Overcoming Sugar Addiction

In 1931, Dr. Otto H. Warburg investigated the metabolism of tumors and the respiration of cancer cells, and in 1931 was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research and findings. Dr. Warburg made it clear in his conclusions that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency, which creates an acidic or toxic state in the human body.

Dr. Leonard Coldwell, a holistic physician who is called by many authorities the world’s leading expert on cancer, agrees with the findings of Dr. Warburg in that cancer is caused by acidosis, toxemia, brought on by mental and emotional stress. Prolonged stress over time tends to lower your body’s pH level and make it more acidic. Dr. Coldwell says that cancer growth stops as soon as the body becomes slightly alkaline.

Methods of raising your pH level include: drinking green juices, eating plenty of raw vegetables, and drinking lemon water with baking soda. You can also take food grade hydrogen peroxide in very small amounts (a few drops) in a glass of water. Gradually increase the drops by one per day until you’re up to twenty drops per day. It’s important to get the food grade hydrogen peroxide — not the kind you buy at the drug store. You’ll probably have to order it online. Another method is to simply add a teaspoon of sea salt into a glass of distilled water. The salt will alkalize the water.

Probably the most effective way of getting alkaline is to completely eliminate sugar from your diet. It’s important to know that just because the label doesn’t contain “sugar” doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have sugar in it. Corn syrup, honey, and evaporated cane juice are still sugar, and therefore acidifying. Also, whether its sucrose, fructose, or lactose, it’s still sugar and therefore acidifying. All artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame, are extremely acidifying, even more so than sugar and should be avoided completely. The sugar substitute that I use is Stevia. It is a plant-based, all natural substitute that is also calorie-free. You can also cook with it.

It’s advisable to consult a holistic wellness coach who is also an expert on detoxification, colon cleansing, vertebral subluxation correction, and the most cost-effective and efficient methods of alkalizing the body’s pH. Holistic wellness coaches can also advise you of the best holistic products, foods, juices, supplements, herbs, enzymes, probiotics, and upper cervical chiropractic care that will give your body everything it needs to raise the pH to slightly alkaline and repair its damaged cells, tissues, muscles, joints, digestive tract, and immune system.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; holistic wellness companies promoting far-infrared radiant therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching practice encompasses far-infrared sauna detoxification, upper cervical care, and adhering to an alkaline-forming, nutrient-dense, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

Currently, autoimmune disorders are the number three killer, behind heart disease and cancer, in the United States. A study published in the peer-reviewed Gastroenterology found a 400% increase celiac disease from just fifty years ago. Today it effects 1 in 105 people in the U.S. and since most people who have it are unaware of the fact that they have it, these figures are probably much greater. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease of the small intestine that is caused from a reaction to prolamin, a gluten protein found in wheat, and other similar grains such as barley and rye. Upon exposure to gliadin, the enzyme tissue transglutanminase modifies the protein, and the immune system cross-reacts with the small bowel tissue, causing a highly inflammatory reaction.

Symptoms of celiac disease (caused by gluten sensitivity) include irritable bowel syndrome (diarrhea, gas, bloating, constipation), greasy stools, lactose intolerance, and abdominal pain. But the symptoms are not limited to the digestive system. Celiac disease can also effect other organs including the brain, heart, and kidneys. Brain symptoms include the impedance of blood flow the frontal and prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain allows us to focus, manage emotional states, plan and organize, and short-term memory. This hypoperfusion is associated with conditions such as depression, anxiety, and ADHD.

The inflammatory reaction from gluten exposure also activates the brain’s microglial cells, which can take many months before it begins to subside. The damage that this can cause over time, together with the effect of generating overarousal of the fight-or-flight response, can be significant.

A potent cross-reactivity to casein (the protein found in milk products) has also been demonstrated to be similar to an immunologic reactivity to gluten. Going gluten-free means not just avoiding foods containing gluten, but foods that the body may identify as gluten, even if its not. Cross-reactivity is when the body associates other substances that are genetically similar to gluten and reacts to them as if they were gluten. This can lead to multiple food sensitivities. According to Cyrex Labs, some of the most common cross-reactive food sources to gluten are: milk (and milk products), cheese, spelt, kamut, rye, barley, and coffee.

