A Green New Year To Come

I can still vividly remember

the day, 1st Jan 2000,
when we just entered the new Millenium.
It doesn't seems so long ago, seriously...

And now were are already finishing the 1st decade of 2000s..??
Time flies, seriously!

While we look forward to new hopes and brighter outlook
in the new decade,
there are a few steep learning curves that
humanity will continue to face:

Global Warming
Pandemic of Degenerative Diseases

So, rather than blindly hope and pray for a better future,
why not we actually do something that will delivers impact
for the better future we dream for?

Please join PCRM 21-Day Vegan Kick Start Program
to upgrade our physical wellness
and
to improve our environment
via healthful and energy-efficient vegan diet ;)

After signing up, PCRM will send us
step by step guide to healthy vegan diet,
including grocery listing, yummy vegan recipes,
celebrities' tips and many more!!

Enjoy a green new 2010 :D

Blissful 2010,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

When Gold and Silver manipulation is precious

A series of videos to learn more in depth
about Gold and Silver.

Mike Maloney and Bill Murphy explained
how the prices of Gold and Silver
have been manipulated by the Central Banks
and
hence their current artificially low prices,
could in turn be a precious opportunity to tap into
the next wave of wealth transfer.





As some millionaire gurus put it,
investment is a personal matter
which requires personal effort
to learn about it and
to do it with one's own hands.

There are people who still prefer to sit back
in the comfort their chairs and
expect that investment agents could do nice jobs for them
-- which is rare.

Hope the video series above would motivate one
to do one's due responsibility
to at least protect their life-long earning
in the upcoming economic melt-down.


Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Is Gold too expensive to invest now?

While Gold price just reached its

10-year high just about a month ago,

and most investors think

the price now is too high to invest in Gold,

there are views that gold is still seriously undervalued.

Mike Maloney has the following remarks on undervalued Gold:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7RVHl8pwk8&feature=player_embedded#

The core is that

Gold is currently priced below its true value,
and the "high price" now is just an illusion of weakening dollar.

As Robert Kiyosaki mentioned,
in the next major wave of wealth transfer
during the big economic crisis to come,
it's the well-informed investors that win.

Rather than blindly shunning off a golden opportunity
just because of the delusively high price,
why not spend some time to seriously study about Gold?

Physical Gold Bullion can be purchased from:
*GoldSilver.com
*Perthmint.com
*UOB Bank Malaysia
*UOB Bank Singapore


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (7)

At this juncture,
one may already realise that cancer healing
like many problems in life,
needs to be approached in a holistic manner,
because it's a systemic error, not a topical one.

There are many so called cancer targeting drugs
that hardly tackle cancer in a holistic manner.
But, if there is a need for some form of medication,
to boost to improve one's chance of recovery,
natural remedies are to be considered first,
before hastily rushing into drugs and surgery.

Simply, drugs and surgery very often
offers irreversible side effects bigger than
the problem they temporarily solves.

While I am still standing firm on
solving cancer problem via systemic error rectification,
there are a few things that I know of,
that could serve as a jump start in cancer healing:

(A) Gerson Therapy
- a detox regime developed by Dr Max Gerson, almost 6 decades ago,
  which intensively feeds patients with large quantity of fresh organic juices
  (13 glasses per day).

(B) Guolin Qigong
- like any Qigong, Guolin Qigong promotes oxygen and blood circulation,
  so as to improve the systemic coordination in our body.
- I specifically recommend Guolin Qigong,
  because of it's specifically tailored for cancer healing,
  by a QiGong master and cancer survivor.

(C) Clinically proven nutritionals
- Among so many nutritionals that are claimed to be beneficial for cancer,
  I did the most literature research on Grape Seed Extract and Coenzyme Q10.
- I have, on hand, a few reputated scientific journal publications that proves
  Grape Seed Extract re-activates apoptosis i.e. programmed suicide in cancer cells.
  (I can email any interested party the scientific articles upon request)
-Whereas, Coenzyme Q10 is already officially approved
  by National Cancer Institute of USA as a significant adjuvant therapeutic for cancer.

Many a time people convince themselves that
they should do something or take medicine when they are first diagnosed of cancer.
But often their early decisions are swayed by the incomplete picture
of cancer and their limited exposure to the range of healing alternatives available.
Hence the options above are recommended for broader consideration.



Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (6)

We now know that cancer can be perceived

as a systemic error and pre-matured aging.

Therefore, in order to prevent and reverse the disease,
the solution would be
to correct the systemic error and
to slow down the aging process.

As previously mentioned,
the overall deteriorating body condition is
generally caused by:
- heavy influx of toxin,
- failure to detox,
- poor blood circulation,
- lack of nutrients and
- stress.

Put it rather crudely, anything that
 - reduces influx of toxins
   (e.g. filtered water, undamaged oil),
 - promotes detox and blood circulation
   (e.g. trampoline exercise, yoga),
 - improves nutrients diversity and bioavailability
   (e.g. organic food, nutritional supplement)
 - and reduces stress
   (e.g. art appreciation, religous study)
are important for cancer prevention and healing.

To slow down aging process, one may look into:
 - sufficient rest (e.g. sleep early, meditation)
 - moderate calorie intake (e.g. no over-eating, avoid high protein and fatty foods)
-  reducing free radicals (e.g. daily fresh juices, antioxidant supplementing)

The recommendations are probably familiar to many of us,
and are easily achievable,
but why aren't we doing it until cancer sets in?

This drills down to one very fundamental question:
Could there be another systemic error in our life
that prohibits ourselves from doing those naturally right things?


Merry Xmas,
Kee Yew



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (5)

Some people may question:

"I thought cancer is caused by mutation?"

While this statement remains true,
the more specific statement should be:
Cancer is initiated by mutation.

Mutation plays a minute part in
initiating the problem.
What eventually makes a tiny error at the start
to develop into an almost irreversible damage,
is our deteriorating body condition failing again and again:
- to prevent the invasion of mutagen in the beginning,
- to eliminate the mutagen in time,
- to destroy the mutated sequence,
- to repair the mutated sequence and
- to destroy the mutated cell
etc..

As illustrated above,
cancer cell doesn't emerge easily.
If our body defence/maintenance system is intact,
it's very very difficult for a mutation to
pass through so many levels of "clearance".

