Posts

Nuts and seeds and the truth about digesting them . . .

Nuts nuts nuts!

Are they a health food or stopping your gut from healing? How many is good and in what combination is best?
People who have had inflammatory bowel disease or leaky gut or suffer with a gut-brain connections such as (depression, autism) generally do not digest fats well because they lack the enzymes needed to break them down, I was no exception and the low carb high fat diet nearly killed me! Then moving away to a gourmet raw vegan diet. . . I still overloaded on raw desserts and nut cheeses and pates as I was living a gourmet raw diet trying to recreate cooked dishes that were so high in fats and hard to digest foods and fancy gourmet dinners.

shutterstock_360660002.jpg

This is what I’ve learned and why I now eat a simple diet with simple combinations and a small amount of  seeds germinated here and there.

High- protein, fatty and oily foods must be minimised, especially during the first year of gut recovery or you will plato and cause long term damage. Learning to eat within your digestive limitations is so important for healing no matter what your mind wants and your eyes see. Fat intake must be increased gradually only in accordance with what you can properly digest good overt healthy fats are essential in the diet but must be stopped or minimised at first to get the healing. Overeating on overt healthy fats like nuts, seeds, coconuts and avocados will, typically, stress the digestive system and create a toxic condition indicated by gas, foul, putrid bowel odours, stomach acidity, constipation, fatigue, etc., which can trigger an inflammatory bowel disease flare up. None mind bad fats, them you just need to steer well clear off.
• One to two ounces of nut or seed or nut butters eaten with one dinner (away from fruit) in a salad meal once per day, may be all the fat that anyone can digest effectively after healing inflammatory bowel disease. Or 1/4-1/2 of an avocado may be your digestive limit per day.
• Raw (ungerminated) nuts are difficult to digest; but, when eaten in small quantities (one ounce per meal, once per day, one to three times per week, depending on your digestive strength (I can not even cope with that much without getting sluggish and tired) and of course chewing them well with lettuce, celery or cucumbers, then they might digest ok and give healthful benefits. The masticating action (chewing) of our teeth is not capable of effectively breaking down hard nuts and seeds to particle sizes small enough to be completely digested by our stomach acids. We are not squirrels! Stomach acid can only act on the outer surface of the nuts particles; if acidic digestive enzymes are not able to act on the protein within the particles, the protein will pass through the system unused and without giving you its nutrients and will putrefy in the bowel causing bloating, gas and wind. Activating your nuts and seeds helps with this.
• Raw nuts and seed smoothies (made with water, citrus fruit (only) or vegetables in a blender) and raw nuts and seed butters -made in good blenders and or available in jars from health food stores, not mass supermarket brands. Are much easier to digest than unprocessed whole nut and seeds, and are, therefore, recommended to eat. Still, they are very rich in oily fat which can cause problems if eaten beyond your digestive capability and you know how fast a bag of nuts goes or a jar of nut butter. So go easy on them with small amounts in the right food combinations and always the freshest highest quality. Food combining and why is it essential for health!-chart. I would suggest having smoothies with fruits, greens and water with NO NUTS OR SEEDS ADDED.

 

• “Living” nuts and seeds, i.e., raw nuts such as almonds germinated/sprouted in water for 12 to 24 hours then sprouted in room temperature air, are more digestible than ungerminated (raw) nuts. The soaking and germination process hydrates and softens the hard fiber and reduces complex proteins into readily digestible amino acids. Germinated nut and seed blends (cheeses or patés) are perhaps easiest on the digestive system—an easy salad dressing is to blend one to two ounces of nuts or seeds with water, fresh-squeezed orange juice, a slice of orange or a tomato in a blender, then use this as a salad dressing or dip for vegetables.
• Experiment making nut and seed milks. Soak raw nuts or seeds in purified water for 2 to 24 hours, rinse well, blend at high speed with purified water in a blender, then strain and slowly drink the milk, mixing in your saliva. Chew chew chew even liquids!

shutterstock_330801518.jpg

Step by Step – Making Nut and Seed Milks.
• Avoid old rancid nuts and seeds that’s any that come from a supermarket or in packets, they can be 1-3 years old—these tend to feel soft, taste cheesy with no sweetness and appear darker in color than when they are fresh. You are not getting nutrition from these just toxins and more mucus being formed.
• Heated or roasted nuts and seeds are very toxic and must be avoided. Avoid roasted and salted nut and seed butters. Never cook with nuts!
• Peanut butter is not recommended because: 1. In raw or heated form, it is difficult to digest due to its high protein and starch content which we know doesn’t digest well; 2. In roasted form it is highly toxic; and 3. Peanuts are one of the most heavily pesticide-sprayed crops even in Australia.
• Organic, whole, raw peanuts can be eaten in moderation if they have been sprouted (soaked in water and allowed to germinate for several hours). However, these are subject to a toxic, yellow mold and must be carefully inspected and eaten with caution. Peanuts are actually a legumes and not recommend for gut healing as they are hard to digest.
If you are to eat nuts I would suggest choosing high omega 3 nuts like walnuts, pistachios, Macadamia, Brazil nuts which are great brain foods, over the higher omega 6 almond if you can. I do not suggest the raw nut desserts the are so hard to digest and are high in fats and rancid oils. Once you’ve done the healing work add them in as an occasional treat or different texture!

