Healthy bodies: Part Three

I have spent two weeks explaining how our world and our food supply have impacted our health. If I were you I would be feeling a little frustrated about now. Thankfully you have more patience than I have. Today we are going to start talking about what to do about our poor health, no matter what problem we have.

The solution: Support, Stop Poisoning, Detoxify

I can almost hear someone say: Shouldn’t that be Stop Poisoning first? I put them in this order because more and more evidence shows that it is much easier to let go of a bad habit if you introduce the good habit first. When it comes to your health this is very true. It is easier to add better nutrition or exercise than it is to take away your favorite treat or your time in front of the TV. Once you get enough of the good habits going it is easier for them to simply push out the old habits. So where do we begin.

For me the first step is making sure I am digesting and absorbing everything I eat, good or bad. There are times that for social reasons we eat food we know are not good for us, rather than miss out on the social occasion or insult our host. We want to make sure we get whatever nutrition is in that meal. There are also times like traveling when you must choose the best choices from what is available and not try to be perfect. Get the most out of what you put in your mouth, no matter how bad it is. I do this by taking Plant Enzymes with every meal. If I eat six times a day then I day them seven times a day. If I eat three times a day I take them four, you get my drift. By taking Plant Enzymes I feel I am replacing the natural enzymes that are meant to be in the foods. These are not pancreatic enzymes or animal based enzymes that might interfere with my body’s natural production of enzymes. These are the same enzymes we are supposed to be getting from our foods. Because all plant sources have somewhat of a mixture of carbohydrates, fats and proteins in various percentages the Plant Enzymes are formulated to enable the digestion of all three of them. They are a mixture of different enzymes designed to work in different parts of the digestive system where the different parts of our food are digested. Isn’t it great that we don’t have to determine what the ratio of our meal is and open three different bottles accordingly?

I come from a family with a lot of digestive problems. As far back as I can remember my Dad had a bottle of Maalox by his chair. All evening long he would sip on that bottle. Later in life he was taking medicine for a hiatal hernia, commonly known as acid reflux. Several of my cousins say they are having the same problems. I was beginning to have problems myself, before I knew about Plant Enzymes. I always excused by saying I had eaten too much, or eaten too fast. Both of those could have been true, but the main problem was that I wasn’t digesting my foods the way I should. My food would sit in my stomach and intestines way too long. They would begin to ferment, producing gas bubbles that would push the stomach acid back up into my esophagus. My solution would be to eat another piece of white bread. IS it any wonder I developed a weight problem? Now I don’t have those problems any more, unless I miss my. Plant Enzymes If I do feel something started I just pop one or two more and it usually goes away.

Many people overeat either out of habit, or because their body is instinctively looking for nutrition that isn’t there. Have you ever finished a meal and half an hour later you have the ‘munchies’? This used to happen to me a lot. Have you ever paid attention to what you just ate when this happens? When I started studying nutrition I began to pay more attention, and I realized that when this happened the meal I had eaten was predominantly starches and otherwise ‘dead’ foods. I wasn’t really hungry, but my body was craving something. Most of us reach for junk food or sweets when this happens. I hate to tell you that isn’t what your body is asking for. It is looking for the nutrition that was missing in the meal you just ate.

So what do we do about it?

The first thing to do is to make sure your body is having its basic needs met. We all get enough calories that’s very rarely an issue. What we are not getting from our foods are a lot of vitamins and minerals. We talked about this the last two weeks. My solution is to take Complete Vitamins Plus twice a day. By getting the full recommended amount of Complete Vitamins Plus I am ensuring my body has all the basic building blocks it needs for good nutrition. I am building a strong foundation upon which my diet is built. By getting a really good vitamin supplement such as Complete Vitamins Plus you are in effect getting an insurance policy against lack of nutrition.

What do you look for in a vitamin supplement?

Make sure it has a wide range of vitamins and minerals, not just a few. When the science of nutrition first came out they began identifying what a healthy body needs to stay alive. They determined we need carbohydrates, fats and proteins. For a while they stopped there. Scientists felt that if you got those three you were in good standing. Then they started identifying different nutrients that our bodies need to stay healthy. They started with the ones that we need a lot of, and that the lack of caused very obvious diseases, like Beri Beri and rickets. Again they stopped looking. They had identified vitamins such as Vitamin C and determined how much you needed to prevent Scurvy. They did not determine how much you needed to prevent other diseases, because the link was not quite so obvious. They also did not determine how much you needed to be in optimum health. They were not looking for health; they were looking for links to diseases. The early scientists thought too much vitamins could be harmful, so they recommended we all get the minimum necessary to prevent the diseases they had shown were linked to the different vitamins and minerals. That is where the RDA’s (Recommended Daily Allowances) come from.

Scientists are now discovering that those RDA’s should be called RMDA’s (Recommended Minimum Daily Allowances). There are some vitamins that can become toxic in large doses, but for the majority of them the body knows how to either store of dispose of any excesses. The body also has a great warning system for many of them, either vomiting or diarrhea. Concern about toxicity is one reason to pick a product that has a broad spectrum, rather than trying to determine proper dosage of individual vitamins and minerals. Remember you are building a foundation; you don’t want to have holes in it.

Another thing to look for in a vitamin is that they are capsules and not tablets. Have you ever thought about how a tablet is made? The nutritional substances are put into a vat, along with something that will hold them together. They don’t stay together very well on their own. Then the mixture is put into a mold where heat and pressure form it into a hard capsule. Wait, doesn’t heat destroy vitamins? Are you really getting everything they are listing on the box if they have heated them? Studies have shown that our bodies don’t always break down those tablets very well. There has even been evidence of them floating, whole in the toilet. Are we then getting what we paid for?

Another concern on vitamins is whether they are synthetic or natural. Our bodies are designed to get nutrition from foods, not chemicals. Under a microscope there is a subtle difference in the shape of a vitamin molecule if it is synthetic or natural. Studies are showing that many of the synthetic vitamins are either immediately flushed from the body or worse yet stored. When the body stores vitamins that it can’t absorb it is not stored in the body where it is needed. It is stored in other places where it can cause harm. Sometimes it is stored in fat cells, increasing their size. Other times it is stored in the organs themselves, but in a way the body can’t break them down to utilize them. Synthetic vitamins are smaller and more concentrated, but they affect the body differently than natural vitamins do.

These are some of the reasons I take the Complete Vitamins Plus on a daily basis. They are natural vitamins and minerals, derived from plants. They are in capsules, so they haven’t been heated. Yes, they are not the tiny little coated pills you can buy at the grocery store, they are large capsules. You also can’t just take one per day. Since they are natural they take up space. The recommended amount for most adults is five per day, split between breakfast and lunch. You don’t want to take them at dinner, because they do increase your energy and alertness, which you don’t want at bed time.

I feel like I have just barely scratched the surface here, but it’s a start. Next week we will talk about adding nutritional foods to your diet.