Exotic Insect Delicacies of the Future (Not for the Squeamish)

How do Madagascar hissing cockroaches soaked in whiskey with a hint of citrus sound as an appetizer? Python patties with applewood smoked bacon? How about stir-fried jellyfish, or scorpions, or alligator; how about kangaroo?

One NY chef thinks this is the food of the future. And why not? As the planet's resources dwindle beneath the pressures of an ever-booming population, we may be forced to dine on these arthropodic--and other exotic--delicacies.

Chef Gene Rurka is serving just these dishes at the famed Explorers Club annual dinner held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City tonight. The black-tie affair hosts world explorers, modern-day adventurers and their wealthy patrons. More than a few guests have climbed Mount Everest, walked on the moon, and visited the deepest depths of the ocean--a small entrance requirement necessary to indulge in tarantula fritters.

Rurka believes his dishes represent the food of the future. He points out that not only may it become a future necessity, but that insects and other exotic fare are already common foods in many cultures. True that.

And chef believes that it's all in the presentation anyway. He uses a distinct method to ensure that the roaches look alive as they are served, by freezing them to death; then he soaks them in whiskey to bring them back to room temperature. He then injects them with Tasmanian leatherwood honey and a bit of soy sauce for a sweet-salty kick. Nice.


Hey, who can argue with that? Watch the video below to enjoy some of chef Rurka's concoctions. I especially enjoy the woman who proclaims, "I just had the pork testicles, cooked in blood." Right. Bon Appetit.

Los Angeles Chiropractic: Rectus Abdominus Exercises for Core Strength

We've been talking a lot about low back pain, and I've showed you some great stretches that might help relieve your low back pain, particularly if the source is muscular. Tight low back muscles can be a major, if not the primary, source of low back pain. But sometimes tight low back muscles are only part of the equation--the muscles of the abdominal core may also be weak, causing instability of the lower back and pelvic regions.

I have showed you a fantastic exercise to strengthen the core called plank pose, and for overall firming and stability it can't be beat. However, the rectus abdominus muscles are also important, especially for athletes. These abdominal muscles are the ones most hardcore exercisers strive to develop; they are the six-pack of ripped abs fame.

Aside from the aesthetics, however, having strong rectus abdominus muscles are important posturally, and they help maintain the integrity of the internal organs by keeping them fixed firmly in the abdominal cavity. But as muscles of movement, the rectus abdominus flexes the torso--that is, they bring the chest toward the pelvis or vice versa, depending on which end is fixed (or both toward one another if neither end fixed)

How is this important to athletes? Anytime one needs to get up off the ground--as in MMA fighting, wrestling, Ultimate Fighting (PrideFC) or any other martial arts competition--the rectus abdominus is involved. As an endurance muscle, a weak rectus abdominus can fatigue leaving you unable to get up. Think body blows in any fight game. The idea is to wind the opponent. Because the rectus abdominus also assists in breathing, particularly when winded, you can see how important it is for these muscles to be fit.

In the video below, I demonstrate the best exercises to strengthen the abdominal muscles. It's a standard crunch, but with a few critical nuances. Everybody and their mother knows how to do one version or another of the crunch, but so many are rife with biomechanical faults that I encourage you to watch below and refine your crunches--you'll get the most out of the exercise if you follow the details I demonstrate. You will need to master these two movements--the abdominal hollow and the pelvic tilt--before you start, so give them each up to a week of practice (depending on your fitness level) before starting on the crunches. And then enjoy.

Cutting-Edge Sportswear Improves Posture, Performance and Healing

I love this product: Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel is sportswear that improves posture and athletic performance by positioning your frame into the most biomechanically correct alignment. As a result, your body has a greater chance to heal from injuries, and it develops in proper accordance with your specific sport. Now that's something to get excited about.

I've got the Intelliskin Foundation 2.0 shirt and have been wearing it during my martial arts training. Because I had tweaked my shoulder (subscapularis of the rotator cuff) about a month ago, and it really seemed to be responding slowly, I was merely going through the motions in class. But I finally got smart and donned my Intelliskin Foundation 2.0 shirt and...booyah!...I started seeing amazing results. Here's how it works:

The shirt is made of 56% nylon and 46% Lycra and is a compression fabric, so it fits snugly, but also expands elastically. It has posture panels, which are strips of material perfectly positioned to pull your shoulders back and expand your chest. The panels are oriented in in specific patterns, similar to the sports taping techniques, developer and designer, Dr. Tim Brown, a sports chiropractor, specializes in.

The shirt design works because it places the body in the correct biomechanical posture--shoulders back, chest expanded, core tightened and compressed. Postural misalignments and muscular imbalances are what often cause overuse injuries--shoulder impingements, chronic neck pain and tightness, and even low back pain--so by helping the body structurally, and neurologically, the Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel helps decrease injuries. But even better, by helping correct the dysfunctions, current injuries do not get exacerbated, and the body can go through an uninterrupted healing process.

Sports chiropractors like myself know how difficult it is to keep athletes from playing through injuries. As a weekend warrior myself, I am no different from your average jock--I'll only sit for so long. That's why the Intelliskin was great for me, because I am going to do something...anything...as it's my way of life. The Foundation 2.0 shirt helps my mechanics when I throw punches or any other upper body movement.

