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Pumpkin Seeds and Sense of Taste

When it comes to wine tasting, serious wine tasting as is found among the working crowd (those behind the tasting bar) in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, the quality of one's palate typically comes up. Generally palates are rated in three groups, tolerant, sensitive and hyper-sensitive, depending on the number of taste buds on the tongue. Women normally have more taste buds, which is one of the reasons that men tolerate flavors that the ladies turn their noses up at.

In other words, while she is saying 'yuch!', he is taking a second, or third sip. That is a hyper-sensitive compared to a tolerant taster. The first drinks their coffee with cream and sugar and the second drinks it however it comes.

What about the nose? So much of the wine experience is in the nose, because while the palate only gets five major flavors the nose picks up 2,200 scents, that have been identified. While the palate seems rather short-changed consider this, how many combinations of five flavors can be created, now add in whether the individual flavors are strong or weak. Just like colors we get flavors that blend together better than others.

The cool thing about the palate and the sense of smell is that they are controlled by the limbic part of the brain which has an amazing memory. That's why you will taste something twenty years later and recall it so well, that part of you doesn't easily forget. It is the limbic system that connects to emotions which is why flavors affect us so emotionally.

So why pumpkin seed? Because you want to hold onto your sense of smell and taste. This is one of the unfair realities of aging, as men get older (it happens to women too although to a lesser extent) they get low in zinc and that deficiency causes the sense of smell to weaken. As iron is to women's health zinc is to men. It is an essential part of semen, it is critical to the immune system and important to the entire hormonal system, and it affects the sense of smell and taste.

Guess what seed is extremely high in zinc and is also very good for the prostate gland? Pumpkin! Why else would nature make it so big and bright? It is also great for ridding the body of parasites and protecting you from invasion. This is very helpful for anyone with pets or who work in agriculture. In men, one of the places where parasites head is the prostate, because it is the most mineral rich part of the body.

That failing sense of taste is one of the reasons why men like the big, powerfully flavored red wines. Women, with their more sensitive palates often find the big Cabs hard to tolerate. You can find raw, organic pumpkin seeds at any Whole Foods in the bulk department. Don't get the salted ones. Have a small handful daily and after a month or so you will find your palate and sense of smell sharpening up.

Cooking hint: when you are making a creamy soup lightly toast some pumpkin seeds in a fry pan with a little olive oil and then sprinkle them on the soup. Delicious!  

Staying Healthy @ Work – Supplements

There is an inverse ratio between how far we are removed the natural world and the quality and enjoyment of the foods that we experience. Where we live in the California Wine Country many of the foods served in the high end restaurant come from within twenty miles from the kitchen. The typical lunch you pick up at a deli market is fresh and delicious.

When we travel around the country, or even in the more urbanized sections of California I immediately notice the difference in quality. Consider airline food; there is nothing about flying in an airliner that connects to our normal sense of nature, which explains the food. Let’s take it one step higher; the food astronauts consume bears little resemblance to what you put on your dining room table. The farther from nature, the farther from vitality and flavor!

The modern work place is a synthetic construct, electrified, plasticized and sealed. At the same time modern work often requires repetitive motions and physical positions that restrict a human design that was designed for an amazingly wide variety of motions. Billions of dollars has been spent trying to get robots to duplicate just a small percentage of those actions that the body does effortlessly.

If you are going to force your body into a specialized set of actions within a constrained environment you need to replace those nutrients that the combination consumes at a high rate of speed. This is like any professional athlete. Shooting a basket on a basket ball court requires a repetitive action on a clearly defined environment that stresses the body in unique ways. Professional athletes take large amounts of nutritional supplements on top of eating a carefully planned diet. If you want to perform at your best in your work environment you need to do the same.

Luckily, a computer isn’t as demanding as a basket hoop, unless you strap yourself to it for twelve hours a day, and then it pulls more nutrients out than even a full court press. The key is to know the nutrients that your work demands and then supplement with those. For anyone who works with computers the number one supplement they require is Magnesium, the relaxing mineral. Electromagnetic fields make muscles tighten, so the body pours reserve Magnesium into the blood stream to insure unobstructed flow. Historically humans have never been so incessantly exposed to electromagnetic fields, so our diet doesn’t provide nearly enough of this important alkaline mineral. Between 500 to 1000 milligrams daily is a great way to reduce headaches, neck pain, constipation and even stress induced heart murmurs.

It will make you less grouchy too. Remember, we get back what we put out, so when you are in a better mood people are nicer to you. If your work place is very stressful, or you sit in what we call an ‘antagonistic position’ that challenges your body, then you need to feed your adrenal glands. Those little cone shaped glands sitting on top of your kidneys are gluttons for Vitamin C, one of the important immunity nutrients. That’s why stressful work situations suffer from higher than average sick days. But, before you start guzzling orange juice and popping citrus based tablets, let me tell you a secret.

Many people’s ‘arthritis’ symptoms are made worse by orange juice. It is just too acidic, and those chewable tables are hard on the teeth and gums. The best source of vitamin C is an herb that you are very familiar with, every time you see a rose bush. Because a rose is not just a pretty face, it has talents too. The red hip that forms after the flowering is a wonderful source of Vitamin C and Vitamin A, in a buffered form that won’t upset your tummy or add to the acid load on your joints. A couple of capsules daily will feed your adrenals and put some sparkle back in your eyes.

Very important, make sure you use very high quality supplements; otherwise it’s a waste of money and time. On our site we have links to our favorite company. Of course, there are other supplements that help fortify our bodies in the work place, but these two, Magnesium and Rose Hips are a great place to start.  

Dr. Ralph de Amicis  Ralph@SpaceAndTime.com