Step #5: Emphasize Food and Thoughts That Heal Your Body and Mind
Food is one of the most controversial topics, along with religion and politics, isn’t it? Everyone from the government to nutritionists to doctors have been arguing about it for decades. And food trends change so often that it’s hard to keep up with what’s “good for you” and what isn’t.
This book is not about food trends. This book is about honoring nature and natural foods, and then listening to your body to see what works best for you. The one thing that everyone can agree upon is that eating whole foods from nature is one of the healthiest things you can do.
“Everything is thoughts and food. If you have good nutrition, it serves your brain. If you start to shift and change the food you eat, then it’s easier to grasp on to new, positive thoughts and make better choices in your life. Start with this affirmation: I love myself, therefore, I lovingly feed my body nourishing foods and beverages and my body lovingly responds with vibrant health and energy.”
— Louise
As you have already learned, packaged and fast foods have changed what and how we eat a great deal. We’ve moved farther and farther away from nature, and this has created a disconnection—both a disconnection from what is natural, and a disconnection from one another. In this chapter, we are going to bring you back to connecting with your body, as well as introduce you to some foods to emphasize and avoid for your best health.
Learn from Our Ancestors and Our Bodies
In ancient times, the way people made sure food was okay to eat was through taste and a form of conscious eating. We all know about the little bumps on the tongue called taste buds that signal whether we like a food or not. For our ancestors, though, taste buds were a very important tool for detecting the safety of foods. Plants that have poisonous compounds tend to produce a bitter taste, and since humans have about 30 genes for bitter taste receptors, the taste buds were a great way to identify if a plant was poisonous.1
Today, our ability to taste is not as advanced as it was in ancient times. In some cases, this is because our survival is not dependent upon detecting poisons in food, and in other cases, we have simply disconnected from the experience of mindful or conscious eating.
While early humans may have paid attention to their reaction to foods for survival, they were also getting a sense of what worked for them, personally. As they tasted, experimented, and watched for reactions, it’s easy to surmise that they’d get a sense for the foods that worked best for their bodies. In this way, they would have a better sense of the foods that would be most energizing and healing for them.
One of the biggest questions we get is: “With all the conflicting nutritional guidelines, how do I know what diet to follow?” This especially comes up when we meet with clients who have autoimmune conditions and other chronic health issues. As you’ve already learned, your genetics and your gut bacteria make you very different from everyone else when it comes to the ideal nutritional program for you. What we’ve found, however, is that there are three important things you can do to identify your ideal diet:
1. Seek guidance from experts. You can do this by reading books or doing other research, joining online support groups, or working with a health practitioner who specializes in healing nutritional protocols. We are excited about all of the great health books and websites these days that focus on healing the body with nutrition. However, do keep in mind that experts are sharing guidelines from their own research and experience, which understandably includes generalizations that may not pertain to your specific situation. There is no book or website in the world that can account for all the differences in each unique individual—nevertheless, there are often excellent clues that can point you in the right direction. Social-media groups and forums can also provide a way to discuss unique situations with others who can provide further aha’s.
2. Listen to your inner guidance. Your body will give you signs and even put you in situations that allow you to learn how it works best, if only you’ll trust it! As you ask your body what it needs and listen for the answers, Life will bring you the signals and situations you need to find out what’s best for your health.
Heather remembers that when she first started listening to her body, she was also traveling quite often. She noticed that she felt better when she traveled and started to investigate why. This was when she realized that certain foods she was only eating at home were contributing to her abdominal pain. Once she eliminated those foods, she felt better. She was allowing her digestive system to rest and heal while she worked on the root cause of her abdominal pain. Eventually, she was able to add those foods back in.
One of the easiest ways to listen to your body is to keep a food diary. This tool allows you to write down the foods you’re eating, along with any symptoms, emotions, and signals you have that day. Over the course of the next two weeks, you can see a relationship between the food you eat and your energy, moods, and physical symptoms. (You can learn more about keeping a food diary in the exercises at the end of this chapter.)
3. Eat mindfully. This is where you can benefit from the habits of our tribal ancestors. As you eat, make it a sensory experience: Look at the food, smell it, and taste it. Chew it well and feel it in your mouth. Give yourself a chance to sink into every bite with no multitasking. This not only allows you to really taste the food you’re eating, but it also allows you to tune in and identify if the food is working for you. Is it truly satisfying you? Go beyond your taste buds and notice if you’re experiencing a deep, grounding feeling. Does your body feel nourished and satisfied?
When Heather first recovered from bulimia, she was struck by the difference between whole and processed foods. She recalled eating processed, microwavable mashed potatoes (made with real potatoes, but with chemical additives and microwaved in its plastic container), aware that they had satisfied her taste buds but created no deep level of satisfaction in her body. The constant ravenous hunger in a binge was often her body asking for real, nourishing fuel that the processed food could not provide.
When you’re only eating for your taste buds and not listening to your body while eating, you may not even realize the signals your body can give you. Heather was able to successfully stop binge eating because she noticed the signals of physical satisfaction from real food. Once she genuinely listened and identified that feeling, it was easier to choose foods that gave her body that deep fulfillment, and her appetite came back to normal.
Go deep into your body and feel beyond your taste buds. The more you are mindful of the full experience of eating, the more sensuous and deeply satisfying it is. This is one of the greatest ways to reduce binge eating and cravings. Over time, you’ll choose foods that your body needs because you will have a new level of rapport with your body.
Everyone needs food. Food is life. We come from food. Vikas Khanna, chef and author of Return to the Rivers, described the Dalai Lama as saying, “We are not isolated as humans. We are all connected. And food is one thing which connects us all.” From nature to the farmer to the harvest and then the ritual of cooking, there is “a long thread that connects all of us in the universe.”2
When you reconnect with your body and the experience of nourishing it with natural, whole foods, there is an almost magical thing that happens: you begin to feel more connected to nature and to others.
No-No’s: What to Avoid for Your Best Health
If you’re ready to achieve better health, there are some foods we invite you to avoid. An easy way to start changing your diet is to eliminate just one of these No-No’s and work your way through the list at the pace that works for you.
Before getting into the foods to avoid, we’d like to share some observations with you. First and foremost, food affects behavior—it can ground you and help you feel calm and centered, or it can send you on a roller-coaster ride of symptoms or mood challenges. One of the easiest ways to see this very quickly is with sugar because it absorbs so quickly into the bloodstream.
While studies on sugar and behavior vary, enough scientific evidence has been found to show that sugar adversely affects willpower, decision making, addictions, and cravings. Additionally, researchers have found that rats fed a high-sugar diet show a decreased memory, learning, and ability to process emotions.3
Instead of listening to what the researchers say, however, we invite you to listen to your own body. Tracking your food intake, moods/emotions, energy, and physical symptoms is the best way to understand how food affects you personally, so you can be empowered to eat in a way that supports your well-being. It can also be eye-opening to observe people around you as you go through your day. When you’re first learning to listen to your own body, it can sometimes seem easier to spot changes in others than in yourself. Have fun with this!
For example, Louise and Heather once went to a Weston A. Price conference where the focus was on healthy, traditional whole foods. There was another event taking place at the convention center, and they both allowed children. Louise suggested that Heather watch the kids at both events to see what she observed. As Heather observed the children at the Weston A. Price event, she noticed that they were relatively quiet, calm, and well behaved; when they were in the seminar rooms, they did not make noise or act out. On the other hand, the kids at the other event were running in circles, screeching loudly, and seemed “wired.”
Louise had seen this before at another nutritional seminar, where the children who were eating whole foods and no sugar were quieter and seemed more content. They played, but their play was more focused and less hyper.
Ahlea saw this type of thing firsthand in her own home when her ten-year-old nephew, Christopher, came to visit. Her brother and sister-in-law had been eating a Standard American Diet, which typically contains a lot of sugar. The first thing Ahlea noticed was that Christopher’s body emitted a metallic smell as he slept at night, which she recognized as being related to toxins in the body.
