Soul's Code

Foods we once thought were healthy alternatives are now off the menu — starting with your daily (whole-grain) bread.

We’ve joked about it at dinner parties. We’ve read all the same articles, talked to our doctors, and reached the same realization: You can’t eat anything anymore. Soul’s Code canvassed its community of experts about the latest research into conscious dining:

1. Soy, it sucks

The world’s most famous cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Robert Rey, is ultra body-conscious both inside and out. And Rey, a.k.a. Dr. 90210, is highly conscious about what he puts into his own body. Dr. Rey is the author of a 2.0 version of the Paleo diet.

Why rely on the administration of drugs — or the Obama administration — to cure diseases if you can avoid getting sick in the first place? The worst culprits, including heart disease and many forms of cancer, are preventable with some basic self-care.

BY VAISHALI — The largest generation in history, the post-WWII Baby Boomers (76 million people in the U.S., alone), are entering their peak need for care. And those of us affected by a U.S. health-care reform led by President Obama may end up (or not) at the government’s mercy to nurse what ails us. In the name of self-preservation, here are six highly-effective, do-it-yourself tips to keep the doctor away, and aging at bay.

Six ways to enhance your health and vitality

A leading expert on diet and digestion has developed an agent that doesn’t require a prescription — and promises better results than a pill made by AstraZeneca or GlaxoSmithKline. The new enzyme therapy.

BY ELLEN CUTLER —  Do you remember how you felt as a child — healthy, happy, bursting with energy and full of enthusiasm?  As the years pass, many of us lose our connection with that effervescent spirit.

Our sleep no longer refreshes us, and we become resigned to feeling fatigued, stressed, and/or fuzzy-headed.  Next to depression and allergies, lack of energy is the third-most prevalent ailment among adult Americans, affecting 33 million people.

A spiritual teacher explores Eastern systems of self-healing and your digestive system.

GUEST COLUMN: VAISHALI — Most people think of the digestive process as something limited to the foods and liquids that we stuff into our mouths daily. However, digestion is best understood as a metaphor for life.

According to Eastern systems of self-healing, our entire body is an aggregate of different types of digestive intelligences.

Life-coach Jemitra Hairston ushers the ancient sacred ritual of sharing tea into the 21st century.

GUEST COLUMN: JEMITRA HAIRSTON — This is not an easy subject for me because I grew up in the South, home of Lipton “sun tea.” On Sundays, my mama would place a big container full of water on the well next to the clothes line in the back yard.

Dangling from tabs captured between the lid and lip of the jar were several bags of Lipton’s tea. After several hours of sitting in the North Carolina sun, the tea would be brewed to “perfection.”

Try a Soul’s Code inspiration to look at healthy eating in a whole new way

GUEST REVIEW: TERJE FOKSTUEN — I share these books with you out of personal experience attending medical school, my religious studies and my share of diets, Lenten cleansings and the realm of the senses. Here is a taste of  “long-form” intelligence about taking charge of  your health; wellness of self and planet; and conscious cooking and eating:

Daphne Miller (The Jungle Effect) is a San Francisco physician, and professor at UCSF, who went native. She started thinking about local diets, and their effect on health, after witnessing the impact of a western diet on Brazilian natives (N.B. It wasn’t good). 

Tony Samara’s code for a daily spiritual dose: selfless service and treating your body as a temple

Tony Samara, founder of the eponymous, non-profit organization, The Samara Foundation for the Evolution of Human Consciousness, lived for several years in a Zen Buddhist monastery.

After leaving the monastery, Tony traveled to the jungles of the Amazon and the Andes, where he lived and studied among a community of shamans.

Soul’s Code: What secrets did you learn from the healers and holy men?

Tony: I worked with many shamans in the jungles and mountains of South America. It is difficult to put into words all the learnings, but one could summarize the essence as being a profound respect for nature and its inherent cycles that help sustain life. That humans can utilize nature to enhance their joy, gives this realm meaning.