GOOD FOOD = GOOD DIGESTION = GOOD HEALTH!

If you are one of my avid readers, you probably know that I consider the Digestive System as a major key to good health. In short, there is no way to be healthy without having proper digestion. We are what we eat, but most importantly, WE ARE WHAT WE DIGEST!

The Standard American Diet (SAD) is terribly unhealthy, hard-to-digest, and an un-physiological diet. It is totally unfair to ask your body to be and stay healthy when for breakfast you eat a bowl of Cheerios or Frosted Flakes with 1% pasteurized and homogenized milk. These cereals are so highly processed and so loaded with tons of preservatives, that even the bugs won’t even eat them!

This means that these boxed cereals (any kind) can stay in your pantry year after year without being attacked by insects! To make things worse, synthetic vitamins are added to the so-called cereals, so it gives you a feeling that you are receiving your daily values of vitamins. This is totally untrue because these vitamins are not recognized by the body as valuable nutrients. The result is that your body needs to eliminate them, and this process of elimination just adds to the burden of detoxification.

The non-fat milk or 1% fat milk comes from cows that have never seen grass in their poor and miserable lives! These animals are treated constantly with antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and pumped with growth hormones. Think about the amount of chemicals that are passed on to you, to your body, through this milk! How can your body function and serve you well with constant exposure to these chemicals?

And, to top off their stomach, most people will grab a non-fat Latte Cappuccino bla bla bla… sweetened with artificial sweeteners. I call these fancy drinks “Liquid Candies”! When this “mélange” arrives in your stomach, it is very hard to digest and your poor stomach has to send many different enzymes to break down the foreign molecules. Of course you feel full because it takes hours and hours to digest such a beverage, but are you properly nourished? Not at all! You are just filled up!

But, what kind of vibrant nourishing nutrients did you get out of this so-called breakfast? You barely got enough to function for a few hours, and you certainly did not get enough of the crucial nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy and to repair or heal any health conditions. I call this pure junk food, not better than a McDonald Egg Mc Muffin!  All it does is fill up your stomach by giving you calories. But, it is also poisoning you at the same time, and forces your body to do extra work to detoxify this heavy load of chemicals. And to say the least, we can only expect your digestive system to be in great distress! So, what can you do if you want to have and maintain a healthy digestive system, which in turn means staying healthy?

 
CHANGE YOUR DIETARY HABITS

There is no way around it: you cannot expect to be healthy if you keep eating devitalized, homogenized, pasteurized, boxed, and prepackaged foods! You need to eat Fresh, Organic, in Season, Locally Harvested, as close to Mother Nature made it as is possible, types of food…PERIOD!  You need to go back to the diet of your grand parents, who didn’t eat anything that was packaged, prepared, boxed, or pumped up with artificial molecules because it simply didn’t exist. They ate simple foods, but these foods were rich in nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, friendly bacteria, and they were fresh and healthy foods.

The cows of your grand parents were eating grass in the summer, and hay in the winter, which is what normal cows should eat. They were not fed with soy neither with pre-packaged food made of by-products from genetically modified grains, flours, and enriched chemical vitamins. They didn’t suffer from confinement because in those days they were grazing in beautiful fields all year long. They didn’t need antibiotics because they had no chronic infections of their udders. They didn’t receive shots of growth hormones because they didn’t exist. Their milk was composed of healthy fats, the kind that doesn’t create inflammatory disease. Rather, the kind that is important for brain development, rich in amino-acids necessary for repair and cell growth, rich in immuno-globulins to fight disease and maintain a healthy immunity, and rich in enzymes for healthy digestion. The milk didn’t need to be pasteurized because there was no problem of infected milk. The milk was consumed fresh and given to children and pregnant mothers for healthy fetus development.

One way of preserving milk was to ferment it into yogurt or kefir which brought up the number of healthy probiotics contributing to healthy digestion and healthy immunity. Whey, the protein extracted from the milk and known as a “super nutrient” extremely rich in probiotics, was used to ferment other foods such as sauerkraut. Fermented vegetables were consumed all year long with main meals to preserve the integrity of the gut flora. A healthy gut flora is an extremely important factor for proper digestion, good immune system, healthy joints and skin, and even proper brain function.

