A Great return volley fro Joe Mercola

If you've been following my blog you will have seen that I have given Dr Joe Mercola a 'serve' based on his inept caricaturisation of the water ionizer, and his all-too-obvious new product launch. 

But I'm a mere amateur compared to Rob Thomas of www.waterfyi.com. Take a look.

A 'better' Christmas message from the Alkaway Team

After our last Christmas carol and a heap of response from my readers I thought I'd better give you all a 'better' Christmas message than our homegrown one.

Imagine! Over 25 million people have viewed this video of a suprise shopping mall moment many people will never forget!
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What's the water footprint of a can of Coke?

Thirty-five liters of fresh water are needed to produce just one half liter of Coca Cola,

according to a report issued by the company with the Nature Conservancy, a worldwide land and water protection agency based in Arlington, Va.

The same report found 640 liters of freshwater are used to produce one liter of Orange Juice.

It's statistics like these and consumers growing water scarcity concerns in dryer regions, that will bring water conservation issues to the forefront in the near future, says Jason Morrison, program director at the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, Calif.-based research company that focuses on sustainability issues. "All it takes is one prolonged dry period to get people talking about water pretty quickly," he says. "Our research shows that most consumers believe businesses should not only engage in water conservation practices but also be part of the overall solution concerning water quality and water access issues community wide."

Water footprinting – think of it like carbon footprinting—is an attempt to try and quantify the water use of an organization, product or locality. Increasingly, he says, investors are including high water dependence as a potential risk when evaluating potential ventures. 

Expect more food manufacturers to invest in cutting water use, but don't look for a water footprint label, which would actually require water to be created.

Meat and Greens; Balance or Polarity

I spent quite a time on the comments on the LA Times Low Carb article in my last posting. It proved to be a goldmine of information from people seriously involved in the carb vs. protein argument. 

The two graphs I've added here pinpoint the essence of the discussion, which bounced back and forth between the low fat people claiming that the low carb people ate too much meat, and the Low carb people claiming the low fat people ate too many rubbish carbs. 

I talked about the 'Good Acid and Good Alkaline Diet' in my last post, and it appears that some of the respondents can't understand that there are people who DO balance fats, meats and good carb-containing vegetables. By eliminating fructose-laden fruit, plus ALL grains, and upping my green intake, AND keeping up my alkaline ionized water supply, I'm balancing my acids and alkalis. 

Any way, some excellent comments in the discussion. Here it is.

The graphs? They were posted by an anti-carb subscriber.. but the bleeding obvious is that if you do have a diet with an excessive proportion of that diet as meat, yes, you will fall over and break your hip. But if you make use of the fat and meat as available complex protein, reduce the carbs, fruit, sugar and grains to reduce the insulin excess in the blood, and keep up the alkalizing.. well, I'd love your comments. 

And please, if you are vegetarian, please don't tell me I'm wrong. 

I was vegetarian for 12 years. I found that although I was healthy, I was also weak. And further, iw as a typical Western style vegetarian, compensating for my pangs with that old stalwart, BREAD. That's my story and I understand it may not be yours. Yes, I have read Peter Singer and I have serious problems with the whole mass meat processing supply system.. but I can't ignore good science.

Dairy Fat Cuts Diabetes risk

A big day for me yesterday related to my low-to-no-carb diet. 

Firstly a wonderful article in the LA Times titled 'A Reversal on Carbs' and then an article on the ability of dairy fats - that's butter to you..and its ability to redcue the risk of Diabetes II. See it here.

So we now begin to see that what we've been taught about saturated fats, and about carbs.. is the real junk science. Helleluja!

I'm also seeing that our alkaline diet is correct, but it seems to be expanding into what I'll tentatively call the "Acid AND Alkaline Diet" simply because it is now coming to light that many so-called 'bad' acidic foods work very nicely thank you with our alkaline diet. So it's not just 'The Alkaline Diet". 

It's the "GOOD Alkaline and GOOD Acid Diet!"

Uh. Oh. I feel a  book coming on. Or perhaps it's just wind.

Happy Christmas from the AlkaWay Men's and Women's United Chior

Just how important water really is for your kids.

I'm working with an amazing woman, Irena Kirpichnikova, who has been assisting people with their children's learning difficulties for the last 20 years. I interviewed her here and discussed her work, but she also shared some of the stories of kids she has been able to help.

This story from Irena stood out for its relevance to proper hydration for kids.

"Jan Johnson brought her 9 year old son Simon to see me about his focusing inability. In the first 5 minutes of my chatting to Jan, Simon managed to take the teddy bear I had sitting in the corner, remove one of its eyes and put a hole in it and start taking out the stuffing. (I am sure a number of you parents can relate to this). That day I just asked a lot of questions about Simon, his lifestyle, his habits and his live. Simon couldn’t sit still for the life of him.

