Here is an awesome article I came across today written by a nutritionist/blood analyst Christine Pedersen. I couldn’t agree more with what she has to say, so I have taken the bulk of the article below. To view the full article, click here.
Please take the time to read it, it is well worth it. If you don’t have time to read it, I disagree, this is far more important than reading the garbage in today’s paper or the gossip mag’s.
Happy reading.
Life is a series of choices, from when we are babies and all the way through to old age. We have available to us hundreds of choices for our health and life. When our bodies are in balance physically, mentally and spiritually, choices come easily and positively. When we get out of balance, it becomes hard to make the right choice. Small continual good choices will lead us back to health and balance.
Although food would seem to be something our body requires on a physical level to build new cells, to give us energy, to ease hunger, our foods are most important to feed our brain and our heart so we can maintain life. The choices we make of which foods we put in our bodies sets the basis for physical, mental and spiritual health.
Every single moment of every single day from the moment of our birth, our bodies strive for life – long, energetic, healthy, happy life. We are beautifully designed to live and to live fully! (Thank you God!) We are for sure the most sophisticated “vehicle” on this planet. Every single moment we are building bone cells, muscle cells, liver cells, pancreas cells, brain cells, skin cells and so on. In a one year time frame we rebuild and replace every single cell in our bodies. The catch here is, what quality of raw materials are we putting in while we are building all these cells?
Imagine this, for breakfast you had – nothing! – at school a friend shared some Halloween candy with you, and then for lunch you had – a microwaved fast food and a pop – and then after school for a snack you had – a bag of potato chips and a pop, and even worse a diet pop – and then for dinner you had a packaged mac and cheese, wieners, ketchup and a glass of chocolate milk.
This same day when you woke up, your body was all charged up to make brand new heart cells, and the raw materials you gave your body to do this were – nothing! – so without you even knowing it, your body had to go ahead anyway and make these cells with what it had to work with so they were made smaller, weaker and damaged. Then as the day goes on, your body had to make bone cells, and again these were made with what you fed yourself. So the quality of your cells is directly related to the quality of your food. When this goes on and on for days, and months, and years you can understand how we can slowly, very slowly, lose ground in our life.
Now lets imagine this, for breakfast you have – a large glass of pure water while you are preparing a blender protein drink, Vanilla with frozen strawberries (takes 5 minutes). You drink this while you are getting dressed and organized for your day. For a quick mid morning snack you have a small container in your back pack or locker of mixed dried nuts and fruit (your favorites). For lunch you have a multi whole grain sandwich or tortilla filled with your favorite cheese, lettuce, sprouts, green pepper, cucumber or even a container of chopped carrots, celery, cauliflower, snow peas which you eat along with a handful of raw almonds and pumpkin seeds and mid afternoon have a protein bar and an apple or a fruit bar. For dinner you have a mixture of 6 steamed veggies along with a small salmon steak and a tossed salad. And, of course, throughout the whole day you have been drinking pure water from a go bottle that you keep with you. Probably does not seem like enough food to get you through the day but it is 1000 times more actual useful food than the other day listed.
When we eat food that is not recognizable by the human body, our bodies have to do their work anyway so have to use up our reserves. From the moment of birth we have reserves set aside in a “bank” which our body is meant to use when we are in a crisis such as when we get a cold or have the flu, in an accident when extra healing is needed, when we diet or refuse to eat, or when we choose poor quality foods. When we eat poorly continuously, we overdraw our “bank” dangerously. These reserves are also meant for when we need to do major bone building, teeth building, brain building, etc. When we do not have enough minerals for building our bones or teeth, our body sends us a powerful message which we call “pain.” When our legs burn, or our back aches, or our teeth are highly sensitive and hurt us, these are all messages from our body that it does not have enough raw materials to work with. We are so incredibly designed that we are given “pain” as a message to alert us that something is out of balance and needs to be corrected.
There are several essential raw materials and building blocks for life:
1. Water – pure and clean (not chlorinated)
2. Minerals and vitamins from whole foods
3. Essential fatty acids from Omega 3 and 6 oils
4. Enzymes from living plants
5. Friendly bacteria (probiotics)
6. Plant based proteins
These building blocks are needed every single day of our lives. When any, or worse yet, all of these are missing, we get off balance and our brain will give us a strong message by slowing the entire body down and we will experience tiredness – the very first sign of imbalance or in other words, disease.
Often when we experience tiredness, we put something into our bodies to give us energy – this is the correct thing to do – but we often make the wrong choice here. A good choice would be several of the above listed essential foods; however, we often choose caffeine from pop, coffee, chocolate or sugar. Although it perks us up quickly and temporarily, it definitely will not be used by the body for rebuilding or health. In fact, it only makes us think we have more energy, when in reality it is doing major harm to our cells and our brain. This is when depression creeps in, another sign from our bodies that we need better choices and nutrition.
When most of the foods that are going into our mouths are “acidic” in nature, they have to be continually neutralized with minerals from our bones and muscles. All packaged, processed, fast, microwaved, deep fried foods are acidic. All animal products including meats, fish, dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt) are acidic. Only fruits and vegetables are alkaline and only alkaline foods neutralize acidity. External sources of acidity are smoking, drugs, medications, heavy exercise, environmental toxins from shampoos, skin care products, etc. and stress which is the biggest cause of acidity and “dis-ease” in our bodies. A balance of 70% alkaline and 30% acidic in our bodies and in our meals is ideal.
When we become deficient in minerals because of too much acidity developing in our bodies, we become agitated, nervous, “stressed out,” tired, can’t deal with life, or in other words, depressed. Minerals, along with enzymes, are the essence of life in our bodies and in every single cell of our bodies. Minerals and enzymes come from plants and that is how we are meant to get them.