The cereals were grown “organically” of course. There was no such thing as organic or non organic, but ONLY what Mother Nature was producing without chemicals, pesticides. When harvested, as my mom used to do when she was a little girl, cereals were left intact in the field in bundles to dry directly by the sun. This natural process would start to remove some of the unhealthy factors naturally contained in grains, called phytic acids. A week later, the grains were separated from the hay and dust, and then stored. When it was time to make bread, the grain was then milled (only at that moment and not months in advance) into flour. The bran and the grain were not separated thus, they retained the essential vitamins and minerals. The flour was not bleached. Because there were no chemical leavening agents, a starter was prepared by simply mixing flour, water, and salt. It would take about a week for a starter to be ready to make the bread. This process is very important again to remove the phytic acid from the flour. The results were beautiful and fresh loaves of sourdough bread, very easy to digest, and there was no such thing as Gluten Intolerances. I believe that Gluten Intolerances began with the ingestion of unhealthy industrialized breads and flours. If we would respect the natural processes designed by Mother Nature, I truly believe that many of our food intolerance epidemics would disappear.

Vegetables and fruits of course were grown without any chemical fertilizers because the soil was rich, and had not yet been totally depleted with the multiple processes used by modern agro-business. There were no need for pesticides because first there were certainly less pests than now, but also because the plants were healthier so they were more “equipped” to fight the bugs. There was no need to wax the fruits so they can look shiner. There was no need to inject the produce with gas to preserve them during transportation. The produce was eaten fresh or preserved as fermented foods, or canned foods. They were loaded with vitamins, minerals and enzymes and as a result, there was no need to take vitamin supplements.

The meats your grand parents ate were healthy meats from beef, poultry, lamb, pork or wild game. NONE of these meats were treated with medications or pumped up with hormones. The animals were living a normal life and not stressed by confinement, lack of exercise or lack of fresh air. The meat was rich in healthy saturated fats, which are necessary in so many functions of the body. Yes, saturated fats can be healthy if they come from healthy animals. Every single cell of our body is surrounded by a protective layer of saturated fats, without which the cells could not sustain the constant attacks by viruses, fungus, bacteria, heavy metals, and chemicals. Most importantly is the absolute necessity of such fats in the brain. Our brain is made up of 70% fat tissues, which allows communication between one neuron to the other. No wonder we have such an epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, with so many people put on statin drugs and told to reduce their fat intake!

Animal fats were an important part of the diets of your ancestors: butter, ghee, eggs, fats from the meats, lard and tallow were normal fats to eat. There was no such thing as margarine, softened butter (so it’s easier to spread), or hydrogenated oils (so food can be preserved forever). Today, saturated fats from animals are perceived as “disgusting” by most American people, and they are certainly getting bad press from the doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Saturated fats from animals are accused of being the primal cause of cardio- vascular disorders, but none of this is true! Statistics are telling us that consumption of fats from animals have declined for the past 50 years, while consumption of vegetable fats have increased! But during that same period of time, cardio-vascular diseases have kept creeping up! If the cause of cardio- vascular disease were the saturated animal fats, and the vegetables oils were supposed to protect the cardio-vascular system, then why don’t we have less cardio-vascular disorders. It’s not the saturated fats that are the problem; it is the replacement of these healthy fats with margarine, soybean oil, Hydrogenated fats, and Trans fats. THESE are the bad guys!

Fifty to one-hundred years ago, water was pure, and not polluted by industry, pesticides and so forth. Water was put on the table at every single meal, as well as fresh milk. When did we start thinking that Coca Cola or fruit juices could replace a glass of water? Besides being liquid, there is no other common denominator between these “so-called beverages” and water. It absolutely blows my mind when I ask my patients what they drink with their meals and the answer comes back: soda, tea, coffee or fruit juices! Soda, tea, coffee, fruit juices are NOT WATER. They are not the liquid that the body needs to stay hydrated. They are dehydrating, they are sweet, they are artificially flavored, and they are high in calories. They are not the WATER, which is needed in every single cell of our body, at every single moment of our life!

