Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking)

(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)

Written by Laurel Sherer, Tristan Anderson, Brooke Gibson, Julie Achterhoff, and Athena Hope

The following course does not provide medical advice. This course is for information purposes only. The health related information in this course is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cures or treatment. Always seek advice from your medical doctor.

Introduction
Enzymes
Vitamins & Minerals
Minerals
Various Modes Of Eating
Vegetarianism
Raw Food Nutrition
Mindful Eating
Cooking
Blessing Food
Using Intuition To Choose Foods
Colors Of Food: A Spiritual Perspective
Chocolate
Sea Vegetables
Water
Balancing The Body's pH Levels
Detrimental Foods
Sodium Flouride
Calcium, Bones, & Osteoporosis
Nutrition For The Eyes
Nutrition For The Skin
Age Defying Nutrition
Weight Loss
How To Increase Immunity Through Nutrition
A Closing Thought
Conclusion
Bibliography

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Introduction

Written by Laurel Sherer

Every time we eat, we are making a choice that affects our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states of being. Food is a daily intake of nutrients to sustain our physical well-being and is part of the creation of our mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Food is energy, and as such, it carries specific frequencies of light as well as levels of life-force. The energy of food, which comes from the sunlight, earth, and all the energies it comes in contact with on its journey to us, is thus highly influential in creating our states of health. So, the question is: how do you want to feel? Do you want to stay in a static state of being or live in a dynamic state of growth and transformation?

While we may spend a great deal of time planning, buying, preparing, and eating food, we may not question what types of food we are eating and their effects on other parts of our lives. We may feel that the food we desire is the food we need or that the food we've eaten is the food we'll always eat. These are choices that we know, yet there are certainly others. Bringing consciousness to food, just like all other aspects of our lives, helps us to become more aware, and through awareness we can make the changes that we desire in our lives. Awareness brings light. We can bring nutrition further into the light of our understanding and consciously choose how we want to connect with the light present in our food!

In this course, we will bring our awareness to both the physical and energetic components of nutrition. We will begin by looking at the physical parts of how food gives us energy and nutrients. We will then explore our relationships to food and how these can be altered through eating specific foods. The information you will be given comes from traditional systems of health, ancient cultures around the world, recent research, and people who have dedicated their lives to bridging the relationship of food to higher states of consciousness. This is truly a unique formulation of knowledge that will empower you and those around you to bring the light of consciousness further into your lives through the food you eat.

This course is not designed to give you an exact dietary approach. Rather, it is intended to help you decide how to best achieve your own health goals and let you know what your alternatives are. Just like many of the other courses you have been studying with UMS, nutrition can be another tool for you in your spiritual endeavors. This course differs from some of the other courses at UMS, however, in that we've all experienced the first hand effects of eating food and some of this will be knowledge you already have from your first hand experiences if you were self aware while eating. As you can come to know experientially, different foods have diverse affects on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states. The saying, "Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food," holds much value. So let us begin the journey of understanding why this happens and how we can use food as our medicine for all levels of our being.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Energy In The Body

Written by Julie Achterhoff, Brooke Gibson, and Laurel Sherer

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are formed when green plants combine carbon dioxide and water during the process of photosynthesis. According to Dr. Jensen in Dr. Jensen's Guide To Body Chemistry & Nutrition (2000), carbohydrates are "molecules of varying size and complexity that provide fuel for energy, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, and fiber." (25) Carbohydrates are broken up into two categories: simple and complex. Both types of carbohydrates are made up of sugar molecules. We find out what makes a simple carbohydrate different than a complex carbohydrate in the book Healing Power Of Exercise (2000) by Lynn Goldberg, M.D. and Diane L. Elliot, M.D. "When only one or two sugar molecules are linked together, as in table sugar (sucrose) . . .we have simple carbohydrates. When several sugar molecules are linked together in chains, as in rice, breads, and cereals, they are referred to as complex carbohydrates." Complex carbohydrates take longer for the body to absorb, thus extending their energy over a longer time.

We take in carbohydrates in the forms of starchy foods, such as rice and potatoes, table sugar, and all fruits, vegetables, and legumes. Many fruits and vegetables are considered complex carbohydrates, which provide slow and steady amounts of sugar to the blood. Starches include grains, legumes, and underground root vegetables. According to Dr. Jensen, "Some doctors believe that starchy vegetables and high-sugar vegetables such as corn, carrots, peas, and beets are as much responsible for obesity as high-fat meats and dairy products." (26) (Note: these are page numbers in the books.)

Carbohydrates, according to the USDA website (www.usda.gov), serve many different functions. They supply energy, spare proteins to be used for growth and maintenance of body tissues rather than energy, and provide fiber. Dr. Bernard Jensen adds to this in Dr. Jensen's Guide To Body Chemistry & Nutrition (2000), saying that carbohydrates are important in helping with "kidney and liver problems, manic behavior, and low threshold anger tendencies." (25)

All carbohydrates are transformed into glucose in the body. In Food (1995), Susan Powter explains, "Before it is used for energy, sugar is broken down by your body as glucose or blood sugar." Glucose is absolutely necessary in the body and, as Sally Fallon says in Nutritional Healing (2001), "As the body uses glucose for all its processes, it can be said that sugar is essential to life." Fallon goes on to say that the body, "doesn't actually need to ingest sugar, or even large quantities of carbohydrates, to produce it. She cites the case of several isolated traditional groups, such as the Eskimos and the medieval inhabitants of Greenland, who subsisted on diets composed almost entirely of animal products, proteins and fats. The skulls of those groups of people showed a virtual absence of tooth decay, which shows a high level of general health, even without the consumption of carbohydrates."

Starch is a polysaccharide composed exclusively of glucose molecules. The glucose, when digested in the body, enters the bloodstream through the small intestine and from there, it supplies energy to all parts of the body, wherever it is needed.

There are many types of sugars. We talked about a few in the preceding paragraphs, but there are many, many different substances you can use instead of just plain white table sugar (sucrose).

Fiber

Fiber is sometimes referred to as "roughage" because of its ability to pass through the body's digestive systems. In Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997), the Balchs say that fiber is actually one part of a plant that is resistant to the body's digestive enzymes. As a result, only a relatively small amount of fiber is digested or metabolized in the stomach or intestines. Instead, most of it moves through the gastrointestinal tract and ends up in the stool.

This is fiber's most important use in the body (as a constituent of the stool). It provides the bulk that the body needs to eliminate toxins from the system. Fiber has several other redeeming qualities as well. Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997) tells us, "It retains water, which softens the stool and prevents constipation, it reduces the risk of colon cancer (by speeding the rate at which stool passes through the intestine and by keeping the digestive tract clean), and it binds with certain substances that would normally result in the production of cholesterol, thus eliminating these substances from the body. In this way, a high-fiber diet helps lower blood cholesterol levels, reducing the risk of heart disease."

Proteins/Amino Acids

Proteins are a type of nutrient essential to the health and balance of the human body. Protein serves many key functions in the body, such as helping the body build tissue like muscles, connective tissue (similar to cartilage) and hemoglobin. Protein substances also make up the organs, glands, nails, hair, and many vital body fluids. Proteins are essential for the growth of bones. From Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997), we find even more functions of protein in the body. "Proteins help to regulate the body's water balance and maintain the proper internal pH. They assist in the exchange of nutrients between the intercellular fluids and the tissues, blood, and lymph. Proteins form the structural basis of chromosomes, through which genetic information is passed from parents to offspring. The genetic "code" contained in each cell's DNA is actually information on how to make that cell's proteins." Next to water, protein makes up the greatest portion of our body weight.

All proteins are made of units of amino acids linked together in chemical chains. There are approximately 20 amino acids and nine of those are referred to as "essential" amino acids. This means that we need to receive these essential amino acids from food because our bodies do not produce them on their own. The essential nine aminos are: Valine, Leucine, Isoleucine, Lysine, Tryptophan, Methionine, Cysteine, Phenylalanine, and Histadine. These essential amino acids are extremely necessary for the body. The other amino acids, the "non-essential," are actually quite essential to the body's functioning as well. They do not have to be consumed through food, however. These "non-essentials" make up 80 percent of amino acids and are produced in the body through the liver. They are the basic substance of proteins themselves.

From Everywoman's Guide To Nutrition (1991) by Judith E. Brown, we find that, "It is really the amino acids, not protein per se, that are needed for good health. It's just that we get the amino acids we need by eating food sources of protein." The amino acids do more than just combine to form the necessary proteins for the body. Some of them act as neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry information from one nerve cell to another. Certain amino acids are necessary for the brain to receive and send messages. From Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997), further roles of amino acids are explained. "Amino acids [also] enable vitamins and minerals to perform their jobs properly. Even if vitamins and minerals are absorbed and assimilated by the body, they cannot be effective unless the necessary amino acids are present... There are amino acids that can be used to provide energy directly to muscle tissue."

Judith E. Brown in Everywoman's Guide To Nutrition (1991) states that we need to eat "complete" proteins, which give us all nine essential amino acids in one meal. The Max Planck Institute found that complete proteins were available from pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds, and soybeans, buckwheat, peanuts, potatoes, all leafy greens, and most fruits. Blue green algae is another vegan source of a complete protein (http://www.klamathbluegreen.com). Other sources of complete proteins are meat, dairy products, and combinations of vegetables or legumes, such as beans and rice. Some mushrooms contain complete proteins as well.

According to Charles Attwood, M.D., the idea that we need all nine amino acids in one meal has been shown to be incorrect (http://www.vegsource.com). "Modern nutritionists, after observing populations of strict vegetarians who were healthier and lived longer than meat-eaters, now realize that all essential amino acids may be obtained from a variety of vegetables or grains eaten over a one-to-two-day period." Gabriel Cousens, M.D., confirms this in Conscious Eating (2000), "As physiologists have known all along, humans are able to store protein, so that just as long as there is some semblance of a variety of foods in the diet, there is really no need to worry about protein food-combining in the first place." (312)

According to Gabriel Cousens, the American Dietetic Association found that pure vegetarians in the United States usually have twice the necessary amount of protein that one needs on a daily basis. The belief that we need very high levels of protein was initiated by a study done in Germany which was mostly financed by the meat and dairy industries. This study found that we need 120 grams of protein per day. The Federal Drug Administration (http://www.fda.gov) recommends the intake of 50 grams of protein per day. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens states, "Today, modern research from around the world shows that a more accurate protein need is between 20 and 35 grams for men or non-pregnant women." (312) The need for 20 to 35 grams of protein per day was independently researched by many doctors and researchers throughout the world. In the research that Gabriel Cousens has conducted, he has found that the requirements for protein intake are individual. This is because Cousens has found that some people get the majority of their energy from breaking down carbohydrates, while others receive this energy from protein. Even for those people who mainly receive their energy from protein, they do not need more than 20 to 35 grams of protein, but rather need a high ratio of protein to fat and carbohydrates throughout the day.

Apes, which are considered to be much stronger than humans, live off of a fruitarian diet that consists of 0.2 to 2.2 percent of protein. Mother's milk averages about the same percentage. If apes and baby humans can live off of these small amounts of protein, how are high levels of protein affecting people? Paavo Airola, as cited in Conscious Eating (2000) by Gabriel Cousens, states that there is a problem with the over consumption of protein, which contributes to many of the most common serious diseases, such as heart disease, cancer, arthritis, schizophrenia, and kidney damage. Furthermore, Gabriel Cousens states in Spiritual Nutrition (2005) that excess protein slows the subtle energy in one's body and specifically "acts as a sludge" to kundalini energy. (273)

Fats

Fats, or lipids as they are properly called, have gotten a very bad reputation in recent times, but are essential for the body to produce our hormones and to help our bodies absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Every cell in our bodies needs fats for their cell walls. The body's bile salts are made from cholesterol. Cholesterol has been found to have antioxidative properties that protect the body from free radical damage leading to heart disease or cancer. The seratonin receptors in our brains need cholesterol for proper functioning, making us feel good. Cholesterol also contributes to the integrity of the intestinal walls. Babies and children must have adequate amounts of fats to ensure proper development of the brain and nervous system.

Oils, which are a type of fat, contain three different kinds of fatty acids, which are its building blocks: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated. The difference between them is only the number of hydrogen atoms present. While most saturated fat sources are unhealthy, there is one of great health benefits. This is coconut oil. Coconut oil has been labeled as being unhealthy because of being a saturated fat. However, in Eating For Beauty (2002), David Wolfe explains, "Coconut oil has been used as a food and a medicine since the dawn of history... Unlike the high-calorie, cholesterol-soaked, long-chain saturated animal fats found in meat and dairy products, coconut oil is a raw saturated fat containing mostly medium-chain fatty acids which the body can metabolize efficiently and convert to energy quickly. By weight, coconut oil has less calories than any other fat source." (121) Some other high quality oils are flax, hemp, olive, and sesame. It is recommended to buy raw oils because cooked oils can be hard for the body to digest. Look for oils that say either cold-pressed or stone crushed. Stone crushed oils have the best chance at actually being raw. Even some cold-pressed oils are heated at high temperatures, so look to see if they say heated at low temperatures.

Storing oils properly is very important. Most should be stored in a dark place or dark container. Refrigerating them is even better, except for olive oil. In fact, flaxseed and hemp oils must be refrigerated to prevent oxidation, and used within two to three months from the time you open them.

Calories

Scientifically, a calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water 1 degree Celsius. Looking at food in terms of calories began in the late 1780's by a chemist named Lavoisier. Lavoisier believed that life, including food, could be broken down into chemical functions. Lavoisier's beliefs are still popular today with the many people who count calories. According to this system, calories are released by the nutrients as they breakdown in the following amounts: protein and carbohydrates are 4 calories/gram, fats are 9 calories/gram.

However, Gabriel Cousens states in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), "Since the 1780's, we have discovered that nutrition is more complex than simple calories. Food has additional factors-proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, enzymes, subtle hormone factors, alkaloids..." The complexity of nutrition can be seen in the example of ingesting fats. Cooked oils cannot be easily processed by the body and are instead often stored as undigested fatty tissue, increasing one's weight. (Coconut oil when used for cooking is the most stable of any oil, which means it has the best chance of staying in a form that the body can digest and eliminate.) Avocados, on the other hand, contain the enzyme lipase, which actually breaks down fatty tissues in the body. So, if we were to count the calories that an avocado and a serving of cooked oil have and base our decision on what to eat from only this information, we would be overlooking a great wealth of understanding that could help us even more than the practice of counting calories. Avocados may be high in fat calories, but that is the kind of fat that your body needs and uses efficiently.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Enzymes

Enzymes are a fairly recent nutritional discovery made by biochemists in the 1930's. "Enzymes are complex proteins that act as catalysts in almost every biochemical process that takes place in the body." (Nourishing Traditions, 2001 by Sally Fallon.) Enzymes are referred to as "substances that accelerate and precipitate the hundreds of thousands of biochemical reactions in the body that control life's processes. If it were not for the catalytic action of enzymes, most of these reactions would take place far too slowly to sustain life." (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1997).

