A sure sign that we’re in the sweltering dog days of summer is that the trash cans, park benches and sidewalks are suddenly littered with the ubiquitous clear plastic cups, plastic lids and straws from iced coffees – whether they’re black, flavored, or milk and sugar-filled. Just because they’re slightly watered down with ice cubes doesn’t mean they’re any less harsh on our bodies than a steaming paper cup full. And people are drinking hot coffee even on the very hottest days as well!

But here’s the thing about coffee, not only do those cups fill up the landfills, but they put toxins in our body too. Coffee is incredibly dehydrating (which is not something we want when the temperatures soar), and it’s also acidic to the body, while severely taxing the detox organs (liver and kidneys).

When you “need” it to get going in the morning, feel foggy and are unable to function or communicate without your first cup, or experience the crash later on in the day when it wears [...]]]>

A sure sign that we’re in the sweltering dog days of summer is that the trash cans, park benches and sidewalks are suddenly littered with the ubiquitous clear plastic cups, plastic lids and straws from iced coffees – whether they’re black, flavored, or milk and sugar-filled. Just because they’re slightly watered down with ice cubes doesn’t mean they’re any less harsh on our bodies than a steaming paper cup full. And people are drinking hot coffee even on the very hottest days as well!

But here’s the thing about coffee, not only do those cups fill up the landfills, but they put toxins in our body too. Coffee is incredibly dehydrating (which is not something we want when the temperatures soar), and it’s also acidic to the body, while severely taxing the detox organs (liver and kidneys).

When you “need” it to get going in the morning, feel foggy and are unable to function or communicate without your first cup, or experience the crash later on in the day when it wears off, you are already addicted and doing damage to your adrenals while leaching calcium from your bones and causing a general state of dependency and acidity in the body.

So let’s try something that will rehydrate our bodies, give us a great boost of energy to power through all the fun summer activities and expand our drink palates.  Why not start a coffee cleanse while summer is in full swing, the days are long and sultry, and you really don’t want to be drinking a hot beverage anyway?

Here’s how:

First, keep in mind that withdrawing from caffeine can be a bit of a shock to the body. You may experience a few days of headaches and irritability, but it’s so worth it and magnesium can help with the headaches. The substitutes below not only help rebalance the body, but they taste very similar to the coffee you’re used to (with the exception of the green juice and lemon water of course!). They’re soothing to wrap your hands around and can be shared with others during your morning coffee break!

Second, drink more water – pretty easy.  Try adding mint, lemon, cucumber slices, fresh berries, even a pinch of stevia. Or make your own herbal sun tea, and then keep a pitcher of it in the fridge for refreshing hydration breaks.

Third, here are some great energizing coffee substitutions that will definitely help you forget all about coffee’s hypnotic hold on you:

1. Remineralize and hydrate the body with 8 to 16 ounces of fresh green vegetable juice instead of your morning cup of joe, either made at home or from your local juice bar – just make sure it’s fresh pressed and not pasteurized. A good combination is a base of cucumber and celery with a generous amount of leafy greens (kale, parsley, chard, romaine, etc.) with a little apple or carrot for sweetness, and some ginger and lemon. This is super energizing, hydrating, cleansing and tastes delicious.

2. Another amazingly detoxifying and refreshing way to ease into your day is with a glass of warm or cold water (depending on the season) with fresh squeezed lemon juice and a pinch of stevia.  It’s a delicious lemonade, but it’s also a great way to get the peristalsis action going in the intestines to cleanse and start your day off right with proper elimination.

3. Another way to get a healthy jump start is by using cacao powder (raw chocolate) in some warm water or nut milk, adding some stevia to taste and a dash of cinnamon or mint extract for some flavor. You’ll have an incredibly rich chocolate drink that’s loaded with minerals and antioxidants but without the sugar and dairy typically found in processed chocolate and without the crash that comes with coffee.

4. A great tasting herbal coffee is Teccino, made from roasted nuts, fruit and grains, full of probiotics and a delicious earthy flavor that goes well with some stevia or nut milk or just plain. We also like roasted dandelion root made into grounds and used the same way as the Teccino in a French press or regular coffeemaker.

5. A cup of green tea or yerba mate is another very low caffeine way to start your morning, both are full of other health benefits and are delicious iced during these hot summer days.

This powdered Yerba Mate dissolves instantly into hot or cold water and you can get it with stevia or without:

6.  Saving the best for last, here’s a delicious and energizing superfood-filled “coffee granita” that will beat anything you find at any chain coffee spot:

- 1/2  cup non dairy milk (rice, almond, hemp, coconut)

- 2 tablespoons raw cacao or carob powder

- 1 tablespoon maca powder (this is incredibly energizing and has a wonderful rich flavor)

- 1 teaspoon lucuma powder (slightly sweet taste)

- 1 teaspoon mesquite powder (optional but highly recommended)

- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

- a pinch of stevia (powder) or a few drops of liquid to taste

- 1 cup ice

Blend all ingredients together until you have a coffee-like “slushie.” Pour into a tall glass, kick back and enjoy the rest of your summer – energized and addiction free!

For more information on how to optimize your health, see http://www.cleanprogram.com/.

Photo credit: EJP Photo

Virginia Woolf said, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well,” and I couldn’t agree more. Especially when it comes to kids.

