Natural Awakenings March 2016

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Taste the MEATY Sweet Rainbow TRUTHS Slumber Expand Your Choosing Meat How to Get Your Palate with Colorful Veggies

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March 2016

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ESTABLISHING AN ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE SOCIETY BEGINS WITH US

Advertise in Natural Awakenings’ April

Everyday Sustainability Issue Conscientious consumers are seeking eco-friendly providers like: • Earth-Friendly Landscapers • Eco-Interior Designers • Electric Vehicle Dealers • Energy-Saving Equipment • Green Builders • Lighting Consultants

Contact us at: 256-808-8044 Editor@Natvalley.com

• Organic Bedding Stores • Plant Care Specialists • Recycling Services • Solar Panel Providers • Wood Alternative Sources • Xeriscapers — and many more

letterfrompublisher “Eat responsibly.” ~Wendell Berry Our feature article this month focuses on smarter meat choices, in regard to choosing organic or grass-fed meats from animals not confined to feed lots and raised on GMO feed, antibiotics and hormones, supporting Country of Origin labeling, being aware of misleading labels such as “natural” which mean nothing, and maybe most importantly, eating less meat overall.

The article starts out by quoting Wendell Berry’s 1990 essay, The Pleasures of Eating, which is a meditation on the need for more conscious eating. Berry’s feelings are summed up here: “Though I am by no means a vegetarian, I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable in order to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade. And I am getting almost as fussy about food plants.”

This is exactly the way I feel, too. I am no longer a strict vegetarian, though I still consider myself predominantly a plant eater. I do still believe that the energy of a plant-based diet is higher vibrationally than the energy of animal products. However, many people may need to eat meat to satisfy certain nutritional requirements, and many other people choose to do it simply out of preference. What I care about now is how the animal was raised, and did it suffer unnecessarily just to provide me a meal. To me, reducing the suffering of all living creatures, especially the ones I eat as food, is the difference in being a conscious and unconscious person.

There is a conception in Native American and some Eastern spiritual traditions that animals and plants are equally sentient beings. In the Lakota idea of the Giveaway, plants and animals are conscious, loving beings who willingly sacrifice their lives to keep humans alive by providing the basis for food, clothing and shelter. The Lakota say that we should pay this sacrifice forward by giving ourselves away in service to others in unconditional love, though we may never meet the supremely high bar for the Giveaway set by our food sources. It is this fundamental conception that what we eat is conscious that demands that we be at least equally conscious ourselves when we eat it. The fact that our food is given to us out of truly unconditional love makes the quality of that consciousness deeply satisfying, providing rich nourishment for both body and soul. This is what Wendell Berry means when he says that “the pleasure of eating should be an extensive pleasure, not that of the mere gourmet.” The pleasure of eating should be a spiritual one, with a sense of sacredness, joy, and wonder.

It is in the pleasure of eating more consciously, writes Berry, that “we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.”

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healthbriefs globalbriefs community spotlight greenliving healingways consciouseating healthykids inspiration

CHICKENS

by Alan Booker, Eldenbridge Institute

14 MEATY TRUTHS Choosing Meat that’s Sustainable and Safe

17 LAND MANAGER

calendar

How Cows Can Help Reverse Climate Change

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by Melinda Hemmelgarn

ALLAN SAVORY ON HOLISTIC PASTURING

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by Linda Sechrist

18 DEVELOPING GARDENS INSTEAD OF GOLF COURSES

Agrihoods Use On-Site Farms to Draw Residents

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Natural Awakenings is your guide to a healthier, more balanced life. In each issue readers find cutting-edge information on natural health, nutrition, fitness, personal growth, green living, creative expression and the products and services that support a healthy lifestyle.

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by April Thompson

20 THE EYES

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TELL OUR STORY

How Integrative Doctors See Into Whole-Body Health

by Linda Sechrist

22 TASTE THE RAINBOW Expand Your Palate with New Colorful Veggies

by Judith Fertig

24 NIGHTTIME PARENTING 27 Fostering Healthful Sleep

by Stephanie Dodd

27 WELL-MANNERED CATS Simple Ways to Get Kitty to Behave

by Sandra Murphy

newsbriefs OsteoStrong Increases Bone Density and Muscle Strength in Just 7 Minutes Per Week

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veryone eventually feels the effects of bone and muscle loss after age 30. At OsteoStrong, the goal is to actually reverse that process. OsteoStrong is a specialized resistance-training system designed to help you naturally achieve healthy joints, strong bones, and better balance and flexibility. OsteoStrong reduces or eliminates pain altogether. It’s non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical, and it doesn’t involve heavy exercise. Each OsteoStrong session takes only about 7 minutes once a week and no gym clothes are needed. People are amazed at how quickly their strength increases without even breaking a sweat.

OsteoStrong is not a gym or a fad workout or a supplement.

The OsteoStrong system is backed by science and thousands of testimonials from people of all age groups that confirm that bones can get stronger and agility can improve at any age.

In only a few months, it’s common for OsteoStrong clients to eliminate all of their conditions or symptoms, including: joint and back pain, osteoporosis, loss of flexibility, nerve damage, decreased reaction time, poor posture, and loss of balance and strength. In fact, noticeable physical improvements and reduced joint or back pain are often reported by most OsteoStrong members after just 2 to 12 sessions.

Whether you have Osteoporosis, poor balance or strength, back or joint pain, Type II Diabetes, or have sports performance goals, OsteoStrong could be the solution you’ve been looking for.

Location: 1015 Airport Rd, Ste 201, Huntsville. For more information or to schedule a free consultation, call 256-4890084 or email Huntsville@OsteoStrong.me/Huntsville. See ad, page 32.

Dominion Restart Offers Holistic Wellness and Life Coaching

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ominion Restart is the brainchild, and the heartcentered creation, of Wesley and Linda McCarley.

After working in the salon and spa industry for a few years, Wesley and Linda noticed a gap in the options available to individuals looking to the wellness world for health and healing.

They wanted to incorporate the Wesley and Linda McCarley benefits of the spa with other holistic modalities, all under one roof. They wanted to build a true sense of community with their staff and clients. The McCarleys have founded their lives on living whole. They strive to learn as much as possible about the ever-expanding world of natural health and healing, and they are excited to offer their insight to North Alabama.

They have created a place where one can come for true holistic healing. Dominion Restart offers an inviting atmosphere where a person can spend the day at peace, surrounded by knowledgeable and passionate staff, knowing they will leave with direction and insight into their health.

Dominion Restart offers holistic massage services, esthetic services, herbal consultations, essential oils, muscle testing and kinesiology, wellness and diet consultations, and life coaching. As Dominion Restart evolves and Wesley and Linda and learn more about the needs of the community, they hope to expand their staff and add to the available services and products.

“We know healing takes time,” says Linda, “and we are honored to walk alongside each individual on their path to wholeness.”

Dominion Restart is located at 415 Church St NW, Ste C, inside Dominion Salon and Spa in Huntsville. 256-651-2572.

See ad, page 13.

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newsbriefs Free Spiritual Seminar: “How to Find God’s Love in Your Life”

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n Saturday, March 5, 1-8pm, the Alabama affiliate of Eckankar, Religion of the Light and Sound of God, will host a spiritual seminar entitled “How to Find God’s Love in Your Life.” This seminar is being held at the Best Western Plus Hotel, 9035 Madison Boulevard (Hwy 20 near I-565 Exit 9) in Madison, and is free to the public.

Inspirational talks, dynamic workshops, personal stories and panel discussions will offer spiritual tools and insights for understanding how to improve our lives and find a greater measure of happiness. These goals are achieved through realizing the constant presence of God’s love in our everyday experiences. Some of the topics included on the program are We Exist Because of God’s Love for Us; Becoming a Carrier of Divine Love; Tools for Your Journey into the Heart of Love; Are You Using Your God-Given Creativity?; Love Wants to Serve, and Spiritual Growth Means Change. Small group discussions will provide attendees an opportunity to explore ways to realize the benefits of using spiritual consciousness to meet the challenges of daily life. Interspersed among the talks and discussions will be live musical performances.

Amanda Morris, local Eckankar clergy, says, “This seminar will highlight ways of recognizing the divine in every moment of your life. Anyone interested in finding keys to a life of greater love, wisdom and freedom is invited to attend.”

More information about the seminar or Eckankar events in Alabama can be obtained by visiting Eck-Alabama.org, or by calling 256-534-1751.

Light Journey Reiki Barbara Caioli, RM Barbara@LightJourneyReiki.com LightJourneyReiki.com

256-716-8419 6

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The Paranormal Study Center Welcomes Author/Teacher/ Healer Gene Skaggs: “Quantum Touch, the Power to Heal”

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ene Skaggs has a private counseling practice and is a PSYCH-K facilitator and a Certified Quantum Touch facilitator.

He teaches A Course in Miracles and has written four books on the Course.

Gene Skaggs, Gene Skaggs is Author, Teacher, and Healer the only Certified Quantum Touch Instructor in Tennessee. Quantum Touch is a method of hands-on healing that literally must be experienced to be believed. From a quantum physics perspective everything is energy. Therefore, the body, being energy, has to have a natural flow to maintain optimal health. If the body is in pain, it simply is an indication of stuck energy. Quantum touch allows the energy to flow and the body will naturally heal itself. Combined with the intention of love and compassion for the client, nothing is impossible in terms of healing from a quantum physics perspective.

Gene was the featured Instructor for the Quantum Touch newsletter that goes out all over the world in December of 2015. The topic centered around Quantum Touch’s newest healing phenomenal called “Youthing.” Find out more about Youthing on Gene’s website OneMiracle.org.

Come and listen to a unique presentation by Gene as he shares his knowledge and wisdom about Quantum Touch and how to use it for a healthier life.

Date: Friday, March 25, 6:30-9pm. Location: The Hilton Garden Inn, 4801 Governors House Dr (next to Landry’s Seafood).

Public Admission at the door: $10. ParapsychologyStudy Group.com. Meetup.com/Huntsville-Paranormal-Study-Center.

Learn how your past Lives affect

Replaces Previ COPYthe SHEET present and the future AD LETTER

The Neeley Center for Health Offers Acupuncture and Many Other Healing Modalities

Delsie Hill

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stablished in 2002, the Neeley Center for Health offers acupuncture, Chinese herbs, detox footbaths, cupping and electrostim. The Center features Amethyst BioMats on the treatment tables to enhance the treatments and raise endorphins. To complement the acupuncture and Herbology provided

by Dr. Mike Neeley, counselor and life Dr. Mike Neeley coach Cindy Neeley offers coaching, pastoral counseling, Rapid Eye Technology and the Emotions Code.

“Coaching is for that person who is doing well in their life but wants to move forward and have accountability,” says Cindy. “Coaching will bring you the opportunity to release your hidden gifts and powers, taking you beyond the normal. It takes you from those still moments of life changing insights and Cindy Neeley creates what you’ve always wanted.”

