Monthly Archives: February 2012

This procedure will provide an objective, measurable indication of relative benefit for any food or supplement:

1. Establish your baseline strength: Hold a thumb against the middle finger on the same hand, keeping your other fingers away as much as possible. Now, have someone pull your thumb and finger apart slowly. It is helpful to use a count of 1001, 1002, with enough force to have the fingers come apart on 1002.

2. Suggestion: If the person doing the pulling is much weaker than the person being tested, then it may be helpful to use the next to last finger, or even the little finger, against the thumb, rather than the middle finger. This should ensure that the person doing the pulling is able to get the fingers apart, even if the testing person’s strength does increase.

3. Comparing a known unhealthy food to a known good food: Place a piece of candy under the tongue and repeat the above test. Note any strength change. Then dispose of the candy without swallowing. Now repeat this strength test with any known good food, such as an almond or dried bean. Again, note the strength change. You should have noted that you were significantly stronger with the almond or bean under your tongue than the candy. If you did not notice this, drink 8 oz. of water and eat a balanced snack. Then try this procedure again in 15 minutes.

4. How can your strength change so quickly?  If you know anyone who has angina of the heart, you may know that they get a nearly instantaneous relaxation of their heart muscle, and thus a reduction of their chest pain, when they put a nitroglycerine pill under their tongue. This happens much faster than the nitroglycerine can get into their blood stream and to their heart. We, as human beings, have a non-cognitive ability to sense whether something is good for us or not. While this facet of human physiology has