it and be great at it!!

We are not ready to say goodbye, as the impact that Calvin has had on all will stay with all of  us  for a very long  time. So we will just say  with a quote….from the “Other 100 acre woods”:

 “We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.

Even longer,' Pooh answered.”

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Calvin, you have made a difference  for the better not  only for yourself, but  for all of us…….you will be missed, we send you off with good luck and a little piece of each of our hearts.

This people , is Recovery at Its’ best!

Miss Louise

Trans Fats

What is a Trans Fat?

Trans fat is the common name for unsaturated fat with trans-isomer (E-isomer) fatty acid(s). Because the term refers to the configuration of a double carbon-carbon bond, trans fats are sometimes monounsaturated or polyunsaturated, but never saturated. Trans fats do exist in nature but occur far more often during the processing of polyunsaturated fatty acids in food production.[1] The distinction is important because trans fatty acids generated naturally by enzyme action are generally beneficial, whereas those generated by physical agents such as heat or pressure can lead to a variety of health problems.[2]

The consumption of trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease[3][4] by raising levels of LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.[5] Health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are more harmful than naturally occurring oils.[6] Two Canadian studies, that received funding by the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency [7] and the Dairy Farmers of Canada,[8] have shown that the natural trans fat vaccenic acid, found in beef and dairy products, can have the opposite health effect and can actually be beneficial compared to hydrogenated vegetable shortening, or a mixture of pork lard and soy fat,[8] e.g. lowering total and LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels.[9][10][11]

Unsaturated fat is a fat molecule containing one or more double bonds between the carbon atoms. Since the carbons are double-bonded to each other, there are fewer bonds connected to hydrogen, so there are fewer hydrogen atoms, hence the name, 'unsaturated'. Cis and trans are terms that refer to the arrangement of the two hydrogen atoms bonded to the carbon atoms involved in a double bond. In the cis arrangement, the hydrogens are on the same side of the double bond. In the trans arrangement, the hydrogens are on opposite sides of the double bond.

The process of hydrogenation adds hydrogen atoms to unsaturated fats, eliminating double bonds and making them into partially or completely saturated fats. However, partial hydrogenation, if it is chemical rather than enzymatic, converts a part of cis-isomers into trans-unsaturated fats instead of hydrogenating them completely. Trans fats also occur naturally in a limited number of cases: Vaccenyl and conjugated linoleyl (CLA) containing trans fats occur naturally in trace amounts in meat and dairy products from ruminants, although the latter also constitutes a cis fat.
Read More:http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/trans-fats-science-and-risks
P,S. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!

Thought for the Weekend

Are You an Emotional Eater?

Learn to Manage, through understanding, planning and action steps

Resource: http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/emotionaleating.htm

Do you ever eat when you're not hungry? Is that a silly question? Most of us are probably guilty of eating for reasons other than hunger; this is often called emotional eating. In fact, in a recent poll, 19% of my readers cited "Eating when I'm tired, depressed or stressed," as one of their biggest diet blunders.

Emotional eating is a common way we sabotage our weight loss goals, as well as our physical and mental health well being, but it doesn't have to be that way. By recognizing your emotional eating habits, you can start changing those bad habits and take control of your diet.

Food for Thought

Eating only when you're hungry makes sense on an intellectual level but, emotionally, food often represents more than just a mixture of inanimate ingredients. For many of us, food is a reward for doing something good, a comfort when we're feeling bad or even something to do when we're bored. People often turn to food when they feel:

    Stress* Depression*Anger*Boredom* Loneliness*Frustration*Anxiety

For many of us, reaching for our favorite foods is an automatic response when we don't feel good about ourselves. Changing that automatic response isn't easy but, if you want to learn how to control your calories to lose weight or get healthy, it's worth the time and effort to figure out what's behind your emotional eating habits.

Why Are You Eating?

The first step to taking control of your eating is to figure out what triggers emotional eating for you. Do you eat more at work because of stress or boredom? Do you eat more at parties or other social situations because you're nervous or anxious? Do you eat when you're bored or lonely?

For many of us, emotional eating is such an ingrained habit, we're not even aware we're doing it. The following tools can help you keep track of your eating to give you a clearer perspective on your eating habits:

 

    Blank Food Diary

    How to Keep a Food Diary

    Identify Your Emotional Eating Triggers   
you can access the tools @ :http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/emotionaleating.htm

Thought for The Day

Do Peer groups help reduce Stigma within Families?

In our own voice-family companion: reducing self-stigma of family members of persons with serious mental illness.

Perlick DA, Nelson AH, Mattias K, Selzer J, Kalvin C, Wilber CH, Huntington B, Holman CS, Corrigan PW.