Counseling is for the person who is stuck in pain and desiring a season of healing. Rapid Eye Technology is an energy work it is a natural, safe way to release stress and trauma including PTSD. The Emotion Code is an energy healing technique that helps individuals to identify and literally release trapped emotions, which are harmful emotional energies from negative past events.

In addition to pain relief, female issues, shingles, migraines, and infertility, the Neeley Center has had great success with children that experience anxiety disorders with the stresses of school and everyday life.

“At the Neeley Center for Health, we facilitate healing the whole person,” says Dr. Neeley.

The Neeley Center for Health is located at 600 Saint Clair Ave SW, Huntsville. Hours: 8am-5pm Tuesday-Friday, Saturday 7am-2pm. Early morning appointments also available upon request. 256-716-4048. NeeleyAcupuncture.com. See listing, page 30.

Jin Shin Jyutsu® of Huntsville Sandra Cope Certified Jin Shin Jyutsu® Practitioner Assists healing through relaxation and restoring body harmony.

Past Life Intuitive and Counselor

DelsieHill@hotmail.com 256-508-7874

COLON HYDROTHERAPY

Cleanse.... Hydrate... Rejuvenate....

DETOX YOUR BODY FROM THE INSIDE OUT Colonics • Bio Cleanse • Infrared Sauna

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256-270-8731 10300 Bailey Cove Road, Ste 7A Huntsville, AL 35803

MAD2562708731-A

Sacred Light Shamanic Reiki

Healing with Spirit in Accordance with the Highest Good

Shannon Miller, BA, MS Reiki Master Teacher/ Shamanic Practitioner

850-490-0223

Animal companion sessions are available.

Office: (256) 534-1794 Cell: (256) 509-3540

ShannonMiller@ Sales Rep.: Mike Underwood I Approve This Copy. Cust. Sign.: X 1108 McClung Avenue SE SacredLightShamanicReiki.com Please note - quality and size may vary slightly between proof and actual directory

Huntsville, Alabama 35801

SacredLightShamanicReiki.com

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healthbriefs

Metal and Mineral Imbalances May Produce Migraines

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esearch from Turkey’s Yüzüncü Yil University has concluded that migraines may be linked with higher levels of heavy metals in the blood and deficiencies in important minerals. The research tested 50 people, including 25 diagnosed with migraines and 25 healthy control subjects. None of those tested were taking supplements, smoked, abused alcohol or drugs or had liver or kidney disease or cardiovascular conditions.

Blood tests of both groups found that those with frequent migraines had four times the cadmium, more than twice of both the iron and the lead and nearly three times the levels of manganese in their bloodstreams compared to the healthy subjects. In addition, the migraine group had about a third of the magnesium, about 20 times less zinc and almost half the copper levels compared to the healthy group. “In light of our results, it can be said that trace element level disturbances might predispose people to migraine attacks,” the researchers stated.

Probiotics Reduce Aggressively Negative Thoughts

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ecent research from the Netherlands’ Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition has discovered that negative and aggressive thinking can be changed by supplementing with probiotic bacteria. The triple-blind study followed and tested 40 healthy people over a period of four weeks that were split into two groups; one was given a daily probiotic supplement containing seven species of probiotics and the other, a placebo.

The subjects filled out a questionnaire that measured cognitive reactivity and depressed moods using the Leiden Index of Depression Sensitivity, which measures negative and depressed thinking. After four weeks, the probiotic group showed significantly lower scores in aggression, control issues, hopelessness, risk aversion and rumination, compared to the placebo group.

“The study demonstrated for the first time that a four-week, multispecies, probiotic intervention has a positive effect on cognitive reactivity to naturally occurring changes in sad mood in healthy individuals not currently diagnosed with a depressive disorder,” the researchers concluded.

It is health that is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver. ~Mahatma Gandhi 8

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NETI POT SOLUTIONS FOR SINUS PROBLEMS

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eti pots, used for centuries in Asian cultures to support nasal health and eliminate toxins from the nasal mucosa, have become increasingly popular in the Western world.

People use the small Aladdin’s lamp-looking pots to help flush sinuses, usually by pouring a mild solution of unrefined sea salt and water from one nostril through the other (avoid common table salt because it can irritate mucous membranes). The process flushes out unwanted mucus, bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms.

Frequent nasal flushing is credited with preventing and relieving sinus infections. Some experts recommend a stronger remedy if an infection is present.

“The bacteria and fungus stick rather well to the nasal mucosa and few are flushed out with saline flushes,” remarks Herbalist Steven Frank, of Nature’s Rite, LLC. “Most of these nasty pathogens adhere to the mucosa with what is called a biofilm.

Within this slime layer, they are well protected and thrive within the warm moist sinuses, so a small saline bath once a day doesn’t bother them much at all.”

To deal with stubborn sinus problems, Frank likes using the neti pot with a colloidal silver wash that is retained in the nostrils for ten minutes.

This can be supported with regular intra-nasal spraying of the colloid throughout the day.

For more information, call 888-4654404 or visit NaturesRiteRemedies. com. See ad, page 10.

globalbriefs News and resources to inspire concerned citizens to work together in building a healthier, stronger society that benefits all.

Nixing Monsanto Guatemala Just Says No

The government of Guatemala has repealed legislation dubbed the “Monsanto law”, which was approved last year to grant the biotech giant special expansion rights into ecologically sensitive territory, after widespread public protest. The demonstrations included groups of indigenous Mayan people, joined by social movements, trade unions and farmers’ and women’s organizations.

Following political party battles, the Guatemalan Congress decided not to just review the legislation, but instead cancel it outright.

The Monsanto law would have given exclusivity on patented seeds to a handful of transnational companies. Mayan people and social organizations claim that the new law would have violated their constitution and the Mayan people’s right to traditional cultivation of the land in their ancestral territories.

Lolita Chávez, of the Mayan People’s Council, states, “Corn taught us Mayan people about community life and its diversity, because when one cultivates corn, one realizes that a variety of crops such as herbs and medicinal plants depend on the corn plant, as well.”

Source: UpsideDownWorld.org

Food Fight

College Cafeterias Lead the Way in Sustainable Eating Colleges and universities are changing how they purchase and prepare food in their dining halls to provide students healthy, sustainable meal options, with many of them working to source food locally.

American University, in Washington, D.C., purchases more than a third of the food served in its cafeterias within 250 miles of its campus. McGill University, in Montreal, spends 47 percent of its food budget on produce from its own campus farm and growers within 300 miles.

Middlebury College, in Vermont, partners with seasonal local vendors, including those operating its own organic farm.

Taking it a step further, Boston University cafeterias serve meal options that include organic, fair trade, free-range, vegetarian-fed, hormone- and antibioticfree, sustainably harvested food items to students. Cornell University composts about 850 tons of food waste from its dining halls each year. At Duke University, surplus food is donated to food banks, and both pre- and post-consumer scraps are composted.

Other steps include the University of California, Berkeley’s new Global Food Initiative to address food security in a way that’s both nutritious and sustainable, and efforts at the University of Illinois to recycle cooking oil for biodiesel production.

Whistleblowing Allowed

Court Overrules Law Gagging Animal Abuse Probes U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill has written that in a pivotal case of animal cruelty undercover reporting, the Idaho Dairymen’s Association responded to the negative publicity by drafting and sponsoring a bill in a class known as Ag-Gag legislation that criminalizes the types of surreptitious investigations that expose such violent activities. Seven other states currently have similar Ag-Gag laws on the books.

Winmill declared the law unconstitutional in his decision, stating that its only purpose is to “limit and punish those who speak out on topics relating to the agricultural industry, striking at the heart of important First Amendment values.”

The law was deemed to violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, “as well as preemption claims under three different federal statutes,” cites Winmill.

“This ruling is so clear, so definitive, so sweeping,” says Leslie Brueckner, senior attorney for Public Justice and co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the case. “We couldn’t ask for a better building block in terms of striking these laws down in other states.”

Source: Food Safety News

Smile, it’s free therapy. ~Douglas Horton

Source: EcoWatch.com natural awakenings

March 2016

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globalbriefs

High Harvest

Indoor Gardening Looking Up

The food truck industry is good for a quick, cheap meal or even a gourmet meal, but emissions from these portable feasts are a growing concern, given the estimated 3 million trucks that were on the road in 2012. New York state has launched an initiative to put 500 energy-efficient, solar-powered carts on city streets this summer.

A pilot program gives food truck vendors the opportunity to lease the eco-carts for five years at little to no extra cost. They are expected to cut fossil fuel emissions by 60 percent and smog-creating nitrous oxide by 95 percent. If the technology was implemented nationwide, it could spare the atmosphere an enormous carbon footprint.

Conventional mobile vendors may spend more than $500 a month on fossil fuels; in addition to the gasoline consumed in driving, truck lighting and refrigeration systems are powered by diesel generators and propane fuels the grills, sometimes all running up to 10 hours a day. The annual nationwide load can add up to hundreds of billions of pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

The world’s largest indoor farm, in Japan, covers 25,000 square feet, with 15 tiers of stacked growing trays that produce 10,000 heads of lettuce per day, or about 100 times more per square foot than traditional methods.

It uses 99 percent less water and 40 percent less power than outdoor fields, while producing 80 percent less food waste.

Customized LED lighting helps plants grow up to twoand-a-half times faster than normal, one of the many innovations co-developed by Shigeharu Shimamura. He says the overall process is only half automated so far. “Machines do some work, but the picking is done manually. In the future, though, I expect an emergence of harvesting robots.” These may help transplant seedlings, harvest produce or transport product to packaging areas.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Sky Farms, the world’s first low-carbon, hydraulically driven, urban vertical farm, runs on a Sky Urban Vertical Farming System, making the most of rainwater and gravity. Using a water pulley system, 38 growing troughs rotate around a 30-foot-tall aluminum tower.

A much bigger project, a 69,000-square-foot vertical indoor garden under construction at AeroFarms headquarters, in Newark, New Jersey, will be capable of producing up to 2 million pounds of vegetables and herbs annually.

Source: EcoWatch.com

Source: Tinyurl.com/JapaneseIndoorFarm

Fossil-Fuel-Free Food Trucks Go Solar

Sleep Apnea Relief

Natural solutions FO R A L L YOUR HEA LT H NEEDS • Sleep Apnea • Bruises, Strains, tissue damage • Sinus Infection • Skin Rash Designed for my family, Shared with yours.

Order online at MyNaturesRite.com or call 800-991-7088 10

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Helps ensure deep, steady breathing throughout the night, improving the efficiency of the lungs and relaxing muscles to address sleep apnea.

Injury Repair Ankle sprains, bruises, painful elbows and shoulders all need help during repair. Bruise, Strain & Tear Repair clears the bruising and keeps the healing process going for as long as you apply it. Get a complete repair naturally.