Since he was used to eating processed foods and sugar, Christopher was not enthusiastic at first about the healthy whole foods in Ahlea’s home, but as he ate meals containing them, he realized he liked the taste. Ahlea gently asked her nephew to notice how he was feeling as he was eating these meals, and after a few days, he told her that he felt a lot better. He confided that the teachers at school felt he had ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and were recommending drugs to keep him calm and focused. What he realized now was that he felt more calm and focused than he had at home. As Ahlea talked with him, he began to realize the food he ate made a huge difference, which was exciting to him. Perhaps he didn’t have ADHD after all!
When Christopher returned home, he ate pretty well for about a week, and then Halloween came. Eating Halloween candy put him on a three-day bender where he felt wound up, hyper, and anxious. He and his parents spoke with Ahlea and realized that the sugar and junk food had contributed to his symptoms. This was a big “aha moment” for the family. They began to focus on whole foods so that Christopher would feel better, and were relieved that he wouldn’t have to go on drugs after all.
Most people have no idea how much food is contributing to their well-being or lack thereof. The No-No’s that follow consist of foods that contribute to adverse mood, energy, and health symptoms. If you avoid them, like Christopher, you’ll start to feel much healthier.
— Sugar. Of the 85,451 unique commercially available foods that were on the market between 2005 and 2009, 75 percent of them contained added sweeteners.4 Sugar has many names and many forms, and Americans consume too much of it: 156 pounds of sugar per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).5 That is 16 pounds over the 140 pounds of sugar that experts consider a “pharmacologic dose,” which causes obesity and disease.
The refined white table sugar that most of us are familiar with is made of sucrose and considered a source of “empty calories.” Sucrose is a disaccharide, which means that it’s made up of two simple sugar molecules: fructose and glucose. Glucose causes a spike in blood sugar, and if your liver has to process too much fructose, it can cause a buildup of fat. In addition, sugar not only feeds bad bacteria and pathogens in the gut, it also provides no nutrients, while using up valuable nutrients in the digestive process at the same time.6 In fact, most experts agree that we can achieve better health by reducing or eliminating it altogether.
Dr. Nancy Appleton, author of the classic book Lick the Sugar Habit, recently wrote a list of nearly 150 reasons to avoid sugar, and we’re including just a few of them here. Sugar7:
When you’re reading labels at the grocery store, look for these additional names for sugar (sucrose): beet sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, confectioners’ sugar, invert sugar, powdered sugar, raw sugar, saccharose, table sugar, and turbinado sugar.8
— High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS is much cheaper than sugar, and is best avoided because it’s often found in very nutrient-deficient processed food. Nevertheless, Americans consume about 60 pounds per person per year of it.9 Note that HFCS is not the same as sugar, nor is it even close to natural, no matter what corn manufacturers would like you to believe. This manufactured food is a blend of fructose and glucose with no chemical bond (sugar does at least have a chemical bond between the fructose and glucose). This means that it absorbs in the body much faster than sugar does, causing insulin spikes and contributing to metabolic issues, obesity, increased appetite, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, energy depletion, inflammation, accelerated aging, and dementia.10
— Artificial sweeteners. In an America that spends $66.5 billion on the weight-loss industry, it’s no surprise that food manufacturers would jump on the bandwagon with calorie-free sweeteners.
The FDA has approved five artificial sweeteners11:
Be aware that FDA approval does not mean that these sweeteners are good for you! In Chapter 3, you learned exactly why the weight-loss industry does more harm than good, and the same is true for artificial sweeteners. They pretend to save you calories while giving you a sweet taste, but the reality is that they contribute to a whole host of undesirable health issues, such as12, 13:
The main thing to keep in mind with artificial sweeteners is that they are chemicals that the body does not understand, which can lead to adverse effects on your health and your moods. These sweeteners are designed to trick the body, and good health is not about tricking the body. A positive relationship with your body means that it works in harmony with you to feel your best. It’s about balance. Your appetite does not need to be fooled to keep you slim and healthy.
Remember, if your health is your greatest love story, it’s not about deceit and manipulation—what relationship has ever been safe, calm, happy, and healthy under those conditions? A good relationship with your body is the same as a good relationship with a loved one: when you nourish it and meet its needs, everything falls into place. Loving your body is about meetings its nutritional needs. Once you do this, everything will fall into place. From your brain to your taste buds to your body, everything will be in harmony. This is how you create and sustain a naturally slim, healthy body.
2. Excitotoxins
Excitotoxins are molecules that are so stimulating to the nervous system that they can excite neurons to death. In his book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Dr. Russell L. Blaylock outlines how they contribute to health problems such as hormone imbalance, obesity, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, free radical damage, and inflammation.14
Examples of extitotoxins found abundantly in our food supply are glutamate, aspartate, and cysteine. The following two are increasingly used in foods, however, so we wanted to highlight them:
— Monosodium glutamate (MSG). While MSG is often linked to Chinese food, this excitotoxin is added to many processed foods, such as chips, packaged meals, and soups. It is often disguised with the following terms: natural flavoring, spices, vegetable protein, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, glutamic acid, enzymes, protein fortified, and yeast extract.15 MSG is even used in some high-end restaurants because it excites the taste buds and makes food taste better. Even so, many people notice that they don’t feel well after eating foods with MSG.
— Aspartame. In addition to being an artificial sweetener, aspartame is also an excitotoxin, giving you more reason to avoid it altogether.
3. Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
GMOs are plants or animals that have been genetically altered with DNA from other plants, animals, bacteria, or viruses.16 Scientists are on both sides of the fence as to whether GMOs are safe for the planet or not, and there are many issues embedded in the GMO controversy. Let’s start with genetically engineered seeds.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that genetically engineered life-forms could be patented.17 Keep in mind that when something can be patented, companies can use it to create and control products on the market. This brings us to Monsanto, the foremost producer of genetically modified crops. It makes Roundup Ready seeds, which are genetically modified to withstand the use of Roundup, a wildly popular broad-spectrum chemical herbicide mostly made up of glyphosate.18
Since the beginning of farming, farmers have been saving seeds from past crops to plant new crops the following year. Now that companies like Monsanto have patented genetically engineered seeds, however, they can stop farmers from saving seeds. Instead, farmers have to purchase new seeds each year from Monsanto, removing their ability to work with nature as they always have.
In addition, as is nature’s way, the wind pollinates plants. This means that farmers who choose not to grow GMO plants are at the mercy of the wind pollinating their non-GMO crops, resulting in an unintended genetically modified crop. Organic farmers and health-conscious scientists and consumers are very concerned that cross-pollination will result in genetic contamination and the end of organic food options.
Are GMO foods dangerous to the planet and our health? Amidst much controversy, studies are showing that GMO foods are not living up to their promise of higher crop yields and are in fact showing adverse effects. In addition19:
We are lovers of nature and believe that when you support it, it comes into balance; when you go away from nature, there are unintended consequences. For this reason, we feel that GMO foods and Monsanto’s practices are bordering on the criminal and we urge you to avoid them. While there is no law to force food manufacturers to label GMO food, you can look for non-GMO labels on prepared and packaged health foods and choose organic whenever possible.
You can get a shopping guide and learn more about how to choose wisely at the Non-GMO Shopping Guide website: NonGMOShoppingGuide.com.
Pesticides: Are They Really Necessary?
Nature is amazing. It is phenomenal at creating balance, if only we would trust it and learn its wisdom. In Chapter 3, you learned how the food industry has inserted modern machinery and chemicals into the food supply, often resulting in food that is lower in nutrients.
The same has happened over thousands of years of farming. The fruit and vegetables our ancestors grew was lower in starch and sugar and higher in phytonutrients (which are important chemicals that we will describe in the next section). However, over time, farming practices have favored sweeter, starchier fruits and vegetables—and a focus on breeding them has resulted in produce that is lower in nutrients. In other words, it takes more food to give us the nutrition we need than it did for our ancestors.
Louise and Heather visited Cowhorn, a biodynamic vineyard near Ashland, Oregon, years ago. Biodynamic farming practices go way beyond organic and use no pesticides or toxic chemical methods to produce their wine. The farmers at Cowhorn explained that they cut the weeds in the fields and use them to fertilize the vines.
