By Eddi Kenny, Innergy Health & Stress Management
Food is important for health and well-being. Do you eat to live or live to eat?
Eating a balanced diet, getting regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight can add quality years to your life and reduce the risk of certain degenerative diseases, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and obesity. Eating healthy provides the nutrients that your body needs to create new cells, clean toxins, and function at its best daily. A poor diet often leads to dis-ease, and a healthy diet leads to ease in the body.
Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
Our bodies want to be healthy and functional and we unbalance our body by unhealthy life choices. What do you want running through your tissues, organs, and systems? Molecules of food flow through every cell and turn genes on and off, and every meal changes us at a molecular level; it changes who we are. The better we eat, the better we feel. Most packaged, processed foods are inflammatory and acidic. Most plant-based, whole foods, are alkaline and have anti-inflammatory properties. It is best for the body to eat a mostly plant-based diet that includes beans, legumes, and lentils; vegetables, especially leafy dark green veggies; whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fruits; lean, grass-fed local meats; fish; eggs; and sugar in its natural state, like honey, maple syrup, or stevia. Avoid processed refined white sugar, and white flour. Eat fermented foods such as plain yogurt, kimchi, kefir, miso, sauerkraut, kombucha; these help promote healthy gut flora.
There are trillions of micro-organisms to feed in our digestive system. The goal is to feed the good bacteria that we were born with; this allows for a healthier immune system. When we eat junk food, the bacteria that cause digestive issues are fed. Stop feeding the little troublemakers!
Fibre-rich foods help the digestive system and promote healthy elimination. When we feed our good bacteria, we help decrease inflammation in the body. Once we have adjusted to eating healthier, we naturally crave healthy foods and the sugar cravings decrease as the organisms that feed on these foods decrease.
We have evolved into a society of consumers of packaged, processed, nutrient-void fast food, because our lifestyles are busy. We need to eat more foods in their natural state, such as locally sourced foods and farm-to-table and ocean-to-table products. When foods are refined, many of the complex carbs are removed and we need these types of carbs to keep our immune systems strong. The food we eat influences our microbiome.
Evolutionarily we are wired to crave calorie dense sweet food, so now that it is more plentiful, we have to educate ourselves on ways to eat healthy. The default is to go for the donut and not the kale. Some simple mindful lifestyle changes can make a profound health difference. This has a ripple effect not only in our personal lives but for the planet as well. We are walking ecosystems, and when our gut health is balanced, we have a stronger immune system.
When we eat to live rather than living to eat, we are consciously feeding our bodies and minds, and this unleashes healing forces.
Eddi Kenny,
Eddi Kenny, ND, PhD, has been working in health and wellness for over 35 years and her in-depth consultations focus on finding the individual’s source of imbalance. Eddi’s passion lies in overall family wellness, from newborns to Seniors. and as a result she has supported her clients through a wide variety of issues. Her interests are in motivating, inspiring, and educating those wanting lifestyle changes for improved health and life quality. When not in her office she is involved in music, writing, lecturing, travelling, or being outdoors on a new adventure.