INTRODUCTION
“The first Wealth is Health”
It all started with lemons…. As a child my dad constantly used to tell me to eat lemons, he said it would make me strong and healthy. Not that I really took his advice at the time but we always had a good laugh about eating lemons. Now forty something years later, every morning I have a freshly pressed lemon with some water, a pinch of Himalayan salt and MSM powder as a morning cleanse & detox drink to kick-start the body’s systems and I’m feeling in my best shape ever.
I have regained my natural weight, vitality and radiance, but the best thing of all is that a new type of energy has been released that is propelling me forward in a direction I have not gone before, with more ease, grace and with a smile on my face! The reason why I’m now feeling so good, physically and mentally, so abundantly energetic, healthy and enjoying my life so much more, with a better clarity of mind at a whole new level is of course not only about lemons. That is why I wanted to write this book, to present a view about health, nutrition, exercise and wellness in general, offering ideas about small changes which you can easily do or add into your lifestyle that will make a significant difference in how you will feel in the days, weeks and years to come.
This book is based on 3 principles:
- To raise awareness about health and nutrition
- To provide some practical steps towards optimal functioning of the body and mind
- To inform about what I have tried and tested myself
In this book I have aimed to give as much as possible information whilst describing the information in a clear, positive and understandable manner. To provoke some thoughts, to make you consciously think about what you eat, how you eat and how this affects your body, mind, emotions and every aspect of your life. Now ask yourself: Is your way of living supporting you to achieve your goals or is it slowing you down? Dedicate some time to focus on your food, your habits and level of well-being, to give yourself a better idea if any new action is needed or not? Regardless of what stage you are at with your health at the moment, we all still have to eat food. How and what we eat can make a big difference in the progression of your current status. Sometimes it just takes small changes in your diet to improve your health naturally to feel good, to perhaps experience some relief or to feel more balanced, satisfied or more vibrant in the long term.
“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art”
Nowadays there are already so many books about health & nutrition so you may ask yourself; why yet another book? Well, the saying goes; “If you want to change the world, begin with yourself”. I have taken steps to change myself and as a result I have become so passionate about it that I want to help others with information that has been of great benefit to me. There are still so many people in a state of “dis-ease”, struggling with a whole range of health issues, and there is still so much confusion and misinformation about health & nutrition that I’m confident that I can make a positive difference in one way or another.
I would also like to inspire people to do their own research about current foods on offer, about food marketing and media. To question if the big brand food products in the supermarkets are more beneficial for your health improvement or for the profit improvement of a big food company? It seems that economic forces are actually preventing people from becoming healthier, and making them unknowingly gain weight and internally stacking up on toxins which the body can’t process. The average person now is carrying about 2-10 kg’s of toxins in their bodies which slow down and damage their system. Also regarding the health approach in modern medicine, the focus is still more on treating symptoms with medication than preventing dis-ease with natural foods, clean water and health education. The focus in the book is on the versatile ideas, products and solutions which nature has to offer, all of which will improve your optimum functioning and inner balance.
Now let’s start, I would like to take you on a journey as if I’m a kind of a guide, taking you for a tour through a certain landscape. Just sit back and enjoy the “scenery” as I talk you through the things we see as we go along. Look around, relax and maybe take some “mental snapshots”, as a manner of speaking, of those things that appeal to you.
After the introduction we start off looking at our food today, how nature works and then we move more into detail to see how our body is being “attacked” by everyday living and what we can do about it. After taking a glance at our body, then we take a tour around some versatile foods, a plant-based raw diet, superfoods, and juices. After a short break we jump into the natural wonders of our planet, uncover some facts and ideas about water, air, the earth and the sun, the place we live in and then we stand still at some salt facts for a moment. If you like, next we jump straight into some healthy exercise suggestions followed by a critical view on alcohol and nicotine. To ease into the last part of the journey we will look at some beliefs, fears and change. Eventually we close off with a conclusion and a food blessing.
Life can be challenging, and all kinds of factors are constantly draining our vitality and well-being. Therefore it is always good to give some regular attention to review your daily diet, to do some extra cleansing & detoxing, to be more aware of your inner physical functioning and your outer environment and perhaps re-connect more with food and nature.
If your body currently is in a stressed acidic state then this information can help you to bring the body into a more alkaline and relaxed state. Basically, choose to put in some extra time and attention to focus on a healthy lifestyle and a positive relationship with food. As a result you will optimize your bodily functions while getting closer to a state of experiencing your true potential and well-being.
Diet comes from the Greek word “Diatia” which means “Way of Life ”- to achieve natural health. Nowadays many people seem to value career, social standing and what car they drive more as a way of life than the excellence of health & vitality that could be possible for them. A person’s diet, eating habit, or way of life may also be a very sensitive topic to talk about and people often feel confronted when asked about what they eat and become defensive. Some of what I write in this book may trigger you to instantly judge or reject some of the thoughts and views brought forward. However, I’m asking you to read it with an open mind, give the ideas and thoughts a bit of your time to think about them and perhaps to try out a few things as described, maybe just for fun!
