Why Holistic Health Is Much More Than Preventing Illness
Today I'm going to start a new series about holistic health and how that "whole health" starts in your belly and then radiates out from there.
Health is often understood as the absence of disease or sickness. Now, while this definition is valid, it actually lacks the comprehensiveness of the broader approach. Start assessing your holistic health and wellness on a wider spectrum.
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Effects Of Caffeine On The Adolescent Brain
Today is the last part of part four in my series on how caffeine can be detrimental to our overall health. Now, I know what you are saying, "Jared, just let me have my morning 'Cup Of Joe'", but lately it's really got me thinking that such a large percentage of people are entirely addicted to the same stimulant and we often feel like we need it of course but this can't be normal.
It's not like our bodies are hard wired to need caffeine to function but perhaps the caffeine does a great job of covering up our current state of health. Without coffee, we may feel that we are tired or drained and coffee provides a short term fix for that so we are essentially relying on coffee to treat the symptom but not get to the root cause of the issue which is the same as any other drug. 
Is A Vegan Diet Better?
With all of the attention on specific diets and specific foods within those diets, it's normal to question whether things like the vegan diet or lifestyle is actually health? It really doesn't matter if you break it down by philosophy or by what you may have read in the newspaper, it comes down to whether or not the foods you eat help you get to an ideal weight.
Does Caffeine Regulate Blood Sugar?
We've been looking at recently whether or not caffeine is addictive. Is there a bigger issues associated with possible caffeine addiction of Americans? This is the third part in my series on what caffeine does to your brain and how that can be detrimental to our overall health.
In Part One we looked at caffeine and when it comes to its effect on our brains can be just as addicting as cocaine or methamphetamine. In Part Two I addressed how physiologically caffeine raises our cortisol levels and triggers a stressful action in our body. To put it quite simply, having our body rely on any sort of stimulant in order to feel awake or energized in the morning, probably points to some bigger issues in regards to your health. 
How To Break Caffeine Addiction?
Caffeine addiction is becoming a larger problem today in society. Today is the second part of my series on what caffeine does to your body and your brain. And then I'm gonna go into greater detail about why I'm taking a caffeine detox.
Caffeine triggers our fight or flight response mechanism which can raise cortisol. Now, this is commonly known as the stress hormone, so if you feel particularly stressed out during the day, perhaps a detox from this drug will help, and it's definitely worth a shot as many of us know how detrimental stress can be to our overall health and well being. 
Today I'm going to be starting a four part series on what caffeine does to your brain and make that a case for why we might not want to be consuming it.
In many cultures around the world, coffee is consumed daily and for many people it's really their first thought and what gets them out of bed in the morning. For others, it's an excuse to get together with friends or family and socialize. What we often fail to realize is that coffee or more specifically caffeine is a drug. In reality, it's a highly addictive stimulant, which is in the same category of cocaine and methamphetamine and like those drugs, if abused, can have some serious consequences. 
What Are The Barriers To Effective Communication?
We all want to be effective at communication. The most powerful form of communication is the back and forth exchange of ideas and thoughts that are received, understood, and formulated. But what happens when that path gets muddied, trampled, and can't be followed? We all can understand the frustration when your ideas are not articulated well enough. But is there a way to cut through the likelihood there will be misunderstanding? To continue reading, listen to, or download this podcast, follow the link.
Antibiotics Don't Work On Viruses
A large reason why I enjoy and have a passion for gut health is because for many, it is a new frontier to look at how to become healthy. Looking at your digestion and microbiome is something "out-of-the-ordinary" and not your typical, "eat broccoli, exercise, get sleep" mantra that you see all over social media. This different approach compelled me to talk about antibiotics. ⠀
Let's start out by saying you're a mayor of a small town, enjoying life and everything is going great. Then let's pretend there are a rash of burglaries at some resident's homes. How would you react and what would you do as mayor? The first step would be get the police to investigate and talk to neighbors that might have seen something, the key word being "investigate". But what would happen if you unilaterally decided to throw everyone in your town in jail? ⠀(To continue reading, listen to, or download the podcast, follow the link). 
What Does Water Kefir Taste Like?
One of the many questions I receive when they see the "Wall of Thirst" (my tapping system of fermented drinks) I have set up at market is "What's the difference between kombucha and kefir?" There are several differences that you should know. ⠀
From a production standpoint, kombucha is simply just fermented sweetened tea. So in order to make a healthy bacterial-enriched drink you need 4 things: tea (probably black tea), sugars (food source), water (the "playground"), and a SCOBY (a combination of bacteria and yeasts). By mixing these things together, I like to say it's a "play date" of probiotics. The SCOBY hangout at the playground eating the sugars and the caffeine from the tea, all the while producing yeasts and a bit of alcohol for us to consume. It has a distinctive taste of something sour or tart or vinegary which comes from the production of acetic acids. Simple, right? ⠀If you want to learn more, listen to or download the podcast, click the link. 
Mental Health Gut Health
I want to talk about the correlation between your brain and your gut, and how the importance of having a good floral gut bacteria can actually affect your mental health. Did you know that the brain and the gut are actually made of the same type of tissue? That's why they say they call it the second brain here. But, things like serotonin, or dopamine or Gaba, those are all what I call happy hormones and they can be produced in the gut if you have a healthy running digestive system. To read more, listen to, or download this podcast, follow the link.
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