GMO free

I recently came across Chipotle mexican food restaurants menu and it shows GMO foods on it.  I also read in the news recently that Chipotle is going to now go to try to go GMO-free.  This is fantastic!  This is a quick meal when not ready to cook a whole foods vegan meal at home.  They even have brown rice.  Now, I know its not all organic but they have many organic options. Chipotle: ingredients statment page!  This is 100% in the direction I and many other health practioners want restaurants to go.  If the federal government is not going to support labelling of GMO foods then we need individual states and corporations to source organic foods and be honest like Chipotle when they know that PROBABLY this food is a GMO food.  For example most of the products that are made from soybeans are genetically modified and they tell us this on their menu.  So they are honest with us. WOW what a breath of fresh air in corporate America. Because there are no labelling laws the company and citizens have no idea. Keep up the good work Chipotle!  Hey, if you are interested in another level of health try being GMO free with your diet.  Tell us how you did and post to our blog.  Be well, Dr. Chris

Now Foods Recalls Vitamin D

MSNBC article

This little article is hidden back in the main stream media.

It shows 2 important things. Beside not knowing the whole story, like how long these people were on this dosage of Vitamin D. This points to the fact that taking high doses of Vitamin D3 is not going to kill you and may just give you nausea.

Secondly its pointing to the fact that the 800 IU dosing is too low for the average public and the institute of medicine is way off on the standards of recommending a dosing for people. See the report of findings hear for IOM

Please get your blood levels tested, but you can still start at about 5 times the dosing that the IOM recommends before you do get tested within 3 months.

No one has died from an overdose on Vitamin D3 so please don't go from a fear perspective when you are wanting to use a vitamin as a health aid. Be responsible but we can on a sunny day produce between 10-20,000 IU of Vitamin D3 in our bodies by pure sun alone.

Be well,

Dr. Kozura

WHFoods: Mushrooms, shiitake, Wild, Vegan, Iron Rich

WHFoods: Mushrooms, shiitake

A couple things that I would like to highlight with this page and are new to this page that whfoods.com has not added yet but sent me in an email.

1. For Vegans that don't get animal source of iron, Shiitake Mushrooms can be a great source of available iron in mushroom form. (The 'steak' of the mushroom world).

2. The Shiitake is produced in a sustainable way. Having so many crops like-soy beans and corn- continue to be hard on the environment and make the environment prone to erosion and depletion of nutrients. Mushrooms give back to the environment and the way Shiitake is grown they give back to the forest. Some farmers are not only growing them organic but they are growning them in a forest environment. Idealistically I would like to see foods grown within large forests, but we have come a long way from this with many million hectares of crop land.

Be well,

Dr. Kozura

foodconsumer.org - Animal protein linked to high blood pressure in elderly people

foodconsumer.org - Animal protein linked to high blood pressure in elderly people

I have high blood pressure patients go through my practice many times in a month. There are many tools that I use to help support the body to lower its own pressure. Sometimes I use pharmacological means to actually lower the blood pressure to prevent secondary effects of high blood pressure and those are gravely; stroke and death.

Outside of this thinking is that the body is doing some kind of adaptive physiology to make sure the blood pressure is high for some other reason. On that thought of the blood pressure being high is for getting blood to the brain which is a the gravitational top of the body. If the brain doesn't get blood then the the body doesn't work. So if blood is needing to be perfused (spread out in) to the brain then the body will increase the blood pressure. This basic reasoning to have the blood pressure higher than normal until something gets taken care of in the body wide health. Then there is a cause of high blood pressure that comes from the kidney, and that has to be looked into as well.

So this idea of adaptive physiology (adapting to the bodies needs, the physiology changes to keep the body as healthy as it thinks it needs), may actually make a person get symptoms of sickness. With high blood pressure, sometimes people feeling nothing with blood pressure being high (The 'silent killer'). Sometimes they feel a little amped up or sometimes they feel headaches. Any feeling you feel of high blood pressure means it usually WAY to high and this is the time to see a doctor.

The thing to do about high blood pressure is continue to get the whole body healthy while its being treated. Some main focuses of high blood pressure are lifestyle, exercise, diet and micronutrients. If you are overweight and have high blood pressure you are going to need to get to optimal BMI. If you are a snorer at night you need to get this managed before you blood pressure will normalize. If you eat a fast food diet you are going to need to eat healthy and more nutrients in your diet before you get blood pressure normalized. If you eat too much protein, you are going to have to eat just the right about for your needs. If you don't exercise the nervous system will not be able to normalize your blood pressure as well. If you have tried all these and it hasn't worked yet. Please get me or an ND in your area on your team of health care.