Both Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions and the Balch's Prescription For Nutritional Healing cites a physician and pioneer in enzyme research, Dr. Edward Howell, who calls enzymes the "sparks of life." Dr. Howell has pointed out that humans and animals on a diet comprised largely of cooked food, particularly grains, have enlarged pancreas organs, while other glands and organs, notably the brain, actually shrink in size (Nourishing Traditions, 2001). Enzymes serve a very important purpose in the body.

Enzymes are essential for digesting food, stimulating the brain, providing cellular energy, and for repairing all tissues, organs, and cells. Enzymes are even used to repair our DNA and RNA. Gabriel Cousens adds to this in Conscious Eating (2000), "The research suggests they [enzymes] also balance and enhance the immune system; help to heal cancer, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid diseases, and arthritis." (535) Life as we know it could not exist without the action of enzymes, even in the presence of sufficient amounts of vitamins, minerals, water, and other nutrients. (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1997).

However, in order for enzymes to function properly, they need to be paired up with certain vitamins and minerals. Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions (2001) points out that, "(Enzyme) activity depends on the presence of adequate vitamins and minerals, particularly magnesium. Many enzymes incorporate a single molecule of a trace mineral-such as manganese, copper, iron or zinc-without which the enzyme cannot function."

There are three major classifications of enzymes: food, digestive, and metabolic enzymes. The food enzymes are the ones most often considered in planning nutritional choices. Sally Fallon tells us, "[Food enzymes] are present in ample amounts in many raw foods, and they initiate the process of digestion in the mouth and stomach." (Nourishing Traditions 2001.) Food enzymes are extremely sensitive to heat, however. So even if you're eating foods rich in enzymes, if these foods are cooked at temperatures of 118�F or more, 100% of the enzymes will be destroyed.

The high levels of enzymes present in raw foods are part of the reason why people on primarily raw food diets have been shown to benefit from high levels of health. In 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002), Victoria Boutenko illustrates what happens to the body when it is given raw and cooked food. When you eat a raw apple, the apple is filled with enzymes. "As you enjoy the flavor and texture of the apple, the enzymes (likened to little handy-men with suitcases full of magic healing tools) work on your body... You feel good and full of energy because the apple carries the enzymes within it to digest itself." (4) On the other hand, if you were to eat a cooked apple, such as a cooked apple pie, you would enjoy the tastes while eating it, but would then feel tired and heavy afterwards. Boutenko explains this: "Inside your body your enzymes have to leave their work, maybe cleaning the liver, protecting you from tumors and evacuating toxins here and there, to come digest the cooked apple that does not have any enzymes of its own." (5)

As noted in Gabriel Cousens' book Conscious Eating (2000), studies have been performed on animals which show the difference in their enzyme levels when they eat raw and cooked foods. Dogs in one study who normally ate raw food were given cooked food for one week. After this week, the enzyme levels in their saliva increased greatly. After one week back on raw food, their enzyme content of their saliva went back to its normal low level. This study shows that the dogs had to use enzymes from their bodies' reservoirs in order to digest cooked food, which doesn't have the enzymes to digest it, as does raw food. There are many researchers who have come to believe that people have a set number of enzymes and that when these are fully depleted through eating a cooked food diet, their bodies are no longer able to function properly and such people then become ill. Victoria Boutenko quotes findings from Dr. Edward Howell, a leading intuitionalist, in 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002) which support the theory that we have a limited supply of enzymes. Dr. Howell has found that the average American has only 30% of their enzymes left at the age of 40. Boutenko notes that even though such people can physically survive, they have to give much of their energy to detoxifying the body and therefore they become less sensitive to both themselves and others.

Getting Enzymes From Food

The main way to obtain enzymes from the diet is from eating raw foods. The other alternate way is from taking enzyme supplements. Food sources containing enzymes in high amounts include: avocados, papayas, pineapples, bananas, and mangoes. Sprouts are the richest source (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1997). Sally Fallon also recommends extra virgin olive oil, other unrefined oils, raw honey, grapes, and kiwis.

Grains, nuts, legumes and seeds are rich in enzymes, as well as other nutrients, but they also contain enzyme inhibitors. Unless deactivated, these enzyme inhibitors can put great strain on the digestive system. Different methods of deactivating the enzyme inhibitors include: sprouting, soaking in warm acidic water, sour leavening, culturing and fermenting. All of these processes are or have been used in traditional societies, and they serve to make the nutrients in grains, nuts and seeds more readily available (Nourishing Traditions, 2001).

There are different substances contained within the enzymes themselves that help to digest different nutrients. For example, there are proteases for digesting protein, lipases for digesting fats and amylases for digesting carbohydrates. If you are taking any digestive enzyme supplements, you should choose one that contains all of the major enzyme groups-amylase, protease, and lipase. A handy recipe for making your own digestive enzymes is given in Prescription For Nutritional Healing, (1997). By drying papaya seeds, placing them in a pepper grinder, and sprinkling them on your foods, you have effectively made your own digestive enzyme. A peppery taste is normal.

Supplemental Enzymes

Digestive enzymes make up the majority of commercially available enzymes. They come from various natural sources as scientists are unable to manufacture enzymes synthetically. These enzymes are available over the counter in capsule, powder, tablet, and liquid forms. Digestive enzymes should ideally be coming from your diet. However, as people age, their bodies' ability to produce enzymes decreases, so the authors of Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997) highly recommend that older people supplement their diets with digestive enzymes. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens also recommends that people with acute and chronic illnesses supplement enzymes to their diets because research has found that people with such conditions are enzyme deficient.

An argument against taking supplemental enzymes comes from The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition (1988) by the Institute Of Human Nutrition, Columbia University College Of Physicians And Surgeons. The authors say, "Some people have advocated taking enzymes with their foods to aid digestion. Unfortunately, for the most part, this does not work. The enzyme itself will usually be destroyed by the acid in the stomach and will be useless thereafter."

To counter that, in Prescription For Natural Healing (1997) we find the advice that people taking supplemental enzymes should "make sure to choose a product that is enteric coated-that is, coated with a protective substance that allows [it] to pass intact through the stomach acid to be absorbed in the small intestine." So, here they have proposed that there is a solution to the enzymes being destroyed in the stomach acid. However, again in The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition, we are told that "Enzymes can be useful in food processing and may convert some foods to a more digestible form before they are ingested. An example of this is yogurt, which may contain enzymes produced by naturally occurring bacteria which break down the lactose. However, this occurs before you eat the yogurt."

Fermentation Breeds Enzymes

Sally Fallon holds a similar view on enzymes as the authors of The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition. She cites examples of the benefits of culturing and fermentation that have been used in the diets of traditional cultures worldwide. "Almost all traditional societies incorporate raw, enzyme-rich foods into their cuisines-not only vegetable foods but also raw animal proteins and fats in the form of raw dairy foods, raw fish and raw muscle and organ meats. These diets also traditionally include a certain amount of cultured or fermented foods, which have an enzyme content that is further enhanced by the fermenting and culturing process."

If you are interested in learning how to ferment and culture your own foods, I'd highly recommend a book called Wild Fermentation (2003) written by Sandos Ellix Katz. The book runs the whole gamut of culturing and fermentation including: the health benefits of fermented foods, vegetable ferments, bean ferments, dairy ferments (and vegan alternatives), breads, fermented grain porridges and beverages, wines, beers, and vinegars (www.wildfermentation.com).

Back in the pre-industrialized society days, people would make all their alcoholic beverages using fermentation techniques and it was, for them, a great way to preserve their grain harvests since they didn't have refrigeration. Besides that, fermenting the grains helped make them easier to digest. The beers and wines made through this type of process actually had some health value, unlike most of the alcohol we drink today. A great book to check out if you're interested in learning to make your own brews in this fashion is called Sacred And Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets Of Ancient Fermentation (1998) by Stephen Harrod Buhner.

Enzyme Therapy

Enzyme therapy uses enzymes from food or from supplements to treat health conditions. The use of foods with high levels of enzymes to treat illnesses was practiced by the indigenous peoples of Central and South America, Africa, and India (Conscious Eating, 2000). The indigenous peoples of Central and South America, for example, used the leaves and fruit of pineapples and papayas for therapeutic treatments. Enzyme therapy is used for people with health conditions because enzymes are needed for the body's systems to function properly, including the immune system. It is important to note that there are certain times when it is best not to take enzyme therapy. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens outlines these as: before one goes into surgery, during pregnancy, people with allergies, people taking anti-coagulants or thrombocyte aggregation, and people with congenital disturbances in blood coagulation.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Vitamins & Minerals

Written by Julie Achterhoff and Athena Hope

The next topic in this course is vitamins and minerals. First of all, what are they and how do they work in our bodies? Vitamins are defined as essential organic nutrients our bodies need in tiny amounts in our diets. Most of them act by aiding the processes of digestion, absorption, and metabolism. They don't do anything on their own. There are two kinds of vitamins: fat soluble and water-soluble. The difference between the two is that fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the body in the liver and with other lipids in fatty tissues. That means that high levels can build up and possibly cause toxicity. Water-soluble vitamins go straight into the bloodstream, and excess amounts are excreted. They never build up in our bodies, so there is relatively little danger of any toxicity occurring.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Vitamins

Vitamin A: retinol, beta-carotene (fat-soluble). Essential for healthy vision, especially night vision, and helps some skin disorders, including acne. It is necessary for the mucous membranes of the respiratory, digestive and urinary tracts. It aids in growth of bones, and tissues; important nutrient for reproduction and immunity. Vitamin A works as an antioxidant, protecting cells from cancer. Helps prevent stroke and heart attack. It also slows the aging process.

Vitamin A Deficiency: Low Vitamin A levels in the body will cause dry hair and/or skin, dryness of the eye, poor growth, night blindness, frequent colds, and skin disorders including acne.

Excessive Vitamin A: An excess of the form of vitamin A found in liver can be poisonous to the body and has been related to birth defects like cleft palate and heart defects. The plant form of vitamin A (beta-carotene) is safe.

Good sources of Vitamin A: liver, fish liver oils, orange and red fruits and vegetables like carrots, apricots, cantaloupe, papayas, mangos, peaches, pumpkin, red peppers, sweet potatoes, and leafy green vegetables like broccoli, collards, dandelion greens, spinach, also garlic and several herbs.

B-complex Vitamins

The following are B-complex vitamins. These six vitamins work together as a team and are necessary for brain function, healthy nerves, skin, eyes, hair, liver, and muscles in the gastrointestinal tract. Studies have shown they can alleviate depression and or anxiety. Since the B vitamins work together, you should take them together, however it is okay to take 2 or 3 times more of one for a specific illness or disorder for a period of time.

Vitamin B1: thiamine (water-soluble) Necessary for the formation of blood, helps in circulation, crucial in releasing energy from carbohydrates. B1 is also good for the nervous system and brain function. B1 is an antioxidant that protects the body from the effects of aging, smoking and alcohol use.

Vitamin B1 deficiency: Deficiency in vitamin B1 is the cause of Beriberi (a nervous system disease rare in developed countries) also can cause constipation, edema, enlarged liver, fatigue, forgetfulness, heart changes, labored breathing, loss of appetite, muscle atrophy, numbness in hands and feet, pain and sensitivity, poor coordination, severe weight loss.

Good sources of Vitamin B1: brown rice, whole grains, wheat germ, beans, nuts, egg yolks, fish, and poultry.

Vitamin B2: riboflavin (water-soluble). Metabolizes carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Vitamin B2 is essential for forming red blood cells as well as antibodies. Prevents and treats cataracts and eye fatigue. It assists the enzymes in the liver in removing toxins. It can eliminate dandruff. B2 is very important during pregnancy; it helps the body absorb iron and vitamin B6.

Vitamin B2 deficiency: Vitamin B2 deficiency can cause cracks and sores at the corners of the mouth, eye disorders, inflamed mouth and tongue, skin lesions, dermatitis, dizziness, hair loss, insomnia, light sensitivity, retarded growth and slowed mental response.

Good sources of Vitamin B2: kidney, liver, fish, legumes, milk, cheese, egg yolks, wheat germ, yogurt and green, leafy vegetables.

Vitamin B3: niacin, nicotinic acid, niacinamide (water-soluble). Assists the nervous and cardiovascular systems, is critical in metabolizing proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. It is a memory enhancer and can help out with certain mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

Vitamin B3 deficiency: Deficiency of vitamin B3 is the cause of the disease Pellagra, also, canker sores, dementia, depression, diarrhea, dizziness, fatigue, halitosis, headaches, indigestion, insomnia, limb pains, loss of appetite, low blood sugar, weakness, skin eruptions, inflammation.

Good sources of Vitamin B3: meat, poultry, liver, fish, peanuts, whole grains, eggs, milk, brewers yeast, broccoli, carrots, dandelion greens, dates, potatoes, and tomatoes.

Vitamin B5: pantothenic acid (water-soluble). Sometimes called "the anti-stress vitamin," B5 has been known to help anxiety and depression and it produces adrenal and hormones, antibodies, and increases stamina. It is essential in creating neurotransmitter chemicals and it helps convert fats, carbohydrates, and proteins into energy and helps the body use vitamins.

Vitamin B5 deficiency: A deficiency of vitamin B5 can cause tingling in the hands, fatigue, headache, and nausea.

Good sources of Vitamin B5: Meat, including liver and kidney, egg yolks, fish, peanuts, whole grains and rye, brewer's yeast, mushrooms, and nuts.

Vitamin B6: pyridoxine (water-soluble). This is an extremely important vitamin that is involved in many bodily functions and is present in virtually every food. It promotes the production of red blood cells and it keeps sodium and potassium in equilibrium. It is vital in the production of hydrochloric acid and it assists in the absorption of fats and proteins. Involved in normal brain functioning, and synthesizes RNA and DNA. Prevents cancer and can be used to treat premenstrual syndrome, allergies, asthma, and arthritis.

Vitamin B6 deficiency can cause: anemia, convulsions, headaches, nausea, flaky skin, sore tongue, and vomiting. Lack of vitamin B6 has been linked to carpal tunnel syndrome.

Good sources of Vitamin B6: meat, fish, eggs, brewer's yeast, carrots, peas, spinach, sunflower seeds, walnuts, wheat germ, avocado, soybeans, and oats.

Vitamin B12 cyanocobalamin (water-soluble). Used by every cell in the body; especially important in red blood cells, linings of the stomach, intestines and the blood vessels. Necessary functioning of the nervous system depends on B12; it produces the myelin sheath (protecting cover over nerve cells), which promotes normal growth. Used in the digestion and absorption of foods. B12 maintains fertility and helps the body use iron. B12 has been found to assist in learning and memory and enhance sleep.

Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause: bone loss, fatigue, constipation, depression, digestive disorders, dizziness, drowsiness, eye disorders, swelling of the liver, hallucinations, headaches, swelling of the tongue, irritability, memory loss, nervousness, palpitations, ringing in the ears, and spinal cord deterioration.

Good sources of vitamin B12: liver, oysters, clams, brewer's yeast, eggs, fish (especially herring and mackerel), kidney, milk and dairy products, sea vegetables (like dulse, kelp, kombu, nori), soybeans and soy products. Note: Strict vegetarians need to be particularly careful to get adequate B12 since it occurs mostly in animal sources. Taking a B12 supplement is recommended. Signs of B12 deficiency may not show up for 5 years because the body can store B12 for that long.