/1 Comment/by

Carbs carbs carbs . . . good, bad and how many is right for you?

Carbohydrates are an essential building blocks for health and healing but getting the right ones is the key. The key is choosing them wisely, and timing them properly. Used optimally, carbs can enhance your fitness regimen. Settle your hormones and promote sleep or derail it all and cause sickness and disease.

images-4

Since I was 16 I’ve heard all the “rules’ about carbs, I remember my old hairdressing clients when I was 18 on the Atkins Diet which was strictly no carbs and the no carbs after 5pm . . . you have seen them all right? But are you confused as I was?

Well I went on a research rampage over the last few years and through my nutrition training this is my take and personal experience with carbohydrates.

From being a vegetarian fruit, vegetable, grain and whole food eater. I went on the ‘low-carb’ bandwagon and I even tried Ketosis (extremely high fat, high protein and very low too NO carbs) and it was the sickest I’ve ever been although I was sick before, but it made me much worst. It has a great effect on obesity as you can loose weight dramatically but not correctly, or on very sick epileptic children who need a high fat diet for the brain to cope . . . being ‘low carb’ can work for some and can be stepping stone to get you where you need to go in short time but it is my belief and through my research that a prolonged time of ‘low-carb’ is not good for the brained can do more harm. I have seen when people cut out all fruit and go low carb the body can not cope and goes into shut down mode, the more I was trying to clear by body and loose weight the worst I got as it was starved of all glucose which is essential for the brain to function for the glands to produce a healthy balance of hormones and for my body to thrive. The Paleo way of eating is still ‘low-carb’ as is the Gaps Diet which promote real foods and healthy living so again can be a stepping stone in your healing journey, so this information below can still be used in conjunction to that way of eating. I still stand by my body feeling so much better without soy, grains, legumes and sugar but it did not go so well with the much needed simple healthy carbohydrate.

So now I eat an abundance of healthy simple carbohydrates in the form of fruit and vegetables each day, at each meal and I have not gained any weight and I’m slowly building the much needed muscles I lost through my Adrenal Fatigue and Fibromyalgia, as simple carbohydrates release energy slowly in to the cells I have energy! Yay to that fellow Chronic Fatigue suffers- you can have it too.  I can now exercise without crashing back to bed for days and my hormones are balanced. This has taken a year of trailing how much carbs my individual body needs and slowly slowly introducing the right type of exercise for my body and it’s needs-blocking out the latest fads in exercise and ways of eating and listening to my body and what it needs each day- not comparing my body to any one else body and loving the ride.

So let’s break this information down . . . when you work out, have a busy life you need energy or in my case having Fibromyalgia meant each night as I slept my body switch on the muscles like I was running a marathon; thus waking me up with exhaustion and achy muscles. This is because the muscle needs an energy source or they will start breaking down the muscle for energy. If your food source is low in natural glucose and fructose from fruits the body can not sustain energy and then that effects your endocrine system and your whole body. In others words your body is starving or thinks it’s in starvation/famine so it eat’s the muscles and keeps the fat  . . . oh gosh the opposite of what we want huh? By feeding your cells and brain with good healthy complex carbohydrates the body uses what it needs and you get energy stored in a healthy way.

images-3

So what’s the good carbs and the bad carbs?

All “Complex Carbohydrates” are nutrients that break down into glucose, your body’s primary source of energy and essential for the brain, and most foods contain them. Fruits and Vegetables!

But not all carbs are created equal and we know not all calories are created equally. Sugars that are added to foods, baked goods, pastas, cakes, crackers, muffins and refined grains (even gluten free products) such as white rice are broken down quickly by your body as these are a simple chains of 2 sugar molecules “Simple Carbohydrates”. That means they provide almost-instant energy, but it doesn’t last and spikes insulin to be released which then has to be stored outside the cells and this kind of sugar can not be used within the cells, the body then sends in hormones to cope and candida to mop up the excess sugar. This unbalances the bacteria and the whole body goes out of balance this is the onset of diabetes and fatigue, all while not fuelling the cells and feeding the brain so you crave more sugar and you are on a roller coaster of energy and emotions. When you eat a complex carbohydrate (fruit or vegetables) in a whole food state that fruit or vegetable is a complete package of fibre, minerals, fructose that can be converted to glucose-remember the brains food. FRUIT DOES NOT SPIKE INSULIN. Other carbs, such as those found in whole grains, vegetables and legumes, take longer to digest, so you get a steadier supply of energy but that can come at a price if you are not combining them properly or our body is backed up with waste.

Simple carbohydrate rich foods like bread can be very high in calories. But many foods that contain complex carbs, such as fruits and vegetables, are low in calories and high in vitamins and minerals so you can eat them in abundance without gaining weight. Others fall somewhere in between: Whole grains contain a lot of nutrients and calories, while white bread has no nutrients and still a lot of calories. Neither are good options for digestion and brain health and especially Autism or behavioural issues.