This lost art of using weeds is actually quite smart: For hundreds of years, weeds such as dandelions have been used for their medicinal value. In addition, weeds have a special ability to pull in concentrated minerals from the soil, which makes them excellent sources for fertilizer!20 This native fertilizer is extra special because the plants all live in harmony in the same land. Organic gardeners and permaculture enthusiasts often make weed teas as a mineral-rich compost in their own home gardens.
The Cowhorn farmers found that as they honored nature with their biodynamic farming practices, the end result of their wine-making process yielded what they call “happy yeast.” In their research at other conventional wineries, they noticed that the yeast had an unpleasant odor and the final product had to be doctored up in order to make the wine palatable for bottling; that is, the sick yeast had to be fixed up in final production.
At this biodynamic farm, the yeast didn’t need doctoring because it was happy and healthy right from the start. Customers with wine sensitivities told them that they could drink Cowhorn wine without any allergic reaction.
Phytonutrients: Nature’s Secret Nutrient-Packed Natural Protector
In her book Eating on the Wild Side, author Jo Robinson explains that phytonutrients are nature’s nutrient-packed plant protector. Phytonutrients are antioxidants, which nourish the body and scavenge the free radicals that can cause cell damage and aging. So phytonutrients help protect and keep us alive, and they do the same for the plant!
Phytonutrients protect plants from insects and disease. When plants are sprayed with pesticides—or genetically engineered to be “pesticide ready,” as Monsanto does—their need to create phytonutrients to protect themselves has been eliminated. What’s left are plants lower in phytonutrients and higher in toxins from the pesticide.
Modern practices sometimes get so enamored with science that they forget nature. Yet when human beings turn away from nature, we lose the ability to benefit from the already-encoded balance it provides. Imagine the result if we honored nature in our modern practices—what seems to take more time and effort up front would lead to faster, higher-quality results in the end, just like Cowhorn winery’s happy yeast. Honoring nature can lead to a happier, healthier planet, as well as happier, healthier people.
Now, the good news is you can still find plants that are richer in phytonutrients. Here are some examples of great high-antioxidant choices21:
Gluten, a protein found in grains like wheat, rye, barley, and oats, is difficult for the small intestine to digest and can cause autoimmune responses in some people. About 1 in 133 Americans have celiac disease, an autoimmune digestive disease in which gluten damages the villi of the small intestine, and which can include over 300 symptoms.22 Additionally, the National Institutes of Health estimate that up to 10 percent of people may suffer from gluten intolerance.
Symptoms of gluten intolerance include23:
According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, improperly digested gluten can turn into substances that act like opiates in the body, causing a reaction similar to heroin and blocking parts of the brain.24 This is particularly an issue for people with a damaged digestive tract or conditions like schizophrenia, autism, postpartum depression, epilepsy, Down syndrome, and some autoimmune issues, according to Campbell-McBride.
A great way to identify if gluten is a problem for you is to eliminate it from your diet for two weeks and see if you feel better. Many people find it challenging to remove gluten because it’s in so many foods today, like bread, crackers, and cereal. However, most of these ready-made foods create nutritional challenges, so if you are experiencing chronic symptoms, it is worth doing an elimination diet for a period of time. Often, once your symptoms resolve and your gut heals, you can add them back in. (We will provide options for you to replace bread and other grains in Chapter 10.)
Bread is often referred to as the “staff of life” because historically it has been an on-the-go, inexpensive staple for warding off hunger. However, the bread of our ancestors was very different from the prepared bread we eat today.
First, the wheat of yesterday has evolved to a very different species in our modern times. In the quest to make dough rise for a fluffier, longer-lasting loaf, wheat was bred over the years to have more gluten and gliadins and fewer minerals.25
Furthermore, over time the milling and processing of grains continued to remove important nutrients in the flour. And because wheat had a brown color that people disliked, bleach (which is not friendly to the good bacteria in your gut!) was used in countries like the U.S. to give it a pleasing white color. These practices alone reduced the overall nutrition and healthfulness of bread.
To add insult to digestive injury, the preparation of bread has changed dramatically as well. Our ancestors fermented the flour (much like a sourdough process), which predigested the grains, broke down the difficult-to-digest antinutrients, and added healthy bacteria. These days, this step is skipped, making bread more difficult for the digestive system, especially if the gut is damaged in some way, which is very common today.
While many people are opting to remove bread (at least bread containing gluten) from their diets as they heal from chronic health conditions, you could consider exploring organic, gluten-free sourdough. Bread prepared properly and eaten sparingly can be a nice treat, and you can learn to prepare sourdough bread at home or find a baker who uses traditional methods.
Many artisanal bread makers are emerging today to meet consumer demand—look for one who uses organic, gluten-free grains and sprouted flour for the easiest-to-digest bread.
5. Trans Fats, Olestra, and Refined Fats and Oils
You can think of trans fats and olestra as artificial fats—in essence, just as dastardly as artificial sweeteners.
Olestra is a fat substitute introduced during the “fat free” craze that was later found to cause gastrointestinal upset, loose bowels, and nutrient deficiencies. A 2010 article in Time magazine called olestra one of “The 50 Worst Inventions.”26 It was banned in Europe and Canada, but is still used in the U.S.
Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated fats and trans-fatty acids, were introduced into manufactured foods to make oils more solid at room temperature, increase shelf life, and improve other product characteristics.27 Dr. Mary Enig, a nutritional biochemist and expert on fats, has reported that they contribute to cancer, challenges with hunger and satiety (cravings), and obesity.28
Examples of trans fats are: margarine, vegetable shortening (like Crisco), and anything with the terms hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated in the label. Often this includes foods such as: French fries, pie crusts, pancake and cake mixes, battered and fried foods, cookies, ice cream, nondairy creamers, microwave popcorn, biscuits, and pizza dough.
Be aware that food-labeling laws allow companies to say “0 trans fats” on any food with less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Since food manufacturers can manipulate the number of “servings” in a package, they can hide trans fats this way.29 The more you avoid processed foods, the more you will avoid trans fats.
We recommend that you avoid refined fats and oils as well. Refined oils have been heated and treated, creating dangerous free radicals and removing antioxidants. They also have toxic preservatives like BHA and BHT (see the “Processed Food and Food Additives” section later in the chapter) added in to keep them from going rancid.30
Another oil to avoid is canola oil. Nutrition experts Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig wrote an article called “The Great Con-ola,” in which they explained that this much-used oil is not as healthy as we’ve been led to believe. Canola oil is derived from the genetically engineered rapeseed, which has toxic properties (such as erucic acid, hemagglutinins, and cyanide-containing glycocides) known to cause: mad cow disease, blindness, nervous disorders, clumping of blood cells, and depression of the immune system.31
As you learned in Chapter 3, healthy, unrefined fats and oils have the ability to lift your mood and satisfy your body, thereby reducing cravings and satiating your appetite. We will talk about some wonderful fats and oils in the Yes-Yes section of this chapter.
Soy was once so widely touted as a health food that it ended up in just about every processed snack food, protein bar, and packaged health food that you can imagine.
Soy is one of the most highly genetically modified crops after corn, so if you do eat it, be sure that it’s organic or non-GMO. Second of all, it’s important to know that soy is high in phytoestrogens, so it can mimic estrogen in the body and reduce testosterone.32
Soy also contains some antinutrients like protease inhibitors, goitrogens, phytates, and lectins, which may interfere with your digestion, inhibit the thyroid, and steal minerals from your body.33 These properties can be significantly reduced if you ferment the soy, which tends to make it easier on your digestive system and much healthier.
We have included soy in the No-No’s section because we feel that there are some very good reasons to limit or avoid unfermented soy. As the debate about the pros and cons of soy rages on in the health industry, we invite you to listen to your own inner guidance, and if you do eat soy, listen to your body. Trust that your body loves you and will always guide you to what works best for your specific needs.