Biotin: (water-soluble). Biotin helps in cell growth of hair, skin, and bone marrow as well as fatty acids. It also metabolizes fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Biotin can sometimes stop hair loss in some men.

Biotin deficiency can cause: Deficiency is rare in adults but it can cause anemia, depression, hair loss, high blood sugar, insomnia, loss of appetite, muscular pain, nausea, soreness of the tongue. Deficiency in infants may cause seborrheic dermatitis, or cradle cap.

Good sources of Biotin: brewer's yeast, meat, poultry, liver, sardines, egg yolks, soy, whole grains, nuts, beans, and soybeans.

Vitamin C ascorbic acid (water-soluble). Vitamin C is extremely important to immune function. It produces interferon, which is an important protein in the immune system and it aids in the effective action of white blood cells and antibodies. Vitamin C also is involved in growth and repair of the skin and tissues, and it manufactures collagen, which is the connective tissue in the skin and muscles. Vitamin C helps to protect against bruising and abnormal blood clotting. Vitamin C can reduce the symptoms of asthma and it protects your body from pollution. Even the effects of smoking cigarettes can be slightly reduced by taking vitamin C. It can merge with certain noxious substances, like some heavy metals and even black widow venom, and cause them to be nontoxic so they can be safely eliminated from the body. Vitamin C also can lower low-density lipoproteins (LDL) "bad cholesterol" and elevate levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) "good cholesterol" and it can lower blood pressure.

Vitamin C deficiency can cause: Scurvy, (rare in western society) bleeding gums, increased colds and bronchial infections and prolonged healing time, pain in the joints, low energy levels, tendency to bruise easily, and tooth loss.

Good sources of Vitamin C: Since Vitamin C is so essential for the body, and the body cannot produce it itself, it is vital to get plenty of Vitamin C on a daily basis. It can be found in most fruits, especially citrus fruits, berries and green vegetables.

Vitamin D: cholecalciferol (fat-soluble). Vitamin D has both vitamin and hormone properties. It is essential for bone and teeth growth and it balances minerals in the body. It is principle in regulation of the heartbeat and normal blood clotting. Vitamin D also has immunity-enhancing properties. It is associated with thyroid function and it can prevent and treat colon and breast cancers and osteoporosis.

Vitamin D deficiency can cause: Rickets in children and osteomalacia, a similar disorder, in adults. It can cause loss of appetite, a burning sensation in the throat and mouth, diarrhea, insomnia, visual problems and weight loss.

Good sources of Vitamin D: You can get Vitamin D from fish, fortified milk, dandelion greens, egg yolks, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and vegetable oils. It can also be formed from sunlight on the skin. New studies have shown Vitamin D deficiency is more common that once thought.

Folate: folic acid, folacin, pteroylglutamic acid or PGA (water-soluble). Folic acid is very good for the brain and nervous system and it aids in RNA and DNA creation. It is essential for cell division and fetal growth and has been found that a daily intake of folic acid prior to and in early pregnancy may prevent most birth defects.

Folate deficiency can cause: sore, red tongue, anemia, apathy, digestive disturbances, fatigue, sleep disturbances, growth impairment, graying hair, memory problems, paranoia and birth defects.

Good sources of Folate: dark, leafy green vegetables like spinach, asparagus, brown rice, meat, liver, (note: pregnant women should not eat liver because of poisonous levels of Vitamin A), legumes, milk, mushrooms, fish, cheese, oranges, and split peas. Note: over-cooking destroys folate.

Vitamin E: Tocopherol (fat-soluble). Essential for protecting cell membranes and blood vessels from free radicals, Vitamin E helps prevent cancers and cardiovascular diseases. It can lower blood pressure and studies have shown it can be used like aspirin to prevent heart attacks. It is important in tissue repair, promotes healthy skin and hair, and can minimize scarring. It can also help prevent cataracts. It can improve athletic performance and increase sperm production in some men. Studies show it can slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Vitamin E deficiency can cause: infertility (in both men and women) menstrual problems, miscarriage, and low levels of vitamin E have been linked to cancers.

Good sources of Vitamin E: soybean oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, wheat germ, egg yolk, liver, nuts, sunflower seeds, dark leafy green vegetables, brown rice, kelp, and dulse.

Vitamin K: phylloquinone (fat-soluble). Vitamin K is very important for healthy clotting of the blood, especially in newborn babies. It is good for the bones and may help prevent osteoporosis. It also prevents cancers in the inner linings of the organs.

Vitamin K deficiency can cause: abnormal and/or internal bleeding.

Good sources of Vitamin K: raw cauliflower, green leafy vegetables, and it is also produced by bacteria in the intestines.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Minerals

Boron (trace element) Boron is necessary in the production of many hormones and is needed for healthy bones and muscles. It enhances brain function and promotes alertness.

Boron deficiency: Boron deficiency is very rare, however it has been shown to reduce the loss of calcium and magnesium in postmenopausal women and the elderly.

Good sources of Boron: apples, alfalfa, cabbage, lettuce, peas, soybeans, raisins, prunes, carrots, grapes, dark green leafy vegetables, pears, raw nuts, and whole grains.

Calcium (macro-mineral) Calcium is very important for healthy teeth, bones, and gums. It helps to maintain a healthy heartbeat and it helps in transmitting nerve impulses. It lowers cholesterol, prevents cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Calcium deficiency: aching joints, brittle bones, teeth and nails, eczema, high blood cholesterol and blood pressure.

Good sources of Calcium: dairy foods, cooked bones (as in fish), tofu, sesame seeds, turnip greens, broccoli, almonds, asparagus, collards, and dandelion greens. Note: Vitamin D is necessary for calcium absorption. A diet high in fat, protein, and/or sugar affects calcium intake. Iron and oxalic acid (found in almonds, beet greens, cashews, chard, cocoa, kale, rhubarb, soybeans, and spinach) can hinder absorption. Phosphorus (soft drinks are very high in phosphorus) causes calcium to be extracted from the body.

Chromium: (trace element) Chromium has to do with the metabolism of glucose, fatty acids, proteins and insulin production. It is vital in maintaining blood sugar levels. Nine out of ten Americans are deficient in chromium. The chromium content is lost in the high processing of foods. High sugar in the average American diet causes a loss of chromium in the body. This chromium deficiency is crucial because one third of Americans are diabetic, hypoglycemic, or pre-hypoglycemic. Caution: If you have insulin-dependant diabetes you should not use chromium unless prescribed by your doctor.

Chromium deficiency: glucose intolerance (especially if you have diabetes), inadequate metabolism of amino acids, anxiety, fatigue.

Excess Chromium: chromium toxicity, which has been associated with dermatitis, gastrointestinal ulcers, and kidney or liver impairment. Note: The amount of chromium the body needs depends on the person and their tolerance to it. Athletes, or people that live very active lifestyles and consume more carbohydrates than the average person, have higher chromium requirements.

Good sources of Chromium: beer, brewer's yeast, brown rice, cheese, meat, shell fish, legumes and whole grains.

Copper: (trace element) Essential to the production of blood cells, bones, and hormones. It also helps produce elastin and collagen, both important for the skin.

Copper deficiency: Copper deficiency can be the cause of Osteoporosis, anemia, baldness, diarrhea, weakness, skin sores, and increased blood fat levels.

Excess Copper can cause: Copper toxicity, which has been associated with depression, irritability, nausea, vomiting, nervousness, and joint and muscle pain.

Good sources of Copper: Copper is used in cookware and plumbing and is in many foods: Avocados, nuts, barley, seafood, cherries, olives, mushrooms, broccoli, garlic, oranges, and beets.

Fluorine: (trace element) (See section "Fluoride in Drinking Water.") Fluorine is very important for the teeth and bones and may prevent heart disease and cancer.

Fluorine deficiency: Fluorine deficiency causes brittle teeth and bones.

Good sources of Fluorine: goat's milk, seaweed, rice, avocados, cabbage, black-eyed peas, rye, seafood, meat and tea.

Germanium: (trace element) Germanium helps to oxygenate the cells. This has the effect of helping rid the body of toxins, and keeping the immune system working properly; helps fight pain. Studies have shown germanium will improve many illnesses, including rheumatoid arthritis, food allergies, chronic viral infections, cancer and Aids.

Germanium deficiency: Germanium is in all organic material; therefore, deficiency does not occur.

Excess Germanium: Rarely, high levels of germanium will cause kidney problems or toxic reactions in some people.

Good sources of Germanium: The highest concentration of Germanium is in broccoli, celery, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, milk, onions, rhubarb, sauerkraut, tomato juice and the herbs aloe vera, comfrey, ginseng, and suma.

Iodine: (trace element) Iodine is needed to form thyroxine, the thyroid hormone which regulates energy production in the body.

Iodine deficiency: Iodine deficiency is the cause of goiter, or enlargement of the thyroid gland. Deficiency in children can cause mental retardation. Iodine deficiency is also linked to breast cancer, fatigue, and weight gain.

Excess Iodine: Excessive amounts of Iodine can actually be very small, sometimes as little as 750 micrograms daily. Too much Iodine in the diet can inhibit the secretion of thyroid hormone and can produce a metallic taste and sores in the mouth, swollen salivary glands, diarrhea, and vomiting.

Good sources of Iodine: Iodized salt, seafood, and live yogurt are good sources of Iodine. Some foods will actually block iodine from getting to the thyroid gland when eaten in large amounts. These foods include brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, peaches, pears, spinach and turnips. If you have an under active thyroid it is recommended to limit your consumption of these foods.

Iron: (trace element) Iron is the key element in hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the bloodstream. Iron is the most abundant mineral in the blood. Iron is also important in growth, energy production, and is used by many enzymes. Iron is also important for a healthy immune system.

Iron deficiency: Iron deficiency is usually the result of inadequate food sources of the mineral. However, intestinal bleeding, poor digestion, ulcers, prolonged use of antacids, high intake of the mineral phosphorus, or excess coffee and/or tea consumption can also cause it. Menstruating women can become iron deficient, and extreme exercise and heavy perspiration lessen the amount of iron in the body as well. Symptoms of Iron deficiency include anemia, brittle hair, hair loss, fragile bones, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, fatigue, nervousness, pallor and slowed mental reactions. Another symptom is nails that are spoon-shaped or have ridges running lengthwise.

Excessive Iron: Iron is stored in the tissues, an excessive amount will cause the production of free radicals. Also, too much iron has been linked to heart disease and cancer. An added caution is to not take iron supplements if you have an infection. Because bacteria needs iron for growth, the body will actually "hide" iron in the body, in the liver and other storage sites when an infection is present.

Good sources of Iron: Animal sources are the easiest for the body to absorb. Taking vitamin C with iron will help its absorption. Meat, eggs, fish, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, molasses, cocoa, prunes, and seaweed are good sources of the mineral.

Magnesium: (macro-mineral) Magnesium is very important in the body. It is vital in over 300 enzymes as a catalyst. Research shows magnesium may help to prevent cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and some forms of cancer. It can also reduce cholesterol levels. Magnesium supplements have been found to lower birth defects when taken by pregnant women. Without magnesium the body would actually calcify soft tissue. It is also involved in maintaining the body's proper pH balance and normal body temperature.

Magnesium deficiency: Lack of sufficient magnesium can cause confusion, insomnia, irritability, poor digestion, rapid heartbeat, seizures, cardiovascular problems, hypertension, asthma, chronic fatigue, chronic pain syndrome, depression, insomnia, and irritable bowel syndrome. Magnesium deficiency can also contribute to the formation of kidney stones. Magnesium testing should be routine because low magnesium levels worsen almost all diseases.

Good sources of Magnesium: Magnesium is found in most foods, especially seafood, meat, and dairy products. Other good sources are whole grains, lima beans, taco shells, black-eyed peas, seeds, wheat germ, apricots, leafy green vegetables, soybeans and buckwheat.

Manganese: (trace element) Manganese is used to form bones and cartilage in the body. It is also involved in protein and fat metabolism, blood sugar regulation and healthy nerves and immune system.

Manganese deficiency: Deficiency of this trace element is extremely rare but may lead to confusion, convulsions, problems with sight and hearing, heart disorders, high cholesterol levels, hypertension, irritability, memory loss, profuse perspiration, tooth-grinding, tremors, and a tendency toward breast ailments.

Good sources of Manganese: avocados, nuts, seeds, seaweed, whole grains, wheat germ, ginger and tea.

Molybdenum: (trace element) Molybdenum is necessary for nitrogen metabolism, it forms part of certain enzymes, it promotes normal cell function and it is an antioxidant. It is also good for the teeth and bones.

Molybdenum deficiency: Deficiency is caused many times by eating mostly refined and processed foods. It can cause mouth and gum disorders, cancer, and impotence in older men.

Excess Molybdenum: High doses of this trace mineral can cause Gout which is when Uric acid salts are not secreted through the urine like they should. Therefore, they accumulate in the joints, causing swelling and pain, usually happening in the big toe and usually not until middle age.

Good sources of Molybdenum: whole grains, legumes, cereal grains, dark leafy vegetables, sunflower seeds, and peas.

Phosphorus: (macro-mineral) Phosphorus is an important mineral in bone formation, production of red blood cells, and contraction of the heart muscle, normal heart rhythm, as well as kidney function. It assists in using vitamins and converting food to energy.

Phosphorus Deficiency: Deficiency is very rare but can cause anxiety, bone pain, fatigue, irregular breathing, irritability, numbness, skin sensitivity, weakness, and weight changes.

Excessive Phosphorus: Too much phosphorus will block calcium intake.

Good sources of Phosphorus: Phosphorus is found in most foods, especially highly processed foods and soft drinks. Some healthy food sources rich in Phosphorus are whole grains, asparagus, corn, dried fruit, garlic, legumes, nuts, seeds, meat, and fish. Vitamin D increases phosphorus effectiveness.

Potassium: (macro-mineral) Potassium is important for maintaining a healthy nervous system. Being an electrolyte (which is a electrically charged atom) it works together with sodium to control the body's water balance and it maintains a proper environment around every cell in the body. Working with magnesium, it can help prevent calcium-oxalate kidney stones.

Potassium deficiency: The function of cell maintenance by potassium has been shown to decrease with age, which may cause lethargy and weakness in elderly people. Deficiency may also cause dry skin, acne, chills, cognitive impairment, constipation, depression, diarrhea, edema, nervousness, insatiable thirst, glucose intolerance, insomnia, low blood pressure, periodic headaches, and salt retention.

Good sources of Potassium: Some things reduce potassium absorption like caffeine, tobacco, and large amounts of licorice over long periods of time. Also high stress levels will increase the body's requirements of potassium. Some good food sources are: apricots, avocados, bananas, lima beans, brown rice, dates, dulse, figs, dried fruit, raisins, nuts, potatoes (especially baked), and green leafy vegetables.

Selenium: (trace element) Selenium is an antioxidant, and it is an assistant to many enzymes. It regulates the thyroid hormone and it increases both red and white blood cells in the body. It has been shown to prevent certain cancers.