Simon didn’t like drinking water, or anything else for that matter. He was dehydrated! This is often very common with children with learning difficulties, for some reason their body messages about thirst just don’t work – and parents just can’t get them to drink anything! So we made drinking into a game for Simon and also I taught him a little about the brain and how it works and he related to the brain looking and feeling like the jelly he eats – which is mostly just made up of water… all squishy, and how if the brain is 90% water then you just have to give it fuel! Drink water so that it can work well and then life would be much easier for him… He also got to make his own icy poles with water and fruit – such as strawberries, banana and pineapple and was allowed to eat them all the time! Wow! He was also allowed to put stuff into his water like Mint, fruit, oranges chopped up and stuff like that… it became fun to drink water and see what he could do with it…

Within a few days Simon's brain was hydrated enough to activate the thirst message and he became really thirsty and just loved drinking water.. as a result he was able to sit still in class, focus and learn. Simon went through the Brain Activation Program to switch on his brain and bring him back up to speed.

Simon didn’t have a learning disability at all like he was treated for at school – he was just very very thirst – but his brain didn’t know it"

If you have any friends with Children with learning difficulties - and this includes Aspergers', Dyslexia, all the usual ones.. just tell them about this amazing woman! Her system works anywhere English is spoken and is an actual program delivered in your home. Send the link to this blog, or the address on the interview page.

Breaking News; my 'Diet to die For' hits the bigtime news; Los Angeles Times no less..

See the big news here

Clearer and Cleare-rer: Ian and his diet to die for.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I postponed my 64th birthday party by a week and spent it at Cassie's sister Gina and her husband's place high in the hills above Tumbulgum on the Tweed river. The day was awful so the usual views across the canefields to the sea were non-existent, but that only made the company all that better. Everyone attending was in some stage of low carb dieting, and the food reflected this, including Cassie's blueberry cheesecake made from fresh cream from the local dairy and Stevia for the small amount of sweetening it seemed to need. Salads were abundant as were grass fed steaks, but it was the 'vibe' of the day that was different. It was the first celebration we had been to where there was no rush to indulge. We drank a little Prosecco - but no-one was drunk.

Looking back at it today I realise that when you take the addiction out of eating there's a whole new experience that awaits you. It's a leisurely feast with more focus on friends and fun, laughter and conversation. There were not the highs that I associated with past celebrations - but none of the post-repast let-down either.

I'm slowly changing my whole attitude to food, and it's all happening because I've changed what I eat. It's obvious to me that food does indeed maketh the man - in the way one thinks, even in the way one views the world.

I am very, very grateful that I live with a woman so committed to finding the truth about health. 

Which reminds me... Cassie constantly reminds me that fruit juice is as bad for you in terms of sugar as some of the worst soft drinks. A few examples demonstrate this:

                      Coke     Orange Juice    Apple Cherry     Grape

Total carbs       40            39               42        49.5         60

Sugar carbs      40            33               39        37.5         58.5

Sugar tsps        10              8               10         9            15

WHAT DOES THE CHART TELL US?
It tells us that no matter which juice you choose, they all have more calories than the same amount of Coke. It tells us that juice — 100 percent juice, no sugar added — contains about the same amount of sugar (or even more — 50 percent more for grape juice) as the same volume of Coke.

 Given that we are talking about acid here (in the form of sugar) I wonder how many kids would put their hand up for 10 teaspoons of sugar?

The Internet Shopping Debate

As you know we are an Aussie internet based business. You may not know that some 75% of our business still comes in over the phone or from people walking in our front door. So we are following the debate over whether overseas goods ordered online should be charged a blanket GST with great interest . There's no doubt that since the dollar began its dance with parity, Aussies have been shopping overseas in droves. 

On the one hand the big boys are lobbying for a blanket GST, while on the other hand some industry critics are saying that it's more to do with how the big retailers have had it so good for so long that  they should get 'up to date' and use their considerable power and money to take a long hard look at their own methods or marketing.

I'm attaching a price list from a US herbal supplements internet business. Cassie took the most popular supplements and researched locally to compare price and quality. It makes very compelling sense that something's gotta give locally. The quality, as you'll see, is just not available in Australia, which is, I suspect, germaine to the whole debate.

BTW, if you do download it, there's $5 off your first order if you want to make use of it. And if you can't think of a present for someone close, send them the download.

'Tis the Season to be totally sugared out.

Just take a look at this Men's Health site. And when the kids start wheedling for that can of dastardly looking goo, remember these images.

