Where Is Your Second Brain?

Of course you know –it’s what guides your behavior almost constantly…

Your stomach!

According to a January 25, 2011, Wall Street Journal article, “Hungry? Your Stomach Really Does Have A Mind of Its Own,” the over 500 million nerve cells of your stomach represents a powerhouse of sensation for your body, like another brain.

One of the ground-breaking experts in the field of health study, Dr. Earl Mindell agrees.  Mindell has written over 50 books including the classic The Vitamin Bible which celebrates its 30^th year in 2011 with a new edition.  His other books include topics ranging from the benefits of soy, prescription drug alternatives to herbs, supplements and his newest book, The Nutrition Bible.

The second brain theory is a powerful idea. The problem is, our 2^nd brains are telling us the wrong things. We continue to be hungry but for the wrong things.

Mindells tell Family First we are a nation of sugarholics. From the youngest age, we are rewarded with sugary treats – cake on our birthday, cookies for being good, pie on holidays. We train our bodies to crave sugar.

Sometimes, we don’t even know that we are eating sugar but foods such as breads and pastas also contain sugars. Mindell says there are 32 ways to say “sugar” on a label. Look for anything that ends in “–ose” and you’ve found a form of sugar: sucrose, fructose, and don’t forget corn syrup too.

This addiction to sugar has created a nation with 3 out of 4 people considered overweight and 25% of those people are obese.  In his book The Nutrition Bible, Mindell has even coined a new phrase “diabesity” the condition of our obesity causing Type II Diabetes (Adult On-set).

Thirty years ago, when Mindell first proposed the break-through ideas about nutrition and the benefits of vitamins and minerals, the America diet was significantly different.

A serving of soda was 6 ounces. Now, a “normal” serving is 20 ounces! That’s over three times the calories.  Thirty years ago, fast food was just beginning. Families still ate dinner together, cooked together and bought fresh foods instead of prepackaged prepared foods full of sugars and sodium preservatives.

These days, according to Mindell, a food product travels 1,500 miles, on average, to its destination. No wonder our foods are full of preservatives. If you’re wondering how that affects your foods, Mindell suggests throwing your store-bought tomato against the wall. It will bounce off!

The over 10,000 chemicals we are adding to our foods are causing all kinds of issues in our bodies, according to Mindell. He points out we have no idea what the long-term effects of these substances have on our bodies but we can be sure our ancestors’ bodies wouldn’t have been able to handle these chemicals.

In The Nutrition Bible, Mindell points out that we, as humans, have been eating grains for only 5,000-7,000 years. Before that, our diets were 100% meat and plant-based. Now, we have pervasive diet allergies occurring in our population, especially in our children. This was not the case even 30 years ago when he first began writing about nutrition and vitamins.

Allergies are just one cause of inflammation in the body. Inflammation is the major cause of disease. Mindell says the last century’s killer was infection. This century’s biggest killer is inflammation and we are causing it with the chemicals we ingest daily.

This medical epidemic is purely man-made from our diets and absolutely correlates to our increased incidents of cancer. Mindell says by some estimates 50% of our population will have some kind of cancer by 2040. That’s one out of every 2 people you know will fight some form of cancer.

Even our drinking water contributes to this issue. Mindell has long been a proponent of water filtration systems. Tap water, while drinkable, contains all kinds of chemical by-products including pharmaceuticals. This is because 50% of the American population is on some sort of prescription drug, which the rate in the elderly at close to 100%.

Bottled water is no better since most of the big beverage companies simply bottle tap water. Now you’re paying for the same thing you get from a tap and contributing to a landfill full of plastic bottles. Mindell says filtration systems can’t eliminate all these substances but they definitely reduce them significantly.

Drinking pure water is extremely important, according to Mindell. Coffee, soda and any other sweetened beverage are hard on the body. Water is a major element in our bodies and the lack of that element is what causes a lot of our hunger in the first place.

If we get in tune with our body’s signals and break our addiction to sugars, we can be healthier. Mindell references the Seventh-Day Adventists as the healthiest population in the United States. Their diets consist of no meat, a large amount of soy products, no coffee or alcohol and no smoking.

Mindell has been a supporter of soy for years. He says we are the largest producer of soy beans but the smallest consumer for humans. We feed our hogs and cattle the majority of the soy beans we grow and ship about 1/3 of what is produced to Asia, where the typical diet contains many soy-based products.  In Okinawa, where the longest-living people on Earth reside, Mindell says they eat meat as a condiment versus the American mentality of the meat being the centerpiece of every meal.

Mindell says we can change our health with a few adjustments. Some other tips he offers:

• Eat slowly. It takes our stomachs 15 minutes to register our fullness and cue us to stop eating. If you plow through a meal, you will definitely over-eat. Slow down, eat together as a family and eat fresh foods you cook (and grow) yourself.
• Drink your body weight divided by 2 in ounces every day.  If you are 180 pounds, that means you need 10-11 8-oz glasses of water each day.
• Before that Super Bowl party, drink water and eat an apple. The fiber in the apple and the water will help fill you up and keep you away from the fattening party dips and snacks.
• Instead of processed sugars, start serving raw honey or a herb called Stevia. Both will satisfy the sweetest tooth and can help break the sugar addiction.
• Try to eat fish such as wild salmon, mackerel, cod, halibut, albacore tuna or sardines twice a week to help get enough Omega-3s if you are not taking a daily supplement.
• Supplement with some form of vitamins and minerals including Vitamin D. Americans lack Vitamin D, a hormone, because we do not get enough sunlight and we always wear sunscreen to block the absorption.  Getting enough servings of fruits and vegetables each day is almost impossible the way Americans currently eat so a multi-vitamin is very important.

To read more about Dr. Mindell and his books and other products, check out his website at www.drearlmindell.com.