When I was working as a Research Assistant
at the National Cancer Centre of Singapore 7 years ago,
I came across a professor from USA (respected worldwide),
who confessed in his academic seminar
that he couldn't trace a single significant mutation that is
common in 1000s of gastric cancer samples in his 10-year study.
(in other words, in all these cancer samples,
there are all sorts of mutations,
but there is no uniform pattern to trace the one and deadly mutation)

This is when I first recognised that
there is no one specific mutation
that could be claimed as the real culprit.
But when mutations sneak through the leaky systemic defence system,
trigger the viscous cycle of exhaustive cell division,
pushing large number of cells towards Hayflick limit and
eventually giving rise to even more frequent and random mutations,
cancer occurs.

This kind of sheds some light in our day-to-day philosophy:
it's ok to make mistake,
just rectify it in time,
and don't let the mistake snowball into bigger problem.

Mistakes are inevitable in life,
what is deadly is our unwillingness
to rectify our mistakes or bad habit in time.


Sincerely,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (3)

So, what does it mean by

the systemic error or
the overall deteriorating body condition?

The explanation starts off from the 3 strategies
of body self-maintenance/defence:

Whether it is at macro bodily level or at the micro cellular or molecular level,
these 3 strategies are applied dedicatedly in the following order,
to ensure the survival of any organism on Earth:

(i) Prevention
(ii) Elimination
(iii) Self-Destruction and Repair

Two examples:

(A) Our immune system
adopts the above 3 sequential steps
to protect our body from being threatened by virus.

- when exposed to virus in the environment,
our body has skin, mucus and other physical structure/barrier
to prevent the external virus from entering our body.

- if the the 1st step somehow fails, and virus enters our body,
our immune cells will be deployed to eliminate the virus,
via compliment, anitbody, interferon secretion etc.

- if elimination fails, the virus continues to infect cells,
the immune cells will start destroying infected cells.
This is when "harmonising" with pathogens happens.
I.e. the destruction rate of infected cells breakeven with
the propagation rate of the virus.
As the process involves destruction of bodily cells,
repairing eventually follows.

(B) Our cellular system also adopt the same 3 strategies
to protect our DNA from being mutated by UV.

- when exposed to UV, our skin cells will excrete pigmentation
to absorb and hence prevent the DNA from being destroyed by UV

- if exposure to UV prolongs, and generated a lot of free radicals in the cell,
the cell will have some enzymes and antioxidants to eleminate the free-radicals

- if elimination fails, due to too much free radicals,
and free-radicals eventually mutated the DNA,
the mutated stretch of DNA will be destroyed and repaired.

The self-defence/maintenance system above
applies to our body at every level and perspective, all throughout.

If such system loses its integrity,
e.g. not well coordinated, not functioning optimally or fails entirely,
that is considered a systemic error or overall deteriorating body condition.

Usually, such systemic error is initiated by
toxins (heavy influx or fail to detox), lack of nutrients, poor blood circulation and stress.
The deteriorating body condition often could be hinted by acidic blood pH.


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (4)

The reason why cancer is considered a prematured aging condition,

is because it's a manifestation of "exhausted" cell renewal (or cell division).

In the life science arena, very often,
one sees conferences and symposia
that loop both Cancer and Senesence (i.e. aging) under one big theme.
They share too many similarities!

This second hallmark of cancer
is due to one core principle:
All somatic cells (normal, non-sex, non-stem cells)
has their particular finite number of cell division in their lifetime.

Beyond this finite number of cell division
which is also known as Hayflick Threshold/Limit,
the exhausted cells will go haywired, dysfunctional and
eventually into death.

Hayflick limit is a deliberate act of nature.
One may call it a ticking time bomb,
but it is there to serve a purpose
(to reduce the chance of replication error).

This pre-programed cell division limit is
so important that there are several mechanisms
to make sure that it happens!

One of the interesting mechanisms is that:
During cell division,
when the chromosomes replicate and split into daugther cells,
the telomeres (a non-genetic structure at the ends of each chromosome)
are shortened.

During our early age, the shortening of telemore
has no effect on the cells and our body whatsoever,
as telemore doesn't bear any genetic code.

But as we age, when the whole stretch of telemore is depleted,
and the chromosomes continue to shorten (due to continuous cell division),
it will etch into genetic region of the chromosome.
Gene codes hence become haywired
and the cell will begin to trigger a self-suicidal program
to demolish itself.
-- This is aging in cellular and molecular level.
in over-simplified description :P

Why cancer is deemed as a fast forwarded aging,
is because:
When the overall body condition is begining to deteriorate,
bad cells are naturally destroyed.
In order to sustain a normal body function,
the neighbouring normal cells has to divide quickly
and many times more than usual, to replace the loss of bad cells.

This in turn pushes the normal cells towards Hayflick limit
at a faster pace.

Usually, beyond Hayflick limit,
when a cell's genetic code gets haywired,
a self-suicidal program will be activated,
so that the haywired bad cell will not propagate.

But once in a while, due to many external factors interfering,
the programmed cell death doesn't get activated
and the bad cells will propagate indefinitely and become a tumour.

If we allow our body to deteriorate,
hoping that good cells will divide and replace the bad cells,
we are first pushing ourselves towards pre-matured senescence,
unnecessarily,
and kick off an endless viscous cycle:
bad cell --> push good cells beyond Hayflick Limit -->
more bad cells --> push more good cells beyond Hayflick Limit -->...

When one gets into pre-matured senescence
(i.e. too many cells approaching or going beyond Hayflick Limit)
the chance of haywired genetic event swell up exponentially.
Cancer occurence hence increases drastically.

And what's worse is that,
because the cancer is caused by haywired genetic code,
there is no traceable link or clue to offer any specific treatment.
(Hence, again, cancer cells can not be treated by any specific target drug,
they all are genetically different.)



With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s:  Please ask questions as I guess it's not easy to understand :P :P
I know it's difficult to explain on a blog, but this basic concept is too important to skip!




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (2)

One very common misconception of the public about cancer

is that many people see it as a pathogenic disease.
In other words,
most mistaken that cancer is caused by
some a nasty infectious pathogens (bacteria/virus) in our body.

