Learning about the hidden truth of the current economy



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GoldSilver Knowledge Centre

In May 2009,
I attended the 4 day workshop by
Robert Kiyosaki and his Rich Dad team
on how manage our own financial health
without the intervention by agents and brokers.

That was my very first time,
I got to know Mike Maloney,
one of Kiyosaki's associates,
who gave a very in depth analysis on
the current economy and
how physical gold and silver have become
the essential financial equipment
to cushion the already deteriorating economy.

I bought my first batch of silver coin
on the 3rd day of the workshop,
and subsequently another batch order of silver coins
from Perth Mint (after some discussion with a few financially well-informed friends)
and also my first piece of gold coin in Malaysia
when I thawed my other investment
around the same time.

Ever since I kicked started my golden and silver path,
I have been continuously following
Mike Maloney's educational videos and reports
as well as other articles to reassure my "new venture" into gold and silver.
and to reinforce my learning about the hidden truth of the current economy.

In contrast to most people think,
gold and silver are not truly an investment,
as it doesn't really give dividents or cashflow.
It's merely a "parking lot" to park our wealth during this financial crisis
which is stepping up day by day.

While I am still at my infancy stage in learning financial wellness,
after two years of multi-session and intensive practice of
financial knowledge that I have learnt from Kiyosaki, Maloney, Harris Dent, T. Harv Eker etc,
I am beginning to have a clearer picture the rough mechanism
how we the middle class or the grass roots
are being enslaved/illusified/deceived/intimidated
by financers, financial institutions and even governements.

This 90min video, below, by Mike Maloney is one of the most
comprehensive recapitulation of many things that he taught
in his past workshops, books, reports, newsletters and interviews.
-- especially helpful for those who are bound by hectic life and
don't have time to read Maloney's book.

Mike Maloney is a sincere financial educator,
even my old classmate who hold a high position in a bank's investment wing agrees:

.

.

Whether to invest, or not to invest; gold, silver or shares or real estate etc,
all that I wish is that at least my friends around are well informed about
the economic environment (mess) we are dwelling in.

Ultimately it's not gold or silver that cushion us from the bumpy road ahead,
it all boils down to awareness,
like how we should manage our bodily health, our fragile environment and spirituality.


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


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Holistic Wellness Events Update (1)

Dear friends,

As an improvement to help keep LHW readers informed
about educative and recreational holistic wellness events,
I will be starting, from now on,
to periodically post a listing of upcoming events including:
lectures, workshops, tours and social gatherings =)

For a start, here is the list!
-- Thank you for supporting Learning Holistic Wellness  :D

****************************************************

30th Aug 2011

o Detoxification and Health Workshop (Mandarin)
 8.30am - 5.00pm
 Awareness Place Wellbeing Centre, #03-39 Bras Basah Complex, S180231.
 Tel/Fax: 6336 5067
 Email: sem@kmspks.org
(This is the last Mandarin Detox Workshop I planned for 2011. An opportunity to learn the core principles of detoxification and understand how heal naturally, the proper way. Step-by-step guide to do DIY Detox at home provided end of the workshop.)

o Holistic Wellness Symposium (English/Mandarin)
 8.30am - 6.00pm
 SingPost Building 5th Floor Auditorium
 Tel : 6749 8509
 Email : hws@eco-harmony.net
 (This event is organised by a prominent player in holistic wellness education, Kampung Senang. They are doing this annual Holistic Wellness Symposium for the third year. This event will expose one to wider perspective of alternative natural healing and I benefited from Kampung Senang's events a lot, hence the recommendation)


3rd Sep 2011

o A raw organic evening with Diana von Cranach

 6.30pm-9.00pm
 Green Room Cafe, Bishan Park II
 Details: http://www.meetup.com/Organic-Living/events/29942651/
[Please RSVP latest by 29th Aug]
(Extremely rare opportunity to learn from a raw guru from Bali. I met Diana once and tasted her Baliness style raw food many times.. absolutely amazing. Do join me for the special event that I have pushed quite hard to make it happen =P )


17th -18th Sep 2011

o Trading Mastery Intenstive
 2 full days
 Singapore Expo
 Details: http://tradingmasteryintensive.com/
 (This event is organised by a financial education academy, Royal Edlen at which I attended my some of my financial courses. A reliable and sincere education company, hence the recommendation. If interested, let me know as I can fetch the tickets @ a good discount, being an existing student there. -- I will be helping out at the event.) 