Fresh, whole, unprocessed, low-sugar fuel is like filling a vehicle with premium gasoline (or better yet, with sustainable butynol); it runs better, cleaner, faster, and lasts longer. Not that children are necessarily to be compared to cars, but it’s a commonly used metaphor in the food world to make sure we understand the importance of healthy food/fuel for all of us.

However, with kids, the stakes are higher. What we put into their tiny, growing bodies sets the groundwork for the future of the entire world. Their small hands hold our collective fate, so wouldn’t we want them to grow up clear-headed, calm, centered, strong and responsible? Wouldn’t we want them to be the best possible co-inhabitants of the earth, living in harmony within each ecosystem, and working energetically to ensure that there is a world for us to continue enjoying?

Anyone who has, [...]]]>

Virginia Woolf said, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well,” and I couldn’t agree more. Especially when it comes to kids.

Fresh, whole, unprocessed, low-sugar fuel is like filling a vehicle with premium gasoline (or better yet, with sustainable butynol); it runs better, cleaner, faster, and lasts longer. Not that children are necessarily to be compared to cars, but it’s a commonly used metaphor in the food world to make sure we understand the importance of healthy food/fuel for all of us.

However, with kids, the stakes are higher. What we put into their tiny, growing bodies sets the groundwork for the future of the entire world. Their small hands hold our collective fate, so wouldn’t we want them to grow up clear-headed, calm, centered, strong and responsible? Wouldn’t we want them to be the best possible co-inhabitants of the earth, living in harmony within each ecosystem, and working energetically to ensure that there is a world for us to continue enjoying?

Anyone who has, works with or spends any amount of time around kids knows that the fuel described above (fresh, whole, unprocessed, etc.) is one of the cornerstones of happy, healthy little ones. Or do we? If we truly were aware of this, why would some of the population be washing down the packaged, processed, chemical-filled “foods” with caffeinated, sugar-filled drinks? Why are kids eating in a constant state of stress, melting down, hurrying from one activity to the next, in the car, or parked in front of the television and computer screens?

This isn’t just for those taking care of kids, either. It always has and it still very much does take a village to raise a child, and our villages have grown substantially in size.

So what can we do? We can all make it our number one priority to feed all kids everywhere the best food possible (which is most often right in our own backyards and does not require fancy equipment, skills or a lot of money), whether you’re a parent or not. If you buy organic, support your local farms (or become a CSA shareholder or buy from farmers’ markets); if you vote with small farms and the environment in mind; if you pay attention to food additives and chemicals and sign every petition going around to ban and further regulate them; if you avoid chemicals in your beauty and household products (therefore sending a clear message to corporations), you are helping feed our kids the right foods. Recently, two small towns in coastal Maine became the first in the country to achieve food sovereignty (deciding they had the right to go to their neighbors’ farms, look them in the eye and buy whatever amazing healthy foods they chose without the FDA telling them raw milk, butter, etc. was not allowed). Every single person who voted on that proposal did something huge for the health and well-being of our children.

As a consumer and taxpayer/voter, there are things you can do. Replace the dangerous, hormone-disrupting chemical bisphenol A (BPA) with safer alternatives in baby bottles, sippy cups, and other reusable food and beverage containers. We can work to replace herbicides at schools, public parks, even your own backyard, with non-toxic alternatives. We can actively recycle and ban BPA plastic items. Again, none of these things require you to be a parent, but if you care about the future of the world, I would hope you might care about laying the foundation for those who are very close to inheriting it.

You can create something like Crazy Sexy Life contributor and all-around wonder woman/mom Latham Thomas did, with Panela Productions, “a company designed to educate kids and families about healthy ethnic cuisine through hands-on cooking classes and cooking-themed parties.”

If you make food fun, kids will eat and love it, because what kid doesn’t want to always be having fun? Eating healthy, real foods never has to be boring, and kids shouldn’t feel like they’re being lectured or punished when they eat vegetables, whole grains or fruit instead of fast food, soda and candy bars.

You don’t have to have kids to be an incredible role model. In fact, many kids may respond better to seeing “cool adults” around them eat healthy foods, participate in growing food, talk about how rad composting is; in other words, the more adults they see around them “walking the walk,” the more into it they’ll be. When they see singers, actors and sports figures, not to mention a whole host of cartoon characters on TV, digging in the dirt, talking about composting with worms, munching on huge, colorful salads and promoting local farms, suddenly it seems pretty “cool.” The power of advertising may not be able to be stopped at this point, but we can certainly redirect the flow of it for the greater good!

Kids who eat well will think more clearly, grow up with greater compassion for each other and the world they live in, and have the strength and energy to literally change the world.

Photo credit: SunnySideUpStudio

My son — a very important guest to us — was born last month. For nine months, my wife and I had been asking ourselves: Will our house be clean and ready for his arrival?

Before this, I’ve been working at cleaning the planet (one person/body at a time) telling anyone who would listen that what is making everybody sick isn’t bad genes, bad luck or bad karma. It’s bad food and lots of toxins. And while this is all true for normal day-to-day life, there was suddenly added urgency because such a precious guest seemed to require some extra special cleaning.