Source

Departmentof Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NewYork, NY 10029, USA. deborah.perlick@mssm.edu

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

This article reports preliminary findings from a novel, family peer-based intervention designed to reduce self-stigma among family members of people with serious mental illness.

METHODS:

A total of 158 primary caregivers of patients with schizophrenia were recruited from a large urban mental health facility (93 caregivers) or from a family and consumer advocacy organization (65 caregivers). Caregivers (N=122) who reported they perceived at least a moderate level of mental illness-related stigma were evaluated on measures of self-stigma, withdrawal, secrecy, anxiety, and social comparison and randomly assigned to receive one of two, one-session group interventions: a peer-led intervention (In Our Own Voice-Family Companion [IOOV-FC]) designed to stimulate group discussion or a clinician-led family education session, which delivered information about mental illness in a structured, didactic format. IOOV-FC consisted of playing a videotape of family members who describe their experiences coping with stigma, which was followed by a discussion led by two family peers who modeled sharing their own experiences and facilitated group sharing.

RESULTS:

Of 24 family members and ten consumers, 96% rated the videotape above a predetermined acceptability threshold on a 19-item scale assessing cultural sensitivity, respect for different stakeholders, relevance of content, and technical quality (α=.92). Caregivers receiving IOOV-FC with low to moderate pretreatment anxiety reported a substantial reduction in self-stigma (effect size=.50) relative to those receiving clinician-led family education (p=.017) as well as significant reductions in secrecy (p=.031).

CONCLUSIONS:

Peer-led group interventions may be more effective in reducing family self-stigma than clinician-led education, at least for persons reporting experiencing low to moderate anxiety levels on a standard questionnaire

Live Food Verses Dead Food/What you need to know

The Importance Of Live food, Vs Dead Food

Simply put and explained by Raymond Francis;

 Live food promote life,

Dead food promotes disease.

Dead foods

Live Foods

Nutrition Differences Between Living Food and Dead Food

Food is food, right? Well, unless you've been hiding in a well stocked fallout shelter for a couple of decades, you no doubt have seen countless news reports telling you what's good and what's bad when it comes to food. One aspect of food that is sometimes implied by such reports—but never specified or explored—is the difference between dead food and living food.

Before we explain the difference between the two, you may be wondering why you should care. The answer is simple: nutrient value and the health of your body. Living foods—especially fresh, raw foods—are more nutritious because they still have all of their vitamins, minerals, and enzymes (which the body needs to help you properly digest and metabolize food). These nutrients in food typically get clobbered during the processing, cooking, and packaging that dead food goes through. In the most egregious categories of dead foods—those that have refined flour and added sugar—they may actually suck stored vitamins out of your body as your system tries to metabolize them.

Now, back to dividing up our comestibles into the living food and dead food categories. Generally, if a food spoils quickly, it's a living food. Fresh fruits and vegetable fall into this category, as do milk and cheese, freshly made baked potatoes and potato dishes, and freshly baked breads. If a product is more resistant to spoilage than a Teflon-coated nacho chip, it's dead food. But in some cases, just using the spoil-o-meter test to determine whether an item is a living food or dead food is too simplistic. For instance, grains, if properly stored, can be milled or sprouted many years later to make high-quality living food. Similarly, nature has designed raw nuts and seeds—for example, hazelnuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds—to be fairly resistant to spoilage, and they too are excellent living food.

Living Food/Dead Food Categories

Several categories of food deserve special mention:

• Meat and Fish – Some would argue that the flesh of dead animals by definition cannot be living food. Those who can stick to a vegetarian diet do accrue certain health benefits from it and are to be commended for choosing a "food lifestyle" that is healthy, animal friendly, and environmentally friendly. But those interested in the living food concept should not feel they have to go vegetarian to begin adopting a living food diet.
• Processed Food – The rule here is easy: The more milled, cooked, and dried-out a product is, the deader it is. Items that fall into the crispy/crunchy category are particularly dead.
• Raw Food – Raw vegetables, fresh fruit, unroasted nuts and seeds, and sprouted grains, beans, and legumes are at the top of the living food pyramid. They are packed with vitamins and enzymes, all perfectly intact because the food is fresh and unaltered by heat, processing, or containerized storage.
• Cooked Food – Living-food purists will argue that cooking greatly reduces the nutrient value of all food and creates new compounds within the food that are inimical to health. In an interview on living-food.com, author David Wolfe asserts, "You cannot revitalize [your body's] living cells with dead food." We do agree that raw food is superior in terms of active vitamin, mineral, and enzyme content. But, as with meat, we're going to suggest that you not let the perfect be the enemy of the good; that you can get plenty of benefit by increasing the amount of fresh, uncooked food in your diet without feeling that you have to go 100% raw.

