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"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" - Mary Oliver  October is a scary month. Aside from being fire season, Halloween dangles at the end of the month as one by one, neighbors hang out their creepy, orange stuff and put pumpkins on porch steps before scooping out the seeds for roasting. Giant, furry black spiders climb up the outside walls of houses and white sheets double as ghosts blowing in the wind. No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop picturing it all going up in smoke as the strong winds sweep through the streets. I share office space in Brentwood, an upscale neighborhood where lots of people in the film industry live. At this time of year, as you drive the curves up canyon roads, really creepy authentic looking ghouls borrowed from studio prop departments hide in the bushes and wait to scare you as you drive by. Brentwood is down the road a mile or so from the Getty Museum, which sits on top of a mountain surrounded by native grasses and chaparral. When the humidity is 4% and the Santa Ana winds are blowing, they sweep any sparks of fire across the mountain. The Getty fire has been burning now for several days and the Museum, with its lovely gardens and stunning, expensive works of art, has been closed since it started. That’s SCARY!  It’s been a SCARY time. I have a bag packed to leave, should the fires that have been raging around us force us out of our home. On November 8th, those of us who lost our homes in the Woolsey Fire last year, will remember that terrible night. Since then, I’ve worked on looking forward, instead of backward. I’ve increased my meditation and yoga practices and opened to new possibilities of learning and growing. I truly believe that we create our lives and destinies and that that creation is an act that takes consistency, mindfulness and, most of all Love. Stay safe, and don’t be scared....xoxo  Beware of the LIES - Now, the food industry, who cares nothing about our health, is producing organic versions of familiar junk food. Have you seen or tried Organic Oreo cookies? Or, if you are looking for electrolytes, the organic version of Gatorade? What worries me about these new versions of familiar food-like substances is the fact that people may think that an organic version is healthier than the regular one. Don’t be fooled. Eating organic food is a better choice because it is less toxic, but in terms of nutrient values, they are identical. Growing something without toxic chemicals is much better for the planet and our bodies, but in terms of the nutritional comparisons, there is little difference. There are twenty grams of sugar in both the organic and regular twelve ounce bottles of Gatorade. Instead, check out the Natural Sports Electrolyte drink below, that is easy to make without the chemicals. Try plain filtered water, herbal tea or coconut water. The Oreo cookies I ate as a child, separating the two halves and licking the inside filling will never be replaced by an organic version (if I chose to eat them now) because eating is an experience. 🎃 Candy Corn: Right after Halloween one year, a patient came into see me with a bad stomachache. When I questioned her, she told me that instead of giving the candy corn to the children at her door for Halloween, she had eaten the whole bag of candy corn herself, saving the children, but harming herself. Candy corn was first introduced in the United States during the nineteenth century and was called “chicken feed”. The original recipe is still used today: Sugar, corn syrup (a combination of corn starch and hydrochloride acid), carnauba wax (as a thickener), artificial colors and binders. Unlike what one might think, there is no High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) in candy corn; it is made from real sugar, which is mostly glucose. In my research, I discovered that glucose syrup is actually used to make HFCS, by converting the glucose into fructose, making it cheap and, because of the fructose, incredibly sweet. If it’s in a package, there is probably HFCS in the ingredient list. HFCS has been instrumental in producing Diabetes, Obesity (Diabesity), Cancer and Dementia (Type 3 Diabetes) in huge numbers globally and that is really SCARY!!! Energy Drinks: First of all, if you are eating clean food in a balanced way, getting exercisethat is appropriate for your body and getting enough sleep, having enough energy shouldn’t be a problem. Energy drinks have become a huge industry, almost as big as the coffee industry. What may have started with one can of one kind of Red Bull, has now exploded into sixteen different kinds of Red Bull, including the cans of Organic Red Bull, for those that are concerned about organic ingredients. I am appalled by the amount of sugar and caffeine in these drinks, the several different types of sugar and caffeine in some of them and the incredible amount of marketing that is geared toward a younger audience. Red Bull, for instance, has its own TV channel - Red Bull TV - where it shows live athletic events and concerts. It also has a website where it shows young athletes that they sponsor and videos of concerts done all over the world. Their foundation, Wings for Life, earns donations for people with spinal cord injuries. These drinks have no real nutritional value, are addictive and are geared toward the 25 - 35 year old group of young adults who feel as though they are invincible - and these drinks, with huge amounts of sugar and caffeine contributes to this. That’s SCARY!  an alternative recipe to try: Natural Sports Electrolyte Drink Recipe courtesy of Katie Wells (WellnessMama)  Ingredients
Instructions
Serving: 1 cup | Calories: 26kcal | Carbohydrates: 6.1g | Sodium: 74mg | Sugar: 5.8g
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RISA POTTERS, D.C.