What does this mean? Remove simple carbs like added refined sugar and refined grains like breads, biscuits, cookies, pastas, pastries, sweets, lollies and crackers (even gluten free) and consider all other healthy none processed carbohydrates to be a productive food to fuel your body and can be eaten in abundance like all fruit and vegetables.

What carbs when?

“Complex Carbohydrates” or “Natural sugars” are essential for the brain and if they are lacking in the body the gut can not produce the hormones it needs for proper function i.e. Serotonin and Gaba. So by increasing your healthy none processed carbs you slowly over time balance your energy, brain function and hormones. Loosing symptoms like brain fog, low energy, skin conditions and low mood and low libido. But don’t be fooled to thinking refined sugars “Simple Carbohydrates” will do this as they will cause the symptoms I have just listed . . . so NO lollies, sweets, chocolates and biscuits and trying to justify it’s good energy for the body, you know it’s not even in moderation!

Eating your fruit in the morning to wake up your digestion and allow your body to exercise or work hard is important. If you eat breakfast of fats and proteins your body will have to work hard to convert that into glucose for the brain. Unless you plan to rest for 1-3 hours after each meal, this will not digest and you will then be adding more food on top throughout the day and feel tired and have brain fog. By eating fruit as your first meal to break your fast (sleep) this is easily digestable food and the body will not need to use as much energy to digest it and that energy will go to you for your work or exercise. Then lunch could be a light meal as well like a salad or fruit without fats or proteins so you fuel your brain without loading your body with heavy to digest foods. Dinner can be a light steamed cooked meal with  fats if you wish for that as you have 12-18 hours after say dinner at 7pm to digest it. You can of course continue with a light meal of fruit or a salad to aid digestion further and give your body chance to heal. Remember no fruit after proteins, fats and starches!

Team this information up with learning about fruit and how it can heal your body and give you sustained energy and feed your brain; The truth about fruit . . .

So in conclusion Carbohydrates are a great essential food for your brain and cells but you must choose nature offerings not man kinds to get these benefits.

 

/2 Comments/by

The Truth About Sugar and Fruit . . .

So is fruit good or bad for you? It makes you fat right?

images-2

Well here is the truth about fruit and why it’s got such a bad wrap over the years.

Fruit is a whole food containing an abundance of antioxidants and healthful nutrients, and the cellular scaffolding to fuel the body, it’s packed with protein and they hold enzymes and nutrients for your body and is instant energy for your cells and brain.

In the modern word it’s a super food! So why the bad wrap? I’m glad you asked . . . it is because most of us was eating it at the wrong time, with the wrong foods and out of season old or unripe fruits.

You see fruit digested very quickly so it must be eating on it’s own, preferable on an empty stomach to not cause fermentation in the gut . . . for example watermelon digest in 15 minutes and if you combine that with an apple that takes around 45-55 minutes this will cause gasses to be produced in the gut. Then the poor apple get’s the blame. Or mixing fruit with meat which takes 24-48 hrs to digest . . . you see it’s not the fruit it’s the combination of food. If you are following a GAPS Diet or strict Paleo Diet then you must keep your fruit consumption low as your meat and fats are so high and the combination is very bad for the body causing candida to thrive candida grows from fats and starches not complex sugars. Once you move away from the strict gut protocols after healing has take place and you have more freedom then follow the rules below. or just fill up on fruits and vegetables and your don’t have to worry as much about mixing foods.

Now later I will explain how to get the optimum out of your fruit by eaten certain fruits with others or avoiding certain combinations this will take your health to the next level. But if you take anything away from this article, the rule is to have fruit on it’s own without nuts or any other foods and have it at least 1 hour away from other meals. This goes for water too ( I can see your eyes rolling) without getting distracted, drinking water is great for the body but no animal or human is designed to drink gallons of water and especially with food it then just washes out the nutrients and stops the stomach producing the bile it needs to break it down. Drink water only when you are thirsty (listen to your body health seekers, listen!) more on hot day and drink water away from food as it will stop the digestion process completely.

How much water is good for you, and why you should never take it with food?

fruitBack to FRUIT!

All sugars are NOT the same. Don’t be afraid of fruit sugar. There is a big difference between a simple sugar and a complex sugar.

Every cell in the body requires sugar!!!! 

Sugar = carbon. That is why we call foods high in sugar, carbo-hy-drates, carbon chained constituents.
Carbon is essential, over fats and proteins (amino acids). They are essential to creating ATP, what we call cell ENERGY. We are charging the battery of the cell.

Our body is made of carbon cells that feed and eliminate, just as every living thing on the planet does.

“The magnetic electrical research field will come to prove that the human body is an electrical being and our health (strength and endurance) depends on the ENERGY currents which run through the body.” – Dr. George S. White, M.D.

Each cell must have sufficient oxygen and fructose/glucose to convert the simple sugar into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This is pure ENERGY for the life processes of the cell, through aerobic oxidation.
A delicately balanced distribution of sodium and potassium in and around the cells must be maintained at all times.