The best way to avoid celiac disease or gluten sensitivity is to eliminate starch and milk from your diet completely. This will also decrease your susceptibility to metabolic syndrome, candidiasis, and type 2 diabetes. Going gluten-free means replacing your daily cereal, pastry, bread, muffins, bagels, chips, and crackers, with nutrient-dense, above ground, antioxidant rich, fibrous vegetables (raw, steamed, or stir-fried). Not only will it help to repair your body’s digestive system, but you’ll lose those unwanted pounds and your energy levels will go through the roof!

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; holistic wellness companiesdevoted to infrared radiant therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching program incorporates infrared sauna detoxification, upper cervical care, and following an alkalizing, nutrient-dense, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

How natural is sugar really and what does that have to do with sugar and your brain? Let us take a look at sugar and why sugar and your brain is a bad combination.

In its natural state as it exists within the stalk of a 20 ‘ sugar cane plant or in the ground as a sugar beet. It'd be actually nasty to chew on a stalk so sugar is extracted and processed to make it taste so exquisite.

Sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. In nature the dangerous issues linked with fructose are significantly reduced when fiber and fructose are mixed together as in a stalk.

Not surprisingly, nature’s protection mechanism is devastated by all of the processing measures used in refining sugar.

The sad answer is that commercial sugar is exceedingly refined, chemically muted and bleached white with chemicals to supply a sweet substance with a pure appearance.

Unfortunately natural is hardly the actual facts. To really make sugar from the sugar cane stalk, one first has to crush the stalk to a fine pulp. Next the pulp is filtered by adding hydrochloric or sulfuric acid or even some enzymes to “cleanse “the pulp from all of its healthy “impurities”.

Next, using high speed spinning devices like the spin cycle in your washer, the molasses element is separated from the crystals. Then it’s bleached, boiled, scrubbed, dried and then eventually crystallized to gain its nice appearance.

Chemicals like chlorine, titanium dioxide (used to lighten but also contains arsenic), sodium nitrate, and even ground bone are utilized in the processing. However , after all is said and done we have “Natural Sugar.”

Seems biased, deceptive, and illogical to call sugar natural after all the processing, but it still is called “natural.” So if sugar is actually that bad for your well-being than how do you reduce sugar longings and keep clear of it? Sugar and your brain do not mix.

Daniel Amen, psychiatrist and writer, talks about 6 steps to controlling food cravings. He states that “There’s a brain-based reason why you crave high-sugar, high-fat foods. These foods work on the same parts of the brain that cause dependence on heroin and morphine!” Sugar and your brain do not mix.

Surprising isn’t it? When you realize sugar is to your cerebral cortex what heroin and morphine is, you might be asking the easy way to end sugar addiction and stop damaging your brain from sugar.

By changing your brain, you can help get the body you need! By giving your brain a negative association when you eat sweet foods and blocking the anticipated sweet taste, your cerebral cortex will no longer want sugar. And as I showed you above, sugar is natural but in reality a dangerous substance. Sugar and your brain is not a mix.

So get control now over sugar cravings and stop the dangers of sugar on your brain.

Robert Carlson, MD, FACS, is a heart surgeon now practicing preventive medicine to keep his patients off operating tables. In his quest to help his patients stop sugar cravings, he created Stop-it, an all natural herbal lozenge that blocks the taste of sugar.

I saw a very health conscious 40 year old male who, 6 months before, successfully adopted a low carbohydrate life-style losing 20 pounds. During the last three months , however he added a morning smoothie with bananas and assorted “healthy” juices, as well as whey protein.

He has commenced eating bananas and apples throughout the day and after work-outs. His up to date lab tests prove his fasting sugar has increased above 100 mg/dl, his triglycerides have risen by 50 points and his VLDL’s (really low density lipoproteins) doubled.

In addition, his weight reduction leveled out and regardless of working out quite a lot , gained weight and some fat around the mid-section. Do you wonder what is occurring here? He is demonstrating evidence of fructose overload.

Sugar, or table sugar, is made from 50 p.c. Fructose and 50% glucose. Juices, apples and bananas have higher concentrations of fructose approaching 60% fructose and 40% glucose. Fructose is a poison. The metabolic rate of fructose in the liver causes the elevation of triglycerides, VLDL and acyl-glycerols that get encircled in your liver causing fatty liver changes (raised uric acidity levels that cause Gout and even hypertension.)

Fortunately , these changes are rapidly reversed by becoming free of sugars and high fructose foods. Therefore what’s the physiology behind why fructose is really a toxin?

