Wow hasn’t this year gone quickly, we are into December already! I hope you are enjoying the lead up to Christmas and all the preparation, my decorations are going up today and I am at my first Christmas get together tonight, so I am starting to feel quite festive!
With Christmas tends to comes a great deal of food, a subject close to many of our hearts (or stomachs should I say!) and that is what I would like to dive into this month. Not only is food one of my favourite subjects and past times but it is something I don’t feel we think consciously enough about much of the time. Here are just a few of my thoughts about food and maybe some food for thought for you! (I know that didn’t even come out of a cracker, sorry!)
Non Foods: We all lead incredibly busy lives these days and there isn’t always a great deal of time for preparing meals and making sure we are getting the right amount of goodness from our food. However I would ask you to think about what you eat on a daily basis and therefore what your body is using to make replacement cells in your eyeballs, for instance, or the muscle tissue of your heart. If you are only eating “junk” food then that is all your system has to build you out of; That definitely made me stop and really think a number of years ago when I started on my journey back to good health.
There are many foods or “non-foods” (as I like to think of them) that actually require more nutrients from your body to process them than they deliver to you. That was never the trade-off that our systems signed up to, digestion is an energy and nutrient consuming process and so we need to get out at least what is put in, in some form or other. One of the best ways to do this is to eat produce that your system recognises as food, things like vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, fruits, nuts and seeds i.e. foods that are natural and have not been messed about with. Not only will you feel loads better but you are also likely to drop those extra pounds that can be hard to shift!
Wheat: Well actually what I am talking about here is grains in general; it really surprised me to know that grains do not actually want to be eaten by us or anything else! Unlike fruits which temp us to eat them with juicy flesh so that their seeds can be dispersed more widely, the grain actually contains the seed of the plant and if we eat and digest it the seeds cannot go on to do what they were designed to do. Ultimately grains are not looking for us to eat them and they don’t go down without a fight and this can cause many problems in our digestive system. Grains cause damage to the gut lining and the gall bladder as well as binding tightly to metal ions like calcium, zinc and iron, none of which is good for us and our health. I won’t go in any further here but there is a ton of research available if you want to dive in deeper.
Really the take away is that this poses an issue for us, as so much of what we eat on a daily basis is grain based: bread, biscuits, cereal, pasta, cakes etc. Next time you eat a pasty or a plate of pasta just notice how you feel an hour or so later, are you in need of a sleep and totally lacking in energy? Check out labels on processed foods and see how many contain some kind of grain, I am astounded each and every time! Cutting out grains from my diet was one of the hardest things to do but I cannot tell you the difference it made to how I feel!
Fats: I am so pleased that the general media are starting to tell us a little more about the benefits of fats. They have been demonised for so long that we think of fat free foods as something we should be aiming to eat more of when in fact the opposite is true. Fat is used to build cell membranes throughout our bodies, many of the vitamins we need are fat soluble, not water soluble and our brains actually function better on a fat rich diet over a carbohydrate (which is sugar) rich diet. The best advice I was ever given was do not be afraid of fat!
As with everything though it is important to know your stuff, it is best to eat fats that have not been highly processed, like butter, coconut oil, olive and nut oils (cold pressed) as processed fats tend to be altered to substances our bodies do not recognise as food. Also fat tends to be a good storage space for chemicals the body doesn’t want (pesticides, antibiotics etc.) so it is a good option to go for organic produce where possible to avoid these toxins altogether. I eat a great deal more fat than I used to and after a routine medical check-up recently I was pleased to note my blood pressure and cholesterol were out of the “worry” zone which was not the case five years ago.
For more help with your lifestyle choices, more information about the therapies I offer or to book an appointment please call me on 07814 019180, email wellbeing@familymcp.com or go to my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lorimcphersonwellbeing
I wish you much love and happiness for this festive season!
Lori