Sinus Infection Sinus Relief offers a nasal spray that is both anti-fungal and anti-bacterial in a convenient spray bottle. Super Neti Juice offers the same antimicrobial power with soothing, subtle peppermint. Powerful tools to combat germs.

Rash Relief This powerful herbal lotion is designed to relieve the pain and itch of eczema, while correcting the cause and repairing the skin. A healthy and natural approach to correcting skin rash without dangerous drugs.

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March 2016

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communityspotlight

BACKYARD CHICKENS

By Alan Booker, Eldenbridge Institute

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eople all over the country have been rediscovering the magic of keeping a small flock of chickens in their own backyards. The interest in keeping backyard chicken flocks has been growing rapidly, with small family flocks becoming increasingly popular in many suburban and even urban areas.

And the legal status of backyard flocks has been changing rapidly too, with over 500 cities across the US moving to legalize backyard flocks in just the past couple of years. Even major cities like Portland, Seattle, and St. Louis have found that chickens make a great addition to the city landscape.

Since your hens will happily lay eggs without a rooster present, flocks for urban and suburban yards don’t need a rooster. Simply keeping 2 hens per person can provide most or all of the eggs required for the typical family.

When properly managed, a backyard flock produces less noise and mess than a medium-sized dog while producing beautiful eggs and creating a great source of fertility for your garden.

Your chickens can help you turn your food scraps into amazing compost and even help you manage pests and weeds in your yard and garden.

Unlike most chickens in commercial operations, backyard chickens have access to fresh greens and insects, which results in eggs that are healthier and taste better than even the best eggs you can buy in the store. Allowing your hens to forage for some of their food

results in lower feed costs while giving your hens the varied diet they need to produce eggs rich in Omega-3s and other nutrients. Hens from most of the heritage breeds recommended for backyard flocks will typically lay around 4-5 eggs per week, with production slowing down during the winter when the days are shorter.

Since chickens are delighted to eat almost all of the food scraps from your kitchen, you can easily recycle food waste instead of throwing it away. The potential for chickens to help recycle food waste is so high that the city of Diest in Belgium recently decided to purchase chickens for 2,000 local households as a cost saving measure. Estimates are that 2,000 small flocks spread across the city will help divert almost 500 tons of bio-waste annually from the city’s trash management system, turning it into high-quality compost to improve soil fertility instead.

Chickens’ appetite for insects and other pests can also help keep mosquito and tick populations in check.

Owners of backyard flocks find that their chickens help greatly reduce tick

“I was the last person I thought that would benefit from this...

Ten sessions later I am telling everyone about rolfing.” ~S.H., Birmingham

Advanced Rolf Practitioner Susan K. Jeffreys Consultations Available

Find out what Susan K. Jeffreys and Structural Integration can do for you!

Call (256) 508-3351 Today Susan K. Jeffreys, AL Lic #249 525 Fountain Row • Huntsville, AL 35801 12

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StructuralIntegrationHuntsville.com Structural Integration in the method of Ida P. Rolf

Dominion Restart Dominion Restart can assist in mental and psychological, digestive, immune, and hormonal issues at any stage of life.

Call or Text 256-651-2572 DominionSalonandSpa.com

Holistic Wellness and Life Coaching Wesley and Linda McCarley Diet and nutrition counseling Holistic massage Herbal remedies Eastern medicines Essential oils Muscle Testing Kinesiology Natural lifestyle changes

problems in their yards and that their chickens often find and eat mosquito larvae before they can hatch.

Chickens are also a great compliment to any garden, where they can help prepare beds for planting and then clean up the beds at the end of the season. A small flock of hens will aerate and fertilize your garden while eating weed seeds and insect pests. Just don’t let your hens into areas of the garden that are actively growing crops, or they will most likely decide to make a meal of that too.

If you have been thinking about starting your own backyard flock, the Eldenbridge Institute will be hosting a free webinar Exploring Backyard Chicken Keeping on Thursday, March 3 from 7:30-9pm, where we will answer all your questions and help you understand exactly what it takes to get started.

Spring is the best time of year to set up a new flock, so you can join our 6-part hands-on class Starting Your Backyard Chicken Flock beginning Saturday, March 12 if you would like to learn more. To register for the webinar or for the hands-on class, visit Eldenbridge.org.

The Eldenbridge Institute provides research, design, and education in the areas of Permaculture, sustainable agriculture, health and nutrition, nature connection, and regenerative community. To learn more and to see a complete list of upcoming classes, please visit Eldenbridge.org. Alan Booker can be reached at ABooker@Eldenbridge.org. natural awakenings

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Meaty Truths Choosing Meat that’s Sustainable and Safe

by Melinda Hemmelgarn

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n his essay The Pleasures of Eating, Wendell Berry, a Kentucky farmer and poet, writes: “If I am going to eat meat, I want it to be from an animal that has lived a pleasant, uncrowded life outdoors, on bountiful pasture, with good water nearby and trees for shade.” He, like a growing number of conscious eaters, wants no part of the industrial meat system in which animals are raised in concentrated animal feeding operations.

Media coverage has helped educate consumers previously unaware of how their food is produced and why it matters. The documentary film Food Inc., as well as books like Fast Food Nation,

by Eric Schlosser and The Chain, by Ted Genoways, describe common livestock industry practices that mistreat animals, pollute water and air, endanger workers and threaten public health. With increased understanding of the connections between diet and health, climate, environment and social justice, even many Americans that still like the taste of hamburger and steak have sided with Berry; they want sustainably raised, humane and healthful red meat.

Unsustainable Corporate Lobby Every five years, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines are revised to reflect the 14

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latest nutritional science. In 2015, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee attempted to include the concept of sustainability. The committee, which included top nutrition scientists, defined sustainable diets as “a pattern of eating that promotes health and well-being and provides food security for the present population while sustaining human and natural resources for future generations.”

It made the case that a diet higher in plant-based foods and lower in animalbased foods both promotes health and protects the environment—resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions, and less energy, land and water use.

But political pressure from the livestock industry prevailed, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell jointly announced, “We do not believe that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are the appropriate vehicle for this important policy conversation about sustainability.” Instead, they advised the committee to focus solely on nutritional and dietary information.

In her book Food Politics, nutritionist and author Marion Nestle explains that recommendations to decrease consumption have never been popular with the food industry.

Nonetheless, Roni Neff, Ph.D., who

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directs the Center for a Livable Future’s Food System Sustainability and Public Health Program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, recommends consuming less red meat in particular, because of its large environmental footprint. Neff points out, “Thirty percent of greenhouse gas emissions are connected to red meat.”

However, not all red meat is created equal. In her book Defending Beef, environmental lawyer and cattle rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman makes a case for sustainable meat production, noting, “Well-managed grazing could be part of an effective strategy to combat climate change.”

In their book The New Livestock Farmer, authors Rebecca Thistlethwaite and Jim Dunlop praise the increase in farmers producing pasture-raised, ethical meats and the growing number of farmers selling directly to people that reject the industrial system. Neff likewise supports such sustainable livestock agriculture, which integrates pasture-raised animals on farms, rather than isolating them on feedlots, where they typically eat a grain-based diet (such as genetically engineered corn) and receive growth stimulants, including hormones and antibiotics.

Risky Hormones and Antibiotics Mike Callicrate, a St. Francis, Kansas, rancher educated in the industrial model of meat production, is considered an expert on its negative consequences.

He served as an advisor for Food Inc., and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Callicrate observes, “The same chemical compounds that athletes are banned from using in baseball are used to produce our food animals, which our children eat in the hot dogs at the ballgame.”

According to the USDA, about 90 percent of feedlot cattle receive hormone implants to promote growth.

Yet the European Union Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures Relating to Public Health reports that the use of natural and artificial growth hormones in beef production poses a potential risk to human health, especially among children.

Because climate change is accelerating and is already causing a multitude of adverse effects, and the footprint of our current food system is massive, we urgently need to create a national food supply that is both healthy and sustainable. ~Dr. Walter Willett, Harvard School of Public Health

Concerns about growth-promoting drugs led the American Academy of Pediatrics to call for studies that directly measure their impact on children through milk and meat. The President’s Cancer Panel Report on Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk also states, “Growth hormones may contribute to endocrine disruption in humans.”

Their dietary recommendations include choosing meat raised without hormones and antibiotics.

Rising Resistance Antibiotic resistance is now one of the world’s most critical public health problems, and it’s related to misuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Antibiotic resistance— when bacteria don’t respond to the drugs designed to kill them—threatens to return us to the time when simple infections were often fatal.”

Veterinarian and food safety consultant Gail Hansen, of Washington, D.C., explains that bacteria naturally develop resistance anytime we use antibiotics. “The problem is overuse and misuse; that’s the recipe for disaster.”

She explains that more than 70 percent of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are not used to treat sick animals, but to promote growth and reduce the risk of infection related to raising animals in unsanitary, overcrowded spaces.

A recent report by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states: Adding antibiotics to the feed of healthy

livestock “often leave the drugs ineffective when they are needed to treat infections in people.”

The AAP supports buying meat from organic farms, because organic farming rules prohibit the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics. Stacia Clinton, a registered dietitian in Boston who works with the international nonprofit Health Care Without Harm, assists hospitals in both reducing meat on their menus and increasing purchases of meat from animals raised without antibiotics. The goal is to reduce the growing number of antibiotic-resistant infections that cost hospitals and patients billions of dollars each year.

A Friends of the Earth report, Chain Reaction: How Top Restaurants Rate on Reducing Use of Antibiotics in Their Meat Supply, revealed that most meat served by American’s top chain restaurants come from animals raised in industrial facilities where they are fed antibiotics. Only two out of 25 chains, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread, report that the majority of their meat is raised without routine antibiotics. A recent study by Consumers Union also found antibiotic-resistant bacteria on retail meat samples nationwide.

In California, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, making his the first state to ban the use of routine low doses of antimicrobial drugs that are medically important to humans to promote livestock weight gain or feed efficiency. The bill doesn’t go into effect until January 2018, but will contribute to making meat safer and antibiotic drugs more effective.

Red and Processed Meats Targeted Dietary advice to reduce the consumption of red and processed meats, regardless of how the animals are raised, is not new. Kelay Trentham, a registered dietitian in Tacoma, Washington, who specializes in cancer prevention and treatment, points out that joint reports from the World Cancer Research Fund International and American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) since 2007 have recommended restricting consumption of red meat to less than 18 ounces a week and avoiding processed meats.

Smarter Meat Choices

by Melinda Hemmelgarn Choose certified organic meat.

Organic certification prohibits antibiotics, added hormones and genetically modified (GMO) feed.

Select grass-fed and grass-finished meats. Look for the nonprofit American Grassfed Association (AGA) certification, which ensures animals eat only grass and forage from the time of their weaning until harvest, and are raised without antibiotics or hormones (AmericanGrassfed.org). AGA standards apply to ruminant animals only: beef, bison, goat, lamb and sheep.