Now I know the dramatic differences food and lifestyle can have on your life. I know, because I have felt the effects of a less than excellent lifestyle and now I enjoy the new energy and well-being I couldn’t have imagined before. Too often I had been going to doctors with vague issues, like headaches, stomach upset, irritated bowel function, chronic tiredness, body pains, allergic skin reactions, lack of motivation, depressing heavy thoughts and a thousand other things with the only result of getting some pills or powders or creams (adding more chemicals to my body) to temporarily relieve a symptom so that I could get back to my old habits of consuming the same type of processed “dead” foods and drinks that actually were upsetting and polluting my body and mind in the first place.
It seems to me, that many of the issues we have, for example, bowel disorders, indigestion, chronic fatigue, food allergies, arthritis, asthma, heart and circulatory diseases, diabetes, raised cholesterol and so on are directly related to what we eat, drink and how we live, our diet, our way of life and our environment. Too often the first reaction to deal with the previous mentioned issues is by looking at medication only instead of looking at nutrition. This reminds me of a woman I know, who went to a specialist for her regular recurring stomach issues, labelled IBS, and the doctor said “unofficially” to first try some Ginger and Manuka honey instead of going straight for the medication option. This approach did give relief from symptoms and the woman was pleasantly surprised by the nutrition approach instead of being sent home with yet another box of tablets.
“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.”
Many ads on the television promote all kinds of easy to get medication to “treat” an upset stomach or heart burn or fight cholesterol, but never is there any mention about the quality and content of the modern food supply that usually is the cause of a lot of stomach upset or increase in bad cholesterol. There is also little information available on what is causing certain eating patterns, cravings, mood swings, weight imbalances and what are the long term effects of eating too much or too little or developing vitamin and mineral deficiencies?
When it comes to food and health, there is also the subtle but all so important part of our intention, connection and gratitude towards food, which really is much of a reflection of our view of life and our functioning in general. Do you really consciously, taste, see, smell, hear and feel when you engage with food? Do you fully experience and value the most amazing and nutritiously healthy natural foods nature has on offer? Do you operate from an attitude of gratitude, bliss and joy? Or do you just munch away whatever comes on your plate, without taking a closer look, without having any special feelings or inspiring thoughts? Perhaps, you also act in a similar way in other areas of your life?
A snapshot of some of the best organic grapes I have ever eaten, from a local market in Belgium. Grapes are great for a quick source of energy, full of phytonutrients to help to strengthen and protect our body cells. Especially the high content of resveratrol in grapes plays a big role in anti-aging and longevity. The grape is considered an alkaline fruit which helps to reduce acidity from the body systems. There is a huge variety in the types of grapes that nature can provide us with, however unfortunately in most supermarkets we nowadays only find one type of “hybrid” seedless grapes. My advice, look for organically grown grapes which still contain the original seeds.
Health & Nutrition go hand in hand. We need to get a good look at the bigger picture and see what’s actually happening. If in this book I may seem somewhat critical about today’s food and medical industry than that is correct. I do appreciate that I live in a part of the world where I have plenty of choice when it comes to convenience, abundance and variety of food and medical services. I also appreciate that I have the right to be critical about those services to make sure that our choices indeed are the most beneficial for our health. What I’m trying to say is that we must remain alert to what is being offered and how it affects our health & well-being.
Health & Wellness is a big business and sometimes we are so busy getting on with our lives that we forget to look after our health and nutrition. We kind of seem to go into an “automatic pilot” mode when it comes to food, being influenced by the media and profit-orientated companies. But it is our business to take care of our own health!
Taking care of our health is sometimes easier said than done and it seems like that it would be all hard work and no fun. On the contrary, often it is as simple as a change in your mind set, having a new understanding, realizing the process of having been conditioned in a certain way. Going through a new wellness experience may give you a so called “Aha” moment and can change everything in a new direction effortlessly. Generally speaking, why do we do what we do? We want to feel GOOD. What is usually the easiest most direct way to change your state to feeling good? Put a “substance” in your mouth, eat it, drink it or inhale it. We have become so conditioned to change our state by what we consume and ignore what it is that we are putting in our body and what the consequences are as long as we feel good.
Those foods, drinks or drugs have in a subtle way taken control over us and infiltrated our central nervous system, neurotransmitters, hormones and body cells and mind. So ask yourself who is actually in charge?! And what are you going to do about it? Wouldn’t it be great to have better control over how you feel? To be less dramatically influenced by food and drink, where you think and act more from a place of inner balance, calmness and with more clarity of mind. Once you understand better how some foods are specifically produced to trigger certain biological cravings and affect you mentally and emotionally, then it is easier to change your approach and how you deal with them. Processed and refined foods are often appealing to the eye, due to colorants and additives, but offer nothing much in a nutritional sense. They usually are primarily good for a longer shelf life.