While some of the cancer cases
could be induced by virus (opportunistically),
cancer is, by large, a degenerative disease,
not pathogenic/infectious disease.
In simpler terms, the body itself has to be
seriously deteriorating first,
before cancer arises.
Viral induction of cancer can only be successful
when the body system is haywired.

With this concept clarified,
one may begin to realise that
there is no such things as
a cancer vaccine and a cancer target drug,
--fundamentally.

The above statement may be contradictive to
what one may have learnt from the media or some authorities.
It simply shows that public with misperception of cancer
are making futile effort to chase for something doesn't exist,
while opportunitic commercial companies are happily
"tailoring" these bogus remedies to please the public.

This is why,
before even we start thinking of how to heal cancer,
we need to recognise and understand the 1st hallmark of cancer:
Cancer is a systemic error (overall deteriorating body condition)
not a topical error (virus invading a particular tissue/organ).

Otherwise, we can be easily carried away by 
a lot of fancy but unrealistic 'remedies'
(which target cancer by topical approach)


With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Stories Untold Behind Cancer (1)

Some friends may be aware that
my dad was afflicted with colon cancer
some 8 years go.

When my dad was first diagnosed with cancer,
I was startled, angry and constantly in denial.
I couldn't understand why
my dad should be the unlucky one
and why
a loving and charitable daddy like mine
had to go through such suffering...

When dad finally passed away after 1.5 yrs of battling,
I decided to face it with courage and wisdom,
despite the pain of losing my very loved one.

-- I vowed to find out the truth about cancer.
I decided to understand the in and out of
the monsterous disease,
find a way to eliminate it
so that it will never torture or take away any more life.

Then, I started to dive deep into
the world of cancer;
attempting to learn about the disease in all perspectives:
from the cause, to the cure, to the technologies,
to the preventive measures, to the philisophies...

The process of understanding cancer
wasn't a straight line.
However,
being a graduant from a Biotech Degree
and a Research Assistant in an academic research lab at
the National Cancer Centre of Singapore back then;
I did have some advantage in the speed of learning.

It didn't take too long (tho' still 2 solid years)  for me
to realise two Essential Hallmarks of cancer:

(I) Cancer is a systemic disease (cf topical)
 ie. it's a disease that arises from
a wholesale error of the entire bodily system,
rather than solely from a individual error of an organ/tissue.

(II) Cancer is fast-forwarded manifestation of aging
ie. it's actually a natural deterioration of the body,
except that it's happening in a relatively fast pace.
In other words, premature aging.

Bearing these two hallmarks in mind,
as anchor points,
understanding cancer is much simpler and
a lot of confusions surrounding the issues of
the causes and the cures could be easily harmonised.

More on the 2 fundamental hallmarks to come...


With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: this series of blog on cancer is dedicated to my beloved daddy, my family and all friends who are afflicted by cancer in one way or another.


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Awareness on the Rice (3)

Altho' Brown Rice is the foundation of

a healthy diet (I couldn't emphasize more),
there are several pitfalls that one needs to look out for:

Pitfall 1:
Not soaking brown rice before cooking:
-- it's not a fatal mistake, but without soaking,
brown rice may be difficult to digest for those
with weak stomach.
-- This is because, brown rice, like any seed on Earth
contains enzyme inhibitor (mild toxin born with all seeds
to protect themselves from being eaten up, and also to preserve
the nutrients in the endosperm for as long as 500 years!)
-- soaking will help release "locked up" nutrients in the seeds
(in scientific term, increase bioavailabiity of the nutrients),
hence soaked brown rice can be 2-3x more nutritious than non-soaked ones.


Pitfall 2:
Not chewing thoroughly.
-- brown rice is generally more complex in structure than white rice,
hence thorough chewing thoroughly will ensure maximal digestion,
and nutrients intake.
-- If one is too busy to chew, try brown rice porridge,
brown rice powder as breakfast cereal or even delicious brown rice milk.
(learn how to make tasty brown rice milk at Kampung Senang Eco-Kitchen)


Pitfall 3:
Not taking Organic brown rice:
-- Very few people realise, rice is one of the most toxic crops on Earth..
-- Because rice is the main staple for bulk of the population on Earth,
people can/will do anything desperately to preserve and  protect the yield of rice.
This means that fungicides and pesticides etc are heavily used.
-- Organic rice may be a bit more expensive,
but it is much healthier and is worth the investment.

Hope the info on brown rice so far,
will bring good health to more people :)

Well regards,
Kee Yew

Awareness-on-the-Rice
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Awareness on the Rice (2)

While many people understand

the healthfulness of brown rice,
and would like to adopt brown rice in their routine diet;
some may be troubled/confused with technical issues
such as the accessibility of brown rice, the method of cooking,
and the type of brown rice to consume.

Here are some FAQs that I come across very often in
my vegetarian classes:

I) I don't see brown rice around my work place, what should I do?
3 suggestions:
a. Buy brown rice powder from supermarket and
stir into plant milk as breakfast cereal/afternoon tea.
b. Cook brown rice porridge the night before using thermal cooker
and bring to work.
c. Take whole wheat noodle or wholemeal bread for lunch
as replacement.

II) My family members complain about the taste/texture of brown rice, what can I do?
3 suggestions:
a. Learn to cook brown rice the proper manner.
Use 1.5~2 cups of water for every 1 cup of brown rice.
b. Try Golden Brown Rice Recipe in "Simple Vegetarian" cookbook :P
c. Cook brown rice as porridge, it is usually more acceptable for newbies.

III) Which type of brown rice is better? Long grain, short grain, red, black or brown?
Different types of brown rice have different nutritional profiles.
Do not be selective/discriminative about the shape and colour they come in;
as we need all the nutrients from all types of rice.
So, rotate among different types from time to time :)

IV) Brown rice is 'heaty' to me, what do I do?
3 suggestions:
1. get into habit of drinking 12 cups of water daily
2. drink 2 cups of fresh juice daily
3. do more exercise to circulate the 'chi' in our body evenly

V) Do I throw away the water after soaking my brown rice?
YES, after soaking brown rice for 4~8hours,
the soaking water now contains metabolic waste
released from the awakened brown rice.
The water is acidic, hence it should be thrown away
or used for watering plants ;)


With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Awareness-on-the-Rice{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Awareness on the Rice (1)

It's has been very encouraging to see

that brown rice is getting more and more common at vegetarain outlets
and more people are switching from white rice to brown rice.