Selenium deficiency: Deficiency is linked to cancer and heart disease. It can also cause exhaustion, growth impairment, infections, liver impairment, and sterility.

Excessive Selenium: arthritis, brittle nails, garlicky breath odor, hair loss, irritability, pallor, skin eruptions, tooth loss and yellowish skin.

Good sources of Selenium: Depending on the selenium content of the soil (many newer soils are lacking in this mineral) selenium can be found in grains, meat, and vegetables. Other good sources are brazil nuts, cashews, soybeans, seafood, broccoli, and brown rice.

Silicon: (trace element) Silicon is the most plentiful element on the planet after oxygen. It is involved in healthy bone growth and healthy tissues, nails, skin and hair.

Silicon deficiency: Silicon counteracts the effects of aluminum in the body. Shortage of silicon may contribute to Alzheimer's disease and osteoporosis. Silicon levels lessen with age, so it is important for elderly people to get greater amounts.

Good sources of Silicon: whole grains, seaweed, alfalfa, beets, brown rice, soybeans, and leafy green vegetables.

Sodium: (macro-mineral) Sodium facilitates proper water balance and blood pH. It is an electrolyte similar to potassium and chloride so it helps accomplish fundamental functions in every cell in the body. It is also involved in stomach, nerve and muscle function.

Sodium deficiency: Deficiency is rare, as most people in America consume ample amounts of sodium. However, it does occur, especially in people that take diuretics for high blood pressure. Signs of deficiency include: stomach cramps, confusion, dehydration, depression, dizziness, fatigue, flatulence, hallucinations, headache, lethargy, memory impairment, and weight loss.

Excessive Sodium: This is a common problem. Too much sodium results in edema, high blood pressure, potassium deficiency, and liver and kidney disease.

Good sources of sodium: Almost all foods contain some sodium. If you add salt to food, sea salt or Himalayan salt crystals are the best for you.

Sulfur: (trace element) Sulfur is an acid-forming element of the chemical composition of certain amino acids. Furthermore sulfur disinfects the blood, helps defend the body from bacteria and protects against radiation and pollution.

Good sources of sulfur: brussel sprouts, dried beans, cabbage, eggs, fish, garlic, kale, onions, meat, and wheat germ.

Vanadium: (trace element) Vanadium is implicated in the creation of teeth and bones, and in growth and reproduction. It is also involved in cellular metabolism and has been shown to improve insulin utilization.

Vanadium deficiency is linked to cardiovascular and kidney disease, impaired reproductive ability and increased infant mortality.

Good sources of Vanadium: dill, fish, olives, meat, radishes, vegetable oils and whole grains.

Zinc: (trace element) Zinc produces many of the enzymes concerned with cell growth, immunity, and sexuality. It protects the liver and bones from damage. It is an antioxidant and has been found to help fight the duration of the common cold. It is important to have a balance between the minerals zinc and copper.

Zinc deficiency: May result in the loss of the senses taste and smell. A thin flaking fingernail with white spots is a sign of deficiency. In addition, acne, late sexual maturation, exhaustion, growth impairment, hair loss, impaired night vision, infertility, memory impairment, recurrent colds and flu, and slow wound healing are signs of zinc shortage.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Various Modes Of Eating

Written by Laurel Sherer

Vegetarianism

This is a diet with no flesh foods. It consists of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and dairy products. Some people decide that the only type of meat they will eat is fish, and they might still consider themselves vegetarians, even though they technically are not. Fish flesh contains high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, but people who do not eat meat can receive omega-3 fatty acids from flax seeds. For those who choose to become vegetarians for ethical and philosophical reasons, many feel that eating fish is still causing suffering to the fish and overly fishing the oceans is destructive to the eco-system as well. For health reasons, fish is sometimes avoided. Fish and other seafood often contain high amounts of mercury and other toxins that are unhealthy to the body, for the ocean has become a dumping ground for illegal, toxic, industrial waste.

Fruitarianism

This is a diet that consists of the fruit of plants. This includes fruits such as oranges, apples and also seeds, nuts, squash, peas, and other such foods that contain the reproductive part of plants. Fruitarians often believe that this type of diet is the original diet of humans and thus the most natural one. There is a question, however, of whether fruitarians receive enough B12 in this type of diet.

Standard American Diet (S.A.D.): This often includes processed foods, fast foods, meat, dairy, and small amounts of vegetables and fruit.

Veganism: A diet without any animal products or meat. A vegan diet is 100% plant based, not even dairy is consumed.

Raw Foodism: The practice of eating only uncooked foods.

Breatharianism: Receiving nourishment directly from the energy of the earth, air, sun, and spirit.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Vegetarianism

Written by Laurel Sherer and Brooke Gibson

What is a vegetarian? Well, there are several categories of vegetarians, all of whom avoid meat and/or animal products. A strict vegetarian diet is one wholly lacking in animal products of any kind, including fish, poultry, dairy products, and eggs. This is referred to as the vegan diet and includes only food from plants: fruits/nuts, vegetables, legumes, seeds, and the like. The lacto-vegetarian diet includes plant foods plus cheese and other dairy products. The ovolacto-vegetarian diet also includes eggs. Today, it is becoming more common to hear of people being part-time vegetarians, those who eat fish and chicken occasionally, but maybe don't eat any red meat and also consume a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. Some only eat meat if they hunt it and process the meat themselves or raise their own farm animals to eat.

Reasons For Being Vegetarian

Why become a vegetarian? Well, there are multitudes of reasons why people decide to quit eating meat. Some of those reasons are based on health, religion, or philosophy. In looking at the health benefits of eating a vegetarian diet, it can be helpful to assess whether or not our bodies are designed to eat meat in the first place. Richard Anderson, N.D., states in Cleanse & Purify Thyself (1998), "The digestive system of the meat-eating animal is completely different from that of a human being. Its entire digestive tract is only twelve feet long compared to almost thirty feet in a human being. The meat eater's digestion requires ten times more hydrochloric acid than can be provided by the human body, and most people today are unable to produce even normal levels of hydrochloric acid." Our bodies, according to Anderson, are therefore not designed to eat meat. For us, meat consumption is not digested properly and leads to unhealthy intestines, which greatly effects the health of one's entire body.

Alma Guiness, the author of Reader's Digest Family Guide To Natural Medicine (1993), says that because our bodies are designed to digest food slowly, meat, which can be high in saturated fat, stays in the intestinal tract too long. Further, Guiness says, "The toxins produced there may be related to our high rates of colon and rectal cancer."

Judith Brown, in her book Everywoman's Guide To Nutrition (1991) gives historical reasoning for being vegetarian, saying, "Vegetarian diets have been practiced by people in some religious groups for centuries, bearing testimony to the general safety of well-established vegetarian eating patterns." Richard Anderson poses the question of why we should settle for the used protein coming from cows (who are strict vegetarians) when we can get our protein straight from the vegetable kingdom too like the cows do.

The hormones that animals are injected with, and the chemicals that they eat which are sprayed on their food, are then stored in the tissues of the animals. According to Gabriel Cousens in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), "Flesh food, being at the top of the food chain, has about fifteen times more pesticides and herbicides than vegetable food." (256)

Numerous studies and personal experiences have shown that people who eat vegetarian diets are healthier than those who eat meat. Richard Anderson cites a study done in 1961 by the Journal Of The American Medical Association that reported that a vegetarian diet can prevent 90-97% of heart diseases. In this day and age where obesity and heart problems are huge issues in society, any steps towards preventing heart disease seems to be practical. Gabriel Cousens notes in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), "Not only do vegetarians live longer and actually have (according to at least ten research reports) more endurance than meat eaters, they are less subject to the health problems that meat eaters experience." (258)

Meat also affects our emotions, states of mind, and spiritual connections. Although people may like the way meat tastes, they are also ingesting the energies of death and fear including the adrenaline released upon the fear of death that the animal goes through before it is killed. Cows are often lined up for their deaths and sensing what is before them, they become very fearful. Even milk is tainted with trauma and fear chemicals. Baby cows, especially males, are immediately killed for meat. In turn, the mother cows go through a great deal of anguish at having their babies killed and their anguish causes toxins to be secreted in their milk.

The affect of meat on one's spiritual health is explained by the Enlightened Being Swami Prakashanada Saraswati in 1986 (as found in Spiritual Nutrition, 2005), "Every animal that is slaughtered for human consumption brings the pain of death into your body. Think about it. The animal is killed with violence. That violence causes the animal to experience very intense pain as it dies. That pain remains in the meat even after you've prepared and cooked it. When you eat the meat, then you eat pain. That pain becomes lodged in your body, heart, and mind. That violence and pain which you consume will also eat you. It consumes you so that you must experience the same pain in your life also." (259)

Plants, on the other hand, absorb the energy of sunlight as opposed to the hormones and pesticides animals are exposed to. Gabriel Cousens tells us in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), "Taken into our systems, plants stimulate a resonant response from the Inner Light of our higher spiritual subtle bodies, which directly receive the pranic transfer of the stored sunlight." (262) We take in this energy and live more harmoniously with the earth.

There are health benefits to us individually from eating a vegetarian diet, but the benefits of this type of eating touch much more than our own bodies. The conditions that animals go through make meat eating a very different practice from hunting. Animals today are given injections of hormones, sprayed with chemicals, fed parts of their own species, and forced to live in tiny confinements. They are not happy. The aspect of thanking the life of the animal and treating it with respect and dignity is no longer present in the meat industry today. Animals are not treated as fellow beings that have awareness and feeling. They are used and mistreated for our pleasure.

The earth is also being hurt by meat consumption. Gabriel Cousens states, "In this age of overpopulation, meat eating is an attack on the entire natural world and one of the main causes of environmental degradation and destruction." (264) Much land is being used to grow grain to feed livestock. Eighty percent of the total land used to grow grains is grown for livestock. About half of the water used by the United States is for livestock. The continual need for more land for livestock to live on is resulting in the destruction of the rainforest. Gabriel Cousens states, "An article in the Vegetarian Times estimates that current rainforest destruction causes the extinction of approximately 1,000 species per year. For each fast-food quarter-pound hamburger, 55 square feet of the rainforest are destroyed." (264)

When many people in the world are dying from malnourishment, land could be used to grow grains for human consumption instead of livestock. In 2005, the United Nations estimated that half of the world's population suffers from malnutrition (http://www.unescap.org). The lack of food that our own species is experiencing could come to an end if meat consumption diminished.

The B12 Question

Are vegetarians able to get enough vitamin B12 in their diets without eating meat? This is one of the biggest questions that comes about when talking about the health of the vegetarian diet. As always, there are a wide range of opinions from nutritionists and authors of health books about whether this is possible or whether vegetarians should be taking supplemental B12. In Annemarie Colbin's Food And Health (1986) we find her take on it. "A vegetarian diet based on substantial amounts of raw fruit and salads, nuts and seeds, cooked vegetables and potatoes, and only occasional grain, will indeed be deficient in this vitamin; and such was the diet of European vegetarians early in this century." She goes on to say, however, "When the vegetarian diet is based on whole grains and beans as staple foods, B12 is supplied in sufficient amounts." In the research that Gabriel Cousens, M.D., has done on B12, he has found that people on vegan and live-food diets have the highest frequency of B12 deficiency. Vegetarians receive B12 in dairy products. Gabriel Cousens strongly recommends that people on vegan and live-food diets supplement B12.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Raw Food Nutrition

Written by Tristan Anderson

The History Of Raw Food

Through billions of years of evolution on this planet, raw food has been created to sustain all forms of life which dwell on the surface. Without this raw food, life as we know it would not be possible on earth. Raw food is alive! Raw food is natural, organic, non-GMO, un-cooked, and retains its full life-force. Raw food is generally fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, roots, algaes, meat and dairy, yet is also anything on the face of the earth that could be eaten. A simple, yet profound, question to ask one's self is, "If earth spent this long creating life-sustaining food, is there really any need to alter it?" For raw food nutrition proponents, the answer to this question would be "No." The basic belief is, "If it isn't broken, don't fix it."

Raw food nutrition has been the diet for humans for most of our history. Until the application of fire to food, which indeed has been thought to have occurred relatively recently in our history, humans as well as every other living creature on earth, ate food as it was found naturally: raw. Cooked food slowly began to become enticing to humans as it allowed them to preserve their food for longer and allowed them to populate regions of earth that otherwise would have been uninhabitable. Throughout human history over the last 5,000 years it is clear to see that humans have thoroughly taken advantage of cooking food, and have amassed huge amounts of preserved food as well as populated almost every conceivable area of Earth. For some, this has made the case of cooking food an incredible discovery that is well justifiable. However, many raw foodists believe that cooking food has led to extreme overpopulation of the earth (which would not be possible with raw food nutrition because humans would need to live in small groups in areas that were already bountiful with raw food or had the ability to be cultivated). Cooking food has also led to the over production and unequal distribution of food, and obvious evidence of lack of health in humans, with new diseases being developed every year.

Even though cooked food nutrition has become a dominant force in these last five thousand years of history, there still remains groups and individuals who have continued the old way of raw food nutrition. One of the most famous raw foodist groups, according to ancient writings found by Edmond Szekely, a modern religious scholar, were the Essenes. The Essenes were an esoteric Judaic group that lived near the Dead Sea in Palestine from around 150 B.C.E. to 70 C.E. The Essenes lived in small communities, were completely vegetarian, ate only raw food, were said to live to 120 or older, and dedicated themselves to living a spiritual life. In the Essene Gospel Of Peace, which is supposedly the teachings of Jesus, Jesus recommends a completely raw food diet for health of the body and mind, and for increased ability for divine communion.

Other raw foodists were many of the ancient Taoist and Buddhist practitioners. They often lived in secluded mountain regions and ate a diet consisting mainly of herbs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. They found that this diet increased their ability to commune with nature, as well as quieted the restless mind. Many ancient yogis from India followed a raw food diet, as it increased their prana and helped to stimulate the awakening of Kundalini. Pythagoras in Greece was said to recommend a vegetarian raw food diet to his disciples.

The roots of the raw food movement in the U.S. began at the turn of the 19th century, when a group of vegan raw foodists from Germany settled in Southern California. They came to the U.S. to recreate a Garden of Eden scenario. This meant they lived completely nude, ate a raw food diet of mainly fruit, and worshiped nature.

Later other raw food advocates such as Ann Wigmore and Victoras Kulvinskas began creating raw food centers where people could come for nutritional healing. Now, in 2006, there are raw food centers in almost every state, many raw food restaurants, and an ever growing number of people adopting this diet.

Types Of Raw Food Diets

Living Foodist: one whose diet is vegan, organic, and consisting mainly of raw sprouts, fermented foods, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Any food that has its life-force still intact is considered a live food.

Sproutarian: one whose diet is mainly raw sprouts. Those eating this diet are extremely rare.

Fruitarian: one whose diet consists mainly of raw fruit. Many fruitarians also eat small amounts of raw vegetables, sprouts, nuts and seeds in order to maintain balance.

Natural Hygiene: there is varied descriptions of this diet within the field, but is typically a raw food diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sometimes raw dairy.

Mono-eating: this is a raw food diet in which a person eats only one raw food at a time. It is claimed that the body is better able to digest food if there is only one type to digest.

