If I were Stranded on a Deserted Island…
by David Steinman, m.a.

It isn't likely to happen in this lifetime-though on stressful days I sometimes wish it would. But, if I were ever to become stranded on a deserted island and was forced to choose one line of nutritional formulas to have with me, I would probably choose Garden of Life formulas. This is not to say that there aren't many other truly excellent lines of nutritional products available to health-conscious consumers. There are. But that's not my point. My point is this: Keep in mind I'm stranded on a deserted island. I have limited food supplies. Garden of Life is the right choice. Because these formulas are more than nutritional supplements. They are foods. They sustain life.

Let me explain. Legally, of course, if you go strictly by Food and Drug Administration guidelines, Garden of Life technically produces dietary supplements. Their formulas are sold in dietary supplement sections of stores and they are regulated as dietary supplements.

But there's something to these formulas that most consumers don't quite grasp-at least not yet: Garden of Life formulas aren't dietary supplements. Really, Garden of Life formulas are foods. Whole food concentrates, that is. Formulas you could live off of. I know. Some days I do. I feel great when I do. I know I am doing what is right to sustain long-term optimal health.

I'm a big fan of Garden of Life formulas because few if any other companies are doing what they are. I never feel like I am taking a dietary supplement, probably because none of these formulas contain a single isolated nutrient. No, these are foods.

What Makes Garden of Life Different
That's a big difference between the vision at Garden of Life and that of almost all other nutritional companies. No isolated vitamins or minerals are ever used-even though their formulas are nutritionally rich. You will, however, find more primitive dietary essentials-the unique beneficial byproducts of fermentation, uniquely digestible herbs, and, of course, homeostatic soil organisms that are as old as the earth itself.

The whole food concentrates Garden of Life produces are meant to support the health of anyone and everyone interested in a return to the Garden of Eden. They are all formulated to be part of the primitive diet followed by the healthiest people on the planet since biblical times.

Beginnings
Garden of Life, located in Jupiter, Florida, emerged hot on the nutritional supplement scene about four years ago and has not let down since-and there's a good reason for this.

In our September 2001 issue, we reported the Story of Garden of Life founder Jordan Rubin, N.M.D., which ranks as one of the most dramatic natural healing stories ever told. Jordan was only 19 in 1994 when he developed life-threatening Crohn's disease, replete with a wide range of complications including severe candida infection, chronic fatigue, autoimmune arthritis, diabetes and wasting disease.

Although Jordan came from a family that stressed a healthy diet (his father is a naturopath and chiropractor), his own deteriorating dietary habits while at Florida State University, coupled with stress and receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at age 15, may have also contributed to the onset of his condition. Initial medical treatments, which consisted of massive doses of intravenous and oral antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs, exacerbated his condition once the diagnosis had been made.

Jordan nearly died from the disease. Only natural healing could save him. As he tells it, he embarked upon the hamster wheel of alternative medicine. "I tried everything," Jordan says. "I mean everything."

His weight dropped from 177 pounds to 104 pounds. A doctor who treated him characterized his appearance not unlike that of a "Nazi concentration camp survivor."

Doctors who were about to perform a surgical procedure to remove much of his inflamed colon expressed doubt whether he would leave the hospital alive.

Value of Homeostatic Soil Organisms
Jordan never underwent surgery. When he finally got better almost two years later, it was only because he learned about the Maker's or biblical diet, if you will.

He learned about the value of fermented foods that produced their own healthful bacterial byproducts that are clearly integral to optimum health. Most of all, he returned to health thanks to his use of Homeostatic Soil Organisms™ (HSOs), beneficial microbes found in pristine soils that are as necessary to health as any known vitamin or mineral.

He learned that all health emanates from our gut-that our gut is our second brain with as many nerve endings as our central nervous system-and that our modern lives have led to a compromise in gut health.

You see, as our modern lives become ever more divorced from Nature-as we use triclosan-based antibacterial sprays and detergents to kill everything in our homes and environment-as we spray our soils with pesticides and herbicides-as we dump industrial chemicals into our water supplies-our health must pay a steep price. We were meant to live as part of, not a part from, Nature. The double-edged sword of technology is capable of great good as well as great evil-but our bodies are still back in the era of primitive humankind-and we are certainly not moving at the speed of technology. We need our soil organisms. We need natural probiotic rich fermented foods.