Support Country of Origin Labeling. This mandates that retail cuts of meat must contain a label informing consumers of its source. The U.S. meat industry has worked to stop such labeling.

Beware of misleading labels.

“Natural” provides no legal assurance about how an animal was raised. “Vegetarian feed” may mean GMO corn and/or soy. (See Greener Choices.org.)

Buy directly from family livestock farmers. Check out sites like Local Harvest.org and Tinyurl.com/Farmers MarketsDirectory.

Pay attention to portions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture serving size weighs three ounces, about the same size as a deck of cards. Think of meat as a side dish and balance the rest of the plate with vegetables, leafy greens, beans and other legumes.

Once a week, cut out meat. Participate in Meatless Mondays (Meatless Monday.org).

Assume all retail meat carries bacteria that can cause food-borne illness. Practice safe food handling as directed on package labels. (Also see FoodSafety.gov and KeepAntibiotics Working.com.)

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In 2015, the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified processed meat (like hot dogs, ham, sausages, corned beef and beef jerky) as “carcinogenic to humans” and red meat (beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse and goat) as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Risk increases with amount consumed, and the evidence is strongest for the relation of processed meats to colorectal cancer.

Trentham explains some factors that make red and processed meats risky. “Heating or smoking meat creates cancer-causing compounds. Processed meats contain salts, nitrates and nitrites; a chemical mélange of preservatives that can increase risk,” she says. Trentham and Karen Collins, a registered dietitian and advisor to the AICR, concur that the form of iron found in meat also contributes to cancer risk.

Still, the IARC report recognizes, “Eating meat has known health benefits.” Meat is a rich source of protein and B vitamins, iron and zinc. Livestock feed further influences nutritional composition, with meat from cattle raised on pasture (grass) containing higher levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids compared to meat from animals fed grain.

According to medical doctor and National Institutes of Health researcher Captain Joseph Hibbeln, consuming fewer omega-6 fatty acids and more omega-3s may be one of the most important dietary changes for cutting the risk of chronic diseases, reducing inflammation, improving mental health, enhancing children’s brain and eye development and reducing worldwide incidence of cardiovascular disease by 40 percent.

When it comes to eating meat, the agricultural practices, quantity consumed, and methods of processing and cooking make a difference. It turns out that what’s good for the environment is good for animals and people, too.

Melinda Hemmelgarn is an award-winning registered dietitian, writer and Food Sleuth Radio host with KOPN.org, in Columbia, MO. Connect at FoodSleuth@gmail.com.

Grilling a Grass-Fed Steak Just Right

by Melinda Hemmelgarn

S

hannon Hayes, farmer, nutritionist and author of The Farmer and the Grill: A Guide to Grilling, Barbecuing and Spit-Roasting Grassfed Meat… and for Saving the Planet, One Bite at a Time, says cooking grass-fed steaks at too-high temperatures, especially when grilling, is a common mistake. The West Fulton, New York, food expert describes how to achieve “a gorgeous sear on the outside, and a pink and juicy inside.”

When working on a grill, light only one side. When hot, sear an inch-and-a-quarter-thick steak for no more than two minutes per side, with the grill lid off. Make sure fat drippings don’t flare up flames, which will blacken and toughen the meat.

After the sear, move the steaks to the unlit side of the grill and put the grill lid on. Let them finish cooking indirectly for five to seven minutes per pound. The lower temperature cooks the internal muscle fibers, but prevents them from contracting too rapidly and becoming chewy.

As an alternative to grilling, use an oven and castiron skillet. Preheat the oven to 300° F. Next, heat the skillet over a high flame until smoke begins to rise off its surface. Coat the skillet with butter or tallow, then sear the meat for two minutes per side. Turn off the stove; leave steaks in the pan and move them to the oven, where they can finish cooking for five to seven minutes per pound.

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Land Manager Allan Savory on Holistic Pasturing

How Cows Can Help Reverse Climate Change

by Linda Sechrist

W

hen concurrent dangers arising from overpopulation, desertification (fertile land turning to desert) and climate change were just beginning to attract technological solutions, pioneers like Allan Savory, a young wildlife biologist in Zimbabwe, Africa, were researching how healthy soil captures carbon dioxide and stores it as carbon.

It’s the way nature renders the most pervasive greenhouse gas more helpful than harmful and a major reason why this is not happening globally is because of desertification.

This innovative game-changer has since received Australia’s 2003 Banksia International Award for “doing the most for the environment on a global scale” and the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, recognizing solutions that address humanity’s most pressing problems. The Savory Institute, founded in 2009, and its Africa Center for Holistic Management, demonstrate how using livestock to improve soil and decrease dependence on water— plus increase its ability to hold moisture and carbon—grows more grass and improves profits for ranchers, landowners and investors.

What prompted your examination of soil biology?

In the 1960s, I first became alarmed at the rate of land degradation in Africa’s vast grasslands, which were turning to desert. Looking for a solution, I hit upon a profound relationship—that the

grasslands, their soils, soil life, plants and animals had evolved symbiotically with large, grazing herbivores of many species and pack-hunting predators. As my inquiry led beyond Africa, I noticed that the same was true of similar ecosystems worldwide, including those of the U.S. Great Plains.

Long ago, the Great Plains supported herbivores that traveled in immense herds for safety from predators.

Where there are now approximately 11 large mammal species, there were once more than 50. The trampling of dung and urine, as well as grazing of such vast numbers constantly on the move, developed deep carbon-storing and rain-holding soils that also break down methane. Only in the presence of large roaming herds of herbivores periodically working the surface soil does this happen; it works much like a gardener does, breaking bare surfaces and covering them with litter and dung. Only in this way do grasslands thrive.

How did this revolutionize your thinking about land and livestock management?

Being trained at a university to believe that grazing livestock causes land degradation blinded me to the deeper understanding that humans’ management of the animals, not the animals themselves, has been the problem.

Historically, the healthiest soils in the world’s vast grain-growing regions were those that had supported the largest

populations of natural wildlife and intact pack-hunting predators.

We now have in hand a natural solution able to reverse U.S. and global desertification, which is contributing to increasing severity and frequency of floods and droughts, poverty, social breakdown, violence, pastoral genocide and mass movement into cities and across national borders. Restoring brilliant natural functions through holistic management of even half of the world’s grasslands has the potential to pull all of the legacy carbon out of the atmosphere, put it back into the ground where it belongs and keep it there for thousands of years. Livestock aided by holistic, planned grazing that mimics nature can return Earth’s atmosphere to preindustrial carbon levels while feeding people with cleaner meat.

I can think of almost nothing that offers more hope for our planet for generations to come. In fact, it has so many benefits—including an eventual net cost of zero or less—that even if climate change wasn’t an issue, we should be doing it anyway.

How is holistic pasturing proceeding?

Ultimately, the only sustainable economy for any nation is derived from growing plants on regenerating soil. Today’s conventional agriculture is producing more than 75 billion tons of dead, eroding soil every year—more than 10 tons for every human alive. The largest areas of the world’s land are either grasslands or former grasslands.

Holistic, planned grazing to reverse desertification has gained support from thousands of individual ranchers, scientists, researchers, pastoralists and farmers. Currently, it is practiced on more than 30 million acres over six continents with encouraging success.

The Savory Institute encourages and links locally led and managed holistic management hubs around the world, now numbering 30 in Africa, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey, the UK and U.S., with more forming every year.

Linda Sechrist is a senior staff writer for Natural Awakenings. Connect at ItsAllAboutWe.com.

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or thousands of homeowners in “agrihoods” across the U.S., homegrown is a way of life.

Planned developments incorporating neighborhood agriculture are sprouting up in record numbers, according to Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow specializing in sustainability with the Urban Land Institute. He estimates there are a few hundred agrihoods nationwide, in all regions and at all price points. “The trend is the convergence of several things, including a growing interest in local business, local food, healthy lifestyles and the foodie culture,” says McMahon.

He adds, “Today’s developers have to differentiate their properties to survive, and farms have become the new golf course of real estate development.”

Agriculture is a far lower-cost amenity that can even return a modest profit by selling its harvest to the community.

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Beyond food, agrihoods help grow community, a huge draw for those living in isolated suburban areas. In 2014, Abby and Michael Wheatfill moved their family to Agritopia, a planned community in Gilbert, Arizona, near Phoenix. Billed as an urban farm, the central feature of Agritopia’s 166 acres, knitting together commercial, agricultural and open space with 450 residential homes, is a working farm, with roving pigs, lambs and chickens, a citrus grove and rows of heirloom vegetables.

Farm, family and community life are interwoven. The Wheatfills lease a plot in an on-site community garden.

Other residents buy shares in the community supported agriculture project or purchase produce or eggs from the community farm on the honor system.

“We especially love the narrow, tree-lined streets and wide porches, and that we can walk or bike to fun,

locally sourced restaurants,” says Michael, a technology consultant.

Private backyards are small in favor of community space, nudging residents to meet each other, Abby says.

The Cannery, in Davis, California, is one of the newest agrihoods and also one of the few that redeveloped an industrial tract. This 100-acre development, still under construction, will feature 547 new homes on the former site of a tomato processing facility, in addition to affordable rentals for low-income families. Its heart and soul is a working farm that will feed the community’s households and supply its restaurants. The Cannery is a pioneer in clean green energy, with solar-powered homes, connections for electric cars, and many other energyconserving features. Thirsty homeowner lawns are prohibited in most of The Cannery’s mini-neighborhoods, but no home is more than 300 feet from public green space.

Samrina and Mylon Marshall, both physicians in their mid-50s, will be among the first residents to move in this spring. “We like that it’s a green energy community featuring multigenerational living. We’re also big on eating locally and seasonally, so the urban farm was a key draw,” says Mylon.

North Atlanta family Gil and Jeny Mathis and their two daughters, 12 and 14 years old, discovered Serenbe, a planned community in Chattahoochee

Hills, Georgia, two years ago. Now it’s literally their second home. “It provides a different life for our children on weekends they couldn’t otherwise have.

The community aspect has penetrated our lives in a way that we couldn’t have predicted,” says Gil. Both girls love it, and the younger sibling is lobbying to relocate there full time. The family likes the people Serenbe draws and the opportunities to engage with them, the consistent access to natural and organic food and its artist-in-residence program.

Serenbe was the inspiration for the Olivette Riverside Community and Farm, a 346-acre, back-to-the-land project near Asheville, North Carolina.

Its owners are transforming a failed high-end gated community and adjacent historic farm along the French Broad River into an agri-centered development featuring a blueberry orchard, community gardens, vegetable farm and greenhouse.

“It’s vital that we re-localize our food supply,” says Olivette co-owner Tama Dickerson. “One of the first things we did was to incorporate this farm and see what areas we could preserve, because what you keep is just as important as what you develop.” Future plans include hiking trails, artist live-work spaces, tiny houses, little free libraries and a K-8 school.