These are some of the questions we asked in preparation of our son’s birth:

-What is clean nutrition during pregnancy? -Should Mama take supplements; which ones? -Are there any toxins in Mama’s body that need our attention and/or action; should either of us do a detox   program? -Should we have sonograms? -What cosmetics should Mama use to avoid toxic chemicals absorbed through the skin? -Should we get induced if we are [...]]]>

My son — a very important guest to us — was born last month. For nine months, my wife and I had been asking ourselves: Will our house be clean and ready for his arrival?

Before this, I’ve been working at cleaning the planet (one person/body at a time) telling anyone who would listen that what is making everybody sick isn’t bad genes, bad luck or bad karma. It’s bad food and lots of toxins. And while this is all true for normal day-to-day life, there was suddenly added urgency because such a precious guest seemed to require some extra special cleaning.

These are some of the questions we asked in preparation of our son’s birth:

-What is clean nutrition during pregnancy?
-Should Mama take supplements; which ones?
-Are there any toxins in Mama’s body that need our attention and/or action; should either of us do a detox   program?
-Should we have sonograms?
-What cosmetics should Mama use to avoid toxic chemicals absorbed through the skin?
-Should we get induced if we are past the due date?
-Should we get an epidural?
-Where should the birth be, how and with whom?
-What clothes should we get him?
-What vaccines (if any) should he get?
-Should we breastfeed?

The list goes on and on. This is what we ended up doing:

Mama ate mostly from the Clean Program’s Elimination Diet: mostly vegetarian (99% organic, 60% in season, local and 50% raw), some free-range, organic chicken, occasional grass-fed red meat and no fish (to avoid mercury and parasites).

We decided on absolutely no full-blown cleansing while pregnant or breastfeeding to protect our son from exposure of re-circulating toxins, which is common when the body is detoxing. Mama may have had toxins in her system, but she had no symptoms and never really gets sick, so we decided not to test for anything.

We had only five sonograms during the whole pregnancy and did not “need” any more because everything was always perfect. Mama nagged me about turning the Wi-Fi off when not in use (I don’t know enough about those effects to disagree or give it that much importance).

She only used cosmetics without petrochemicals, preservatives, coloring agents or anything remotely processed. We filtered our kitchen, drinking and shower water to avoid chlorine and many other toxins commonly present in tap water today (medications, sediment, toilet paper particles, heavy metals).

We went one week past our due date, refusing any form of inducing intravenously, even a swipe. Instead, Mama had acupuncture a few times, exercised as much as her body said was okay, and we had lots of sex. Mama had one glass of wine during the lunch hours before labor started as our midwife said she could. We chose to have the birth in a midwifery room attached to a modern hospital with top neonatologists. The birth was natural, under water, without an epidural, but instead with Mama, Papa, midwife, and doula.

So far we have decided not to vaccinate him for at least one month and are only giving him vitamin K to avoid bleeding as he will be circumcised. (This is a tough decision and we are researching voraciously, so any tips are welcome!)

We are avoiding any clothing made of synthetic fibers and not using fire retardant mattresses, which may very possibly increase the chance of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Mama took prenatal vitamins, fish oils, probiotics, calcium, magnesium, selenium, lots of green juices, and yes, we are breastfeeding for at least nine months.

We welcomed our son into as clean a world as we could provide. Through this example of the arrival a very special guest (arguably the most special), you get an idea of how complex it is to be a good host in our modern world.

But, even if you weren’t expecting guests, wouldn’t you want to answer these questions for yourself?

Feel like you absolutely need that piece of chocolate, pint of ice cream or huge plate of mashed potatoes to satisfy your craving? Rather than true hunger in a physical sense, cravings are more likely a sign of one of two things: an emotional hunger or possibly a deficiency in some key nutrients. Follow these four steps to restore balance.

Step 1: Eliminate the bad stuff Get rid of sugar, caffeine and anything processed and/or refined. If you really struggle with mood swings and depression, eliminate gluten, dairy, red meat and alcohol. Do this at least until you feel the symptoms are under control, or you have healthy doses of serotonin being produced and maintained in the body.

In my opinion, sugar and caffeine are the main two culprits and cause the greatest amount of damage. You’d be doing yourself a huge favor by releasing them from your diet. Sugar can, indeed, make us momentarily uplifted because this refined molecule temporarily boosts blood [...]]]>

Feel like you absolutely need that piece of chocolate, pint of ice cream or huge plate of mashed potatoes to satisfy your craving? Rather than true hunger in a physical sense, cravings are more likely a sign of one of two things: an emotional hunger or possibly a deficiency in some key nutrients. Follow these four steps to restore balance.

Step 1: Eliminate the bad stuff
Get rid of sugar, caffeine and anything processed and/or refined. If you really struggle with mood swings and depression, eliminate gluten, dairy, red meat and alcohol. Do this at least until you feel the symptoms are under control, or you have healthy doses of serotonin being produced and maintained in the body.

In my opinion, sugar and caffeine are the main two culprits and cause the greatest amount of damage. You’d be doing yourself a huge favor by releasing them from your diet. Sugar can, indeed, make us momentarily uplifted because this refined molecule temporarily boosts blood sugar and actively alters brain chemistry. But like any drug, the depression after it wears off is far worse than the brief happiness it appeared to give us. And in the worst cases, we sometimes fall into a pattern of treating that mental rut with yet another hit of sugar to keep the happiness going.