Interestingly, when I first started wearing the shirt I noticed that I'd fatigue earlier, which means I was using muscles that had gotten lazy leading to muscular imbalance. The beauty is that the small stabilizer muscles needing to work during my sport were engaged, fatiguing earlier, yes, but developing along the way. This means the fatigue will not last long as the muscles become conditioned. The increased heat takes a little getting used to, but as the body is the great adapter, it will over time.

Like I said, I love this product. And I recommend it for athletes or anybody trying to heal an injury. Intelliskin has women's products as well, including a sports bra; and it has its LC-1 Reactivator shorts for lower back and pelvic stability. Check out Intelliskin and get your shirts, shorts and sports bras today--you'll play longer, and better, in Intelliskin.

You can purchase Intelliskin by clicking the banner below:

Coke and Pepsi to Remove Cancer Causing Ingredient

No secret that I am anti-soft drinks. Funny because I am not much anti-anything, believe it or not. But I don't like sodas--not for me, not for my children, and not for others. It's garbage. Liquid sugar. No nutritional value whatsoever. Ten teaspoons of sugar per can...need I go on?

Well, it appears as if Coke and Pepsi also contain a cancer causing ingredient, one that I know at least I was unaware of, called 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), a major component of the caramel coloring the sodas sports.

According to recent statements, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have decided to lower the amount of 4-MEI in their soft drinks to comply with California standards that relate to findings that high levels of the chemical are shown to cause cancer in laboratory rats. Nice.

Not that either company actually cares about the health and safety of their customers, but they would have had to place a warning label on their liquid sugar product which discloses that it contains a known carcinogen. And what do you think that might have done to sales?

Both companies are probably resting assuredly that very few of their addicted consumers will ever find out about the cancer causing agent that has been a part of their drinks for decades. Indeed both companies assure shareholders that the changes will go unnoticed by addicts (and those not reading this blog).

"We are NOT changing our recipe; or our formula," Coca-Cola Company spokesman Ben Sheidler told AFP in an email. No just the toxic coloring. Bravo liquid sugar manufacturers.

"What we did do is direct our caramel suppliers to make a manufacturing process modification in order to reduce the level of 4-MEI in our caramel so as to meet the requirement set by the state of California's Proposition 65."

California voters passed Proposition 65 in 1986, and the law aims to protect state residents from "chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and to inform citizens about exposures to such chemicals." 4-MEI was listed as a known carcinogen under Prop 65 in 2011.

Now mind you, both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo deny any health risk whatsoever, despite their products containing up to five times more 4-MEI than California standards. And not without a fight: The companies actually lost a battle against the state of California that dragged on for three years. The soda manufacturer's argument: Trace amounts of 4-MEI are not sufficient to cause cancer in people. 

So let me get this straight. California has found 4-MEI--a compound used as caramel coloring, not just in soda but in soy sauce, coffee, bread, molasses, gravy and some beers--to be a carcinogen. And these companies have wasted time and money fighting on the grounds that, "It's just a little cancer causing...and only in lab rats." Yes, rats are always catching cancer in the lab...dumb rodents. That has nothing to do with you or me. 

Listen up liquid sugar pushers: You know damn well that if the public ever found out that you have a known carcinogen in your product, even if in just trace amounts, not one person would buy it. Not one. That's why you caved in, because you would have been forced to label it, and there'd go your cash cow. 

Like I've said before, I'm a capitalist to the core, but providing a product that has a questionable ingredient, and then trying to be deceitful about it--and that's what non-disclosure is, deceitful--is atrocious. You can minimize the issue all you want to, but you know that justice is often carried out in the marketplace. And your response speaks volumes.

My Message

Been getting lots of flak on a recent post about health care costs, and you know how much I love that. But one thing that comes up time and again, because people just can't seem to see past the political brainwashing, is that my message is NOT about whether people should have, get, or pay (or not pay) for health insurance. No, that's what the politicians talk about...that's not my message.

My message is this: Health comes from within. It's what you do for your body, regularly, that determines whether you will experience wellness or not. Absolutely no medicine will give you health. No organ removal will give you health. Either one may help you get over a hump, but none will provide you with health--only YOU can do that.

The western medical system is necessary for, and outstanding at, saving lives--it's crisis care, or more aptly, sick care. As far as saving lives goes, nothing is better then western medicine. But let's not mistake that for health. The reality is that the medical system has been the dominant system for over a century; and in its desire to protect the public (and retain full and absolute power economically, politically and as the cultural authority), it has infused its sick-care paradigm into every facet of the cultural psyche. The predominant view of "health care" is of going to the doctor for a check-up and then getting medication.

Except for one little problem: What medical doctors provide for the public has nothing to do with good health. Now let me explain, because certainly, saving lives preserves health in the most fundamental sense. Yes, I will give you that. But is health merely the absence of illness or disease? No! No logical person believes that today. In fact the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition is just that:

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Duh.