I was teaching a cooking class
at Buddhist Life Mission Assoc a few days ago.
A quick survey among the ~40 students,
revealed that brown rice was acceptable in 90% of the crowd.

It's not significant statistics with such a small pool size of 40 people,
but it's definitely a good indicator.
Multiple years back, when I talked about brown rice,
many of my students outright complained about
its taste, difficulty to cook, the price, accessibility etc..

Consistently in the past 7 years,
I make effort to emphasize the importance of
brown rice in our diet;
raising the awareness
that brown rice is a critical switch into a healthy diet.

Often, I tell people that
brown rice is the solid foundation of
a nutritionally balanced vegetarian diet,
because:

i) brown rice is 10x more nutritious than
polished white rice
(potentially 20-30x more nutritious
if soaked before cooking)

ii) on top of complex carbohydrates, essential fats,
phytonutrients, vitamins etc,
brown rice also contains a lot of minerals
which supply us with vital life force

iii) brown rice provides stable energy
in a sustainable manner over longer period of time
(due to low GI)

iv) brown rice is high in fibre which cleanses
our gastro-intestinal tract

v) brown rice is rich in VitB which
helps in making blood and
maintaining a good nervous system

vi) brown rice balances the Yin elements from
some veggies and fruits.

vii) brown rice is loaded with IP6, a kind of
plant-specific nutrients that is highly potent in
battling cancer and mitigating diabetic condition.

...

There are a lot more reasons to go brown rice,
but talking alone does not change our lives,
so, start taking brown rice today! =)



With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

Awareness-on-the-Rice


aotr.
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Financial Freedom A Deception?

A while ago,
a friend forwarded me a blog on
how one may perceive
the idea of financial freedom as a kind of
deception.

I agree to how the author pitched in his article
that the phrase "Finanicial Freedom" is overly abused,
and how many industries exploit this term to lure in a lot of funds,
sometimes unethically.

But this is again a same old debate of whether
money is the root of evil.

While money has always remains as tool,
it's human's greed and ignorance that bring about the adverse effects.

In the article, it was questioned whether
financial freedom is at all achievable for most of the people.

The answer should be a yes,
depending on how Financial Freedom is defined.

According to Harv Eker in The Secrets of Millionaire Mind,
Financial Freedom is achieved when
one's monthly passive/investment income exceeds
one's monthly expense.

The tricks in achieving financial freedom is
1. to gain financial IQ (ie humble and continuous learning)
2. to put in effort to set up platforms/systems for passive/investment income
3. to simplify lifestyle (ie reduce monthly expense in sensible manner)

A lot of people go thru' a lot of futile effort in wealth management
because at least one of the 3 above is missing,
and when one fails,
one decides to call oneself a victim and
conveniently denies the whole idea of financial freedom
(or even the necessity of money)

Watch what Robert Kiyosaki says
in this preview clip to his latest documentary on wealth:




In other words, as Kiyosaki puts it,
it's financial education and personal quality
that matters in financial success.

It's never been a money issue.


With gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

 {Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Fats of Life (4)

So, is there any way out?

We are not supposed to take animal oil;
and now, we can't even use plant oil for cooking!?

The core of the whole story lies in
the proper methods of consumption,
not exactly
the types of oil to avoid,
as mentioned in The Fats of Life (1)

Some tips on healthier ways of fat intake:

1. Consume fats naturally from
raw nuts/seeds/fruits
(e.g. soaked raw almond, raw sunflower seeds,
fresh coconut milk, avocado spread etc..
-- also check out this good fat/hi protein recipe )
or
raw cold pressed oils
(e.g. olive oil+herbs for breadspread, flaxseed oil for salad)

2. When cooking at home, use only plant-based cooking oil which
has the highest [saturated fats: unsaturated fats] ratio
(e.g. certain brands of naturally processed coconut oil).
-- BUT only for quick and low heat cooking
(never deep fry)
-- AND, buy cooking oil from health food shops, not from supermarket
(as the conventional brands are usually chemically processed)

3. When eating out, avoid or minimise on just any type of cooking oil
-- because there is a high chance that the oils used are cheap and bad oil...
(i.e. eat out less or order food with no/little oil)
Try go for dishes
like fresh salad, sushi, steamed dim sum, noodle soup, porridge etc
that lend little chance to the abuse of cooking oils.

It sounds like a great misery
that we have to exert on ourselves such restrictions.

But the good news is our taste buds
can adapt very quickly (in just 2weeks!).

Once we switch into the habit of
having less oily content in our hot meals,
our body will like it and carry on the habit
naturally and effortlessly ;)

Now, we are given 3 choices:
Kicking the bad habit of taking bad cooking oil for only 2 weeks
and enjoy a revitalised life happily ever after
or
Suffer for 5.5yrs of detox after taking bad fat
or
Suffer entire life (if one don't even bother to detox!)
having leaky and malfunctioning fats in our every single cells

We know what we should do obviously =)

Happy life-transforming,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: in my students' project report on healthy oils , there are indications on how to choose a safer cooking oil :)

The-Fats-of-Life
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Fats of Life (3)

It may be difficult to believe that

the plant based cooking oil is intoxicating us day by day.

We were educated since day one that
plant oils containing unsaturated fatty acids
(c.f. artery-clogging saturated fats from animals)
are good for health,
and now,
it's the otherwise!
So is there something wrong with the science?
-- or the scientists?

The fact is,
if it's true science, it will never fail.

The contradictive remarks could be attributed to
dishonest and biased presentation of scientific facts
(by certain organisations, due to vested interests)
and food politics
(that purposely twist the interpretation of scientific facts).

The unsaturated fatty acids (comprising of Omega-3,6,9)
in plant oils are indeed great stuff!
They are raw ingredients for cell membrane, nervous system,
certain hormones and cellular receptors
which are all vital for basic physiological functions and daily metabolism.

However, unsaturated fats are also very unstable and
easily damaged by heat/light/oxygen/humidity.

