Posts Tagged ‘nutrition’

Interview with Health and Fitness Expert Tarik Tyler

Friday, April 6th, 2012

 

Health & Fitness Expert Tarik Tyler

Tarik Tyler is one of the leading experts on health, fitness, and most importantly childhood obesity. Basketball legend, Shaquille O’Neal tapped into Tarik’s vast knowledge for his ABC television series, “Shaq’s Big Challenge”. Tarik helped Shaq work with and train overweight children in the Florida schools. They also worked on changing the school lunch programs to include healthier choices. Most importantly they championed the Governor’s Office to re-instate Physical Education programs in the State of Florida.

Tarik, is also a celebrity trainer having work with such stars as Kate Hudson, Tracey Morgan, and Tiffani Thiessen. Tarik’s true passion lies in helping to transform and create healthy and fit lifestyles for overweight children all throughout the United States. His life goal is to be able to inspire a minimum of 1,000,000 children to eat healthy, lose the weight and stay fit for the rest of their lives. Tarik Tyler is The Founder of, “Bring Gym Back ™”.

You can find out more about Tarik and his incredible work at http://www.tariktyler.com/. You can also follow Tarik on Twitter @REALTarikTyler

Here is our interview with Tarik Tyler.

Abundant Health Center: Tarik, childhood obesity in our country is out of control today. What sets The United States apart from countries like Canada or Europe where this isn’t an epidemic problem?

Tarik Tyler: Well the answer to that is rather complex . What we have here is a society that is saturated with things being conveniently brought to you so that there is increasing lack of mobility. As technology and social networks become more of the norm people have settled into communicating at home as opposed to going out and interacting. Consider how children will interact via the various social networks on-line as opposed to going to do something that requires that they interact in the physical world. If you couple that with the savvy and aggressive marketing of foods designed to make inactivity more enjoyable then the United States will continue to tilt towards being more and more sedentary. I’d wager that Canada and Europe limit the marketing of fast food so that’s part of the the reason why it hasn’t reached the levels that it has here. However there are signs that obesity issues are gaining ground in both places as well.

AHC: What can parents do to motivate their kids to be more active?

TT: I believe that parents simply need to be healthy themselves. You can’t motivate your child in terms of staying active with a “do as I say not as I do” method. Playing with your kids and letting them see how much you enjoy the interaction with them is very motivating. Parents should pick out activities that allow both child and parent a chance to experience a new way of making exercise a part of a lifestyle not necessarily a chore.

AHC: What are three things that parents can do to set themselves up as role models of health for their children?

TT: First parents need to involve their kids in their activities. A parent who is healthy and active has a better chance of raising children that are healthy and active

Second let their kids get involved in making healthy and tasty meals. The more they can learn about food and that healthy and nutritious food can taste good too they more they are inclined to repeat what they’ve learned.

Finally,parents should limit their time on the Internet and show children what a healthy level of interaction with people offline can bring. Parents should make an effort to know the parents of their children’s friends. I fully support the “it takes a village to raise a child” idea.

AHC: On a grass roots level what can parents do to get physical education back in schools that are facing budget cuts in these tough economic times?

TT: Parents still have a number of options to keep P.E. in schools. One of the better options is to hire outside organizations to help provide more structured after-school physical fitness programs. The expectation that schools will keep P.E. even though they feel that it’s not as important is like waiting for Santa Claus to show up in July. Mind you I don’t believe in Santa Claus either but you see my point. Parents need to recognize that play is essential to development.

AHC: What is one dietary change that adults and children can make to enhance their health?

TT: If I had to pick one I’d say that it would be more fruit and vegetables and eliminate or severely restrict processed foods.

AHC: Who are some of your mentors and what books that you have read have been an influence upon you?

TT: Mentors? Funny thing is since I’ve been in this business for 25 years and counting not having a mentor has never really affected me. We are all still learning and always changing so each one of us in some way is a mentor to each other. One of my favorite books that got me started about at least the diet side of fitness is Lean Bodies by Cliff Sheats. I still refer back to it when I need to explain that it’s not just about the calories it’s about the quality.