Fruits are higher in antioxidants and astringents and will move your lymphatic system far better than vegetables. This is why we see a lymphatic response when a fruit is consumed, and that is what we WANT to see.

Fruits, also being a simple sugar, are even superior for diabetics, pancreatitis, hepatitis, and all other gastric and intestinal conditions. Fructose does not require insulin or extensive digestive enzymes. It needs no conversion.

Fructose is not broken down into glucose; it absorbs directly into the bloodstream ready to be used. It enters the cell by diffusion. Fruits’ magnetic (electrical) ENERGY is the highest of all foods, making them the superior brain and nerve foods. They will bring ENERGY to the body, where most other foods take it away.

Our body is not meant for complex sugars (starches), complex carbohydrates, processed foods full of chemicals, toxins, refined and processed sugars (like corn syrup, which in no way resembles a simple sugar). It has been so processed and concentrated it is poison and unrecognizable to the body.

Simplicity in digestion and absorption is key. Simple sugars such as fructose and glucose found in fruits, berries, melons, greens, and vegetables are what the body requires to thrive.

Simplicity…

Sugars of the highest quality.

How do you now what fruit goes with what?

Well there’s a few simple rules and using charts like the one below can help. Until I learnt this I had it on fridge to always check the combinations.

The rule is: sweet fruit never with acid fruit –  so banana and pineapple is a no go! But a sub-acid fruit like a plum can go with a sweet fruit like a banana. BINGO!

Then there’s melons ALL melons should be eaten on there own away from all other fruits and foods, so that’s the 80’s parma ham melon dish is out!

1382321189978

We start our day with watermelon or have it late in the afternoon at least 1 hour after a salad and at least 1 hour before dinner. Watermelon digest very fast in 15-20 minute and as I know far too well if you eat it after a meal you get a very bloated gassy stomach as it is fermenting on top of grains, meat, starchy vegetables and causes a whole heap of trouble for your poor system. We need to go back to simple eating, mono foods (one food at a time) and simple combinations as our guts aren’t designed to have 10-15 ingredients at each meal and then a meal every 2-3 hours with a new 10-15 ingredients. Without being another person saying to look back to primal eating . . . but look at monkeys they eat 1-5 foods without combining them, when they do eat meat they eat it on it’s own. When we used to farm the lands we ate grains as meals without loads of combinations and cooked them well after soaking. often starches for boring and proteins for dinner only eating 1-2 meals a day. We now eat many meals on top of each other without digesting the last and with bad combinations, and the result is disease and sickness.

shutterstock_360660002.jpg

So leave the meats, fats, nuts, legumes away from fruit but these can be paired with starchy vegetables and non starchy vegetables.  Food combining and why is it essential for health!-chart.

Grains and starches should also be away from fruit so no porridge and fruit or paleo granola and fruit, but also away from proteins like meat, nuts and legumes as this is also a bad combination on the digestive system. Non starchy vegetables are fine with grains. So,  Why no grains you ask?

Grains and greens yes! Fruits and greens yes! Protein and greens yes! Starches and greens yes! Greens and fats yes! Acid fruits and fats yes!

Starches and fats no! Proteins and fats no! Starches and proteins no! Grains and starches no!

Fruits and anything but greens . . . no way!

Food-combining

I share this information not to get you into a panic about fruit but to show you fruit is a super food and should be in all of your diets as it is turned in to glucose which is what our brains and cells feed off. Often candida is caused by fruits and fats not being combined properly not the natural sugar in fruit. Those who have done candida cleanses and still find they have problems will agree with me. As they don’t address the food combinations, they just remove most fruits which helps for a while but then when they come off the cleanse or elimination diet the issues return back again.

In regards to ‘fruit is just sugar and will make me fat’ I will address that here briefly but I explain in more detail in this blog about good and bad carbohydrates and how to eat the right types and when to eat for your body:  https://nourishtohealth.com.au/2016/01/26/carbs-carbs-crabs-good-bad-and-how-many-is-right-for-you/

Fruit has sugar in it, your right but it is not a refined sugar that switches on receptors in the brain and makes you addicted like refined flour products (even gluten free), nor does it damage cells and cause insulin resistance (diabetes) like simple refined sugars do. Fruit has fibre which makes us feel full and provides other metabolic benefits. When you bite into an apple, for example, the fruit’s fiber helps slow your absorption of fructose (fruit sugar). Which is why fruit juices and dried fruit are causing issues with blood sugars and insulin as there is not the fibre to stabilise it in the blood and move the energy to the cells, so it just spikes and then your adrenals kick in to contract it. As long as you eat it away from other foods so it can digest and not ferment in the gut it will not make you fat but fuel your body and feed your brain with the much needed glucose it needs to function. You see any fat monkey’s and chimps in the wild? No, but you do see it in zoo’s where they feed fruit with nuts, grains and soy products to bulk their diet’s out! Don’t mess with nature human kind . . . it’s on it already and we survive for umpteen years before man come in trying to cook, change and create unnatural foods. Unnaturafying foods. I am sure that is not a word but I am rolling with it!