20th-25th Sep 2011

o 5-Day Meditation Retreat (Mandarin)
 6D5N  (overnight stays compulsory)
 Beeh Low See Buddhist Temple, 71B Jalan Jurong Kechil S(598588)
 Tel: 6735 5900
 Email: ddrum@singnet.com.sg
 (This event is organised by Dharma Drum Singapore, a supporting branch of the well-established Dharma Drum Monastry in Taiwan. The meditation retreat will be guided by venerables from Taiwan, who are recognised for their proper skills and understanding of meditation. I attend Dharma Drum's meditation retreat every year since 2007. I have been tremendously benefited, hence the recommendation. I will be in the retreat again this September. Hope you could join me.)



25th Sep 2011

o Organic Pot Luck Party cum Organic Documentary Session
 3.30pm-6.00pm
 GroundUpInitiative @ Sustainable Living Kampung
 Details: http://www.meetup.com/Organic-Living/events/31129782/
 (Do check out the details in the link. The documentary is inspiring and I bet the food and people at the pot luck party will be amazing too!!)


2nd October 2011

o The Basics of Healthy Diet (English)
 9.30am-5.00pm
 Central National Library (Imagination Room, L5)
 Details: http://thevegschool.net/courses-schedule
(This is the inaugral opening of my pet project, The Veg School! I promise that this veg education event is like no others before. You could only expect surprises, comprehensive and intensive veg knowledge, good food, freebies, hands-on food prep and more!! I must see you there :D )


9th October 2011

o Nutritionals For Preventive Medicine (English)
 3.30pm-4.30pm
 Central Library (Possibility Room, L5)
 Tel: 91175756
 (This is a newly created topic in my portfolio, helping lay public understand the different tiers of nutritional supplement, criteria for good supplement, the pros and cons, and how to harnest the power of nutritionals for preventive medicine.)


 26-29th October 2011

o Health Retreat in the Borneo Mountains
 4D3N
 Borneo Highlands Resort / Kuching
 Details: http://CieloSereno.net/borneo2011.htm
 (Another organic tour organised by my Non-Profit Organisation, Cielo Sereno, which aspires to improve the organic awareness in Singapore via fun educational tours. This premium tour to the Borneo may not be repeated. If you like the healing magnetic field in the mountains and the pure taste of local organic produce, please don't miss it! AirAsia is offering cheap flight now, join us before it's too late!)

****************************************************

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


p/s: should you need any extra info about any of the above events, please do not hesitate to email me @ pureland2012-at-gmail.com or call 91175756.

p/p/s: should you like future email notification of new blog posts/updates, you may want to subscribe to Learning Holistic Wellness.


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (5)

The participation of Zinc
in insulin secretion by Beta-cell
in the pancreas

At this juncture,
one may find that diabetes is actually
a little more complicated as it sounds from the surface.

Sugar/glucose metabolism in our body is
very sophisticated and tightly controlled.

Under normal circumstances,
the balance/homeostasis of glucose metabolism
isn't easily disrupted,
unless we ourselves constantly bombard our body with
excessive fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
over a prolonged period of time.

According to the Health Promotion Board a few years ago,
the average consumption level of protein in Singapore
is around 78g/day per person,
which is way excessive compared to the recommended level of
45~55g/day.

Now, it's not difficult to make sense why
the diabetic trend is constantly climbing.


Addendum 1: The magic bullets for diabetes

Diabetes can also be perceived as a disease of malnutrition
-- meaning,
we have been overfeeding on macronutrients (fats, proteins, carbo)
but
constantly have been lacking of minerals and fibre
due to the prevailing trend of meat based diet and non-organic farming nowadays.

The prolonged lacking of minerals in our diet
contributes just as much in causing diabetes,
as excess fats and proteins do.

Studies shown that diet low in minerals
e.g. magnesium, zinc, chromium, vanadium
poses higher risk of diabetes.

The reason is simple, these minerals
are the key co-factors in different stages of glucose metabolism
from insulin secretion, to insulin activity to glucose uptake and conversion.

Hence, minerals can be seen as one magic bullet
in preventing or stabilising diabetes (during milder stages).

Another magic bullet for preventing or improving diabetic health
is the very humble fibre.

Because fibre slows down the absorption
of glucose from the gut into the bloodstream,
it helps reduce the blood sugar shock and
in turn reduce the chance of obesity
and over-exhaustion of the pancreas.