When you eat products containing sugar or high fructose corn syrup, your body breaks it down to glucose and fructose in your intestines. Glucose is utilized by your brain. muscles, organs systems and even some by the heart, but the heart runs miles better on fats.

When glucose hits your liver for metabolism, 80 percent of it s already employed by your body, and the leftover 20 p.c. is broken down in the liver. Unfortunately fructose is very different. Fructose is not used by your brain; it's not utilised by your muscles or any organs in your body.

In reality it doesn't even cause insulin levels to go up, and therefore leptins won't signal your brain that you have plenty of food and are satisfied. So you are still hungry. It is then transported 100 percent intact to the liver for metabolism. And here is the major difficulty. It overloads your liver’s ability to metabolise substances.

Fructose enters the liver cells and is ultimately converted to 4 main compounds. The 1st involves several enzyme systems and is named de novo lipogenesis new fat formation. So it is fructose that causes fat formation, NOT fat!

The second produces compounds that gum up the liver leading to raised liver enzymes and a condition called fatty liver. The third is the production of VLDL’s or extraordinarily low density lipoproteins which are currently being considered more atherogenic (arterial plaque manufacturing) than the “bad” LDL’s.

Finally excess triglycerides are pumped out of the liver leading to the classic metabolic syndrome lipid abnormalities of high triglycerides, high VLDL’s, and low HDL’s. And it get’s worse. Due to the tremendous load on the liver it causes a rise in uric acid. This is known to cause gout, but another issue with uric acid is that it blocks the relaxing of arterial veins, therefore causing raised blood pressure.

So to sum up, what do you call a substance that our body can’t use, and therefore the only way it is metabolized is thru the liver? And the breakdown products result in products that are threatening to our body? That is the perfect definition for a poison and fructose is a poison. So getting control over sugar consumption and sugar addiction is a lifesaving goal.

Robert Carlson, MD, FACS, is a heart surgeon turned preventive care physician whose main focus today is keeping patients off operating tables. His quest to help patients overcome sugar cravings and sugar addiction led to his creation of a revolutionary product, Stop-It.

Approximately 4 billion years ago, before the earth contained an oxygen-based atmosphere, the very first forms of life on earth fed on just two nutrients: sugar and protein. Stored within the DNA of every living organism today lies the memory of this biological fact. The very fist living cells lacked a nucleus (prokaryotic cells) and fed anaerobically on sugars and proteins.

Later, after the development of an oxygen-based atmosphere, higher organisms developed from cells containing a nucleus (eukaryotic cells) and the use of fat became a nutrient source for the first time. These aerobic-feeding cells use fatty acids and ketones as a fuel source, just as most mammalian and human cells do to this day. Because fat is an aerobic nutrient, it forms the basis of aerobic metabolism in our human bodies. This is the difference between aerobic and anaerobic energy sources.

A Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Dr. Otto H. Warburg in 1931 for his research on the relationship of oxygen to the pH of cancer cells. His research showed that cancer cells were anaerobic and therefore maintained more acidic pH levels. Because of the high CO2 and lactic acid production, the pH could be as low as 6.0 in a cancer-forming environment. He proved that there was a direct relationship between oxygen, blood Ph levels, and growing cancer cells.

There is a current theory that is rapidly growing in popularity among nutritionists and alternative health care professionals. It involves how cancer cells form in the body. The theory posits that cancer forms in a fermentative, acidic, sugar-rich, anaerobic environment which emulates our earliest primordial environment, reversing some cells to their prokaryotic, nucleus-less, state. This theory further postulates that cancerous tumors are masses of these identical cells that contain a weak protein matrix that feed exclusively on sugars.

Cancer cells develop periodically in the body since birth. A healthy immune system will always prevent the overgrowth of them. But when the body becomes so overloaded with toxins — such as from the air we breathe, the EMF radiation we’re exposed to, the fluoride and chlorine we drink and bathe in from our water, the toxic vaccines we inject into our children, and the carcinogens, GMOs, and the dumpster-full of sugar that we consume in a lifetime — these healthy aerobic, oxygen-feeding, eukaryotic cells are not able to carry out their proper function. As a result, cancerous tumors are able to thrive.