Essene: this diet is based on the teachings of Jesus in The Essene Gospel Of Peace. It is a vegetarian diet, consisting of raw sprouts, wheatgrass, vegetables, fruits, and often raw dairy products such as milk and yogurt.

Primal Diet: one whose diet consists of raw meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. It is claimed by people following this diet that it is most likely the diet of ancient humans.

Energetic Qualities Of Vegan Raw Food

Vegan raw foods retain the original matrix of energy that was patterned by the forces of the earth, sun, water, air, and the universe. If eaten in its raw state these energetic qualities are transferred in their natural state to the being who is eating them. In this way humans can connect with the forces of the universe. In fact, food is our most dominant and sensual way of interacting with our environment. The saying, "you are what you eat," is in fact one of the most profound truths. What we eat is what creates our bodies, gives us the energy to think, move, and be alive.

Vegan raw food is nourished by the soil, transferring essential nutrients and pure earth energy. The energy of vegan raw foods is in perfect resonance with the healing forces of the earth. Many vegan raw foodists claim that meat and dairy are too hard to digest, and lack the vitality and life force of vegan foods, and therefore are not considered healing foods.

Most vegan raw foods consist mainly of water, especially fruits. A cucumber is over 90 percent water. This water is highly charged from the life force of the food. Many raw foodists claim that the water in organic vegan raw foods is the purest water we can get on earth at this time. The energy of this water is extremely healing. Many people juice fruits and vegetables to allow the body to easily absorb this charged water.

Sunlight is absorbed by chlorophyll in plants and converted into many nutrients. It also nourishes all raw food with its energetic qualities and allows them to flourish. By eating vegan raw food we can directly transfer this sunlight energy into our system and be healed by it.

Vegan raw foods are highly charged with oxygen. Oxygen is often thought of as energy that we get only from breathing. However, food is also a source of oxygen. Many raw foodists consider oxygen to be one of the greatest healing components in raw food. It is interesting to note that there is more oxygen in the soil than the atmosphere. Raw food is nourished from oxygen both above and below.

Many spiritual traditions speak of a universal energy that is the root of all other forms of energy. It is also known as the life force, chi, prana, etc. Through a modern technology called Kirlian photography, it is now possible to actually see the life force within raw food. It is photographed as a luminous field of energy that is within the food and surrounds it. Mainstream nutritionists have yet to explain the properties of this life force and its healing properties. However, spiritual traditions throughout the world have emphasized the important role that the life force brings in terms of healing and increased awareness.

Many raw food advocates claim that most, if not all, of these energetic qualities are altered if the food is cooked, irradiated, frozen, or sprayed with chemicals. When cooked, food loses a significant amount of water and nutrients, the earth and sun energies are said to be disrupted and disorganized, oxygen molecules are lost when the water decreases, and the life force is decreased or completely gone. This has been proven through Kirlian photography of raw and cooked foods. The raw food shows a significant field of light, while the cooked food shows little or no light within or around it.

Pros And Cons Of A Raw Food Diet

The benefits of a raw food diet, according to advocates, are vast. Some of the major benefits are increased energy, better digestion, weight loss or gain to reach an optimal size, reduced risk of disease, and increased spiritual awareness. Other benefits are increased intake of water, increased connection with the earth, and a general feeling of lightness and well-being.

There are many who question the benefits of the raw food diet, though, and even claim that it can be very detrimental. According to Gabriel Cousens M.D. in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), one of the major criticisms is that a vegan raw food diet does not supply the body with B12, an essential vitamin in the production of DNA, RNA, normal red blood cells, and other important physiological functions, which according to Gabriel Cousens is indeed true for most of us. However, Gabriel suggests that to be a successful vegan raw foodist it is essential to take a B12 supplement, and there is even a live B12 supplement on the market. Other ways to get B12 on a vegan raw food diet are to eat plenty of wild food. B12 is created by bacteria that live on plants. Once the food has sat in a grocery store or been washed, the B12 is gone.

Other criticisms of the raw food diet are that it can be difficult to obtain all the necessary nutrients. Raw foodists point out, though, that cooked food has been proven to lose nutrients when it is cooked and that raw food retains all its nutrients. Also, raw foodists have shown that all essential nutrients can be found in raw foods, and as with cooked food nutrition, it takes understanding of what you need and then how to achieve it.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Mindful Eating

Written by Tristan Anderson

Being mindful while you eat seems like a simple task. You think about what you want to eat, make it, and then enjoy it. Yet, if you take the time to be aware of your states of consciousness while you eat food, you might be surprised at how little of your consciousness is actually present on the act of eating. By becoming mindful eaters we can find a new joy in eating as well as a new relationship with our reality.

The Challenge Of Coming Into The Present

The human mind has an amazing potential to drift into elaborate fantasies, also known as day dreams. Many of us think we are present in the physical reality all the time, but often we are actually thinking and living in a mental dreamland that has no relation to the present environment. Many spiritual traditions throughout time have recognized this quality of the human mind and have sought ways to bring it back into the present moment. In Buddhism this is called being mindful. It is the art of keeping attention from wandering into the past or future and immersing awareness in the fullness of reality in the present.

Physical, Mental, And Spiritual Benefits Of Mindful Eating

Bringing mindfulness to the present moment while eating can have tremendous benefits on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. On the physical level, eating brings nourishment to our bodies. However, the quality of nourishment we receive is affected by our state of consciousness while we eat. For example, according to Reuters Health, a supplier of health and medical news on the internet (www.reutershealth.com/wellconnected/doc31.html), research has shown that if you eat while experiencing stress, the digestive system will be disrupted. The short term effect of this is a lack of assimilation of nutrients; the long term effect if you continually eat while stressed is the potential for irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, weight gain or loss, and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

Another physical benefit of eating mindfully is that the flavors of food are more fully appreciated and enjoyed. To be present with our food is to have our consciousness immersed with the subtle essences of flavor that enter us. In this state we can learn to distinguish the variety of flavors and find deep enjoyment in each one. A single bite of food can hold a vast array of information for us to process and enjoy. If we don't chew our food well, or are constantly getting ready for the next bite, we only experience a small amount of awareness of all the different flavors, textures, and energetic qualities that food holds.

On the mental and spiritual level, when we are mindful, our awareness is naturally calm and heightened. The present moment becomes full and satisfying, which washes away anxiety and fear, and brings in peace and joy. By practicing mindful eating, reality becomes new and refreshing. The mind reaches a state of awe, similar to the experience of a lucid dream where in the midst of a normal situation, consciousness wakes up and realizes how vibrant and amazing everything is. Even the most mundane things become profound. Eating an orange, for instance, can become a gateway into bliss and higher awareness. Consider this practice described by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist teacher and practitioner, "I often teach 'orange meditation' to my students. We spend time sitting together, each enjoying an orange. Placing the orange on the palm of our hand, we look at it while breathing in and out, so that the orange becomes a reality. If we are not here, totally present, the orange isn't here either. When you are truly here, contemplating the orange, breathing and smiling, the orange becomes a miracle. It is enough to bring you a lot of happiness. You peel the orange, smell it, take a section, and put it in your mouth mindfully, fully aware of the juice on your tongue. This is eating an orange in mindfulness. It makes the miracle of life possible. It makes joy possible." (www.chetday.com/mindfuleating.htm)

How often do we eat like this? All of us experience some joy in the taste of food, but how often does the act of eating unite our body/mind in an experience of joyful oneness with creation? We have seen a glimpse at some of the possibilities that can come about through mindful eating. Let us now look at techniques for how to realize these possibilities ourselves.

The Mindful Bite

Here is a technique taken from www.mindfuleating.org that you can try in order to see what happens when you eat mindfully.

As you bring food to your mouth, slow down and become aware of your movements.
Once the food is in your mouth, clear your hands. Put silverware or remaining food down.
Chew this bite with your mind in laser-sharp focus on the process. Concentrate on the taste of the food and the act of eating. Don't do anything else while you're chewing. Simply chew and pay attention.
Keep chewing until the food is uniformly smooth. Use this consistency of the food as a signal to swallow.
After you swallow, but before you bring more food to your mouth, rest for a few seconds, thereby inserting a pause into your eating.

Amazing results may not come immediately, but as you continue to eat in this way, the mind and senses become trained to go deeper and deeper into the present. Another way to heighten the mindful bite is to practice mindfulness during other times of the day or night. By increasing mindfulness in general it becomes less of a practice and more a way of life that occurs spontaneously.

Spiritual Teachings On Mindful Eating

Buddhism

There is a practice in Buddhism called, "The Five Contemplations While Eating." This practice engages the mind to create a new relationship with food that takes it beyond just sensory enjoyment. The Five Contemplations are a way to connect food, body, mind, and spirit to the universe at every meal. The first contemplation involves imagining how the food grew, how it was cultivated, and how it got to your table. This creates a sense of gratitude and connection to the processes involved in food preparation. The second contemplation is to become aware of your present state of consciousness and adjust it, if necessary, to be peaceful and harmonious. In this way we become ready to receive our food in a joyful way. The third contemplation is to question whether the food on our plate is to nourish us or to satisfy a greedy desire, such as eating more than we really need. This type of thinking challenges us to eat in a sustainable way. Many Buddhist teachers consider meat eating a greedy desire because for the sake of your own enjoyment you are taking the life of another. The fourth contemplation is to think about how food is medicine. Without it we perish; by eating too much we can become sick. Eating just the right amount of healthy food is one of the major keys to good health. The fifth and last contemplation is to be thankful for the nourishment that the universe has provided you. In this way you become filled with gratitude, joy, and connection to the forces of the universe.

This is a very profound practice that can take the act of eating to a level you may have never imagined. Eating mindfully in this way is a spiritual practice that can generate compassion, health, greater awareness, and peace. If you find that you don't want to do all five contemplations, try doing just one and see the results it produces.

Taoism

A key practice in Taoism is the cultivation of chi, or energy. Through chi cultivation the mind, body, and spirit become in harmony. When there is a lack of harmony between these levels of our being, the possibility for present moment mindful awareness is decreased. The spiritual teaching that emerges from this understanding is that certain foods have the ability to increase or decrease our chi level and flow, which then correlates to our mindfulness level. Without going into too much detail into the Taoist diet, the basic principles are to find out which of the five elements is out of balance in your body, and then to eat foods which will help restore it to balance. Also, to eat foods related to the particular season is a way to balance the chi flow. In this way the Taoists discovered that the ability to eat mindfully was partially dependent on developing a diet that harmonized the chi flow. Mindful eating would then emerge spontaneously.

Ayurveda

Ayurveda, which means life knowledge, is a system of healing that originated in India around 5,000 years ago. In this system, the way in which we eat plays a major role in the overall state of our being. In order to eat mindfully and experience the benefits that this can have, Ayurveda teaches us to turn off the telephone, T.V., or whatever might distract you, and then eat in silence to immerse your senses in the aromas, flavors, colors, and textures of the food. By doing this the mind is not allowed to wander into day dreams, but is instead merged with sensory reality. This merging is said to produce spiritual insights into the nature of the body, and its relationship to the five elements within and without, which are earth, air, fire, water, and ether in this system.

The Essenes

The Essenes were mystical Judaic groups that lived near the Dead Sea in Palestine around the time of Jesus and before. There is evidence that they practiced a live-food vegetarian diet, and often lived to the age of 120 years or more. The Essenes realized a profound insight into how to eat in a mindful way that would maximize nutrition as well as the heightening of consciousness. It is actually a very simple procedure, yet one that is often hard to achieve in our modern world. What they did was eat food right after it had been picked from the earth. Such as picking and eating a fresh fruit, or vegetable. This may seem like nothing amazing at first, but how often have we eaten food freshly picked? Maybe a handful of times, maybe never! The Essenes found that eating freshly picked food released a powerful energetic force that quieted the mind and helped it to tune into the energies of the earth and cosmos. Try growing a garden or eating wild food. You might be amazed at the difference between the effect of truly fresh food, and food that has traveled a great distance from its place of origin and has sat on a shelf for a week, weeks, or even a month or more.

The task at hand, for all who wish to take it, is to become mindful eaters. As we have seen, this involves more than we may have thought. It requires that we learn new ways to focus the mind so that it can learn to take in more information from the sensory and intuitive levels rather than dwell predominately in the mental level. This information has the ability to bring us joy and greater sensitivity to the forces that shape all levels of our being. All that is required is that we become present to the fullness of the moment, and be open to the blessings that come through eating food in a conscious way.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Cooking

Written by Laurel Sherer

It is important when preparing and cooking food to look at how you are energetically affecting your food. We can cook with intention if we focus our minds on the task at hand, think positively, and feel gratitude toward the food we are preparing. The environment we are preparing and cooking food in also affects the energy of the meal we will later eat. What is the noise level in your house like when you cook? Is it contributing to the energy you want to channel into your food? Are you concentrating on cooking or on something else, such as the radio or television? Is there a lot of clutter in your kitchen? What are your emotions like when you cook?

If you come home from work with high levels of stress, it can be beneficial to let go of your day before engaging in preparing food. Perhaps you can take a bath, change your clothes, take a few deep breaths, or meditate. Think about what energy you want to receive from your food and how you can go about creating this energy.

In addition to the energetic qualities of preparing food, there are some ways that you can bring higher levels of health to the process of cooking. To preserve as many of the nutrients in foods, it is helpful to cook at low temperatures, even if this means that your food takes longer to cook. Steaming foods doesn't remove as many of the nutrients as frying or boiling them. Don't use Teflon pans for cooking because toxic gases and carcinogens are released into your food. Additionally, the oils that you use to cook vary in how they affect your body. Since oils can quickly oxidize from heat and go rancid before you ingest them, it is important to cook with oils that are the most stable when heated. Coconut oil is the most stable, followed by olive oil. (Please see the section of this paper called Fats for further information on oils.)

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Blessing Food

Written by Tristan Anderson

Why Is It Useful?

Blessing food is a practice that has been done by people throughout history. It is a way to deeply connect with food that simultaneously uplifts the food as well as our self. Many different ways of blessing food have been developed, but the common threads between them all are to vibrationally energize food to a higher frequency and to create a sense of gratitude and connection to the food.

The Universe As Vibrating Energy

To get a sense of what may be happening when food is blessed, it is useful to realize that the universe is a vibrating field of energy. From deep space to the inside of an atom, it has been shown scientifically and intuitively to be vibrating at different rates. These different rates of vibration are thought to produce the varying elements of creation. Energy creates matter.

As humans we have been shown to vibrate at different rates, which have been found to correlate to different states of emotion. For instance, Kirlian photography has shown that after a meditation session where deep peace has been achieved, the vibratory energy emanating from the body is increased. When we are depressed, angry, or have a general low state of well being this is reflected as a smaller vibratory field around the body.

With this understanding we can now begin to see how creating a sense of gratitude, joy, or peace, will create a more vibrant field within and around us. Then, as we are holding this energy, food can be charged directly by touch or simply by being near this vibratory field which extends out from us. Food has the ability to take on energy. In this way we can energetically charge ourselves and our food to a higher vibration. Once the food is then ingested we take on the new frequency that it holds and we become even more energetically charged. Blessing food is a beautiful example of the circular power of giving and receiving.

