Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Eat Real Foods)

The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a commonsense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week will will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources
.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Eat Real Foods, Avoid Highly Processed Foods

The new focus on eating whole foods rather than highly processed foods is common sense.  Many of our nutrients that are essential for physical life, such as antioxidants and vitamins, re found in whole foods, but there are also numerous unknown nutrients in whole food. A quick request from AI shows that just recently discovered substances such as Vitamin A5, Queosine, Leucine, Trimethylglycine, Betaine are just a few.  Eating Whole Foods helps ensure that people don't miss out on essential nutrients.

Michaelangelo’s “Creation of God”

The Creation of Adam (c. 1511–1512) is a section of the fresco painted by Michelangelo for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The image is widely reknown and recognized.  What almost everyone has missed is the hidden message that Michelangelo inserted: a human brain associated  with the figure of God.

A Brief Review of Philosophy in an Art Review of One Painting

This 25 minute YouTube instructs about the Renaissance painter Raphael’s painting School of Athens painted in the Pope’s Library in the 1500s.  In reviewing the painting and its subject it presents a very nice summary of the schools of thought in philosophy.  It is interesting knowledge.

 

The Stress of “Getting Things Done”

Some of us internalize stress. We hold onto it in certain portions of our bodies. Some hold stress in their chest, their heart region. Some in their upper back, their neck and shoulders. Some in their bowels. It seems that for every chakra system there is someone, somewhere, using the nerve plexuses that are associated with chakras as a "stress holding center."

When stressful events/tasks in life feel overwhelming we are accumulating chaotic stress rather than orderly productivity. When things feel busy or chaotically mentally noisy, we make productivity lists to restore order, which is calming. Productivity procedures are not merely just to “get more done.” We do it because it is stress relieving. 

The pull toward productivity lists, plans, and routines comes from something a little more inherent: a need for things to feel contained. When things feel unsteady, and you still have everything floating around in your head, your brain (and your nervous system) never really gets to switch off to let go of the stress.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030 (Introduction)

The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 offers a significant change from previous versions.  The core of the new guidelines is to go back to "real food", not "processed and packaged" food.  It encourages a commonsense focus on healthy eating rather than a set of "limits" or "maximums."  In this short series of articles, each week we will look at an overview of one of the recommendations.  This is an introduction to these guidelines, you will find the full version of the guidelines online at: https://realfood.gov/#resources.  These articles are sourced from an Epoch Times article: The Science Behind the New Dietary Guidelines. 

Introduction

The new version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans marks the most significant change to the government's recommendations for our diet since 1980.  The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030 makes some significant changes.  For example it now encourages people to eat more proteins, and specifically animal proteins, encouraging fat and oils that have long been shunned, and putting a clear focus on eating real, whole foods, rather than highly processed foods.

Open Your Eyes and a World Appears

These quotes are excerpted from the essay How to Have a “Don’t-Know Mind” by Michael Pollan.  I encourage you to read the full article if you desire to mentally experience one man’s retreat into the quiet of New Mexico and the insights that he gained.  This particular short article is but a brief excerpt of some of the wisdom that he encountered.

Below are direct quotes from the essay except where bracketed, which indicates [my own editorial insertion]. Emphasis is my own addition.

My quest to understand consciousness took me to a cave in New Mexico and then deep into the cosmos…. 

What is a Good Galactic Citizen?

 To promote and consciously choose paths of integrity as Galactic Citizens ...

The word galactic refers or pertains to the word milk – an opaque white fluid rich in fat and protein, secreted by female mammals for the nourishment of their young.

In the astronomical sense galactic refers specifically to our "Milky Way" Galaxy which looks like a milky streak in the sky when you can find a remote enough location, though most people in cities can't see it due to light pollution.

Our galaxy is referred to as the "Milky Way" for several reasons.  The ancient Egyptians goddess Nut, which is dated to 2400 to 1300 BC making her the oldest of the mother/milk/sky goddesses. Nut is the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky, stars, cosmos, and mothers; she is often depicted as a star-studded woman arching over the earth to protect it. In the depiction above I wonder if the deep blue coloring of Nut might have something do with the atmosphere of the Earth, which protects us from most of the harmful cosmic energies which come our way.

A Brief History of the World from 1949 to 1989

Billy Joel’s Song We Didn’t Start the Fire  (with lyrics) is a great summary of history for the second half of the 20th century.  The lyrics include brief rapid-fire allusions to more than 100 headline event between January 1949 and the song publication in 1989.  