Living Food/Dead Food Examples

So, those are the general rules for determining what is living food vs. dead food. Here are some specific examples:

	LIVING FOOD	DEAD FOOD
	Potato	Potato chips
	Wheat bread	Wheat crackers
	Beef	Beef jerky
	Fresh fruit	Fruit rollups
	Fresh vegetables	Vegetable chips
	Toast*	Melba toast
	Oatmeal**	Boxed cereal
	Peanuts	Peanut brittle
	* Living, but less so than the original bread ** Oatmeal is not a perfect living food—you'd have to make your cereal from oat groats to achieve that—but it's far better than the crispy, crunchy, sugary, highly heated, desert-dry oat cereal you get out of a box.

Juice and Fruit Drinks — Living Food or Dead Food?

In some cases, how a food item was made determines whether it's living or dead. For instance, juices are tricky because there are so many ways to make juice and related beverages.

Freshly squeezed juice – Fresh juices from vegetables and fruits are very much living food. They usually qualify as "super foods"—the tippy top of the nutrient-dense living food pyramid.

Juice from a carton, bottle or can – This is a big step down from freshly pressed juice (or from just eating the raw fruits and vegetables themselves). Processing, heat, storage, and exposure to sunlight all take their toll on vitamin and enzyme content. Bottled and canned juices that are 100% juice aren't particularly bad to consume; they just aren't anywhere near as good as fresh-pressed juices.

Juice drinks – Any beverage that contains only 10% juice, with the rest being water and sweetener, has 9 of its 10 toes in the dead-food category.

Flavored soft drinks – These are dead, dead, dead. A smattering of "natural flavors" does not save these products from being considered dead food.

Final Advice on Living Food

To get the maximum punch of the vitamins, minerals and enzymes your body needs to run well, stick with raw, living food as much as possible. Living food is not only better for you than dead food, it's better for the environment too. When you buy living food, you eliminate the energy, raw materials, and waste products associated with processing the food and storing it in cans, bottles, boxes, and shrink wrap. And the more raw food you eat, the less energy you use for cooking.

We do have to admit that unless you're in monk training, it's going to be pretty hard to get completely away from dead food. But there are plenty of times when choosing living food is plenty convenient—even if it's not quite as fun. Sometimes it's just a matter of better planning; for instance, consider keeping a bag of natural trail mix in your desk drawer rather than a bag of chips.

Take an inventory today…how much of your diet is ‘live” don’t be alarmed but  do make  efforts  to  implement  live  foods  often

 and daily start  with one  change a month. But do start.

It makes sense that we will feel better with less toxins in our food sources. We already know  that processed  foods  cause  depression, mania, heart disease, high blood  pressure  live and kidney problems.

So what dead food  can  you give  up today and substitute  with a live  food?

Peer Engagement: A new way to recover.

Fellow Consumers of Cobb CSB!

Are you new to the circle or are you perhaps someone who has been here for some time and even though you are working toward your recovery you feel that something is missing? If so, let us examine a few things about your jubilant journey through the program. For some of you it maybe longer than others, but can you think back to your first day here at The Circle? What do you remember, both good and bad as well as those things that should have been in place to make you your journey more manageable? One thing that consumers have found to be missing is peer engagement. Peer engagement, an effort by consumers to help fellow consumers who are new to the program, is a relatively new concept across the board, however; it is done regularly in the Peer Support Program here at The Circle. I was first versed with the concept while studying to become a Certified Peer Specialist while learning specific axioms about Peers and Peer Support. I must say I learned the concept at the CPS training but it is not indigenous to the training itself as both the CPRP, Louise Sterling and CPS Alison Golden teach these concepts daily. One specific axiom is that a consumer or peer will connect with one another in such a way that the pair forms a bond or a mutual supportive relationship which helps to strengthen both parties involved. Peers helping peers, what a concept! With that being said we also asked some of the peers what they thought would have been helpful in their journey into recovery and here’s what they said: 

Do you think having a peer liaison would be helpful in the onsite of the recovery process and what would you think they could do for you to make the process an efficient and good experience? 

Laura: I use to cry a lot when I first got here. I wanted 2-3 months to have someone to call. Meds were turned off for about 2 months. Could have used someone to talk to.

Bryannetta: She came to the program angry and not trusting that the system would take care of her. A peer would have been easier to talk to than a staff because she didn’t trust authority.

Robin:  She wanted someone to help her relax. Someone to call after hours.

