Nutritional Guideline and Principles 5/1/09
"Eat when you're hungry"
means just that: if you are hungry, eat; if you are not hungry, don't eat. Unfortunately this first guideline ends up being trickier than it sounds. For one, we often misinterpret signals of discomfort of one kind or another for signals of hunger. Some people associate being thirsty with needing to eat; Some eat when they get a stomach ache or headache; Some when they are sad; Some when they are tired. The feeling of true hunger is not a headache, sadness or boredom. It is a feeling often associated with sensations in the throat, a little like thirst, but reaching down toward the stomach. One of the first steps to eating right is learning how to recognize when we are actually hungry versus experiencing these various other symptoms. A good trick to use when you think you're hungry is to wait 5-10 minutes and see if it goes away. If it does, it probably wasn't true hunger. If it persists or gets worse, it's time to eat!
The next step in following the first guideline is to stop eating when you are no longer hungry. If we eat slowly, eat mostly plant foods and chew them well, this can be easy. But if we eat quickly, or are distracted by the television, phone call, or stressed about something else, it can be very hard to tell when we have eaten enough. The same is true if we eat much processed food or liquid calories. One thing's for sure: The less attention we pay to the food and our body's signals while we eat it, and the fewer whole plant foods we eat, the more likely we are to overeat. This brings us to the second guideline:
"Base your meals on whole, unprocessed plant foods"
So the question is, Why should I focus on plant foods? The answer is that whole plant foods are health-promoting foods that are brimming with vitamins, minerals, cancer-fighting phytochemicals, and fiber and water to fill you up. This is compared to high-calorie junk foods that actually increase our cravings for unhealthy food and yet never fill us up. Humans simply were not meant to eat foods made in a factory. Industry-grade animal foods can do the same thing, especially high-fat animal foods. The average American currently consumes twice the recommended daily amount of protein, and most of this protein is from animal foods! This means another key step in improving our health is decreasing the amount of animal foods we consume - and replacing them with whole plant foods that improve our health.
above copyright sebastian grubb http://www.wholemoves.com/simplenutrition
eat raw as much as possible. a good rule to follow is 80% raw, 20% cooked. furthermore, raw food can tax the pancreas and enzyme production, which absorbs, digests and eliminates our food, so warming up our system with warm lemon water, or lemon & honey tea, or miso soup before eating is a good practice. our digestive system has to turn whatever we eat into a "100 degree soup" before digesting it anyway, so keep that in mind. and remember, food warmed up to below 105 degrees F is still considered raw, so invest in a good crock pot/thermometer combo that lets you know how hot it's getting.
when cooking (or "warming") food, it's a good idea to steam with water as much as possible, and if you are going to saute in oil, let it be a clean oil such as coconut. other oils break down in heat and become free radicals. most healthy oils cannot withstand high heat anyway, and since most high heat oils aren't good for you, you can ferret out the connections.
good oils are all cold-pressed: hemp, coconut, flax, grapeseed, pumpkin, borage, olive, sesame.
while on the subject of fats, it's moderately difficult to get adequate DHA and EPA levels from vegan sources, although high quality and higher priced supplements made from marine algae do exist. a good quality fish oil capsule made from sardine and anchovy can be used if you're not against it.
as for water, drink plenty, but understand that even purified, filtered, or bottled water probably has a low ph, meaning it's acidic. the best water to drink is re-structured ionized water, which is very alkaline. there are lots of machines out there that do this, and some research on the web can help you find a DIY kit relatively inexpensively.
you can also restructure water easily by adding some kind of mineral or fruit to it. sprinkling some high quality sea or rock salt into your water and stirring it, or soaking goji berries in your water will restructure it.
since most living organisms are water-based life forms, and water is the ultimate conductor, it can take on the cellular frequency of whatever is being aimed at or through it. this is the process of entrainment, and can be seen in greater detail in any of masaru emoto's books.
we can use the principle of entrainment to our advantage, like tuning forks, to create healthier vibration in our cells.
also, drinking liquids after eating dilutes the power of our digestive system, so drinking before meals, generally 30 minutes, allows us to simultaneously re-hydrate and lower our appetite, this leading to less caloric consumption. currently, the only absolutely proven way to increase longevity is through caloric restriction through fasting and/or eating less calories overall.
