Foods for Healthy Living

Practical, No-Nonsense Guidelines to a Health Supportive Diet:

1. Start by exploring the vast variety of Nutrient-Dense foods, which include: Whole Grains, Beans and Legumes, Purine Proteins, Cruciferous Vegetables, High forms of Soy Products, Nuts and Seeds, Sea Vegetables, Herbs and Spices, Natural Condiments, Quality Oils and Natural Sweeteners and Stock your pantry with these Power food staples.

2. Rotate your foods. Your diet should never stay the same. It needs to change as your life choices and experiences change. A repetitive meal plan causes the body to have stale, sluggish energy. Each time you try a new food you actually become smarter, opening up new neurotransmitters to the brain.

3. Learn the criteria for healthy food selection:

a. Eat in season and close to home. (locally grown produce) Shop at farmer's markets or local produce stands. Food import and export companies are overriding the cycles of nature, manipulating foods to grow with chemical, ripen with chemicals, and shipped with chemicals. Food companies spend millions of dollars promoting non-traditional agriculture to countries that were once self-sufficient. Big business has no patience with nature, so it tends to grow only the foods that ripen slowly and ship well.

b. Avoid Genetically Engineered Foods, Right now US supermarkets are carrying these items and you might not know it. Potential dangers from eating these foods include toxicity, allergic reaction, antibiotic resistance and cancer.

c. Eat close to MOTHER NATURE, simple foods that provide the most FUNDAMENTAL nutrition. Organic Fruits and vegetables that are rich in PHYTO-Chemicals and ANTI-OXIDANTS. They protect our cells from free-Radicals. These disease-preventing compounds, also called Phyto-Neutrients are the most significant findings in nutritional history. They naturally occur in unprocessed and unheated foods and reveal the magnificence of nature's genius. Remember everyday to "Go For The Green", eating lots of dark green veggies, which exhibit extraordinarily broad anti-cancer powers.

d. Justify buying Organic foods, research shows us that the everyday accumulation of chemicals on non-organic foods pays its toll on our bodies. Some are so powerful that they can cause cell mutation. Choose only Free-Ranged Chicken and other meats that are now available in many market places.

4. Choose foods that support and promote Intestinal Health. The human GI tract houses the largest portion of the immune system - the gut associated lymphoid tissue and the mucosal tissue. Together these tissues help to preserve and promote the integrity and function of the GI tract, thus contributing to the maintenance of overall health. These are your fiber-rich foods. Another group of good Probiotic activity (That is the good bacteria found in certain foods) are found in high Chlorophyll foods such as: Wheat Grass, Dark Greens, Micro-Algae (spirulina and alfalfa, known as Super Greens). Sauerkraut, Yogurt and Miso, from the Soy Bean have all excellent "ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIVIRAL" properties to keep the intestinal tract rich in bactericidal agents.

5. Include more Omega 3's, Essential fatty acids into your diet. EFA's are involved in producing LIFE ENERGY in our bodies, received from the foods we eat. We make all the fatty acids we need except for two that must come from or food-omega 6 (linoleic acid) and omega 3 (alpha-linolenic acid) - if we don't get enough, our bodies slowly deteriorate and speed up the aging process. They are major producers of life energy in our bodies. They govern growth and vitality and mental state. They produce oxygen. Enemies of EFA's are sugar, phosphates (from soda), pesticides and free radicals.

6. Avoid all Bad fats. These are partially hydrogenated vegetables oils and margarines. These products contain large quantities of TRANS-Fatty acids and other altered fat substances, some of which are now to be detrimental to health because they interfere with normal biochemical processes. Trans-fatty acids have been shown to increase cholesterol, decrease beneficial high-density lipoprotein (HDL), interfere with our liver's detoxification system, and interfere with EFA function.

7. Avoid simple Carbohydrates and learn more about Complex Carbohydrates such as the excellent nutrition found in Whole grains as Brown Rice, Millet, Quinoa, Barley, Rye, Buckwheat (kasha) Oats and Amaranth. These are the foods that have sustained humans for thousands of years.

8. Start drinking fresh juices (organic) and eating more raw foods. These are also called "living foods" and provide the body with essential ENZYMES, especially DIGESTIVE ENZYMES. Then the body can use the component nutrients to build and maintain health at the cellular level. Efficient digestion only takes place in the presence of plentiful amounts of enzymes. You can't get these digestive and metabolic enzymes from day-to-day, mainly cooked foods. If you're not eating enough raw foods you must replenish your enzyme levels with a good supplement.

9. Carve out a space of time to prep and cook weekly. You will not be truly nourished by foods on the run and cooked by strangers. It is easy to create the most nutritious balanced meals. Learn to cook with increased awareness, relaxation and pleasure. Bring back the sacredness of a home cooked meal.

10. Finally, cultivate an appreciation for nourishing the body. It means eating consciously and seeking out those special foods that build and enhance our bodies. Eat with a sense of gratitude at each meal. Your Health is a process. If you work towards it daily, the dividends will be high.

Cruciferous Vegetables: A Study on Their Wonders And Powers

October 20, 2003
Chef Kathryn Bari for Stony Brook University

Cruciferous vegetables are an exceptional family of phytochemicals

Nutrient rich vegetables named for their cross-shaped flowers. Cruciferous veggies are touted for their powerful healing compounds that exhibit cancer-fighting activity in laboratory studies. Cruciferous vegetables include, bok choy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, all cabbages, cauliflower, kale, radishes, turnips and watercress.