If these unstaurated fats are used inappropriately
(ie subject to high heat treatment e.g. grilling/baking/stir fry/deep fry),
the structure/conformation of the unsaturated fats molecules will alter.

These altered/deformed unsaturated fats molecules
when assimilated into our body
to become part of the cell membrane, nervous system, hormonal system etc,
these systems will become leaky/malfunctioned.
(simply, when the basic units are 'looking funny',
the bigger system is not going to work properly too!)

What's worse is that
any fat molecule once assimilated into our bodily system,
is not going to be expelled from the body easily.

The average half life of a fat molecule is 500 days.
In other words, if one were to have assimilated 100g of bad fat today,
no matter what, one will still retain 50g of bad fat ~1.5yrs later.
To get rid of 93.75% of bad fat,
one needs to wait for 2000 days (~5.5yrs).

This is where the concept of responsible eating comes in
and why detox is not an overnight or even over-the-year affair!

Actually, the science of fats is quite established nowadays.
It's more like an issue of lacking good will or hidden conscience,
rather than a matter of bad science..

Hence, ultimately, it's good will that heals..



With loving kindness,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

The-Fats-of-Life

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Fats of Life (2)

Along the years of learning about fats,
it's not difficult to see
some widespread misconceptions about fats:

Misconception 1:
Fatty food is bad for health
>While this statement holds true for most of the time,
knowing the average person's intake of fats nowadays
easily exceeds 20% (recommended) of our diet,
fat is actually important for health.
Fat, in physiological perspective, is vital for:
- cell membrane building (ie cellular division)
- brain cells development
- making of hormones
Fatty food (e.g. avocado & coconut) is not necessarily bad,
provided that:
~the total percentage fat intake is controlled at 20%
and
~the fats are from whole plant food and undamaged
(ie no artificial refinement and no heat treatment).


Misconception 2:
All plant oils are healthy
>Depending on the method of consumption,
plant oil can be very bad,
when it is subject to
chemical processing
(e.g. hydrogenation to generate trans-fats)
or
high temperature treatment
(e.g. for preservation of oil during manufacturing
and deep frying)



Misconception 3:
Saturated fats are bad for cardiovascular health
> This is also an over-generalised statement.
Long chain saturated fats
which are relatively prominent in animal fats
are bad indeed,
as it's less easily combusted and our body prefer to store it.
Medium chain and short chain saturated fats
which are easily found in some plants
(e.g. coconut milk)
are good for our health,
as they are easily combusted or assimilated
(hence no clogging problem).
These plant-based saturated fats, when taken raw,
also confer medicinal benefits
(if administered appropriately).

Fat, just like cholesterol, comes in both bad and good forms.
So, the solution to fat-related health conditions nowadays
doesn't lie in avoiding fats blindly;
but relies on our ability to differentiate the good and bad oils.

Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: I have finished reviewing my students' project report on Fats.. looking forward sharing their great work online =)

The-Fats-of-Life


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Fats of Life (1)

I was reading a book about fats, written by a cardio surgeon
sometimes ago.

In this book, the cardio surgeon repeatedly stressed that,
by his years of observation,
many modern degenerative diseases
from cardio vascular to diabetes, to cancer,
are highly related to the increasing incidence of
damaged oil consumption.

The book reinforced my understanding about oil and fats,
amidst the confusing information out there.

Combining the doctor's latest finding on edible oil,
with that taught by my other teachers,
I finally got one step further in clarifying the sticky oil issues.

From what I gather along my continuous learning path:

(I) The most ideal way of consuming oil is
via raw consumption of whole plant food
e.g. raw/sprouted seeds/nuts, raw coconut and raw avocado etc
~ By this way, the body gets all types
of undamaged fatty acids (SFA, PUFA, MUFA etc)
in the most balanced and controlled manner.

(II) The suboptimal way of consuming oil is
via raw consumption of cold pressed oils
e.g. extra virgin olive oil, cold pressed flaxseed oil etc
~ Cold pressed oils maintained most of
the benefits and nutrients oil, undamaged,
but it's easily oxidised if kept too long or in improper manners.
~ The ratio of different types of fatty acids within
is also slightly skewed (ie not optimally balanced).

(III) The most unpreferred way of consuming oil is
via conventional cooking cooking oils (even tho' it's plant oil)
e..g. any oil that allows high heat treatment
~ This type of oil confers almost no nutritional values (besides calories and taste).
~ The ratio of different types of fatty acids is totally out of balanced.
~ For safety, this type of oil should contain the least amount of
Poly-Unsaturated and Mono-Unsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFA, MUFA).
~ Once PUFA, MUFA are heated,
they will be transformed into health damaging elements.
-- While PUFA and MUFA are meant to be healthy,
once damaged, they become one of the big culprits in modern health diseases.
~ It's very difficult to get safe cooking oil (with little MUFA and PUFA),
so, minimise or avoid this type of oil.

(IV) The not-so-wise-way is via
animal fats
~ animal fats contains high percentage of saturated fats that
lead to many cardiovascular conditions
~ the ratios of different type of fatty acids are also not balanced
~ animals fats carry over
residual antibiotics, compounded pesticides, artificial hormones and stress hormones
which will bring about detrimental effects to health in long term
-- this is another big culprit of modern health problems

(V) The fat to be avoided at all cost is
transfats i.e. chemically transformed fats (even tho' it's from plant)
e.g. margarine
~ transfats has totally no value and it's absolutely health damaging,
because the body does not recognise transfats
which is a kind of chemical that looks like fat.
~ our body, when can't get rid of transfats,
will prefer to store it away and this later lead to
clogging of our cardiovascular systems and other health conditions.

Hope the sharing will help raise awareness of good oil and bad oil :)


Well wishes,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: my students at Vegetarian Wellness Course also did a comprehensive report on healthy oils (which benefited me a lot too!). Once, I have finished reviewing, it will be released for free public access online :)

The-Fats-of-Life

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Vital Organic Support

Along the years, during the course of promoting
vegetarianism and organic lifestyle,
there is one thing I am often concerned of.

That is the sustainability of
vegetarian and organic outlets in Singapore.

While some may have the impression that
vegetarian and organic health outlets are blooming in recent years;
for people who have their fingers on the pulse
of organic+vegetarian culture in Singapore,
we know that this industry is very volatile and fragile.

