The Key to D

Vitamin D - specifically, D3 - can be acquired 2 ways: through sunlight and through food and supplements.  As such, I'm giving you 2 songs on this post. The reason - technically, 2 reasons - that I'm using the first song might be more evident than the second song. It is "Waiting For the Sun" by The Doors. Reason #1: the sun is a fantastic source of Vitamin D. Reason #2: The "D"-oors! OK, it may be a silly reason, but there is more behind my choice of The Doors. Vitamin D isn't as simple as it may seem and you should have a key to unlock the 'D'-oor - hence, the title of this post.
The second song that I chose is "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down. There are also a couple of reasons why I chose this song. Of course, 'D'oors but also because of '3.' Vitamin D3 is really what we want to acquire through food and/or supplements because it is more absorbable/effective than D1 and D2. As well, D2 is synthetic and should be completely avoided! Title of the song also has multiple reasons for its selection. Vitamin D supplement could be your kryptonite if you don't, properly consume it (if you don't know the reference of kryptonite, look up Superman...). So, how do you properly supplement your Vitamin D? Consume it with Vitamin K! Get it? D3 - 3 Doors, K - 'k'-ryptonite? OK, so kryptonite is harmful to Superman/Super Girl but Vitamin K is beneficial to us... Still, I couldn't resist using this song.

So, I may have been a bit off by stating that K is the key to D, but if you are supplementing with Vitamin D3, you really should also supplement with Vitamin K2.

Essentially, taking Vitamin D as a supplement can lead to too much calcium in your blood. This can then cause the hardening of your arteries! Rather than spending too much time to describe all of that here, I recommend that you check it out HERE - the Vitamin D Council website.

What does Vitamin K do for us?

Here's what Dr. Andrew Weil says about Vitamin K:

"Vitamin K is an essential nutrient necessary for responding to injuries – it regulates normal blood clotting. In addition, by assisting the transport of calcium throughout the body, Vitamin K may also be helpful for bone health: it may reduce bone loss, and decrease risk of bone fractures. It also may help to prevent calcification of arteries and other soft tissue."

While it isn't quite the key to Vitamin D, Vitamin K reduces the potential for negative side effects and improves the definite benefits of supplementing with Vitamin D.

Light My Fire

Light My Fire is one of my favorite songs by The Doors.  Given the topic of my last post, can you guess what the link to the title of this post is?

I dehydrated some peppers overnight last night.  I also made some salsa (we went grocery shopping right after I wrote the post, so I got the needed ingredients).  The peppers were done drying this morning.  I pulled off the dried husks that remained of the stems and put the peppers one at a time into my mortar and ground them with the pestle.  After all was ground, I ended up with about 1 oz. (dry measure) of 'pepper powder.'  I only call it that because I can't remember the variety of peppers that I used...  I blended both types of pepper together as well.

I am still fasting to this point, so I haven't even tasted the salsa.  However, I wanted to see how hot the pepper powder was.  Tasting the pepper wouldn't break the fast so I simply ran my finger on the pestle that had some residue on it and gave it a lick.  Wow!  It was pleasingly hot but not overpowering.  I felt the heat from even a small taste but I didn't feel the need to guzzle a glass of water.

For the fast, I am mostly just drinking water but have had about 8 oz. of fresh squeezed orange juice -  squeezed 'em myself.  Of course, I also had my VidaCell this morning.  Since dinner on Tuesday night, the only 'solid' food that I have had was for dinner on Wednesday and that consisted of a yogurt smoothie.

Today, I will be breaking my fast around dinner time.  Oddly, I am not doing it because I am at all hungry.  I just don't want to take it too far.