Quantum Nutrients, Two Brains, Upside Down Diets

The Microbiome And Your Body’s Relationship With It

There is a microbiome story line running parallel to our human lives. One of living relationships, nature, understanding, connectedness, and codependency.  It’s very possible that what we cannot see is of more importance, and influence on us, than that which can be seen.

Are We An Avatar?

What if we consider the idea that the human body is an avatar? Because we are avatars in more ways than one. Humans could be said to be an avatar for the soul or energetic unconsciousness. Or, in this life, humans could simply be players in a game for an advanced alien species. Humans could even be avatars for microscopic aliens. No one really knows why we are here.

Humans are literally walking, talking biofilms. Another word used to describe a biofilm is SCOBY, which stands for a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacterias and Yeasts. This term is used in kombucha brewing. The SCOBY is what grows on top of the fermenting tea. Protecting it from invaders and contamination. The SCOBY is a hotel of sorts. This term could also be used loosely to describe the human body.

We Are More Invisible Organisms Than Visible Ones

Some scientists have concluded that the human body is made up of more microbiota (57%) than cellular structure (43%) with the greatest concentration of microbiota in the bowel. “They are essential to your health,” says Professor Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute. “Your body isn’t just you.”

Not only that, the genes of these microbiota could outnumber our human DNA by as much as 1000:1—this means we have to consider that we are more than simply “our” human DNA. Professor Rob Knight, from the University of California San Diego, has done some experiments on mice. These mice were born into a world completely free of microbes. What he found is incredible. He says: “We were able to show that if you take lean and obese humans and take their feces and transplant the bacteria into mice you can make the mouse thinner or fatter depending on whose microbiome it got.” Could you imagine the diet pills?!

Our Microbiome Is Kinda Like A Pet

We don’t know what we don’t know. It might behoove us to treat our bodies with the utmost respect, love, and attention. Because it may very well be that our very lives depend on the wellness of our microbiome and the relationships we have with our microbiota.

Our personal wellness is a function of the quality of our relationships. Not only with our friends, family, and peers, but also with the unseen world. The quality of our relationships is a function of the quality of our wellness…and so it goes. It’s a microcosm of the macrocosm. Whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. Our lives are dependent on our relationship with bacteria, yeasts, fungi and archaea living on and inside of our bodies. The best thing we can do it try to nurture them like pets. At least the good ones!

Fear And Chemicals Manipulate Decision Making

As a child you fantasize about what you want to be when you grow up. You want to be someone with purpose and shine. Then life comes along and molds you into shape and says be realistic, get an education, get a job, pay your bills, have a nice something-something, raise kids, find somewhere to live. We follow the path set for us, seldom asking, “Who set this path?” Ask your parents, “Why do we do things this way?” You probably will get an answer something like, “Because that’s the way things are done.”

Some will say God tells us what to do, quoting stories from books. Written during a time when humans did not know much about the natural world around them. Books of this sort only tell stories, left to interpretation. Their proponents will justify this devotion by saying something like. “These words were passed down to us by a divine power.” Yet, how can we ever know the true motivations of the writers, or the scribes. Or who truly dictated these words. We will never truly be able to know the actual authors.

It’s Our Programming

For most people it’s less work to follow and not question or think too much. Don’t rock the boat, do what everyone else is doing, we resist conflict. Human beings are programmed this way. For thousands of years religions have ruled the planet through the insistence of dogma and unquestioning loyalty.

For millennia humans were forced to conform or be labeled as heretics. It’s part of our psyche. Still to present day humans are conforming, fitting neatly into a box. Only now, we are conforming to being mass produced consumers. Like products on an assembly line. The producers make sure the followers stay within the lines, stop at the right stations, get the right attachments, and so forth.

If you think about an assembly line. Separating yourself from the usual, the required and accepted stops. Deviating from the “correct” way of assemblage is a recipe to be penalized or even fired. Take a moment to think. How many times have you participated in an activity, or claimed to like something, acted in a certain way, solely because others did? Regardless of whether you personally wanted to participate, liked the activity, or wanted to act that way. Regardless of whether you truly agreed, as those around you seemed to.

Fear, Group Think And Chemicals Manipulate Decision Making

Fear, chemicals and decision making are a part of our daily life. Being objective and gaining understanding about these processes will greatly improve our quality of life. Humans are a funny species. Since we are so adaptable, this is precisely why questioning the paradigm is difficult. We adapt to fit into social situations. Finding ourselves often making decisions and taking actions specifically because we are resisting conflict, because we fear conflict.

When you take into consideration the control this fear wields on us every single day. You can only come to the conclusion that you are being controlled by your fear. Simply because you don’t know with certainty what another person’s reaction will be. You want to protect your own self image. But what you may not know is that food, chemicals and many other components are affecting these thoughts and decisions as well. It’s much easier to control the fear of group think when you have the confidence of a clear mind.

What If It’s As Simple As Learning About Ourselves

In The Political Gut I lay out a series of actions and ideas to consider, as well as my theories and philosophies of how we got to this point. From my experiences working in advertising, to my time spent owning a health and wellness brand. I realized it was important to me to understand how all of these seemingly innocuous chemicals and manipulations affected my thinking. Now, I want to share what I have learned and am able to see, clear as day. After many years living the lifestyle I espouse in this book.