It's mainly because of
the price
which is less competitive to 'highly subsidised' conventional food and
the lack of awareness
about the positive environmental impact of organic agriculture.

One of the reasons, my friends and I set up Cielo Sereno
is in line of improving the situation.

Recently, I have just been informed that
again, another organic outlet is closing down.

It's a saddening,
but if we could give them our last well wishes,
by supporting them at their closing down sales (till 28 Nov),
I guess, it will be heart-warming to them :)

The address is:
Organic Living Hub
Blk 78, #01-17,
Redhill Lane;
(look for the old HDB block along the main road,
opposite Redhill MRT station)



With gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (Extra)

MMI '09 was an impressive experience for me,

altho' I attended the same workshop last year.

I didn't expect the effect of recoursing could be so profound.
-- It may be a result compounded by
my past year of intensive learning in financial wellness;
but certainly, I wouldn't have been 'enlightened' without
the constant bombardment of those words of wisdom
throughout the 3 days!

Two important teachings that struck me
during the workshop:

(1) To honour money and to be responsible for it

~ I didn't get it last year, but it just makes a whole lot of sense this year.

Like many people, I was continuously searching
for the secret formula to manage money and generate good income;
but to no avail.

When I was put through the "money burning" exercise at the workshop,
I suddenly realised my biggest fault in financial management all these years
was that I pay little respect to money and
am reluctant to take responsibilities for money!

Simply, without mutual honouring and care, nothing will work out;
just like that in any relationship, be it couple, family, friends or sport team.

I've probably known this teaching since long ago,
but I've never thought that the same would apply
for the relationship between money and me!


(2) "Do whatever that
makes you feel good when you wake up the next morning"

There was a special reception for those who signed up for "Quantum Leap"
bundled courses after MMI concluded and I was lucky to be there.

Harv spent some extra time with the "Quantum Leap" students,
delivering inspiring/encouraging words,
by sharing his own personal experience.

He emphasized that in order to lead a happy life,
the biggest secret of all is
to do only things that make ourselves feel good,
--things that make us truly feel good when we wake up the next morning.

It sounds like a kindy phrase.
But I was deeply impacted by the simple saying!

Let's reflect:
How miserable a life can be,
if we honestly do things by following
our heart aka our conscience aka our naive instinct?

I totally buy into this, as it's taught in buddhism that
one should follow the flow of nature in order to live in true bliss.
And that very nature we need to follow is our conscience.

Harv's advice wasn't superficial at all,
he in fact skilfully pointed out how people nowadays,
including myself,
do not fully follow their hearts.

Happiness is just a heart beat away
if only we are honest to ourselves...



I am grateful that I went for the recoursing.
And I think, the 4000 audiences in Expo and I
were very lucky to able to learn from
a Boddhisatva who teaches true Dharma
in such a lay context, benefiting the broad public.



With metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (3)

The 3rd and last day of MMI drilled deep into

the emotional relationship with money.

If one's relationship with money is full of
anger, fear, guilt, shame or sadness,
there is bound to be negative effect on wealth accumulation
(and all other aspects of life) .

Harv explained that
negative emotions are stuck energy;
they are primarily incomplete communications.

Hence, participants were guided thru' another self-awareness exercise
to dig out the anger, sadness, fear, shame, guilt and regrets
that we have been imposing on money;
and then let go of the negative emotions (especially anger).

Harv mentioned, if one is to keep those negative emotions,
it will sabotage one's financial path.
Harv himself ruined his own financial life in his early years,
because he had unpleasant experience with his father
over money issue, during his childhood.
That unpleasant experience turned out to be a misunderstanding
that intoxicated his financial health for decades.
(the incidence happened when he was 9 yo,
and he only got it clarified with his day at his age of 40!)
His early life was messed up just because he didn't learn to let go of his
negative emotion.

The workshop climaxed when participants were
asked to break arrows with their throats.
This exercise was to deal with another big negative emotion -- fear
which has been pulling us back from any endeavour towards success.

Breaking an arrow (real one!) sounded scary in the beginning,
but when we see people doing it and we ourselves actually doing it,
it wasn't as scary or as difficult at all.
-- the arrow broke within just a couple seconds,
and there was no injury on the throat at all (amazing!!)

Towards the end of the day, Harv taught us the last secret
to financial freedom.
He wanted us to always bear this in mind:
"Success breeds Success"

In order to be successful in life,
we ourselves need to be a success first, by:
-- Recognising and acknowledging
every improvement, big or small,
we achieve every day.
-- Celebrating successes once every month,
to keep the momentum of success, constantly up.

Harv claimed that this is very effective and
there many proven records using this methodology!

The MMI workshop ended early evening on 16 Nov 2009,
and from the standing ovation at event conclusion in Expo Hall2,
I see that many were grateful to be at
the enriching and eye-opener workshop.

I attended this workshop for the 2nd time,
I still found it equally invigorating and enlightening.
So as Heng, Wenlong, Gary and Susan who came along.


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: The teachings at MMI are simply too much to be covered on the blogs. If anyone is interested to attend the next MMI (19-21 Nov 10) to experience for him/herself, please let me know; as I have discounted tickets (limited) to the workshop next year :)

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (2)

At the 2nd day of MMI,
more interesting teachings continued to unveil.

So far, Harv had been illustrating,
from multiple perspectives,
on how actually our lives (esp finanicial fate) are determined by
stories we made up in our lives -- beliefs.

According to Harv, Beliefs
are just thoughts we personally hold to be true;
are not true or false, right or wrong,;
are only strong opinions in the colour of the beholder's spectacles.

As we understand that:
"we don't see the world as it is,
we see the world as we are",
the 3rd step to change our belief structure
is simply to dissociate from disempowering thoughts
and infuse empowering thoughts (reconditioning).

As Harv put it, whatever we say or think,
we will live our self-fulfilling prophecy,
because brain's favourite passtime is to make sure it is right!
So, why not infuse rich people's thinkings/beliefs?

To ensure that we create new empowering thoughts
to replace those old disempowering ones,
we were then led thru' a series of
fun and interesting psychological exercises,
e.g. 'rubber band snapping' game, VAKS,
"worthiness-ordainment", composing our own success songs etc.. kekek..