7. Factory-Farmed Animal Protein (Meat, Poultry, Eggs, and Dairy)
While we’d like to think that any animal we eat was well treated, had plenty of room to roam the land, and ate its native diet, this couldn’t be further from the truth when it comes to conventional animal protein from factory farms.
It’s not surprising that many kindhearted people choose to become vegetarian or vegan because of the cruel and inhumane practices that happen on factory farms. Animals are crowded together so that they can’t move properly, they don’t get much time outside (if any at all), and they eat cheap feed that is not their native diet. Just like when we eat chemically altered food of low to no nutritional quality, animals fed this way develop health problems.
Let’s take factory-farmed cows, for example. They eat grass for the first six months of their lives while nursing and then are fed GMO corn and grain, which their digestive systems are not designed to deal with (they’re supposed to eat grass).34 The result is a cow that gets very fat, very fast. To speed their growth, they are often injected with hormones. And because these cows are jammed together indoors with the wrong diet, they sometimes develop diseases and need antibiotics. Just imagine what that means when humans eat this meat from hormone- and antibiotic-injected, unhealthy animals. It doesn’t take a scientist to recognize that eating the meat of unhealthy animals does not do much good for us. Yet most people do not realize that conventional animal protein—red meat, poultry, eggs, or dairy—from animals who are not treated or fed well can contribute to adverse health effects.
In the book Heat by Bill Buford, we learn from award-winning chefs and butchers just how different the meat of grain- and corn-fed cows is: “They eat mush. They taste of mush … the meat behaves like mush: it disintegrates in days.”35
While some people have become used to eating grain- and corn-fed animals and claim that they prefer the taste, we invite you to learn to work with organic and pasture/grass-fed and finished meats and poultry instead. Choose farmers who treat their animals well and allow them to roam free, eating their native diets. This ensures a better quality of animal protein that passes its good health on to you!
A Special Note about Dairy
Depending on the source, it’s estimated that up to 90 percent of people have trouble digesting dairy products because of the inability to digest lactose, the main sugar found in milk.36 Because lactose intolerance (due to absence of the lactase enzyme in the gut) is so pervasive, scientists feel that it’s not a disease, but is in fact quite normal. They say that it’s actually abnormal for people to tolerate milk as adults, and those who can likely have a gene mutation called “lactase persistence.”37
Additionally, many people are allergic to milk and dairy products because of allergies to the two main proteins: casein and whey. Whether due to an allergy or intolerance to lactose, casein, or whey, symptoms could include: lethargy, brain fog, itchy rashes, hives, acne, abdominal pain and cramping, cravings, nervousness, swelling, trouble swallowing, and trouble concentrating.38
Removing dairy foods such as milk and cheese from your diet is recommended by many nutritional experts; Ahlea and Heather have both recommended this to their clients with excellent results. In particular, children with autism, ADD/ADHD, and other gut- or mood-related disorders tend to improve when dairy is removed.
The one exception is raw, organic butter or ghee (clarified butter) from pasture-fed cows because it contains virtually no lactose or casein.39 Additionally, some people do well with homemade yogurt or dairy kefir made with raw, organic, and grass-fed dairy. These days, you can find raw, organic, pasture-fed cheese at health-food stores. If you want to experiment with raw milk, you can find out more by going to the Campaign for Real Milk website at: RealMilk.com.
What about Vegetarian or Vegan Cheese?
We have not found any fake cheeses that have truly healthy ingredients. Most have soy, canola oil, or some other refined oil (see more in the “Trans Fats, Olestra, and Refined Fats and Oils” section earlier in the chapter), annatto, and natural flavors or yeast/brewer’s yeast, which could be sources of excitotoxins.
Remember, it’s important to listen to your body when it comes to the food you eat. This is especially true for dairy or dairy substitutes.
8. Farmed Fish
Another food controversy is farmed fish versus wild fish. Wild fish swim in the open, eating their natural diets (like algae, seaweed, other fish, and so on), which their bodies can metabolize. Farmed fish typically eat a non-native diet, which can include GMO corn, soy, and canola; and are exposed to antibiotics, hormones, neurotoxins, pesticides, and other toxins.40
One thing to keep in mind is that wild-caught fish can be contaminated by mercury, radiation, and other toxins in the water. In general, cold-water fish and smaller species, like sardines, may have fewer toxins.
Sustainability is an issue when it comes to choosing fish because many popular species are overfished and in danger of becoming extinct. While fishing practices and options can change over time, here are some guidelines as of the writing of this book41:
The fish industry is looking for ways to improve sustainability and farming methods, so it’s useful to stay aware of fishing practices as they evolve. Many health-food stores with seafood departments can guide you to the best choices.
9. Processed Food and Food Additives
Foods that come in boxes, cans, and packages are processed, which means that something has been done to alter their natural form and get them ready for a longer shelf life. In addition, processed foods contain fewer nutrients, more sugar, and toxic food additives.
We are grateful that more companies are creating healthy, organic versions of processed foods today that do not contain toxic chemicals. However, there are still too many products on the market that have no nutritional value.
Keep in mind that food manufacturers aim to make a profit, and one of the ways they do so is to get you to eat more food. They hire food scientists to identify the precise balance of sugar, salt, and fat that will make you want to eat more.42 In essence, these foods are designed to keep you in a state of craving. If you want to reduce cravings, stop eating processed foods and eat whole foods instead. Once you do, your body will come back into balance and you can start to trust your body’s natural cravings.
While this is not an exhaustive list, we wanted you to have examples of some of the most prevalent food additives to avoid:
— Food dyes. Found in foods like fruit cocktail, pickles, chips, candy, maraschino cherries, American cheese, sports drinks, and pet food, these dyes are being found to contribute to cancer, as well as to ADHD and other behavioral issues. A 2007 British study found that six dyes, called the “Southampton Six,” created hyperactivity in children: Red #40, Yellow #5, Yellow #6, Carmoisine (red color in jellies), Quinoline yellow, and Ponceau 4R (red coloring).43
Over the years, many food dyes have been introduced and then banned when adverse health effects occur, yet we still have food dyes on the market today. A recent study found that these dyes can enter the bloodstream through the skin or gastrointestinal tract, which was surprising to many scientists who thought the dyes would be blocked by the sun or destroyed in the digestive tract before being absorbed.44 We recommend that you avoid all food dyes.
— Sulfites. Used to preserve food and prevent browning, sulfites can be found in wine, beer, dried fruit, and pharmaceutical medications. They have been linked to a variety of allergy symptoms that affect the lungs, skin, gut, and heart, such as asthma, rashes, and abdominal pain.45
Ingredients to watch for include46:
— Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). These compounds are used to preserve fats and have been linked to cancer and behavioral changes.47
— Potassium bromate. This is used in breads and flour products, and animal studies showing a link to cancer have led to bans in the European Union, Canada, and Brazil, but not in the United States.48 Avoid this ingredient when looking for bread and flour products.
— Azodicarbonamide (ADA). Used as a chemical foaming agent in the plastics industry, this toxin is making its way into bread products at fast-food chains such as Subway, Wendy’s, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Arby’s; and in bread products made by manufacturers such as Ball Park, Healthy Life, Jimmy Dean, Sara Lee, Little Debbie, and Wonder. You can go to the Environmental Working Group’s website to learn more: EWG.org.
— Brominated vegetable oil (BVO). Used to stabilize citrus flavoring, BVO is often used in sodas and soft drinks like Fanta, Mountain Dew, and Gatorade. While safety issues got it banned in Europe and Japan, the United States FDA is allowing it to be used while more research is conducted.49
Read Those Labels! Here’s What to Avoid at the Grocery Store
Excitotoxins54
Gluten grains55
Other
Fats and Oils—avoid fats and oils that are refined, hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated, or trans fats, such as:
Yes-Yes: Foods to Emphasize for Your Best Health
Now that you know what to avoid, here’s the exciting part: what to eat to love your body to good health!