You may start to think that I am an idealist, and that even if we wanted too, we could never come back to the healthy ways our ancestors were eating. You may think that it is too late and that even if you could eat healthier food, it would not make a significant difference because we live in a polluted planet. And you may think that we cannot reverse the way things are?

I don’t believe that, and I don’t think I am an idealist. I think that we can make changes, one step at a time and one person at a time. We start with ourselves, by eating healthier, and respecting Mother Nature. I believe that we always have choices, and the motivations to make our decisions can be either very personal such as to improve our health, or they can be philosophical, intellectual or spiritual. By implementing changes in our personal lives, we set an example, which can be seen by our children, our spouses, our co-workers and our friends. Most people are willing to make changes for a better health. It is a NORMAL thing to be healthy, it is our birth right to be healthy. By changing our diets, we start helping local farmers, which is a key to saving our planet from pollution and depletion. The planet and our bodies can recover if we give them the right tools and opportunity.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

First, Start shopping for organic and fresh produces, which can be found at any Framer’s Market, or at a local health food store, or start your own garden, and grow beautiful vegetables that will make you very proud of yourself.

Second, Go back to your kitchen and start cooking. Yes, it takes some time. But, the energy and time that you put into preparing your food is directly proportional to the benefits you gain from better health, to say nothing of the great tasting food. Then share your meals with family and friends. Prepare meals in quantities so you can freeze them for future meals.

Third, Find a local rancher from whom you can purchase grass fed, organically raised meat and poultry. Buy in bulk, and freeze it. You know what you get and it is a very economical way to buy meat.

Fourth, Drink only purified, well or spring water. Don’t touch tap water.

 Fifth, Don’t buy any food which lists ingredients that you cannot pronounce. If you can’t pronounce it, it means that the food in all likelihood is preserved, and it is artificially enhanced, and that synthetic vitamins have been added, as well as colorants and preservatives.

Sixth, Never eat fast food and convenience food, because the only convenience is for the food industry, not for you…not for your health.

By purchasing better quality food, and preparing food from scratch, you bring to your body the precious nutrients that it requires, which means that you will stop craving convenience foods or sweets. You digest better; you keep your digestive flora healthy, and you avoid disease. If you need to heal from a disease, your body will heal and stabilize itself so you can be healthy and stay healthy for the rest of your life. By stopping the pollution of your body, you stop participating in the pollution of the planet, and you stop “feeding” the pharmaceutical companies. You will show and teach your children how to eat and stay healthy, so they can pass it onto the next generation. We can make a difference by starting with ourselves, so let’s start now!

Finally, by eating and digesting better you can address a multitude of symtoms and illnesses such as: Heartburn,  Acid Reflux,  Diarrhea,  Constipation,  Brain Fog,  Lack of Concentration,  Fatigue,  Insomnia,  Weight Issues,  Poor Skin & Nails,  Mood Disorders,  Hormonal Imbalances,  Allergies,  Chronic Inflammation,  Headaches,  Joint Pain,  Arthritis,  and even Auto-Immune Diseases.

If you or your loved ones suffer from any of these conditions, you MUST work on your digestive system.  If you are ready to embark on a life changing, life improving course, I can help you improve these very important issues by addressing the core issues of your digestive system and helping you regain and maintain your health.  Please feel free to call Monterey Bay Naturopathy Monday through Friday at 831-642-0202 or email me at Beatrice@montereybaynaturopathy.com

The entire contents of HEALTH AWARENESS are based upon the opinions of Beatrice Levinson, Naturopath, unless otherwise indicated. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked. The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as an offering and sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Beatrice Levinson, Naturopath within the U.S. and Europe. Beatrice Levinson, Naturopath encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.

©Copyright 2007 Beatrice F. Levinson, Naturopath. All Rights Reserved.  This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Beatrice Levinson is required.

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