Primo Health Blog

Taking vitamins and supplements without consulting with a nutrition professional can lead to unwanted health issues, and can end up being a waste of your money. It is best to do some sort of nutrition assessment like the Primo Blood Chemistry Analysis in order to identify any deficiencies or potential health issues related to nutrient deficiencies.

Recently I was approached by a representative of Arm & Hammer's Simply Saline Nasal Care line. They sent me a free Neti Pot Kit so that I could test out their product and write a review if I felt compelled to do so. Since I had suffered with sinus congestion and infections for many years, I agreed to do the review of the product.

Nasal irrigation is used clinically to flush out mucus and eliminate bacteria. A recent STUDY showed that certain bacteria are significantly eliminated by this procedure. Several bacterium species were significantly reduced, but not the H. influenzae that is responsible for a wide range of clinical diseases. Nonetheless, this study supports the claims of those that use such practices to reduce the complaints of sinusitis and allergies.

You may be surprised to see an article about quinoa by a grain-free guy like me. But in actuality quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is not a grain but a seed. It is one of the least problem-causing "grains," can be  tolerated by most gluten sensitive individuals and is even accepted by some Paleo eaters (those who stretch the rules). It is a gluten-free grain that is versatile and has many health benefits with its strong nutrition status.

Quinoa is actually the seed of an herbaceous plant related to spinach and Swiss chard. The most popular seeds are a tan or yellow color. But several varieties and colors exist from black, to red, orange purple and pink. It has a rich nutty flavor with a tasty crunch.

This week I've dedicated my blogging to the health practice of juicing vegetables for optimal health. If you've missed Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3 of Tips For Juicing For Optimal Health, I suggest you back up and read those first.

By now I hope you're convinced you want to try juicing and you're pretty comfortable with knowing what you need to make a delicious, nutritious high quality juice. I only have a couple tips left and mostly want to help you with choosing the right equipment. If you've ever shopped for a juicer, I'm sure you know that the options are endless as are the price differences. Hopefully I can make the process of selecting the right juicer a little less daunting. But first I want to discuss something that always comes up when we discuss juicing vegetables.

I hope by now you are realizing the many health benefits of drinking nutritious fresh raw juice. I hope you've either dusted off your old juicer or are considering buying one to boost your nutrition. If you don't have a juicer yet, I will discuss choosing the best juicer in Part 4 of Tips For Juicing For Optimal Health. If you missed Part 2 or Part 1 of the series, please go back and read those first.

Juicing does not cancel out a bad diet. It is important to build a diet around whole foods that are clean (organic), unadulterated (non-GMO) and fresh! Juicing organic vegetables is a way to augment that diet and be able to incorporate even more healthy nutritious disease preventative nutrients found in our rainbow of vegetables. Here I'm presenting a few more tips to make your juicing experience most palatable and beneficial.

I've received a lot of interesting feedback on Part 1 of Tips For Juicing For Optimal Health. Mostly great feedback from people who love to juice as a part of their healthy diet. Then there are some who don't believe that juicing is a natural way to consume vegetables. The way I see it is if I can get people to eat more vegetables by juicing or by "hiding" vegetables in some of their foods (i.e., add spinach to spaghetti sauce), then I've done a great job of encouraging a healthier diet. Here is Part 2 of this series.

In Part 1 of this series I discussed what vegetables are good to start with. As you get accustomed to juicing and drinking liquid that is not sweetened, you can start to incorporate other nutrient dense vegetables.  The following are the vegetables recommended by Dr. Joseph Mercola in progressive order:

One of my favorite things to show my clients is how I juice my vegetables. Juicing is an excellent way to get more of the five to nine recommended servings of vegetables we should have every day. Juicing helps to clear the skin, improves vitality, cleanses the organs and is preventive of cancer and other disease. I highly recommend everyone to incorporate raw juicing into their health promoting diet.

Why Juice?

• Juicing helps you absorb all of the beneficial nutrients from the vegetables
• Juicing allows you to consume optimal amounts of vegetables in an efficient manner
• Juicing allows you to incorporate a larger variety of vegetables than you would normally eat

Drink Vegetable Juice

My mother scattered some seeds in a pot for me a few weeks ago. I had no idea what they were but I proceeded to water the pot diligently hoping it was something I love. Well much to my surprise I now have a large pot full of kale! They are still growing and maturing, but I can easily recognize their curled up deep green leaves.

For many years I was confused about the guava fruit. My family always ate foods and sweets made from guayaba, which I always thought was a different fruit from guava. Come to find out that they are the same fruit. Guava is the American take on the name guayaba, which is the Spanish way to say it. However, they are the same fruit.

Part of my confusion is that there are different varieties of guava. Pictured above is the red fleshed variety. But like most fruits and vegetables, there are several varities with their own unique colors, shapes and characteristics. I had become accustomed to the red fleshed guava as it is used in many juice drinks. However, if you taste an actual fruit you will notice it's not as sweet as those juice bottles make us think. But it is a tasty fruit nonetheless.

As I'm writing this post I have a zucchini lasagna baking in the oven. It's summertime here in California and the slightly sloped hill in my backyard has about 10 plants of some type of squash growing, both summer and winter squash. It's safe to say that I love eating all types of squash.