a quick note on tea: boiling water destructures it, so when making tea, if you can turn off the heat when it begins to simmer (right before boiling at 100 degrees) it will be healthier for you. if you have the time you can also cold-steep your tea overnight in the fridge or on the counter. this method wouldn't help for warming up the pancreas though.
as far as recommended daily allowances for caloric intake, protein, carbs, fats, vitamins, minerals and assorted trace nutrients, it can be a headache, or an obsessives wet dream, to calculate each need down to the last decimal point. for a more general approach to understanding nutrient needs, follow the eat when you're hungry rule as stated above, and also eat according to your activities and specific needs. that means, if you're eating predominantly unprocessed whole foods, the majority of which are vegetables and fruit, then you would tweak your nutrient ratios according to what you're about to do, what you're doing, or what you've just done.
so, if you're about to do a lot of working, don't stuff yourself, but don't starve yourself either. during your work, stay hydrated first, and eat fruits to supply your muscles and brain with energy and water. after working, eat a bit heavier with proteins and carbs to replenish yourself. since fats take the longest to digest, think about eating them sparingly during the day and perhaps have the bulk of your fats during your last meal, preferably 2-4 hours before you lie down to sleep.
another good rule to follow is always eat at least something for breakfast, as during the night you've assimilated everything. one of my morning rituals is to drink at least 32 ounces of water, that has some green powder/chlorella, lemon juice, maybe a splash of raw apple cider vinegar in it. this flushes out my system before eating solid food, and usually induces a healthy bowel movement.
if you have trouble digesting foods on a regular basis, it may be that you are mixing too many types of foods together when eating. certain foods digest much quicker than other foods, for instance, greens digest faster than pasta which is faster than oil. if i just finish eating pasta, and then for dessert i eat strawberries, i might develop gas or bloating due to the fruit fermenting inside me before the pasta has been digested. research food combining, nutrient timing, and mono-meals for more information.
in the longer-term, it may be good to introduce certain types of fasts to cleanse and detoxify your system, and to let your digestive system recharge. nowadays there are many that work for any schedule or need, that if you want to try one there is tons of information and support.
something i do is fast for 24 hours twice a week. this is called short-term intermittent fasting and can be learned about by researching eat-stop-eat by brad pilon.
if you are athletic, then your plan is probably more complex and specific, because your activities demand it to be so. such practices as carb cycling, and eating 6 timed meals a day are more commonplace.
Protein amounts for active people are around .7-1 gram per kg of bodyweight for maintaining to gaining muscle respectively. So a 180 lb man (me) would need around 60-80g of protein a day depending on my goals.
When optimal protein absorption and EFA/DHA fat levels are reached daily, along with a regular, intensive (read: challenging) exercise program, muscle mass is maintained and grown. Concurrently, weight loss, gain or balance can occur easily as carbs are strategically chosen and eaten.
Vegan Strength Coach Jon Hinds (www.monkeybargym.com) recommends:
Eat enough calories to match your energy output. If you're not eating enough, you’ll lose weight and feel weak, if your eating too much you’ll feel slow and lethargic. So I keep it simple:
• Eat strong plant foods when hungry: nuts, seeds, vegs, fruit, legumes, roots, pure water.
• Eat ONLY until satisfied
• Get a good amount of your plant protein after your workouts in the form of a green smoothie. I take and recommend pea, hemp, brazil nut and rice proteins (sun warrior brand) mostly and have had great success with them.
(excerpted from the fantastic article at http://buellerskitchen.com/?p=144)
however, because everyone is unique and always changing, there are really no hard and fast rules. there are so many co-factors to health, including our emotional, psychological, and spiritual aspects, that while nutrition is a valuable cornerstone, it does not exist in a vacuum and is not a panacea, though for many of us it is the missing link in our well-being. when healing with whole foods, give it some time to regulate. our bodies need to acclimatize to any new program and there may be a detoxification phase depending on how toxic our old eating habits were.
bonus section for the spiritual scientists in all of us-
healing, blessing, and thinking positive thoughts about the food you eat, as well as using your intuition when choosing and preparing food can be very beneficial for us. our mind-body connection operates on very finely tuned and subtle levels, many of which our current science cannot yet measure or explain. like the water entrainment process above, we can consciously use these processes to our advantage, whereas if we don't they may work against us anyway.
Food allergies are commonly discovered using applied kiniesiology, otherwise known as muscle testing. Traditional Herbs can completely shift our health upwards. I consider herbs to be food just like vegetables, not separate from or supplemental.
