Healing Foods

Healing Foods. The human body is a complex system. Everything affects our health and our health. Our thoughts, water, air, environment, clothing, electronics, mood - everything we put in our bodies and that our bodies come into contact with. Food and water are essential to life. We’ve all heard and we all know we should eat well and exercise. What we eat and drink can help us heal ourselves and our lives. Healing Foods fall into many categories they include: The Basics,Energy Drinks,Vitamins and Supplements and Fasts and while it shouldn’t need to be said what to avoid.

The first thing to understand is that what you put in your mouth or on your skin may be absorbed into your body, your blood and your cells and can affect your health, your mood and your life. Don’t freak out - our body is very good at getting rid of toxins (to a point) and has systems to get what it needs out of the foods we eat and drink. Nutrients need to get through the digestive system in order to get into the blood to be used by our the body. There are MANY articles on how the body processes food, healing foods and how to get the most nutrition and everyone has their favorites. Ideally, you want things that are easily digested and easily used by your body to give you energy and nutrients.

Energy Drinks

• It’s not loaded with sugar. The sugar free version has 4 calories, so when I’m doing weight watchers I can drink a whole can and it’s 0 points
• I don’t crash in the afternoon
• I helps alleviate my headaches
• It’s got tons of vitamins.
• And it tastes good.

I really never thought I’d be drinking Verve every day.  I bought them because a friend recommended them to me.  But now, I drink at least one every day, in addition to all my water.  And when I feel I need extra energy, I reach for something healthy instead of a cup of coffee.

Basic Healing Foods

Raw or well cooked vegetables.

• Steamed vegetables are easiest to digest
• Vegetables cooked in olive oil, sunflower oil or other good oils are still good for you
• Raw vegetables are good as well but a bit harder to digest
  

Cooked Meat & Fish

You could easily LIVE on the above.  And I have.  I even cut out fruit for a while when I was trying to control the sugar in my bloodstream.  Now eating only the above can be boring but you can do it and live. And you can add the additional good foods including:

• Grains (barley, corn, whole wheat, quinoa, rice - sweet brown rice and jasmine as easily digestible)
• Nuts. Nuts are a great way to get protein.
• Dairy. I’m a big fan of goat’s milk, cheese and yogurt and goat’s milk is easier to digest. As long as you aren’t lactose intolerant milk and cheese can be good ways to get calcium and protein.
• Beans. Beans are very good for you but not easy to digest. And if they give you gas you might try beano or digestive enzymes that will help them take their nutrients into you system.

Fasting

• Don’t fast just to lose weight.  You will lose more weight permanently if you eat consistently.  If you fast, your body will think you are starving and slow down your metabolism thus making it harder to loose weight.
• Don’t stop drinking water.  Most of us don’t drink enough water to begin with so many of us are dehydrated to begin with.  Also, when fasting your body will often be flushing toxins and if you don’t drink enough water you will feel like you have the flu
• Dry brushing helps.  Another way to help your body detox when you are fasting is dry brushing.  It’s exacting what it sounds like.  Take a natural brush (not one with plastic bristles) and brush your skin.  Brush away from your heart.  It increases circulation which will increase elimination of toxins.
• It’s best to prepare for a fast and come off a fast slowly. Don’t go out binge on bad food and alcohol then fast the next day, also when coming off a fast, eat small portions and easily digestible foods.
• Be kind to your body.  Not all body chemistries can handle fasting.  Find one that works for you.

Two fasts I’m familiar with are:

• The Master Cleanse.  http://themastercleanse.org
  Many people I know have done this cleanse.  I couldn’t do it for more than two days.  I fainted from my blood sugar going too low, but I’ve known many people who love this fast.
• Dr. Richard Schulze. www.HerbDoc.com
  He has many different cleanses. The juice fast for the liver cleanse is one I like to do about one or twice a year and it’s the only cleanse I’ve been on where I actually feel good.

Vitamins and Supplements are Healing Foods

Vitamins and Supplements.  If you were eating raw and properly cooked organic food from a garden you knew had rich soil, you wouldn’t need supplements.  You’d get all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients you needed to be healthy, survive and thrive from your food, unless of course you had some genetic chemical imbalance, but I digress, I’ll speak more on food and mood later.  So unless you have your own organic garden where you grow everything you ever eat and drink you are probably eating some things that you bought from a grocery store, health food store, co-op, restaurant, deli, fast food joint or some other venue.  In other words, you have little to no idea how the food was grown, harvested and what happened to it along it’s journey to your mouth.  That’s ok.  That’s why doctors and health professionals talk about vitamins and supplements.  It’s a long topic and I’ll add more to this later but suffice to say, you need supplements, depending on your age and health condition.

Some essential ones include:

B-Vitamins:  This can lead to fatigue, depression, irritability, anxiety, and even thoughts of suicide. Memory problems, loss of appetite, insomnia, and gastrointestinal disorders are some of the problems caused by a deficiency of B1. Eating refined carbohydrates, like simple sugars, drains the body's B1 supply. B vitamins do their best job when we take them all together. Avoiding any insufficiency of the B complex vitamins is a fundamental prerequisite for fighting with depressions, panic attacks and all kinds of stress. All of them are water soluble so our bodies don’t maintain a store of them. Coffee, alcohol and other forms of stress delete our body of B vitamins so it’s truly essential to take them every day.

Vitamin CEssential for healing, energy, immune system and stress. This is another water soluble vitamin so consequently you take really take too much of it. When your body have excess quantities of C & B it simply eliminates them with the rest of your bodies waste. Citrus fruits are one of the common ways we can get our vitamin C but I also like the supplement Emergen-C as it give you a boost of energy and gets into the bloodstream quickly.

Omega 3 fish oils. The American Heart Association advises everyone to eat at least two 3-ounce servings of fatty fish every week. Omega 3s seem to be the key to many ailments.

Whenever I need advise about healing foods, I check two places.
The First is: Prescriptions for Nutritional Healing. I think at this point, we have two copies of this book at home. It's a book I like to give to people because it shows things by ailment and gives healing foods to eat for that ailment as well as vitamins and lifestyle changes you can make. This is a very down to earth, practical guide for whatever ails you. An invaluable reference guide. The Second is:Healing Foods Resource - The Earth Clinic Online

What To Avoid

Firstly, AVOID OVER DOING.  Too much of ANYTHING is bad for you - including healing foods, water and oxygen .  And while I probably don’t need to say it. Avoid the following:

• Don’t smoke cigarettes - Nicotine is terribly addictive and horrible for you. 
  If you absolutely HAVE to have tobacco in your sacred rituals - use the kind without the chemicals and grown organically.
• Don’t take too many drugs, including over the counter prescription drugs and natural herbal drugs.

Use in moderation those things you enjoy that you know aren’t healing foods and aren’t great for you including:

• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Sugar
• Candies, Cakes, Pies (did I mention sugar)
• Fried Foods
• Salt
• Processed foods including white bread