1. Whole Foods
Instead of processed foods, choose whole foods. Whole foods are fresh and mostly located in the outer aisles of the grocery store: the produce aisle, the fish and meat counters, and the refrigerated areas with eggs and butter. In the center aisles, you can look for products that have been minimally processed, like coconut flour; raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (which we like better than white vinegar); and unrefined fats and oils.
There are more healthy packaged foods being manufactured today that are organic, non-GMO, and minimally processed. While we recommend home-prepared foods, healthier packaged foods can be better options than the highly processed conventional foods on the market today. Your local health-food store, food co-op, or farmers’ market is likely to have more great options for healthier foods than many conventional grocery stores do.
The most important thing you can do when considering any packaged foods (even those from your health-food store) is to read labels and look for organic whenever possible. Do watch out for health claims on packages, too. Just because an item claims to be “gluten-free,” have “0 trans fats,” or be “fair trade” does not mean it is healthy. Always read labels and use the “What to Avoid” list from earlier in the chapter to make grocery shopping easier.
What about Grains, Meat, and Vegetarianism?
We are not proponents of the complete removal of any category of whole foods, unless you are working on a certain aspect of your health that requires it. In this respect, we agree with Hippocrates, “the father of medicine,” who said: “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”
Each decade, a new food is vilified as “bad for you.” At some point, one can pick apart every food and find something that is “bad,” until eventually nothing seems safe for eating. However, nature loves us and provides for us—food that grows has a wide range of nutrients delivered in a way our bodies can understand.
Now, certain health conditions may be best served by a grain-free diet, a vegetarian or vegan diet, a raw-food diet, or some other nutritional plan. And because health is dynamic, you may reintroduce those foods successfully and be on to the next phase in using your food as your medicine.
Your body will always guide you when it’s time to adjust your diet. When in doubt, work with a health practitioner or nutritionist who understands the digestive tract and how food impacts health. If you follow other people’s rules without listening to your body, you’re telling yourself that you don’t matter. Remember, what your body needs matters. We have clients who were vegetarians for ethical reasons who knew in the back of their minds that their bodies needed meat, or at the very least, supplementation of vitamin B12 and other nutrients missing from their bodies. When they finally listened, they began to heal rapidly.
Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of Gut and Psychology Syndrome, teaches that vegetables help cleanse the body and animal protein helps build it. If you use food as your medicine, you may find that addressing whether your body needs to cleanse (break down toxins) or build (strengthen) is an important consideration for your health.
For those who choose to eat animal protein, it is definitely possible to pick ethical sources. You can select meat, poultry, and eggs from farmers who raise their animals humanely and allow them to roam free, eating their native diets.
While all three of us have gone through vegetarian and raw-food stages in our lives, we do eat animal protein as a side dish for our mostly vegetables diet. After much experimentation and listening deeply, we have personally found that meat has helped build and strengthen our bodies.
We are not here to tell you to go vegetarian, vegan, Paleo, Primal, grain-free, or raw. Instead, we invite you to listen deeply to your own body and find what works for you. Rigid rules and dogma mean nothing to the body; they are only food for the mind. Be willing to explore what your body needs to heal.
2. More Vegetables
Just about every food expert would agree that we can all benefit from a diet rich in vegetables. Eating all the colors of the rainbow supports the body, and if you’re focusing on healing, eating more dark, leafy greens is a great place to start. Here are some examples for eating a variety of colors of vegetables:
Green-Powder Drinks: Veggies on the Go
Green powder is a supplement that can be added to water, shaken up, and consumed on the go. It’s also a convenient way to add more of the health benefits of greens to your diet. While we do not recommend green powders as a substitute for vegetables, you may want to consider them as a supplement to your healthy diet or a way to get started adding more greens to your meals. Adding a scoop of green powder to your daily smoothie can really boost the nutritional value.
Green powders vary in terms of quality. Look for a variety of organic cereal grasses such as wheatgrass, barley grass, and oat grass; and other concentrated nutrients like algae and chlorella. Avoid green powders with gluten, soy, sugar, or artificial sweeteners (see the list of foods to avoid in this chapter). Ahlea’s favorite is Premier Greens by Premier Research Labs because it is organic and free of sugar, gluten, and other fillers.
Not many people love the taste of green powders, unless their taste buds have acclimated to healthy eating. You may want to mix the powder in a smoothie or add some honey or stevia to your green-powder drink to improve the taste. But give your taste buds a chance—they do change—eventually, you may find that you love the taste of greens!
3. Develop a Love Affair with Herbs and Spices
One of our favorite books is Healing Spices: How to Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices to Boost Health and Beat Disease, in which author Bharat B. Aggarwal, Ph.D., outlines the nutritional, medicinal, and culinary use of herbs and spices. Herbs and spices are concentrated sources of phytonutrients, which means they are concentrated sources of life-giving antioxidants. For example, 1 teaspoon of oregano or ½ teaspoon of dried cloves on their own have more antioxidants than ½ cup of blueberries.56
Imagine what kind of health benefits you can get from sprinkling these tasty antioxidant powerhouses into meals and desserts. They can be used to make your meals delicious and help resolve health conditions—which is truly using your food as your medicine!
Herbs are the green, leafy parts of a plant used to season foods. They’re not the main ingredient of a dish (like kale or lettuce, for example); instead, they’re flavor enhancers. Herbs are used either fresh or dried, and examples include:
Spices are dried and come from a plant’s root, stem, flower, fruit, seed, leaf, or bud. They are concentrated, flavorful, and aromatic. Examples include:
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*If you are a cinnamon lover, we recommend seeking out Ceylon, the “true cinnamon,” instead of cassia cinnamon because cassia could have health risks if consumed in large quantities. You can find organic Ceylon cinnamon at: MountainRoseHerbs.com.
We will share ideas with you about using herbs and spices in the next chapter, and you’ll also see that they’re used plentifully in the recipes we included in this book. Soon you will be making fantastic health-packed meals, snacks, and desserts that your body and taste buds will love!
4. Natural Sweeteners
Nature has provided us with the sweet taste for a very good reason! In both Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine, two systems of health and healing that are thousands of years old, practitioners know that a balance of tastes is important. Chinese medicine talks about the importance of five tastes (spicy, salty, sour, bitter, and sweet), while Ayurveda talks about six tastes (astringent, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and sweet). In both honored systems, the idea is that balancing all of these tastes is important for feeling satisfied during and after eating. In other words, balancing the tastes can ward off cravings!
In the U.S. in particular, our manufactured-food industry weighs heavily toward the sweet and salty tastes because they tend to increase the appetite and, in turn, increase profits for those companies. Home cooks have an advantage in that they can make foods with a balance of tastes for better health and satisfaction.
For the moment, let’s look at the sweet taste. It’s not something to be shunned, because it has many benefits. According to Chinese medicine, nutritionally dense sweet-tasting foods—called “full sweets”—provide soothing, strengthening, and nourishing actions for the muscles, nerves, and brain; they also provide energy for all bodily functions.57 Examples of these foods are naturally sweet vegetables such as carrots and onions and whole-food sweeteners, which we will outline on the following pages. (The recipes in Chapter 10 will give you many options for meals with balanced tastes. We also provide dessert recipes that use whole-food ingredients, including sweeteners, and a balance of tastes.)
On the other hand, when it comes to junk foods with little to no nutritional value (called “empty sweets”), the natural balance is upset—they can shock the stomach and pancreas and can deplete the body’s minerals.58 Examples of these types of foods are refined sugar; artificial sweeteners; and processed cookies, cakes, and the like.
The sweeteners we recommend below are all-natural, whole-food options found in nature or minimally processed. Each of the sweeteners we recommend has nutritional value and when combined with healthy fats and proteins, can keep your body and blood sugar balanced.
— Fruit.* Fruit from nature is a great choice for the sweet taste. Some of our favorites are berries and green Granny Smith apples because of their high antioxidant value and lower sugar content.