Vibrationally Enhancing Water In Food

Another way to understand how our bodies, as well as food, are vibrationally energized to a higher frequency is to compare blessing food with the work done by Masaru Emoto. Emoto found that water is affected by non-physical stimuli such as those from music, blessings, and words when these stimuli are close to water. He was able to photograph the crystalline patterns that occur right as water is freezing. When the words "I love you" were written on the side of a water bottle, the water showed beautiful crystalline patterns. While exposed to peaceful music, water again had intricate crystalline patterns. After being blessed by a Buddhist monk, the water crystals were perfectly structured. Unpleasant words and music didn't create any crystalline patterns or created very deformed ones. Emoto's conclusion from these experiments was that water had the ability to be structured into crystalline patterns or become unstructured into non-crystalline patterns depending on what types of vibrational frequencies were around it.

The intuitive sense here is that structured crystalline water will have a more beneficial effect on someone who ingests it than water that is highly disorganized. Gabriel Cousens points out in his book Spiritual Nutrition (2005) that structured water is more absorbable because it resonates with the structured water within our bodies.

Now with this in mind, realize that food, in particular raw food, is full of water. In general, fruits and vegetables are between 70 and 98 percent water, meat and dairy tend to be around 30 to 60 percent water, and nuts, seeds, and grains tend to contain around 5 to 20 percent water. When we do a blessing on food, the water in the food is becoming highly energized and structured. It is now resonating at a higher frequency. This may be one of the deep secrets into why food that is blessed is so powerful. Because there is less to no water in cooked food, the potential for charging this type of food through blessings may be diminished. However, blessing cooked food can still be helpful in restoring it to a healthier state.

Creating A Sense Of Gratitude

Food is a love note from the divine. It is a gift that has been shaped by all the forces in the universe. This beautiful earth is full of so many varieties of food that one would be hard pressed to eat all the different types of food on the earth in a lifetime. Food is a direct link between our being and the universe. Without it there is no life as we know it. It is obvious that there are so many ways to be grateful for food. The challenge of our modern day world with fast paced lifestyles and fast food is to take the time to feel gratitude for our food. We give time for quick pleasure, but rarely do we feel gratitude and deeply connect with food. This can be remedied fairly easily. Slowing down, consciously breathing, giving time for contemplation, and preparing food with our own hands and heart, can all be tools to help us feel gratitude toward food. Other ways to connect with food in a grateful way are to create a garden, eat wild food, or go to a farmer's market where there are many different varieties of fresh food. When buying food from a grocery store, or drive up window, it is harder to feel the universal forces within food. The more processing food goes through, the more we are removed from its original energetic forces.

When we are able to feel gratitude, it is an automatic blessing on the food. As explained earlier, creating a sense of peace, gratitude, or joy vibrationally enhances our energetic field which then is absorbed by food. Once this gratitude is deeply felt, often people feel inspired to further bless food through prayers, touch, mantras, or other techniques. Try a traditional blessing practice that seems intriguing to you, or simply bless food in your own way.

Opening The Self Into The Self

Blessing food opens a doorway into healthier living, joy, gratitude, and mystical experience. As we allow our ego self to relax and open, we have more room for the truth of our being to come through. This truth is that we are one with the all. The Self is all the universes and beyond. As the Self we have the potential to express through a self (ego). In order that we not completely identify with just the ego, we must learn new ways of connecting to our larger Self. Blessing food is one way to help us do this because it helps us realize the interconnectedness of life. Through continued practice we can learn to sense the divine in food and in all things. Through enlightenment we no longer sense that presence but become one with that presence.

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Using Intuition To Choose Foods

Written by Laurel Sherer

To trust our bodies' innate wisdom is to step outside of the chatter of our minds. It is to step outside of the knowledge of nutrition that we have picked up in many places. It is to instead affirm the innate wisdom of our bodies. It is our inner wisdom that is the expert for how to heal our bodies. This wisdom connects us to the rest of nature, as all other animals use their instincts to live.

Our bodies know how to come back into the balance of health. Victoria Boutenko says in 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002), "The only insurance to be healthy is to learn what your body wants and needs. Our bodies want us to be beautiful and healthy. All we need to do is listen to our body's intuition, and then follow." (16)

Our bodies are constantly sending us messages, but we often ignore them. We may receive the message that our bodies are tired and decide to drink a cup of coffee instead of resting. It is amazing that our bodies do so well under these conditions. How can we feel, then, when our bodies have optimal conditions for health?

In 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002), Victoria Boutenko gives us a beautiful example of the process her family went through as they trusted their bodies' wisdom and listened to their intuition. Victoria Boutenko's son craved mangos and blueberries. He would eat a whole case of mangos and still want more. So, they followed his intuition and later found that the two best foods for curing diabetes, which Victoria's son had, were blueberries and mangos. His body naturally knew how to help itself.

How do we do this ourselves? We can begin by feeling strongly about why we are trying to listen to our bodies' innate wisdom. Once we feel grounded in wanting to listen to ourselves, we can begin trying to differentiate between the mind's desires and the nutritional needs of our bodies. These are very different. The mind often becomes addicted to certain foods because they once made us feel happy. The mind may think of French fries, for example, and unconsciously take the pleasure you felt while eating them some time ago and then translate this as meaning, "If I eat French fries again, I'll be happy." This is an addiction and is certainly different than the body sending the message of needing a nutrient. Providing food that satisfies a nutritional need of the body will often leave you feeling amazing. It may not, however. Your body may be needing a nutrient in order to eliminate a certain toxin in your body. In this case, you will most likely feel low for the time of cleansing, but will then feel much better after the cleansing process is complete.

The body communicates its nutritional needs to us in the form of desiring certain foods. Addictions and nutritional needs thus often look and feel very similar. We desire a food and imagine it in our minds. If you want to really find out what nutritional needs your body is trying to communicate with you, you can look at whatever types of food come into your mind. If this is a food that feels healthy to you at the time, give it to your body and see how you feel afterwards. We can use our intuition to know whether a food is at an appropriate level of health for ourselves now. If a food does not feel healthy to you now, but you find yourself craving it, you can decode the message your body is sending. Perhaps it is just an addiction, yet it could be that your body is used to getting a certain nutrient from a food and even though that food is not a part of your current diet, your body hasn't yet converted its message into another food. By asking, "What is it that my body is trying to tell me?" we can find out. An example of this happened to me the other day. I am eating all raw foods right now, but had a sudden craving for a soy burger. This was strange because I hadn't had one of these for some time. However, I asked what nutrient could be in the soy burger that my body would want. I came up with protein! So, I had some blue green algae, which has very high levels of protein and felt excellent. My craving for a tofu burger immediately went away and hasn't come back since. After several months of eating a new diet, our bodies will change the messages they send us. My body, for example, will learn to send me a picture of blue green algae instead of a tofu burger when it needs protein.

There is a large spectrum from how easy to how challenging it can be to listen to our inner knowledge. Our intuition certainly can give us insights into what is to our highest good in all areas of our lives, not just nutrition. Our intuition does become easier to "hear" as we cleanse the toxins from our bodies. If our bodies are full of toxins and are highly acidic, it is more challenging to hear what foods our bodies want. The foods we will be attracted to will often be those that vibrate similarly to the toxins in our bodies. This is a cycle that is challenging to overcome because there is a period of time when we hear our addictions and instead act on what we know will make us feel better. This will change, though, with some time because our vibrations will change and we will be attracted to higher vibrations of foods.

Other ways to tune into our inner wisdom more easily include being in nature, being silent, meditating, fasting, being with children, and being with animals.

The benefits of eating based on what our bodies actually need instead of what our minds say is that our bodies are finally able to come into amazing health, surpassing even our highest ideals of what healthy can mean. In doing this, we are changing the way in which our bodies vibrate. This changes our mindsets, emotions, and spiritual connections as well. One final thought from Victoria Boutenko in 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002): "If you will follow your intuition for a while you might discover that your perception of life is shifting. Many of your favorite beliefs will seem to you as false. Many of your former opinions will seem to lose sense. That won't scare you because in place of your former knowledge the CLARITY will come. Clarity is the biggest gift that we could get." (125)

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Colors Of Food: A Spiritual Perspective

Written by Tristan Anderson

To get an understanding of how the color of food affects us, it is helpful to first imagine food as condensed, colored sunlight. In this sense, food holds a colored vibrational energy that is transmitted to us when we look at it and when we eat it. From a spiritual perspective, the color of food has an effect on our subtle body, as well as our physical body. According to research done by Gabriel Cousens, a pioneer in the relationship between nutrition and spirituality, the outer color of food has a direct relationship with the chakra of the same color. For example, red apples have a relationship with the first chakra, oranges with the second chakra, yellow peppers with the third chakra, green leafy vegetables with the fourth chakra, blueberries with the fifth chakra, purple grapes with the sixth chakra, and white onions with the seventh chakra. From this perspective we will see how the color of food can influence our consciousness.

In the yogic tradition, one of the major practices is to encourage the Kundalini energy to rise up the spine through the chakras. As it passes upward it stimulates the chakras as well as all the organs in the associated chakra region. When the Kundalini reaches the crown chakra the awakening of enlightenment is said to take place, which takes us beyond identification with the body-mind complex. There is a way to eat in which this flow of Kundalini can be mimicked and therefore encouraged. Gabriel Cousens calls this type of eating the "rainbow diet."

The basic idea is that the first meal of the day should include food with the colors red, orange, and yellow, which correspond to the lower three chakras. The midday meal should include mainly green foods, with some yellow or blue as well, if desired. The last meal of the day should be foods with blue, purple, white, and gold, if desired, which is also related to the sixth chakra.

By following this pattern throughout the day you are stimulating the flow of Kundalini through the chakras, by first stimulating the base chakra, which is where Kundalini resides, and then working your way up. As well as simply eating in this way it is recommended to try and actually feel the energy of the colored food within the body. At the end of the night notice how you feel in the top chakras. Gabriel further states that it can be very powerful to meditate at this time, as the Kundalini may be nearing the crown chakra.

Another application of the rainbow diet is to heal a specific chakra or organ. For instance, if you were feeling like you wanted to expand the energy of your physical heart or heart chakra, you might want to eat lots of green salads. This will allow the green colored vibrational frequency to resonate and expand the heart chakra, which will then have a direct affect on the physical heart.

The rainbow diet is not meant to be followed to the point where you are not eating a food you are drawn to if it does not match the specific time of day. It is simply a way to play with the energies of the colors of food and use the basic idea as a suggestion to be worked on through your own process.

Another way that the colors of food can enhance our well being is by creating a meal that is visually appealing. For instance, a purely green salad might not look as appealing as a salad with red tomatoes, olives, yellow peppers, and purple cabbage. Research has even shown that the more visually appealing a meal looks, the more saliva and enzymes are produced in the mouth, which contributes to the digestion of food. Perhaps you could try creating a meal with all the colors of the rainbow and see what the visual and physical effect is on your body and consciousness.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Chocolate

Written by Laurel Sherer

Why is it that so many people crave chocolate? Are there any types of chocolate that are actually good for us to eat? This section of the nutrition course will present a unique and natural approach to chocolate consumption that may be new to you or others in your life. The wonderful news about this approach is that chocolate can be wonderful for one's health!

Many people today know chocolate in the forms of candy bars, cookies, brownies, and other types of candy. All of these forms of chocolate are highly processed with many added ingredients. Professor Tom Sanders says that as such, chocolate contains high amounts of fats and sugars, including hydrogenated vegetable fats (trans fatty acids), which have been linked to heart disease (www.chocolate.org.uk/choclove/women.html). According to David Wolfe and Shazzie in Naked Chocolate (2005), the powdered milk in many types of chocolate furthermore blocks the healing antioxidant properties of the natural chocolate.

During World War II, advertisements in the United States linked nutrition and chocolate. Mars bars, for example, advertised "there was a 'whole meal' in a bar to 'nourish, energize, and sustain.'" (www.chocolate.org.uk/choclove/women.html) People have become addicted to chocolate. The sugar and caffeine give a quick burst of energy. If you or someone you know loves chocolate, but also wants to be at a high level of health, cacao may be the answer.

Uncooked, unprocessed chocolate is called cacao. It is a seed of the fruit from a cacao tree, which is a small evergreen tree that grows in South America and the West Indies. The scientific name of the cacao tree's fruit is "Theobroma Cacao," meaning "food of the gods." (www.alivefoods.com)

Cacao has been used by humans for 5,000 to 15,000 years. The Mayans used cacao as currency. The Aztecs used cacao in rituals, including marriage (Naked Chocolate, 2005). While cacao was prized as a food of the gods by some cultures, it is now available for any of us to buy from Nature's First Law and other sources.

Cacao beans naturally have high quality fat and no sugar. Cacao beans also have many healing qualities because they are so full of minerals. According to David Wolfe and Shazzie in Naked Chocolate (2005), "The key to chocolate's super qualities seems to be eating it in its raw, natural state as a cacao bean!" (5) Cacao has high amounts of magnesium, sulfur, phenylethylamine (PEA), and anandamide. According to www.alivefoods.com cacao is the number one source of magnesium of any food. This is why women crave chocolate during their menstrual cycles, a time when women are susceptible to magnesium deficiency. Magnesium builds bones, balances brain chemistry, and helps create happiness. "Magnesium is the most deficient major mineral on the Standard American Diet (SAD)-over 80% of Americans are chronically deficient in magnesium." (http://www.alivefoods.com)

Sulfur is another mineral that is present in high amounts in cacao. Sulfur is a beauty mineral. It helps the body to build strong nails, create shiny skin and hair, detoxify the liver, and support healthy pancreas functioning. Cacao also detoxifies any mercury in the body because its sulfur levels are so high.

Cacao contains phenylethylamine (PEA), which is also released by the brain when we're in love. The "bliss chemical"-anandamide-is found in cacao and is also released when we're feeling happy. Taking in consideration all of the minerals that cacao has, it is not surprising that cacao has been used from ancient culture to today. It can help us to become healthier and feel blissful and energized.

Cacao tastes wonderful if natural sweeteners (such as honey, dates, and maple syrup) are added. It comes in the form of pieces of the cacao bean, which can then be added to a smoothie, turned into healthy brownies, or eaten by itself.

Cacao offers chocolate lovers a pure form of chocolate. Otherwise, if you eat processed chocolate in candy bars, cookies, etc. moderation can be a helpful tool. According to www.betterhealth.vic, "While there may be some healthy things in chocolate, it does have other components that are not good for you when you have too much of them in your diet-like fat and sugar." Alexander von Humboldt, a German scientist, states that cacao "is a phenomenon, for nowhere else has nature concentrated such a wealth of valuable nourishment in so small a space." (Naked Chocolate, 2005: 91)

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Sea Vegetables

Written by Brooke Gibson

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."-Thomas Edison

History

Sea vegetables have long been used by societies that live close to the sea or island-dwellers. They have been a staple in the diets of Aztecs, Vikings, Irish, Scots, Maori, Japanese, and many other island cultures. Today in America, there are several types of sea vegetables that are gaining popularity. From Annemarie Colbin's book Food And Healing (1986) we find, "The most popular sea vegetables available, usually in health food stores or Oriental markets, are kombu or kelp, wakame, hiziki, nori (used in sushi making), and kanten or agar, a seaweed that acts like gelatin. Irish moss and dulse, extensively used in the British Isles, are also increasingly available, as are some seaweeds like alaria and kelp, harvested of the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts."