This downward cycle of sugar dependence leads us to long-term obesity, diabetes and depression. Sugar also contributes to adrenal exhaustion, metabolism malfunction and overall poor health, which opens the door to a whole host of illness and disease.

While there are six definite tastes that we need for balance (salty, sweet, bitter, astringent, pungent and sour), the sweet taste is not abundant in whole and natural foods. We’re meant to have it in small amounts and seasonally. In the summer, the days are longer and we’re more active. We have more of a need for the bursts of energy that we get from berries, melons and other fruits. Maple syrup in the spring, and sweet vegetables, honey and apples in the colder months provide the sweet taste year-round.

Step 2: Add more good stuff
· Adaptogens: yerba mate, ashwaganda, ginseng, rhodiola, cordyceps mushrooms, etc. Adaptogens stabilize moods, ease stress and promote feelings of well-being. They also add an infusion of balanced and sustained energy without stimulation like caffeine. Herbs like St. John’s Wort help fight depression and can be taken with dandelion root and milk thistle to aid in liver detoxification and cleansing.
· Healthy fats that contain omega 3′s: nuts like almonds, pistachios, pecans, macadamia and walnuts; avocados, coconut and other cold-pressed oils; seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, hemp, chia and flax; olives as well as good quality fish oils.
· Green vegetable juices. These alkalize the body and help bring everything back into balance and release our cravings for sweet and processed foods.

Step 3: Bring in (or get back to)
· Living in the present moment.
· Removing complication: simplify, simplify, simplify every area of your life that you can. Move away from rampant multitasking and being plugged into a myriad of technological gadgets constantly. Take technology breaks and focus on one task at a time as much as you can. Eliminate clutter. Clean out your cupboards (which will probably lead to healthier eating as well) by throwing out or donating the packaged, canned and less than optimal things buried there.
· Moving out of the thinking mind and into the feeling heart.
· Meditating. Any amount of being still brings immeasurable benefits into our lives even if it’s five minutes when you’re waking up or falling asleep.
· Enjoying everyday moments. There are a million beautiful things that pass through our days. What are five of them that have happened today so far?
· Exercising, through yoga, dance, or whatever you prefer, to release endorphins. When we feel good about our bodies and are generally happier, we move more, so we become fitter and have more energy, so we move more. This creates a positive circle of cause and effect.

Step 4: Release and Be Empowered
During any cleanse it’s inevitable that not only will you clear out toxins and old sludgy buildup, but old emotions will most likely be released as well. For some, this is unexpected and a little unsettling, but the best way to handle it is to look at those emotions or feelings as they’re surfacing. Don’t delve in and live in the past, just let them go. They no longer affect you, after you realize that they brought you to the place you are now, and that it’s exactly where you’re supposed to be. They do not affect your future. How you act and think right now is the only thing that affects your future, and that’s not meant to make us anxious or stressed, but to excite and enliven us as every moment is truly a gift full of promise and a chance to create exactly the future you want!

Photo Credit: canadapost

As a doctor, some of the most powerful tools that I have found are detoxing and cleansing. By ‘detoxing’ I mean this: a program that will create optimal conditions for the recirculation of toxins that have been trapped in our body’s mucus, as well as support for the liver in its work of neutralizing and preparing those toxins to be eliminated via sweat, feces and urine.

Cleansing is a method of enhancing the elimination of these toxins, as well as the mucus, that the body has generated to defend itself from the irritation caused by toxin accumulation. Cleansing encourages and assists the channels of elimination, through skin, kidneys and intestines.

Quantum physicists have clearly shown that “The Universe is made of Light,” and light behaves both as a particle and a wave, depending on what instrument is used to measure it. Waves uplift, resonate with and attract each other. The stronger the wave, the more other waves will begin to imitate it.

All of these waves are ultimately interconnected with each other; our [...]]]>

As a doctor, some of the most powerful tools that I have found are detoxing and cleansing. By ‘detoxing’ I mean this: a program that will create optimal conditions for the recirculation of toxins that have been trapped in our body’s mucus, as well as support for the liver in its work of neutralizing and preparing those toxins to be eliminated via sweat, feces and urine.

Cleansing is a method of enhancing the elimination of these toxins, as well as the mucus, that the body has generated to defend itself from the irritation caused by toxin accumulation. Cleansing encourages and assists the channels of elimination, through skin, kidneys and intestines.

Quantum physicists have clearly shown that “The Universe is made of Light,” and light behaves both as a particle and a wave, depending on what instrument is used to measure it. Waves uplift, resonate with and attract each other. The stronger the wave, the more other waves will begin to imitate it.

All of these waves are ultimately interconnected with each other; our emotions and our bodies are waves within waves and are continuously affecting each other, and all of us in turn are subject to the effects caused by larger and more powerful ones. We can see these effects in the winter when it seems everyone is a bit more sad and struggling with depression, and the trees and plants mirror that empty and bare feeling as they lose their flowers and leaves.

However, with the arrival of spring, when nature seems to be having a seizure of awakening, everything explodes with waves of life, and all animals, plants and even our own bodies become influenced by this activity. Winter’s depression is swept away by joy and plants bursting with life. Whatever you can do to align yourself with this force will enable you to ride the wave to the other side of the cold and dark remnants of winter.