I think these ideas are important for everyone to consider in order for humans collectively to change our trajectory. To return us from the brink of self destruction and become “clean,” or back to natural as I prefer to call it.

Fear And Chemicals

Not only that there are many chemicals in our food, air and water that are emotionally and micro-critically swaying our thoughts and actions every day. Humans, generally speaking, are afraid of the unknown. It is important to come to a place where we can relate to and understand ourselves. We all have thoughts, cravings and fears. Understanding where each of these comes from, and asking ourselves why we have them, is a first important step in learning about ourselves. 

Manipulating The World Around Us To Fit Our Perspective

For the last hundred years plus, rather than bending to and integrating with the world around us, humans have taken a hard edged, top down approach. We are the alpha species, taking the natural world, manipulating, and commodifying it. Claiming ownership of it for ourselves and for profit. Before modernity and industrialization people still had to rely on the natural world. There was still a connection to the rhythms of nature.

Part of the human experience is a sense of territorialism, as with all animals there is an innate sense to lay claim to, and defend what we perceive to be ours. This leads us to fear outsiders because the outsider is an unknown. For example, there are many cases of a black man walking in a white neighborhood, with a perfectly good reason be there. Yet, someone invariably calls the police, or worse assaults the black man. You might say he doesn’t blend in. Simply because of his color he stands out. The same as a white person does in a predominantly black neighborhood. This behavior is rooted deep in our DNA. We seek out breaks in the patterns. Mentally and physically humans are consciously and unconsciously landscaping territories individually, collectively, and tribally.

A Break In The Connection To The Natural World

Our modern existence has caused a break in connection to the natural world. Instead of integrating with it, the human species is tearing the natural world apart and reassembling it from shards like a puzzle with no defined picture, besides profit sign. Bending everything around us to meet our demands, our point of view, our selfish and unnecessary physical needs and our thoughts of how things “should be.” Manipulating everything, even reality.

This way of reasoning has caused us to lose touch with the energy and love of nature. Throwing us out of balance. We begin to start missing that deep connection between our species and nature. You can feel this connection when you go into the forest for example. It provides perspective, refreshes, calms and reconnects our sense of empathy.

Manipulation, Manifestation And Gaslighting

Manipulation done in the proper way, through manifestation for the collective and self betterment, can be a good thing. But overall that doesn’t seem to be what is happening. Maybe using the term “gaslighting” instead is more suited to the idea I am trying to convey—we are gaslighting ourselves and others around us.

Human survival is actually dependent on the collective. Our egocentric selfishness is a product of advertising, manipulative messaging, and our consumeristic, consumption-based, endless economic growth paradigm. This paradigm uses humans like tools. It is built for the sake of profits.

Re-Integrating With The Natural World

Many humans have come before us and integrated with the world around them. Inherent human adaptability and malleability is a blessing, and humanity’s curse. If we control our own malleability, using it to benefit our own personal greatness, and are able to mold ourselves to the collective benefit, then we are in control. However, when we secede this control to a greater power we become the subjects and tools of those in power. Packed neat and tidy, molded into conformity. Manipulated to consume. We do as we are told for fear of rocking the boat.

My Personal Epiphany

My reason for writing The Political Gut. For one, it’s cathartic for me. But I had an epiphany. I was just like everyone else. One day I woke up and I just couldn’t take part in the endless negativity and destruction anymore. I became too aware of the damage being done to the planet, our physical bodies and our energetic consciousness. Having become too great for me.

I strongly believe the only product we should be considering is ourselves. How you personally reflect on those and the world around you. We need to ask ourselves everyday: Are my actions benefiting or negating our environment? How about your best “self” and those around you? Do you really need all the possessions in your life? Is one-upping your neighbor or friend really worth the negative ripples? Do you think generating endless amounts of waste won’t add up?

What Is Truly Our Purpose?

For me this life is about gaining wisdom for our energetic consciousness. It’s not about being a wage or debt slave so I can consume everything that tickles my fancy. Even if I was very wealthy. I would still live relatively simply. If you separate yourself from the upside down paradigm like I have. When you turn yourself right side up. You see more clearly the ways which you are being manipulated every day by your food, chemicals, advertising and those in power.

Throughout this book I reference dozens of scientific studies and cite many personal examples from my life. This information helped bring about the realizations for me. Our diets and systems are so upside down. I urge you to break free, and take control of your own quality of life. Take real actual control. Recognize the subtleties of how your thoughts are influenced every minute, of every day. Gain the power to block out all of the toxins, messaging and resist the cravings.

Seeing The Picture Clearly

My aim with The Political Gut is to tie a multitude of seemingly disparate information together. Like individual puzzle pieces, I assemble this information into a clear picture and narrative. In a way for everyone to see for themselves. How the food we eat, advertising and our political systems shape who we are as energetic beings in our current epic, the Anthropocene. This is my memoir from the Anthropocene.

