Picture: Birthday Cake made by Judy based on the recipe From the Master’s Kitchen, a recipe from Master, adapted & described by Angela in the latest C & L Journal. We substituded Grape Seed Oil and used 70% chocolate. It was delicious.
Carla and I attended a nutrition class at the hospital and a nutritionist came to my room to talk to me about supporting this body in recovery. I have also been reading about ways to help the body maintain optimum health. There are some take away lessons that I think everyone can benefit from.
Of course it is good when you have a pithy saying that sticks with you and actually leads to a positive change of behavior. One of those was what the nutritionist said when she came to my hosptital room. She said that most people only chew their food just enough to keep themselves from choking to death! That is quite an image. The fact is that an important part of digestion occurs from mastication (chewing) and the mixing saliva with the food.
Some years ago I started to discipline myself to chew completely what I had in my mouth and swallow before taking another bite. I actually laid my fork down between bites to support my doing this. I was amazed at how difficult this was in the beginning. I was used to taking another load full of food before I had chewed and swallowed the previous mouthful. Amazing! I found several benefits from eating this way: I enjoyed the flavor of food and noticed subtlties as never before, it slowed my eating and improved digestion, and I was more tuned into when I was actually full and therefore could choose to stop eating, even if I had more food on my plate.
In the class the nutritionist made a point; eat food that looks like it comes from a farm. “You do not see poptarts growing on stalks in the fields,” she said. Eat whole grained foods, eat foods that you can recognize from the farm, not overly processed foods that adds loads of sugar and unpronouncable named ingrediants (if you cannot pronounce it you probably should not be eating it).
There are a lot of foods that have sepecific effects on the body, some fight free radicals that can cause cancer, some are anti-inflammatory and so on. However simply eating more fruits and a rainbow color of vegetables (fresh or frozen) would cover a lot of healthy territory. One source said that if you eliminate french fries, potato chips, and the lettuce and tomatoe from a hambuger, over 50 percent of Americans would not even have one serving (usually a half cup or a cup) of vegetables and fruit a day. Isn’t that astounding, not even one serving! Remember, food is not only the fuel your body needs, but it is also the original pharmacy for healing and keeping your body well.
It is amazing how much abuse this body can take. Perhaps that is not always to our benefit, because we start to think it doesn’t make any difference how we treat it. However, unhealthy patterns tend to have a cumlative effect and when our body gives us trouble we feel betrayed; the real betrayal usually occured many years before by how we fed and treated the body.
No discussion on natural health can be complete without mentioning exercise being a vital component. Getting up from your chair and going for a good walk everyday would be huge step in the right direction for most people. Practice the yoga postures Briana describes so well; I have asked her to adapt some of the poses so that you can do them at your desk and she has started this in the most recent C & L Journal. You will find you will feel better, have more energy and sleep better, plus if you can walk in a nice environment, you will enjoy yourself immensely; chanting is a wonderful occupation for the mind while you walk, think of Papa walking from one end of India to the other!
I know that none of these principles are new to you. However, as I said in the beginning, if something sticks with you and actually changes your behavior, then it will truly have value. Perhaps reading these words will get you refocused and really treating your body as the magnificent bio-organism it is. Chew your food thoroughly, eat foods that look like they come from a farm, and go for a good walk everyday.
When you investigate the marvelous ways the body has been constructed, I mean truly amazing intelligence that has gone into its design, and then how little thought you give to feeding it high quality fuel and providing what it needs for optimum living, it is really the height of ingratitude you show your Creator for the miraculous gift He has bestowed upon you. If you are not doing so now, then it is high time to show that appreciation, starting today, by living with healthy habits and honoring this amazing Temple.