AHC: Is there anything that you would like to add?

TT: We are all shaped by our habits. If you create the habit of exercise and eating healthy and each day you strive to improve then you’ve created a lifestyle. And a healthy lifestyle is the ultimate goal.  On May 1st I will be re-launching my website – http://www.tariktyler.com/  I’m particularly excited to have a ProShop on the site where you can get all the essential tools needed for a fitter and healthier you.

AHC:  Tarik, thank you for your time.

TT:  My pleasure

I Don’t Like To Eat Vegetables

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

You would be AMAZED at how many people don’t like to eat their veggies.  I have people tell me all of the time, “I hate vetables”, “I can’t stand the taste of broccoli”, “Spinach disugts me” and on, and on, and on.  So, thankfully, for those people VitaSource has formulated their Supreme Greens product into a capsule form.  For people who are looking for the “quick fix” or “miracle pill” (because they are either too lazy to create a healthy and alkaline diet for themselves or they simply don’t like the taste of natural, organic, wholesome, and pure vegetables) there is an answer – Supreme Greens Capsules.

While I can encourge you all I want to eat clean sources of healthy and natural sources of vegetables…I know that not everyone is going to do so (for whatever reason they might have).  Thus the reason to have your “Salad On The Go” in a capsule form.

Yours In Health!

G.E. Moon II

Introducing Greg Germesz – Founder of VitaSource

Friday, October 1st, 2010

I am honored to introduce Greg Germesz – Founder of VitaSource and his story of illness, his road to recovery, and how VitaSource is making a difference in the supplement world.

Yours In Health!

G.E. Moon II

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Greg Geremesz, the founder of VitaSource, started promoting health supplements in 2002 motivated by his own experience in his late twenties when he suddenly started suffering from excessively low energy levels.

Despite this fact he was exhausted after work and wanted to sleep as soon as he got home, his doctor told him he had a ‘clear bill of health.’

Not willing to accept this, he took things into his own hands…

• He drank a lot of caffeinated drinks

• He started taking diet pills that were ephedra based

• He went to a chiropractor

• He tried eating lots of sugar because people talked about “the sugar high”

But all of this actually had the opposite effect on him. He would drink a can of soda, only to want to take a nap 15 minutes later.

His life was a mess. He tried everything and nothing seemed to work. And the more things he tried, the more depressed he became, making him absolutely miserable.

Then he reflected on his parents who passed away at early ages, his mother when she was 40 and his father when he was just 46 to different health ailments.

He said to himself “Face the facts, Geremesz – it’s in your genes. You’re destined for poor health.
At the same time, he wanted nothing more than to experience a greater level of energy.

Then one day, he sat down in his bed and prayed. “Help me get more energy and be able to live a normal life again. Help me to experience more passion, more joy and a deeper level of peace in my life.”

As grace would have it, a few days after that a friend handed him a book about fasting. And despite Greg’s skeptical nature, he quickly became fascinated in it and decided to put it to the test. After two days without eating any food…

He Thought His Head Was Going to Explode and He Was Suffering From a Headache Due to Caffeine Withdrawals

But over the next week, this all changed and by the time he had completed the fast, he had more energy than he knew what to do with. He was bouncing off the walls and was actually afraid to begin eating again because he was feeling so good.

And that was just the beginning.

Since then he has invested hundreds of hours studying the best of the best in the science of nutrition and supplementation, using himself as a guinea pig in his own virtual testing laboratory.

And he found the key to greater health and more energy levels all boiled down to getting back to the basics of what his Grandma had always told him: you are what you eat.

But when he delved further, Greg also discovered while Mother Nature’s food is best, unfortunately due to environmental issues, poor soil quality and poor eating habits…

We are Unable to Live at our Optimal Health and Have that Sustained Energy Every Day by Relying Purely on Food

It was this 1948 study by a Rutgers University Professor which turned him from die-hard skeptic to a true believer when it comes to supplements…

In studying tomatoes it was found that some had 2,000 times more iron in them than others. And it all boiled down to the soil where the tomato was grown.