Harv, along the way, also added that
many people couldn't get rich because:
1. they didn't know why they want to be rich or their whys are too small
-- without the why there will never be the how
and with bigger the why, the easier the how;
-- bigger why means adding big values to people's lives.

2. they are simply poor receivers
-- we have been biasedly conditioned that Giving is better than Receiving,
due to mis-interpretation of an ancient Greek wise-saying, which was supposed to be:
"it's better to be at the position to give, than to be at the position to receive"
-- without the receiving, the giving is simply not valid;
-- a lot of people are constantly conditioned to give, and feel ashame to receive,
hence there will never be wealth accumulated..

At the end of the 2nd day,
participants were demonstrated via an interactive session,
to help us realise our own money personalities, whether
we are savers, spenders, money avoider or money-monk;
and the relavant strength and weakness of each personality.

There is no favourable money personality and
in view that each personality has got its own plus and negative points,
the key to success in money management is
- to make sure we lead a balance life in all perspectives and
- to adopt a preset structure of money management (the Jar System)

More exciting stuff to expect on Day 3 of MMI!
Keep tuning in :D

Nice weekend,
Kee Yew






















{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Millionaire Mind Intensive Singapore (1)

Yesterday, was the 2nd time I attended T. Harv Eker's
Millionaire's Mind Intensive (MMI) workshop @ Expo Singapore.
The 1st time was extactly one year ago.

MMI workshop literally transformed my life,
since November 2008,
when I decided to heed Eker's advice
to change my financial blueprint.
I am grateful so much he has changed my life;
and in order to ensure I truly harness all that he taught,
that I decided to re-course at MMI November this year!

Here, I would like to provide a daily update on
some of the highlights at the 3-day workshop.

One thing that struck me at the first day of MMI
was a simple yet profound reminder that
our Income Potential is directly proportional to
our Comfort Zone.
In other words, how much we could stretch ourselves
actually fundamentally determine our capability to generate wealth.
Throughout the past 12 months,
I did feel quite a bit of strain when re-wiring and picking up new skills
towards financial freedom,
and I inevitably complain about it occassionally.
With the reminder above, I guess I need to be more
faithful with the new financial path I am on,
and probably should be happy that I am expanding myself
in personal growth and income potential
when I go thru' the stretching! =)

There were so much that was taught the first 14 hours
at Expo, yesterday.

Notably:
We were guided through some psychological exercise
to realise our own financial beliefs.
As Harv mentioned, the first step to change is Awareness

Harv emphasized that the inner invisible realms of
Mentality, Emotion and Spirituality dictate the
outer visible realm of Physique.

Our current financial status today is merely
a printout (visible fruit) of
our own financial believes (invisible root).

The financial belief is deemed as the blueprint of our
financial outcome because it works like a thermostat,
constantly adjusting the level of wealth to a pre-set level we deem appropriate.
Harv stressed that it's not so much knowing how to generate wealth,
 it's actually more of an issue how our subconscious brain
determines the amount of wealth we are willing to attain/retain.

The second step to change our financial destiny is
Understanding
-- understanding our root motivation to generate wealth.

We were guided through another psychological exercise
to dig out how our financial blueprints
were subcounsciously constructed since childhood
via
Verbal Programming (by our family and friends)
Modeling (of our Parents' financial behaviour) and
Specific incidence (that imprinted a prejudice in our financial perspectives )

Many people accumulated a lot of wealth, but
eventually, they just have to lose them, because
their motivation for money (roots) were based on
Anger, Fear and Proving themselves.

After understanding where our roots lie,
we need to debunk those disempowering believes

and base our motivation for money on

Purpose and Joy.

More to come on the 2nd day of MMI.

Please tune in again tomorrow :)

With metta,

Kee Yew

pureland2012-at-gmail.com

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Simple Health Survey

Recently I came across this SurveyMonkey.com

that help people to design surveys.

Hence I curiously try it out on
a health survey that I have always had in mind :P

We probably could gadge the standard of healthfulness in this region,
by looking at the food sold at supermarket, eateries, advertisement and
some statistics from health authorities.
But I thought a systematic survey may verify those prejudices
and perhaps could also offer some interesting insight.

This is also a good chance for me
to apply in "real-life"
the data-analysis skill I learn at my academic work,
and hopefully
to convert the data into something useful
in line of public health education :)

Here is the Simple Health Survey !
- 10 Questions, will only take <5min  =)


Nice day,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

p/s: this is my first time designing a health survey and I guess it is probably not very comprehensive,
so if you have any input to improve it, please do let me know =)
-- oh yar.. since I need at least 100pax to make the analysis statistical significant, kindly help spread the word!!

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Won't you chicken out?

A few days ago,
I was reading the quarterly magazine "Good Medicine" by

Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM),
and was shocked by the stats on chicken consumption in the USA
reported in the magazine.

While most people claim to know that we are eating too many chickens,
many still do not have a clue, how many is many.. .

Stated in the magazine:
~ Broiler chickens were salughtered after merely 6 weeks after birth
~ Chickens were made to grow faster by mocking 23hours day light every day
~ A chicken factory farm can pack 20,000 chickens in one premise
~ Americans eat 1,029,613 chickens every hour
~ 9,019,414,000 chickens were slaughtered for consumption every year in the USA.

PCRM derived these stats from
the official website of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN

You can use the search engine in the website to check out the
figures in Malaysia and Singapore too..

Seriously, it's time to sit back to reflect
why should people eat these poor souls like crazy...


Amituofo,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Klang Valley Goes Organic!

I have been longing to compile a list of organic outlets in Kuala Lumpur,
like that compiled by Lapis Lazuli Light in Singapore.

I suppose this will help the health conscious ones/organic lovers
find their food more easily and
also facilitate the booming of organic industry in the region.

When I did a few searches online, a few days ago,
I was surprised to see so many organic outlets now
in Kuala Lumpur and Klang Valley.

That was very invigourating.
Very.

Here is the listing of organic/health food outlets
in Kuala Lumpur and its vicinity (Klang Valley).
It may not be a comprehensive one,
but I believe the 101 entries will occupy you for a while? ;)

Enjoy the organic therapy!

Metta,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com





{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Walking The Path of Wind

A few weeks ago, I was at Dharma Drum Singapore,
watching this classic Japanese cartoon "Totoro" (made in 1988).