Agrihoods aren’t solely for agriburbs. Creative public housing

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developers are bringing agriculture to high-density neighborhoods. The smoke-free Healthy High-Rise Arbor House, a 124-unit, low-income apartment in the Bronx, in New York City, features a 10,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse and a living lobby wall that grows organic vegetables for the community year-round. Residents can obtain a discounted share from the farm using SNAP benefits (food stamps) and take free classes in cooking fresh. Arbor House also allocates 40 percent of its rooftop crop harvests for the larger community.

Agrihoods can take many forms, including those involving gardens cropping up in schools, parks and hospitals nationwide, as well as informal, guerilla gardens in vacant lots. Many cities, including Falls Church, Virginia, and Takoma Park, Maryland, have even changed local zoning laws so residents can keep chickens and bees in their backyards for eggs and honey, according to McMahon.

“The era of the 2,000-mile Caesar salad has come to an end,” says McMahon, citing high transportation costs that make locally sourced food good for businesses and consumers alike. “The trend of growing food closer to home—in some cases at home—is here to stay.”

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prescribing eyeglasses, drugs or surgery.

Conventionally trained optometrists and ophthalmologists, lacking education in nutrition and alternative approaches, treat the eyes as isolated organs. In contrast, systemically oriented, holistic eye experts treat them as integrated parts of the whole body.

Eye doctors like Marc R. Grossman, doctor of optometry, a co-founder of Natural Eye Care, Inc., of New Paltz, New York, and Edward C. Kondrot, a medical doctor and founder of the Healing the Eye & Wellness Center, in Fort Myers, Florida, take such a preventive and integrative approach.

They recommend good whole foods nutrition, supplemented with antioxidants and plant-based formulations of omega-6 and omega-3 oils, together with adequate sleep and exercise.

Key complementary treatments can be effective in improving sight and reversing some conditions.

Grossman, also a licensed acupuncturist, explains in his book Greater Vision: A Comprehensive Program for Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Clarity how he incorporates the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of vision into his philosophy of eye care. At Somers Eye Center, in Somers, New York, he uses a full range of mind-body therapies, combined with conventional methods to address dry eye syndrome, nearsightedness, farsightedness, macular degeneration, cataracts and glaucoma.

The Eyes Tell Our Story

How Integrative Doctors See Into Whole-Body Health

by Linda Sechrist

T

o poets, the eyes have long been known as windows to the soul.

Systemically trained ophthalmologists, optometrists and functional medicine doctors see these organs as a potential indicator of high blood pressure, diabetes, stress-related

effects and nutritional deficiencies, as well as sites for potential glaucoma and macular degeneration.

The connection between overall health and eye health is rarely addressed during conventional eye exams, which are based on standard protocols for

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Kondrot, a leading board-certified homeopathic ophthalmologist, uses a slit-lamp binocular microscope to examine the complex living tissue of the eyes. The author of 10 Essentials to Save Your Sight, he’s experienced in regeneration nutrition and maintains that our overall health impacts our vision. His toolbox includes multimodal protocols like homeopathy, detoxification, oxygen therapy, low-level microcurrent to stimulate cellular activity, palming (using the hands over closed eyes) and other alternative methods to reverse visual loss. He regularly uses the Myers’ cocktail, an intravenous therapy with a high concentration of B-complex and C vitamins, taurine (an amino sulfonic acid), trace minerals and zinc.

“Regardless of your eye condition, regular eye exercises can increase eye muscle flexibility and support circulation for better delivery of oxygen, essential nutrients and the flow of energy to the eyes,” says Grossman. He notes that “Aerobic Exercise Protects Retinal Function and Structure from Light-Induced Retinal Degeneration,” a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2014, was the first of its kind to link physical exercise with improved retinal health and prevention of common eye diseases.

While Kondrot emphasizes that vitamins A, C, D and E are essential to eye health, particularly in preventing macular degeneration, he cautions that taking a supplement is no substitute for expanding the diet to include foods such as kale, spinach, parsley, collard greens, cooked broccoli, green peas, pumpkin and Brussels sprouts. All include lutein and zeaxanthin, two types of important carotenoids contained within the retina and found in the leaves of most green plants. Digestive enzymes, probiotics and the amino acid betaine are also necessary to facilitate better absorption of nutrients.

Dr. Connie Casebolt, board certified in family medicine and founder of GFM Wellness, in Greenville, South Carolina, practices with a whole body-mind perspective and incorporates supplements in patient disease prevention and wellness plans. “As the eye is bathed in the same chemicals and nutrients as the rest of the body, eye conditions can be affected by problems affecting the rest of the body,” she says. “Low adrenals can contribute to macular degeneration. Additionally, disruption of the energy flowing through acupuncture meridians related to teeth affected by root canals can also affect the eyes. “ She likes the book Whole Body Dentistry, by Mark Breiner, a doctor of dental surgery, because it includes numerous case histories of systemic illnesses, including eye disorders, that improve with better oral health. “Trying to sustain good health and avoiding toxins such as tobacco and excess sugar can definitely help in maintaining good vision,” explains Casebolt.

Sensitive, complex and composed of more than 2 million working parts, the eyes are their own phenomenon. Annual eye exams are important at every age to help us do what’s needed to maintain our precious gift of sight.

Linda Sechrist is a senior staff writer for Natural Awakenings.

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Taste the Rainbow, Expand Your Palate with New Colorful Veggies

by Judith Fertig

A

mericans’ vegetable habits are in a rut. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly 50 percent of the vegetables and legumes available in this country in 2013 were either tomatoes or potatoes. Lettuce came in third, according to new data released in 2015, advises Tracie McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating.

Further, 87 percent of U.S. adults did not meet basic vegetable serving recommendations from 2007 through 2010, a fact cited in the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. Yet, urban supermarkets overflow with a wealth of common and exotic vegetables, often displayed sideby-side: broccoli and broccolini, green bell and Japanese shishito peppers, and iceberg lettuce and leafy mâche, or lamb’s lettuce.

Trying one new vegetable dish a week is a great way to increase our vegetable literacy, says functional medicine expert Terri Evans, a doctor of Oriental medicine in Naples, Florida.

“Our diet should be 60 per-

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cent produce—40 percent vegetables and 20 percent fruit,” she says. “To keep this sustainable for the long term, we should eat what tastes good, not what we think is good for us. Some days, we crave the sweetness of carrots; other days, the bitterness of artichokes or the heat of hot peppers. Our bodies can tell us what we need.”

Keep Expanding Choices

Going Green. Dark green and slightly peppery arugula is good with a little olive oil and lemon juice. Finely shredded Brussels sprouts bulk up a mixed salad, while adding the benefits of a cancer-fighting cruciferous vegetable.

Instead of mineral-rich baby spinach, try baby Swiss chard, suggests Matthew Kadey, a registered dietician in Waterloo, Ontario. He also suggests microgreens, the tiny shoots of radishes, cabbage, broccoli and kale, all rich in vitamins C and E. Squash It. Varieties of summer and winter squash add color, body and flavor to one-dish meals, with the added benefits of B vitamins, magnesium and fiber. LeAnne Campbell, Ph.D., author of The China Study Cookbook, simmers a mix of fresh chopped vegetables including yellow summer squash or

Eating a rich variety of plant-based foods is fast, easy and satisfying. ~LeAnne Campbell zucchini, and flavors with coconut and curry powder. Vegan Chef Douglas McNish, of Toronto, makes an okra and squash gumbo in the slow cooker.

Sneak in a Smoothie. Change up a smoothie routine by swapping out the usual baby spinach for a blend of cucumber, apple and fresh mint, or else sweet potato and carrot, suggests Sidney Fry, a registered dietitian and Cooking Light editor, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Snack Attack. An array of colorful vegetables served with dips and spreads can be an easy way to experiment with veggies. Carrots in deep red, vibrant yellow, purple and orange are delicious raw and supply beta-carotene, promoting eye health. Leaves from pale green Belgian endive spears are tender and crunchy. Orange or “cheddar” cauliflower has a more creamy and sweet flavor than its pale cousin.

“Colors equal health, and the more colors we eat, the better our overall health,” says Susan Bowerman, a registered dietitian, lecturer in food science and nutrition at California State Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, and co-author of What Color Is Your Diet? “We also have to be willing to try new foods or new varieties of foods, or maybe to prepare unfamiliar foods in a way that will make them taste good, so that we will be willing to add more plant foods to our diet.”

Judith Fertig blogs at AlfrescoFoodAndLifestyle. blogspot.com from Overland Park, KS.

A Rainbow of Benefits

A health food store with more!

by Judith Fertig

T

he colors found in fresh vegetables can indicate an abundance of necessary phytochemicals and nutrients. “Many people I see in my practice consume excess food, but have nutrient deficiency,” says Terri Evans, a functional medicine expert and doctor of Oriental medicine.

Eating a variety of colorful vegetables can be part of the remedy.

“Each color in a vegetable represents 10,000 micronutrients,” explains Evans. “The more colorful you make your diet, the happier your body will be.” She notes that supplements supply a lot of one nutrient, while vegetables gift us with tiny amounts of many requisite nutrients.

According to the nonprofit Produce for Better Health Foundation, plant phytochemicals may act as antioxidants, protect and regenerate essential nutrients and work to deactivate cancer-causing substances. So, the more color on our plates, the better.

Yellow and orange—in squash and some tomatoes—point to higher levels of vitamins C and A. The beta-carotene behind these colors is renowned for supporting healthy eyesight.

Dark green—in leafy greens and cabbages—evidences higher levels of vitamins K, B and E. Chlorophyll creates the color and indicates its welldocumented detoxifying properties.

Red—in red bell peppers and tomatoes—indicates vitamin C. Lycopene, which provides the color, is widely associated with lowering the risk of prostate and breast cancers.

Purple and blue—in radicchio, red cabbage and eggplant—deliver vitamins C and K. Anthocyanins that create the color are powerful antioxidants geared to keep us heart-healthy.

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natural awakenings

March 2016

23

healthykids

Nighttime Parenting

Fostering Healthful Sleep

by Stephanie Dodd

According to the American Psychological Association, up to 70 percent of children experience sleep disturbances that affect their emotional and physical well-being.

P

arents frequently awakened by a child’s interrupted slumber typically are torn between the need to care for their own health and that of their child. The goal is to meet everyone’s needs, so that adequate adult sleep doesn’t feel like child neglect.

Solutions are feasible if the parent is emotionally equipped to feel continuing empathy for their little one and secure in their choices for resolution, regardless of setbacks or delays.

Uncovering the real reasons that a child stays alert at bedtime or wakes during the night—such as inconsistent timing of sleep cycles, excessive fatigue, insufficient physical activity, hunger, pain, anxieties, inadequate downtime or a desire for continued 24

Tennessee Valley

interaction with a parent—is the first step. With so many variables, frustration can impede the workings of parental intuition, which is key to the process, as is testing individual possible solutions long enough to assess the result and then confidently move forward.

Internal Calm Expecting a child to feel so empowered that they can fall asleep on their own is a good beginning. Lindsay Melda, of Atlanta, relates, “Our daughter used to wake us up by coming into our bed each night. Once I realized I was anxious about her sleeping alone in her room and was able to instead trust she was okay, she easily slept through the night, waking more rested.

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My own anxiety was causing her sleep disturbances.”

Christine Gipple, of Oaklyn, New Jersey, a practitioner of non-violent communication, shares, “When my daughter is chatty at bedtime and I’m past ready for her to be in bed, I have to consciously pause, or I can snap at her, thus delaying bedtime.

Granting myself just five minutes to reset myself and be present in the moment before I gently re-engage is critical to the outcome.”

Such checking in with ourselves helps keep a parent thinking positively. Law of Attraction specialist Cassie Parks, of Denver, Colorado, advises, “When you focus on the feeling you desire once a child is peacefully asleep, rather than the feeling you want to move away from, your chances for success greatly increase.”

Noting how we envision nighttime unfolding or creating a nighttime vision board can help focus and maintain these feelings.

Releasing Stress One method parents have successfully used is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It involves light tapping on specific points along the body’s energy meridians, like the collarbone or between the eyebrows, often accompanied by attention to current thoughts and feelings, in order to restore a balanced feeling.

Karin Davidson, of Media, Pennsylvania, co-founder of the Meridian Tapping Techniques Association, says, “Including tapping with a supportive nighttime routine can be a godsend.

It can relieve distress, whatever its source, increase feelings of security and promote a peaceful transition to sleep.” In clinical studies from the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare, EFT has been shown to counter the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, contributing to decreased sleep disturbances.

Marissa Wolf, of The Woodlands, Texas, relates, “We moved here from San Diego when my son was 34 months old. He was acting out in ways I’d never seen before, mourning the loss of his routine. Within weeks after we started tapping before school and

Parents that model self-care help their children learn to care for themselves. ~ Sheila Pai, author, Nurturing You at night, he was back to his happy self.

Last night, he simply went to bed and fell asleep. Now when I see his builtup emotions, I know we need to tap.”

(To learn more about EFT methods, visit emofree.com.)

Nourished Rest Good nutrition is also important to healthy sleep. According to Health Coach Sarah Outlaw, owner of the Natural Health Improvement Center of South Jersey and an advanced Nutrition Response Testing practitioner, “Children may be devoid of minerals because of the filtered water we drink. Supplementing with minerals like magnesium or enriching the diet with trace minerals, sea salt and mineral-rich bone broth will promote a healthy immune system, along with a nervous system programmed for sleep.”

Outlaw also advises, “A whole foods diet is paramount to children’s health and sleep ability. Parents should limit or eliminate artificial flavors, sweeteners and sugar; preferably at all times, but at least an hour before bedtime.”

When a parent takes the time to plan each step toward their goal of optimum sleep and feels secure in following through, they can create a personalized and consistent bedtime routine that fosters a sense of safety for children that feel heard and tended to and know what to expect. Children that gain the ability to naturally develop sleep skills reap lifelong health benefits.

inspiration

COLOR ME CALM Grownups De-Stress with Adult Coloring Books

by Avery Mack

C

oloring books are no longer solely the domain of children.

Immersion in this fun, creative pastime by adults even for just 30 minutes can constitute a focused meditation that relieves stress. Doctor of Psychology Nikki Martinez, in Chicago, says that famed psychotherapist Carl Jung believed coloring helps patients release anxiety.

“It uses both sides of the brain and improves organizational and fine motor skills,” says Martinez. “After I underwent a major surgery, I was on bed rest for eight weeks, and adult coloring books were a lifesaver. They passed the time, were pretty and kept me in a constant state of calm. I devoured them.”

Publishers Weekly reported combined 2015 sales of 1.75 million copies for the 10 bestselling adult coloring books through November. This trend was years in the making, originating when parents colored with their kids and sometimes on their own. Adults around the world now join coloring book clubs, hold related parties and take coloring breaks at work. Last fall, Barnes & Noble hosted the one-day AllAmerican Art Unwind, where customers colored and uploaded their results to Instagram and Twitter. Hallmark sent a crew of artists and calligraphers to select locations to help customers color their greeting cards.

“We scheduled a coloring session for a 55-plus community workshop,” relates Ninah Kessler, a licensed clinical

social worker with the Sparks of Genius Brain Optimization Center, in Boca Raton, Florida. “People had so much fun they wouldn’t leave. It’s creative, portable and inexpensive. You never face blank paper because the lines are there; you just pick the colors. There’s no stress about possibly making mistakes.”

“Animals, jungle or floral themes, and Zen-inspired mandalas are popular.

Customers like realistic, intricate drawings,” explains Idalia Farrajota, a Dallas executive with Michaels craft stores, which offers free, in-store coloring sessions and provides supplies. (Download a free sample book at Tinyurl.com/ BotanicalColoringPages.) Johanna Basford, a renowned illustrator from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is a hit with colorists, catering to their penchant for nature with Secret Garden, Enchanted Forest and her latest, Lost Ocean.

“My daughter wanted to color her life, not do generic drawings,” says Dieter Marlovics, prompting him to establish ReallyColor.com, in Chicago. “Really-Color converts photos into coloring book pages to make individually tailored pages.”

Try these eco-tips: Sprout pencils, made with sustainable wood and fruitand-vegetable-based dyed clay instead of lead, are topped by non-GMO seeds that can be planted when the pencil becomes short. Inktense’s water-soluble brightly colored pencils mimic pen and ink; add water for translucency. Select recycled paper books, soy crayons, watercolor paints and non-toxic markers.

March is Color Therapy Month

Stephanie Dodd is the author of the international bestseller, Good Baby, Bad Sleeper. She blogs at HeartCentered Sleep.com. natural awakenings

March 2016

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A Few Drops of Detoxified Iodine Can Change Your Life Give Your Body the Natural Boost it Needs Causes of Iodine Deficiency The Hidden Deficiency { The Best I Ever Felt }

Radiation

Almost everyone is routinely exposed to iodine-depleting radiation

Low-Sodium Diets

Overuse of zero-nutrient salt substitutes in foods leads to iodine depletion

Iodized Table Salt Iodized salt may slowly lose its iodine content by exposure to air

Bromine

A toxic chemical found in baked goods overrides iodine's ability to aid thyroid

Iodine-Depleted Soil Poor farming techniques have led to declined levels of iodine in soil

Symptoms range from extreme fatigue and weight gain to depression, carpal tunnel syndrome, high blood pressure, fibrocystic breasts and skin and hair problems. This lack of essential iodine can also cause infertility, joint pain, heart disease and stroke. Low iodine levels also have been associated with breast and thyroid cancers; and in children, intellectual disability, deafness, attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and impaired growth, according to studies by Boston University and the French National Academy of Medicine.

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The supplementation of iodine, has been reported to relieve:

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A Growing Epidemic

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Having the proper amount of iodine in our system at all times is critical to overall health, yet the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that iodine deficiency is increasing drastically in light of an increasingly anemic national diet of unpronounceable additives and secret, unlabeled ingredients. This deficit now affects nearly three-quarters of the population.A Growing Epidemic

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naturalpet

WELL-MANNERED

CATS

Simple Ways to Get Kitty to Behave

by Sandra Murphy

T

hree million cats end up in shelters every year, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Owners cite landlord restrictions or allergies in the family as leading reasons. Often, the animal is blamed for an easily fixed behavior problem; the Wake County Animal Center, in Raleigh, North Carolina, interprets rationales such as, “Kitty has a sensitive stomach [throws up] or pees under the bed [likely a urinary tract infection].”

“I prefer to call such things issues, not problems. They’re often evidence of natural instincts that need to be redirected,” says Anne Moss, owner of TheCatSite.com, from Tel Aviv, Israel.

“A vet visit will rule out physical concerns so you can move on to behavioral issues.” Once a cat’s adapted to living with humans, life becomes more pleasant for everyone.

Cats can be trained. Dallas cat owner Bettina Bennett of WhichBoxMedia.com advises, “Start early, attach rewards and be consistent. Our four cats don’t scratch the furniture, come when called and know when it’s bedtime.”

Clicker training works well, adds Becky Morrow, a doctor of veterinarian medicine who teaches at Duquesne University, in Pittsburgh. “I have 13 cats living in my home and a sanctuary housing 65 more. They’ve learned to walk on a leash and obey commands.”

Dr. Jeff Werber, a Los Angeles veterinarian, has found that scratching furniture, biting people, nocturnal activity, throwing up and ignoring the litter box are the five most common complaints. Scratching lets Kitty leave her scent, stretch and shed old claws.

He suggests, “Get a scratching post, but don’t put it in an-out-of-the-way location. Cats like to be where we are. Start with it in the center of the room and gradually move it to the corner.”

Measure how tall a cat is when standing on her hind legs with front legs fully extended. Get a post that is half again as tall so she can really stretch. Gently rub her paws on the post first, and then dab on a bit of catnip as added enticement. Cats don’t like unfamiliar textures, so avoidance training tools can include laying aluminum foil or backing-side-up carpet runners over furniture arms and cushions plus double-sided sticky tape at the corners to preserve upholstery.

When humans become a target for a cat’s

pounces, use toys as decoys. A short play session will satisfy their desire to hunt. Leave curtains open so she can see outside, clear shelves for climbing and have a cat tree or window shelf for optimum viewing. A nearby bird feeder will hold a feline’s attention for hours.

Werber advises, “For undisturbed household sleep, get the cat toys out about an hour before your bedtime.

Fifteen minutes of play will tire a pet.

Let him calm down and then feed him.

A full cat is a sleepy cat.”

Some cats nibble, while others gulp food and then throw up. The recommended antidote is to feed smaller amounts several times a day.

Cats should eat both dry and wet food to get carbohydrates and meat, Werber advises. Throwing up can be a sign of hairballs, even if unseen. Put the cat on a natural hairball remedy once a day for four days, then two times a week, until the vomiting stops. A touch of non-petroleum jelly on the cat’s nose or a bit of fish oil or pumpkin in her food will work.

When cats ignore the litter box, note what’s changed—the type of litter, location of the box, a lurking stray cat or the pet’s health. Arthritic cats find it hard to climb into a tall-sided box. Felines feel vulnerable when using the box, and like to know what’s around them—a lidless box makes them feel safer says Werber. The rule is to have one more litter box than there are cats. If the house is more than one story tall, food, water, beds and litter should be available on every level.

“All cats should be kept indoors, microchipped and wearing a colorful collar and tags,” says Werber. Colors give birds fair warning if a cat ever goes outside.

With time and attention, any cat can become an active, wellbehaved family member.

Connect with Sandra Murphy at StLouisFreelanceWriter@ mindspring.com.

natural awakenings

March 2016

27

calendarofevents Email Editor@Natvalley.com for guidelines and to submit entries.

