How Healthy Are You?

Being in the health field as long as I have, I find it sad to see other people’s version of what “healthy” means.  Most of this is because of billions of dollars of advertising spent to sell the masses non-healthy products.  Because of this, everyone has their own definition of what “healthy” means to them.  The American Heritage Dictionary, copyright 2000, states the definition of healthy is: Possessing good health; conducive to good health; healthful: indicative of rational thinking or frame of mind: a healthy attitude.   Interesting that they put that you have a healthy mind, if you are healthy.

How healthy are you?  Be honest with yourself; it doesn’t help you to lie.  Do you take good care of your body?  Do you pamper yourself, emotionally, physically, and nutritionally?  What are you waiting for? Sorry to say, no one is going to do it for you!

So how do you tell how healthy you are?  There are many ways of determining this. Have you done any tests to determine what is really going on inside your body?  Some examples of this are blood tests, urine tests, saliva tests, or hair analysis.  Many of these tests are available without a doctor, (or with) and yet provide you with an abundance of information to help you make some educated choices for your health. Remember, you may have the best doctor or health professional in the world, but it is your body, you are in it, you are ultimately responsible for it – and you know it better than anyone else could possibly know it.  Use that knowledge to your advantage to help yourself.  I find it fascinating that people take better care of the their finances and their cars, then they do their health.  This is another “to do” item that is so important.  If you get sick, you won’t be able to enjoy that car, or the money.

Other ways of determining your health are pH, iridology, reflexology, body weight, and muscle testing from chiropractors or other health professionals.  These tools are valuable to help you see weaknesses and strengths in your body –- so you can concentrate on supporting the weaker areas, and maintaining the stronger areas. 

Another question to ask yourself is -- how stressed are you?  Stress really does deplete our bodies and is a real cause of many illnesses. There are stress tests available on-line, from many doctors and we have them at our store. Take the test to see what level of stress your body is working to sustain.  Are you giving your body what it needs to support itself during this damaging stressful time? 

How do you feed your body?

A final idea is to keep an eating list for 2 weeks to see what you are eating – how much of what you have eaten is actually food with optimal nutrition for your body?  How much is empty food, void of any real nutrition? If you are unsure, show your list to your health professional – or look each item up on the Internet. Below I have listed some questions to ask yourself before you eat something or after you have made your journal – most people are shocked to learn how little nutrition they are really getting.

Questions to ask about your food choices:

• Did this food grow on a tree or out of the ground? The best source of food is that which grows in the ground or on trees where it can absorb nutrients from the soil to pass on to our bodies.  If the food is grown in a hothouse, it isn’t always provided all the necessary nutrients. Good soil provides microorganisms, trace minerals and other nutrients that are not available in other ways of growing. Good examples of this are fresh fruits, vegetables and grains. 

• Did this food come from an animal?  What was the animal fed? What anti-biotics, hormones or steroids was the animal given?  How was the animal treated in life, and when butchered?  Many people just purchase the meat if it looks good, or buy meat at a restaurant, never knowing the real source of the meat or how it was handled. What most people don’t know is that many animals are often treated without respect, caged, and fed poorly. Unfortunately the energy of the meat can’t possible good for us, in addition to the poor nutrition it is passing onto us. Some people may think, “Energy, what does that have to do with anything?” Well, energy doesn’t just go away – if someone was angry with you, often you may go home and take it out on someone else.  The same thing applies here, if the animal is scared, or upset, that energy is passed onto us.  If it is treated with respect and honor, which kosher and organic animals are, the energy passed along to us carries those same positive energies.

In addition, this is where the mad cow disease all started, trying to cram too many animals into one space, which creates unhealthy environments with unhealthy animals, which is why they give them the anti-biotics and steroids, which then are passed on to us, created hormonal problems in our children and many adults. I see so many women with menstrual disorders and the first thing we recommend is to go off all meats that are not organic.  It is amazing to see the results they have. Try it for a couple weeks; you too will be amazed.

Unfortunately beef is not the only meat with an issue, farmed salmon has similar health issues – it is now recommended that we only eat wild Alaskan salmon.  And chickens are not exempt either.  The September 2004 issue of Oprah magazine reports that all chickens that are not organic contain 3 to 4 times the level of arsenic than normal.  The farmers give the chickens an anti-biotic mixture with an organic form of arsenic in it, which the chicken’s bodies transform into an inorganic, more carcinogenic form.  (That means cancer causing.)

Finally, organic, free-range, and grass fed animals are the best.  Most farmers fatten up animals before butchering by giving them extra grains.  This just makes fat animals, it doesn’t provide any added nutrition on to us – in fact it makes the meat have more saturated fats, which are harmful to us.  The best meats to purchase are the grass fed animals, and eggs that are from true free-range chickens; birds that get their food from the ground, not from inorganic corn or meal.  When you eat meat that is grass fed, the amount of saturated fats goes down, and the amount of the good fats increases – in fact many people find that when they eat organic grass fed meats, they don’t eat as much. Our body is more satisfied by getting the essential fatty acids that it needs, instead of the saturated fats that it doesn’t.

• Is this food organic, or has it been sprayed with pesticides (while growing) or other preservatives (while in the grocery store or restaurant)?  If the food is organic, nothing has been stripped out of the soil, and in fact nutrients such as rich composts are usually added to help the soil thrive and breath allowing the proper amount of moisture and nutrients to help not only grow the plants, but provide the proper nutrition to pass on to you.  If the plant has been sprayed with pesticides, there is no way to just “wash it off” – that is like trying to wipe off glue, there is no way to remove it, it will absorb into the plant, just like lotions and creams are absorbed into our skin. Plant skins are no different.

• Is this food genetically modified (GM)? Potatoes, corn and soybeans are some of the most popular foods that have been engineered by science instead of by nature and research is showing that these foods disrupt the balance of nature affecting butterflies and other animals.  These GM foods are now also being linked to allergies and other illnesses.  Look for the non-GM label on foods.

• How much has this food been processed? Has this food been bleached, or stripped of all nutrients? Were nutrients added back to this food, and if they were –they most definitely are not the same quality as they were initially.  Salt is a good example of this. That is why many people prefer sea salt or Real Salt tm as all the original minerals are still in tact.

• Has this food been cooked to remove all enzymes? Enzymes hold nutrients in food – when you hear fresh broccoli snap when pulled apart, you are hearing the enzymes. When you cook food, you kill enzymes. Cooking food too much cooks it “to death”, killing all the valuable enzymes your body needs. Enzymes help your body break down and digest food, they also help you absorb nutrients and carry toxins out of your body. Some cooking can bring out flavors and other nutrients – it is important to find a healthy balance between cooked and raw foods for your body. Many experts recommend eating 35-4% raw food (fruits & veggies) and 35-40% cooked (fruits and veggies) and 20-30% everything else.

• If the food is processed, does it have any natural fibers or essential fatty acids, which are beneficial to your body, or does it have artificial colors and flavorings?  When you eat artificial ingredients you are actually putting more toxins in your body to be pushed out in some other way.  But if you are not providing enough fiber, enzymes and essential fatty acids, there isn’t anyway for it to move these toxins out.  Putting junk food in your body does not FEED your body; it just makes your body toxic.

• Who prepared your food?  Your mom who made your food with love, or the boy in the fast food restaurant that was throwing the burger together with the anger he had for his girlfriend?  The negative energy from that burger is now being transferred to you – or did you choose the food made with love put into every cut and stir by your wife.  Many macrobiotic (a popular health way of eating) books talk about the energy of preparing food to benefit or harm us.

Two books that can help you with food choices are by Ruth Winter: A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives and The Self-Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner 

Getting healthy is a process.  However, making smart choices in our food daily can make big changes in our health in the future, helping you to redefine what “healthy” means to you.