Is That Acrylamide in Your Coffee?

Now that I've talked you off coffee, let's dive deeper into some of the badness of the stuff. Do you recall the debate that surfaced in 2002 about a potential carcinogen found in fried foods, called acrylamide? There was much sound and fury when the discovery landed on front pages nine years ago, and like Japan's nuclear crisis, it all died down rather fast. Initially, acrylamide was thought to be mostly a problem in French fries (the most commonly eaten food in the US... um, how sad is that?) and potato chips, but it turns out to be present in both regular and decaffeinated coffee too. In fact, 20-40% of your acrylamide consumption appears to be from coffee. Yikers.

Who cares? I care. One study showed greater risk in women of uterine and ovarian cancer with increased acrylamide consumption. Not good.

Problem is this: proving carcinogenicity as causal in humans takes a long, long, long time, and more sinisterly, allows the big Agricultural complex lots of time to administer disinformation and quell fears. The Grocery Manufacturer's Association is one example of this type of campaign. and popped up as the top promoted site on my google search today. They are quick to quote talking heads with credentials (and on their payroll?) that there is no proven risk of acrylamides to humans.

Creepy. When this happens, when a deep-pocketed powerful lobby has a conflict of interest and the science is not fully formed, I favor the Precautionary Principle. In other words,  if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action, as offered up by Wikipedia.

I also favor the Swedish National Food Authority who first made the discovery of acrylamide in our food when carbs are heated with oil back in 2002. Here's a list of their publications and citations.

While data on human risk is mixed, I'm not so sure we've settled the issue. Even the erstwhile conservative National Institutes of Health states it is  ''reasonably anticipated'' that acrylamide is a human carcinogen. And the Environmental Protection Agency, considers acrylamide, which does cause cancer in test animals, a probable human carcinogen.

I tend to trust European sisters and brothers to uphold the precautionary principle to protect their people more than the US. For instance, they don't import cotton laced with DDT, another known carcinogen, but here in the US, we do. No surprise then that the European Chemicals Agency added acrylamide to the list of substances of very high concern in March 2010.

With thanks to my dear friend, brilliant psychiatrist Seth Robbins MD, who talked over a yummy, hopefully low-acrylamide meal last weekend at Plum about the acrylamide story with me.

Here's the chemical formula of acrylamide for my friends, the science geeks: C3H5NO.

I'll be writing more about acrylamide as I learn more about it, in the meantime, rethink that cup of Joe. And, as always, share with me your insights, concerns, knowledge, delicious coffee suggestions that are acrylamide-free, and general love. xoxox

5 Burning Questions: Get Your Deep Cleanse On

Part of cleansing is letting go of mental structures that no longer serve, along with choosing more fitting structures that would serve you more optimally. My best mentor?  Danielle Laporte. Check out the 5 burning questions (below) Danielle created along with Rich, Happy and Hot Marie Forleo and let them cleanse your mind.

Q's FOR SELLING YOUR SOUL...

1. Say your "official" job title out loud. Three times. Deep breath. How does it make you feel?

2. How much money would you like to make, annually? Visualize that number. Feel its energetic value. What's happening in body, as you hold that number in your heart?

3. What's on your "stop-doing" list? What do you need to delegate (or eliminate), to make space for magic?

4. What do people thank you for, consistently? What's the common thread of golden praise?

5. So...for real, now. What would you like to do with your life and career? {Money is no object. Dream.}

Hope these questions provoke and carry you to new insights. I'll show you my answers if you show me yours!

BTW, join me in New York May 12 for deep cleansing with Danielle and Marie in a program they call Selling Your Soul. Be sure to check out their bad-ass video on their page. Makes my heart go pitter patter.


Ancient traditions such as Yoga and Ayurveda view our lives as a perpetual search for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual food. Our optimal health is based both on successfully digesting the nutrients of our lives as well as on regular removal of the metabolic, energetic, and psychological waste/toxins. Old metrics that make you feel bad or less than are toxic and need to be removed and replaced with the jewels of greater authenticity.

Cravings 101: Fight the Saboteur

Your saboteur (or as Annie Lamott aptly calls it: KFKD radio) is the one telling you that dumping the junk is a waste of time. Why bother? Who cares? Who does that quack doctor think she is?

The key to counter your saboteur is to get empowered both to recognize and to talk back. Or send your saboteur my way and I'll handle him/her. Your saboteur has no power over me.

Here are some other techniques, from 12-Step food programs, that work for me when the saboteur is after me to just have one bite of chocolate or just a little bite of croissant or a cup of coffee while cleansing.

• Think it through to the bitter end. (This is from 12-Step literature). Rather than indulging in the fantasy and romance of what special food/wine you're craving and how it will taste, think through where your food trip has taken you in the past. Recall the injury. Recall the morning after - the remorse, the bloating, fatigue, hopelessness and shame. For some of us, the morning after includes struggling to zip the jeans.
• HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Eat every 4-6 hours so that you don't become hypoglycemic and cranky. If you're angry or lonely, write it out or call someone to talk it through. Sleep more while cleansing - that is when all of your cells reparative work is performed.
• Take action. What's the opposite of eating for you? Leave the scene of previous crimes (the kitch), make a gratitude or joy list (proven to raise your energy vibration), take a bath (I take up to two per day while cleansing with generous scoops of Epsom Salt), take a walk, call a friend.

I wrote yesterday about the physiology of craving, that they tend to last 15-20 minutes, and so I recommend setting a time for 20 minutes, drinking a large glass of water and having instead a small 1oz protein snack such as nuts or seeds or fruit. In other words, set the intention to use your knowledge of physiology to combat your craving and saboteur.

