If you're like most people, before buying eggs at the grocery store you open the carton to check for broken shells. You're probably not too surprised when you come across a cracked egg or two and you simply continue your search, rendering the previous carton useless. As you proceed, you notice that some cartons contain 1 broken egg, others contain 2, and still others have 3 or more. Finally you find what you came for, a carton with a perfect dozen eggs inside.

Why must you go through the process of opening each carton? Because you can't tell anything about the contents by simply looking at the outside packaging. Every carton looks identical from the outside, yet they can be very different on the inside. To randomly choose any carton without knowing what's inside would be a foolish and unnecessary risk.

The body is like our egg carton. It is often so good at compensating for imbalances, that what might look healthy and in balance from the outside can actually be masking underlying problems or symptoms. If left undetected, these imbalances can lead to chronic sickness, degeneration, and disease.

When it comes to our health, we've been taught that what you see and feel is what you get. If things look okay on the outside and you don't have any symptoms, you must be healthy, right? We've come to learn that this is not the case. Many diseases and disorders such as cancer and heart disease have no symptoms or warning signs until the sickness is well into the advanced stage.  Imbalances are no different.  

Meridian imbalances are known as "silent problems". They often go undetected because many times they are painless and reveal few outward signs or symptoms, yet all the while they are affecting your life-sustaining meridian system.  

If there are enough cracked eggs in a carton, and they are left inside long enough, eventually they will begin to soak through and reveal themselves. Similarly, uncorrected imbalances will eventually show themselves as symptoms.

The only way to know for certain whether or not you have meridian imbalances is to either wait for your carton to soak through, or to open the carton and look inside with a acupuncture examination.  Often your acupuncture physician will diagnose imbalances that have not yet presented themselves, by feeling your pulse and looking at your tongue and ears.

If you wouldn't take a chance on a $3.00 carton of eggs, you certainly shouldn't risk your most precious and priceless commodity: YOUR HEALTH!  

Schedule now to check your carton of eggs, www.AcupunctureSolutionsOnline.com. 

Recipe Corner

Lentil Soup with Green herb sauce

Lentils make a great nutritious base for this vegetable soup. The brightly colored Green herb sauce
, used as a topping substitutes tofu for the oil used in traditional herb pesto.

Ingredients:  

• 1-1/4 cups Red Lentils
• 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
• 5 cups Vegetable stock 
• 2 Carrots, chopped
• 1 Onion, chopped
• 1 Celery stalk, chopped
• 2 Cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tomato, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon Red wine vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon Dry thyme
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions: 

1. Pick over the lentils and remove and discard any damaged ones and debris.
2. Place in a strainer and rinse under cold running water, then drain thoroughly.
3. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat saut� onions, garlic, carrots, and celery for two minutes.
4. Add tomato and lentils.
5. Add dry thyme, Red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Pour in Vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
7. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer, stirring every ten minutes, until the lentils are tender and the soup is thick, about 40 minutes.
8. If the soup seems too thick, stir in 1/4 cup water.
9. Serve in bowls with herb sauced drizzled on top.

Green Herb Sauce: 

• 1 cup Basil, chopped
• 6-8 ozs. Soft Tofu
• 1 / 3 cup Chives, chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 / 4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
• 1 / 4 teaspoon sea salt

*Thin with water or olive oil as needed.
In a blender or food processor, combine the basil, tofu, chives, garlic, cheese, and salt.  Process until the sauce is smooth and pale green, about 1 minute. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides of the processor.

Serve within 1 hour or refrigerate in a tightly covered container for up to 2 days. 

• Proper nutrition is considered one of the most important foundations to health and disease prevention. Avoid smoking, recreational drugs, caffeine, refined sugar, icy cold raw foods as well as reduction in dairy products. Increase the intake of green vegetables as well as barley and seaweed.

• Avoid strong, vigorous movement or exercise during menstruation. This may result in menorrhagia, hemoptysis epistaxis and uterine bleeding.

• Conserve your energies. Becoming fatigued prior to and during menstruation can exacerbate symptoms. Rest, breathe, do yoga or Qi Gong exercises to calm your mind and spirit.

• Apply warm castor oil to the lower abdomen and cover with plastic wrap two to three times per day during the premenstrual and menstrual period. This helps invigorate the blood, assist the lymphatic symptom and balance hormone levels.
   
• Tap into the benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet. Fish oil and linseed oil are good sources of these Omega 3 fatty acids.

• Fish oil prevents abnormal blood clotting. If your menstrual blood contains clotty tissue, supplement with fish oil, linseed oil and evening primrose oil (which also contain gamma linolenic acid or Omega 6).

• Use oils rich in both linoleic and alpha- linolenic fatty acids such as flax-seed, pumpkin-seed and chia- seed oils, but only if they are recently cold-pressed and refined.

• Supplement your diet with antioxidants (vitamins C, E, beta carotene, selenium, zinc) Include super-antioxidants (grape seed extract, pine bark extract, red wine extract, bilberry extract), which contain procyanidins, caffeic and ferulic acid, with demonstrated anti-inflammatory and spasmolytic activity (Kohama, M.D., and Suzuki, M.D. Make gradual changes to your diet. Abrupt diet changes can affect you emotionally and affect mood-altering chemicals.