Walking around health food stores today, it's obvious that sea vegetables are growing in popularity, which is a good thing. They are high in many essential nutrients. With the ocean making up such a large portion of the earth's surface, why not use some of the food that lives in it for consumption? The ocean contains within it all 92 minerals. Therefore, eating the foods that are steeped in these minerals passes those on to our bodies.

Nutrition Of Sea Vegetables

Food And Healing goes on to tell about the nutritional content of sea vegetables, saying "Dried dulse and nori are 20 to 34 percent protein, and all seaweeds are rich in calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, sodium, zinc, and of course iodine because they grow in sea water. They also contain appreciable amounts of vitamins A, C, and the B complex, including B12... Seaweeds are known to aid the healthy growth of nails, hair, bones, and teeth; ensure proper metabolism; reduce blood cholesterol; stimulate the reproductive organs; act as antiseptics; help digestion; and keep the endocrine glands, especially the thyroid, functioning well." A little side note about the thyroid: today thyroid problems are becoming more and more common in the adult population in America. The reasons for why this is happening are being researched, but nothing is known for sure. At any rate, any food that has beneficial effects on the thyroid and its functioning is vital at this time in history.

Seaweed is also noted for its ability to bind heavy metals and radioactive pollutants. Dr. Yukio Tanaka, of the Gastrointestinal Research Lab at McGill University, demonstrated that kelp may inhibit the absorption of lead, cadmium and radioactive strontium (one of our most hazardous pollutants). Eighty to ninety percent of radioisotopes of strontium could be removed from the intestinal tract in the presence of seaweeds. Sodium alginates actually chelate the remaining amount out of the bone structure. So much strontium 90 has been released by nuclear explosions, power plants, and nuclear weapons facilities that it is believed that people have detectable levels in their bone tissue. Various cancers are attributed to this contamination. Seaweeds can serve as a protective agent in a polluted environment. (www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lseavegetables.htm)

Nutrients in sea vegetation appear also to help cleanse the colon and improve digestion and absorption. A study of fecal flora in the Japanese diet versus the Western diet showed significant differences in the numbers of beneficial aerobic (oxygen-loving) organisms in fecal flora. This is believed to be due to the antibiotic activity of seaweed that destroys harmful anaerobic bacteria.

Seaweed provides organic chlorine compounds that are important in the manufacture of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. The mucilage in seaweeds is soothing to the intestinal tract and promotes peristalsis. The gels in sea vegetables are nutritious and provide roughage as well. Vitamins A, D, and C found in seaweed help to rebuild the mucous membranes of the intestinal tract. A 1946 Philippine Medical Journal reported the use of seaweed as an anti-helmintic, or destroyer of intestinal worms. During the war, anti-helmintic medication was unavailable, so powdered sea vegetation was used. It proved itself to be 73 percent effective - and non-toxic.

A certain type of well-known seaweed is called carrageen, or Irish moss. Sally Fallon tells us a bit about this type of moss in her book Nourishing Traditions (2001). "Irish moss is a red algae that the Irish have gathered and made into refreshing drinks and desserts. It contains a gel, similar to agar, called carrageenan that has many uses... The Irish have always valued their carrageen moss as a health food. Used in moderation as a tea, Irish moss seems to be helpful for digestive disorders, including ulcers, kidney ailments, heart disease and glandular irregularities. It is high in carotenoids, iodine, iron, sulphur, sodium, copper and numerous trace minerals."

Don't Eat Too Much

One thing to be careful for, however, is consuming too large a quantity of sea vegetables because they are so high in iodine. The body really doesn't need that much iodine to function properly and if too much is taken in, it can cause your thyroid to go haywire. Annemarie Colbin tells us (about iodine), "Considering that we are already ingesting large quantities of this mineral because of its presence in fertilizers and table salt, the situation definitely bears watching." Warning signs of an overdose of iodine include: being underweight, hyperactivity, rough skin, acne, mental and emotional imbalances, and a "spaced-out" feeling.

Sea vegetables have many industrial uses in our society, which I will mention briefly just because its kind of interesting. They are used in fodder and fertilizers, as thickeners and emulsifiers, in ice cream and other processed foods, in beauty aids such as creams and lotions, in paints, paper, and many other products.

Seaweed Harvesting

Most commercially available seaweed has been picked in beds far from polluted areas. Do not gather seaweed near a city or polluted environment. Small amounts can be sprinkled into soups, stews, or mixed with other seasonings in salad dressings. Seaweed, such as nori, added to beans during the cooking process helps to de-gas the beans and add flavor. Consult an herbalist or registered nutritional consultant if you are dealing with health problems. (www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lseavegetables.htm, written by Irene Yaychuk-Arabei, Ph.D, MH, RNC.)

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Water

Written by Brooke Gibson and Athena Hope

Henry David Thoreau was quoted to have said, "Water is the only drink for a wise man." All life forms on Earth depend on water, to one degree or another, to flourish. Without water, a human will die in approximately five to seven days. From a physical perspective, our bones and muscles shape us, but flowing throughout it all, is water. Our bodies are around seventy-five percent water; therefore, it is critical to have a good relationship with the water that is so prevalent and imperative in our lives. Drinking an appropriate amount of water is an inexpensive way to prevent disease, give you energy, and just make you feel better.

Let us take a few moments to remember and honor our connection to this sacred liquid, sustainer of life on this planet. Feel how much of your own body is made up of water, how your blood is akin to water, carrying needed nutrients to all parts of the body, flowing where its needed... flowing gently, everywhere, through all parts of your being. Feel how watery your eyes are, how moist; and your mouth, feel your saliva as akin to the element water. Remember how good it feels to your body and spirit to splash into a cool river or lake on a hot day, refreshing and renewing your energy. Remember, too, the sound of water, as it flows in a raging river stream or trickles down the hillside as a waterfall. Remember water as it falls from the sky above as rain, giving life to all growing things.

Water is sacred. Yet it is so familiar, so necessary and used so frequently, sometimes we forget to honor it as we take it into our bodies. It has been shown that water is receptive to the energies that are put into it. As one of the four elements that make up our beings and the earth, water has been revered by cultures worldwide since the beginning of human existence.

Properties Of Water

Like oxygen, water is essential to our survival. Water carries nutrients, disposes of waste, and is cooling, cleansing, and purifying. Dr. Alexis Carrell, a Nobel Prize winner, says, "The cell is immortal. It is merely the fluid in which it floats that degenerates. Renew this fluid at regular intervals, give the cells what they require for nutrition, and as far as we know, the pulsation of life can go on forever."

In Healing With Whole foods (2002), author Paul Pitchford says, "Every type of water has a unique quality, rain water tastes lighter; well water is more mineralized; river, lake, and spring water each bear qualities encountered in their journey...water can have a greater or lesser intrinsic energy (qi) just as we do." Water, by nature, is especially absorbent. This means it absorbs positive and negative physical materials like minerals and toxins as well as positive and negative energies like love and fear.

Water Intake

Unfortunately, many people have exchanged water for modern, more flavorful drinks in their daily lives. Combine that with the poor quality of water due to generations of pollution in the world today and it is simply appalling. An overwhelming majority of the American population is chronically dehydrated. This lack of quality drinking water could be part of a weakened thirst mechanism, whereby the body does not send the thirst signal to the brain to register until you are already dehydrated. Once dehydrated, you have a decrease in blood volume and an increase in the sodium content of the blood. Therefore, it is extremely important to have a continuous intake of water even if you do not feel thirsty.

If people are in ill health, for any reason, it would be a good idea to first ask themselves if they are drinking adequate amounts of water. Healers should be especially aware of the importance of drinking plenty of good quality water. Dr. F. Batmanghelidj, in his book, Water And Salt: Your Healers Within (2003), tells us: "Chronic pains of the body which cannot easily be explained as injury or infection, should first and foremost be interpreted as signals of chronic water shortage in the area where the pain is registered. These pain signals should first be considered and excluded as primary indicators for dehydration of the body before any other complicated procedures are forced on the patient."

Simply drinking more water can help with a number of things people might otherwise take drugs for. Such as: arthritis, asthma, rheumatism, chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep disorders, addiction, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, migraine (and other headaches), diabetes, hypoglycemia, heartburn, constipation, fatigue, kidney stones, colitis, premenstrual syndrome, hot flashes, morning sickness, osteoporosis, and muscle pain, etc. Water can even help slow the aging process. It can be very helpful for losing weight. In fact, our thirst mechanism is often so weak it is mistaken for hunger and even mild dehydration will slow the metabolism as much as three percent. Our brain, making up only two percent of our body weight, gets fifteen to twenty percent of our body's blood supply, so dehydration will affect our cognitive ability. Drinking too little water is the number one cause of daytime fatigue. Drinking sufficient amounts of water can also exponentially decrease the risk of many cancers. Whether or not a person drinks an adequate amount of water can play a very significant role in healing and can mean the difference in recovery.

It is typically suggested to drink at least eight, eight-ounce glasses of water a day. However, your body requirement depends on several variables. Tea, coffee, alcohol, and soda, although they are liquids, will actually dehydrate you, so you should drink two glasses of water for every glass of these water-zapping beverages you consume. Think of what you drink as pouring water through a sponge. If you pour glasses of soda pop or coffee through a sponge, it will get dirtier and stickier with every glass. To get rid of this buildup you must cleanse it with water. Every glass of water you pour through it will make it increasingly clean and pure. Another thing to consider is the activity level of a person. A person that does physical labor or exercises a great deal requires more water than a person that is less active. Vegetarians do not need as much water as someone who eats meat; a person who eats many fruits and vegetables will get some of their water requirements through the food they eat. People that eat saltier foods should drink more water. The climate a person lives in is another factor. People living in drier climates should drink more water than people in cooler, damper climates. In addition, as we age, our water reserve gets lower, and we should drink more water to compensate. This has the desirable side effect of slowing the aging process.

Types Of Water

Tap Water

This is the most common type of water that the general population drinks on a day to day basis. According to Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997), tap water is obtained from surface water (water that has run off from ponds, brooks, streams, rivers, and lakes, and is collected in reservoirs) or ground water (water that has filtered through the ground to the water table and is extracted by means of a well).

Tap water that comes from public sources is generally recycled numerous times and treated with a slew of chemicals to make it drinkable. Municipal water sources are required to maintain standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA defines pure water as "bacteriologically safe" and requires public water sources to send you an annual assessment of water quality. Even so, one third of community water sources have been cited for not meeting the safety standards. Contaminants are common in tap water. In 1998 there was a study that identified over 2100 contaminants in tap water in the United States. They can include: radon, fluoride, iron, lead, copper, arsenic, asbestos, cyanides, herbicides, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. Community water sources then add chlorine, carbon, lime phosphates, soda ash, and aluminum sulfate to kill bacteria, adjust pH levels, and reduce cloudiness. The 15% of Americans that use private wells should also be cautious because there is no regulation on wells at all. Private wells are commonly near farms that use chemical fertilizers which can leak into the ground water.

One chemical that is commonly added to water to kill bacteria is chlorine. The human body is not meant to ingest chlorine. Chlorine destroys vitamin E in the body and causes vascular disease. It also destroys flora, which is necessary in digestion. Long-time swimmers in pools containing chlorine are more prone to skin cancer. Once chlorine is out of the tap it will quickly evaporate, so a good idea is to leave it in an open container for thirty minutes. However, chlorine can combine with organic materials in water to form chloroform, which is cancer forming, and chloroform does not evaporate.

In 1979 Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) replaced lead in gasoline to increase octane content. This was done with the idea that it would reduce the smog and carbon monoxide released into the air by lead. The bad news is that MTBE ends up in drinking water, especially where gas-powered recreational watercraft are permitted. It only takes twelve ounces of MTBE to contaminate thirteen million gallons of drinking water. MTBE, it is found to cause cancer in rats, and is clearly not meant to be ingested. The EPA has considered making MTBE testing mandatory but has not yet to date.

A very common additive to drinking water that is probably the most misperceived is fluoride. Half of the cities in the United States add fluoride to drinking water and some states actually require it. Most Americans believe that this is good for us, that it strengthens our teeth and bones. It is true that calcium fluoride is excellent for decay prevention, but it is not calcium fluoride that is added to the water we drink. It is sodium fluoride, a combination that is not found in nature, and is toxic to the human body. Sodium fluoride is a toxic by-product of the aluminum industry, and sodium flouride used to be very expensive to dispose of until cities began adding it to drinking water supplies.

Bottled Water

While the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of the quality of our tap water, it is The Food and Drug Administration that is in charge of the quality of bottled water. Recently, with the modern popularity of the convenience of bottled water, the FDA has implemented specific requirements for terms you will find on labels of bottled water. There are eight defined terms; any others are simply marketing techniques to give the impression of superior water. An important factor in choosing bottled water is that most bottled water comes in plastic bottles, and usually you don't know how long the water has been there or whether or not it was stored in a cooled environment. This is important because particles of plastic over time, and especially in heat, will discharge into the water.

An investigative report showed that many prominent bottled water companies were simply using filtered tap water and that the water did not come from some exotic location at all. Therefore, looking into a bottled water company is certainly worthwhile if you want high-quality clean water.

Artesian or Artesian Well: This means water is drawn from a well where water is brought to the surface by natural flow or force.
Bottled: Bottled water is water with no additional ingredients with the exception of optional anti-microbial agents (if so, it must be identified on the label.) If bottled water comes from a municipal source it must disclose that information on the label. Close to a quarter of bottled water sold actually comes from the same water supplies that some communities have coming from their taps.
Deionized or Demineralized: When you see this on a label, it means the adding or taking away of electrons has neutralized the electric charge of a molecule of water. This removes nitrates and the minerals calcium and magnesium and cadmium, and barium, lead, mercury and some forms of radium, which are heavy metals.
Ground Water: This is water that comes from the water table underground. It must be under pressure of at least equal to atmospheric pressure. Ground water must not come in contact with surface water and has to be pumped mechanically for bottling.
Mineral Water: No minerals may be added to water labeled Mineral Water. This is water with naturally occurring minerals of at least 250 parts per million TDS (total dissolved solids). It must originate from a geologically and physically protected underground water source or spring that has been tapped either at the spring or though a borehole. The mineral content will vary depending on the source if the mineral content is below 500 parts per million TDS it may be labeled "low mineral content." If it is over 1500 parts per million it can be labeled "high mineral content." Most mineral waters are carbonated.
Natural Spring Water: This is water that comes from an underground formation where the water flows naturally to the surface of the earth at a spring. Spring water does not have to be collected at the spring, it can be drawn through a borehole, but a spring must be present to use the term "spring water." Spring water must not have the mineral content altered, but it can be otherwise treated or filtered.
Sparkling Water: Sparkling water has the same amount of carbon dioxide that it had at the water source. A label may say "Naturally Sparkling Water," which means it gets its carbonation from the source or it may say "Carbonated Natural Water," which means it had the same amount of CO2 found at the source added later. In "Carbonated Natural Water," nothing else is altered so it is still termed "Natural." Sparkling water can have sweeteners added, so be sure to read the label; soda water, seltzer water and tonic water are not bottled waters.
Steam-Distilled Water: The same as a home distiller, steam-distilled water is vaporized and then the vapor is collected as pure water. This is the most un-adulterated water possible on the market, next to ground water.

