LET’S TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT NUTRITION
Oh dear, I hope we didn’t lose some
readers already. Many people feel that nutrition is such a BORING subject, and
yet it’s actually a Sci-Fi story. Food is an alien to your system. It has lived
outside your body, and developed its own defense mechanism against fungus,
disease and pest. Since you willingly take this alien into your body, it’s
important to understand “who’s coming to dinner” and how to make it a welcome
addition.
You are saved from my explanation
of all the food principles due to limited space. Beware trying to find this
information in diet books; diets aren’t always about nutrition. I firmly believe
if you understand the nutritional side of food and how your body uses it, diets
are not needed. Old Testament scriptures present a number of essential laws; the
best recent food publication I’ve read was The Pro Vita Plan by Jack Tips
ND, PhD. It’s a simple and logical approach to using food for health and healing
and was so well presented I used its information to augment the Nutrition
curriculum when I traveled to teach workshops a few years ago. It may be out of
print now, but Amazon can locate it in used books or contact Apple A Day Press,
Austin Texas.512-328-3996.
Lets’ consider a possibly, higher
principle of nutrition that has a profound affect on well being. Although the
quality and quantity of food we consume is extremely important, how we FEEL
about eating affects us more. Most spiritual and religious teachings instruct us
to give thanks for our food. This “attitude of gratitude”, expressed by a quiet
moment of silent communication before eating actually has a physical affect on
the stomach, pancreas and adrenal glands. It causes us to be in the “PRESENT”
moment which calms the central nervous system and allows those mentioned organs
to prepare for the work they will do digesting what is consumed.
Another benefit of taking a moment
to bless food is supported in the theories presented by the science of
Homeopathy and the recent study of information and water conducted by Japanese
scientist, Dr. Emoto. In his published work, The Message of Water , Emoto
shows photographs of the changes made in ice crystals depending on the
information applied to the water, such as classical music, heavy metal music,
the printed words of “I hate you or I love you” before freezing.
This is quite an amazing subject to
consider, but great minds have been examining these beliefs since before the
time of Hermes. It is the belief of all indigenous people that spirit lives in
everything. Most religions support the belief that the energy or spirit of
matter can be changed through blessing, which is why monks bless sand or water
for healings, priest consecrate water and communion/sacrament, homes and even
babies are blessed. It purifies the spirit by connecting to a higher source.
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“LET FOOD BE YOUR MEDICINE
and MEDICINE BE YOUR FOOD”
Those opening words are from
Hippocrates, the father of Western Medicine. Are you surprised? Can food be that
powerful? We used to be a people who ate to live…we have now become a society
that lives to eat. Eating habits have changed so much in our country over the
last 50 – 70 years, but so has our health. We have diseases now that were
unheard of at that time.
Seventy years ago, families rarely
ate out; eating some kind of meat was not always a daily practice. Bitter green
vegetables/herbs were gathered and eaten in the spring to clean the liver, blood
and bowel after a winter of congestive food. Water was the normal beverage;
flavored drinks were special for social occasions.
Changing food and lifestyle habits
are difficult to do even when we recognize how detrimental our old habits are.
Breaking the emotional attachment to habits is like asking a toddler to give up
its security blanket; fearful. So what would happen if we looked at a little new
information over the next couple of months to see if one or two new ideas could
be incorporated into our current life style?
Minerals are probably the highest
level priority to health. These would include trace minerals as well as the
major minerals like calcium or iron. Without trace minerals, B vitamins are not
available to help digest food, and support the nervous system, wounds don’t heal
properly, hormones imbalances occur and hair may fall out. The Genesis story
says that we were created from the dust of the earth and this is where trace
minerals come from. Modern farming methods have depleted the soil of these
needed nutrients and even when fertilizer is used it is generally a chemical
substitute and does not replace necessary trace minerals. Minerals are depleted
with physical or emotional stress and high sugar diets. Supplementing with
Colloidal Minerals or another organic form would help relieve daily stress and
discomfort until the diet starts to include more dark green leafy vegetables
such as collards, chard and spinach.
In the Clayton College publication,
Holistic Times, Don Graves of the University of California has found that
Cinnamon has an insulin-like activity and also can potentiate insulin. This
could be very helpful with certain forms of diabetes, but has only been tested
on mice so far. Cinnamon made into a tea will also soothe the stomach and
intestines and stop diarrhea.
We hosted a student from California
recently who is a gifted healer in her own right. She promotes raw eating as a
way of restoring health. One of her staples for any skin problem or muscle
reconstruction is a raw egg from a free range roaming chicken, (preferably
unrefrigerated), 1 teaspoon of raw honey, beat together in a glass of raw goat
or cow milk. I am using rice milk.