I'm also fascinated by the phenomenon of craving and how it separates temperate or normal eaters from problem eaters (of which I am one - I'm a sometimes compulsive eater). Do you know some normal eaters? Are you one? I have a friend who is a normal eater. She'll eat one small piece of cheese on bread, and stops. No message like crack goes to her brain (like cheese does in my brain - most contain morphine). Here's how Alcoholics Anonymous lays it out, which I believe applies to food, particularly gluten, dairy and sugar (that would include chocolate) items:

• cravings become a habit, usually to soothe restlessness, irritability, malcontent
• one cannot break the habit and it becomes more entrenched
• creates remorse -> bargaining -> craving -> sometimes binge cycle
• erodes self confidence
• we become more reliant on self will which often doesn't work
• problems pile up
• finally, it becomes astonishingly difficult to solve the problem; psychic change, as Jung stated, may be the only solution

Another way to look at psychic change is to borrow a concept from the buddhists: when faced with difficulty and suffering, seek refuge in the Buddha (or Higher Power, of your own understanding in the 12-step literature). If that doesn't work, seek refuge in the Dharma (or sacred texts, some literature which speaks to you and your suffering, offers a solution). If that doesn't work, seek refuge in the Sangha.

We are a Sangha, our sweet group of Cleansers.

Those are just a few ideas to work with as we march closer to our first official day of smoothies twice per day. In many ways, the 7-day pre-cleanse is the hardest part of the 21-day cleanse because you are navigating 3 meals per day while dumping gluten, dairy, caffeine, sugar and alcohol.

Are you skin brushing? Drinking your hot water with lemon and cayenne? Taking your detox packets twice/day? Stocking up on seasonal vegetables? Stepping away from the microwave?

Keep up the awesome work, and share with me in the Comments section what's working well, what's hard, what's neutral, what's charged.

Detox, Gottfried-Style - Join Us!

We started our webinar cleanse last Thursday, but you can join us at any time up to March 30, 2011 right here.

It’s never too late to detox.

We are tasked with clearing out gluten, dairy, caffeine, sugar and alcohol over the first seven days as part of the "Pre-Cleanse" as well as starting the Detoxification Support Packets to prepare our liver and gut for the job ahead. Did you start your morning today with a cup of warm, filtered water with a quarter of yummy Meyer lemon and a pinch of cayenne? 

To hear more about how to do this relatively easily and get started on balancing your hormones, click here.

How are your cravings? Are you experiencing any? For a cup of green tea? For a bite of ice cream? Here's what we know about cravings: they are time-limited. They last for 20 minutes. Instead of taking a bite or a drink of what you're trying to dump, instead have a big ol' glass of filtered water and a small protein snack. Say 10 almonds or a carrot. Or a cup of your alkalinizing broth.

Reset Your Liver with a Thorough Detox

I thought we'd spend some time today covering the topic of why both resetting the liver. When we look at detoxifying our bodies, it is a good idea to start with the body’s own filter, the liver. Many people overlook liver health until it is too late. Signs that your liver is ailin': You're gaining weight and you're eating the same food. You're fatigued, and feel like you need a nap many afternoons. You have disrupted sleep, and tend to awaken between 1-4am. Please note, if you feel like you have severe symptoms, always check with your doctor!

Is Estrogen Dominance Dragging You Down?

Another thing to really be aware of is estrogen dominance when beginning a detoxification regimen. It is very common for women aged 35-50+and can have varying effects on the body. Estrogen is an important adaptogen for us: when it’s just right, our mood is stable, our weight is relatively easy to sustain, our periods are not too heavy, our libido is just right.

Estrogen has over 400 jobs in your body. If it’s too low, as happens in menopause, our mood can fall because estrogen is Nature’s Prozac: it keeps your serotonin in the normal range. Low estrogen also causes dryness: of skin, vagina, vulva, clitoris, all the places that should be juicy and luminous. Your joints may also feel it.

When your progesterone divided by estradiol in the mid-luteal phase (approximately day 21 in a regularly cycling woman) is less than 100, you have a condition called estrogen dominance. Some of the pretty symptoms include: weight gain, breast tenderness, mood swings/PMS, growing fibroids, heavy and/or irregular cycles, painful periods and occasionally endometriosis, infertility or subfertility, sometimes autoimmune conditions such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Ready, Set, Cleanse!

We start in earnest with our full Cleanse next week, on March 24, 2011 and the next seven days allow us to transition off of the toxins we've been using somewhat gradually. While this blog post is primarily aimed at those who have joined our Group Cleanse, you can also join us virtually both on the blog, or on Facebook, on Twitter, and take the supportive supplements (ordering information is below).

Here is a great question on Detoxification: why bother with detox supplements to support the Cleanse? I thought I'd spend a moment giving the liver's job description and listing the functions of the supplements that support the job. I really believe that you understand the biochemical underpinnings, even in broad strokes; you'll be more motivated and derive a better outcome. First we'll talk about the liver and then I'll fill in the gaps on how the detox supplements help you.

The Liver’s Job

The liver takes harmful (such as alcohol) and more benign substances (such as estradiol, the most common estrogen until about age 50), and converts these substances typically from fat-soluble to water-soluble so that you can remove them in your urine, stool or bile. You have a bazillion enzymes in the liver that act on these substances.

Break it down for me, please?

There are two steps to the liver's daily task - Phase 1 and Phase 2. A toxin enters Phase 1 in the liver (the P-450 cytochrome system) and is reduced to smaller metabolites, which then move onto Phase 2, where they are bound to glutathione, glycine and sulfate. This new now non-toxic metabolite can be excreted in the bile, urine or stool.

Phase 1

Phase 1 either neutralizes a toxin or metabolizes a toxin to an intermediate form that is then neutralized in Phase 2. The mechanism used in Phase 1 includes the chemical reactions of oxidation, reduction and hydrolysis, and these processes produce free radicals which may damage liver cells. Antioxidants (Vitamin D, resveratrol, etc.) reduce the damage. If there are lots of toxins and not enough antioxidants, the risk is much higher, and sometimes potentially carcinogenic substances may be made.

Phase 1 and/or Phase 2 detox pathways may be overloaded or otherwise not working well. Particularly bad (aka, perfect storm conditions) exist when an ill person has an overload of toxins coming into Phase 1, and then Phase 2 is inefficient. This can lead to chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, drug intolerance, and chemical/environmental sensitivities, as well as other not-fun conditions.