The animation movie delivered very strong sense of
the purity of children.
It moved me, who has always been a kid
in his heart.

By an oversimplified description, 
the story depicted a mysterious and magical cat-like creature (Totoro)
which existed to fulfill the innocent dreams of 2 kids.
That reminded me not to give up hopes,
like how we all upheld our pure faiths
when we were kids;
-- because kids believe miracles do happen.

During the 1.5hrs I sunk into this elegantly presented
Japanese fairy tale,
my heart was cleansed and purified.
Hopes were revived and
good faith were re-energised.

Noteably, I was also touched by
a beautiful piece of music
played in the mid of the movie.



This piece of music by Joe Hisaishi
is called "The Path of Wind".
The name was particular sentimental to me
as I recalled a poem
I first learnt, 3 years ago, from a Chinese friend,
on how to lead a liberated way of life.
-- That is to live by the way the wind lives.

I hence annotated the poem in the music video clip,
to enhance the soul of the music :)
The poem goes like this:

"When the wind passes a bamboo forest,
the bamboo doesn't trap the chime, as it doesn't trap the wind;

When seasonal birds travel across the winter-chilled lake,
their shadows never stay on the lake, as the birds, too, never will;

Hence, an elightened one will react to an occassion, only when the occasion arises,
and also he will leave it behind when the occassion is over."

Hope you enjoy the simple music clip :)

With love,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Animal friendly products

One of the animal welfare organisations that I have been supporting,
The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES),
has recently published a Cruelty-Free Pocket Shopping Guide.

Enlisted in the guide are
a range of toiletries, cosmetics and household product brands
that are guaranteed to have not been tested on animals.

The list is not a long one, but it's definitely a good start!

Now, given the choice,
we should support products which come by an ethical path,
being a responsible Earthling :)



With Metta,
Kee Yew

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Vegetarian Wellness Classes 2009-2010

Some of my friends/students have been asking for
my vegetarian classes teaching schedule earlier,
but I often had to let them down,
as most of my classes were requested in an ad hoc manner
by different organisations.

However, recently, thanks to Ci Xin from Awareness Place
for providing a very nice class room @ Bras Basah Complex
and her terrific organised skills,
I finally could put together a timetable for 2010!

At this moment, although most of the classes will be taught at Awareness Place,
I foresee more classes will be added on at some other places too,
e.g. Buddhist Life Mission has also been requesting for more cooking classes
(details are still being discussed).

So, tune in from time to time for updated timetable :)

Happy Learning!
Kee Yew

p/s: what is also noteworthy is that I have added on a Personal Vegetarian Coaching Service for the new year to come. This new service is designed to help self-motivated people to kick start a new healthy life with more confidence, greater certainty and higher success rate (cf. relatively slow self-learning process).


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Zen Cooking

Last Sunday, Mark, Susan and I attended a special vegetarian cooking class.

The cuisines we learnt was Shojin Ryori (精进料理)

-- yes, Japanese cuisines with a touch of Zen!

According the cooking teacher,
Danny, also the co-founder of Enso Kitchen,
Shojin means the devotion of energy (in term of Zen/Buddhism practice).
So, Shojin cuisine naturally upholds Zen-mindfulness as the intrinsic core
of the food preparation and dining.

The dishes taught were actually very simple,
but, tasty and beautiful (in presentation).
--I particularly like the blanched vegetables with walnut-mirin sauce;
simple but tasty tasty tasty!..

Danny put a lot of emphases, during his class,
on the Zen principles.
He educated us that, in Shojin Ryori, there should be:
1. minimal wastage during food preparation
2. use of seasonal ingredients (live according to 4 seasons)
3. not too much seasoning in each dishes, so as to keep the taste naturally pure/tasty
4. food prepared/dishes presented in the perspective of diner
(e.g. how to appeal the apetite of diner, how to make the dishes convenient for diner to eat etc)
5. focus and totally immerse during food preparation

At the end of the cooking class, when we were trying out the dishes,
I noticed, on the wrapper of the chopsticks, these teachings were printed:

"Contemplate on the 5 Reflections of Shojin Ryori before eating
(a custom commonly practised in Zen temples):
-Reflect on the effort that brings us this food
-Reflect on our imperfections as we receive the meal
-Reflect on mindfulness to be free from anger, attachment and ignorance
-Reflect on taking this food as medicine to sustain good health
-Reflect on the fulfillment of our practice as we accept offerings"


It was indeed an enriching cooking class,
in both culinary and spiritual manner =)


With gratitude,
Kee Yew


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Beyond Genes

I was attending in Biopolis,

a few years back, a scientific conference

on Stem Cells, Cancers and Aging.

It was a prestigious International Conference and
the speakers were of great quality.

Among the many good seminars,
there was this speaker that impressed me with his topic on
Epigenetics of cancer cell development.

The lecture basically reinforced the idea of
the need to balance between Nature and Nurture --

Many people, including life scientists,
put a lot of emphasis/blames on genes,
when searching for the causes of diseases like cancer.
In such a process, they overlook the basics they learnt in school,
that it's always 50% genetic predisposition
and 50% environmental influence.

Life scientists nowadays work around the clock,
trying to screen out the very gene that causes
degenerative diseases, like pursuing for the Holy Grail.
But this speaker at the conference, pointed out that
his studies showed that genes do not sit
on the top of the hierachy of           
nor
in the centre of disease pathology.

While genes are generally recognised the blueprints that control
the physiology of human body,
the speaker demonstrated that there are some other forms of
switches that control genes
(ie decides when, where and what genes should be turned on off).
These substances that maneuver life beyond genes
are termed epigenetic markers
(physically they are molecular modification of chromatin).

And when the speaker was asked:
If epigentic markers control genes,
then what control epigentic markers?
He answered in a reflex manner:
Environment and Diet.

His epigenetic study does not contradict
what scientists already known that genes
harbour the mysterious code of life;
but emphasizes the universal law of multiple dependency.

Like what I heard from the education officer
of Vegetarian Society, Mr Yeow,
"Gene is like the bullet loaded in a pistol,
and diet/lifestyle is the trigger we pull to fire the shot"


With metta,
Kee Yew



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}