Dr Mercola, you're at it again.

As I expected, Dr Joe Mercola has finally revealed his strategy behind 'bagging' water ionizers. After his last diatribe about water ionizers, totally baseless and error-riddled that it was, he received thousands of protests from angry water ionizer users and gave no reply. Among his bloopers was one statement that water ionizers don't filter the water that passes through them.

Hey Joe? Have you ever actually looked at one?

He then resorted to the old 'I and most experts' attack, which allows someone to make unfounded statements under the 'experts' cover - with immunity from all but those who see it for what it is; a marketing trick with nothing behind it.

He has gone further, in both cases with not a skerrick of evidence in the form that he has been trained to take not of; actual studies. With no references to any studies he has claimed on one occasion that alkaline water interferes with the mitochondria, and this latest rave contains the again unfounded claim that alkaline water may only be good for short term detox.

Just imagine if young Joe had presented a paper on the subject for his final college exam. A complete rave with absolutely no technical referencing that related to his major points. His professors would have exploded and he'd probably be selling timeshares right now.

So why is this so important? 

Well, since his first baseless rave, water alkalizer sales in the US have fallen over 50%. This means the small operator who survives through exceptional customer support will fail and disappear, leaving thousands of people marooned with their water ionizer and no-one to come to for support or service.  Mercola is the largest alternative health email in the world, sending emails out to six million people every few days.

So let's now examine his reason for this attack, and the latest attack that includes distilled water and even his old personal favourite, reverse osmosis. There must be a reason someone like Doc Joe even gives up his own preferred water filter.
So let's see if we can see the elephant in the room.

The 'expert' he discussed water ionizers with in his first rant was a salesman from Aquasana. 

Aquasana is a respected large manufacturer of basic water filters. Even though the salesman must have known that some of Joe's ideas were just plain wrong, he did nothing to correct him in the interview.. and I wondered why. Well, now it's obvious.
Joe has done a  deal to rebrand Aquasana filters under his own brand and now sells them to his SIX MILLION subscribers.

Let's do a few quick figures to see if we can find the Elephant.

Let's say Joe gets just one person in a hundred subscribers ordering his recommended whole house Aquasana/Mercola water filter system at $1092.

That's six million divided by 100 which equals 60,000 at $1092 each.

That's $65,520,000.00!

Now I think I understand the reasons Joe didn't bother finding any real facts about alkaline water.

Sixty Five million reasons.

The sad thing is that Joe does a lot of good work uncovering the bad aspects of Big Pharma. He also puts himself 'out there' on some quite controversial subjects, so it would be wrong to condemn Joe per se. No, he's just got it seriously wrong on this one and needs to show us that my suspicions are totally false, that he has in fact the studies he should have quoted about alkaline water, and that his basic facts and understanding of alkaline water is.. well, wrong.

Expanding into the Universe

What a year! We're becoming more 'universal'! We're now established in the US, Canada, New Zealand.. and watch us.. at least 3 more countries will be importing AlkaWay wares in the very near future.

Filter Quality

I'm getting some (well, only two, actually) reports of metallic taste water from users of our Kangen water ionizer with attached fluoride filter. We've researched it and if you have the same problem, email Brett, our service manager here. He has a solution.

I've also put up a new video on the difference between our Kangen ionizer and the Chanson Miracle. It's on the same page as the link above.

Understanding important medical terms

There are certain terms that continually crop up as we get older and it's pretty obvious that if we don't understand them we are going to lose control of our own health management. I have a great GP who is willing to explain anything I don't understand, and I'm eternally grateful.

I discovered an excellent article from Dr Pullen's blog giving all the relevant and important medical terms, along with a little example of how thy may be used. Invaluable!

See it here

Arthritis? better get your heart checked!

Ouch! According to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine, the risk of having a heart attack is 60% higher just a year after a patient is diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis,

Swedish researchers followed 7,469 patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) between 1995 and 2006, together with 37,024 matched controls without RA to determine the risk of ischaemic heart disease, with particular reference to myocardial infarction. The maximum follow-up was 12 years and the median was just over four years.

"Our findings emphasise the importance of monitoring a patient's heart risk from the moment they are diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, as the risk rises rapidly in the first few years" said lead author Marie Holmqvist from the Karolinska Institute, according to a press release.

Among the key findings were that:

- Average age at diagnosis was just under 57 years and 71% of the patients with RA were women. The median time from the appearance of RA symptoms to diagnosis was 6.2 months.

- 67% of the patients had a positive rheumatoid factor (RF). The difference in increased heart attack risk between the RF positive and negative subgroups was not statistically significant 70% higher in RF positive patients and 60% higher in RF negative patients.