A little more info on Phase 1: when it's inefficient or overloaded, you may experience intolerance to caffeine as well as scented products.  Overactive Phase 1 folks will be unaffected by caffeine. Here are things that activate Phase 1 detox:

• food: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage; high-protein diet, oranges/tangerines, charcoal-broiled meats
• alcohol, sulfa drugs, nicotine in cigarette smoke, steroids (including estrogen)
• environmental: paint fumes, carbon tetrachloride, exhaust, dioxin, pesticides
• supplements: vitamin C, niacin (B3) 

Phase 2

Also known as the conjugation pathway -- this means that liver cells add a little something (cysteine, glycine, sulfur) to the substance that is coming in. This makes the substance dissolve in water, and then you can get rid of it in urine, bile or stool. For things to work optimally here in Phase 2, you need the amino acids taurine and cysteine as well as additional nutrients (glycine, choline, and inositol). This is where the detox supplements come in!

A Side Note about Bile

Guess what? You make it in phase 2, and normal folks make a quart per day! Bile is the truck that drives the toxins out of your system into the intestines. What's important here is that the bile gets absorbed by fiber and excreted. Low fiber-diets lead to poor binding of the toxins, and the toxins get re-absorbed.  This now helps you understand why we are adding more fiber both with whole foods and a fiber supplement starting on day 8.

Power Packets!

Take a wild guess at what's in the Detox support packets: potent doses of taurine, cysteine, glycine, inositol, taurine, MSM, Vitamin B6 & 12, Vitamin C, antioxidants, and several other co-factors that help the liver such as biotin, selenium, zinc. These make Phase 1 and Phase 2 Detox pathways operate more efficiently and clear out lingering toxins. We haven't yet talked about the gallbladder, but several additional botanicals such as dandelion root, artichoke and beet extract help both the gallbladder and the liver with detoxification. The twice/daily Detox support packets prepare the liver and gut for the full Cleanse. The supplement helps to minimize damage from free radicals while revving up (or upregulating) the Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxification pathways. You'll also get from the supplements improved digestion of fats and fat-soluble substances. You'll take the Detox supplements for one month.

If you are interested in joining our Cleanse virtually, call or email our office and order the Detoxification Support Packets ($90 for a 30 day supply). Click here to order online or to visit our website (email us if you need help).

Detoxification is a very complex biochemical system, and I've oversimplified much of it in the service of making it more accessible. If you have questions, please post them in the comment section.

On Cleansing, D#0

A Hindu Scholar named Swami Adiswarananda once said that we must renounce what we've been doing for something that feels better. None of us renounces what feels good for something that feels worse.

His words frame my entry into the official start of our Gottfried Cleanse tomorrow, which is designed to balance your hormones and reduce your toxic load. You can join us via webinar at any time up to March 30. 2011 by clicking right here. I am going to post daily, Monday-Friday, on what is happening while I cleanse for the next 21 days: what comes up, what I'm working with, what about my relationship to food (and self-realization) is shifting, what I'm learning as I transcend the desire for food that makes me ill.

Today I asked our cleansers to start with an inventory of their relationship to food. Here are some questions to consider (please let us know your responses in our comments section!):

• POWER What makes you feel most powerful when reviewing how you eat and your relationship to food? When do you shine with food; what best serves you?
• HARM What is chronic, charged, repetitively not serving you in how you feed yourself?
• STOP What would you like to stop eating or doing with food? Examples: eating standing up, eating in the car while speeding to school to get your kids there on time, drinking 2 glasses of wine when 1 would have been fine.
• FEEL How do you want to feel with food?

Meanwhile, we talked about many fun and practical things that I wanted to share, for instance:

• For getting off caffeine over the next 7 days, meet or re-introduce yourself to the many detoxifying benefits of skin brushing. One cleanser from Oregon tells me there's no Whole Foods Market near her, so could I help a girlfriend out and give a link to where to obtain one. Here you go. Today on our webinar, I demonstrated how to dry skin brush, but my tiny little video didn't quite do it justice - so here's another video on it.
• Eat lotsa greens! Here's a favorite recipe from an old post on massaged greens. Share other fave recipes in our comments section!
• Breakfast ideas. When I'm cleansing, I eat 1 oz dry of quinoa flakes or gluten-free oats (when "wet" they usually weigh 5-6 oz) with 6oz of berries, 10 almonds and 2-3T of flax seeds. I add 2 poached eggs.
• There are significant risks from eating off food cooked on teflon-coated pans. Much better alternative: Scan Pan. Here's a link to scan pans at Sur La Table.

Some come back and join the dialogue as we transform your relationship to food, which I believe is foundational to both hormone organization and self-realization!

Kicking Dairy: Why Bother?

Throughout my 22 years of taking care of people, I've seen a lot of addictive behaviors. Particularly around food. Most common: chocolate, cheese, caffeine, flour, sugar, taken to anesthetize. These babies are drugs.

I recall learning in the early 1980s that dairy products contain morphine-like substances. This was published in Science in 1981. Learned this while studying nutrition and kids, and was curious why my daughters would drink cup after cup of organic milk if left to their own devices. I was aghast. I guess it makes sense in a Darwinian way that a baby calf would do better if addicted to cow milk. But I don't think we humans have a benefit.

I didn't think I had a problem with cheese until I encountered Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes. Now, I'm clear that I have a problem. I'm far better now, and my bowels are much happier, off dairy.

But don't take my word, for it. Stay skeptical. I welcome that. Get more data. Here's a bit more.



If you know you need help with this, join our Gottfried Cleanse via Webinar: Get Your Cleanse On. 21 days. Starts March 24, 2011, live at noon. Or download webcast later. Register now. It's like the Betty Ford for cheese, sugar and caffeine addicts.

MOTHS-R-US: Addiction as Initiation

Love this one-liner from Pema Chodron, about how we're insanely, wildly, immaturely, naively, passionately drawn to things that harm us just as a moth is to flame. All of us are addicts in one way or another, whether the object is sugar, our favorite TV show, struggle, excess carbon footprint, negative thinking, anger, violence, cabernet savignon, fashionable clothing, fantastically taut skin, scones, or any escape of your choice.

