Healing – A good way to eat

Much has been written about healthy eating and the benefits of staying well hydrated. So much, in fact that you might think there’s not much else needs to be said…however, this is about using foods and water to create a healing environment for your body based on choices and how you eat it. It isn’t a diet, it’s just a good way to eat.

The biology of drinking a glass of water
Just for starters here is a quick list of some of the ways water is a healing agent:
– it is a natural laxative
– water lubricates your joints
– it plumps your skin enough to reduce wrinkles (heals your mirror sadness)
– prevents kidney stones
– treats and prevents urinary tract infections by flushing out the bladder
– relieves headaches (often caused by dehydration alone)
– curbs appetite
– anywhere you need lubricant, you need water in your system first to make it happen

How much water do I drink?
A healthy adult body can do with about 2 litres of water every day, increasing with physical activity and warm weather.
Tea and coffee, fruit juice and lemonade are fluid but they’re not water.
If you are having the latter mentioned fluids, they do not replace water, in fact their sugar content or diuretic qualities may mean you need more water to help balance the subsequent higher blood sugar levels and dehydration they create.
If you have an enlarged heart with congestive heart failure, your Dr has probably already told you to monitor your daily water ingestion, and you may be taking diuretics.
Having a drink bottle with you or nearby is the best way to remind you to drink and to measure it.

Buy a small Japanese rice bowl
The amount of food that fits into a Japanese rice bowl is more than enough if it is the right food. Low GI contents will leave you feeling comfortable while empty sugary, high GI contents will have you standing in front of the fridge looking for more in half an hour.
If you eat more than this for breakfast, all you are doing is making more for your body to process, and this takes energy and water. Over-eating every day makes you tired and dehydrated and it’s a waste of food.
Over-eating is creating a non-healing environment for your body. How can it maintain balance, rest, recover, hydrate all the cells that need water, if the organs are inundated with large plates of food three times a day. High GI food creates the sudden swings in blood sugar levels that are so draining for the body. They also use up more of your water intake to counteract the dehydration they cause.

Breakfast
Rather than take a pile of supplements, why not get your vitamins from your breakfast bowl (the small Japanese one)? This is what I have:
2 tablespoons muesli (low GI, fibre)
2 tablespoons organic natural yoghurt (probiotics, calcium)
1 dessertspoon Flax-seed oil (Omega 3’s, lubricant for joints, brain and skin food)
1/2 teaspoon Brewers yeast powder (rich source of Vitamin B complex)
1/2 teaspoon Spirulina (so many vitamins and minerals, it will blow your mind)
Hot water over the muesli to create instant Bircher style, plus warm food in your stomach is more easily digested
Sweeten with freshly chopped strawberries
Still want more sweetness? I add either a dollop of Maple syrup or a teaspoon of coconut sugar. Some people prefer rice malt syrup to Maple.
Mix it all up and you will have a lovely warm, sweet interesting green mix, which will leave you feeling smug at how good you’ve been. It lasts until 11am when you might want to get another Japanese bowl out. If you can’t cope with the Brewers Yeast taste, use smaller quantities and build up slowly. It’s worth the effort, and loads more effective, not to mention cheaper than a Vit B tablet.

Eating out of boredom: Get a little Japanese bowl

This isn’t about weight loss, it’s about not over-loading and stressing your body. Snacks are fine if you need to, just be aware of why you are eating. Are you bored? Are you lonely and food comforts you?
For food to be healing, be kind to yourself, enjoy eating and decide what you can have when you want a snack.
Ideas for snacks and being kind to your body:
Almonds and sultanas in a little Japanese bowl.
Roasted broad beans in a little Japanese bowl.
A couple of pieces of hazelnut chocolate, cashew nuts, and dried fruit in a little Japanese bowl. Moderation is the golden word, it doesn’t mean you can’t have chocolate.
Chopped strawberries, bananas, kiwi fruit and a dollop of natural yoghurt in a little Japanese bowl.
When your bowl is empty, you are finished. Walk away, go outside, get busy. Read a book, ring a friend. Drink some of your water.

Lunch
If you want to sleep well, make lunch your main meal of the day so your body isn’t working hard during the night digesting a large plate of food.
Simplicity is the key to success, so work out a few favourite things that tick the low GI box and then repeat with slight variations. If you don’t keep it simple and write down your favourites, old habits of lazy unhealthy eating will resume.
A few easy meal ideas:
Soup, full of vegetables using small amounts of meat just for flavouring.
Sandwiches packed full of salad ingredients, sprouts, avacado, tomato, thinly sliced cheese. Vary the ingredients, but keep it simple. To reduce saturated fats replace butter with hoummus or avacado.
Eggs cooked with salmon
Make a batch of zucchini and corn patties which can be frozen in easy lunch size portions.
Remember you don’t need a huge plateful, let your stomach do the guiding not your brain.

Still hungry? Do what the Chinese do and make a pot of China Jasmine green tea. You won’t want anything else after that.

Last meal of the day
This meal should have set criteria to allow maximum healing to occur during sleep. This is not a cook book or telling you exactly what to make, just try applying these points to your choices.
Low GI
Small to moderate serving
Low sugar
Makes you feel comfortably full but not rubbing your tummy wishing you didn’t have desert
No desert
No fruit mixed with cooked foods. They are digested differently and can lead to a fruity putrifaction in your gut which creates a lot of wind and strange dreams.
No fizzy drinks (think about that wind again) Soft drinks also leach phosphorous out of your bones which reduces their strength. No-one wants crumbly bones.

Every meal
Chew it slowly, mindfully, mix it up with your saliva really well. That’s because saliva is where the initial break-down of all food begins.
Eat calmly and look at what you’re eating.
Know that you have had enough.

This is how food and water can help heal your body and prevent diseases. It is a wonderful way to take control of your own health and you can save money when you realise you don’t need to eat as much as you thought to be alive and do all the things you want to do.

Erica Fotineas