Making Ox tail soup and eating it
twice a week will restore health to connective tissue and joints. Some of these
foods maybe different than you’ve had and it can be difficult to try something
new but it’s just in how we view them. I have a Hawaiian friend who was shocked
that we would eat eggs that did not come from a grocery store…and yet she
always wants to eat the turkey tail on Thanksgiving. Isn’t it just a matter of
perspective?
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Never Too Old
[How nutrition as well as attitude
can affect aging.]
The aged or ancients have always
been revered by indigenous cultures for their years of acquired wisdom, but our
western, image-conscious society seems to link
the loss of youthful features with
the inability to be of value to a community.
The lines and wrinkles on our face
are actually the report card of our soul. The
changes that occur in our
appearance are just subtle communication from your body to indicate adjustments
that need to be made in your lifestyle and belief system. We sometimes try to
discount this information by claiming that we look like our father or mother,
but belie systems are passed down through
families.
Over a period of years we notice a
weakness in our collagen levels. Collagen is the fibrous protein found in
connective tissue, bone, cartilage and skin. It becomes most apparent to us in
skin when we start to loose the definition of our jaw line or develop a soft
sagging chin. I believe most of this loss comes from depleting our supply of
enzymes. Without spending a lot of time explaining what these little proteins
do, I'll refer you to Dr. Edward Howell's book Enzyme Nutrition. Simply stated,
every living thing contains enzymes. They are Instrumental in the building of
new cell network, plus breaking down and discarding old, dying tissue.
Enzymes are also needed for the
digestion of food. Dr. Howell explains that we are born with an enzyme potential
- an allotment that is to supply us with what we need for our lifetime. Since
all plants and animals contain their own enzymes, these can be used to aid us in
the digestion of their tissue. The flaw in this plan is that we
have become a society that eats
primarily, processed food. All processed food has been exposed to heat of 110°
or higher which destroys enzymes. Without these necessary enzymes to aid with
digestion we have to make withdrawals from our allotment. The body's highest
priority is to have energy, so it will sacrifice the making of new tissue to
help produce the energy it needs. We look to sugar for energy but it only adds
to the enzyme problem. Processed sugar depletes our body of minerals that are
necessary for enzyme activation.
The nervous system comes into play
now, because it is the super highway that carries messages through the energy
patterns of our body. Nerve endings are also like an artist's pencil, drawing
lines which allow hidden feelings to manifest in our appearance. Einstein's
theory on matter vs. energy proved that we humans are energy.
Thoughts and emotions are energy
also. All energy is in motion and that movement affects the tissue that it is
housed in. Higher positive emotions - for example, laughter, pleasure, joy -
move through our body easily due to the deep breathing associated with them.
However the lower, heavier, negative emotions become locked into organs and
glands related to the situation. This is due to the lack of breathing
experienced during trauma, such as
anger, grief, fear. Over time the vibration will weaken the organ that it has
become housed in, and that information travels along the central nervous system
and appears in facial tissue.
Chinese medicine has used this
`body' information to diagnose illness for years. Even though I do not diagnose,
using the information that people's faces, bodies and hands
presents gives tremendous insight
as to how to guide them to find the state of wellness. Weakness in the thyroid,
pancreas and liver create just a few of the subtle facial messages that we
associate with "just getting older." The poorer our nutrition and genetic
background, the earlier these signals appear. If you don't like the messages you
are receiving, remember they are not carved in granite. Soft tissue can be
changed gradually by addressing the emotional issue that is at the root of its
deterioration; nutritionally supporting the gland or organ showing weakness; and
incorporating extra enzymes into the diet. This can be done as digestive
supplements plus lots of raw fruits and vegetables to take stress off of
digestiveenzyme production. Proper food combining, such as promoted in Your
Health... Your Choice by Dr. Ted Morter, also relieves the heavy burden our
western diet places on the pancreas.
One more aspect of aging is our
state of mind. How old is `old' to you? Last year I spoke to a man of average
health, in his 70s, who was explaining that he couldn't visit an out-of-state
family member because he would be too far away from his doc or and hospital; two
months later John Glen, in his 70s, took off in a space ship. It amazes me
sometimes to hear clients speak of themselves as "aged" when they are only in
their forties. This outlook generally comes from not being happy with the
direction their lives are heading. Feelings of being trapped in a situation,
job, or relationship will often give us a feeling of being `old.' If the
situation can't be changed, we have to change our perspective of it. This is not
new information. It was written in ancient sacred scripture.
Mae West was a great example and
her words "You are never too old to start getting younger" carry a lot of truth.
Each of us will decide if we are `old' and it is up to each one of us to bring
about the changes we want in our lives. A little attention to your diet and some
nurturing of yourself can make an amazing difference in your physical appearance
in just a matter of months.
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