Here's a common scene in my life 5-10 years ago: It's Friday night. I'm hungry. I get home from a hard day of work. Kids screaming, irritable from a long week at school. Husband not home yet. I deserve a glass of wine. "I'll stop at one glass," I tell myself. I pour a glass while I made dinner and cajole kids into setting the table. I munch on the food I'm making while I cook dinner. I drown the glass of wine. I pour another. I eat an entire meal "tasting" the food I'm cooking. Husband comes home. He's stressed out and wants to transition. Glass of wine for him. We sit down to eat. I eat my second dinner with my husband and kids. I finish my second glass of wine. The bottle is nearly empty. I stop there. I eat dessert instead, perhaps two servings. "I'll diet tomorrow!" I tell myself cheerfully!

I wake up the next morning: hung over from the alcohol and the excess food and the dessert. I'm cranky, but worse than that, I'm full of remorse, frustration, even despair.

Ultimately, we want peace, happiness and joy, right? Yet our goal and methods often don't jive. We often find ourselves, very humanly, unable to say "no" to something harmful. We figure out with time that willpower, fear and the forced march of the latest diet fail us.

How do get our goal for peace and method to align better? How do we transmute our addictions into initiation?

Marianne Williamson would say that our addictions are from disengaging from "Divine Mind," which she defines as reconnection to your spiritual reality, achieved through force of Divine Mind, It's a gift from the Divine to return you to your sanity. She writes in A Course In Weight Loss that our goal is to remember the Divine Truth, which is that love is who you are, and this is the key to your healing. In this latest book from Marianne, famous for her translation and thought around A Course in Miracles (ACIM), her focus is on food, as in: it "is not about your relationship to food, it is about your relationship with love."

Why bother with cultivating "Divine Mind?" Because it is energizing. Inauthenticity and addiction are draining. Triage your energy elsewhere, toward the things that are enlivening for you.

Marianne would say that "unless your subconscious mind is involved in your weight loss efforts, it will find a way to reconstitute the excess weight, regardless of what you do. Excess weight is not caused by your lousy diet or lack of exercise - "mind is cause, body is effect."

I didn't learn much about addictive eating while in medical school. Sure, I learned how to screen for advertizing, and how to talk about drugs so I didn't sound like a total square (but really, I am a square, so why pretend otherwise? There's a whole lot of training in pretending in medical school!). I learned a bit about anorexia and bulimia but the more common affliction of compulsive overeating? No way.

It took me until age 40 to figure out that I was a compulsive overeater. While it's true that I'm rather highly compensated and don't vere too far off from my goal weight, I have the common Western-woman disease of obsessing over weight, checking out my visage in photos compulsively, thinking way too much about my butt and mid-section. I use up too much precious brain power on this. I want peace. I want a raincheck on the whole dreadful business of weight management.

Fortunately, and with a ton of therapy, self-experimenting, calibrating and compulsive nutritional and psychological study, I've found my happy place with food. I'm no longer a slave to sugar and flour. I've healed my gut and gotten rid of yeast and parasites that drove cravings and a tendency toward overweight. How about you?

And that feels delicious. As Geneen Roth says, "We don't want to eat an ice cream sundae, we want our lives to be an ice cream sundae." My life is an ice cream sundae, now, in this moment. Maybe not in two hours when my daughter wants to back some muffins, but for now, all is well. In this moment, I have the opportunity to re-connect to the inner bliss that's always there, just buried.

If you want more of this, and a 21-day jump start to changing your relationship to food (and love), join our upcoming CLEANSE via WEBINAR with Dr. Sara Gottfried MD: BALANCE HORMONES, GET OFF TOXINS. Premiers March 24, 2011 at noon Pacific Standard Time. Call 510.893.3907 or toll-free 888.893.6586 or visit us online. Remember the forgotten ways that food best serves you.

Out with the Old, In with the New

We are still cleansing here at the Gottfried Center. One helpful strategy as we near the final 5 days of the cleanse is what we need to release, what is no longer serving us. And what may replace it? What new habit, belief, system would better serve you in its place?

For me, I am releasing my inner critic, the radio station KFKD as described by Annie Lamott, The Voice as described by Geneen Roth. Just wrote about this a few days ago if you are trying to figure out WTF I'm talking about. Every day I'm writing down what my inner critic, whom I call my "Inner Authoritarian," as a way of recognizing and disengaging from this voice.

I am replacing it with regular, quiet time every morning. Or when I can catch it with two kids and a busy husband. Regular meditation. Not sitting completely still, as that does not work so well for me, but the form of meditation that most speaks to me in the moment. Usually sitting for 5-10 min with a focus on my breath, followed by 15 min of yin yoga poses (my fave is Supta Virasana), and ending in the most delicious and integrating sivasana.

You know quiet time is good for you. Recently it's been shown to improve the expression of over 500 genes, to make your brain bigger, and to increase telomere length (a major marker of accelerated aging).

What do you need to give up that no longer serves? What will you replace it with?

D4 Group Cleanse: Love Your Liver

We are thrilled to welcome 12 friends to our office last Wednesday for the start of our 21-day Cleanse. We got tasked with clearing out gluten, dairy, caffeine, sugar and alcohol over the next seven days as part of the "Pre-Cleanse" as well as starting the Detox supplements to prepare our liver and gut for the job ahead. Did you start your morning today with a cup of warm, filtered water with a quarter of yummy Meyer lemon? That is your job for the next 21 days.

We start in earnest with our full Cleanse next week, on May 12, and the next seven days allow us to transition off of the toxins we've been using somewhat gradually. While this blog post is primarily aimed at those who have joined our Group Cleanse, you can also join us virtually both on the blog, or on Facebook, and take the supportive supplements (ordering information is below).

Yesterday there was a great question on Detoxification: why bother with detox supplements to support the Cleanse? I thought I'd spend a moment giving the liver's job description and listing the functions of the supplements that support the job. I really believe that you understand the biochemical underpinnings, even in broad strokes, you'll be more motivated and derive a better outcome. First we'll talk about the liver and then I'll fill in the gaps on how the detox supplements help you.

Job: The liver takes harmful (such as alcohol) and more benign substances (such as estradiol, the most common estrogen until about age 50), and converts these substances typically from fat-soluble to water-soluble so that you can remove them in your urine, stool or bile. You have a bazillion enzymes in the liver that act on these substances.