It’s time to take the red pill and wake up. There is no way to be objective of this reality, if there is no way to compare it to a different reality. There is, however, another reality right here. Right here inside of you. You hold it, you possess it, it is yours to control. But you have to wake up and see it. It’s not as dystopian as in The Matrix. It’s actually more fantastic than the reality we live in now. But if humans collectively can’t snap out of this fever dream we live in, it is possible it may slip away for good.

When It All Started

I was cleaning out my storage recently and I found this article about us in NY Magazine. This café started my kombucha and wellness journey, culminating in my soon to be published book, The Political Gut. Originally, when I first started, what would shortly be named Pure Luck®, the brand was named Kombucha Party. As the article mentioned, and I talk about in my book briefly, this all started as a way to poke fun at the emergence of the Tea Party. Right after this article came out we renamed the café Pure Luck Tea Bar. The rest, as they say, is history.

American Way

Pay the fee, get vested.

Mind the guardrails, pop

goes the unicorn.

Formulaic, on repeat.

Courage, ethical speak,

we may not seek.

For within the legal limits,

must it be fine, must it be usual,

to fall within the lines.

By those who have built us

upside-down. To their benefit.

‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills

There are more than a dozen “Don’t Say Gay” bills being introduced in states right now in America. These bills are “barring public school teachers from holding classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity.” I find it odd that no one has informed these legislatures (or the media) about Ray Blanchard and Anthony Bogaert’s study.

According to the National Institute for Health (NIH). These gentlemen have “demonstrated that the probability of a boy growing up to be gay increases for each older brother born to the same mother, the so-called fraternal birth order (FBO) effect. Their first investigation indicated that each older brother increased the probability of being gay by about 33%.”

It would seem to me that this is natures way of mitigating over population. Teachers should be actively discussing this information. These new bills will make certain that does not happen. It reeks of politicians using the situation to get more political miles. Instead of using knowledge they rather politicize the LGBTQ+ community by invoking “wokeness” and culture war chants. It’s not only a statistical fact that men with more brothers have a higher chance of being born gay.

Chemicals In Our Water Are Causing Sex Changes In Animals

It is also highly likely that chemicals in our environment are also affecting the sex of our species. Instead of looking at the hard facts and evidence. Right wing politicians prefer to throw red meat to their “voting base.” This entire idea is absurd.

Instead of educating, and understanding, these politicians rather ostracize, and create an angry mob. “The institutionalization of these bills is an overt form of structural transphobia and homophobia, and it goes against all public health evidence in creating a safe and supportive environment for transgender, nonbinary, queer, gay and lesbian youths and teachers to thrive,” Arjee Restar, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, told NPR.

Chemicals Disrupt Hormone And Endocrine Production Causing ‘Gay’ Fish

In The Political Gut I address the chemical issue. Chemicals in our environment are disrupting hormone and endocrine production in the human body. This is not speculation. These are hard truths. We can see the hormones affected in species living within contaminated waterways. Scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey undertook studies in 19 national wildlife areas in the Northeast United States. They found that 60-100% of male smallmouth bass are intersex.

In Vermont, at the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge—which happens to be one of the most productive and pristine wetland ecosystems in the Northeast—about 85% of male smallmouth bass are intersex. In this case meaning they are growing female egg sacs in their testes. Feminized male fish have been found in 37 species all over the world.

This is also prevalent in frogs who are turning from males into females, something not known to happen naturally in amphibians. The culprit is a pesticide known as atrazine, affecting testosterone production. Even when you go fishing in the most pristine wetlands and think you are catching a clean ‘natural’ fish. If you eat it, you are consuming atrazine. This is the new “natural” world we live in.

Polling Reveals People Identifying As LGBTQ Is Rising

In a Gallup Poll 15.9% of Gen Z (those born in the late 1990s to early 2000s) identified as LGBTQ. This information made me stop and think. All over the Earth there are strong anti LGBTQ stances taking place. From citizens, organizations and religious groups to governments. Do any of these anti LGBTQ people stop to question why or how this is happening?

Aside from the FBO effect. It’s very possible, the increase in people identifying as LGBTQ his happening due to the thousands of hormone and endocrine disrupting chemicals in the environment. Which, humans are consuming from birth. Don’t take this out of context, I support the LGBTQ community. My point is, does anyone even consider that maybe the environment we live in could be a cause of this increase? If fish and frogs are changing sex due to contaminated water, you can’t deny the possibility. 

We’re Supposed To Be An Educated Country!

Thinking and troubleshooting our problems seems to be a far off concept for politicians these days. I am concerned humans can’t, and don’t think anymore. It’s easier to blame and use the LGBTQ community as a cudgel to divide and tribalize; caught up in the culture wars! It’s a consistent theme, blame someone else instead of looking at the facts.

We are living in a no-facts-allowed period of politics. I think a major reason no one is thinking straight is because there are so many chemicals in our food, water, air and the environment. Where our ability to have an honest, thoughtful conversation has been obscured by lies, anger and vilification. In my opinion being objective and thoughtful requires mediation and a clean, healthy diet.

I quote many studies in my book that prove diet effects mood and personality. Sugar, alcohol, probiotics and basic vitamin intake all have a significant effect on mood and cognitive ability. What if keeping people from thinking before acting is the whole point?