The only cure for cancer is prevention. By adhering to a strict diet that is sugar-, starch-, and gluten-free, we prevent sugar from entering our bodies that were designed to feed only on oxygen. This will help to create a slightly alkaline pH level of 7.35 to 7.45, ensuring that cancer cells won’t be able to form in the first place — and if by some slim chance that they do — the cancer cells would be destroyed by a healthy, aerobic-feeding, anti-oxidant-based immune system.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; holistic wellness companies devoted to far-infrared radiant heat therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching practice embodies far-infrared sauna purification, upper cervical care, and adhering to an alkaline-forming, antioxidant-rich, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

In 1850, the average American consumed about 20 pounds of sugar annually. Today, the average American currently consumes 141 lbs of sugar (an overflowing wheelbarrow full) annually. The 2011 USDA estimates the average American consumes about two tons of sugar (enough to fill up a dumpster) in a lifetime. Yes, that’s per person.

The average person is consuming about 1/3 of a pound of sugar each and every day, half of which is fructose that comes from corn syrup. And the trend continues to rise. As a result of this sugar epidemic, diabetes is up from 1.6 million in 1958 to 15.1 million in 2004. Heart disease occurs in 75% of the U.S. population. And cancer has just surpassed heart disease as the number one leading cause of death in the U.S..

In 1931, Dr. Otto H. Warburg was awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering oxygen’s relationship to the pH of cancer cells. He discovered that cancer cells always maintained a lower (more acidic) pH level, as low as 6.0 due to the high CO2 and lactic acid production. Dr. Warburg believed that there was a direct relationship between oxygen in the blood, blood pH level, and thriving cancer cells.

Cancer cells form in your body everyday and have been, every day, since you were born. A healthy body’s immune defense system seeks out and destroys the cancer cells whenever they appear on the scene. As long as the body is able to maintain a pH level of slightly alkaline (7.35 to 7.45), then it will be able to protect itself from cancer. However, when the blood pH drops, the risk of cancer increases. Sugar and nutrient-deficient processed foods do a great job of lowering the pH in the blood.

Currently, 90 cents out of every U.S. food dollar is spent on nutrient-deficient processed foods which are contaminated with high fructose corn syrup. Cancer loves sugar. It thrives on it and depends on it to survive. Sugar turns the blood more acidic and this is how cancer thrives. If we continue to saturate our bodies with sugary processed foods accompanied by a high carbohydrate diet consisting of mainly starchy foods such as potatoes, pasta, bread, and cereal, we will continue to see our cancer rates climb.

Even the so-called “healthy” carbohydrates such as rice, beans, peas, and whole grains are all about 60% starch. And starch turns to sugar in the bloodstream. When we begin eliminating all the sugary, starch foods from our diet, we will naturally be replacing them with high fibrous vegetables such as peppers, broccoli, squash, artichokes, mushrooms, spinach, kale, cabbage, and other nutrient-dense foods that are teaming with beneficial antioxidants. And unlike the starchy foods, the fiber-rich vegetables are highly alkaline forming in the blood, raising your pH level, and creating a healthy balance of oxygen and anti-oxidants in your cells. This, above all, is the most powerful defense against cancer.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; holistic wellness companies dedicated to infrared radiant therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching program incorporates infrared sauna detoxification, upper cervical care, and adhering to an alkalizing, antioxidant-rich, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

When the body depends on sugar for fuel, it impedes the normal functions of leptin, the “general of the hormonal chain of command. Leptin is in charge of your pituitary hormones, which regulate the thyroid gland. The functions of the thyroid gland is to regulate how quickly the body uses energy. If you have low energy or are cold all the time, it’s probably going to be thyroid related.

The thyroid is also responsible for detoxifying the body, flushing out impurities such as fluoride, chlorine, mercury, aluminum, pesticides, and other harmful toxins that we take in from the water, air, vaccines, dental fillings, and our diet. If the thyroid isn’t operating at full potential, these toxins accumulate in our cells and joints, causing chronic pain diseases such as fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.

The hormone leptin decides when to make us hungry, and therefore controls our metabolism. It works hand-in-hand with insulin, which becomes abnormalized when leptin levels become too high or too low. If we are a carbivore, we’ll probably start to get hungry about two to three hours after we eat. From an evolutionary perspective, that’s crazy. Nature is simply not that stupid.

Frequently going days at a time without a meal, our paleo, hunter-gatherer ancestors would have starved to death if they had to depend on complex carbohydrates (sugar) for fuel. But because they depended on ketones from fat, the leptin hormone in their bodies were able to make their metabolism much more efficient than that of the modern human. As a result, they could go for extended periods of time without getting hungry. This allowed for a much lower dietary caloric intake. Subsequently, obesity was nonexistent.