Asthma. Allergies. Irritable bowel syndrome. Rheumatoid arthritis. Lupus, Crohn's disease. Chronic fatigue syndrome. Immune disorders. All are reaching epidemic proportions.

When we were back in the era of primitive man we got dirty. We got exposed to all sorts of microscopic bugs. Even today children are meant to make mud pies, play in the mud, get dirty. It is as necessary to long-term health as almost anything. Our immune systems need this kind of exposure to learn how to react later on in life to real or not-so-real threats to our health. Our immune systems need the soil for its educational purposes. You see, without early exposures to all sorts of organisms in the soil, later in life when our immune systems are exposed to various benign intruders, instead of sending in TH-1 cells, the highly restrained select special forces of the immune system, it sends in TH-2 cells which might be likened to the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force all combined. Hence, we develop severe reactions, autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's and types of asthma, allergies, fibromyalgia, and other conditions.

So while we go full speed forward with technology on the one hand, we must not allow ourselves to become apart from Nature. It is in our best interests to maintain contact with the good earth. Most of us no longer do. No longer do we pluck a carrot from the sod, consuming it and its load of beneficial microorganisms along with it.

Therefore one premise-a guiding light for Garden of Life formulas-is that most of us will benefit by returning these soil organisms to our bodies. Known as Homeostatic Soil Organisms (HSOs), they return the human body back to a state of dynamic homeostasis. William C. Bryce, M.D., Ph.D., notes:
"Just as HSOs destroy molds, yeasts, fungi, and viruses in the soil of the organic garden, they perform the same function with pathological organisms present in the gut, which greatly enhances the body's immune system."

HSOs do so much more. They take care of your gut in every way possible. In so doing, this has a beneficial impact on all aspects of your well being. That is the beauty of Garden of Life Primal Defense™ with HSOs™. It provides beneficial soil organisms such as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus lichenformis. These are what triggered Jordan's recovery. These can help to heal many digestive conditions. But keep in mind this formula is truly a whole food since it also provides predigested, fermented, organic super foods such as dunaliella, barley grass juice, and other cereal grasses. No wonder one could live off of Primal Defense™.

Fermentation, Health & Poten-Zyme™
Another Garden of Life guiding light: our need for fermented foods.

"Scientists and doctors today are mystified by the proliferation of new viruses-not only the deadly AIDS virus but the whole gamut of human viruses that seem to be associated with everything from chronic fatigue to cancer and arthritis," note Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., in Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (New Trends Publishing 1999). "They are equally mystified by recent increases in the incidence of intestinal parasites and pathogenic yeasts, even among those whose sanitary practices are faultless. Could it be that…in our insistence on a diet in which everything has been pasteurized, we have compromised the health of our intestinal flora and made ourselves vulnerable to legions of pathogenic microorganisms?"

If so, say these authors, the cure for these diseases will be found not in vaccinations, drugs or antibiotics but in a restored partnership with the many varieties of beneficial organisms found in the microscopic world. This is why Garden of Life potentiates all of its whole food concentrates-its medicinal mushrooms, cat's claw, turmeric, cereal grasses, and seeds-with the Poten-Zyme™ process. This process is an "alchemy" and renders foods more bioavailable and nutritionally richer than other methods of extraction.

As a result of the Poten-Zyme™ fermentation process, the phytochemicals such as glyconutrients and phytosterols in the herbs, mushrooms and foods in Garden of Life formulas become highly bioavailable to the body; plus levels of important antioxidants such as catalase and superoxide dismutase are greatly increased. In the case of medicinal mushrooms-key to the Garden of Life RM-10™ immune formula-some mushrooms are comprised of more than 80-percent carbohydrates with large amounts of indigestible fiber. Thus, they lend themselves well to fermentation, which unlocks their healing powers and makes them more readily assimilated by the body.

The application of the Poten-Zyme™ process is a way for our bodies to utilize all of the phytochemicals and phytonutrients available in herbs, with very little stress on the digestive tract. The enzymatic 'pre-digestion' process increases bioavailability and absorption of the medicinal compounds making them 'body ready' for everyone, even those with compromised digestion. In other words, the sickest persons, with the least ability to utilize fibrous herbs, receive a much greater boost, thanks to the Poten-Zyme™ fermentation process that the herbs undergo.