Here are 5 simple things you can do to enhance these cleansing and expanding waves, and the reasons behind them:

1) Give your digestive system a break. Digestion takes work and slows down other functions, the detox functions in particular. As digestion work eases, there is a point at which the body receives a signal to enter detox mode intensely and releases trapped toxins and mucus.

Be safe and choose your program intelligently. Stopping digestive work completely, as in a water fast, can be dangerous and even deadly. Jesus did it for 40 days, but he didn’t have the chemicals in his food, soil and water that we do now.

Juicing is an effective way to detox and cleanse, but still too intense for most Americans, especially if they are living in the city, working, taking care of children, and socializing. This schedule is too demanding to subsist on juice alone as it does not deliver the amount and variety of nutrients needed to safely and effectively complete this work. Toxin recirculation overwhelms the ability of our liver to detox effectively While juice provides many antioxidants, this is the half of the work of detoxing. People that cleanse regularly and have a clean diet the rest of the time do really well with juicing programs, but juicing fails for so many of my patients because it really needs to be done in the right way.

What I do, myself, is have a liquid breakfast, a solid meal and a liquid dinner. In my book, “CLEAN,” there are recipes enough to never repeat a meal in 3 weeks, providing plenty of nutritional support and variety.

2) Give your immune system a spring break. 80% of our immune system lives in our intestines, and because of the damage caused by modern toxicity, it is constantly in a state of alert and in attack mode. There is a list of foods that really stir things up for the immune system and create a damaged intestine. Dairy, sugar, coffee, and gluten are the obvious culprits, but there are fruits and vegetables that do the same, even if organic. The list of foods to avoid to calm allergies and even autoimmune waves is called “The Elimination Diet.” Following this food plan alone will enable a detox to happen seamlessly and powerfully.

3) Cleanse your kitchen. Nature knows what it is doing. Any time of year, animals all over the planet are eating whatever is in grown locally and in season, and we’d be wise to do the same. Go to the farmer’s market, learn what is in season, and eat whole foods when they’re fresh and abundant.

4) Drink lots of water. Filtered water is best. Not distilled, unless you know what you are doing. Water with lemon is great for cleansing, as lemon is nature’s magic cleaner. In the spring, the ice melts and the rivers run strong. Imitate spring in your body with fresh water flowing through it constantly. Be careful not to overhydrate and wash out your body’s natural minerals with distilled or less than optimal water. Still, if there is a time to drink lots of water, it is during a cleanse—and especially during the spring.

5) Spring has its distinct qualities but shares qualities with all seasons. Day and night happen regardless of season or weather. To sleep at sundown and wake up at sunrise is one sure way to sync with all of nature, the planets and beyond. When was the last time you did that?

These are simple and effective ways to cleanse your body and prepare for the warm weather and necessary expansion of the next season.

Wishing you all a Clean and healthy spring,
Dr. Junger and the Clean Team

Forgive me for getting an Outkast song going through your head (my Clean Team is composed of super hip (they’ll love that!) music lovers so I’m getting quite an education) but your very own “so fresh and so clean” New Year begins with not only a catchy little beat but three very important R’s.

These R’s will be the tools for absolutely amazing vitality as well as an immune boost. They are: Remove, Restore and Rejuvenate, and here’s the super simple breakdown.

1. Remove toxins by avoiding processed/packaged food with additives and artificial sweeteners, beauty care products with ingredients you can’t pronounce, finding food and non-food items that are organic like fruits and vegetables, clothing, bedding, makeup, and pet supplies, buy or make your own eco-friendly cleaning products, and also look at removing common allergens from your diet such as dairy, bread, pasta, sugar, white rice/sugar and red meat.

2. Restore healthy bacteria in the gut (by using natural and often really delicious plant and herbal antimicrobials like garlic, lemon, olive oil, oregano [...]]]>

Forgive me for getting an Outkast song going through your head (my Clean Team is composed of super hip (they’ll love that!) music lovers so I’m getting quite an education) but your very own “so fresh and so clean” New Year begins with not only a catchy little beat but three very important R’s.

These R’s will be the tools for absolutely amazing vitality as well as an immune boost. They are: Remove, Restore and Rejuvenate, and here’s the super simple breakdown.

1. Remove toxins by avoiding processed/packaged food with additives and artificial sweeteners, beauty care products with ingredients you can’t pronounce, finding food and non-food items that are organic like fruits and vegetables, clothing, bedding, makeup, and pet supplies, buy or make your own eco-friendly cleaning products, and also look at removing common allergens from your diet such as dairy, bread, pasta, sugar, white rice/sugar and red meat.

2. Restore healthy bacteria in the gut (by using natural and often really delicious plant and herbal antimicrobials like garlic, lemon, olive oil, oregano oil, thyme and cayenne pepper) to help your body out as it tirelessly works to move all those toxins that we accumulate just by living, working and playing in this world of ours.

3. Rejuvenate by making time to rest both your body and your mind, with things like meditation, yoga, gentle walking or stretching, being outside whenever possible even if it’s just to watch some clouds float by or the snow fall through trees, taking a bath, reading, some form of creative activity, sharing space with loved ones, or simply being still for a few minutes every so often throughout your day. . .

