The Health Hunter Articles

Learning success means more than just an education. It is a way to start using your brain. Learning is more than taking in information. The ability to learn in a dynamic and creative way changes the process of how you use your brain.

The essence of body/brain compatible learning is the best way to teach people how to learn.

How To Learn

This is the secret that everyone knows. You don’t give someone a fish; you teach them how to fish. What most school children, and for that matter most people are missing is a way to learn that is effective.

Learning strategies are not part of a school’s curriculum. Most of the challenge for students is how to use their brain effectively. Yet, what is emphasized is memory or rote learning. 

This has become one of the dangers in the 21^st century. Memorizing was the key to learning and what was emphasized thought-out the education system from its inception. Now, for the first time we are seeing this method failing.

Rote Learning

Rote learning technique focuses on memorization rather than understanding of a subject. It is sometimes thought of as learning by repetition. The ideal situation in this type of learning is to recall the meaning of the material.

Rote learning is quick memorization of the material being taught. This is the basis for learning multiplication tables, periodic table in chemistry and basic formulas in science. This type of learning doesn’t work well at a more complex level. The world is becoming more complicated, and comprehension is what is needed to compete in today’s world.

Good memory techniques are important in helping you pass a test, but without meaningful comprehension you will just regurgitate information.

Learning

Learning is not about cramming in information as much as it is about engaging in the process. The mere recalling of facts doesn’t elevate or engage the student. Application of knowledge means building on and embellishing so that it can be used in a productive way.

Performance depends on the mastery of concepts, not mere memorization. Learning happens for different people in different ways. It could be auditory, visual, text, or tacit. The fact is it needs to be assimilated and experienced in an intuitive way. More than ever with all the technology we need meaningful education.  We need people who have an understanding and connect with the material taught. We need people that can solve problems not just sound credible, but can add value to the marketplace.

A deeper understanding of a subject results in authentic knowledge. Critical thinking is what will increase innovation and creativity.

Neuro-Science

Neuro-science uses movements that are based on body and brain research. There is a body/brain connection that must be understood to fully understand the dynamics of learning.To facilitate learning we have to realize there are a variety of senses such as; tasting touching, smelling, hearing and seeing that come into play.

Our educational system should come under scrutiny as the future of living and thriving in the 21^st century will depend on what goes on in the space between our ears.

Breast feeding isn’t just breast feeding it has become a science project. Breast feeding science is a creation of an over zealous scientific community. They don’t know where to draw the line in the sand. Nature is not credited with knowing what it is doing. Just like eating isn’t eating it is calories, carbs, fats, sodium, sugar, and a whole slew of ingredients.

Breast Feeding Cultural Context

It seems just as everything is dictated by the times so is the mother child bonds. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have found that the association between breastfeeding and healthy children is not as strong as thought. They have found that it is not the milk that makes babies healthier than bottle-fed babies. The baby’s overall health is determined before he or she is born.

Science Now

Until recently breastfeeding was said to offer benefits to an infant. Now research is saying if a mother is able to breastfeed, and does, this ability is proof that the baby had an optimal life inside the womb. The new research shows that breast milk is not as important for either the mother or the child’s health.

Its Hormones

In the most recent studies researches at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Department of Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine have recently found a correlation between the level of male hormones (androgen) in pregnant women and breast feeding after the birth.

“Pregnant women who have higher levels of androgens breastfeed less,” says Professor Sven M. Carlsen. “Probably, this is a direct effect of hormones that simply limit nursing ability, by reducing milk production in the breast.”

Really

There is a strong link between testosterone and the ability to breastfeed. Until 1980 testosterone was used to stop milk production when it was desirable. “This was one of the reasons that we wanted to investigate whether the effects attributed to mother’s milk really should be attributed to hormonal factors in pregnant women,” says Carlsen.

It has been found that women who smoke, are overweight, or have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) breastfeed less than their peers. These women have higher levels of testosterone when pregnant. Older women are more likely to breastfeed; they have less of this hormone.

Carlsen says “Its thus not the women’s will to breastfeed, women who have more testosterone in their bodies during pregnancy feel the effects of a hormone that limits breastfeeding. That is clearly why it is not as easy to breastfeed.”

Real Reason

The placenta has more of an effect on children’s health. It may not be the breast milk that is key to the baby’s health. It seems that the hormones that come from the fetus are converted to testosterone and oestrogen in the placenta. If there isn’t enough energy in the placenta a portion of the testosterone is not converted to oestrogen. That effects both mother and baby.

The mother will not develop enough glandular tissue in the breast, and this will effect the ability to make milk. For the child increased exposure to testosterone in utero can increase the incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and polycystic ovary syndrome in girls.

New Message

There is not a real benefit from breast milk. The studies in the past that said the more children are nursed the healthier they will be. Now it is noted that it not because of the breastfeeding. Carlsen says “but even if this is statistically true, it is not because of breastfeeding itself. What has to be examined is the breastfeeding ability of the mother. With that ability it means that the child is already healthy.