Nate: A peer to provide hope that meds could get  us better, that they would get better

Veretta: Came out of jail. It was harder to adjust and would have liked to talk to a peer who was in jail.

Emerson: Had a peer support team: Two peers took him under their wing. Favorable experience.

Allen: Wanted to be introduced to people. Some hope might have prevented a hospitalization or two.

Myra: Needed someone to get meds straightened out.

Mike B: Mike would have liked to talk to another African American man who was on the same page as him.

As you can see many people are in need of someone to help with their experience. The good news is it is coming soon.                                          

6 Ways to Burn 100 Calories in 10 Minutes

“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.”

 Winnie the Pooh quote

6 Ways to Burn 100 Calories in 10 Minutes

Jumping rope. You can burn 119 calories in 10 minutes by jumping rope at a moderate pace. If you're an expert and can move rapidly, you can burn a whopping 142! If you don't actually have a jump rope handy you can pretend. The idea is to catch some air under your sneakers and rapidly jump up and down. This will be a sweaty few minutes. Try doing it right before you go in for your morning shower. You'll be totally energized and ready to charge happily into your day.

Stationary biking. You can work up to 131 calories in 10 minutes on a stationary bike at a moderate pace, and if you go flat out (it's only 10 minutes, right?), you can burn 155. Do lots of jumps on the bike and make sure you've got a good resistance on there. You want those legs to burn by the time you hop off.

 Lace up those running shoes and hit the track. Running 1 mile will burn 100 calories

Pop in a video or head to the gym for 10 minutes of high impact aerobics

Drop and give me ten. 10 minutes of pushups that is!

Run up stairs. This is perfect for a lunchtime workout in your office building. Running up stairs, as quickly as you safely can, will burn a whopping 178 calories in 10 minutes. Please make sure you're doing it in flats, not heels or dress shoes, and preferably in sneakers so your feet don't take a beating (remember there are cocktail parties to go to!). If that doesn't work, you can run in place in your living room for 10 minutes to knock off 95 calories (almost 100).

The idea here is to attack your 10 minutes with intensity. Make sure that you're constantly moving as hard as you can. Again, it's only 10 minutes, and at the end of that time, you'll feel healthy and energized. You'll also have a nice metabolism boost that lasts much longer than those 10 minutes.

These figures are based on the average 150-pound person. If you'd like to find out exactly what the calorie count would be for you or for an activity not listed here, just out this great calculator at Self.com.

Thought For The Day:

Sugar is dangerous us all

 Studies show Sugar is toxic and has negative effects on :

Depression, anxiety, allergies, mental illness, our bodies can't handle refined sugar!
WHY SUGAR IS TOXIC TO THE BODY
[link to www.karlloren.com]

"In the 1940s, Dr John Tintera rediscovered the vital importance of the endocrine system, especially the adrenal glands, in "pathological mentation"-or "brain boggling". In 200 cases under treatment for hypoadrenocorticism (the lack of adequate adrenal cortical hormone production or imbalance among these hormones), he discovered that the chief complaints of his patients were often similar to those found in persons whose systems were unable to handle sugar: fatigue, nervousness, depression, apprehension, craving for sweets, inability to handle alcohol, inability to concentrate, allergies, low blood pressure. Sugar blues!

Refined sugar is lethal when ingested by humans because it provides only that which nutritionists describe as "empty" or "naked" calories. It lacks the natural minerals which are present in the sugar beet or cane. In addition, sugar is worse than nothing because it drains and leaches the body of precious vitamins and minerals through the demand its digestion, detoxification and elimination make upon one's entire system.

So essential is balance to our bodies that we have many ways to provide against the sudden shock of a heavy intake of sugar. Minerals such as sodium (from salt), potassium and magnesium (from vegetables), and calcium (from the bones) are mobilized and used in chemical transmutation; neutral acids are produced which attempt to return the acid-alkaline balance factor of the blood to a more normal state.

refined sugar is a poison because it has been depleted of its life forces, vitamins and minerals. "What is left consists of pure, refined carbohydrates. The body cannot utilize this refined starch and carbohydrate unless the depleted proteins, vitamins and minerals are present. Nature supplies these elements in each plant in quantities sufficient to metabolize the carbohydrate in that particular plant. There is no excess for other added carbohydrates. Incomplete carbohydrate metabolism results in the formation of 'toxic metabolite' such as pyruvic acid and abnormal sugars containing five carbon atoms. Pyruvic acid accumulates in the brain and nervous system and the abnormal sugars in the red blood cells. These toxic metabolites interfere with the respiration of the cells. They cannot get sufficient oxygen to survive and function normally. In time, some of the cells die. This interferes with the function of a part of the body and is the beginning of degenerative disease."