Nobody knows what to eat anymore!

I have been overwhelmed by the number of questions from people in regards to which foods are healthy and which foods are not. The trouble is that the media and food distributors highlight on one component of a particular food that is good for you and you see it appear in everything (a bit like adding vitamins to a very popular pop) to make you drink it all the more, even though it is very bad for you. But they now say it has added vitamins so it must be good for you! Did you know that they (they being the scientists) placed a tub of margarine in the desert for a week with the lid open and when they returned a week later, nothing, not one bug or animal had touched it ... it was still intact. They did another experiment where they left rats to live in a room full of lots of different foods including margarine and when they returned, the only thing the rats did not eat was that margarine! Yet we happily spread it on our toast because it now has added omega 3's!!!
Think about probiotics ... there was a day only recently when nobody had even heard of the word probiotic and do you really know what that is, apart from the fact that it makes you do the happy bowel dance? They (yes, them again) have been happily adding these so called probiotics (which by the way, is healthy gut bacteria that we need to keep our digestive and immune system happy) to our foods. Every food from cereal and bread to yogurt (delicious sugary yogurt, ring any bells?). This is not the best way to get this all important bacteria into our gut. Which by the way, is depleted by prescription drugs, oral contraceptives and of course, antibiotics.
I know it is a confusing and fast paced time for us all. Stress is at its ultimate high and generally people are not feeling very well. I am noticing such a trend in the number of people of all ages dealing with sever nutritional imbalances that they are really starting to take affect and people really do not know what to do. So, I want to share with you my general strategy for keeping healthy and feeling great!
In a society where everything seems to be super sized, the trend is to do everything to excess from our intake of sugar, to our large double this and double that. We need to take on a new mind set and think of our bodies as machines that need good quality fuel in moderation! We need to begin to get back to basics with our foods. When our children look in the cupboards for food, all they see is food that comes in a box. What happened to all the home cooking and Sunday night family dinners? Families aren't even eating together any more and like I said, our children think that there is no food in the house because they don't know how to make anything apart from some chemical creation that comes in a box and goes in the microwave for 2 minutes! I am seeing so many young people at my clinic who are experiencing symptoms of candidiasis, liver problems, adrenal fatigue, under active thyroids and obesity. What have we created?
Moderation is the key and shopping locally. Remember I told you about the hardest working people around, our local farmers.. use them .. for they have all the goodies to make us well. Get back into the kitchen with your kids and cook together. The markets are full of wonderfully fresh fruits and vegetables and local meat products. Get out the recipe books and have some fun together. Don't you think our children and our future children deserve to be healthy?
It is great to start your day with 1/2 fresh lemon and water to kick start the liver and gallbladder and a good quality probiotic is a must. Try foods that are more alkalizing like fruits and vegetables and choose alternate protein sources such as nuts and seeds, brown rice and beans. I f you have trouble digesting certain foods, a good quality digestive enzyme would help and of course lots of water. Walking and fresh are, sunshine (if we ever get any!), oh and did I mention lots of love!!!
Remember that you only get one body, and if you abuse it now, it will not go the distance.
In future posts I will add the articles that I write for the CAPS paper in Lindsay, as well as thoughts on nutrition and recipes to help you get started on your path to better nutrition and better health.