In this issue: building a lean, healthy body; toddlers who keep eating dirt...

[Q] My sister and I are determined to build healthy and lean bodies. Can you please give us five tips to help us achieve this?
[A] Crystal Andrus, RHN, CFS: To build a healthy and lean body, both you and your sister need to incorporate five essential components into your lives:

1. Eat a balanced carbohydrate/protein diet

Each day eat three meals and two snacks. Choose natural "dark-coloured" fibrous fruits and vegetables such as berries and salad and avoid "white-coloured" carbohydrates such as white bread, rice, sugar, and pasta. Ideal sources of proteins are those low in saturated fat such as fish, skinless chicken and turkey breast, low-fat yogurt and cottage cheese, protein shakes, and my ideal choice, egg whites.

2. Exercise

Cardiovascular exercise such as 20 minutes of brisk walking each day will burn body fat. Aim for three weight-training workouts each week to shape and sculpt your body in all the right places.

3. Drink water

The liver needs water to properly metabolize fat. Water will also fill your stomach, making you feel less hungry. Drink at least two litres daily.

4. Get your calcium

Calcium may be the latest arsenal in the war against excess fat. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in May 2004 showed that dietary calcium plays a pivotal role in the regulation of energy metabolism. Take 500 mg of calcium twice daily (one in the morning and one at bedtime).

5. Supplement with fish oils

Contrary to popular belief we do need fat in our diet, but the source makes all the difference. Supplementing with omega-3 essential fatty acids will help burn stored body fat and maintain a healthy, lean body (and mind). Take an omega-3 supplement three times daily with meals.

With these essential components, you and your sister will be lean and fit in no time!

[Q] My two year old is always putting dirt in his mouth. I am worried about infections. Do you have any advice?

[A] Angela Stengler, ND: Many children try eating some dirt in their lifetime. In most cases this is done out of curiosity. Normally a small amount of dirt is harmless. However, if your child has eaten dirt recently sprayed with fertilizer or insecticide, call your pediatrician or Poison Control Centre.

Eating dirt can also expose your child to lead poisoning, particularly if your child ingests soil around the home or a playground. Older homes may have been painted with lead-based paint, allowing paint flakes or chips to contaminate the soil around the home.

Bacteria and parasite infections are always a possibility as well.

If your child constantly wants to eat dirt, then I would suspect a condition known as pica. Nutritional deficiencies, especially iron, as well as stress are thought to be the most common reasons for this eating disorder, in which the person craves things that are not food, including soil and chalk. Interestingly, this condition is more common in children who live in poverty, suggesting to me a nutritional and stress connection.

You should have your child consult with a naturopathic or nutrition-oriented medical doctor. Blood tests that check for iron deficiency anemia and nutritional deficiencies, as well as an evaluation of the child's diet will be done. I would also check for the possibility of a parasite infection that is contributing to nutritional deficiencies. In addition, specific homeopathic remedies such as calcarea carbonica and silica can be used for pica. I recommend two pellets of a 30C potency be taken twice daily for three weeks. If the desire to eat dirt returns, repeat the remedy again for three more weeks.

[Q] I take a multivitamin: Do I need to include a green food supplement as well?

[A] Sam Graci: Based on the latest nutritional research, there are three supplements that are necessary "life insurance" to achieve optimal health:

1. a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement
2. green food supplement
3. an omega-3 fatty acid supplement.

So yes, I feel you need to include a multi and a high quality green food supplement in your daily diet. A high quality green food supplement will contain 23 of the world's land-based vegetation, sea-based vegetation, and herbal ingredients&encompassing a variety of 18 natural colours, phytonutrients and fibre that combine to make the ideal natural whole food supplement.

Research proves that naturally occurring plant nutrients work synergistically with vitamins and minerals to provide protection against illness. The high levels of antioxidants in a high quality green food are your front line of defence in the war on destructive renegade free radicals that are trying destroy your cells' ability to repair, renew, and rejuvenate.

There are high quality green foods on the market today that are in combination with a multi-mineral and vitamin supplement.

"For helping about 2,500 patients to live normal, medication-free lives, I was punished. Dr. Felix Ravikovich

"Anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs can create some long-term horrors and eventually cripple the immune system"

Dr. Felix Ravikovich's book is a landmark in the advancement of safe and effective natural medicine for diseases of altered immunity ranging from asthma, allergies, and hay fever as well as autoimmune diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome and migraines.

The book is a very eloquent, meticulous, and scientific account of how current conventional allergy treatments are both irrational and unscientific, catering to the profiteering of the pharmaceutical lobby, which justifies its behaviour with some very outdated beliefs.

Antihistamines, steroids, and a long list of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drugs may be very profitable, convenient to prescribe, and seemingly effective for the short term, but they can create some long-term horrors and eventually cripple the immune system. There is a better way.

Dr. Ravikovich clearly explains that many have been led to believe that we must suppress histamine in our bodies in order to deal with immune disorders. Basic science proves that this is a false assumption. In actual fact, what we should be doing to get well is balancing our histamine levels. While he readily admits that excess histamine causes allergic reactions, there is a great deal of scientific evidence which shows that injections of histamine can optimize the body's internal histamine levels, preventing or even curing the usual signs and symptoms of virtually any immune disorder. The scientific evidence supporting Dr. Ravikovich’s theory is substantial.

Published by maverick publisher KOS Publishing ("Books on Medicine That Works"), this gem of a book is neatly laid out in several sections: technical detail on how the immune system works; why mainstream pharmacology does not work and why it is so hazardous to life; the scandalous suppressing of truth about histamine-or "Histaminegate"; a section on various common immune system disorders; and, finally, a section on the author's political struggles against mainstream dogmatists. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the real truth about our immune systems and how to make them healthier.