- Having RA increased the risk of any ischaemic heart disease by 50% one to four years after diagnosis, staying at that level in years five to 12. The risk increased during the first year after diagnosis, but did not reach statistical significance for 12 months.

- The risk of an acute heart attack rose by 60% one to four years after diagnosis, remaining at the same level in years five to 12. Again, the level increased in year one, but was not statistically significant for the first 12 months.

"Our study confirms the increased risk of heart disease and heart attacks that patients with RA face" Holmqvist said, according to a press release. "However it also adds three important observations to previous research."

The observations are:

- The increased heart attack risk was apparent very soon after RA diagnosis, despite the fact that the median duration of symptoms before diagnosis was just over six months.

- Although RA has been caught earlier and treated more aggressively in the last decade, increased heart attack risks were still seen in patients diagnosed in the last five to 10 years.

- Both rheumatoid factor positive and rheumatoid factor negative were associated with an increased heart attack risk.

"Our research underlines the importance of clinicians monitoring patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for an increased risk of heart problems, in particular heart attacks" Holmqvist said. "It is also very clear that more research is needed to determine the mechanisms that link these two health conditions."

Sources: Wiley - Blackwell, AlphaGalileo Foundation
 

Checking in with my 'Diet to Die For'

So many people have asked me how it is going I felt I should let you know.

As well as remaining on my low-to-no-carb diet along with Cassie, I've been reading some wonderful stuff on the whole carb question. I'm particularly impressed with Life Without Bread by Christian B. Allan PhD and Wolfgang Lutz, MD, a German doctor who amassed a veritable treasure trove of data from his own practice of recommending low carb diets and seeing the results. 

Cassie has almost finished Gary Taubes' book; Good Calories Bad calories, which she described as a stupendous effort of totally deconstructing the low fat high carb philosophy. 

He points you right at the corrupted research, the false conclusions and the wholesale blind-eye approach to the simple fact that this diet has achieved no real result, while diseases only grow in the people who follow this seemingly sensible food philosophy. 

Everything in his book is referenced, and it is a tour de force. if you really wonder why all of your diet efforts seem to come to nothing, either of these books will blow your mind.

The great thing i am seeing is how our alkaline philosophy works with this. I am eating meat every day. I am eating large amounts of saturated fat. yet I'm not putting on weight, I'm not lacking in energy, my mind is clear, and I have no desire to eat in the way I did when i was into carbs.

Honestly, my last great health revelation was eleven years ago when I found alkalizing. This one is even bigger. I seriously recommend it.

On my daily diet, I begin the day with a sugarless Chai and meditation, then a 5k climb on Cape Byron. For breakfast I have eggs in a stir fry of greens, baby tomatoes and zucchini, plus my coconut oil smoothie consisting of 2 tablespoons of our yummy coco oil with either Kefir or yoghurt plus Core Greens.

Lunch is a garden salad straight from our little patch, with kalamata olives, dried tomato strips, local Feta cheese, split baby tomatoes, red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Dinner is anything from fresh local fish, (Mahi Mahi is my favourite) grass fed local steak, organic chicken, leg of lamb cooked in our Romantoff, with more greens, beans, squash... hardly a hard diet. I'll finish off with another coco oil smoothie, this time with a few local blueberries added for colour and flavour.

So as you see, I'm not actually suffering. Life is suddenly even better. 

To give you an idea about what's happening in more progressive countries, I have the address of a doctor in Sweden who singlehandedly persuaded the government there to recommend low carb high fat diet for obesity. You'll need Google translator for her site. It's easier if you look for it in Google Chrome because it's easy to access Google Translator there, but it's worth the trouble! Here is her address.

Lastly here's a little tip from Cassie.

If you toss and turn a lot or suffer from twitching legs in bed, it's magnesium deficiency. If you take a good dose of magnesium but still have the symptoms, take a look at your coffee and alcohol intake between dinner and bed. These will both pull magnesium out of your muscles into your bloodstream and you'll most likely eliminate it before you sleep.

Happy Fatties

It's really comforting to know that after totally giving up on diet and exercise, modern medical technology is still thinking of you. Yup. Phillips has created an MRI especially for fatties.

I understand that many people have genetic problems with weight, so please don't think I am being uncompassionate. In fact the more I read about diet the more convinced I am that some people have nil to zero hope of ever throwing off their excess kilos. So this pic isn't - for me at least - an aspersion towards the obese. rather it's a revelation about the size of the problem; so big that a multinational like Phillips sees enough business potential in creating an MRI like this.

World Life Expectancy in Graphic Form