Published: Webster Herald, 5-13-15
Hello! This is the last of five articles exploring holistic health care. We’ve had an intro, explored the basics, and introduced two of the three stressors, mechanical and energetic. Today is all about nutrition. But WAIT! Don’t turn the page yet, because it’s not what you usually read about. There is much more to nutrition than what you eat. It’s called digestion and is the processes of ingesting, chewing, breaking it down to usable parts, absorbing the good stuff and eliminating the waste. This process is largely ignored by our current medical system and is handled by the holistic health practitioners. Oh, what joy it will be when we all work together!
Obviously we have to ingest nutritious food and avoid the not-so-nutritious food, but there is so much out there about that, I’m going to skip it and go right to the do’s and don’ts of getting the nutrients into your cells, so they, and therefore you, can thrive:
1 – Choose food that still has their natural enzymes, or when that is not possible take enzyme supplements with your meal. Enzymes help break the food down and they are destroyed when heated, radiated or sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Even most of our raw, organic foods do not contain their original enzymes because they’ve been radiated. We are built to make up the difference (by our pancreas) if the food is lacking, but we are not built to continuously supply ALL the enzymes. This can lead to an exhausted pancreas, which leads to many physical problems such as abdominal pain, bowel toxicity, fatigue, metabolic deficiencies, diabetes II, and much more.
2 – Chew well! The breakdown of carbohydrates starts in the mouth. Plus, enzymes need to touch the surface of the food in order to do their job, so the smaller the pieces the better.
3 – Keep the temperatures of what you ingest mild. Enzymes need close to body temperature to work. Pre-digestion is accomplished in the stomach after swallowing and before the acid comes in (about 30 to 60 minutes). This is when the enzymes that are in the food itself (or supplements) do their job, and their time to do it is reduced with extreme temperatures. Ice in your water? Think again.
4 – Mentally relax during and after your meal. Stress causes the digestion system to slow or shut down. If your body thinks it’s being chased by a bear, keeping the digestion going is low on the priority list. Undigested food that reaches the intestines can raise havoc with the entire body function including our moods, energy level, brain function, and immune system.
5 – Eat meals instead of grazing through the day. Our stomachs do not contain acid until it is needed. Grazing causes the stomach acid to be there when food is first ingested which eliminates the pre-digestion phase and undigested food continues on through. One of the many things this can cause is bloating, gas, and distention, as the gut bacteria attempt to digest what should have been digested further up the line.
6 – Keep it moving at a consistent pace. Constipation and diarrhea are not just uncomfortable irritants, but can represent undigested food, toxic buildup, and depleting nutrition for the body.
7 – If you’re having a physical or emotional problem, think nutrition. For example, roving pain (that often gets diagnosed as fibromyalgia) may be due to undigested food particles making it through the gut wall into the blood stream causing an inflammatory reaction that could be anywhere. Another example is, diabetes II can be caused by undigested fat lodging in the receptor site for insulin. The insulin comes along carrying its package of energy, and finds the door blocked, so no delivery.
Food is the fuel and the building blocks for these physical bodies we live in. Eat well, break it down, absorb it and that will go a long way towards your radiant health.
I hope this little tour through holistic health care has peaked your interest to learn more. What’s your stress and how are you handling it? I’m wishing you well on your journey through life.