THURSDAY, MARCH 15

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2

A Poetry Reading with Joe Berry – 10-11am. A delightful morning listening to Joe Berry reading and talking about his poetry. Free. Huntsville Main Library, 915 Monroe St, Huntsville. 256- 532-5940.

The Big Picture: Our Study, Vision and Plan for the City of Huntsville – 1:30-2:30pm. Learn about Huntsville’s future plans for land use, transportation, parks and recreation, infrastructure, workforce development, education, quality of life initiatives, and economic development/diversification. Free.

Huntsville Main Library, 915 Monroe St. 256- 5325940. BigPictureHuntsville.com.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 Huntsville Blooms – 9am-5pm, daily through April 30. The Gardens’ beautiful outdoor spaces take center stage during March and April. Favorite spring events include Night of 1000 Flowers, Spring Plant Sale, and Bunny Bonanza, along with plant walks, classes for adults and children, and homeschool programs. Huntsville Botanical Garden. 256-830-4447.

THURSDAY, MARCH 3 Things They Don’t Teach in College – 5:30-7pm.

Former NASA director Dr. Julian Earls will draw from his experience as a physicist, NASA executive, professor, community leader and father to give a humorous, life-affirming message. Free. UAHuntsville Chan Auditorium, 301 Sparkman Dr. Exploring Backyard Chicken Keeping - 7:309pm. A free webinar that will include an overview of keeping a backyard chicken flock, housing and feed requirements, harvesting your own eggs, avoiding noise issues, and handling local regulations. Free online webinar. Register at Eldenbridge.org.

FRIDAY, MARCH 4 John of God Crystal Light Healing Bed – March 4-7. The John of God Crystal Light Healing Bed,

Want a Life of Wellness, Purpose and Abundance?

Explore the benefits of Young Living’s Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils

Call today to schedule your one-on-one session or host a group class.

Business opportunities available.

presented by Spirit Enlightenment, will have appointments available at Unity Church. For more info and booking, contact SpiritEnlighten.com or call 251-279-0298. Unity Church on the Mountain, 1328 Governors Dr SE, Huntsville.

Trinity Market Place – 9am-6pm (Fri), 9am-4pm (Sat). Shop for fashion, gourmet cuisine, home decor, gifts, and more from over 50 vendors. Enjoy soup lunch or baked goods and coffee from the bake sale. All proceeds go toward missions. Free. Trinity United Methodist Church, Airport Rd, Huntsville.

SATURDAY, MARCH 5 Family Constellations Workshop with Jeffrey Rich, Certified Constellations Facilitator – 9am5pm. Uncover the hidden dynamics of your family or relationship in an experiential way, so that undue stress can be released or reduced in the system and a resolution can unfold. $75. Shining Mountain Healing Center, 900 Wellman Ave #5. ShiningMountain.com.

Community Kite Festival – 11am-3pm. Bring your own kite or purchase one at the festival. Kite flying demonstrations, food, kids activities, and entertainment. Free admission, free parking at Joe Davis Stadium and free kites to the first 125 to enter the children’s area. John Hunt Park and Jaycees Building, Huntsville.

How to Find God’s Love in Your Life – 1-8pm.

Learn how simple spiritual exercises can help you realize the constant presence of God’s love in your everyday experiences. Free seminar sponsored by the Huntsville ECK Center. Best Western Plus Hotel, 9035 Madison Blvd, Madison. For info: 256-5341751. Eck-alabama.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 6 Huntsville Youth Orchestra Concert – 3-5pm.

Philharmonia, Concert, Intermezzo, and Novice Strings orchestras will highlight the music of Italy, France and Spain. Free. Asbury United Methodist Church, 980 Hughes Rd, Madison.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9

Cindy Wilson #1873782

256-476-6537 Cindy@AlabamaAwakenings.com 28

Tennessee Valley

Geological History of Alabama – 9:30-11am.

Learn how Alabama’s geological history has set the stage for the rich variety of landscape regions, river systems, and communities of life we see here today.

Special emphasis will be given to the geology of the Tennessee Valley. Free. Huntsville Main Library, 915 Monroe St. 256- 532-5940.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 12 Starting Your Backyard Chicken Flock – 8am5pm. The first class in a six-part series that walks you through the process of starting your own backyard chicken flock. The remaining 5 classes are 90-minute sessions on Thursday evenings. $285. Madison.

Register online at Eldenbridge.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 13 Free Women’s Self Defense Seminar – 10am12pm. Learn simple, effective, and proven selfdefense tactics and techniques for women. All techniques are taught by experienced Krav Maga instructor Ray Wise in a non-threatening, nonintimidating atmosphere. For beginners. Free.

Huntsville Hospital’s Corporate University/Dowdle Center 109 Governors Dr SE, Huntsville. Register: Tami@AshakiranOnline.org.

SUNDAY, MARCH 20 NEACA Spring Craft Show – 9am-6pm (Fri-Sat), 12-5pm (Sun). Needlework, ceramics, flower arrangements, jewelry, decorated and hand-woven baskets, pottery, stained glass, clothes, toys, woodwork and other items are featured. Free. Von Braun Center South Hall, Huntsville. 256-533-1953.

Blossomwood’s Wonderful Wildflower Trail – 2pm. (1 hour / Easy with moderate incline; roots and rocks on trail) Walk with botanist Lynne Weninegar on the Land Trust trail named for its claim to fame: beautiful wildflowers. Directions: LandTrustNAL.org.

TUESDAY, MARCH 22 Topic: Spring Allergies – 12pm and 6pm. Dr. Jamie Bunis discusses allergies and how the body is designed to cope with them. Topics include: the allergic response, allergen exposure in today’s environment, lifestyle tips for allergy management, and nutritional options. Free. Dr Jamie’s Wellness Center, 917 Merchant’s Walk, Ste A, Huntsville.

256-434-7977.

TUESDAY, MARCH 29 Topic: Purification/Weight Loss – 12pm and 6pm.

Dr. Jamie Bunis discusses the impact of stored toxins on weight management, methods of detoxification, diets versus purification, and the positive effects of purification on weight loss, cholesterol, body composition, and energy. Free. Dr Jamie’s Wellness Center, 917 Merchant’s Walk, Ste A, Huntsville.

256-434-7977.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30 Heart Centered Listening with Five Love Languages – 1-2:30pm. A facilitated discussion with Heart Centered Listening focused on the five Love Languages. Heart Centered Listening is a communication tool that can be used to enhance 1:1 communication, resolve discord and increase interpersonal understanding. Free. Huntsville Main Library, 915 Monroe St. 256-532-5940.

plan ahead SATURDAY, APRIL 2 Over Blevins Gap: Trail of Tears History – 10am.

(2 hours / Moderate to difficult) The Land Trust’s Blevins Gap Nature Preserve protects a portion of the Benge Detachment Route of the Trail of Tears.

John Stanton will be our guide to this part of our local heritage. Directions: LandTrustNAL.org.

SUNDAY, APRIL 3 Wildflower Trail: More Spring Flowers – 2pm.

(1 hour / Easy with moderate incline; roots and rocks on trail) Two weeks makes a big difference.

Botanist Lynne Weninegar will show you the next wave of flowers that help make this beloved trail so spectacular. Dogs must be on leads. Directions: LandTrustNAL.org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 16 Family Constellations Workshop with Jeffrey Rich, Certified Constellations Facilitator – 9am5pm. Uncover the hidden dynamics of your family or relationship in an experiential way, so that undue stress can be released or reduced in the system and a resolution can unfold. $75. Shining Mountain Healing Center, 900 Wellman Ave #5. ShiningMountain.com.

GOT EVENTS? GET NOTICED! Advertise in our calendar.

classifieds Fee for classifieds is $1 per word per month.

To place listing, email content to Editor@ Natvalley.com. Deadline is the 10th of the month.

HEALTH COOKWARE SALADMASTER sales and service. 256-412-4896.

HELP WANTED – LMT Immediate opportunity for an INDEPENDENT LMT CONTRACTOR in Beautiful Lake Guntersville, AL. Very busy and growing Massage Practice.

Please leave message, 256-505-9319.

ongoingevents sunday A Course in Miracles Study Group – 9:15am.

Shared reading and group discussions. Extra books available. Light of Christ Center, 4208 Holmes Ave, Huntsville. 256-895-0255. LightOfChristCenter.org.

Revealing Service – 9:45am. Center for Spiritual Living, 308 Lily Flagg Rd, Huntsville. 256-8838596. CSL-Huntsville.org.

wednesday

Celebration Service – 10:30am. Center for Spiritual Living, 308 Lily Flagg Rd, Huntsville. 256-8838596. CSL-Huntsville.org.

A Course in Miracles Class – 6-7:30pm. Unity Church on the Mountain, 1328 Governors Dr SE, Huntsville. 256-536-2271. UnityOnTheMountain.org.

Unity Church on the Mountain Worship Service – 11am, with Adult Discussion at 9:30am. Children’s Sunday School ages 4-9 during church service.

Unity is a positive path for spiritual living. Rev. Carol Landry. 1328 Governors Dr SE, Huntsville.

UnityOnTheMountain.org.

1-Hour Mystery School – 11am. A different service each week including ritual, music, and a message in an open, loving environment. Light of Christ Center, 4208 Holmes Ave, Huntsville. 256-895-0255.

LightOfChristCenter.org.

A Course In Miracles: Integrating the Lessons Through Heart Centered Listening – 4-5:30pm.

For students of ACIM daily lessons (workbook) or text. Donations accepted. Healing Arts Center, 525 Fountain Row, Huntsville. RevWandaGail@ gmail.com.

monday Acupuncture Happy Hour – 4-6pm, Mondays and Tuesdays. A 30-minute ear acupuncture treatment that will de-stress, detox, relax and re-energize you.

No appointment necessary. $25. Alabama Holistic Helath, 204 Lowe Ave SE, Ste 3, Huntsville. 256801-9162. ALHolisticHealth.com.

tuesday Meditation – 6pm. Center for Spiritual Living, 308 Lily Flagg Rd, Huntsville. 256-883-8596. CSLHuntsville.org.

BodyFlow – 6-7pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Yoga/Pilates/Tai Chi-based exercise class that builds strength, tones your body and leaves you feeling centered and calm. Part of the Les Mills Fitness Program. $10/class and no contract. New participants are always welcome. Madison Ballroom, 9076 Madison Blvd, Suite E, Madison, AL. 256-461-1900. MadisonBallroom.com.

Prayer and Meditation Hour – 7-8pm. Led by Rev. Clifford Stocking and assisted by Rebecca Oxford.

Unity Church on the Mountain, 1328 Governors Dr SE, Huntsville. 256-536-2271. UnityOnThe Mountain.org.

Satsang – 6:30pm. Through group discussion and inquiry, we reveal the innate wisdom of the one presence living life as each one of us. Meditation 6pm.

