“The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician”

“The higher the quality of food we eat, the more nutrients and energy we obtain from it”

“The more processing a food undergoes, the more toxins and the less energy and nutrient value it holds”

“Diseases hold a higher rate in countries of affluence. Here in America, we are affluent compared to other countries, and we suffer from it. We eat like feasting kings and queens every day of the week, and it kills us”

“Epidemiological evidence points to a connection between inflammation and a predisposition for the development of cancer. Eating properly is a highly effective way to quiet inflammation. An anti-inflammatory approach to eating will have a significant, positive effect on an enormous variety of health issues”

Above are just a few of the notes and quotes I collected from my 5-week course taught by naturopathic doctor, Kathly Abascal.  I learned A TON of nutrition information and want to share my notes here with you today.  I’d like to think of myself as a healthy eater, but from what I learned in this course, I have some changes to make.

The course is called “the anti-inflammatory diet” and concentrates mostly around the foods we should be eating and why in order to live a healthier and disease free life.

Did you know? Inflammation is tied to all chronic ailments such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, arthritis, allergies, and all autoimmune disorders.

The foods below are known as inflammatory and should be reduced or eliminated:

• Meats
• Dairy products from cows milk
• Wheat
• Eggs
• Any refined, processed, enriched, chemicalized, or preserved sugars, salts, and foods

Why reduce meat? I’m referring to animal meat here. The meat of today is highly chemicalized, for animals are fed all sorts of artificial substances to fatten them quickly for the kill. Animal feed legally may contain rendered road kill, dead horses, and euthanized pets. Ewwww…gross! Try to keep this in mind the next time you order that meaty dinner! Furthermore, animals raised by factory farms often receive antibiotics to promote faster growth.

Why reduce dairy? Milk is highly mucous-forming leaving the body in a state of acidity.   Raised dairy cows are bombarded with toxins in the form of pesticide residues on feed and genetically modified soy products in the feed.

Why reduce wheat? Wheat contains gluten. Gluten forms a glue in the intestine and clogs it. Today, wheat is not what it was a hundred years ago. Wheat has been genetically modified; furthermore, many nutrients are removed in the refining and processing of wheat.

Why reduce eggs? For the same reason to avoid cows milk. Because of the toxin content and acidifying nature of the animal protein

Why reduce refined foods? Well, I think this one is sort of obvious. These foods provide no nutritional value, are very highly acidic, and mucous forming. Sugar depresses the immune system and doesn’t offer any nutritional value to the diet.

Now, for the foods we can eat and which are considered high quality foods.  But before that, here is another quote from Kathy:

“An unrefined plant-based diet, together with apporpriate exercise consistently followed, would eliminate most of the degenerative diseases that curse the western world”

• Meat: organic free range chicken and turkey, wild game, organic free range lamb and buffalo
• Cold water fish: salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, halibut
• Dairy: Organic eggs, unsweetened soy yogurt, coconut milk
• Whole grains: brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, buckwheat, millet, rye, pumpernickle
• Beans: black, chickpeas, kidney, pinto, white, navy, tofu
• Nuts and seeds: almonds, cashews, flax seeds, hazelnuts, walnuts, soy nuts, pistachios,pine nuts, sunflower seeds, brazil nuts
• Fats/Oils: flaxseed, olive, sunflower, grape seed, coconut oil and butter
• Fruits & Veggies: any and all of it.  just be you choose the whole and unprocessed kind

I know it seems like changing our diets may be “impractical” but it might also be worth it. I truly believe we are witnessing higher occurrences of disease because of the crap in our diets.  Wouldn’t it be worth to spend a little extra time and money purchasing food that is good for you rather than the bills you will incur visiting the doctors office or hospital?

Even partially adopting a plant based diet will promote many positive changes in health. For example, eliminating all white flour, all white sugar, and non-organic meats while still eating whole wheat and animal meat will improve health and the chance for future chronic disease.  Afterall, you are worth it and life is worth it.

Comments? thoughts?  I encourage you to leave ‘em here.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 1:55 am and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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