Break it down for me, please. There are two steps to the liver's daily task - Phase 1 and Phase 2. A toxin enters Phase 1 in the liver (the P-450 cytochrome system) and is reduced to smaller metabolites, which then move onto Phase 2, where the are bound to glutathione, glycine and sulfate. This new now non-toxic metabolite can be excreted in the bile, urine or stool.

Phase 1, in other words, either neutralizes a toxin or metabolizes a toxin to an intermediate form that is then neutralized in Phase 2. The mechanism used in Phase 1 include the chemical reactions of oxidation, reduction and hydrolysis, and these processes produce free radicals which may damage liver cells. Antitioxidants (Vitamin D, resveratrol, etc) reduce the damage. If there are lots of toxins and not enough antioxidants, the risk is much higher, and sometimes potentially carcinogenic substances may be made.

Phase 1 and/or Phase 2 detox pathways may be overloaded or otherwise not working well. Particularly bad (aka, perfect storm conditions) exist when an ill person has an overload of toxins coming into Phase 1, and then Phase 2 is inefficient. This can lead to chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, drug intolerance, and chemical/environmental sensitivities, as well as other not-fun conditions.

A little more info on Phase 1: when it's inefficient or overloaded, you may experience intolerance to caffeine as well as scented products.  Overactive Phase 1 folks will be unaffected by caffeine. Here are things that activate Phase 1 detox:

• food: brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage; high-protein diet, oranges/tangerines, charcoal-broiled meats
  
• alcohol, sulfa drugs, nicotine in cigarette smoke, steroids (including estrogen)
• environmental: paint fumes, carbon tetrachloride, exhaust, dioxin, pesticides
• supplements: vitamin C, niacin (B3) 

Phase 2 is also known as the conjugation pathway -- this means that liver cells add a little something (cysteine, glycine, sulfur) to the substance that is coming in. This makes the substance dissolve in water, and then you can get rid of it in urine, bile or stool. For things to work optimally here in Phase 2, you need the amino acids taurine and cysteine as well as additional nutrients (glycine, choline, inositol). This is where the detox supplements come in!

A side note about bile: you make it in phase 2, and normal folks make a quart per day! Bile is the truck that drives the toxins out of your system into the intestines. What's important here is that the bile gets absorbed by fiber and excreted. Low fiber-diets lead to poor binding of the toxins, and the toxins get re-absorbed.  This now helps you understand why we are adding more fiber both with whole foods and a fiber supplement starting on day 8 of our Cleanse.

Take a wild guess at what's in the Detox support packets: potent doses of taurine, cysteine, glycine, inositol, taurine, MSM, Vitamin B6 & 12, Vitamin C, antioxidants, and several other co-factors that help the liver such as biotin, selenium, zinc. These make Phase 1 and Phase 2 Detox pathways operate more efficiently and clear out lingering toxins. We haven't yet talked about the gallbladder, but several additional botanicals such as dandelion root, artichoke and beet extract help both the gallbladder and the liver with detoxification. The twice/daily Detox support packets prepare the liver and gut for the full Cleanse. The supplement helps to minimize damage from free radicals while revving up (or upregulating) the Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxification pathways. You'll also get from the supplements improved digestion of fats and fat-soluble substances. You'll take the Detox supplements for one month. 

If you are interested in joining our Cleanse virtually, call or email our office and order the Detoxification Support Packets ($90 for a 30 day supply). Click here to order online or to visit our website (email us if you need help). Our next Group Cleanse will begin October, 2010.

Detoxification is a very complex biochemical system, and I've oversimplified much of it in the service of making it more accessible. If you have questions, please post them in the comment section.

D2 Cleanse: Mango Breakfast Cobbler

Mango Breakfast Cobbler
adapted from p 215 of Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen
(serves 4)

CRUST

1 1/4 cup almonds
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1  cup pitted and packed medjool dates
2 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter
FILLING

4 cups Mango, pitted and diced
1/4 cup agave syrup

To make crust, place almonds, vanilla, and salt into food processor. Lightly process into small pieces. Add dates and coconut butter, process to mix well.

Sprinkle half of the crust onto bottom of a loaf pan.

To make filling, toss together all ingredients. Scoop onto crust. Top with remaining crust.

D2 Cleanse: Inspiration from Ana Forrest & Yoga

I'm listing below an interview with Ana Forrest that I find inspiring. I'm working with the idea of tracking transformation, down to the minute details of the current cleanse we're in together for the next 21 days. Here's the interview, conducted by Vivienne Tang. -- SG

Ana Forrest is a pioneer in yoga and the emotional healing that can come from it. She has become a household name across the globe, famous for her own life traumas of abuse, drug addiction and bulimia, which she has overcome through Forrest Yoga, a style she developed in her quest for truth and wholeness. She openly shares her wisdom with Vivienne Tang, as she speaks about how her yoga journey has transformed and healed her spirit.


I became a certified teacher when I was 18. Yoga was the first tool I used to make a difference in myself. I came to yoga with a tremendous amount of pain. At this young age, I was a horse trainer and had been stomped and rolled on. I had been abused both emotionally and physically. I would take a yoga class, and it would handle a good bit of the physical pain. However, sometimes it wouldn't. At a certain point I had to go off on my own, into the unknown to find out what to do with my own pain. I explored and worked with poses to find out what worked for me. And I did the same thing with my students.

Also the classes did not touch the anguish I was feeling. I felt that something was alluding me. I began tracking and stalking this allusive bit. I studied various yoga systems, but the answers weren't there for me. It took 17 years for me to recognize I was hunting for my spirit. I learned to connect to my spirit through Native American ceremony. I now weave these teachings into my yoga ceremony workshops. I teach people how to connect with their spirit.

How does your background of addiction and abuse influence the healing aspect of Forrest Yoga?

I teach very clear and specific tools for healing, all of which are inherent in getting rid of addictions. Forrest Yoga is about developing strength - physical, spiritual and emotional. My desire for freedom from the entrapment of addiction influenced my teachings. I encourage my students to explore freedom in all areas of their life, spiritually, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Many addictions are considered unspeakable. I speak freely about my recovery and to people seeking recovery. Part of the healing process is to speak the unspeakable, then it can be challenged. Each of these challenges, including addiction, abuse, eating disorders, have a heavy physical injury component. Another healing aspect of Forrest Yoga is working through these physical issues.