Joel, a self-described history nut, wanted to be a history teacher when he was younger.  The idea for the song arose when someone on the verge of turning 21 who thought the world was in an unfixable mess.  Joel responded that he had though the same thing when he was 21, to which the person responded “yeah, but you grew up in the 50s and everybody knows that nothing happened in the 50s.” Joel sat down to write the song and said to himself “Ok, what’s happened in my life”  I wrote down the year 1949 and listed what he recalled as headlines of the day.  Then he moved on to 1950 and so forth.  

Ancient Life Hacks for Anxiety

Adapted from the article: Chaos-Proof:  Using Ancient Wisdom to Hack Modern Anxiety 

“Why is everyone so anxious these days?”  The word anxious meaning “greatly troubled by uncertainties” comes from an ancient word meaning “tight, painfully constricted.”

Recent health surveys show that more than 40 Million Americans suffer from disorders of anxiety.  How MANY is 40 million?  That is roughly the current population of the entire state of California. Really.  It is about 10 million more people than the entire state of Texas!  That is some 10 to 12% of the population of the USA.

It seems that the younger people in our country are particularly anxious and getting worse.  A 2024 study found that new cases of anxiety disorders in those ranging from 10 to 24 years old rose by MORE than 50% worldwide.  Young adults told researchers that they feel on edge, lonely, directionless, and that they worry about financial security.  Many reported that they were achieving just to achieve, finding little meaning in what they were doing.

There are ways to hep manage your emotions instead of allowing your emotions to mange you.  More than just “strong feelings” the word emotion indicates a motivator to action.  Some emotions, like righteous indignation may motivate you to take an action to right a wrong, but some emotions like “the desire to activism”, taking action just to take action rather than achieving an objective, can contribute to the lonely, directionless feelings reported.  Taking action without achieving a meaningful result is merely wasted action.

The ancient Stoics understood this and developed a practical philosophy aimed at cultivating inner stability and emotional discipline.  Let’s look at a few of them.

WORD PLAY: Divinity

Lets look at the word Divinity.

Etymology tells us that Divinity refers to a divine being, God and is derived ultimately from the ancient word root *dyeu meaning “to shine” and its derivatives meaning “sky, heaven, god.”

But have you ever noticed how the word Divinity and the words Divine Unity look like they have been squished together?

Seven Sacred Hermetic Principles

  A review of Hermetic Principles as discovered by author Doreen Virtue:                

Divine Magic ~ The Seven Sacred Secrets of Manifestation (2006)

“Where fall the footsteps of the Master, the ears of those ready for his teaching open wide.  When the ears of the student are ready to hear then cometh the lips to fill them with Wisdom”.   The Kybalion

“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of Understanding”. The Kybalion

In ancient Egypt, there was a great spiritual teacher who wrote books and lectured about  the power of the mind to create and heal.   His teachings were so profound and revolutionary that he was linked with Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and mysticism as well as Hermes, the Greek messenger deity.  

This teacher is most commonly called Hermes Trismegistus which means Thrice Great or Three Times Great.  The meaning and reference to this title is unknown.  While scholars can’t agree on the dates of Hermes’s life...  it is believed that he was a contemporary (and perhaps teacher) of Abraham.   There is also controversy over “The Emerald Tablet” often attributed to Hermes.

Spiritual Laws That Can Change Lives

"The World is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate."     Henry Miller

Spiritual Laws existed before humanity.... before Nature; whether we call them natural, spiritual, or higher laws they are guiding principles that apply not only to the mechanics of Nature, but also to the human psyche.  All we have to do is pay attention and practice them in our daily life.... and align our lives.... habits of diet.... exercise.... and work with them.  Also.... within spiritual laws and sexuality there are challenges that we can approach without struggle by embracing the moment.

Spiritual laws are beyond the concepts of morality and have little to do the cultural concepts of right or wrong. We know that sooner or later life will teach us the consequences of our choices through cause and effect, action and reaction. We eventually come to respect the spiritual laws and the power of nature.

The number of laws that govern the Universe are infinite.   Following are the spiritual laws that will benefit humanity in working toward the most positive expression of their life path. These laws can heal and balance our drives.... fears.... or difficulties manifested in relationships as well as  health.... or other any other type of problems that may arise. As we work the laws relevant to our life path.... we help to transform ourselves in the source rather than struggling with the symptoms.

The key to the power of a law is not just knowing it.... but applying it. We will know we are working with them because we will have changes in our actions.... feelings.... or perspectives. 

Get to know these laws and their practices and watch your life improve!