— Dates.* We love using organic Medjool dates in desserts because they’re rich in fiber and potassium and provide vitamin B6 and essential minerals like copper, manganese, and magnesium.59
— Honey.* Honey is made by honeybees, is a source of vitamins B6 and C, and has antiallergy and antimicrobial properties. Some rarer forms of honey, like manuka honey and jujube honey, have been shown to combat bacteria and candida respectively.60, 61 We recommend raw, unpasteurized honey, but ask you to keep in mind that babies under one year of age should not be fed honey at all.
— Organic, Grade B maple syrup. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island found that maple syrup has 54 health-providing compounds, including anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetes properties.62 A good source of antioxidants and minerals, maple syrup comes from the sap of trees and is lightly processed. Choose organic, Grade B pure maple syrup for the most minerals.
— Organic, unsulphured blackstrap molasses. Molasses is derived from sugar making, after the sucrose is extracted from sugar-cane juice. It is the most processed of all the sweeteners we’re recommending here, but it does have some nutritional value.63 Molasses is rich in iron, magnesium, potassium, manganese, zinc, and calcium. We don’t use it often, but we consider it a reasonable choice for some uses.
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*The Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) are healing diets for people with chronic gastrointestinal and energy- and mood-related symptoms. These diets allow fruit, dates, and honey because they are easily absorbed by the small intestine, which is responsible for 90 percent of digestion. However, if you have candida or bacterial overgrowth, you may want to use these foods sparingly or eliminate them until your symptoms begin to resolve.
— Lo han guo. Cultivated from the Siraitia grosvenorii vine, it’s also called Buddha fruit, monk fruit, and longevity fruit. This fruit is a green-brown ball from China or Thailand, is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and has been used in China to combat diabetes and obesity.64 The least processed version of lo han guo is the dried balls that you can simmer in tea for a sweetened beverage or grind up into a powder.
Be mindful that lo han guo is being manufactured into a highly processed form because it is calorie-free (examples are PureLo, Purefruit, and Nectresse). These highly processed versions have little to no nutritional value and may have an effect of tricking the body that could unbalance blood sugar in sensitive individuals.
— Stevia. This is a sweet leafy herb that is calorie-free, is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, and has antioxidants and immune-system benefits.65 Stevia undergoes various levels of quality and processing, so we recommend that you look for dry stevia leaves and use them to sweeten teas and sauces, or grind them and use the powder to sweeten foods. If you want to make a more concentrated liquid, you can take ¼ cup of ground stevia and add one cup of warm water in a glass jar. Put the lid on the jar and let it sit for 24 hours, then strain the liquid out. You can also simmer the liquid on low after straining to get a more concentrated liquid.66
You might also experiment with the purest form of stevia liquid you can find on the market. Keep in mind that some people report adverse blood-sugar or appetite-enhancing effects from stevia. We recommend that you listen to your body and do what feels best for you.
— Xylitol and erythritol. These two sugar alcohols are lower in calories than sugar and do not spike blood sugar—they’re also used in natural dental products because they do not feed bacteria contributing to tooth decay. Some people like these sweeteners because they can be used in place of sugar with a taste that more closely resembles it; others find that like stevia, these sugars play a trick on their appetite and blood sugar. We recommend that if you do choose to experiment with these sweeteners, you listen to your body. If you find yourself craving more sweets, having adverse symptoms, or experiencing unbalanced blood sugar, these sweeteners are not for you.
In addition, a major downside to these sweeteners is their gastrointestinal effects. They can cause nausea, cramping, and diarrhea and are not recommended for people following a small intestine healing diet like the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD).
More Health and Less Cravings—Keeping the Sweet Taste Balanced
A great way to eat desserts and treats is to balance sweet foods such as honey, fruit, and dates with healthy nuts, seeds, fats, oils, and spices. Protein fats like coconut flour, nuts, and seeds—along with healthy fats and oils—boost mood while slowing the absorption of the sugars. Additionally, adding spices like cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger aids your digestion, adds antioxidants, and balances your gut bacteria. This is a great way to please your taste buds with dessert while balancing your body’s response to these foods. It also helps to balance the five or six tastes to bring you more satisfaction overall.
The desserts we have provided in Chapter 10 are designed to delight your body and taste buds. You deserve delicious health!
5. Water
How much and what type of water to drink are topics of great debate among health experts and researchers. According to U.K.-based science journalist Caroline Williams, the guideline to drink eight, eight-ounce glasses of water per day came from a 1945 U.S. National Research Council recommendation that some experts say has no scientific foundation.67 At the same time, many studies show the benefits of water. For example, it can increase metabolism and aids in digestion, circulation, and excretion.68
In work with their clients, Heather and Ahlea have found that a focus on water consumption has improved health across the board. This is not unusual—in fact, studies on water and food consumption in U.S. adults from 1999 to 2001 found that water consumers drink fewer soft drinks and fruit drinks and have healthier eating patterns, including more consumption of vegetables and fruits.69
Ahlea recommends her clients drink half their body weight in ounces. For example, a 150-pound person would drink 75 ounces of water, which is about 9½ cups. She also asks them to drink 20 ounces (2½ cups) of water first thing in the morning. While 2½ cups of water in the morning may seem like a lot, the body is better able to absorb a large amount of water first thing in the morning before any food is taken. If you choose to experiment with this, make sure to wait 30 minutes before eating breakfast.
It’s very important to listen to your body when it comes to thirst because everyone’s body is different. Depending on your size, level of activity, climate, and other factors, your body may need more water.
Freyedoon Batmanghelidj, M.D., author of Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, says that symptoms of dehydration are wide-ranging, because water impacts all of the body’s functions. Some examples are70:
So what type of water is best to drink? This is also cause for much controversy. Tap water contains aluminum, fluoride, and disinfectants that make it harmful to the body.71 We recommend pure springwater as the best option because it comes from nature, but it’s important to know the source of the springwater you choose. Some cities have delivery services that come in large reusable glass containers, which is healthier than plastic bottled water of any size (due to toxins in plastic bottles, even those that are BPA-free).
Other options to consider are a high-quality carbon filter or a reverse osmosis (RO) filter. If you are filtering your water, we recommend adding minerals back in. Consider adding real sea salt or pink Himalayan salt; aluminum-free baking soda; or our favorites—Polar Mins by Premier Research Labs, and Anderson’s Concentrated Mineral Drops (also known as Anderson’s CMD; you’ll learn more about them in Chapter 6).
6. Unrefined Fats and Oils
In the No-No’s section of this chapter, you learned why refined fats and trans fats are damaging to the body. While fats and oils were once vilified altogether, new studies have found that healthy, unrefined fats and oils have important properties for good moods, satiety (and therefore losing or maintaining healthy weight), and brain health.72 Fats also help carry important vitamins like A, D, E, and K into the body.
Essential fatty acids—that is, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids—are important for the body and must be obtained from food. While omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are ideally consumed in the same ratio (1:1), Western diets often contain way too many omega-6 fatty acids (in a 16:1 ratio, or 16 omega-6 to 1 omega-3).73 This can contribute to cardiovascular disease, cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune disease.
An abundance of omega-6 fatty acids are found in polyunsaturated oils, which are vegetable oils. To ensure you get a better ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 essential fatty acids, eat a range of organic fats from animals fed their native diets (grass fed, pasture fed), along with unrefined extra-virgin coconut oil and olive oil.
The healthiest fats are organic, grass-fed, or pasture-fed animal fats; and organic, unrefined plant fats and oils. Here are some examples74:
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*Emphasize these oils for a better balance of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acid levels.
How to Use Fats and Oil for Your Best Health
Did you know that cooking with polyunsaturated vegetable oils causes them to turn rancid? Rancid oils create unhealthy conditions in your body, such as upsetting the cholesterol balance and promoting immune problems and heart disease.
Keep in mind that most oils are meant to be drizzled onto your food after cooking. For example, if you make grains or cook vegetables, drizzle some pumpkin-seed oil on them at the table for delicious flavor. The following fats and oils, however, are meant for cooking76:
7. Grains, Nuts, and Seeds
Currently, grains are on the firing line due to books like Wheat Belly and Grain Brain. Paleo and Primal diets, which essentially eliminate grains, are also receiving a great deal of attention. There is good reason for this: digestive diseases are on the rise, now affecting up to 70 million people in the United States alone.77
Grains are challenging for the small intestine to digest, so people working on gut health or insulin issues may want to remove them while they allow their digestive system to heal. Once healed, these folks can often reintroduce grains into their diet.