Be well,

Dr. Kozura

Americans may not be getting enough calcium, suggests study

Americans may not be getting enough calcium, suggests study

I am always looking for balances in what I tell people to take nutriceutically. I have been backing off on telling people to take calcium indefinitely for many years now. I see that basic physiology makes me see that you bodies main source of calcium is from the homeostatic balance in the bones. Basic physiology tells us a lot of things. But I will digress; The milk and dairy propaganda shows us that calcium is really only derived from this source and if people don't eat dairy your bones are going to dissolve. I remember the vegan cowboy (Howard Lyman) talk to us when I was in medical school saying the studies are hidden on showing the bone health in college age women who drink milk for 4 years straight. The dairy industry wanted to hide this result because the women actually lost bone mass. These are healthy teens to 20s women who show that they have bone loss with using more dairy products. The more dairy the more loss. Hmm, I have yet to see the paper, but will post it someday if it surfaces again.

If we continue to eat in a way to produce more of an acid environment in our bodies, then we will have bones dissolve and we will be getting osteoporotic. The dairy proteins and excessive animal protein intake create a more acid environment and therefore dissolve the bones to have calcium and other minerals come into the blood to buffer it over time.

I still tell people to get a supplemented source of Vitamin D. This seco-steroid will influence the bringing in of calcium from the diet and you will not have to supplement as much calcium.

So back to the basic physiology; when cells die in the body there is an influx of calcium and this influx of calcium causes the cells to become sort 'cemented' when they die. This is why we can see in coronary artery disease calcium tied up into the athersclerotic plaques. This is normal physiology. So when we exceed the dietary need of calcium over time there is the chance that this calcium is going to harden our arteries.

Making sure that you get enough calcium and keep your internal environment more of a proper pH you will not have this calcification of your body occur. This is done by eating plenty of vegetables. Most americans do not get enough of these.

If you just look at the food pyramid put out by the USDA/FDA then you will see that the foods at the top of the pyramid create the most acid and the bottom ones create the least or make more of an alkaline environment.

As for the Vit D story more to come. But John McDougall MD is not only one concerned about external source of Vitamin D. Yes this seems un-natural, but it also seems un-natural that we are inside for most of our days. I have seen for almost a decade people coming into my practice and the test for 25-OH Vitamin D coming back well below the standard ok level of 32 ng/dL. I don't take this lightly when I see the amazing need for this seco-steroid in the body. So not supplementing it for now would be in my opinion malpractice as a doctor to not tell my patients. What is the optimal level for long term health? We will have to see over time. I have never seen my patients Calcium level in their blood above normal because of high Vitamin D levels. I have pushed some people pretty fast too. So for now supplement with Vitamin D and get outside as well.

Calcium will get pulled up into the body from the intestines if you eat green leafies and have enough vitamin D.

Last point, I may have brought up in previous articles. Most of the world doesn't rely on dairy as their main source of calcium and many countries that don't have dairy as calcium source actually have less osteoporosis. Something to ponder: read T. Colin Campbell's info on this.

Be well,

Dr. Kozura

TODAY: Zero-waste family says it’s easy being green

TODAY: Zero-waste family says it’s easy being green

Eating whole foods ends up being a low waste lifestyle. I got some hints from this family to make other changes maybe you can to.

I love having the cashiers tare my jars before I fill them with the good stuff. Its usually beans and spices and I plan a meal in my head when I am getting them so I know all the ingredients I need to get. This makes being a vegan really easy and I know all the ingredients that I have in my meal.

I have been tracking the calories for my recipes lately and just by tracking these and then watching I don't over eat I lost 8 lbs. My knees when I am out running like me for this.

So decreasing the waste can help you lose the waist as well.

Be well,

Dr. Kozura

THE FOOD INTOLERANCE COOKBOOK by Sandra Strom — Kickstarter

THE FOOD INTOLERANCE COOKBOOK by Sandra Strom — Kickstarter

I work with intolerances and you can get your food intolerance analysis with myself for $126.

Finding this information out may just change you life. If you don't know your food sensitivity, allergy or intolerance you may be just missing an important part of your health.

Be well,

Dr. Kozura