Worse yet, we see now how irresponsible use and/or overuse of the medical system actually makes people sicker. Why the hell are people fighting for more of that? Everybody in the U.S. has access to emergency care, so nobody is ever left out in the street to die because they have no medical insurance--nobody.

Do not fool yourself into thinking that the current health care debates are about that. Nobody gets turned away from crisis care. No, what some people and politicians are so desperately fighting for is for medical care to continue as the predominant form of "health care", beyond crisis care, in illness or in health.

And the medical industry sits well in the paradigm it has created, with many people never really thinking about their health until it goes awry.

It's the I-can-neglect-my-health-and-then-be-saved-by-medical-care syndrome; the "just give me the statins, it's too hard to change my lifestyle" mentality; the "I just can't get myself to exercise and change my diet, so I think I'll get a stomach staple" way of thinking, just perfect for the elective-c-section,-run-to the-doctor-for-every-sniffle,-and-undergo-multiple-cosmetic-enhancements crowd.

Yes, today's medical care has very little to do with health--it's the sickness paradigm imposed onto the public perceptions of health? And you wonder why the U.S. ranks so poorly in health status for a developed nation that spends a large portion of its economy of medical care? Duh.

No, medical care ain't health care--it's sick care. And it's foolish to so adamantly demand it as an inalienable right. You want the drug addiction and the poor health that comes along with the reliance on modern medicine and it's prehistoric "health" paradigm? Then be my guest. But not me...I'll take my chances taking care of my health. And if I have a crisis, well I know the best place to go, insurance or not.

West Hollywood Chiropractic: Lower Back Pain Stretches

I've recently shown you a great beginners stretch for the quadratus lumborum (QL), which is an oft overlooked cause of low back pain. When this muscle gets tight it can mimic some of the more severe causes of low back pain, and thus many experts, myself included, believe that a number of "failed low back surgeries" might be due to conditions of the QLs. So what to do?

First, it's crucial that you visit a sports chiropractor. If you are in West Hollywood, you can call my chiropractic office, and I will evaluate the source of your low back pain. You may need a chiropractic adjustment to your lumbar spine, sacrum or pelvis, as each is factor contributing to low back pain. And if your QLs are tight, then you will need to stretch.

Watch the beginners' QL stretch video here, and if you do not feel like you are getting a sufficient stretch, then try the more advanced low back pain stretches that I demonstrate in the video below. Remember that the QLs are for side bending among other actions, so the advanced stretch is essentially a side bender. Be mindful of your form, as is true with all exercises and stretches, and remember to roll your body back slightly as you stretch, and you should get great results.

Low back pain is never fun, but what complicates things and makes it harder to get relief is understanding the source of the pain. So, again, get in to see your West Hollywood sports chiropractor for your low back pain relief, exercises and stretches right away. That's the best way to get back on your feet quickly and feeling good again.

World-Class Skiier Illustrates Sports Rehab Protocols

This post isn't really about ski racing, although it could be. Since I don't know all that much about the sport, I won't bore you with my version of its details. No this post is about something else that has caught my attention and has inspired me. A friend recently posted the video below onto facebook (thank you Tim V), and as I watched I observed the sports rehabilitative work that I am so familiar with because I do it everyday. Then I got to hear the words from the engaging athlete in the piece, and I became even more inspired. So this post is about something that gets my hairs standing on end. Hope you enjoy it too.

Resi Stiegler is a World Cup alpine ski racer from Wyoming and the daughter of Olympic champion Josef "Pepi" Stiegler of Austria. Forget that she is a member of my blood tribe, as my mother hails from Klagenfurt, Austria, but what she is striving to achieve, and what she must bounce back from to do it, including the path she's taking to get there, are all sources of intrigue for me.

If you watch the video, you'll see that Stiegler had a serious ski injury--leg fractures and ligament tears--laying her up for some time. Recall my recent article on rehabbing my friend from a major motorcycle accident. Unlike Stiegler, my friend had no ligament tears, yet the rehab was still a challenge. The skier, on the other hand, had a number of physical obstacles that she had to address in her rehab protocol, making it that much more challenging.

What really grabbed me about this video is the work Stiegler was doing to stimulate her proprioceptive system--a must in any sports rehabilitation program. Additionally she was challenging her stabilizer muscles by using the exercise ball, practicing yoga (although she makes no mention of it, she is doing a yoga asana in the video), and doing balance work with the additional challenge of playing catch with a medicine ball. She also mentions active release technique (ART), a powerful muscle treatment utilized by chiropractors and physical therapists. In my sports chiropractic practice, Stiegler would have also received a boost from regular chiropractic adjustments.

But her program seems to have worked wonders. Each one of the practices described above is powerful and were all likely contributors to her amazing comeback. Stiegler placed second in the World Cup slalom in Ofterschwang, Germany on Sunday--a career best for her.

Watch the video to see what gets me inspired about the world of sports rehabilitation (and please note some of the things she talks about at the end of the clip, which illustrates the crucial mental component, although she doesn't talk about it in that way...she's just living it). Bringing world-class athletes back from injury and competing again is a fulfillment to me like no other. And helping everyday folk get back to playing with their children, being productive at their jobs, and competing in their own hobbies is no less fulfilling. Watch the video to see what I love.