Whole grains (no part of the grain is removed in milling), as opposed to lower-quality processed grains, have many healing properties. Whole grains are a source of carbohydrates and protein; are rich in fiber, B vitamins, and minerals; can combat constipation; and boost serotonin, the body’s happiness hormone.
If you are working on any healing protocol and want to include grains, it can be helpful to eliminate all packaged breads, crackers, and cereals, and focus on cooking whole grains instead. (We have some options for breads, crackers, and hot cereals in the recipes section that you can use to replace these processed foods.)
When it comes to eating grains, we recommend that you listen to your body and work with a health practitioner if you’re uncertain about whether they are beneficial for where you are in your health journey. (Using the food-diary exercise at the end of this chapter will be helpful in identifying symptoms associated with eating grains and other foods, so you can learn the language of your body.)
If you do eat grains, we recommend organic whole grains that are gluten-free, such as: quinoa, buckwheat, millet, amaranth, and white basmati rice. Be aware that rice is known to contain arsenic, and brown rice contains significantly more of it than white rice does, according to Consumer Reports.78 Soaking your grains before preparing them is a great way to boost their digestibility, and we will show you how to do this in Chapter 10.
Nuts and seeds are protein fats that can be a wonderful addition to your diet, making great desserts and on-the-go snacks. Full of antioxidants and fiber, nuts have been shown to reduce cholesterol, aid weight loss, and promote satiety, so you feel full longer.79 While there are many delicious options for nuts and seeds, be aware that cashews, peanuts, and pistachios have been known to accumulate mold more easily and cause symptoms in sensitive people.80
It is important to listen to your body when eating nuts and seeds because eating too many can cause digestive symptoms. Learn to find the right level for you by using the food diary at the end of this chapter or working with a knowledgeable practitioner. We recommend choosing organic, raw nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds that are already roasted upon purchase have a greater chance of being rancid; instead, you can roast them at home by placing them in the oven on the lowest temperature (make sure to see the instructions in Chapter 10 for how to properly prepare nuts and seeds before roasting them).
Remember to rotate your grains, nuts, and seeds, rather than eating just one type every day or even every week. If you eat a food too often, your body could develop a sensitivity to that food, and eating a wide range of foods gives you more nutrients.
8. Healing Elixirs: Homemade Bone Broths and Vegetable Broths
Making your own broth is much easier than you think, and the taste and health benefits are definitely worth it! These are some of the most affordable healing tools possible.
Homemade meat stocks and bone broths aid digestion and provide an easy-to-digest form of vitamins, minerals, and protein. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride teaches that bone broths help “heal and seal” the gut, and she recommends them as some of the best ways to heal the digestive tract and related immune and mood disorders.
If you have inflammation, arthritis, or joint pain, you will benefit from bone broth because it contains glucosamine and chondroitin sulfates, which you may see often in supplements for these conditions.81 Here is yet another way our ancestors used food as medicine!
We highly recommend bone stock or broth as part of your regular health routine. Louise drinks bone broth two times per day to keep her nourished and energized. When she returns home from traveling, she always has bone broth and soups for several days to nurture her body back into balance after being away. It is one of her biggest health secrets!
If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, you can benefit from making vegetable stock or broth. The great thing about any homemade stocks and broths is that they’re made with kitchen scraps that people tend to discard. Instead, you will be simmering these discarded bones and vegetable scraps with water and a touch of apple cider vinegar to pull out the nutrients. This easy combo creates a budget-friendly healing elixir that your body will love.
We have included recipes for bone stocks and broth and veggie stocks and broths in Chapter 10—you will love how simple they are to make!
Watch Cravings Fall Away
After a week to a month of eating healthy whole foods, your taste buds will begin to change, and you’ll become more in touch with foods that nourish your body and seek out those body-satisfying tastes. In other words, your cravings change as your taste buds change.
Remember, too much of the sweet and salty tastes and chemical additives in processed food will prompt your taste buds and your body to crave more of the same. As you prepare more foods at home and make better choices when you’re out to eat, you will start to see cravings falling away as your body is nourished and strengthened.
The more you listen to your body, the more you will understand the language of these cravings. If you’ve recently eaten, tune in to see if you’re stressed, overwhelmed, nervous, sad, tired, or bored. Perhaps the food you just ate did not satisfy you or was unbalanced in some way (like so many fast and processed foods today) and your body is seeking more—maybe what you ate opened up your appetite instead of satisfying it. As you discover what works to truly nourish your body, cravings dissolve.
As Heather was recovering her health and learning to listen to her body after decades of being ruled by cravings, she realized that when she ate something that was too sweet and unbalanced, a buzz of energy would move up to her head, creating a kind of nervousness or restlessness. Yet when she ate a body-satisfying meal, it not only tasted good, but it created a calm, grounded feeling in the center of her body as well. This is how she started to evaluate how balanced her meals were. It’s also how she started to create recipes—she wanted to make food that would be so balanced that it gave others a centered, satisfied feeling that then reduced or eliminated cravings at the physical level.
When it comes to cravings, which are rooted in the body and the mind, Louise’s teaching is spot-on: everything is thoughts and food. Remember, whole foods and positive thoughts fulfill us at a very deep level. When we choose high-quality, nourishing thoughts and food, we are choosing to love ourselves. Our bodies can’t help but respond to that!
Eating Healthy on a Budget
Louise once heard someone ask, “Why feed a sick body expensive healthy food?” This is not an uncommon question. After reading this book so far, you hopefully have a new understanding that healthy foods, just like healthy thoughts, have powerful healing properties.
Why would anyone deny themselves healthy food because it costs more than cheap, processed food? The first and most important thing to embrace is that you matter and are worth the investment of wholesome, healthy foods. The second thing to recognize is that there are several ways to eat healthy on a budget.
One thing Heather did when she wanted to invest in herself was to look carefully at the other things she was spending money on. When she finally decided that she mattered enough to heal, she realized that expenses like buying magazines, eating out at restaurants, and her monthly cell-phone plan could be reduced or eliminated. These were expenses that she didn’t really value as much as her health, so it was easy to minimize them.
It’s helpful to look at how you’re spending your money versus the priorities that are most important to you. Perhaps there are things you’re spending money on that don’t matter as much to you; that money can be moved into your food budget. This can be a very eye-opening exercise.
Here are some ideas to save money on healthy, organic food:
— Shop at your local farmers’ market.
— Go to an organic farm and buy directly from the farmer. Many organic farms sell direct to customers or have Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs where you can buy family-sized portions of vegetables, animal protein (like meat, poultry, eggs, and raw butter), and sometimes even fresh-cut flowers.
— Buy in bulk online or in the store. You can often get discounts when buying in bulk. Many health-food stores have 10 to 15 percent off cases, for example.
— Get together with friends or groups and buy in bulk. For example, a mom on a tight budget in San Diego began a Facebook group to reach out to people in her local area who wanted to buy healthy food at a discount. She contacted local and online sellers of organic foods and supplements and got wholesale prices, then started a shopping club. In this way, she and many other people in the community got to share in discounted prices. This is a great idea made much easier by social media.
If you don’t have a large group to join, small groups of friends can get together to buy grass-fed meat, herbs and spices, and vegetables.
— Investigate subscription programs. Online stores like Amazon.com have monthly subscription programs where you can buy at a lower price.
— Learn to garden, even indoors! Both Ahlea and Louise have thriving, beautiful gardens, which are wonderful for growing organic, affordable food. Louise’s pictures of her giant kale even got nearly 100,000 likes on her Facebook page!