Understanding The Energetics of These Foods:

Buds:
Plants produce two kinds of buds-leaf buds and flower buds. Leaf buds contain the future leaves of the plant, intricately and logarithmically folded together. They can also contain additional stems. Flower buds contain future flowers, but unlike leaf buds, the flower bud doesn't grow new stems. Flower buds are surrounded by a set of leaves called sepals. This spiral whorl of leaves is collectively called calyx.

Energetically, buds, both leaf and flower- represent a plant's ability to reflect on it's past and prepare for the future. The plant of the pre-bud stage has released and unwound itself to the point where it then temporarily retracts and concentrates its energies in order to go through its final stages of reproduction.

The bud is an area of very active cell division. It represents a building of momentum, with the explosive capacity to create a complex structure different from any the plant previously experienced. The bud is a fertilized womb and contains a tremendous amount of active contained energy.

Cultivated plants whose buds are used for food include the cabbages and their relatives, broccoli and cauliflower.

Ground Level Vegetables:
This group of vegetables includes a wide variety of flowering plants that exceed the varieties found in leafy and root groups. Some of these vegetables are round, some elongated, some stalked: all found at the end of stem and all lie very close to the ground. Some of these veggies are buds and others are the fruit of the plant.

Cabbages, hard squashes, (butternut and acorn), cauliflower, broccoli are just a few of the many examples.

Being in between leafy and root vegetables, ground level veggies energetically have an effect on the middle organs of the human body- stomach, pancreas, liver, gall bladder and spleen.

Highlights of These Wonder Vegetables:

*Broccoli is rich in beta-carotene, Vit. C, potassium, iron and bone building calcium. Other cruciferâs vegetables are:

*Extremely high anti-cancer activity, particularly against lung, colon, stomach and breast cancers

Anti-viral and Anti-ulcer activity, (contains Vit. U)
An extremely useful food to help with many problems of the Lungs: such as mucus build-up, colds, allergies, sinus problems, bronchitis and asthma. When toxins build up in the lungs- it creates tension, exhaustion, hair and skin problems.

*Super source of Chromium that helps regulate insulin and blood sugar levels

*Rich in Fluorine which helps protect the entire body from invasion of germs and viruses (Fluorine in food is entirely different then chemically produced sodium fluoride)

*In Chinese Medicine, Cabbages moisten the intestines, benefits the stomach, improves digestion, and is used in many cultures to beautify the skin. It is also used for treating constipation, the common cold, whooping cough (cabbage soup or tea), mental depression and irritability.

* Cabbage is rich in Sulfur (destroys parasites and purifies the blood) Rich in disease fighting antioxidants, which can regulate the female hormone Estrogen, possessing "estrogenic activity" and can nicely balance and manipulate negative hormone concentrations in the body.

*New research suggests that eating more cruciferous vegetables may help curtail fibrocystic breast disease by speeding up metabolism to more quickly dispose of estrogen that aggravates breast lumps. They possess an Anti-stagnant properties which moves energy through organ systems

More Notes:
Cabbage was revered in Ancient Rome as a Cancer Cure
Cooking and processing destroys some of the anti-oxidants and anti-estrogenic agents, such as Indoles and Glutathione
As little as two daily tablespoons of cooked cabbage protect against stomach cancer. Raw cabbage appears to have stronger overall pharmacological activity
The crucifers may give some people gas but through patience and persistence, first, identify all foods that can cause you this problem, add a little garlic or ginger to the veggies in cooking or eating raw. Both are reputed in folk medicine to be antiflatulent

Cruciferous Vegetables-Their Role In Intestinal Health:

1. Reducing Exposure To Xenobiotics: The use of Alcohol, Tobacco, Caffeine and drugs are common lifestyle choices that contribute to Xenobiotic exposure. Large quantities of toxic chemicals are produced each year from industrial sources. They are pollutants introduced directly into the environment, while others are released over time from products used in homes and workplaces. Foods represent the most common source of exposure to Xenobiotics. Approximately 3,000 chemicals are used by the food industry during processing. An additional 12,000 chemicals are used in food packaging materials. The use of organically grown and processed foods is an effective means of reducing food-borne toxins.

Including the Cruciferous daily in your diet can counter-balance these toxins.

2. Normalizing Gastrointestinal Function: Deficiencies of digestive enzymes and imbalances in gastrointestinal PH are common causes of impaired digestion, contributing to malabsorption of nutrients. Foods that are not completely digested can putrify or ferment in the intestine. Lifestyle factors also influence digestion function. Cruciferous Vegetables strengthen and tone and fortify the Mucus lining of the intestines (this is where the blood picks up the nutrients from digested foods). These vegetables also move move quickly thought he intestinal tract, like a broom creating important dietary fiber.

3. Rebuilding The Intestinal Mucus Lining: The Cruciferous family is continually supporting the permeability of the intestinal tract with its super Vitamins and Phytochemicals. They are major players in prevention of all Imbalances in the intestinal flora, which could lead to chronic diseases and infections.

REFERENCES:

Innovative Clinical Approaches to Chronic Illness, by Tyler Co.

Energetics of Food by Steve Gagne

Food Your Miracle Medicine by Jean carper

Super Foods by Prevention Magazine

Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford