My Health

And it came to pass that I did search for a healthier way of nourishing my body. How do I know my body needs nourishing? Because I’m much more tired than I should be at my age. Where was I to go? Which of the many diets that I came across was right? There was the Eat right for your blood type, Atkins, Zone, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Meditteranean, Don Tolman, Sureslim, Herbalife, Usana, ACV, Vegetarian, Gabriel Method, Body for life, Fit for life, Boutenko raw diet and many others. More importantly which one was right for me? If any one of them was right (or a combination of them) which was it and how should I know it?

Still I kept myself aloof from all these groups, preferring to observe from a distance and read their many books as often as occasion would permit. In process of time, my mind because somewhat partial to the green smoothie revolution, and I felt some desire to be united with them, especially after Mrs Boutenko announced in a newsletter that she was stepping down from her 100% raw pedestal because she felt it was too extreme.

However, so great were the confusion and strife, not to mention propaganda, mudslinging and references to scientific research that may or may not have been properly designed that it was impossible for me, being so young, naïve, and unacquainted with whatever the truth might be, that I could not possibly come to a certain conclusion about who was right and who was wrong.

Some say you need supplements, because normal food doesn’t supply the adequate minerals and vitamins that your body needs. Then others say, no you shouldn’t have supplements, because your body doesn’t recognize dead unnatural chemicals when they’re introduced individually, they have to come to you in the form of whole food because the ingredients in fruit and vegetables work in harmony with each other. Detoxing an ideal solution or a crazy fad? Fats – necessary for your body or harbinger of death? Sugar - good or bad. Protein good or bad. Meat good or bad. Dairy good or bad.

The healthy living magazine actually had the gall to refer to meat and dairy as healthy foods. I had to laugh. Whos paying your bills? Meat, loaded with fat, carcinogens, stress hormones, uric acid, antibiotics, bacteria and toxins? Or dairy – both fatty and mucus forming at the same time?

Reasoning and logic don’t seem to play much of a part here, since food is so inextricably linked to a persons emotional state.

If you whittle down the majority of diets, they pretty much boil down to 3 or 4 main things
1) Drink lots of water. If you don’t, water retention will make your ankles swell up.
2) Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. I’ve also recently formed the opinion that legumes and pulses are probably a good thing to have as well.
3) Limit everything else you eat – meat, dairy, starch, fat and junk food.

I’m still not decided on the pros and cons of carbohydrates, but I guess if you can find low GI/GL foods then they’re ok.
I also really like meat. Especially fish and lamb. But I suppose limiting them to a few times a week wouldn’t kill me.
I have recently developed a new recipe for healthy bliss ball snacks that I’m totally in love with. So here it is:

1c tahini (sesame paste, used in making hummus)
1c honey (I like manuka, but that’s just me)
1/2c each of the following: raw walnuts, cashews, almonds, all ground in a blender
1/2c coconut added to mix. Extra needed for dipping.
Small handful of raisins, goji berries, whatever other dried fruit is on hand
1/2c cocoa powder
Mix it all together thoroughly, roll into balls, roll in coconut, eat. Yum.