A final tip that addresses all three of the above R’s is this:

Love those greens! Fresh green juices are one of the best ways to fill your body with incredible nutrition, easy to digest energy, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and a pleasant sensation of fullness that will help with maintaing the right weight for your own body. Greens (and especially in fresh juiced form) even help to generate feelings of comfort and being loved. Love from yourself for taking such good care of your wonderful body, but also, that feeling of being satiated and nourished creates a state of happiness and clarity in your brain (and also to your overall moods) both of which are so important in these long cold winter months. Seasonal Affective Disorder runs rampant and threatens to drive us all under the covers with a pound of chocolate, and unless it’s some sugar-free raw chocolate, you might be pleasantly surprised when silky, sexy, slightly sweet green juices become your “comfort food” of choice and the scales begin to tip in a lighter direction as a welcome side effect.

If you don’t happen to have a neighborhood juice bar don’t worry, because you can make delicious green juices without even having a juicer. With any high speed blender, you can make a thick “soup” and then using a simple nut milk bag (about $7) or even with a DIY cheesecloth one, you can strain out the pulp and be left with a glass full of yummy green nutrition to power you up through what promises to be an amazing New Year!

These simple things are the sexiest (and easiest) tools ever for reaching optimal health and vitality. You’ll have more energy and more time to fully experience the things you love and to begin actively participating in your incredibly vibrant life.

Warmth and love. . .

Dr. Alejandro Junger

Whatever we eat will be digested, that is, broken into little pieces, the building blocks of which everything is made of. The main building blocks: proteins, carbohydrates and fats are combined with many ’toppings’ (vitamins, minerals, herbs, tonics, phytonutrients). These are absorbed from the intestinal lumen into our blood. Food is broken down into simple nutrients that will be used by our cells to make more cells and all the hormones and other chemicals [...]]]>
Imagine you are a human being thousands of years ago, when there were no cities, no streets, no refrigerators, and no stores. None of the things we consider to be the basic aspects of modern life. Just you, naked under the sun, with a bunch of others, naked as well, wherever on the planet you were born, eating your environment, and spending most of the waking day looking for those parts of your environment that were edible. Whenever you found food, you would eat it, right then and there. Within a day and it may be spoiled.

Whatever we eat will be digested, that is, broken into little pieces, the building blocks of which everything is made of. The main building blocks: proteins, carbohydrates and fats are combined with many ’toppings’ (vitamins, minerals, herbs, tonics, phytonutrients). These are absorbed from the intestinal lumen into our blood. Food is broken down into simple nutrients that will be used by our cells to make more cells and all the hormones and other chemicals of which we are made.

These nutrients that circulate in the blood serve another purpose that is less talked about than the fact that we ARE what we eat, which means that we are made of the food we eat. The nutrients we absorb are supposed to be parts of our environment. The reason this matters is because we are discovering now that our genes are analyzing our blood constantly. Depending on the combination of nutrients, our genes respond by turning some on and others off. Nutrients are our genes periscope to ‘see’ the environment they are living in. At times perhaps the combination of nutrients was so ideal that genes governing sexual behavior and reproduction were activated and genes that would support migration were turned off. For example, a good nutrient content meant that the pregnancy would have a better chance of producing a healthy baby.

The new science of Nutrigenomics studies which nutrients affect what genes.

Our genes, for thousand of years, detected subtle changes in our environment by eating it, breaking it into little pieces and analyzing it in the most complex chemical laboratory, our body. In that way it would turn on and off the genes that would influence behavior and cellular expression to maximize chances of survival. Changes would be subtle. Fruits and vegetables varied according to the seasons. Maybe the autumn nutrients turned on genes for hair production, and winter nutrients turned on the genes for hair thickness. The sun, constantly hitting our skin, provided enough vitamin D. Nature living in nature, eating nature; the design functioning as the designer manifested it. Our cells are always, permanently, constantly, all doing whatever they are doing for one and one purpose only, to survive. This has occurred for thousands of years.

And suddenly, within a time period that has not allowed our genes to respond, we are living in very different conditions. We are no longer naked under the sun. In fact, we invented all kind of chemicals that we dissolve in creams and spread on our skin to prevent the rays of the sun to touch our skin. The boxes we live in are loaded with chemicals that we use to wax our hardwood floors or to retard fire from burning our mattresses like a match in case of a fire. The gases that are released as fumes have been pointed out to be one of the triggers of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Tonight, as I was writing this blog in my flatiron district apartment in Manhattan, I walked to the corner deli and got bananas from Mexico, blueberries from Argentina, a pineapple from Hawaii and kiwis from New Zealand. I wonder what my genes are thinking. I bet they are confused. Should I settle and mate or migrate south where our ancestors always found greater sources of magnesium, or should we turn off those genes and grow hair because the winter seems to have come all of a sudden. Oops, wrong, it was the summer after all. Wait a minute!

Our genes don’t see that we now live in cement buildings, and that we grab our food from fridges. Our genes still analyze chemicals, nutrients (and the lack of them) to get a reading that will reflect the environment.

The chemicals in our food and the combination of nutrients, as well as the quantity and frequency with which we eat, are turning genes on and off to maximize survival. These genes are blind to what it is that they are trying to survive. What we consider ‘disease’, mostly seen as the body being defective in some way or function, is really the result of the highest intelligence attempting to survive. What is ‘diseased’ is that which created the confusion of our genes, our modern lifestyle.