Studies have found that introducing fruit daily, eaten at the right times as per above have helped heal diabetes and obesity. (Again I will mention this in my Carbohydrate blog) diabetes can be healed very very quickly with the removing all unnatural foods and replaced with a high fruit and vegetable lifestyle with low healthy fats from nuts, avocado and seeds.

So what are you waiting for grab an apple and start eating fruit again and feel the life force return to your body!

 

background-backgrounds-food-fruit-42063.jpeg

Here is my food digestion chart to show you why foods can not be combined like the do on most peoples plates without causing gut rot and purification-gas, bloating, pain and wind.

DIGESTION TIME OF VARIOUS FOODS: This is approximately the time spent in the stomach before emptying into the intestines and bowels.

Pure Distilled Filtered Water is Alkaline.

When the stomach is empty, it leaves immediately and goes into intestines.
Cold Pressed Juices is Alkaline

Fruit, vegetables, vegetable broth – 15 to 20 minutes.
Semi-liquid is Alkaline.

Blended smoothies and salads, vegetables or fruits – 20 to 30 minutes.
Fruits is Alkaline.

Watermelon – 20 minutes.
Other melons – cantaloupe, honeydew etc. – 30 minutes.
Apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, persimmons, papaya, pawpaw, grapes, cherries, berries etc.- 40 minutes.
Fruits is Acidic

Orange, lemons, limes, strawberries, blueberries, grapefruit – 30 minutes.
Raw Vegetables is Alkaline.

Raw salads and vegetables – tomato, lettuces, cucumber, celery, red or green pepper, other succulent vegetables – 30 to 40 minutes.
Steamed or cooked vegetables without oil is Alkaline.

Leafy vegetables, spinach, kale, greens etc.- 40 minutes.
Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, yellow squash, corn on cob – 45 minutes.
Steamed or cooked vegetables with oil is Acidic.
Leafy vegetables, spinach, kale, greens etc. – 65 minutes.
Zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, yellow squash, corn on cob – 70 minutes.
Cooked root vegetables without oil Alkaline.

Not recommended to roast in oil (Oil slows digestion).

Carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips etc. – 50 minutes.
Cooked root vegetables with oil is Acidic.

Not recommended to roast in oil (Oil slows digestion).
Carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips etc. – 1hr 15 minutes.
Semi-Concentrated Carbohydrates (Starches) is Alkaline.

Not recommended to roast in oil (Oil slows digestion).

Artichokes, butternut squashes, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, chestnuts – 60 minutes.
Concentrated Carbohydrates – Grains is Acidic.

Really not recommended for good digestion.
Brown rice, millet, buckwheat, cornmeal, oats – 90 minutes.
Legumes & Beans is Acidic

Not recommended for good digestion, but in moderation in good combinations can be tolerated especially when sprouted.
Lentils, lima beans, chickpeas, yellow peas, kidney beans, etc. – 90 minutes.
Soy beans – 120 minutes.
Seeds & Nuts is Alkaline.

In moderation in good combinations.
Seeds, sunflower, hemp seeds, pumpkin, pepitas, sesame – 2 hours.
Nuts, Almonds, macadamias, peanuts (raw), cashews, brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans etc. – 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Raw Fats is Alkaline

In moderation in good combinations.
Avocado, coconut, nut butters – 3 hours.
Cooked or extracted fats is Acidic.

Really not recommended for good digestion
Trans fats, olive oils, coconut oil, butter, canola oil, rice bran oil, rapeseed oil etc. – 6 hours.
Dairy Acidic

Really not recommended for good digestion
Skim milk, soft cheese, low fat pot cheese or ricotta – 90 minutes.
Whole milk soft cheese – 120 min.
Whole milk hard cheese – 4 to 5 hours.
Animal proteins is Acidic.

Really not recommended for good digestion
Whole egg – 45 min.
Fish, cod, snapper, flounder, sole, seafood ect. – 30 minutes.
Fish – salmon, salmon trout, herring, (more fatty fish) – 45 to 60 minutes.
Chicken – 11/2 to 2 hours (without skin).
Turkey – 2 to 2 1/4 hours (without skin).
Beef, lamb – 3 to 4 hours.
Pork – 41/2 to 5 hours.
Animal proteins is Alkaline when eaten alone.

Egg yolk – 30 minutes.
Remember this is leaving your stomach. These foods can sit in your colon for up to 4 days if your digestion is not good or you have poor food combinations, especially meat. For the best digestion choose easy to digest foods and in the right combinations.

Happy food combining!

What does “Mindful Eating” really mean and how can it help your food intolerance?

/7 Comments/by

What does “Mindful Eating” really mean and how can it help your food intolerance?

For years I put everything into what I was eating and the quality of the food without ever thinking about the words I used around food and the way I spoke to my self when I ate that food or even prepared my food. Now I truly know the power of words and thoughts and how they can effect everything you eat and how your body responds to the food on a cellular level and if it will react to it or not.