But here’s a disturbing fact: In 1964, when the US Department of Agriculture decided to follow up on the Rutgers study, they examined the element “iron” to see how much of it was in various vegetables grown in different places.

And guess what? The average amount of iron in various vegetables had dropped by 80% between 1948 and 1963.

Can you imagine what those levels are at today?

The reality is the nutrition in our fruit and vegetables has declined to such a level that…

It Now Takes 60 Servings of Spinach to Get the Same Amount of Iron as Just One Serving in 1948

So Greg started taking a greens supplement and found it not only gave him more energy, but also helped him feel more focused and at peace with himself.

But when he took other supplements, he didn’t notice any difference at all bringing him to the conclusion not all supplements are created equal – particularly the cheap, high volume supplements found in some grocery stores.

“What most people don’t realise is some companies store the ingredients they put into their supplements for a couple of years” says Geremesz. “And others supply their clients with multivitamins made in a lab from synthetic materials rather than whole food.”

Greg believes God has given us everything we need to sustain ourselves and synthetic materials will never be able to replace mother nature. So as you might imagine, he was not impressed.

This led him to study how our food is grown, what combinations deliver the nutrition our body needs, what nutrients people are lacking and what we need most in order to live healthy lives.

Greg went out in search of the perfect supplement. But he quickly found that unless you take part of the manufacturing process, it’s almost impossible to know what quality supplements you are really getting.

According to Greg: You might think to yourself “I need something which has a thousand milligrams of Vitamin C. But…

Here’s The 5 Questions Most People Fail to Ask About Their Supplements

1. Where does that Vitamin C come from?

2. Is it coming from nature? ?

3. Does it come from a laboratory where it’s put together as a chemical? ?

4. How bio-available is it? (will your body absorb it) ?

5. How much of that Vitamin C is your body going to absorb because it’s in the right molecular
structure? ?

This really annoyed and confused Greg because while the books he read and courses he took would tell him he needed a thousand milligrams of Vitamin C for example, the reality is his body could absorb far less Vitamin C from some of these supplements, because of the way it was produced. And in some cases the supplements had no enzyme activity left in them at all.

He could never work out what was in a bottle of supplements. So he decided the best way to be sure of what was in every supplement he and his family consumed was to make it himself and turn it into a little side business.

It started out small with a product called Supreme Greens. But before long he was receiving letters, emails and phone calls from people saying how their energy levels had increased, ailments which they had been experiencing for years had literally disappeared.

Greg says “It wasn’t so much that the supplement had cured them. It simply confirms the wisdom of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, dating back as far as 460 B.C.”

Hippocrates is quoted as saying…

“Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food”

He also said “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”

This is what gives Greg the energy and the drive to get up every morning… to listen to his customers concerns… to expand his product range… and to research and study in order to find the latest ingredients to keep his products at the cutting edge.

Greg says his mission is to lift the vision of what people consider to be healthy:

“There is a huge difference between being free of disease and being healthy. Some people consider themselves healthy even though they get the flu every winter and have a difficult time getting out of bed every day after hitting the snooze button five or six times” he says.

“But true health is much more than that. It’s waking up full of energy, raring to go on a daily basis. It’s being able to do a 100 yard sprint at the age of 50. It’s being able to get down with your kids and crawl around with them without throwing your back out.”

Greg believes everyone can learn to be their own doctor which is why he does everything in his power to educate his customers to achieve better health. He says “Nobody knows your body better than you do, and while doctors play a critical role in our society, the unfortunate truth is they have not studied nutrition in great depth.”

“That’s why we have a number of experts on our team including a nutritionist, a sports exercise nutritionist, a psychologist and a Doctor with a PhD. We work together to develop the products and supply a wealth of information on our web site to ensure this information about nutrition accessible to everyone.”

Through its strong brand, team-focused approach and unparalleled commitment to quality and education, VitaSource is achieving the mission of its founder to inspire and enable people to experience better health, more energy and passion, and a deeper level of peace in their lives.

More Information Regarding Our Enzymes

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

Enzyme Research products use only pharmaceutical-grade enzymes, vitamins and minerals, from natural sources.

Enzyme Research products are scientifically formulated in highly concentrated, precisely balanced combinations.

Enzyme Research products are laboratory-grown using the strictest quality controls. Enzyme Research requires a certificate of analysis for every ingredient in their blends, from a reputable testing laboratory.

Enzyme Research products are the ideal choice for the widest spectrum of patients including vegetarians, children and patients with ulcers, allergies and sensitivities. Even patients with poorly functioning digestive systems, nutritional deficiencies or chronic health problems can fully benefit from their blends.

They are effective in a wide pH range, unlike enzymes from animal sources.

They are free of fillers, artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

Yours In Health!
 
G.E. Moon II

Enzymes and Longevity

Friday, September 17th, 2010

We are all going to arrive at our Golden Years. How can we best insure our longevity and be in good physical and mental condition at the same time? The answer may be that there is a definite correlation between the amounts of enzymes an individual possesses and the amount of energy he has.  With increasing age, we show a decreased energy reserve. A quote from the work of Dr. Edward Howell is, “If you take in enzyme reinforcements during the younger years, your enzymes at eighty years will be more like those at forty years.”

How does a lack of enzymes speed the aging process?   When our enzyme levels become so low that our metabolism suffers, death may result.  When our metabolism is falsely stimulated by coffee, a high protein diet, and/or other stimulants, our metabolism increases and enzymes are used up. This is a false energy and we feel a sense of well being, however, the end result will be a rapid burnout of energy causing premature aging. The greater the amount of enzyme reserves, the stronger our immune system and the more healthy we are.

Invariably any discussion about enzymes results in the question: Do we lose our ability to produce enzymes    because we age or do we age because our ability to sustain production of enzymes decreases? We are all born with an enzyme potential that is predicated upon our DNA, referred to as enzyme reserves. Following are some  examples of why life cannot exist without enzymes:

  • Enzymes are needed for every chemical reaction that takes place in the body.
  • Enzymes are catalysts. They make things work.
  • Enzymes are connected to every working organ in our body and run our life’s processes.
  • Enzymes are needed by vitamins and minerals to accomplish their delivery within the body.
  • Enzymes are required for any food digestion to occur.
  • Enzymes are made inactive by processing or cooking food over 116º.
  • Enzymes can prevent partially digested proteins from putrefying, carbohydrates from fermenting, and fats from turning rancid within the system.
  • Enzymes from plant sources become active as soon as they enter the body.  It only takes moisture and heat to activate them.
  • Enzymes from animal sources only work or are activated within the small intestine, and in an alkaline  setting of 8.0

Nature has endowed all raw food with the required enzymes for digestion. Chewing and breaking down the fiber of the food releases the necessary enzymes for digestion to begin.

Raw foods do not contain as many enzymes as in the past, due to environmental factors, i.e., depleted soil conditions and modern preserving techniques. Our body needs to compensate by secreting more and more enzymes to make up for the lack.

In addition to cooked foods, coffee, illness, stress, and even exercise, are some other factors that take their toll on our enzyme reserves.

Enzyme deficient food puts a burden on our digestive system, which wasn’t designed to handle incompletely digested foods. This, in turn, may lead to poor nutrient absorption, fatigue, digestive upset, food allergies, and many other conditions.  When partially digested food molecules escape into the bloodstream, this causes an immune response, such as LeakyGut syndrome which over-burdens the immune system. The body then steals enzymes from the white blood cells, thereby compromising our immune system even further.

Dr. Edward Howell, father of enzyme research in the United States, and Dr. Wolf of Germany have done extensive research on enzymes. They have shown in numerous studies that enzyme output gradually decreases with age and may be reduced by more than 60% by the time we reach age 55.

At some point in time, we must supplement our enzyme reserves in order to fight the degenerative conditions associated with aging.

We know that the major cause of aging is cellular deterioration due to excess toxins in the body.  Enzymes help the body to resist free radical damage. This destructive damage has to be stopped, as it weakens the whole body and causes premature aging.

