First, an emergency has resulted in Dr. Alim having to cancel his talk at La Casa this Saturday night, but we are so very pleased and fortunate to have Daryl Goiffre agree to speak instead. Daryl has been my, and my daughter’s, chiropractor for several years (Upper East Side location), and he is brilliant at this. But for the past three years, Daryl, with Tony Robbins’ endorsement and support, has been developing a new product that is amazing. 

La Casa has always been sensitive to the importance of alkalinity in health. We give all our clients alkalized water to drink. We use alkalized water for our treatments, including a colonic using an alkaline implant. Daryl’s new product is the best product on the market for alkalizing your body. And it’s got the cutest name. Check out his website: GetOffYourAcid.com.

Come hear Daryl speak Saturday night about his product, and be the first in line to buy it, hot off the presses. (Parenthetically, Dr. Oz has included a jar in each of his Christmas gift packages.) I have been taking GetOffYourAcid for a month--love the taste, love the feeling it gives me: instant energy. Even my daughter adores it (and she is VERY picky).

More updates: 
Since I have your ear (or eyes), I thought I would take the opportunity to say a few things, as further updates on various topics I have covered in the past (in addition to the most recent Musings that went out earlier this week, which was an update on almonds). 

I am always pleased when I write something that people find useful. And I am particularly pleased when I seem to be at the forefront of science and natural health developments. So I was very happy when I saw the New York Times covering fecal transplants, and their value. 

Long-time Musings readers will remember that I covered this topic in May 2013. But we know it’s really hit Broadway when the Times covers the story. The article refers to a study wherein 19 of 20 patients with C. difficile infections were cured of diarrhea and related symptoms. Most saw improvements after one two-day round of pills, the rest after two or three rounds. A different study showed that transplants are nearly twice as effective as antibiotics for recurring C. difficile.

Another update is about PSA, which I also covered in the past, showing the test has an 80% FALSE POSITIVE RATE. Even the antigen’s discoverer has disclaimed the test as being accurate for cancer detection. Yet, for two decades, most physicians and virtually all urologists still push for PSA testing and multiple biopsies.

About Water:  
I often tell people that I have organized my life around water. I grew up on Lake Pontchartrain (in New Orleans), and my family had a boat that we went on every Sunday.

My mother and sister were both swimming champions. We were all swimming teachers. As soon as I was able to afford it, after I moved to New York, I bought a house on a lake (northern New Jersey, home to more than 100 lakes). Then I decided I needed a place to swim in a natural body of water when it’s cold in NY/NJ. 

I bought my farm in Puerto Rico, and opened the first La Casa: La Casa Resort Spa. I have been happily swimming in the ocean in winter for 30 years now. When I opened La Casa Day Spa, 21 years ago, I wanted to replicate the ocean environment, and thus, came the floatation chamber. 

Wallace Nichols' amazing new book, Blue Mind: Your Brain on Ocean--brought to my attention by Conseulo Reyes, director of Rethinking Cancer--explains my fascination, urge, craving, even need to be around water, next to water, and in water. 

Blue Mind studies the emotional, behavioral, psychological and physical connections that keep humans so enchanted with water, and explains the changes our brains experience when we are close to water. 

Nichols examines seas and oceans, lakes and rivers, even swimming pools, as well as the contents of our bathtubs. He is a marine biologist whose passion for our planet's water goes far beyond a mere academic interest. 

He tells us the interesting anecdote that Michael J. Fox made the career-changing decision to leave the hit show "Spin City" (and go on to launch the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research) after a surprise swim with a sea turtle. Nichols tells us of the necessity to get closer to water, not only for the sake of our individual health, but for the environment and a healthier future for all mankind, the earth, and all its species. 

After my Musings on almonds and wheat, I recommended eating imported as opposed to U.S. grown almonds, because of the regulation requiring all U.S. almonds to be either cooked, pasteurized, or coated with the known carcinogen, PPO. In response to the newsletter, I got an email from one of my readers who wondered if imported produce is irradiated (thank you Mary). She did some research, and forwarded to me what she found on Google, which you can see by clicking HERE.

This website says: 

"2003 Codex Alimentarius General Standard for Irradiated Foods: no longer any upper dose limit. Seriously? So they can go all out with the radiation!

Wrap your head around this. Every banana you have EVER eaten was dosed with radiation! Now irradiation is federally mandated for ALL imported food. So all produce from Mexico, apples and beef from Japan, and food from Canada. Those are your most common imports. Check your sources. Especially on produce."

This was quite a shock to me, and gave me pause about eating all imported produce. Mind you, the irradiation does not mean that the almonds are radioactive by the time we get them. And irradiation, by my book, is not necessarily a bad thing. 