Addendum 2: The (preventive) cure is in the daily diet

Summing up all of the points above
it's implied that,
in order to prevent or mitigate diabetes,
a wise person would prefer a diet:
- low in fat
- moderate in proteins
- fibre to go with carbohydrates (tehcnically known as low glycemic index food)
- high in minerals

While there many options to fulfill the above criteria,
certainly, a whole grain based vegan diet
would be one good example =)

Even better, if one can go organic,
for the higher content of minerals in organic produce.

Lastly, as a gentle reminder --
Diabetes is a disease not to be taken lightly of.

Many people has the misconception that there are
very effective drugs and recombinant insulin to help curb the condition.
However, without targeting the root of the problem
ie a balanced diet,
the medication will finally lose its efficacy
and diabetes is bound to worsen over time.

The worrying part of diabetes,
is when a diabetic comes to a stage where the kidney is impaired.
At this stage, one may perceive it as a tip-over point
beyond which the degenerative condition
will only spiral down hill (until death, sorry to be honest),
even then, a healthy diet cannot reverse the situation.

Hope this series of diabetes blog have been of some benefit to LHW readers.
To learn how to eat your way to health and balanced nutrition,
try get some scientific based veg education at The Veg School  :)


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



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (4)

Excessive amino acids triggers
high blood sugar level,
cancelling the effort of insulin.

Episode 3: Excessive proteins induces insulin resistance

Q:  Why does this happen?

A:  It's all related to the confusion of another signalling pathway.

The story goes like this...

During starvation or emergency (e.g. life threatening events)
glucose are consumed quickly and low blood sugar situation occurs.

Our body will then be signalled to increase the blood sugar level
in order to feed the relevant muscles for emergency rescue,
via the release of two hormones:
cortisol (a stress hormone) and glucagon.

And, how exactly these two hormones are triggered
is, interestingly, via an elevated level of blood amino acids (or proteins)
which originate from
injured tissues (e.g. animal attack) or
digested muscles (due to starvation).

On a normal day,
when we have our 3 proper meals at proper timing,
comfortably at our dining table,
cortisol and glucagon shouldn't exist in significant level
(as there is no starvation or emergency occuring).

However,
with the large intake of meat and dairy in a meal,
our body mistakes those increased amount of dietary proteins/amino acids
as a signal of starvation/emergency!
Consequently, when cortisol and glucagon
(which act in the exact opposite direction of insulin)
are released,
they create a condition similar to insulin resistance,
subsequently forcing the pancreas to secrete exaggerated amount of insulin
to bring back the blood sugar to normal after the meal.

In long term, same drill, the pancreas gets exhausted and
fails to keep up the insulin production with the 'false emergency alarm'
after every high protein meal that we eat,
leading to high blood sugar level eventually.

The above are actually very established biochemical facts
which one can easily find in textbooks.
But, the general public who are under-informed about this "general knowledge",
may perhaps be mistaken that eating more protein food (meat and dairy)
in place of carbohydrate food,
is a 'wise' way to avoid the risk of diabetes.

How many times have we seen diabetic friends
dedicatedly cut down their carbo food,
but only to worsen their condition
by taking in large amount of proteins via a meat-based diet?
-- whenever I see that, I sense the shiver down my spine...

Next, we will discuss on two "magic bullets"
to mitigate the severity of insulin resistance
and the principles to formulate a diet to prevent diabetes.


Take care,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (3)

The condition where the insulin signalng/instruction
gets hindered/retarded is known medically as
insulin resistance.

While most people didn't know about the true cause of
insulin resistance,
they naturally turn to blame the result of insulin resistance
which is the sugar in the blood.

That under-information consequently lead to
unnecessary (or dangerous) action
of cutting down sugar/carbo/starch intake severely,
sometimes to the extent of developing phobia towards carbo.

Hence, it's not difficult to see some mis-informed diabetics ended
with weak limbs and poor concentration,
craving for fatty food to perk them up.
This in turn makes the situation worse.

Some diabetics even resist to shed off their excessive weight
despite doctors' advice,
as they couldn't make sense in between fats and their 'sugary' urine.

Even worse,
when their insulin resistance increase day by day,
and doctor's insulin pills slowly lose their efficacy,
they continue to cut down on sugar and replace calorie loss with fatty food.
Eventually. with frustration,
they blame it all on their genes (and sometimes even give up on treatment).
-- all because of serious misunderstanding of the cause of diabetes.

While diabetes indeed could be inheritable,
it's still mainly due to an imbalanced diet.
See The Humble Truth of Genes on why gene is not be blamed.