Another thing I learned from the healing process of my drug addiction was how important it is for me to have a purpose in life. My life is going about that purpose. It gave me a reason to live in my deepest darkest despair. I work with people to develop their self-worth and self-respect. We work to become a person who walks the earth with honour and integrity. This can be based on the truth of our daily actions. You need strength, courage, wisdom, and an active connection with spirit to overcome addiction. Connecting to spirit takes ongoing mindfulness, everyday.

I teach my students how you can turn any experience around and see the treasure within. For example, my own abuse, I now help other people to free themselves from their own entrapments of abuse or addiction. I changed my karma into my dharma.

Do you have a motto? What is your philosophy in yoga and in life?

Evolve or die.
Never waste a good trigger.
No matter what happens there is healing for you if you are willing to do the work.
Bottom line question - does this brighten or dim my spirit?
Have the courage to walk the warrior's path.

Forrest Yoga is designed as a healing tool but also helps you answer questions about your life purpose. It is a practice where you can work out aggression, frustration, and, what I call "emotional puss pockets". Emotional puss pockets are those painful and stuck places in your body and cell tissue where residue from your life experiences or trauma are stored.

Keen intelligence in your practice builds internal intelligence. Cultivate the inner attention and listening ability to know what your spirit needs. Then you can connect to your spirit. Next, you develop the courage to live as your spirit dictates. If people walk as their spirit dictates it will radically change the alchemy of the human race. We will cleanse some of the karma of humanity. Each person working on this brings changes for all of us. When we live, connecting or attempting to connect to our spirit in integrity, choosing a path of evolvement and living a life of honour, we create an alchemic field that affects everything and everyone who walks through it.

I teach specific workshops where the intent is "Embodying Spirit". Many people do connect to their spirit within the first workshop series. For those who have had their spirit shocked out of their body by life and death experience (for example, sexual abuse), they first learn to connect to their heart. They put out a heartfelt call to bring their spirit home. In the process they learn what they need to do to make their home, i.e. their body, ready for their spirit to live in their body. There is a lot of clean up necessary. But it is an incredible journey and well worth the work. Then the challenge is to live each day embodying spirit, not just on the mat. Become aware of what disconnects them from spirit. What dims or brightens it. I teach how to make a warrior's choice, to choose actions, over and over again.

What is your mission behind Forrest Yoga?

The Mission is to give people the tools to heal themselves, become empowered and build strength and flexibility at any age. It is an intelligent healing system that is self-empowering and way fun. Through Forrest Yoga people can find the unique gifts they have to offer in this world. In our teaching we build integrity and live the truth of honouring our own sacredness.

How would you describe the Forrest Yoga style?

I created Forrest Yoga to address the needs of our people in this century, the needs of today's society and the ailments that our bodies are manifesting due to our lifestyle; lower and upper back pain, neck and shoulder issues, carpal tunnel, intestinal sickness and disease, etc. I created poses to address these issues. They then evolved into Forrest Yoga. Many of my students have particular health issues that are not addressed by traditional yoga. I create poses for them and work with them in a way that is healing for them.

Our life experiences affect our bodies. Forrest Yoga gets deep into those places and cleanses them. When you clear these areas there is room within your body for you to live. Your body is no longer a storage unit for old pain and unresolved life experiences. Many of us feel a yearning for something more. I perceive this as a lack of spirituality. Forrest Yoga helps people reconnect, or connect for the first time, to their spirit. It honours and celebrates the beauty of life.

It helps you connect to your core, getting strong and centred. It uses heat, deep breathing and vigorous sequences to sweat out toxins. The long holds in the pose progressions help you flush, oxygenate and rejuvenate every cell. It is an inspiring yoga practice that deepens the relationship with your authentic self.

Forrest Yoga takes you to your edges, and when working at your edges (and beyond) you experience joy, insight, confidence, success, strength, and passion. Skillfully focusing your intent on breath brings incredible freedom. I teach students to breath in a very profound way. If they know how to direct their breath, they can direct their life force where it is needed. If they are shut down, or have pain in a particular area, but can direct their life force to that area, they free it up. In freeing up the area, they are healed. You feel fitter, stronger, steadier, and brighter. Forrest Yoga gives you balance and focus, so you can live a life that you are proud of. If you want to be a better parent, better executive, or whatever matters to you, develop the tools to do it in Forrest Yoga.

It will teach you to go deeper, find your truth and encourage you to take these gifts you have earned beyond the mat into the rest of your life. Students come to a class for a variety of reasons: to heal their injured shoulder, improve their stamina, lose weight, overcome addictions, find a place to be calm, get stronger... What they get, however, is so much more than they thought possible.

How do you combine shamanism with yoga?

I first learned how to connect to my spirit in Native American medicine ceremony, not on the yoga mat. In the Native American tradition there are ceremonies for healing, for vision questing, for finding our next step in life, for determining what is holding us back. There is a ceremony for every human issue. Ceremony requires and therefore develops the highest quality of attention possible. We learn to deal with our challenges and issues in a respectful and sacred way. It is very applicable for issues that bring shame and low self-respect, like anorexia. I did many ceremonies and derived tremendous insight and transformation from them.

At first, in an attempt to share this precious and wonderful discovery, I set up sweat lodge and ceremony at some neighbouring mountain top. It took me a while to distill the internal ceremonial process that could be used in the yoga studio. In my Forrest Yoga teacher trainings, I bring in elements of ceremony. I keep my students on track with their most deepest heartfelt yearnings and desires. "Setting the intent" is a crucial element of ceremony that I use in the yoga room. At the beginning of my yoga class, I guide the students into setting their intent on a topic or issue that is most important for them to deal with that day. The students use the pose to serve that intent. By keeping mindful of intent through the action of the poses makes the experience 1000 times more powerful.

So how did you turn grief, pain, anger and fear into compassion and love?

