Come On - Be a Rebel!! Eat Your Veggies...

As you might have already guessed, while I am a Clinical Nutritionist with many years of experience in the food industry as well as seeing clients, teaching and living this way - I do not subscribe to the current way of thinking when it comes to food. 

I have found through trial and error, sickness and health, that the way we are being told and taught to eat even as nutritionists, is fundamentally flawed. And as you have already read, I have tried nearly everything in an attempt to be at a reasonable weight, re-gain health, heal inflammation and so forth. 

What I have done then, is come to my own conclusions about food, diet, exercise and we (my family and myself) are living proof that this works.

For instance, I do not encourage people to eat 3 meals a day plus multiple snacks, as I find that this generally does not work for very long. Although this would be the standard nutritional line, eating this way made me put on weight and I know of far too many who complain of the same thing. 

Eating multiple meals each day would help someone whose diet is particularly poor at the beginning when making lifestyle changes, as it enables a person to focus on food management, eating and nourishment. 

However, when you are exercising, and trying to live this way - the energy intake from the food is far too high, and besides, so much time and effort is spent cooking, sourcing, planning, and eating all of this excess food. 

Many people who used to eat this way have been turning away from this thinking while moving towards various forms of fasting in an effort to reduce weight, return to health and improve strength. 

Water, a key to all of life, function, systems and balance - is fundamentally ignored by most professions including nutritionists. It is mentioned, and people are counseled to consume 8 glasses a day of bottled, filtered and otherwise processed water. 

However, for the most part, there is no real training or guidance in detox, cleansing or healing through water and food because there is little understanding of these concepts. Anything that comes out of the mains tap is toxic, poisoned beyond recognition and is not beneficial to health - you simply cannot drink this water and expect to maintain health while your body will certainly not be efficient at removing toxins from your tissues.

Supplements are not medicine, and contrary to popular belief they are not a food group either. This is a manmade compound of mostly synthetic chemicals which in my opinion accomplish two basic things in the body. 

First, they completely unbalance and skew the other vitamins and minerals present in our systems pushing and distorting internal mechanisms for homeostasis. Or in other words they will affect the balance and levels of all other nutrients in a negative manner. 

Secondly, chemicals made in a lab are easy food for the yeasts, molds and non-beneficial bacteria now present throughout the gut (due to over use of antibiotics and poor diets) who are looking for an easy meal. Personally, I have not taken a supplement since 1997, when I finally realised they were getting me nowhere and in fact made me feel worse. 

Then we have a situation where nearly all of our food is manufactured, handled, processed and wrapped in plastic - to disastrous results. 

Plastic is one of the most noxious substances on the planet, this substance is not your friend, it should never be around food, it will affect your health and weight; . And in case you haven’t already noticed it is notoriously difficult to get rid of - think about it, if we can’t get rid of it outside, we are certainly having problems on the inside as well. 

Awful stuff, remove this from your food the minute you buy it, and if you can, shop at farmers markets where the vegetables and fruits are not in plastic, buy in bulk and store you food in glass, ceramic, wood and paper. 

Another piece of 'sage advice' that I do not subscribe to, is to eat well ‘most of the time’. What’s wrong with eating well ALL of the time? What happens here is that you agree to be healthy most of the time too, and sick the rest of the time? 

These concepts do not work, I have not met many people who are able to maintain great health, detox, and consume toxins/poisons regularly. You will get what you give - when this food is garbage, don’t expect abundant health to rise up out of the rubbish. The world we are living in, the food, the water, the air and even the clothes we are wearing are releasing chemicals, toxins and poisons into our bodies - do not consider for a moment that you can knowingly add a couple more and it will make little difference. 

Time to get serious about our food,

April

***Excerpt from new book Eat Like a Pagan - Recipes from the Hearth coming soon! 

Sunflowers in my herb garden