Led by Rev. David Leonard. Center for Spiritual Living, 308 Lily Flagg Rd, Huntsville. 256-8838596. CSL-Huntsville.org.

thursday Youth Group – 6:30-7:30pm. 10 years old and up.

Snack provided. Unity Church on the Mountain, 1328 Governors Dr SE, Huntsville. 256-536-2271.

UnityOnTheMountain.org.

friday Public Clearance Session – 7pm. Third Friday each month. Learn effective healing through reception and application of Divine energies. Light of Christ Center, 4208 Holmes Ave, Huntsville.

256-895-0255.

saturday Artist Market – 12-4pm. Local artists and others are invited to set up a booth and sell their wares to the public. There will be art, jewelry, vintage clothing, records and more for sale. Admission free. Flying Monkey Arts Center at Lowe Mill, 2211 Seminole Dr, Huntsville.

Community HU Song – 1:30-2pm. Join others in singing HU, an ancient love song to God that can help and uplift you in countless ways. Held each Saturday (except 3/5). Huntsville ECK Center, 900 Wellman Ave NE #3 (near Five Points). 256-5341751. Eck-Alabama.org.

Ballroom Dance Party – 7:30-10pm. Beginner group class 7:30-8pm, introduction to different ballroom dances each week. Practice dance party 8-10pm, for all levels of dancers. No partner needed. $10/person for group class and party. Madison Ballroom, 9076 Madison Blvd Suites C/D, Madison, AL. 256-461-1900. MadisonBallroom.com.

natural awakenings

March 2016

29

communityresourceguide Connecting you to the leaders in natural healthcare and green living in our community.

Email Editor@Natvalley.com to request our media kit.

ACUPUNCTURE ALABAMA HOLISTIC HEALTH, LLC Dr. Christina L. Berry, Ed.D., ACI, ADS 204 Lowe Ave, Suite 3, Huntsville Info@ALHolisticHealth.com 256-801-9162

A holistic approach to health and wellness, specializing in pain management, weight loss, natural detoxification, and mental health improvement. Auriculotherapy/ Ear acupuncture. Massage therapy. Reflexology. Lifestyle consulting. Diet and supplement recommendations. Hydro-colon cleanse. Ionic detox.

THE NEELEY CENTER FOR HEALTH

600 Saint Clair Avenue SW, Bldg 5 Suite 11 Huntsville, AL 35801 256-716-4048 Hours: T-F, 9am-5pm, Sat 8am-12pm House calls by Appointment Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Chinese Herbology, Pastoral Counseling, Beam Ray Therapy, Rapid Eye Technology, Emotion Code Technique, Nutritional Supplementation, Detoxification, BioMat.

CHIROPRACTOR DR. JAMIE BUNIS, DC

Dr. Jamie’s Wellness Center 917 Merchant’s Walk, Ste A, Huntsville 256-434-7977 DrJamiesWellnessCenter.com Comprehensive chiropractic and wellness services. Applied Nutritional Analysis Testing (ANA) and nutritional counseling.

Standard Process® high-grade nutritional supplements.

Aromatherapy. Essential oils.

Detoxification. Multiple styles of massage, including Qi-ssage. Free educational classes on many healing modalities. Located behind Whole Foods.

30

Tennessee Valley

COLON HYDROTHERAPY HOPE FOR LIFE COLONICS

Tina Pencola Owner/Certified Colon Hydrotherapist 10300 Bailey Cove Rd, Suite-7A Huntsville, AL 35803 256-270-8731 • 256-684-0020 Hope4LifeAL.com Tina.HopeForLife@outlook.com Our goal is to live long and live strong. Young or old, male or female, healthy or sick, will benefit from an internal cleansing. Mention this ad and get $10 off your first colonic session. See ad, page 7.

JARVIS NATURAL HEALTH CLINIC 1489 Slaughter Road, Madison 256-837-3448

I-ACT Certified Colon Hydro Therapists. Do you know that 80% of your immune system is in your colon? Bathe your body from the inside to improve health. Colon irrigation aids in soothing and toning the colon, which makes elimination more effective.

ESSENTIAL OILS CINDY WILSON

Young Living Independent Distributor 256-476-6537 Cindy@AlabamaAwakenings.com Want to know why everyone is talking about essential oils?

Learn more about essential oils, their uses and how to safely use them. Classes held monthly or schedule your class with friends and family. For more information call or email.

FAMILY MEDICINE MADISON FAMILY CARE

Chad Gilliam, M.M.S. PA-C 1230 Slaughter Road, Suite C, Madison, AL 256-722-0555 MadisonFamilyCare.com Madison Family Care provides medical care for patients of all ages and uniquely blends Natural and Prescription medicines together to help speed the patient’s recovery. Madison Family Care is the patient’s clinic of choice when they would like to understand how natural medicines work along with prescription drugs.

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FENG SHUI FENG SHUI BY TRUDI GARDNER Trudi Gardner, M.S. 256-772-6999 Tygard2000@aol.com

An interior design philosophy that invites serenity and reduces stress. Feng Shui design concepts brings positive energy into your home and office to encourage Prosperity, Well Being, Harmony, and Balance.

FOOT CARE SPECIALIZED NAIL CARE

1900 Flint Rd SE Decatur, AL 35601 256-476-6537 Cindy@SpecializedNailCare.com Nail care for those that need more than just a pedicure.

Physicians order required for care. Care includes footbath, trimming nails, thinning of thick nails, and removal of calluses and corns. For more information call or email. See ad, page 21.

HAIR SALON CJ HAIR AND ART STUDIO

CJ Denison 105E Church St Madison, AL 35758 • 256-603-9018 Specializing in N AT U R A L Hairstyles.

Cuts with Texture and Movement. Specializing in Fine Hair, Razor cuts, Men's Hair Pieces with A NATURAL Look. Specializing in Hair Color OFF the Scalp. Hair Painting. A Safer way to Color or HiLight Your Hair to Help in Decreasing the Exposure to the Scalp. HEALTHY HAIR is HAPPY HAIR. Also Original Art Work and Private Art lessons available. Call Today for YOUR Appointment.

HEALTH & FITNESS

NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR

HEAD-TO-TOE TRAINING

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE ASSOCIATES

A Mind/Body Training Center specializing in Core Training, Corrective and Therapeutic.

Offering all facets of training: group and personal. Pilates (both matwork and apparatus), Thai/yoga massage, Flowmotion, PilatEASE, CoreABS and more! Membership packages available.

Dr. Deb treats a variety of health problems using natural means.

She looks for why people have symptoms and treats the root cause of those symptoms. Dr. Deb is highly regarded in the integrative and natural approach to wellness. Every patent is unique, and she individualizes treatment for their optimal wellness. See ad, page 21.

HOMEOPATHIC CONSULTANT

REIKI

8006 Madison Pike, Ste 5 Madison, AL • 256-772-2006 HeadToToe@knology.net Head-To-Toe.com

JOAN SCOTT LOWE

1901 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. South Birmingham, AL 35209 205-871-1288 Joan@HomeopathyForWellness.com HomeopathyForWellness.com

Dr. Deb Gilliam, N.M.D. 1230 Slaughter Rd, Ste E, Madison, AL 256-325-0955

HYPNOTHERAPY MARSHA MATHES

Certified Hypnotist 3313 Memorial Parkway, Ste 116 Huntsville, AL 35801 256-698-2151 MarshaMathes.SkinCareTherapy.net Hypnosis is a tool to assist you in countless ways to heal your past, empower your present and create your future. Hypnobirthing classes, quit smoking, weight loss, nail and lip biting, teeth grinding, insomnia, anxiety and stress relief, phobias and fears, pain relief, sports enhancement, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), current and past life regressions.

Gr w your business Thousands of our readers are looking for healthy options!

Call Today! 256-808-8044 Editor@Natvalley.com

1-Hour Mystery School 11:00am Sundays

Affirmations, Music, Mystery Message, Fellowship, An Open Communion Table

Spring Equinox Celebration 7:00pm Saturday March 19th

LIGHT JOURNEY REIKI

Barbara Caioli, RM 7500 Memorial Pkwy SW, Ste 114 Huntsville AL • 256-716-8419 LightJourneyReiki.com

Public Clearance

Reiki refers to the universal life force energy that is found in everything. Reiki works through gentle, focused touch or intention for the purpose of healing and balance. Light Journey Reiki offers healings as wells as Certification Workshops.

See ad, page 6.

Call or email Joan Scott Lowe, Homeopathic Wellness Consultant, to determine your individual constitutional remedy, the FDA-approved nontoxic homeopathic remedy based on the totality of your mental, emotional, and physical condition, chosen according to the Law of Similars (“like heals like”).

Achieve wellness and freedom from illness!

A Course In Miracles Study Group 9:15am Sundays

STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION JACI HOGUE

256-656-4108 JaciHogue@gmail.com A complete system of body education that balances the physical body, improves posture, and helps resolve chronic pain.

Created by Dr. Ida P. Rolf in the 1950s, Structural Integration has been scientifically validated and has withstood the test of time, as millions of people have enjoyed the remarkable benefits.

7:00pm, Friday Mar 18th Looking Ahead: 7 Steps in Practical Occultism 6:30pm, Tuesdays March 1st - April 19th Academic Look at the Bible 7:00pm, Thursdays March 17th - April 7th Metaphysical Look at the Bible 7:00pm, Thursdays April 14th - May 5th

Tarot - Major Arcane 7:00pm, Tuesdays May 3rd - Jul 19th

Our labyrinth is always open for your meditative walks.

SUSAN K. JEFFREYS

Advanced Practitioner Lic.#249 Dr. Ida P. ROLF method 525 Fountain Row 256-508-3351 • RolfGuild.org Serving Huntsville since 1995 “When the body gets working appropriately, then the force of gravity can flow through. Then spontaneously, the body heals itself.” —Ida P. Rolf. See ad, page 12.

Let the Magic Begin 4208 Holmes Ave. NW Huntsville, Alabama 256-895-0255 www.lightofchristcenter.org

natural awakenings

March 2016

31

Age Healthier, Live Happier!

Check for the Seal to make sure your doctor is a

GIVE YOUR BODY WHAT IT NEEDS: Bioidentical Hormone Pellet Therapy for Women & Men • Regain energy, muscle strength and greater ability to lose weight • Increase mental clarity Financing • Feel younger and happier again Available • Increase quality of life while preventing age-related illness For more information on hormones, visit

BHRTvideos.com

$200 Coupon Valid only for new patients

MADISON FAMILY CARE and WELLNESS CENTER

Chad Gilliam, M.M.S., PA-C • Dr. Gary Adams, M.D. 1230 Slaughter Rd, Suite C • Madison, AL 35758

256-722-0555 • MadisonFamilyCare.com This coupon covers your initial hormone consultation, examination, and lab work!

Mention this month’s issue of Natural Awakenings when you call to make your appointment.