They goal is not to increase your metabolism. Why would you want to make the engine in your car run hotter? They goal is to get your body to metabolize calories more efficiently. And the only way to do this by letting go of a carbohydrate-dependent diet and embracing a paleo diet that is based on ketones.

Leptin also orchestrates our parasympathetic, fight or flight response in the nervous system. Until your leptin levels are under control, you will constantly be in a state of anxiety because you will be physiologically reacting to everything. There won’t be any saber tooth tigers to worry about, but, nevertheless, you will be acting as if there were. The ramifications of chronic anxiety over a period of months and years include chronic depression and fatigue. All of this is leptin-related.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; holistic wellness companies promoting far-infrared radiant therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching practice encompasses far-infrared sauna purification, upper cervical care, and conforming to an alkaline-forming, nutrient-dense, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011, about 1/3rd of U.S. adults (33.85) are obese and approximately 17% (12.5 million) children and adolescents between 2 and 19 years are also obese. The obesity is determined by your BMI (body mass index). Reflecting the dramatic rise in sugar-consumption (up to 1/3 of pound per day per person), America’s obesity rate has also soared to epidemic proportions in the last forty years.

During the same period of this ever-increasing obesity trend in the U.S., we have simultaneously observed the rates of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, ADHD, candida, and Alzheimer’s all skyrocket to epidemic proportions.I don’t think that this is merely a coincidence.

The hormone insulin is released by the body whenever you consume sugar, starch, and complex carbohydrates. The higher the sugar content, the more insulin (and leptin) the body produces in order to regulate and metabolize the unnatural blood sugar surges. Over time, the body begins to resist these hormonal releases. Elevated insulin levels are associated with type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, peripheral vascular disease, cancer, and obesity. The elevated blood sugar is not the cause of these diseases — but rather the result of the excess insulin levels from the excessive sugar and starch consumption.

A very important note to remember: It takes fat to burn fat and fat alone does not make you fat. In fact, if you easily gain weight, it’s not because you’re eating too much or not exercising enough. It’s because your body cannot efficiently burn the fat! And that’s not normal. So why are the large majority of American’s overweight or obese? Simple. Because their diet is based on elevating insulin. Your body cannot burn fat when insulin is present. Period.

When your diet is ketone-based, however, the body will naturally manage its own ideal weight, on its own. By eliminating sugar and all starchy foods, you won’t have to worry about insulin or leptin resistance. This allows the body to burn fat much more effectively. As a result, you won’t need to go on starvation diets or enslave yourself to countless hours on the treadmill just to maintain your ideal body weight.

They key is not to “increase” your metabolism. They key is to make your body’s metabolism more efficient at converting calories into energy. And you can only do this by shifting from a carbohydrate-dependent diet to a paleo diet that fuels the body from ketones.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; holistic wellness companies dedicated to infrared radiant therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching program encompasses infrared sauna purification, upper cervical chiropractic care, and adhering to an alkaline-forming, nutrient-dense, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

When you eliminate sugar and starchy carbohydrates from the diet, the brain begins to shift its source of energy for fuel from glucose to ketones. Ketones are the energy units found in fat. Not only does the brain prefer ketones over sugar for fuel, it operates much more effectively and efficiently on them. As a result, you won’t need to consume as many calories as you did as a carbivore. This allows you to maintain your ideal body weight without having to go on starvation diets.

It takes about four to six weeks to reprogram the body to become accustomed to running on ketones, rather than glucose. When it does, you’ll find that it is well worth the time and effort. Say goodbye to high sugar-intake problems such as irritability, hypoglycemia, candida, irritable bowel, sinusitis, low energy, acne, obesity, depression, anxiety, ADHD, and severe mood swings.

When your body’s source of fuel is from ketones, and your diet is based on fibrous vegetables and animal protein, you won’t need to worry about all the side effects of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) such as corn and soy. And you won’t need to worry about celiac disease as a result of too much gluten from foods such as bread, pizza, and pasta.

The source of saturated fat in the diet should include animal fat such as in butter, organic lard, ghee, fatty meats, and heavy cream. Your source of unsaturated fats should include olive oil (omega-9), sesame oil (omega-6) and fish oil (omega 3). Your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio should be 1:1, rather than what modern diets are supplying which is about a 20:1 ratio. Great sources of omega-3 foods are from cold-water fish such as sardines, arctic krill, and salmon.