Caveat

The one area that the study concluded a benefit  “It appears that children who are breastfed have a small IQ advantage,” Calsen says. “But this needs to be confirmed in new, carefully panned and conducted studies.”

“There are many good reasons to breastfeed, But concern for the child’s health is not one of them. There is no reason why women who are struggling to breastfeed should have to feel guilty, or think they are giving their child a poor start in life if they can’t nurse. Baby formula is as good as breast milk, “ Carlsen says. The implication is you can get mother nature out of a can or powder.

Winpedia.org

“The exact chemical properties of breast milk are still unknown.”

“ The mother’s breast milk changes in response to the feeding habits of her baby and over time, thus adjusting to the infants’ individual growth and development.

Breast milk includes a mother’s antibodies that help the baby avoid or fight off infections, and gives his immature immune system the benefit of his mother’s immune system, which has many years of experience with the germs common in their environment.

Try These Facts

Bishenol A (BPA), a ‘gender bender’ chemical, leaches into canned liquid baby formula. The Environment Working Group (EWG) has research that shows Bipherol-A used to line most infant formula cans,was found at levels “far Higher”  in the product than those that leach from plastic bottles under normal use.

EWG had previously estimated that one out of every 16 infants fed ready-to-eat formula are exposed to BPA at doses that exceeded those that caused increased aggression and significant changes in testosterone levels in laboratory animals.

Formulas contain significantly higher levels of manganese than breast milk, As much as 80 times as much in soy-derived, and 30 times as much in animal milk-derived. This level of manganese in infant formula has been implicated in learning disabilities such as ADHD.

In 2008 there were published articles stating that the “FDA” found traces of melamine in formulas made by the main three American firms. These firms are responsible for 90% of infant formula in the U.S.

Bottom Line

“We would also like to have funding to implement a larger study on the effect of diet and nutrition counseling for pregnant women. There is still much we do not Know,” Carlsen said. Breast feeding science is a waste of funds, since the practice plays out the way nature intended.

The fruitarian diet is heavy on the fruit, with the inclusion of some greens, and nuts. There are people who thrive on this fare. However, most people should not count on doing well on this diet. There are a number of reasons why this diet is not part of the mainstream. The fruit of today is very sweet; it is purposely grown to be that way. The sugar content would be too high for diabetics. A large portion of the population is diabetic or pre-diabetic, this diet would be a disastrous for them. 

PROBLEMS OF A FRUTARIAN DIET

One of the problems with a  fruitarian diet is the poor quality of today’s conventional fruit. It travels long distances, sometimes over continents. It is has undergone hybridization, chemical fertilization, applied pesticides, and is harvested before it is fully ripe. There are times it is frost bitten, having been frozen on route. Of course there is locally grown and certified organic fruit, found both at farmers’ markets and health food stores.

While that sounds fine it is expensive, and I doubt that soil is as nutrient rich as it was in the past. Even with the best fruit money can buy, it does not have everything that is needed for adequate nutrition. Vitamin B12 is one of its short falls. Meat is the number one source for this vitamin.

Most fruit is high on the glycemic index. In all long lived societies the diet is not high on this index.  This diet lacks not just protein, but minerals, and fat-soluble vitamins. This is a short term diet for most people. Diabetic or hypoglycemic symptoms appear with this type of eating. This is not the Garden of Eden diet. Man did not subsist on any one type of food with the exclusion of all others.  Food was scarce in certain parts of the world, and what was eaten was the food that was available. This wasn’t always pretty. The pickings were slim, and no one turned their noses up when offered food.

FRUITS-SUGAR HIGH

Fruitarians are on a sugar high, and that feels good. What they call feel good foods, are the ones that can produce euphoria. This is nice for awhile, but gets in the way of grounded thinking. When the diet has adequate greens and other sources of nutrition then many people can meet their nutritional needs. Maintaining nutritional levels are relevant, and any eating plan that does not supply vitamin B12, calcium, iron, and riboflavin would not be good for the long haul.

There are people that can thrive on a fruitarian diet, but most people will have problems on a purely fruitarian diet. The real issue is the few are leading the masses. These hardy individuals assume what is good for them is good for everyone.

The fact is many do consume things that are not on the fruitarian diet. The diet is anecdotal; no one is being followed around 24 hours a day. It is akin to the cookies we eat when no one is  looking don’t count. Most everyone has done that from time to time.

When they have unpleasant symptoms it is called detoxification. That seems to go for years for some people.

FRUITARIAN DIET FALLACY

Fruitarian diets are neither evolutionary, nor even plausible for the whole human race. I can just see the whole European continent, the Baltic, Japan, and the indigenous people in the remote Northern Hemisphere insisting on becoming fruitarians. By being able to picture that, you can see the fallacy of living off only the fruit of the land