In the next episode,
why protein is the next culprit for diabetes.
-- yes, not mistaken at all, excessive protein causes diabetes as well.
Tune in!


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




{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (2)

Many of us may still find it puzzling,
to claim that sugar doesn't (directly) cause diabetes.

Question arises here:
-- if sugar is ok, then why are we constantly hearing advice not to take too much sugar/carbohydrates?

A simplified answer:
>> When sugar is taken in refined form (e.g. in soft drinks, sweets, white flour and processed foods)
they shock the blood sugar level and quickly get converted into fats, ultimately contritbuting to obesity issue (which may indirectly evolve into a diabetic issue as explained later).

However, if sugar is taken in whole food manner (e.g. brown rice, wholemeal bread and whole grains), with the presence of fibre, the blood sugar level rises gently, and doesn't contribute to obesity easily.

Also, because whole food are usually loaded with high fibre, one gets satisfied more quickly and doesn't get overboard in sugar consumption easily.

If we are choosing the right form of sugar/carbo, it's even harder to convince that sugar causes diabetes.

Episode 2: Fat is one of the cultprits

Those who are in tuned with diabetic medicine,
probably won't be too unfamiliar with the remark
that waist line of a person is tightly correlated to
the risk of diabetes.

One may get the hint now that it's
fat that actually plays crucial roles inducing diabetes.

There are two ways fat causes diabetes
by failing the insulin to control blood sugar level:

(I) Hindrance of insulin signal :
When blood sugar rises, insulin secreted from the pancreas
will be circulated thoughout the body to inform the necessary tissues/cells
to do the necessary actions to reduce sugar in the blood stream immediately.

However, if there are too many fat molecules in the cells/tissue,
the insulin signals will get retarded and faded away,
consequently leading to inefficient signalling.

As long as the blood sugar level doesn't get normalised,
the feedback system in our body will keep informing the pancreas to
work harder and to release more insulin
until the desireable blood sugar level is reached.

In long term, the pancreas gets overworked
and eventually fails to produce matching level of insulin.
This is a classical case where diabetes arises.

(II) Defective insulin signal reception:
This pathway of diabetes is getting more prominent day by day,
when under-informed public, uncounsciously
take in molecularly impaired fats (ie bad fat).

As mentioned in The Fats of Life series,
any fat/oil which is treated with high heat
will render the fat molecular structure deformed.
Little that the general public knows that
the common cooking oils sold in the market
are treated with extreme high heat before bottling
to prolong their shelf-lives.

These deformed fat molecules
once assimilated into our body,
part of them will be used to make defective insulin receptor,
ultimately blocking partially the initiation of insulin signaling.

In the end, it doesn't seem that the pancreas
will ever be able to produce sufficient insulin to compensate
the blockage of insulin system.

Scary as it sounds,
but many people still prefer not to change their habit
in the choosing the right type of cooking oil
(which are not high heat treated).
-- good cooking oil are easily accessible at many Health Food Shops

More to come in the next blog,
as we still have one more culprit of diabetes to unveil.
Also, we will be discussing on how to devise
our food intake to mitigate the severity of existing diabetic condition.


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


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Trilogy of Diabetes (1)

I promised long ago to write a blog series on diabetes (Type II)*

which is of increasing significance to general public health nowadays.

Here, we are going to discuss about the true causes of diabetes
in a in-depth manner and hopefully could encourage readers
to do the appropriate preventive steps.
-- especially till today, many people have substantial misunderstanding
on the causes of diabetes.

Episode 1: The Myth of Sugar-induced Diabetes
In contrary to what most people believe,
diabetes although closely related to blood sugar,
is not a disease caused by too much sugar intake, technically speaking.

Blood sugar level happens to be a indicator of the severity of
the disease and hence it's easily mistaken to be the culprit
(in fact, it's a scape goat in the entire issue).

Excessive consumption of sugar may aggrevate the severity of diabetic condition,
but certainly, it's broad misunderstanding that excessive sugar induces diabetes.

There are a few points below to be reminded, in regards of sugar,
when we clarify about this misunderstanding:

(i) our body is design to be able to harmonise/normalise any dramatic
fluctuations of blood sugar level (via homeostasis/negative feedback loop),
to ensure stable blood sugar concentration for optimal bodily functions

(ii) sugar is critical for survival ever since human being started to walk on the Earth;
excessive sugar is very welcomed, as a backup for incidences
of starvation and emergency escape.
(Excessive sugar are happily stored in liver as glycogen and under the skin as fats)

(iii) high amount of sugar consumption doesn't necessary always
results in high level of blood sugar concentration,
depending on the type of sugar/carbohydrate (in term of digested rate)
and the presence of fibre to slow down the absoprtion of sugar through the GI track.

