Foods as Medicine for Your Body & Spirit

SOUL TV EPISODE 135

Tues 23 June

Foods as Medicine for Your Body & Spirit. Food is more than fuel, it can help to heal when our body needs it. Our experts share which foods help us the most, how to tell what's right for you and their top 3 problems and healing foods. Watch 8pm Tues 23 June www.soultv.com.au

This blog may hit some of your right between the eyes but I will not apologise as this subject is way too important. The father of modern medicine Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine.” He also insisted that all doctors have a good understanding of food and nutrition. Sadly this is no longer the case. Western medicine no longer considers this vital aspect of health as important. Remember: what you put into your body today, walks and talks tomorrow!

In this day and age largely, what people call food, is not food! It is so processed and denatured that it no longer contains enough nutrition for us to survive. Even our fresh foods and vegetable are grown in denatured soils filled with chemical pesticides and fertilisers. At a workshop I was at many years ago, a scientist had a device that measured the amount of vitamins and minerals in fruits. A woman in the audience handed him an orange she was about to eat and when he took the device out of the fruit he looked really puzzled and said the nutritional value was so low it didn’t register. Ask yourself next time you are shopping would your Great grandmother recognise any of the products on the shelves of the super market. Certainly the people of ancient times and those who still live in tribal situations, would not.

How do you know when what you are putting into your body is no longer serving you? Signs and symptoms will be those associated with disease such as: obesity, diabetes, fatigue, lethargy, headaches, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, insomnia…get the picture?? What is disease? It is dis- ease of the body, mind and spirit. It is your body and soul telling you that something is not right and it needs to be fixed sooner rather than later. Our bodies are constantly giving us feedback and what we are not doing for the most part, is listening.

We are all different and there is not a one size fits all where food is concerned but you can apply the same principles to find out what does and doesn’t work for you. Being very general and a basic place to start; Proteins build muscle, fruits are cleansing and vegetables are the mortar that hold everything together.

So a ratio to look at is 1 serving of protein to 2 servings of fruit to 5 – 9 servings of vegetables per day. That is the absolute minimum for the vegies. All must come from premium sources, clean, organic and full of nutrients. Most people these days don’t get that in a month let alone a day. The majority of the world’s children today have 1 serving of vegetable a week and they are French fries!

In general grains are not good for the body, especially modern grains as they are now genetically modified and our bodies cannot recognise, let alone digest them. Nuts and seeds are a really good source of protein for everyone and can be used to replace meat protein. However we still need the iron, especially women. The best source is still small amounts of meat, for the iron not necessarily for the protein. We see so many blood deficient (anaemic) vegetarian women in our clinic and we have to teach them to see meat as medicine. If you cannot eat the meat then at least eat the broth. If you really cannot eat the broth then organic, clean molasses will help. To get the same amount of iron from green leafies you would have to be eating 12 servings a day! Long term anaemia can lead to emotional and mental issues, fatigue, insomnia, infertility and eventually heart problems. So the top three problems I treat in clinic because of lack of nutrition would be weight loss, obesity, digestive problems, mental and emotional disorders and infertility. Yes I know I said top 3 but the list goes on and on!

Ok so what can people generally add into their diets that will help. Green smoothies with nuts and seeds added plus oils, very important. Flax seed, hemp, chia seed and coconut oils are the best to start with. Please don’t use Krill, this is the only food source for the whales and does not belong to humans. Fish oils are heated, they do not cold press fish to get the oil and heating destroys anything good in it. Also it is questionable where the oil is sourced from. ADD and ADHA are all created by a lack of essential fatty acids and poor nutrition. You cannot get good nutrition from most fast foods outlets. They are not your friends, they are profit only corporations and create a steady market for the sickness industry of today.

Not so many smoothies in winter as they are too cold to the system and will put your digestion out. So in winter we look at slow, low cooked foods where all the nutrients are contained in the broth, such as soups and stews.

We NEVER recommend that you take synthetic, isolated and fractionated minerals and vitamins. Your body will dump 90% of it and it won’t know what to do with the rest. As a matter of fact if they are taken for more than a month they become toxic to the body. Do your research and KNOW where your vitamins and minerals are coming from and many of you would be shocked if you where they came from and how they are created. The only way to get all the minerals that you need for good health is to eat whole foods in their natural, synergistic form. There are some great organic green powders out there today, once again do your research to find which one is going to suit you.

We only recommend to clients that they take supplements if they are in emergency mode and then help them to source organic, clean ones. We do recommend taking herbs to help people get over the hump of illness on the way to wellness and these will be proscribed according to their body’s constitution and where it is at and where it needs to get to.

Colour and taste are important in foods as well as which foods are better to eat at certain times of the year. The greater the range of colour and flavour the better balanced your body will be. Yellow/orange is for the spleen. The flavour is sweet: sweet potato, carrots, paw paw, pineapple. These feed the digestive system. People with lungs problems in winter can eat white foods, the flavour is pungent and include onions, leeks, garlic and horseradish. Bitter is the flavour of the heart and the colour of the food is normally red. Cayenne, beets, chilli (also for circulation) and tomato, celery is also for the heart. For the liver you eat sour flavoured foods such as dandelion, lemons, grapefruit and cider vinegar. Also all green vegetable are for the liver. For kidneys, your life force organ, you eat naturally salty flavours, the colour is black such as black beans, kidney beans, sea weed, sardines, mussels and oysters. Again we would suggest what to eat based on your body’s constitution.

People do not take what they are eating seriously enough until they get sick and often it is too late to bring the body back into full potential. The Chinese say, “It is like trying to build the weapons after the war has begun.” And believe me! It is a war. At this point in time of our planets history we are in survival mode!

So to summarise for you. Food is the one thing you do have control over and your choices will make all the difference. Take your power back and have a good long hard look at what you are putting into your and family’s bodies. Source organic food where possible. Grow your own where possible or join a community garden and or support your local organic growers. CLEAN WATER IS ESSENTIAL. Drinking at least 2 litres a day to help your brain and body function. One of your best investments to your health and home is a good efficient water filter that takes chlorine and fluoride out of the water or at least minimises the effect. I don’t care if you are for fluoride. It is a known neurotoxin and had no business being in our water supply and the amount of fluorosis that is in peoples teeth today should be giving us all a big warning. What is does to your teeth is just a visible sign of what it is doing to your bones and your brain.

A great health tonic is apple cider vinegar or lemon juice in warm water. Garlic is a great anti-biotic and preventative. I could go on forever here.

So I would like to say to all; If you are being lazy where your food is concerned STOP NOW! And get busy about getting good food into your body or you and those you influence will look forward to a life of pain and suffering. If you think eating well is too hard, try thinking about how hard it will be to be chronically ill!

I know you can do it and the benefits far outweigh the effort.

“If people took their power back and focussed on prevention rather than cure, our hospitals would be almost empty.”

Paul Hoogendyk