For example, coronary artery disease is the accumulation of plaque inside the coronary arteries blocking the normal passage of blood. Initially, our body, detecting irritation in the arterial wall and inflammation, patches the damage. If things work as they usually do in nature, the irritation would pass because the same chemicals that turned on the genes that directed the deposit of cholesterol also turn on genes that would make the person reject certain foods and move to another location. When the nutrients finally get better, the irritation would stop and the cholesterol patch would be reabsorbed. But modern man stays doing the same thing for years and the plaque keeps growing, until the mechanism of survival, as perfect as it was designed, turns out to be the cause of the worse problems and death.

What is diseased is not the heart. Coronary artery plaque is actually the perfect response of your arteries to try and survive the way you eat and live.

My burning question is, ‘what did humans eat when they were in their original wild habitat, only guided by instinct, geography and season’? Whatever that diet looked like, let’s call it “Instinct Diet’. Since our genes are so slow to change, they still think that the nutrient analysis when eating the Instinct Diet is the most optimal one, and it also should be the diet that contains everything needed for all the body functions to operate at their best. The more we can approximate the nutrient mixture that we expose our genes to, to what they would have been exposed to if they were still living in those times, in the original environment they were designed by nature to live in, the better chances you will have of restoring your body’s natural ability to heal itself. Food and supplements are the tools we have to make that happen. Yes, supplements may be not as you find food in nature, but fridges, boxes, jars and cans ain’t either. Supplements are a less natural tool that may eventually allow us to live in such an unnatural environment as an apartment in NYC.

Don’t ask your doctor if you have any diseases. Instead, ask your doctor “What Is My Body Trying to Survive?”. The answer is not only more likely to show you the truth but also could save your life…

Put down the Zagat Guide and pick up a good book on cleansing and detoxification. It can save your life, and the planet’s. A good book to start with is my book, CLEAN, The revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself.

I wrote CLEAN in an attempt to clear the general confusion on detoxification and to prevent something tragic in my opinion. We are at risk of discarding the whole thing as a fad, because celebrities are endorsing it. There is great value in examining things without jumping into them because of endorsements from people we trust. Ironically, the most catastrophic backlashes came from fads endorsed by the people we trust with our lives, doctors. I am referring to the “Low Fat” fad. In the 90’s, America declared war on fat. Fat free was the secret to good sales. The concept that eating fat made you fat was endorsed by the medical community, and the country blindly followed. The result is the fattest country [...]]]>

Put down the Zagat Guide and pick up a good book on cleansing and detoxification. It can save your life, and the planet’s. A good book to start with is my book, CLEAN, The revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself.

I wrote CLEAN in an attempt to clear the general confusion on detoxification and to prevent something tragic in my opinion. We are at risk of discarding the whole thing as a fad, because celebrities are endorsing it. There is great value in examining things without jumping into them because of endorsements from people we trust. Ironically, the most catastrophic backlashes came from fads endorsed by the people we trust with our lives, doctors. I am referring to the “Low Fat” fad. In the 90’s, America declared war on fat. Fat free was the secret to good sales. The concept that eating fat made you fat was endorsed by the medical community, and the country blindly followed. The result is the fattest country in the world. Obesity has caused more deaths and disability in the last 20 years than all the wars ever fought by the US throughout its entire history, put together. Don’t believe me ? Read the National Health Statistics, if you are not at risk of a heart attack. They are scary.

Literally, the same generation of doctors that prescribed you a fat free diet are now warning you of the dangers of detox programs. Some go as far as to say the whole thing is quackery, that there is no basis to any of it. That the body has its organs of detoxification, they know how to do what they need to and if you leave things alone, everything will work as it should.

Well, that explanation is not good enough for me. It is like saying that the body has its muscular system that will take you here and there, and if you leave things alone, everything will work as it should. But look at what happens when we understand the muscles, and how they respond differently to different kinds of exercise, and how it responds to different kinds of diets. We have developed gyms, treadmills, elipticals, weights, gear, technology, services, foods, supplements and a whole culture that have yielded miraculous ways of shaping your body, gaining strength, agility, elasticity and many other benefits. Plus this industry has provided thousands of jobs.

A similar thing is happening with the understanding of detoxification. Spas, chefs, blenders, colonics machines, detox supplements and many other supporting services, activities and tools are appearing every day.

Some are excellent, some are good and some are dangerous. To give you the distinctions you need to figure these things out is my intention behind CLEAN.

And last , but not least, to give you a day by day guide to a 21-day detox program that can change your life while you live your life. Detoxing while living a busy life is not easy. Especially at the beginning. Most people need to stop everything and take a few days off, retreating into a spa and focusing on detox alone. The CLEAN Program described in the book, with Recipes by Jill Pettijohn, life food chef and detox expert, can be done while working, taking care of your family, and even working out. CLEAN will teach you what toxicity is, what and where these toxins are, how we are exposed to them, how we absorb them, what and where damage is caused and more importantly, what to do about it. It will teach you how to slow down the workload of your digestive system so that the detox systems can work at maximum intensity. But it doesn’t stop there. It teaches you what happens when detox in ON. How to support it and what to do when you encounter the most common obstacles.

It is undeniable that the earth has a fever. Global Warming is “An Inconvenient Truth”.