I thoroughly researched the health benefits of exposure to low-level radiation, and documented this profoundly beneficial healing effect in my first-edition book co-authored with Jay Gutierrez, Because People Are Dying, and my documentary film by the same name, and the re-edition of the book with new material added, now called The Hormesis Effect. 

As a result of the research I did, I now irradiate my water (as well as my dog's water) with a radioactive stone before I drink it. But the level that food is irradiated with is exponentially higher than the level of the radiation stones I use. Jay measures each stone he mines, and we know that they emit a  low-level therapeutic dose. 

Meat, on the other hand, is irradiated with a dose that is 15 million times higher than the radiation amount of a chest x-ray, or 150 times higher than the dose that will kill a human being. While the food is no longer radioactive by the time you are eating it, nevertheless it is no longer a living product. Irradiated foods can no longer reproduce. As my first holistic health teacher, Bernard Jensen, would say, once you take out the reproductive system of any entity--animal or plant--you have removed the life vitality. He talked frequently about benefits of seeds because in seeds, we find all the minerals and vitamins, all the building material to build every cell needed for growth.

So, this information on irradiated imported food would be a vote against imported almonds. Then I saw a product advertised on SunFood.com (a popular website presumably owned by holistic health guru and big-time chocolate proponent, David Wolfe) that sounded yummy: JEM. It's an almond butter, touted as raw and organic with delicious-sounding spices and herbs added. I emailed SunFood, and asked where their almonds came from. They said either Spain or Italy. I wrote back and asked if they were irradiated. 

Response from Rick Blair, client services:

"It is illegal to irradiate Organic food when being imported into the United States under US Federal Law, volume 65, section 205.105(f) which prohibits the irradiation of organic products, as well as section 205.661(g) which states that civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation may apply. 

We place the DO NOT IRRADIATE stickers on all domestic shipments, which reminds any courier and educates others who see and read those stickers of this fact."

They said no--that when imported produce is labeled as organic, there is no need for radiation. He further said that all their almonds had big stamps on them specifying to not irradiate. That sounded great.

Then I found out, through further digging by myself and my reader, Mary (we had a lively email interchange about our various findings) that SunFood has not been owned by David Wolfe for over a year, and that the present owner is Doug Harbison, whose father ran Monsanto for 10 years. Thus, I wasn't sure whether to trust the advice coming from SunFood. I looked up the regulation that Rick Blair had given me the number for. It was long and tedious to read, but I could find no reference to the specific issue of exempting imported organic produce from irradiation.

Our research, however, led to an interesting finding: there is one exemption to the law mandating that all U.S. grown almonds be treated. The sole exception is if the farmer has a road-side stand. We found one California nut farmer who, indeed, has a road-side stand, and is able to ship out almonds (and other nuts) that are truly raw and organic--Bremner Family Farms.

According to federal regulations, they are limited to shipping 100 lbs. a day to any individual--quite enough for most anyone's needs. I got my first shipment, and the almonds taste fresh and are the most delicious I have ever had. Then I made my next order, and got walnuts, too.

So, the moral of the story is that I am back to making my rosemary crackers in full tilt. And by the way, a few of my readers have asked for the recipe. I don't cook with recipes or measurements. I pretty much wing it every time I prepare food, so every batch of any foods I make always tastes a little different. But the ingredients and rough measurements are:

*Soaked flaxseeds
*Somewhat fewer soaked almonds (I find that when the proportion of almonds is too much, the cracker gets too dense and not as tasty, so I use about 2/3 the amount of almonds to flaxseeds)

*Lots of fresh or dried rosemary (I can easily go through 3 or 4 fresh sprigs)
*Some rosemary essential oil (usually about 6 drops will do it--the stuff is strong and can overwhelm the taste if too much is used)
*A fair amount of nutritional yeast (the amount will depend on how "cheesy" you want your cracker to taste but I use, all in all, about a cup)
*Either Celtic or Himalayan salt to taste.

I mix all ingredients in the VitaMix, but this is a bit of an art. It is important to put some water in the bottom of the VitaMix first because the mix gets quite thick, and will kill the machine (temporarily shut it off) if I put in too much at one time. So I mix in batches. It takes about 4 batches to make enough to fill all the trays of my dehydrator. Drying takes 2-3 days. And whilst they are "cooking," your house will smell deliciously aromatic with the scent of rosemary. Guests will comment, and ask what fantastic food are you preparing.

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Dr. Jane Goldberg, interviewed at the NAVEL (Nutrition, Aesthetics, Vitality, Efficacy, Life) Wellness Expo, held in Melville, New York on October 26th, 2014. Here Jane explains the importance of embracing ALL thoughts and feelings -- both positive and negative -- for the sake of each individual's personal health and growth. The NAVEL expo is an annual event, dedicated to promoting health and well-being.