Working through my healing process gave me compassion and patience with my students. Only later was I able to give to myself, but I learned it from my students first. Love is a learning process and being in a relationship is a great place to practice love. I teach people to practice conditional love. So many people talk about unconditional love. What is that? When I started to teach, I learned to love my students and it was very conditional. You had to be in the yoga room doing the class. I didn't have time for them outside of the class. At that time, loving them for one and a half hours was all I could do. That was all I could manage. So how I learned to love was by taking action. I asked the question, "What is the most loving action I can take right now, that will serve us to move out of the difficult place to healing?"

This included learning how to be a truth speaker. Being dishonest about your feelings, such as anger, pain and hurt, is damaging to you and everyone you are in relationship with. You lose your self-respect. I do not consider it compassionate to allow people to wallow in their issues. The most compassionate action I can take for another person, like my students, is to not be swayed by their emotional reactiveness or their internal destructive programs or conditioning. I ask them to feel the sadness and cry, instead of trying to comfort them into not feeling it. Love and compassion are not like a jacket you can just put on. They are something you grow and tend to and redefine on a regular basis. Our wisdom and capacity to love grow as we grow.

Do you include meditations in your yoga teachings?

In the Forrest Yoga Teacher Training, I start the morning with Native American ceremony of calling in the power of the directions and setting the intent of the day. Then we chant Native American chants and sit. While we sit we are focusing our intent and bringing it out of thinking and into our visceral experience. This is done first thing in the morning of all 22 days of the training. It is a powerful meditation.

What is the most interesting yoga experience you've ever had?

Quite a while ago during my practice, I really wanted to get what was inside of me. I actually starting bracing myself for a big war against all the stuff inside of me, because I just thought it was going to be terrible. I rode my breath, my wind force, deep inside my cell tissue. I was quite amazed when I found myself there. So I went down deeper to an atomic level. There I found I was comprised of a bunch of sparkling bits dancing around in a choreographed space and the space was vast. I saw these little sparkling bits dancing around, and I realized I was looking at energy matter.

My view of myself changed forever. My conception of what is solid and stuck in this world no longer had a foundation in truth. I had a new truth. And I realized that all my "stuff", my crippleness and my addictions are not real.

I saw I had this exquisite space inside of me that is as vast as the cosmos. I was awestruck by the beauty of my own particle dance. My belief in my lack of worthiness, of what I could or could not do, all collapsed. The realm of possibilities opened up like a hidden world. Even now when I remember the truth of my own cellular dance, it changes the way I see my perceived limitation. The experience helps me stay connected. The exciting, and yet scary truth is I don't know what I'm capable of. But instead of staying entrapped and miserable, it gives me the strength to go and explore my capabilities.

What are you currently working on?

A book. It is a combination of my memoirs and teaching tools.

What are your plans for the future?

Forrest Yoga is my life's purpose. I truly believe we all can do something to help our people. I am developing Forrest Yoga teachers. I want them to be great and they want to be great. We created a Mentorship program in which each Forrest Yoga teacher is mentored by another more senior teacher. This provides great opportunities of growth for both the mentor and the mentee.

These mentors are a group of Forrest Yoga teachers that have pledge to be the guardians and carriers of the legacy of Forrest Yoga. So Forrest Yoga can live far beyond my life span and continue to transform and excite people for at least seven generations to come. I have started and will continue to build the Forrest Yoga Educational Library. This consists of DVDs, CDs and writings about my teachings. This library will be the resource of my Forrest Yoga teachings.

I'll continue to teach across the US and internationally, something I love best, working directly with people and providing them with the tools for healing and living a full and fascinating life. I love helping people find what they are passionate about, helping them focus on what matters to them and not waste their life force on inconsequential things of their life. Forrest Yoga helps people walk on this planet in a healing way, and in power.

As a culture, we are immature. We pollute our own water, land, and air. Forrest Yoga helps people evolve into their maturity, to learn how to be responsible, knowing how to respond appropriately to each life situation, which includes the way we interact with ourselves and each other. And it determines whether we continue to destroy our water, air and land, or decide to heal our relationship with the planet that supports us.

If we childishly destroy this planet, then we will never evolve into the magnificence that we are capable of. I'm working with our people to reach that magnificence. I'm very hopeful that we can do this. I can see this happening. It may not happen soon or at all, but it could. I see Forrest Yoga as part of this. We can do this alchemical change. It is important that each one of us can recognize that we can make a difference. We need to find out what we are capable of doing.

I have a story. I had a student in Los Angeles that spent five or six years fighting against a Nuclear waste dump that was going to poison the Colorado river and basically the water source for most of California. She worked tirelessly protesting, going to meetings, going to Washington DC. Protesting and going to Washington DC is not what I do, that's what she does. But what my contribution to this movement was to teach her yoga. I taught her tools to hold her centre during all those years she was in battle. That was my contribution in this instance. I think it is important that each of us do something that we can be proud of, and it creates a chain reaction of caring. Each of us can make a difference. We are not helpless or powerless. We are needing to learn how to bring ourselves to live in a way that doesn't destroy but that is in balance. That is part of our maturation process. That is most inspiring to me.

What are your 5 key contributions to make the world a better place?

I've created a yoga system that helps anyone create a life of healing and purpose.
I've created a teaching course that trains Forrest Yoga teachers to be excellent teachers and healers, who can continue the healing work and help humans evolve
I've developed skills and tools for people to help and heal themselves in an honorable way, which also connects them to their unique gifts and passion, which they can take out and help heal the world.
I insist on living in integrity and honesty.
I teach others to do the same. When people chose integrity in their actions, that choice has a very profound effect in the world.

D1 of Group Cleanse: Lessons from Raw Masta

We are thrilled to embark on another Gottfried Cleanse starting today. Join us: take the next 7 days to remove gradually gluten, caffeine, sugar, alcohol and dairy.

What makes it easier is delicious, such as this amazing marinade over raw kale. Ani's marinade softens the kale and is so flavorful, you'll forget how good it is for you. Thank you to my dear friend from high school who made this for me on Monday night!

Here's Ani Phyo's Sunflower Thyme Marinade
    2 T thyme
    1 clove garlic
    1 cup extra virgin olive oil
    1/2 cup sunflower seeds soaked an hour or more and then drained
    1 T apple cider vinegar
    1 t sea salt
    (2 T lemon juice--my friend's addition)

    Blend all ingredients until smooth. Marinade will keep for three to four days and makes enough for a few salads.