But a fever is just a symptom. In my opinion, the cause behind this fever is toxicity. Toxic thoughts, toxic emotions, toxic relationships, toxic governments, toxic financial institutions…..modern life in the modern world is toxic. And the biggest source of toxicity is through the chemicals we manufacture to use in our homes, our clothes, to clean our houses, to put in our cosmetics and pretty much everything else. The one thing that is mind blowing to me, that I still cannot wrap my mind around, is that the chemicals that kill us for sure over time are in what WE EAT. Yes, we don’t eat food any more, we eat chemical concoctions that look like food. 90% of what humans consume, wild animals won’t even go near if found in their natural habitats.

Global toxicity is “Another Inconvenient Truth”. Educate yourself about it. Spread the word. For more info go to www.cleanrevolution.tv.

In the meantime, don’t eat anything that you wouldn’t find in nature if you had to go look for your own food. When you walk in the supermarket, Imagine you are hunting, gathering or fishing in the wild. Nothing in the wild comes in cans, boxes, jars, bags or tubes.

With love and respect, and a CLEAN warm hug,

Alejandro

When I was a little boy, my mother always said, “Do not go swimming after a meal. Your muscles will cramp and you will drown.” For a long time I laughed it off thinking it was a scare tactic so she could take a nap after eating without having to watch me in the pool. As soon as she nodded off, I would jump in and swim even more. I was lucky…

Throughout medical school I was secretly waiting for the moment when I knew enough that I could disprove my mom. Nothing.

Many years later, reading Runner’s Magazine, I found an article about a frequent experience common to women in training for a marathon. They stop menstruating. While training intensely. A rusty bell went off in my thinking brain. Here is another case of the body shutting off a function when another function is demanding it’s attention and energy. When we wake up in the morning, we have a full battery of energy to spend. At the end of the day, [...]]]>

When I was a little boy, my mother always said, “Do not go swimming after a meal. Your muscles will cramp and you will drown.” For a long time I laughed it off thinking it was a scare tactic so she could take a nap after eating without having to watch me in the pool. As soon as she nodded off, I would jump in and swim even more. I was lucky…

Throughout medical school I was secretly waiting for the moment when I knew enough that I could disprove my mom. Nothing.

Many years later, reading Runner’s Magazine, I found an article about a frequent experience common to women in training for a marathon. They stop menstruating. While training intensely. A rusty bell went off in my thinking brain. Here is another case of the body shutting off a function when another function is demanding it’s attention and energy. When we wake up in the morning, we have a full battery of energy to spend. At the end of the day, we fall asleep, recharging the now almost empty tank. This full tank of energy has to be distributed among the many functions of the body.

There are functions that cannot be shut off, or we would die. The heart is the prime example. It has to keep beating. The brain is next. And in order of priority, one by one of our body functions is funded. When one function is used more intensely, other ones, less important at the moment of increased energy expense, will slow down, or shut down. This is the case of the marathon running ladies. The body wisely realizes that it will not get pregnant while training hard, so it momentarily shuts down the whole cycle of preparing the uterus for a baby and then discharging all the work every month. Once these women stop running, they resume their periods.

In the case of my mom’s theory, it wasn’t that obvious, but it was the first clue to my greatest discovery about the workings of our body systems.. If her ‘folk culture’ advice is true (to this day I have never heard of anyone drowning from muscle cramping because of swimming while digesting), it would mean that digestion is given such importance that our muscles would be shut down to protect it, with the obvious risks. My instinct tells me my mom was right all along. And I have a theory of how this came to be.

When it rains in a desert that seems dead, life sprouts as if by magic. A closer look reveals how evolution resulted in plants developing very sophisticated roots to capture every molecule of moisture.

For thousands of years, humans did not know where or when their next meal was going to be. Life basically consisted of surviving while looking for the next meal. And we developed a digestive system that absorbs everything it can, in case the next meal takes a long time to arrive. For thousands of years our genes evolved in such a way that when a meal was thrown in the processing tube (your intestine) and other than the heart, everything else was put to sleep. Just watch what happens next thanksgiving. We stuff ourselves to the point of stupor.

But suddenly, everything changed. The conditions that shaped our genes for thousands of years changed overnight, from an evolutionary perspective. In just a hundred years we have food available 24/7. The amount of time we used to spend hunting, we now spend eating.

But our genes still act as if every meal was the last meal. So our body absorbs everything it can, and it stops or slows down other functions while doing it. Digestion and absorption became so sophisticated by necessity in the past, that it requires the body to put a lot of energy into it. It will take evolution thousands of years to adapt into simplifying our digestion and absorption systems to relax a little and know that the next meal is only a few minutes away and therefore not need to take everything in.

I never go swimming after a meal any more. But I picked up a much more useful tip for life. One that would completely transform my way of thinking and my approach with patients and their sufferings.

This is what I am talking about: “When digestion is happening, the detoxification systems slow down”. They cannot completely stop because we would die in minutes. But their slowing down creates damage and disease in the long run. And this is one of the most important reasons why human health is in such a critical state. At a time when we are exposed to more toxins than ever before in the planet’s history, at a time when we need our detox systems to work extra hours, we are putting these systems practically into hibernation because we are too busy digesting. And we don’t even know it.

Part II of Detox, is it real? coming tomorrow…!