Food, Food, Food and Not a Diet in Sight

Spring is winding down, summer is nearly here, and it’s time a radical shift in the way we look at food.

So much talk about nutrition focuses on specific nutrients and products that we often forget that the basis of any good health program is simply the how, what, why and where of the food we eat.

Seasonally it’s a time of transition and a great time to become more conscious about the source of our calories.

Fresh-Real Food

Spring always excites me because it signals the start of fresher greens showing up at the market. Warmer weather in Ohio is way behind the same in California and things just start looking better this time of year.

I do have access to organic food here but it’s in limited supply and the cost is always higher during the winter months. Now I’m into the advantages of locally grown food, but not to the point of starving waiting for it to show up.

I’m referring to real food here folks. The stuff that comes out of the ground and not a box or can. The stuff that will actually keep you alive and not just takes up some intestinal space. The problem with the Standard American Diet (SAD-don’t you love it) is not one of calories, but content.

There is so much talk in the news about obesity and exercise but the reality is that most obesity is related to the type and amount of calories consumed.

Soda Pop is Not a Food!

The fact is that most of the calories people consume is not really food. A large portion of our calories come from foodstuffs—things made out of some food like ingredients mix with a lot of chemicals that are highly addictive and over time—highly poisonous.

It’s the truth.  The number one source of calories in America is soda pop  (it replaced white bread).  Soda pop is not a food.

If you’re eating a lot of prepackaged food then it’s easy to over consume a lot of empty, fattening calories. The problem with most diets is that people just consume less of the food they normally eat.

That works, and you can lose weight that way, but you aren’t that much healthier because you’re still not eating well. Then when you get tired of the calorie restriction it’s easy to just put all the weight back on.

The key to good health is eating well and it’s the perfect time of the year to start.

Eating with the season—Spring

Chinese medicine breaks the year up into 5 seasons: Spring/Liver-Gallbladder, Summer/Heart-Small Intestine, Late Summer/Spleen-Stomach, Autumn/Lungs-Pericardium, and Winter/Kidney-Bladder. By paying attention to eating seasonal food you can easily have a diet that is best suited for the organ system associated with that time of the year. Let’s look at spring.

Spring is the time of regeneration and fresh greens are the first foods to come back. Transitioning to lighter foods is especially important in the spring because springtime is Liver time.

Liver energy is all about processing food and emotions, and it’s hard to do after a winter of heavy condensed food and very little exercise.  Both lead to liver stagnation, which is your liver’s worst enemy.

Feeling frustrated, sluggish or unmotivated are all signs that your liver is suffering.

• (Large L ‘Liver’ denotes system, small l ‘liver’ denotes organ. In Chinese med.  Liver is part of a system that includes your nervous system, tendons, ligaments and eyes.)

The best way to change your Liver energy is through movement. Not just exercise though, but the movement of easy to digest food that gently detoxes the liver.

This is where all the fresh green food comes into play.  All green leafy foods cleanse the liver gently over time, are easy to digest and move through the colon at a much faster pace than the normal winter foods.

Sprouts are a great addition as are radishes.  The red ones we are used to seeing here in North America are just a milder version of daikon radish used in the macrobiotic diet to cleanse the body of excessive animal foods. Buy the spicy ones – they are best for liver cleansing and are a good lung food also.  Better yet, plant some.

Don’t stress out trying to find the perfect combination of foods. The most important thing is think fresh, raw and variety. All fresh foods are cleansing.

Simple Guidlines

Herbs are an added bonus for helping the liver do it’s job and now is a good time to focus on the liver. All liver formulas work better in the spring so you’ll maximize the effect at this time of the year, especially if you eat appropriately.

Spring Foods and Spices

Green onions, mustard greens, turmeric, bay leaf, basil, cumin, fennel, dill, ginger, rosemary, cardamom, lemon, lime, grapefruit, lettuce, radish, sprouts, apples, beets, cabbage, broccoli, turnips, cauliflower, asparagus, rhubarb, olive oil, barely grass, wheat grass, and brussels sprouts.

Avoid: cooked oils, greasy food, pork, excessive alcohol-liquor, ice cream, artificial ingredients, fast food

Western Herbs

Artichoke, milk thistle, dandelion root, Oregon grape root, and chamomile.

Chinese Herb

All Chinese herbs are best in formulas and not as single herbs. Any formula with bupleurum is a liver formula. It’s often used with peony root and angelica root, blood tonic, to move and nourish the liver.

Unless you’re familiar with Chinese herbs it’s best to see an herbalist as there are numerous bupleurum formulas depending on the specific health problem you may have.

The French Paradox

I mentioned in the video my recent working vacation to Switzerland and France.  Although I found a few things at the conference that I’ll share with you later, the best part of my trip was just rethinking my relationship with food.

When I travel I always eat as the locals do. I feel it’s important to understanding a different country and nothing will teach you more about an area than food. France has a special relationship to food, and eating there is quite an experience.

The restaurant meal I talked about took over 4 hours to complete.  It was just as much about the experience, the company, and the flavors as it was about the eating.  Most of my meals were simple fares of fresh veggies, goat chevre, olives, a few herbs and olive oil with crusty bread.

Total relaxation.

I think the key to the French paradox—the fact that they consume much more fat than Americans yet experience much less heart disease—is due as much to the relaxed way in which they eat as it is to wine consumption.

Meals are an experience.  Everything else stops and you enjoy what you have with the people you’re having it with.  Try your next meal without TV, computers or reading.  It’s very relaxing and much easier to digest your food.

This brings us back to Liver energy

Stressing out, rushing, not being present in the moment, all affects your nervous system and makes your liver tense.  A tense liver doesn’t digest food properly and leads to countless health problems.

Relax and enjoy.

History Lesson?

Hundreds of years ago—approx. 400— a European King was interested in medicine and wanted to know the relationship between digestion and relaxation. In one of the very first medical experiments in modern times, the King had two of his servants join him for a huge feast.

Afterward, he had one go off on a foxhunt, riding and running through the woods. The other servant sat in the palace and enjoyed a few hours of music and watched the Kings private dancers perform.

Bringing them both together in front of the King, he had them killed and cut open their stomachs and sure enough, the one who watched the dancing had digested more of his food.  Thus the theory of relaxation helping digestion was born.

True story.

The most amazing part of this story is not that a King would do that out of personal curiosity or that relaxation leads to good digestion.

It’s that 400 years later we are still being cut open mainly because of food and stress related issues.

Eat well and enjoy the moment; the world needs you.

Roger