What is important to understand is that when foods have been refined and processed, they become more de-naturalized and more natural vital substances and holistic properties have been lost or destroyed in the process. It is the original natural substances and properties that the body is desperately looking for to feed and satisfy itself and to be able to create optimal metabolic function. If the real nutritional properties are gone, then the body will endlessly keep searching for them in the “empty” food and then you create more of an addiction to those certain foods. The body believes that the full nutrition should be in the delivered “package”, when the body can’t find the right nutrition it needs, then it wants more “food” to continue the search... This is especially true with foods rich in refined sugar and table salt. Those foods are heavily processed and the most natural substances or minerals have been destroyed in the process. The main purpose of the processed salt is to preserve food, to create artificial taste and to stimulate craving, but it is very toxic for the body and builds up in fat around the cells. Refined processed foods only make you eat more creating mood swings and long term fatigue. Understanding and learning more about how food works and why we need natural wholesome food makes it easier to let go of processed, artificial, refined, (over)cooked or microwaved food and to look for food that actually aids the life-force and balance with long term energy. Foods that actually help improve the body, food or herbs which act as beneficial adaptogens in your system. Food products which are not addictive to the body and really make you feel good naturally, balance your mood and clear your mind. Foods that do not need medication to fix its side effects.
Example, most of us like chocolate. The normal processed chocolate often gives a temporary sugar rush and leaves the body craving for more and more because there is no real value in the processed sugar, fat and cacao. It also leaves a lot of toxic waste and unwanted fat build up. However, get your hands on some pure organic RAW chocolate, prepared according to raw food preparation standards with pure cacao butter and some maca or coconut or goji berry in it, once you eat that …. You never want to go back to normal chocolate anymore! First of all you get the best possible taste vibration in your mouth and throughout your body, but second you actually really feed yourself. The raw chocolate is a health product that gives you a burst of antioxidants and minerals, you instantly feed the body with what it needs physiologically and therefor you satisfy any craving feeling very soon so you do not need to overeat the chocolate because you achieve mental, emotional and physiological satisfaction to feel good and move on with what you want to do.
Did you know that organic raw dark chocolate in its pure form, like the cacao beans which you can snack on, has 100 times higher level of cell protecting antioxidants compared to a kiwi fruit for example. Add in some cacao beans as a snack into a balanced and varied diet to create a more synergistic all-over result.
The original cacao has been used by the people of the Amazon for all kinds of health purposes from strengthening their teeth (the insides of the cacao fruit resembles white teeth!), to spiritual well-being and they even used cacao beans as currency. Cacao has one of the most magical, mysterious and complex chemistries of any food source in the Amazon that science cannot replicate in a laboratory. Throughout history chocolate has exploded into the western world, but it is only in recent years that the raw chocolate, the original pure organic cacao beans are re-emerging as a super food and becoming really popular.
More and more raw chocolate variations, beans, powder and nibs are now appearing everywhere in health food shops.
Tip:
Instead of snacking on processed biscuits full of additives with no nutrients, which are only fattening and make you crave more, create your own snack mix for when you are on the go. For example mix together some cashews, walnuts, dried Goji berries and organic cacao nibs. They give you some substance to chew own, a bit of nice sweetness from the berries, essential fats and proteins and all the bliss from the original chocolate and satisfying your body and mind quicker. This will give you more energy and well-being and none of the craving and waste products of processed snacks.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
The more you look into the subject of “Health & Well-being”, the more you will realise how little we actually know…. Having said that, life is a personal learning journey and any journey starts with a first single step. It is not so much about the ultimate goal you achieve, but more important is the chosen direction you have set out for yourself and the satisfying changes and advancements you make along the way.
Throughout the book we will look at what a plant-based diet and superfoods can do for you. We will look at the process of digestion and absorption to get more out of what you eat. How we can break down blockages caused by piled-up waste, calcification and toxicity in the body. In part two of the book we look into some amazing facts about the structure of water, air vitamins, the grounding effects of the earth and the benefits of sunlight. In the third part I will also highlight why exercise is needed to maintain a healthy flow in the body. There is also a chapter about looking at your beliefs around health and nutrition and much more. I do hope you will enjoy the book from beginning to end with all its information and photos. All this information of course only has value if you do something with it, so hopefully you will use some of the information in this book to your advantage. As Benjamin Franklin said; “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
Appreciate what nature can do for you and what you can do for nature. Enjoy your journey into a landscape filled with sights of nutritional aspects, health and well-being.
Nick Beckman
Cork, Ireland