I’ve always been interested in how belief and inspired action relate to and impact our health. I don’t want to focus on poor health here but quickly will cover at least two scenarios of how I’ve seen thinking impact health negatively. As a nutritionist and counselor I know that ongoing mental, emotional or physical stressors create Adrenal burnout, high blood pressure and hypertension. I’ve learned and I do believe that we store anger in the liver; in that case, unresolved and suppressed anger can only do harm to our valuable liver. 

Everything in the Universe is energy and we are Energetic Beings. Energetically speaking when we are stressed we are in fear, afraid that there isn’t enough time, money, opportunity or resources. That fear is energetically powerful and will attract exactly what we are working so stressfully to avoid: lack and limitation. Suppressed anger becomes ever more powerful every time a situation arises which gives the opportunity to speak up for SELF, and instead we opt-out in favor of swallowing our truth yet one more time. 

When stress and anger (simply examples here) are never addressed, not only could a person experience an outside world that does not feel supportive and friendly but the very personally felt body begins to relay back that same imbalance. And, when inside we experience imbalance, non-coherence, we experience illness which has many faces. 

To get back on track it is important to get a sense of the body when it was at its best. It is important to visualize and imagine great results as if they are already happening, and as if they are a memory in present time. That is how we turn the creative process to our benefit. We let doctors worry about disease; meanwhile, we trust that there is always enough for us in time, money, support, love, opportunity and health; and more than that, we trust that we deserve the best and that, all by ourselves, we are enough in the present moment. In those moments of re-creation our energy begins to shift. The principle of like attracts like works to our benefit and we begin once again to be a magnet for those healthy, prosperous, loving and joy-filled experiences we truly deserve. 

The human body responds in like manner. It remembers the ease with which it is designed to be. The subconscious mind, always connected to the Whole of Universal Consciousness does what it really is designed to do: heal the body perfectly. 

Remember who you are. You are connected. You are a degree of Divinity in form which is no difference at all from the Divine except by degree. You are a healing machine designed to last forever. Feel who you truly are. Make that your sentient-rich visualization. 

Nature gives us everything we need to regain and maintain great health and fitness. Only when people deviate from simple eating habits and whole foods for a length of time do they find themselves in a health crisis.

Often people get the message to make better food choices when they become ill. Perhaps they buy healthy chips, crackers, maybe healthy frozen foods; and while those changes are alright, they won’t restore healthy mineral and enzyme levels in the body.

The basic foods to regain great health are fruits and vegetables. When a person is truly ill and wants to get healthy again, these are the foods that will replenish minerals and enzymes and restore good health. Minerals and enzymes assist the body digest food, and do not deplete the pancreas, and other enzyme producing organs. For humans that is truly the bottom line because bad digestion is the root cause for bad health.

The good news is that there doesn’t have to be deprivation to be well. And once health gets balanced you can incorporate a healthy treat every now and again.

Most chronic disease starts when the body doesn’t have enough minerals and enzymes to assist the digestion process. From that sad state of affairs, undigested food that is, food ferments and poor health sets in.

What will change bad health and overweight conditions back to great health, positive ways of thinking and freedom from unhealthy cravings? Eat as many fruits and vegetables as you care to: lightly steamed and with garlic, sea salt; eat them raw; juice, juice, juice. Carry on with this cleansing and rebuilding diet for a month and let your body regain health.

This kind of nutritional choice is not a “diet”. This is a “live it” and it prompts you to want more of what is healthy and want more of that feel good feeling. Changing to food choices that create an alkaline condition also create a place where illness and imbalance, yeast and parasites cannot exist, and allergies disappear.

Certain foods do not support you as you cleanse and rebalance the body: dairy, bread, sugars, alcohol, red meat (and for awhile chicken and fish) fast food, and snack foods. Those are choices that do not re-mineralize the body, and give organs a chance to heal, regenerate. After balance is created and maintained for a time, certain foods can be re-introduced like healthy bread, yogurt, grains, free range and organic eggs, fish and chicken.

Re-introduction of foods would be determined by blood type or dosha diet, and then testing for allergies.

Building muscle does not mean the consumption of a lot of red meat or animal proteins.

Usually when people think of proteins they think of animal protein. Every food contains protein because all cell growth requires protein. The foods highest in protein are vegetables. That’s right! Chlorella and spirulina, blue green algae contain 60% protein. Barley grass and nutritional yeast are 35% protein. Wheatgrass powder, and sea vegetables like dulse, nori kelp, peanuts,  are 25% protein. Other high protein vegetables are soybeans, olives, nuts,wheat germ, beans and peas.

With all of these great foods to choose from it’s easy to maintain great muscle tone with vegetable choices.

After a cleanse it is a good idea to use a reputable excipient-free digestive enzyme and HCL with all cooked meals.

Drinking pure water, eating mineral-rich food, enjoyable exercise, positive and hopeful thinking, supportive environments and rest all work together to create a healthier more balanced and successful you. My thought is that you deserve it.