None of the scientific facts above support any solid path towards diabetes.

Diabetes which is truly a degenerate disease showing symptoms of the body unable to

to control the blood sugar level after a meal (or sugar intake),
is, strictly speaking, caused by the failure of insulin-system to function.
(and sugar has no reason to directly cause the insulin system to fail)

In the next few blog posts, we will delve into how actually this insulin-system fails,
and some may be surprised that the culprits of diabetes
don't quite look 'sugary'.


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


*Diabetes are categorised into two types: Type I which is rarer and happened to young children/newborn with impaired pancreas; Type II which is most common, preventable and diet-induced. In this blog series, I refer specifically to Type II diabetes. 


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

Meeting a rawsome guru -- Diana von Cranach



Raw food guru,
Diana von Cranach at her
creative and rawsome
food demo

Just a few days after a fun-filled organic trip at Titi Eco Farm,

I went for another raw-some living food workshop, with
a raw food guru, Diana von Cranach
@ The Green Room Cafe.

The entire afternoon spent with Diana
was inspiring.

It was like a magic seeing how the guru put together,
effortlessly,
some of the humble raw veggies
to create dishes which are very pure tasting and nourishing.

During the 4 hour workshop,
we went through the recipes with full serving of 4-course lunch
from Eggplant Roll appetizer to Sweet corn - Coconut soup,
to Mixed Veggie Timbale to Coconut jelly.

Diana also shared on many topics about healthy eating,
including differentiating what are the truly living food,
the real way of organic un-cooking,
as well as giving us some recommendation where to get
the good quality food sources and reliable kitchen appliances.

Other than skill and knowledge transfer,
the participants also had a good time networking with each other,
and exchanging 'living' ideas ;)

Some of the nice looking dishes captured at the workshop.
Happy Eye Feasting!
-- yes, these are what we had for lunch!! hahaha.. :D

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

p/s: I absolutely fell in love in Diana's food ever since Green Room Cafe re-opened with raw cuisine early May this year. I want to help spread further the concept of true organic and healthy vegetarian, hence am organising a special dinner session with Diana on 3rd Sep 2011. If interested, please check out Organic Meet Up =D 



{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}

The Oasis of Organic Living - Titi Eco Farm

Titi Eco Farm Tour organised by
Cielo Sereno

Just about 10 days ago,

I was leading a memorable organic tour

to Titi Eco Farm in Malaysia.

Altho' that was probably my 5th or 6th visit to the farm,

I enjoyed the stay, with thrill and gratitude,

like it was my first visit =D

Titi Eco Farm expanded quite a bit since I last visited a few years back,

but the essence of the farm hasn't changed all these years!!

I liked how the fresh air and

the beautiful sunset view from the front yard

still remained,

how the creative raw food chef, Elaine,

was still passionate about raw organic diet,

how the various organic produce there

were still vibrant!

During the 3D2N stay,

the experience was absolutely relaxing, pampering and enriching:

-- basically, we were:

feasting on nourishing and mouthwatering
organic food everyday

(with almost free flow of

organic salad and fruits!),

 

soaking our our legs in steam foot-spa,

drinking herbal tea to detox,

chilling ourselves at the balcony of the chalet,

joining in workshops on making papaya salad

and Hakka Farmer's Tea (擂茶)**,

doing laughter yoga together in the Energy Garden 

... and so much more!!

Titi Eco Farm was truly a gem.

It's a place where we realised the sweetness of humble living,

the abundance of love that mother Earth offers,

and how we should treasure, in deep gratitude,
the purity of unpolluted air, land and food.

I am definitely going back to Titi again! :D

With metta,

Kee Yew

pureland2012-at-gmail.com

**Bonus:

[Titi Eco Farm's recipe on traditional Hakka Farmer's Tea (客家擂茶)]

Mix and grind, in a mortar, equal portion of
. Eleutherococcus trifoliatus 苦粒心
. Basil 九层塔
. Xiao-Ye-Gan 小叶甘
. Guava Leaf Buds 番石榴嫩芽
. Peanuts
. Sesame seeds
into fine paste using Guava pestle. Pour in hot water, and adjust to desirerable thickness, add some rock salt to taste and serve with crunchy diced veggies and brown rice. Bon Apetit!

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}