From her book, "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen".

D1 of Our Group Cleanse -- Join Us

D1 of Cleanse. Join us virtually?

first step: remove caffeine over the next 7 days. if you're quite addicted to coffee or black tea, take it slow. best to first switch to black tea if you're a coffee drinker, green tea if you're addicted to black & white tea if you're into green. My fave substitute: warm cup of filtered water with fresh Meyer lemon & a pinch of cayenne. That and skin brushing in the morning (get your skin brush at Whole Foods) gets you going so you don't need the caffeine.

Know that caffeine INCREASES cortisol, anxiety & sugar cravings. And thickens your waist. And makes you retain fluid.

Get off caffeine completely for 14 days.

Detoxing with MLK: Day 6

Here's what we really need to detox out of our hearts and minds, from Martin Luther King, Jr:

"There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong. I don't think we have to look too far to see that. I'm sure that most of you would agree with me in making that assertion. We haven't learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real danger confronting civilization today is the atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of all people, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness - that's the atomic bomb that we've got to fear today."

Week 1: The Pre-Cleanse & Supplements

We were thrilled to welcome 20 friends to our office yesterday for the start of our 28-day Cleanse. We got tasked with clearing out gluten, dairy, caffeine, and alcohol over the next seven days as part of the "Pre-Cleanse" as well as starting the Detox supplements to prepare our liver and gut for the job ahead. Did you start your morning today with a cup of warm, filtered water with a quarter of yummy Meyer lemon? 

We start in earnest with our full Cleanse next week, on Jan 20, and the next seven days allow us to transition off of the toxins we've been using somewhat gradually. While this blog post is primarily aimed at those who have joined our Group Cleanse, you can also join us virtually both on the blog, on Twitter, and take the supportive supplements (ordering information is below).

Yesterday there was a great question on Detoxification: why bother with detox supplements to support the Cleanse? I thought I'd spend a moment giving the liver's job description and listing the functions of the supplements that support the job. I really believe that you understand the biochemical underpinnings, even in broad strokes, you'll be more motivated and derive a better outcome. First we'll talk about the liver and then I'll fill in the gaps on how the detox supplements help you.

Job: The liver takes harmful (such as alcohol) and more benign substances (such as estradiol, the most common estrogen until about age 50), and converts these substances typically from fat-soluble to water-soluble so that you can remove them in your urine, stool or bile. You have a bazillion enzymes in the liver that act on these substances.

Break it down for me, please. There are two steps to the liver's daily task - Phase 1 and Phase 2. A toxin enters Phase 1 in the liver (the P-450 cytochrome system) and is reduced to smaller metabolites, which then move onto Phase 2, where the are bound to glutathione, glycine and sulfate. This new now non-toxic metabolite can be excreted in the bile, urine or stool.

Phase 1, in other words, either neutralizes a toxin or metabolizes a toxin to an intermediate form that is then neutralized in Phase 2. The mechanism used in Phase 1 include the chemical reactions of oxidation, reduction and hydrolysis, and these processes produce free radicals which may damage liver cells. Antitioxidants (Vitamin D, resveratrol, etc) reduce the damage. If there are lots of toxins and not enough antioxidants, the risk is much higher, and sometimes potentially carcinogenic substances may be made.

Phase 1 and/or Phase 2 detox pathways may be overloaded or otherwise not working well. Particularly bad (aka, perfect storm conditions) exist when an ill person has an overload of toxins coming into Phase 1, and then Phase 2 is inefficient. This can lead to chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, drug intolerance, and chemical/environmental sensitivities, as well as other not-fun conditions.

A little more info on Phase 1: when it's inefficient or overloaded, you may experience intolerance to caffeine as well as scented products.  Overactive Phase 1 folks will be unaffected by caffeine. Here are things that activate Phase 1 detox:

• food: brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage; high-protein diet, oranges/tangerines, charcoal-broiled meats
  
• alcohol, sulfa drugs, nicotine in cigarette smoke, steroids (including estrogen)
• environmental: paint fumes, carbon tetrachloride, exhaust, dioxin, pesticides
• supplements: vitamin C, niacin (B3) 

Phase 2 is also known as the conjugation pathway -- this means that liver cells add a little something (cysteine, glycine, sulfur) to the substance that is coming in. This makes the substance dissolve in water, and then you can get rid of it in urine, bile or stool. For things to work optimally here in Phase 2, you need the amino acids taurine and cysteine as well as additional nutrients (glycine, choline, inositol). This is where the detox supplements come in!

A side note about bile: you make it in phase 2, and normal folks make a quart per day! Bile is the truck that drives the toxins out of your system into the intestines. What's important here is that the bile gets absorbed by fiber and excreted. Low fiber-diets lead to poor binding of the toxins, and the toxins get re-absorbed.  This now helps you understand why we are adding more fiber both with whole foods and a fiber supplement starting on January 20 (day 8).

Take a wild guess at what's in the Detox support packets: potent doses of taurine, cysteine, glycine, inositol, taurine, MSM, Vitamin B6 & 12, Vitamin C, antioxidants, and several other co-factors that help the liver such as biotin, selenium, zinc. These make Phase 1 and Phase 2 Detox pathways operate more efficiently and clear out lingering toxins. We haven't yet talked about the gallbladder, but several additional botanicals such as dandelion root, artichoke and beet extract help both the gallbladder and the liver with detoxification. The twice/daily Detox support packets prepare the liver and gut for the full Cleanse. The supplement helps to minimize damage from free radicals while revving up (or upregulating) the Phase 1 and Phase 2 liver detoxification pathways. You'll also get from the supplements improved digestion of fats and fat-soluble substances. You'll take the Detox supplements for one month. 

If you are interested in joining our Cleanse virtually, call or email our office and order the Detoxification Support Packets ($90 for a 30 day supply). Click here to order online or to visit our website. Our next Group Cleanse will begin March 17, 2010.

Detoxification is a very complex biochemical system, and I've oversimplified much of it in the service of making it more accessible. If you have questions, please post them in the comment section.