My first introduction to Proper Food Combining, made famous by Herbert Shelton came in 1975. It made even more sense to me as I learned more about body dynamics, anatomy and physiology, the synergy in digestion and how the quality of food effects overall health. Reading Shelton’s book, Fasting Can Save Your Life at the same time in 1975 did make my understanding of the concept of food combining easier.
There are two magnificent concepts I learned thirty-four years ago I want to share with you at the onset of this blog: 1. resting for a full eight days, fasting with pure alkaline water and a pure green drink, talking as little as possible, meditating, and with no computer access can begin the process for healing and change the body from acid to alkaline conditions; and 2. body death begins with poor digestion; and after a good cleanse, eating with proper food combining in mind can change death-progressing conditions around.
Meditating on and embracing both of those truths can save your life.
How Digestion Happens
Food combining properly respects the digestion process of the human body. In a nutshell, starches and sugars begin to be broken down in the mouth with salivary amylase, pytalin. Starches are broken down to maltose by pancreatic amylase in the small intestine, the duodenum; and then, the process from maltose to glucose is completed by brush border enzymes (micro-villi) in the small intestine. By- products of maltose, glucose, galactose or fructose get absorbed by the blood stream through the small intestine. Bloodstream Glucose moves to the liver where it begins a dispensing process regulated by the liver. Another amazing job accomplished by your indispensable liver. If you chew a piece of bread slowly and long you will taste the exquisite breakdown to sweetness in your mouth.
Protein digestion begins when the body’s olfactory sense sends a message to the stomach. Pepsinogen secreted by the chief cells is converted to pepsin as hydrochloric acid (HCL) secreted by the parietal cells activates it. The breakdown of proteins in the stomach must happen or proper assimilation will not take place. Protein digestion is completed as pancreatic enzymes: trypsin, chymotrypsin and carboxypeptidase shoot into the duodenum; and further as brush border enzymes assimilate with aminopeptidase, carboxypeptidase and dipeptidase.
Fats are digested in the small intestine by the detergent action of bile from the liver. That is another one of the many jobs of your amazing liver. The digestion of fats is also assisted by pancreatic enzymes which mix with bile in something called the hepatopancreatic duct designed to shoot into the small intestine through it’s ampulla in the duodenum.
Sugars begin their breakdown in the mouth with salivary amylase and are completed in the small intestine by brush border enzyme sucrase. Sugars eaten with a carbohydrate stop the digestion of the starch by inhibiting the secretion of pytalin, necessary in the breakdown of starches.
Why Proper Food Combining Alleviates Body Stress
For sake of time let’s focus on how long it takes to digest certain healthy foods. Fruit juices move through most quickly, usually twenty - thirty minutes; Fruit is next at thirty - forty minutes; Vegetables only take forty-five minutes to an hour depending on their starch attributes. Always eat fruits alone. Soups are a great choice along with juicing when on a clean out and building process. Soups and juices move through the body in less than an hour, as long as it isn’t a bean soup.  Starches, carbohydrates go through three processes and take from one - two hours depending on complexity and the combination of foods they are ingested with. Processing fats can take several hours as does the process of protein, although fats take longer and take priority.
Having stated these very few and very brief digestive processes let’s get serious. If digestion either makes or breaks how you operate in life, and if digestive juices dwindle and get used up with use and abuse over time you may well imagine how continued eating of food combinations like a Big Mac, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or even a yummy healthy vegetarian sandwich with tofu can be a recipe for disaster.
When you eat a hamburger, healthy or not, your body tackles the fat first, then the protein.  That sounds so simple but it can take hours depending on your ability to produce HCL, hydrochloric acid, and how overloaded your liver and pancreas are. If you still wonder where I’m going with all of this, hold on, because the best is yet to be discovered. The carbohydrates that have been pushed through with the other foods have not been processed properly with the salivary amylase and are beginning to ferment in your stomach. That happens because fat and protein digestion take precedence. Ouch, so within this entire scenario which can take many hours, the “food” in your stomach becomes a compost heap. The same will be true of any combination of even organic foods which include a fat, a carbohydrate, and a protein regardless of the great vegetables you throw in there.
If you are in a sensitive condition…  Let me state that differently. When I feel ill or am in an allergic state I always look carefully at how I combine my foods. It makes all of the difference between healing quickly, staying in shape, and keeping the body in an alkaline state.
Is food combining difficult? Not at all. Have a piece of bread - with vegetables - not with a protein – and never with fruit. Eat rice or pasta - with vegetables. Eat protein - with vegetables - not with bread - never with fruit. Eat fruit and fruit juices - all by themselves. Make sure you get good fats in your diet - you require balanced EFAs (essential fatty acids) to live. Eat small meals every 2-3 hours and keep your combinations respectable. Give yourself a sugar treat - simply alone - and not in bread combinations. Drink a cup of coffee - not with food. Have a glass of wine - not too much - not with an indulgently heavy meal - it will ferment.
Feel what works for you and play with getting healthy with the food combining game.