As we age, free radicals cause cross-linkage that reduces connective tissue and causes the skin to lose its elasticity, resulting in wrinkles.  Enzymes fight the aging process by increasing blood supply to the skin, bringing with it life-giving nutrients and carrying away waste products that can make your skin look dull and wrinkled.  Circulation slows down as we get older. A diet which includes an abundance of raw fruits and vegetables (which are high in enzymes) along with taking a complete enzyme supplement becomes more important with age, because eating a cooked or processed diet has depleted our body’s natural enzyme reserves. Other challenges of aging that can be addressed with enzymes are:

  • Purifying blood – Is it possible that an enzyme can clean up or purify the blood?  When you look at it from the simplest perspective, it makes sense. It is a known fact that fungal forms, parasites, and bacteria are made up of protein. Also, take into consideration that the shell that protects a virus in our bodies is also a protein coating. Protease is suggested to take on an empty stomach to break down protein invaders, i.e., fungus, yeast, toxicity, bacteria, and parasites.

 

  • Strengthening the immune system – Enzymes deliver nutrients, carry away toxic wastes, digest food, purify the blood, deliver hormones by feeding and fortifying the endocrine system, balance cholesterol and triglyceride levels, feed the brain and cause no harm to the body.

 

  • Breaking down fats – It is a proven fact the enzyme lipase breaks down (digests) fat. When added to your meal as a supplement, it is able to do this job in the digestive tract. This takes stress off the gallbladder, liver, and pancreas.

 

  • Lowering cholesterol – Lipase helps lower cholesterol levels because of its ability to break down fat.

 

  • Taking off excess weight and fat – Many overweight people have metabolism imbalances or the potential of creating one. The endocrine system rules our metabolism. Once we are able to fortify the endocrine system, get the bowels working regularly, and digest our food rather than turning it into fat, we have a successful combination for losing weight. Rather than creating common “weight loss” which is often nothing more than water loss, we will instead burn fat and properly digest our food. This process is not instantaneous, because we have to lose fat instead of weight. It takes longer, but is healthier and lasts longer. Best of all, it does no harm.

 

  • Enhancing mental capacity – Your body uses glucose called from the liver to feed and fortify the hypothalamus. Your red blood cells do the work of carrying oxygen to your brain. Nutrients have to be delivered throughout your body by means of the enzyme delivery system. When this is not accomplished, you become fatigued and are less able to think clearly. Remember that the hypothalamus directs our endocrine system and is responsible for water balance, body temperature, appetite and even emotions.

 

  • Cleansing the colon – Undigested foods that are stored in the colon begin with a digestive problem. In the colon, undigested protein will putrefy; starch, sugars and carbohydrates will ferment; and fats will turn rancid. If we eat more than one meal per day, we should experience at least one and two bowel movements per day to rid our body of toxic waste. Enzymes aid in natural colon  functioning by properly breaking down the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. The proper digestion of food is the first step in encouraging regularity.

 

  • Enhancing sleep – When nutrients are unable to get past the brain’s barrier, it can create insomnia and depression. The undernourished endocrine system may create a malfunction in our hormonal system, which can upset our nervous system and sleep patterns. If we are able to correctly digest our food, however, we get proper delivery of the nutrients to keep the endocrine and nervous system in sync. We can then rebuild our lifestyle and energy patterns.

Although there is no silver bullet or magic potion to stop aging, we do know it takes years for our health to decline, and it usually takes many more years to resolve our health problems. The simple fact is, we should always give our body the correct fuel to perform, and it will give us many years of service. Intervention with enzymes and other nutrients is the key in anti-aging.

We all are going to arrive at our Golden Years. Let’s be in the best physical and mental condition possible.

by: Charles Hallquist, PhD

References:

David Dressler and Huntington Potter, Discovering Enzymes, Harvard Medical School
Erik Emby, MD, Hidden Killers
DicQie Fuller, PhD, The Healing Power of Enzymes
D.A. Lopez, MD, Enzymes
Edward Howell, MD, Enzymes for Health and Longevity