Research shows that this increased intake in omega-3 fatty acids is beneficial to cognitive functioning, the lowering of cholesterol, and the reduction of arterial plaque. The diet of the Intuits (the indigenous peoples of the Greenland arctic) were found to contain between 14,000 to 20,000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids a day and no heart disease. Zero. And this daily intake of unsaturated fat was in addition to a significant amount of saturated animal fat. Needless to say, their body’s were efficiently living on ketones.

To help train your body to run on ketones, it is important that omega-3 fatty acids should make up at least 1 to 1.5 percent of the total daily caloric intake, with omega-6 making up about the same. Higher amounts of omega-3 may be needed temporarily (several months) in order to reduce a deficiency state.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a Wellness Coach who founded Sunlighten and co-founded Sunlight Day Spa; two holistic wellness companies dedicated to infrared therapy, sound therapy, and massage therapy. His Wellness Coaching practice embodies infrared sauna detoxification, upper cervical care, and consuming an alkaline-forming, nutrient-dense, anti-oxidant rich, sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

By 2020, major depression is expected to be the second-leading cause of disability (the first is ischemic heart disease), according to the Institute of Functional Medicine. Anxiety frequently accompanies depression which are the two most common psychological disorders in the world.

I personally suffered from depression and anxiety for over thirty years, sometimes accompanied by panic attacks. I know what’s it like to carry a heavy emotional pain-body for years on end and can empathize with others who have endured similar struggles. It’s a living hell but I can tell you from personal experience, the knowledge and wisdom of particular holistic remedies can help to free those individuals who are imprisoned by their emotional and physical suffering.

Soon after my emotional body became depressed, my physical body shortly followed. Chronic fatigue set in and kept its hold on my for over twenty years. It wasn’t until I began to learn how to properly take care of my body, that the fatigue started to slowly dissolve. After the painful TMJ, chronic dizziness, chronic candida, CFS, and mercury toxicity, the only healing remedies that have contributed to my whole body recovery have been; detoxification with an infrared sauna, upper cervical care, and most importantly, a sugar-, gluten-, and starch-free diet.

A study in 2004 found that 67 percent of the patients with celiac disease (caused by gluten sensitivity) reported depression and that 73 percent reported anxiety. An article in the journal “Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics” found that “Depression is reported to be a feature of celiac disease and is ranked as its most common disturbance.” When the body is undergoing a degrees of stress, our requirements for B vitamins increase dramatically, and are depleted by chronic carbohydrate (sugar and gluten) consumption. Sympathetic nervous system overarousal also lowers the hydrochloric acid production in the stomach, which is crucial for proper digestion and assimilation of nutrients. Electrolytes are also lost under stress, as is our body’s neurological and bioelectrical regulation.

After prolonged periods of depression and/or anxiety, we become depleted of our energy and nutrient reserves. The consumption of alcohol, sugary foods, and carbohydrate-rich snacks become the only thing available to boost serotonin levels. But, of course, these indulgences only serve to perpetuate the negative cycles. We become addicted to food, drugs, and/or alcohol, and life becomes a downward spiral.

Chronic candida is also common among those riddled with depression and anxiety because it allows for the body’s natural defenses in the gut to be broken down. Two of the most common symptoms of systemic candida is depression and anxiety. Go figure. Often, gluten sensitivity and candida accompany one another because the candida leads to the craving for gluten-rich foods such as bread and pizza.

To dissolve the candida overgrowth, and end my bouts of depression and anxiety, I had to restructure my diet to be based on nutrient-dense, antioxidant-rich, fibrous vegetables. My protein intake became animal-based which I limited to 6 to 8 oz. per day. I also began supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids and GLA. I eliminated all sugars, alcohol, fermented and starch-based foods — including all grains, cereals, and legumes. And finally, I began consuming cultured vegetables (rich with probiotics) such as “Bubbies” brand sauerkraut. Today, I am grateful for my perfect health and am living each day in a place of inner peace, joy, and tranquility.

Jason Lincoln Jeffers is a health Coach, Online Life Coach and the founder of The Art of Transformation, a company with a mission to teach Self Realization to the masses. His Online Life Coaching program uniquely synthesizes mystical wisdom with self transcendence, holistic health, life path astro-analysis, heart-brain intention, the power of presence, and the law of attraction.