Читать книгу The Alkalizing Diet - Istvan Fazekas - Страница 8

So where does a person start? First, a variety of foods is needed. Easy enough, right? Some people interpret this statement in the following way: “Good news! Now I get to buy salt-and-vinegar potato chips, as well as barbeque, mesquite with ruffles, ketchup flavored, and nachos with cheese. This is variety, eh?” This is how the ego works, always trying to hedge the system in our favor. What is meant by a variety of foods and good nutrition is this:

a) Eat locally grown produce, as much variety as you can find or grow yourself.

b) Don’t become a victim of habit and just eat the same five convenience foods each week (sound familiar?); your body needs a variety of quality nutrients. Stretch your comfort zone and try out new foods. This also means getting familiar with a wider array of tastes. I am amazed—no, shocked—when I see the diet journals that the classes complete (the ones who complete them honestly). Some people eat the same foods as a weekly habit; often they are fast foods or biologically dead convenience foods. If you are going to be repetitive, at least repeat with foods that have a benefit for your body.

c) Try new ways of preparing familiar foods. Once you enjoy the taste of steamed veggies, you cannot go back to the old way of boiling them to death, as my Southern mother was so adept at doing. (Sorry, Ma. You know I love you, but you frequently killed the corn and green beans. I didn’t know this until the first time I actually tasted vegetables in their steamed preparation. “Wow! They are so crunchy. Is this what they really taste like?”)

d) Eat foods that fit your metabolic needs. This is really not a chore as much as a journey of exploration and education. Some people thrive on good quality protein and fat, and others need complex carbohydrates. Others need a balanced combination of the two. One of the most difficult changes for most people to make is their eating habits. Eating sensibly does not mean suffering. There are those fast-food addicts who insinuate that I must be some kind of culinary masochist, getting by on raw leaves and sprouts, and someone who expects you to do the same. Yes, Virginia, you can eat good foods in agreeable combinations and enjoy your meals.

e) Try creative food combining. After repeated practice, you will notice a significant difference in how you feel after a meal. Excellence in your dietary choices should make you feel somewhat energized and revitalized by a meal, not heavy and lethargic. This means sensible combinations of foods as well as the right nutrients for you.

Emotions also play a crucial role in health, facilitating hyperacidity in the body or creating stress reduction and homeostasis. Pathogens seem to love most hyper-acidic environments, and chronic stress is a prime culprit of acidosis. How you eat is just as important as what you eat. Perhaps you have a father who used to chastise you and your sister at the dinner table with “We will have none of that negative talk during dinner!” It turns out that dad was right; it is very harmful to the process of digestion to be hostile or anxious during eating. Slow down, take your time, and get your mind and body doing the same thing—receiving nutrition. Distressing conversations, either from a person, a TV, or a radio have no place during a meal. Your entire gastrointestinal tract will thank you for adhering to that “old-fashioned” common-sense principle.

The connection between the mind and the body is crucial in our exploration in understanding foods and health. To paraphrase what Edgar Cayce once said in a reading, “What you think plus what you eat make who you are.” So not only are you the result of your food choices, but you are equally your thought choices, as well. What do you feed your mind daily? Just as poor nutrition eventually leads to poor physical health, destructive mental habits lead to mental afflictions of one or another variety. These too can be transformed by starting productive habits. It is never too late.

The central point is not to become fanatical about foods but rather to be able to take a healthy, balanced approach to everyday living. Remember that health and wholeness mean the same thing.

It is vital to maintain optimal health through a sensible diet when you are recovering from illness or surgery, or if your immune system has been weakened for any reason. Understanding this also makes you a valuable source of knowledge if you ever serve in the role of caregiver to someone ailing. In this context, food acts as medicine.

As the sages of old knew, “It is much better to prevent an illness than to try to cure one.” Bolstering your immunity through a good diet, regular exercise, connection to Spirit, and through managing stress is one of the most valuable gifts you can give to yourself and one of the oldest bits of philosophical wisdom still applicable today, just as it was in the era of the Chinese Yellow Emperor in the middle of the third millennium B.C.E. But as it often goes, knowing is one thing, but doing it is quite another. We have disease to lose and wholeness to gain. It is not a matter of how long you will live but rather how you live long.