Читать книгу Pure Health - Henri Chenot - Страница 12

It’s not enough to know how to put the right proportion of indispensably healthy food on our plates. We also need to give our bodies what they want when they want, because they are ruled according to a precise regularity.

It is vital to understand that we’re subject to inescapable natural daily cycles which require us to renew our food supply every 24 hours. Remember, our bodies can only nourish themselves over this timeframe – before and after aren’t the right time.

From midday to 8pm, the body is at its peak capacity to eat and digest food; it’s the best time to eat and the ideal time to assimilate food, thanks to the lively activity of the digestive system, the liver and the kidneys. Lunchtime and dinnertime fall during this period, and the slow job of breaking down food and rebuilding nutritious substances is set to work. Don’t forget, this range of food isn’t available to us without first being broken down. This breaking down produces waste, which is why this phase of elimination is so crucial. Depending on the quantity and quality of nutrients we obtain from our diet, a deposit of ascorbic acid is produced when food is broken down. If an accumulation of acids exceeds a certain level, the mesenchymal fluid gels and is not able to perform its job, i.e. to feed the cells.

But before the period dedicated to elimination comes the regeneration stage, which occurs from 8pm. As soon as the flux of nutritious substances diminishes, and their absorption and their digestion are ensured, the metabolic process changes to devote itself to cell regeneration, until around 4 in the morning. Regeneration is most active during this nighttime period when the body is in a state of rest and fasting, and the nutrients can get involved in the fundamental process of cell renewal. This is why we see a drop in body temperature, from 37∞C to 36∞C.

What are the instructions during this period of cell renewal? Don’t eat, sleep! After this time, the body will focus its attention on elimination, which lasts for eight hours, from 4am to midday: its priority becomes to free itself from toxic residues.

To assist the elimination and detoxification stage, you should have purifying ingredients such as fruit, natural juices and, above all, water, for breakfast. A large number of Westerners don’t observe chronobiology, the precise, fundamental pattern that assists you to respect the three stages.

Another factor that interferes with the assimilation stage is the amount of time given to chewing. You usually start to feel full about a quarter of an hour after you’ve started eating: so, if you eat fast and don’t chew, you will have gobbled up a superfluous amount of food before you begin to feel full, exceeding the body’s needs and not leaving enough time for digestion or assimilation.