If you have the space, gardening is a great way to connect with nature and eat well. Yet even if you have limited space or no outdoor space at all, there are wonderful options for gardening! Heather and her husband got an AeroGarden and grew plants hydroponically (that is, with organic liquid nutrients rather than soil) during the winter in Vermont. They set up a tiny room in their basement and were able to grow several types of lettuce, arugula, and basil so that they could have fresh vegetables all winter. Hydroponics allows you to grow vegetables quickly in small indoor areas.
Another option is to have an herb garden in your kitchen, near a window with plenty of sun.
— Buy once and regrow your produce. Certain vegetables can actually be regrown from the base that you often throw away! For instance, take the bottom (base) of a bunch of celery and place it, cut side facing up, in a bowl of warm water near a sunny window (change the water every two days). In about five to seven days, you will see yellow, then green, leaves sprouting. At this point, you can put the celery into a container with soil covering all but the small new leaves. Water generously and watch the new celery grow! Lettuce and bok choy can be regrown in much the same way.
Green onions are even easier: put the white bases in a jar of water, place in a sunny area, and watch as they regrow very quickly. Make sure to change the water every couple of days.
— Stretch your food, like your ancestors did. Our ancestors knew how to stretch food in ways most of us aren’t taught today. Bone and vegetable broth is an example of stretching food: After eating meat or poultry, you take the bones and make a healthy, nourishing broth. The same is true for the vegetable scraps you can use in broths. What was once considered trash can actually be used to nourish the body. This is a great money-saving technique!
— Love eating in. Eating at home saves a lot of money, even when you’re eating organically! Many restaurants serving non-organic food cost more than eating organic food at home. Have fun with home-meal preparation (we’ll give you some ideas to make it easier in Part II).
— Bag your lunch. If you count up the money spent on eating out during your workweek, even for seemingly affordable lunches, you can see how easily you could set aside that budget for healthy food. Bagging your lunch takes planning, but the more you make home-cooked meals, the more leftovers you have to pack for the next day!
— Make your own snacks and treats. Snack food, bars, and desserts tend to be very pricey. It’s much easier than you think to make your own! Plus, you can make extra and put them in your freezer to save time.
Take the Time to Nourish Yourself
When it comes to eating healthy, whole foods, one of the issues that comes up (in addition to money) is time: Many people feel they don’t have the time to prepare foods. In addition, it can take time to learn the skill of healthy cooking.
Just as in the budget exercise a few pages ago, we invite you to look at how you’re spending your time. Identify where time spent on your health and nourishing your body falls on your list of priorities.
As mentioned earlier in the book, while Heather was recovering her health, she was working 12-hour days in a competitive company. Changing her diet meant that she had to figure out how to spend time in the kitchen—to take that time for herself. As she looked at how she was structuring her days, she realized that she could actually make the time to prepare food, but she didn’t think she was important enough. She realized that she placed more importance on her job than on herself. So she sought out a coach and learned how to work smarter, reduce her hours at the office, and spend more time in the kitchen.
Heather had to peel away a lot of limiting beliefs about taking time for herself. She realized that investing time in herself and her health actually improved her work performance; but more important, she discovered that the world didn’t have to rest on her shoulders. She attributes time spent in the kitchen as one of the most healing steps she took because she learned how to deeply nourish herself and how to modify recipes to create the balance and energy she needed to feel her best.
Like Heather learned, you deserve to feel your best every day. In our modern times, it seems like feeling well is such a mysterious thing because the secret has been forgotten. In a world that emphasizes profitable companies making cheap, manufactured convenience foods that trick your taste buds and deplete your body, you may feel that you’ve moved so far away from true health that it is a challenge to find your way back. But it’s easier than you think!
The real secret to feeling your best is taking time for yourself, and not just for meditating and doing affirmations. It’s also time spent planning and preparing foods that nourish, strengthen, and energize your body. It’s time spent in the kitchen preparing these whole foods in ways that delight your taste buds. It’s time spent savoring the food with all of your senses. And when possible, time spent bonding with friends and family to embrace the connection that comes from shared meals. Louise said it best: “Everything is thoughts and food. When you get both right, you have the real secret for perfect health.”
Later in the book, we’ll provide ideas for fast, easy meals that can help you balance your busy life with a healthy body. We invite you to develop a love for time spent on nourishment—to prime your inner body with all of the nutrients it needs for your best life. You are worth it!
Exercises to Emphasize Food and Thoughts That Heal Your Body and Mind
The following exercises will help give you the key to unlock your inner journey, and remind you that you matter enough to nourish yourself both inside and out.
1. Listen to Your Body
While there are many wonderful doctors and experts who can give you guidelines for your diet, each body is unique. Because of this, it’s incredibly important to learn to listen to your body. The more you do, the more you hear its unique needs, which makes it easier to nourish yourself in the way that suits you best. Dogma and rules live in your head and mean nothing to your body’s true needs. The less you worry about rules and the more you honor what your body truly needs, the healthier you will be.
Chapter 4 is a great place to revisit if you want to practice listening to your body. In addition, the next exercise is wonderful to help you start learning how your body speaks to you and how it responds to food.
2. Food Diary
Ahlea and Heather use this with all of their clients as a way to learn the language of the body. The food you eat is so powerful that it affects your energy levels, your physical wellness, your thoughts, and your moods.
Here’s how to do this exercise:
— Write down all the foods you eat each day. Use a notepad you can keep with you, your phone, or whatever is most convenient to capture this information easily.
— During the day, write down any symptoms you experience, for example:
— Review your list of food and symptoms every couple of days. Note the following:
— Elimination experiment. Now that you have noticed patterns, consider doing an elimination diet with the foods that you found to be triggers. We recommend eliminating one thing at a time, so that you’ll know what is working. Eliminate that food for one or two weeks and see how you feel. Did the symptoms go away? Or improve in some way? Record what you learned. If your list is really confusing and you aren’t sure how to proceed, we recommend working with a practitioner who has a good understanding of nutrition and the physical body. This can help shorten the process and make things even easier. Sometimes foods that trigger symptoms seem random, but have common links, like foods that trigger histamine intolerance symptoms. An experienced practitioner can spot patterns like this and help guide you.
Here are some great affirmations that relate to food and mealtimes. Continue to use your mirror, and repeat as many of them as you’d like throughout the day:
Preparing Meals
Planning healthy meals is a joy.
Hello, kitchen, you are my nourishment center. I appreciate you!
I have everything I need to help me prepare delicious, nutritious meals.
I am so grateful to be choosing food that supports my best health.
I can easily make a nutritious, delicious meal.
I love spending time in the kitchen!
I am worth the time and money I invest in my health.
Hi, body, what would nourish you today?
I love selecting foods that work in harmony with you, body.
I am so fortunate that I can choose healthy foods for my family.
My family loves to eat healthy food.
The kids love to try new foods.
I am learning new things that heal my body one step at a time.
Every time I prepare food, I am nourished by my connection to nature and other beings.
I am willing to take this time to nurture myself.
Eating Meals
I am so grateful for this wonderful food.
My body loves the way I choose the perfect foods for every meal.
All of my meals are harmonious.
I love taking time to eat mindfully and fully enjoy my meals.
I am well nourished in preparation for the day ahead of me.
My body heals and strengthens with every bite I take.
Mealtimes are happy times.
My family gathers together with great joy and love.
I bless this food and my body with love.
I listen for when I am satisfied and full.
I listen to my body as I eat.
I pay attention to all of my senses when I eat.
This food is healing me.
My taste buds are changing every day—I no longer crave foods that don’t nourish me.
I listen to my appetite and it guides me with loving, nourishing choices.
I am willing to slow down and take this time to nourish myself.
Nourishing Food Is Part of Your Love Story
The food you eat is as important as the thoughts you think. We encourage you to make nourishing foods part of your love story. While it may seem challenging at first to change your food habits, you will find that small changes over time will allow your habits and taste buds to evolve in ways that support your optimal health. The results of more energy, better sleep, happier moods, and better health are worth it! As you adjust your eating habits, you’ll see how truly healing food is.
In the next chapter, we’ll share tips for healing foods and other natural remedies for physical and emotional symptoms you may be experiencing.
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