The symbol on the left means "medicine" in the language of the Chinese and Japanese. To translate it literally, this two-part symbol means "plant which brings enjoyment". Yet, the words plant and enjoyment are hardly the first words that pop into your mind when you hear the word medicine. Instead, you are likely to think of the words drugs and illness. How far we have strayed from this original Oriental concept. And how far we have strayed from the wise and famous words of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who said, " Let food be your medicine."

Certainly, we'd all agree that using a proper diet loaded with adaptogenic functional foods and whole food supplements to maintain good health would be much more enjoyable than spending billions of dollars on prescription and over-the-counter drugs. What you need to do is "adapt" your way of thinking and recognize the alternatives you have at your disposal in your search for health and longevity. Shoko and I (Mike) are living proof of this statement. We have been following this principal since our late thirties, and although we are both quickly approaching 60, neither of us has had the flue or even a cold in over 20 years.

Nature has provided us with certain adaptogenic functional foods (Chlorella, Maitake Mushroom, Noni, Aloe Vera, and many more.,), which stimulate the adaptive mechanisms of your body.* Such functional foods are called adaptogens. These whole food supplements contain a special complex chemistry of nutrients, which your body easily identifies and absorbs. Whole food supplements provide an integrated structure of nutrients, which aid in regaining and maintaining a balanced body system.* You just can't get this kind of balanced nutritional support from mere vitamin and mineral supplements even if they are chelated and standardized. Your body digests, absorbs and utilizes the nutrients from vitamin and mineral supplements far less than from functional food whole food adaptogens. It is our opinion that you would be wasting your money on vitamin and mineral supplements, because more than a half of what you would be taking would simply be flushed right out of your body. Worse, some of these vitamin and mineral supplement's isolated nutrients could accumulate in your body burdening your liver and kidneys. Your body simply has a hard time recognizing the isolated nutrients in vitamin / mineral supplements. Your body does recognize and utilize, to the fullest, the complex nutritional values from functional foods and whole food adaptogenic supplements. Unlike vitamin / mineral supplements, whole food adaptogens give you the advantage of all the protoplasmic elements that aid in the growth and development of your cells. In fact, no vitamin or mineral supplement can ever replace the value of whole food adaptogenic supplements.

Definition of an adaptogen:

• An adaptogen is non-toxic, non-habit forming and requires no prescription.

• An adaptogen aids in normalization of your body chemistries.*

• An adaptogen increases your body's ability to cope with physical stress, emotional stress, stress related imbalance and environmental pollution.*

• An adaptogen works in a synergistic manner increasing your body's own ability to fight off illness before it sets in, in direct contrast to modern drugs which attack 'specific' disease symptoms after you are thoroughly sick.*

• An adaptogen works not only when you take it, but for a sustained period of time and becomes increasingly active the more your body needs it.*

The Chinese have a saying that "The whole is only as strong as the sum of its parts." Therefore, it is counterproductive to treat only the illness or its symptoms; you should treat the body as a whole. This is what adaptogenic whole food supplements do.

An important point to note about adaptogens is that the actions of the individual nutrients they contain are different if they are not combined in nature's own harmonious functional food relationships.

If just one of the nutrients in an adaptogenic functional whole food is isolated and used for its suspected known effects in your body, it will not have the same overall tonic effect as it will in its natural complete whole food form.
This is known as synergism - the total natural combination of nutrients in a whole functional food has a different and more enhanced effect than an individual nutrient's effect would have. It has been one of the great pitfalls of the attempts by the pharmaceutical and health food industries to try to duplicate the effects of naturally occurring compounds found in functional whole foods. In many cases, the "suspected active ingredient(s)" of a plant have been isolated or synthetically reproduced and prepared as a vitamin / mineral or a "standardized" supplement, or prepared synthetically for use in drug therapy. The net result has been that the isolated substance may produce a limited desired effect, but in a way which, instead of being gently supported and enhanced by the other substances in the total plant composition, has produced undesired results as well. Side-effects are a fact of life with all pharmaceutical drugs, some vitamin / mineral supplements and some isolated standardized supplements sold in the health food market-place, whereas functional food adaptogenic whole food supplements' side-effects are virtually unheard of.*

Nature has managed to produce what man can only try to copy - adaptogens : a truly beneficial combination of balanced nutrients, in a whole food form, which has a tonic balancing effect on your body's systems without harmful side-effects.*

In most cases, experiencing healthful benefits by taking adaptogenic whole food supplements takes time. Your body needs your patience. As you are gentle to your body by breathing correctly, eating good nourishing foods, taking whole food adaptogenic supplements, drinking clean water, exercising moderately, and being kind to your neighbors, you will soon notice your body is saying "Thank You" in return.*

Shoko's HB-101 gardens page. Click here for a picture tour
of her vegetable and flower gardens, fed exclusively with HB-101.