Tuesday, August 31, 2010

September 2010 Newsletter: Walking the Talk Part 2 and FrankenFish

Greetings! I hope you’ve all had a great summer, hard to believe that Fall is practically here and the kids are back to school. Even harder to believe I have two in High School! It was a busy summer for me with the introduction of my new meal plan programs. My clients loved them as they felt better and lost weight! Since I want to share them with as many people as possible, I am offering a back to school special of $50 off the one month meal and consult program for the month of September. Call or e-mail for details.

I’ve been busy planning nutrition and yoga workshops for the fall and there’s quite a bit coming up soon. I’d love to see you there or pass on the information to a friend or loved one. I’ll be doing my Nutrition Boot Camp at HeartSpace in Thiensville (October and November), Copper Tree Wellness in Hartford (October), and in Minneapolis (December). I’ll also be doing a whole weekend of nutrition workshops in Cedar Falls in October.

For a complete listing of workshops, dates, times, and locations click here Workshop Information

For details at each location click here:
HeartSpace, Thiensville, WI
Copper Tree Wellness, Hartford, WI
Devanadi Yoga, Minneapolis, MN
Field of Yoga, Cedar Falls, IA

One last promotional note – yoga teacher training starts again in October. Once again Meg and I will be offering a 200 hour Yoga Alliance approved training with both weekday and weekend options. For more information click here YogaOne Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training.

Walking the Talk Part 2

In continuing the “walking the talk” theme from last month I also need to mention my new friend Susan Siemers. She is a fellow graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, former business executive, and now is into raw milk farming. And you thought I made a career change! Anyway, she hosted me earlier in the month, showed me the ropes around the farm, and taught me how to make kefir, yogurt, cheese, and pickles. She also makes great soap from goat’s milk. It is very good for complexions. In fact, my daughter Mollie is now a fan and I am getting some for her friend! If you’re interested in some high quality soaps, visit Susan’s web site Ceres & Co.

Also last month I learned how to make herbal tinctures from my friend Phyllis Heitkamp. We made three: black walnut to kill bugs in the stomach (the one that did the magic for Mollie), a motherwort-hawthorn mixture for heart health, and a mullein-lobelia mixture for glandular support.

Walking the Talk Part 2: Supporting Food with Supplements

In my feature article Walking the Talk Part 2: Supporting Food with Supplements, I describe my personal program. You’ll notice that glandular support is included. For more on why we need supplements, how to determine what supplements you need, and to see my daily plan click here
Supporting Food with Supplements - My Personal Plan

And one last walker of the talk. My friend Glen Depke a naturopath who lives in California. His latest blog post was why treating symptoms does not work and how we need to get to the root of the cause. To read click here Symptom Care Doesn't Work

Franken-fish: Genetically Modified Salmon is Coming

As I like to say, you can’t make this stuff up. This perhaps is one of the more disturbing stories I read recently. I saw it in the Price-Pottenger Journal of Health and Healing Summer 2010 issue. Genetically modified salmon to be bigger. That is really scary to me. For the full story click here
Genetically Modified Salmon

A Special Thanks

And thanks to my yoga anatomy guru David Keil (not the Homestead football coach for you in the Mequon area) I’ve resolved a physical complaint that had been bothering me for about eight months. He is an expert in trigger points and successfully diagnosed the pain I had in lifting my right arm over head along with the feeling of a knife stabbing me in my right scapula. Who would think it would be triggered in the neck. Sure enough, while talking to him, I put my left hand fingers where he directed and lifted my right arm over head and no pain!

David will be coming to YogaOne in April to do anatomy training. He is awesome. He also has some great DVDs. Check them out at Anatomy

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Walking the Talk Part 2: Supporting Food with Supplements

This is the second installment in my “Walking the Talk” series. Previously I answered the most common question I receive from clients (and friends): what I eat and why. Now I’ll answer the second most popular question. If we eat all the right foods, do we really need to take supplements?


In an ideal world we would be able to obtain all our nutrients from food – fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Unfortunately, we do not live in such a world. Most of the plant food we consume is grown on land that is now mineral deficient, making these valuable food sources of vitamins and minerals deficient. Minerals are particularly important as they are the catalysts behind our bodily functions. Since we do not make them in our body we must get them from food. Most of the animal food we consume is from animals that are not healthy since they are being fed the same nutrient deficient food along with antibiotics and hormones. Even if you eat as clean as possible, as I and many others try to do, I stick with my conclusion that we just are not getting everything we need from our food.

Notice that I use the word “supplement”. This means we still need to eat our healthy foods and supplement with what we are not getting from the diet. I’ll tell all my clients I can give you all the supplements in the world, but if you do not eat healthy they will have minimal effect. You may not be feeling any symptoms, but that does not mean things are not happening in your body which will one day be symptoms.

How do we know what our body needs and what we are not getting from our diet? The easiest way is to be in touch with what we are feeling in our body. Symptoms that present are often signs of underlying nutritional deficiencies. Also, there are a variety of tests that I’ll use with clients to determine nutrient levels and/or deficiencies.

When creating a supplement program I consider two aspects. I start with the baseline – the supplements I believe everyone should use. Then I address the specific nutrients that may be lacking (determined as described above through symptoms and testing) and suggests proper supplements

Here’s how that translates for me. The baseline supplements support digestion and our need for a variety of vitamins and mineral support. I’ll start with digestion. We can be eating the best foods in the world, but if we don’t digest well, we won’t get all the nutrients available to us. Constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating, acid reflux, headaches, ADD/ADHD, even anxiety and depression are all signs of poor digestion. To support digestion, I recommend digestive enzymes and probiotics. I take enzymes with each meal and probiotics on an empty stomach. As we age we make less of our own digestive enzymes, so another reason for supplementation. Many of my clients report amazing results from just doing these two simple supplements.

The second component of the baseline is what I’ll call a “multivitamin”, but not as you typically find in the vitamin section of the drugstore. I’ll pull together several products to deliver these components. Currently I am taking cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil from Green Pastures along with IntraMax from Drucker Labs. The cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil deliver my fish oils and my fat soluble vitamins – A, D, E, and K. The IntraMax delivers a wide range of nutrients including: vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants, more enzymes, etc. It is my super “multivitamin” and made from food.

This is another important point. I am a big believer in vitamins and supplements made from real foods, not in the laboratory. Those made in the laboratory are synthetic vitamins and often times not the full vitamin complex. Ever notice why your urine may be bright yellow after taking vitamins? That is why. Your body simply can’t process all these synthetic vitamins.

Next I look at is what I am experiencing in my body. So, as a middle aged male I am concerned about my prostate, heart, and overall energy levels. I take CoQ10 for heart health and to boost energy and I take a variety of glandular to support prostate and endocrine gland functions. I find that many of my clients also benefit from glandular products as they provide the direct nutrition that our endocrine glands require. These glands are among the first to suffer from poor nutrition. How do you know if your endocrine glands need support? If you’re tired, losing your hair in clumps, find your sex drive lacking, or for women if you suffer from PMS or any other female symptom – those are your glands asking for help!

I hope you find this information useful. If you are interested in having a supplement program designed specifically for yourself, please call my office and I’d be happy to help.


Bernard Rosen, PhD is a Nutrition Consultant and Educator. He works with individuals, groups, and at corporations to create individualized nutrition and wellness programs. His office is in Thiensville. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, e-mail at bernie@brwellness.com, call (262) 389-9907 or go to www.brwellness.com.