So how the hell does a word effect if you react to tomatoes or not? Well in one way it doesn’t . . . but in another way it does. By using positive words, mindful eating and affirmations daily you raise the vibration of your body and when you are vibrating at a higher frequency your body heals it self. Your cells rejuvenate faster, repair more efficiently and cope with foods better as it’s not in a state of inflammation.

So what is “Mindful Eating” it’s banded around so often in blogs, but what does it really mean?

 

food-healthy-summer-sun.jpg

What it means is to slow down when eating and take some care over what you fuel your body with. When you are busy and running around at work or with kids or shopping, your in fight or flight mode, most of us live in this state 90% of the time. We are at a very anxious level all day and can not switch off. Then when we eat we inhale our food throwing it in our mouths. So not only do we not digest in fight or flight but also as we have eaten to fast it puts an added burden on our bodies. To digest our food we must switch back into our parasympathetic nervous system ‘repair and digest” or there is not point eating at all, as all it does is laden the body with a burden you don’t get the minerals and benefits from eating food.

wen you cook your food think about how much it went through to get to you. Thank the farmers, the animal that sacrificed it’s life, or the earth, sea or tree for providing it to you. When you have it in front of you touch, taste and smell it to start appreciating it. When you eat it, smell it to start the saliva in your mouth, which tells the brain to start activating the juices in your stomach, and prepare your body to start the digestion process. An example of the reverse of this is inhaling a burger in a few bites and that burger sitting in your stomach unable to be digested, as the body has had no warning signs it was coming. But if you cut ripe water melon and smell it and lick your fingers, your body is aware of what your about to eat and it gets excited as it pulls up that memory of eating it. You feel grateful for this watermelon and say to yourself ‘this will replenish my body and hydrate me, this is exactly what I need right now’ your body will digest this very easily.

pexels-photo-208086.jpeg

How you talk to yourself and feel makes a big affect on your digestion system and how the body takes nutrients to the cells too. An example of this is: ‘This food will heal me’ ‘This food is nourishing my body’ or ‘I’m so grateful for this food’.

The opposite to this is: ‘This isn’t very good for me’ ‘I shouldn’t really eat this’ or ‘I’ll have to pay for this tomorrow and have to go to the gym for 2 hours’

One is telling your body this is great food to eat and the other is saying don’t digest this it will harm you and the body will send out white blood cells to eradicate it. Now this doesn’t mean you can eat junk food with positive affirmations, as junk food is junk food at it serves no purpose in your body and causes inflammation . . . but it means not to beat yourself up when you have an indulgent healthy treat as that will be worst than the treat on the body and your everyday food should be eaten with appreciation and in a slow mindful manner. CHEW CHEW CHEW!! Oh and CHEW!

Your posture can play a part in this too up right strong and happy or slumped tired and unhappy? Choosing a positive mindset

Another level of this is: choosing the right “diet” or way of eating for your body. There are so many celebrities out there who indorse their way of life. But we have all got different bodies and our bodies all react differently to food, environment have certain genes are switched on or not. Just because it worked for that celebrity it may not be right for you. So how do you know what “diet” I hate that word . . . is right for you?

Well if you eat meat and your body feels heavy, sluggish and you feel guilt for eating an animal, then maybe that’s not right for you no matter what fade “diet” is in at the time. Or maybe you eat meat and it gives you so much energy and makes you fit and lean and you have no issue eating an animal, then maybe it is right for you.

shutterstock_527566597.jpg

Your mindset when going into a new way of eating is so important. If you believe in it and feel it is right than it most likely will be right, as your mindset is in alignment. If you go into a new fade diet and you say to yourself ‘this will be a hassle’ or ‘it will be hard and I wont be able to stick to it.’ Or something I hear all the time ‘my kids wont eat that!” . . then you guessed it, it will be hard and not work as you have set your self up for failing before you started you are sending out that vibration and you and your kids will pick up on that. Go in to any thing in life with the right mindset and alignment and things will fall into place and work for you.

The food it self is vibrational and a plant just picked or a fruit just picked will have a high vibration that will help to keep your body vibrating at a high level and running efficiently. If you choose food that is void of vibrations and a dead food like an over cooked burger which hold no life force in it at all. All it will do is dull your body’s energy and flow of life force, over time this plays its price on your body and inflammation and disease.

So is it mambo jumbo or scientific fact? Try it and see! Think about the way you talk to your body and how you feel when you eat a food and they way you talk to your self after eating a food and see if you can twist it positively and see any changes. I used this to overcome my fear of food as so many foods I used to react to. I just kept saying before I ate a food ‘oh I will react to this’ and low and behold I did! When I started to say ‘I love this food and I’m going to eat it and have fun and be relaxed’ suddenly foods I couldn’t eat caused me no problem. Even some foods I eat everyday might cause a reaction if I’m in the wrong mindset as my conscious ego pops up and says ‘oh don’t eat that your eyes will come up’ NO NO NO they won’t hahahah!

Positively and positive words raise Serotonin and reduces Histamine in the body. Help regulate the glands and lowers the white blood count. I.e. inflammation!

So how do you actually eat mindfully?

