Cough, Cough, Wheeze, Wheeze

It must be spring! I started getting a sinus attack on Friday (this happens nearly every time a major change of season occurs, it was exaserbated by dust & sugar). Being the overachiever that I am, I went to work & all the other things I had planned that day & made myself worse. Friday night I couldn't sleep, breathe or swallow & by Saturday morning I felt worse than death warmed over. As hard as it was I cancelled both my planned activities (no Bagby Hot Springs & no dinner with family) that day & rested.

I would probably still be incredibly sick right if not for my boyfriend, Mr. Naturopath! I had taken some apsirin on Saturday & when I woke up from my nap felt better. As the hours wore on & the aspirin wore off, I felt awful again. So Ben looked up my symptoms in his juicing book & went off to the store to get all the makings of medicine.

Goodbye Aspirin! Goodbye Thera-flu! Ben juiced me up some ginger & carrots & radishes before bedtime & I must say it worked. I could breath all night long & when I woke up my achy-ness was gone. I still have a lot of pleghm & my voice sounds awful.

I'm going to add daily doses of grapefruit & regular doses of ginger & radishes & other sinus fighters to try to stave off these attacks. I'm also going to decrease the sweets I eat.

Then there's my dairy addiction which doesn't help my sinus problems. Ben's sent me an article that his doctor had written about the health hazards of drinking homogenized & pasteurized milk.

I already shop at an organic grocery store so the milk doesn't have rBST (bovine growth hormone, yuck...evil stuff that!) but because of state laws the milk is still processed. So I need to find a good raw milk dairy farmer or CSA that I can get my milk from.

Here's why Homogenized & pasteurized milk is bad according to Doctor Kim.

"Most milk that is found in grocery stores is terrible for your health for the following reasons:

1. It comes from cows that are fed high-protein soybean meal and growth hormones to increase production. Both increase a cow's risk of developing mastitis, liver problems, and pituitary gland problems, leading to frequent doses of antibiotics. Clearly, regular exposure to synthetic growth hormone and antibiotic residues is not congruent with experiencing your best health.

2. Conventional milk is pasteurized, a process that exposes milk to high temperatures and results in the following:
* Denaturing of milk proteins, making them less usable and even harmful to your body
* Destruction of enzymes, one of which is phosphatase, an enzyme that helps your body properly absorb the calcium found in milk
* Destruction of vitamins B12, B6, and C
* Destruction of friendly bacteria

3. Some conventional milk is homogenized, a process that forces healthy fat in milk through a fine straining device, which allows homogenized milk to be consistent in texture and taste rather than have globules of fat float to the surface. The problem with homogenization is that it can alter healthy fat and cholesterol in milk in such a way that they are more susceptible to forming free radicals.

Milk can be a healthy food choice if it meets the following criteria:

1. It comes from old-fashioned cows like Jerseys and Guernseys, not modern Holsteins that have been bred to produce such large quantities of milk that they typically have pituitary gland problems that result in large amounts of hormones being present in their milk.

2. It comes from cows that have been allowed to eat foods that are natural to them: grass when it is available, and green feed, silage, hay and root vegetables during colder months.

3. It is not pasteurized. Pasteurization was first used in the 1920s to kill micro organisms that caused tuberculosis and other diseases that were related to unsanitary production methods. With modern day controls in place to ensure clean and safe production, transportation, and storage of milk, the disadvantages of pasteurization far outweigh the advantages.

4. It is not homogenized.

The Weston A. Price Foundation has an excellent website called realmilk.com that provides more information on what constitutes healthy milk and where to find it."