You need to prepare your body for food. Shovelling food into the body and not chewing properly stops digestion and if the body is working hard on digestion it will take energy away from other functions and you will feel sluggish and tired and bloated after you eat . . . (Christmas dinner anyone?). You are supposed to feel energised and light after food. If you are not re think the food you are eating!

So do the following before you eat always!

  • Take 10 deep belly breaths
  • Be grateful for the food
  • Smell your food
  • Touch your food
  • Thank the farmers or who ever made it for you

By this stage your mouth will be watering sending signals to the gut to start the digestive juices and the enzymes that are needed to break down the food. Digestion starts in the mouth!

CHEW CHEW CHEW CHEW CHEW 30 times each mouthful!

  • Savour each mouthful
  • Thank your body for digesting this food.
  • Be grateful for how lucky you are for having great food and the time to eat it-if you have not got time to eat re think your priorities and work on the balance in your life like what we spoke about earlier.

The other side to mindful eating is knowing where your food comes from and looking after the planet.

  • How was it raised and killed?
  • What part of the world did it come from?
  • What has it been through to get here?
  • What the life force or vibration of this food?
/3 Comments/by

From darkness there is light . . .

There is a beautiful light that surrounds our family. It shines with hope, love and promise and it’s there to remind us to keep looking forward to a future of health, happiness and life.

But there hasn’t always been light. Like so many families who live with the uncertainty that Autism and illness brings, our journey to health began in a very dark place.

After our first son was born, we knew something was wrong almost from the start but we were too exhausted and overwhelmed by false information to even see clearly, let alone take action.

We tried to coped with his constant screaming, tantrums that started way before the average toddler age, violent rage that was unbelievable in a young chid. We did this by living day-to-day and numbing ourselves with bad food, alcohol and respite escapes, all the while with others telling us that all parents feel overwhelmed and that our son’s behaviour was normal. Going to health check up and being told we were just like everyone else go home and give him more milk he is a big baby and just hungry. Or parenting classes and told we need to work harder at putting him on the naughty chair.

But in the pit of our stomachs we knew that this wasn’t normal parenting tired . . . we were breaking, we were falling apart, we were not coping.

Somehow in the midst of this chaos we found the strength to begin look for answers. We started removing chemicals from our home and investigated every type of colic remedy before deciding to take our son off diary, thinking that my own diary allergy as a child could be a clue to what was wrong. After more research we also embarked on a gluten-free lifestyle. Life became a bit more settled, but things still weren’t great.

Our idea of what our family was going to be like was shattered. Instead of a loving, happy child ours was not affectionate and only wanted to be touched on his terms like feeding times. From birth he had been in meltdown almost all day, every day. We lived on eggshells. Life was tough and we had little happiness.

Monday 20th February 2012- 12 days before our son turned 2 he was officially diagnosed with High Functioning Autism. I remember my husband and I leaving the office feeling numb and we both fell to the ground and held each other. Life felt like it had stopped. The responsibility and guilt I felt was overwhelming. I felt responsible. Be that right or not it was how I felt for such a long time, I felt that because I didn’t look after myself over the years or that because I had passed on to him heavy toxins and metals during my pregnancy. I felt guilty for feeding him dairy and grains that caused more damage, I felt responsible because I had immunised him on a weakened immune system that contributed to his toxic overload. I’m not saying vaccination or eating dairy caused his autism, it was an accumulation of many factors I was not aware of at the time, so did nothing to change the outcome. Hindsight is a useless emotion and I have had to put all that to rest and move on. If you are reading this and beating your self up about things you could not change please I beg you to stop and be kind to yourself.

Instead I put all my efforts into creating the best life I can and for him to have a better future than the experts were predicting for him.

When he was diagnosed we were told our little boy would never feel empathy, be social or seek our love that life would be tough for us and that we should grieve for the child we wont have. This was my lowest point as I lost hope and did grieve for the boy that I thought I was going to have. But somehow that sense of responsibility kicked in and I researched, researched and researched some more to save our child from what everyone told us was a life sentence.

Gradually we started to understand the connection between the level of toxins in our son’s system, his nervous system and how it was affecting his behavior. We came across the Raw Vegan Diet, Homeopathy and embarked on a clean living lifestyle and removed all toxins and chemicals from our home.

By now were had welcomed our second son, who was tested for Autism at 2-years and was instead diagnosed with a Global Development Delay of 18-months. That meant that although he was a two-year-old, he had the ability of a child aged 10 to 12-months-old. Again, we grieved. Would this little boy ever be able to talk and fit in with his peers?

By now I was determined to heal my boys, and persisted with our lifestyle changes as well as Mickel Therapy and Homeopathy to help me beat the depression, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia that was a result of years of running the stress treadmill that had become our lives and always putting others first.

Gradually, we began to see our boys blossom, and our family began to feel like the family I had hoped for. By reducing toxins within their bodies, my boys had found a new sense of calm and now had the space to embrace early intervention therapies and for these therapies to be much more effective.

Our boys are now creating their own life sentence instead of following the path that was predicted for them. They are learning, loving and achieving every day. Our older son is clever, kind and thoughtful who loves his family and friends and is coping with kinder really well. Our younger son is a cheeky, funny, social little boy who has healed our family and now has a delay of 2 to 3-months and does NOT stop talking!

So what was the purpose of sharing our story? Our journey shows that there are answers out there and I want to share them with you. Our journey shows that through diet and lifestyle you can get your children back and unlock them from the chains that are Autism.

But most of all, I was to help the amazing mothers and fathers and grandparents who battle a battle each day that others don’t see. I want to help these amazing people look after themselves, so they can look after their beautiful children and live the life they dreamed of.

Your ‘Wellness Warriors’ and you can change your families outcome x x x

contact me for a free consultation of how I can help your family.

hannah@nourishtohealth.com.au

0414967763

/0 Comments/by

Getting your child to drink green juices!

reenjuice3.preview

This may seem very far off for you to imagine, or you might be ready to add more greens in to their current juices that they drink now. Either way be mindful that green juice is something that takes more caution when giving it to children. Because greens are very nutrient rich and a potent detoxifier, our bodies naturally begin detoxifying a bit quicker with greens then other juices. Not that this is bad and when you are trying to heal Autism this is essential, but it can make you/them feel ill if you do it too fast. If you feel that your child needs to detoxify, their bodies will naturally do it through a good diet full of fruit, herbs and vegetables combined with fresh green juices and or green smoothies over time and a chemical free happy environment. But start slowly and build up so they are used to the taste and their bodies get used to detoxify anything that needs to come out. With my boys we started with carrot, cucumber and celery juice and built up to removing all root vegetables and now they have a few different greens like spinach kale, celery, lettuce and cucumber with lemon, and sometimes ginger and turmeric . they have this most mornings before their breakfast. In the afternoon they might have a beetroot or carrot juice but we personally don’t add fruit as they find it sweet enough and I like them to eat their fruit on its own with out mixing with vegetables, this helps their bodies digest it better. As with my smoothie post go slowly and build them up.

The truth about fruit . . .

The difference between a smoothie and a juice, is when you make smoothies they contain fiber which means you can only eat a certain amount at each meal before feeling full (we need the fiber so keep making them!) That is the reason I do not suggest fruit juice  as it doesn’t have any finer in it. Even cold pressed organic fruit juice.

How to get your child drinking and loving ‘green smoothies’ . . .

3Z2A53381IngridPullenPhotography

But with juicing you can include a large amount of greens that you normally would not be able to fit in to your body in one go. A juice is a large amount of vegetables and it’s a nutrient dense shoot of goodness for the gut and each and every cell! Would your child sit down to a large green salad? Maybe not but a green juice sweetened with some apple might go down well.

Here are a few suggestions that taste yummy and mask the bitter flavour some greens can have.

  • I recommend starting with fruit and wining them off fruit till it is just vegetables as fruit spikes the blood sugar level and causes hormonal crashes. Coconut water is a better option to add with greens.

These recipes are for 1-2 glasses of juice

Carrot Celery:

  • 2 carrots
  • 2 celery sticks
  • 1 cucumber (with skin)

Beetroot Apple:

  • 1 small beetroot
  • 1 celery stick
  • 1 cup spinach
  • Cucumber Apple:

 

Cucumber Pear:

  • 1 cucumber (with skin)
  • 2 pears
  • Small handful of kale

Cucumber Orange Grapefruit:

  • 1 cucumber (with skin)
  • 1 small handful of spinach greens
  • 1 orange peeled
  • 1 grapefruit peeled

Broccoli Pineapple:

  • 4 broccoli florets and stalks
  • ½ pineapple
  • 1 small bunch of parsley

Broccoli Apple:

  • 8 broccoli florets and stalks
  • 1 small bunch of parsley
  • 3 apples

Green Citrus:

  • 1 small handful of spinach
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 1 handful kale
  • 3 oranges or 1 lemons peeled

Cucumber Watermelon:

  • 1 cucumber (with skin)
  • 1 thick slice watermelon
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 1 lemon peeled
  • 1 handful mint
  • 1 handful of parsley

Green Bullet!

  • 1 cucumber
  • 2 sticks celery
  • 1/4 lemon
  • hand full of coriander
  • hand full of parsley
  • 1 cup coconut water

Simple Green:

  • 4 sticks celery
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 1/4 lemon

Melon fantastic:

  • 1/4 water melon
  • 1/4 cantaloup
  • 1/4 rock melen
  • 1 hand full of fresh mint

Why Leafy Greens are so good for you and the Nutritional breakdown.

Enjoy trying them all and play with what your child likes!

Tips: I suggest finding glasses and cups that are fun and even using flowers on top to diguse the colour so they try without making assumptions. Also get the kids involved in chopping and making them it will encourage them to want to try it more.

Good luck and remember they sense your fear and emotions – if you are hesitant and scared they will not go for it. Be confident and set an example by eating well yourself. Monkey see monkey do. Kids can not buy their own food, so only stock the best at home and choose only the best when you are out. If you are suffering with self sabotage and food binging and cravings. Contact me to coach you to break free of these . . . like I did.

Much love and Thanks Hannah xx

/1 Comment/by