Water Filtration

Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, directed the people of Greece to boil and strain water before drinking it. Nature filters water through rocks and soil, which absorbs bacteria and replaces it with minerals. This is, of course, the best filtration method providing there is no pollution present. As for modern tap water, it is increasingly important to filter it to remove the contaminants and added chemicals. The following are some common methods of filtering water. None of the methods, however, will remove all pollutants, so it is best to use more than one method.

Activated Carbon Filters

Activated carbon filters work by absorbing impurities. They are inexpensive and easy to use, usually an attachment to your tap or a filtration pitcher. Carbon will pick up most wastes that are not water-soluble. The downfall is that activated carbon does not remove nitrates, nitrites, or sodium fluoride. It is important to replace activated carbon filters regularly. A dirty carbon filter is worse than no filter at all. Some manufacturers state that the filter must be used with chlorinated water in order to help reduce bacterial and fungal growth. Some carbon filters contain silver or other metals to inhibit bacterial and fungal growth. However, the metal leaches into the water to some degree. This is not desirable.

Another downfall with carbon filters according to Dr. Lawrence Wilson is that in order for it to work, water must pass slowly over the carbon. If it passes quickly, toxins will not be absorbed nearly as well by the carbon. In most carbon filtering systems, the water passes through the carbon much too rapidly to be really effective. (http://www.drlwilson.com/Articles/water.htm)

A related type of filter is called a carbon block. It consists of activated charcoal that has been compressed at high pressure. It is far more dense than simple carbon. The advantage of the carbon block is the water is exposed to more carbon. Also, the tightly compressed carbon can trap larger particles, including some heavy metals. As a filtering material, it is far superior to simple carbon.

Problems with the carbon block are similar to those of regular carbon filters. It can become easily contaminated with fungi and bacteria. There is no simple test to tell if your filter has become contaminated or how efficiently it is filtering the water. For these reasons, I consider carbon filters definitely second best, although better than nothing if changed frequently.

Distillation

Distillers bring water to boil, causing it to steam and leave any contaminants behind. The pure steam is collected and then condensed to form pure, unpolluted H20. Distilled water is water in its purest form, with no minerals, impurities, or contaminants. It is the nature of steam-distilled water to leach inorganic materials and minerals that have been rejected by the cells. Therefore, it is excellent for detoxification. However, the lack of minerals in distilled water is not good for you on a consistent basis. For instance, fish cannot live in distilled water. Drinking excessive distilled water can leach necessary minerals from the body. Another problem with distillers is that most municipal water sources contain hydrocarbons, which have a lower boiling point than water, so they end up in the final-product. Some distillation systems come with a final stage carbon filter, which eliminates this problem. Gabriel Counsens, M.D., suggests in Spiritual Nutrition (2005) to re-mineralize and spiritually charge distilled water through a process that includes putting crystals and high quality, mineralized salt in the water, charging it with moonlight, blessing it, and swirling it to create vortexes of energy.

Reverse Osmosis

Reverse osmosis is a recent alternative to distillation; it sends force-pressurized water through a contamination-rejecting membrane and then sends uncontaminated water to a holding tank. This method does a good job removing most toxins, gasses, and minerals and is getting price-competitive with carbon filters. A downside of this method is that for every gallon of purified water, you get several gallons of waste water. Also, the meter that tests the integrity of the membrane is not exact. Water purified through reverse osmosis can vary in its purity. Another problem with reverse osmosis is the longevity of the plastics used in the membrane. The polycarbonate plastics degrade slowly in the landfills. Filled with toxic substances, they represent a source of long-term pollution. Extremely high-temperature incineration, which is gaining in popularity, is a much better form of disposal of the membranes.

If these filtration devices are unavailable to you, an alternative would be to bring your water to a rolling boil for 3-5 minutes. The problem with this is that it will concentrate any lead present in the water and you will have, of course, to cool the water afterward. Another way people sometimes treat water is to use a water softening system. This is typically a whole-house system that takes hard water that is high in calcium and magnesium (the "hardness" of water varies across the country, some water is naturally soft) and passes it through a system that exchanges "hard" calcium and magnesium ions for "soft" sodium or potassium ions. The reason people use a system like this is because hard water leaves filmy residue on shower, pipes, clothes, hair, etc. so soft water makes skin and hair feel healthier and it eliminates or reduces hard water stains. Soft water is not necessarily better for ingestion and can in fact be unsafe as it can dissolve plumbing, which releases toxins. Lead pipes may be present in older buildings. Also plastic galvanized pipes contain cadmium (a toxic heavy metal). Even newer copper pipes can contain dangerous levels of copper, iron, zinc, and arsenic. Potassium-based water softeners are dangerous to people with kidney failure that are supposed to reduce potassium intake and they should not use potassium-based water softeners.

Blessings For Water

There are many ways to bless water. If you do not presently bless your water, I encourage you to experiment with your own intuition for blessings. This section will give you one blessing to try if you like, or for inspiration on formulating another blessing of your own. This blessing is given to us from Kwan Yin and the Ascended Masters as channeled by Marjorie Musacchio. (www.mykwanyin.com)

Using your own hands to bless the water, sense the energy that is coming down through the crown, into the heart, out through the hands and into the water. The following words can be said out loud or silently.

"With these hands, with this heart
and with the pure intention of God,
this water is now blessed
removing and transmuting all impurities
and returning them to the Light forever,
Peace"

Hold it for a little while as though you would hold a baby. It can be ended in whatever you like to use in your own religion, such as Amen, Om, So Be It, Namaste. This water can be used, and it will bless any amount of water you add it to. You can take this water and disperse it. One ounce of this water in approximately seven, eight or nine ounces will be plenty. This could become a magnificent healing force. Take some blessed water and pour it into a river, lake or ocean near you and help heal the planet.

Healing Waters Of The World

The phenomenon of healing waters, (waters that heal disease, bring vitality and refreshment, ease pains, and so forth), has been found throughout the world. Below are a few examples from www.share-international.org.

Mexico

One of the earliest reports came from Tlacote, Mexico, a small village 150 miles north of Mexico City. There in 1991, on a chicken ranch belonging to Jesus Chahin Simon, his dog, Lucas, was cured of wounds after drinking from a well. Chahin tested the water with great success on his ranch workers and farm animals, then decided to make it available to everyone, free of charge.

Though the number of visitors has now declined, four or five years ago as many as 10,000 people a day often lined up at his gate, some in wheel chairs or walkers, patiently waiting their turn. Chahin has kept well-documented medical records of diabetes, high blood pressure, glaucoma, arthritis and many other ailments being cured. In addition, the water has increased the productivity of the ranch. Plants and trees bear extra crops, an unusual occurrence for an area with a cool climate.

Germany

In 1992, Mrs. Theo Tommes of Nordenau, Germany was investigating an abandoned slate mine, seeking a place to store wine for the family hotel business. When she entered the cave she was amazed to see it was illumined by a brilliant white light. Also she saw small crosses of light within the glow. Experts were invited to study the phenomenon, and they not only recorded a high level of energy in the cave, but noticed in addition a spring with remarkably pure water. Two German labs analyzed the water and found it to be 8 percent lighter than ordinary water. Numerous visitors who have used the water claim to have experienced healings and cures. Now busloads of pilgrims arrive daily. A German reporter with the Bild, Guido Brandenburg, tested the water for himself. "After five minutes my fingertips vibrated," he said. "I felt as if an electric current flowed through me."

India

Also in 1992 came a report from Nadana, a small village in India, about 90 miles north of New Delhi. There, water began to spontaneously gush from a deserted well. Local villagers who bathed in the water said they were cured of various skin diseases. In a short time the news spread throughout the area, bringing a constant stream of visitors, sometimes 20,000 a day. Most people using the water claimed physical benefits; a five-year-old polio victim was reportedly cured.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Balancing The Body's pH Levels

Written by Laurel Sherer

It is important to create a balanced pH for optimal bodily functions. Foods, thoughts, and actions affect our bodies' pH levels. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is extremely acidic in pH. Foods such as coffee, alcohol, and bread are all very acidic. Stress, anger, and fear also contribute to an acidic body. If our bodies are highly acidic, they have the perfect pH level for bacteria and diseases to live in. When an organism dies, it releases acid to signal for bacteria to break it down in order to be composted back to the earth. Eating highly acidic foods and living in ways that create acidic thoughts and feelings create an environment that is very similar in pH to that of when we die. This is an explanation of why there are such high levels of diseases in countries such as the United States where people eat highly acidic diets.

An alkaline diet and lifestyle, on the other hand, creates bodies that do not allow bacteria and diseases to live. Alkaline feelings include love, appreciation, and happiness. Alkaline foods, according to Richard Anderson in Cleanse & Purify Thyself (2000), include fruits, vegetables, and alkaline grains, such as millet and quinoa. (For further information on acidic and alkaline foods please refer to the UMS course Cleansing & Fasting).

The pH of one's body can be checked by using pH papers, which can be purchased by Richard Anderson's company, Arise and Shine. If one has been eating a highly acidic diet, some people recommend cleanses using highly alkaline foods in order to rid the body of toxins. Alkaline foods are generally cleansing, while acidic foods are more building in nature.

Our bodies optimally are in balance between alkaline and acidic foods. This allows the body to not cleanse intensely, but instead cleanse toxins as they enter the body and continue to build throughout this process. Even on a raw food diet, a balance between acidic and alkaline foods is possible. It is an individual process to balance each of our pH levels. Gabriel Cousens, M.D., has found the pH of specific foods even varies between individuals. This is where the use of pH papers can be helpful in establishing one's pH. Also, the practice of monitoring one's general feelings is helpful as well. If you feel very light and "otherworldly" you may be too alkaline. On the other hand, if you feel very heavy, lethargic, and toxic, you are likely too acidic. A balanced pH creates a grounded, healthy, and non-toxic body and mind.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Detrimental Foods

Written by Brooke Gibson and Tristan Anderson

"In 1821, the average sugar intake in America was 10 pounds per person per year; today it is 170 pounds per person."-Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions (2001)

Aspartame (artificial sweetener)

According to The Columbia Encycopedia Of Nutrition (1988), "Aspartame is a substance made up of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Although both of these amino acids are widely found in nature, the chemically combined combination is not. Aspartame is used as an artificial sweetener in many food substances and soft drinks... Aspartame has been extensively tested and has been approved by the FDA as a safe food additive... However, the long-term effects of ingesting large quantities of aspartame are not yet known."

Saccharin (artificial sweetener)

In Susan Powter's Food (1995), she reveals that, "Saccharin is not a sugar, and it is not a food... It's a petroleum product, is non-caloric, and is three hundred times sweeter than sugar." Aspartame, on the other hand, is only 180 times sweeter than sugar.

Table Sugar

Table sugar is extremely detrimental to one's health. It is not natural and can have ill-effects upon your body and mind. Luckily, there are a number of alternatives to using plain table sugar as your main sweetener. Sally Fallon tells us in Nourishing Traditions (2001) about the danger of eating refined sugar. "The naturally sweet foods from which sugar is extracted-sugar beet, sugar cane and corn-are particularly high in nutrients such as B vitamins, magnesium and chromium...These nutrients are discarded-or made into animal feed-when the raw product is refined into sugar. Refining strips foods of vital nutrients while concentrating sugars, thus allowing us to fulfill our body's energy requirements without obtaining the nutrients needed for bodybuilding, digestion and repair."

The habitual eating of table sugar (a teaspoon or two in the morning coffee or tea, the hidden corn syrup in that bag of mid-afternoon munchies, the many cups in baked cookies and cakes) depletes the body of important nutrients and can give one the false sense of being full and satisfied. "When we eat refined sugars, they enter the bloodstream in a rush, causing a sudden increase in blood sugar. The body's regulation mechanism kicks into high gear, flooding the bloodstream with insulin and other hormones to bring blood sugar levels down to acceptable levels. Repeated onslaughts of sugar will eventually disrupt this finely tuned process, causing some elements to remain in a constant state of activity and others to become worn out and inadequate to do the job. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that a diet high in refined carbohydrates will also be deficient in vitamins, minerals and enzymes, those bodybuilding elements that keep the glands and organs in good repair. When the endocrine system thus becomes disturbed, numerous other pathological conditions soon manifest-degenerative disease, allergies, obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, learning disabilities and behavioral problems." (Nourishing Traditions, 2001)

Further evidence of its detrimental effects are found in Nourishing Traditions. "We must remember that these skeletonized products were virtually unknown in the human diet before 1600 and never used in great quantities before the 20th century. Our physical nature is such that we need foods that are whole, not refined and denatured, to grow, prosper and reproduce. As the consumption of sugar has increased, so have all the 'civilized' diseases." She goes on to say that numerous studies have positively correlated sugar consumption with heart disease.

Fallon recommends, "Strict abstinence from refined sugar and very limited use of refined flour." This can be quite a challenging task to undertake, but I'd encourage you to at least start by becoming aware of how much sugar you consume in any given day. From there, you can slowly try to cut down on the amount you eat. Alternative sweeteners to table sugar include maple syrup, agave syrup, honey, dates, molasses, figs, and stevia.

Table Salt

Table salt is natural salt that has been refined into an unnatural, highly detrimental food. Gabriel Cousens points out in his book Spiritual Nutrition (2005) that for minerals to be absorbed into the cell they need to be angstrom-sized (so infinitesimally small that it is measured in units of angstroms). Natural sea or rock salt that is unrefined holds minerals in their angstrom-size, which are healthy salts for the body. When salt is refined through heating and additives, the minerals become covalently bonded. This means they are not readily absorbed into the cells because they have become denser. According to Gabriel this can lead to a toxic buildup of refined salts in the extra-cellular fluid.

Richard Anderson states in his book Cleanse & Purify Thyself (2000) that table salt can have other detrimental effects. One of the major detriments that Richard found was that table salt increased the hardening of putrefying wastes and mucous in the intestines. This leads to a thick coating of material that lines the intestines and disrupts the assimilation of nutrients through the intestinal walls.

As with most foods, it is better to opt for the more natural form. When refining and processing begins, many unwanted side effects happen. Natural sugar (such as that in fruits) and natural salt (unheated sea or rock salt) are good for the body. It is only when we begin to tamper with these foods that they lose their vitality.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Sodium Flouride

Written By Laurel Sherer

Sodium fluoride is found in most toothpastes, treated water, Diet Coke, and many ready-to-drink fruit juices. As discussed in the previous section, Types Of Water, this chemical is highly toxic. I would like to tell you a little more about this noxious ingredient that is so often added to our food and water sources.

Sodium fluoride is a rat and cockroach poison according to the Merck Index found in Gabriel Cousens' book Spiritual Nutrition (2005). It is one of the basic ingredients in several types of nerve gas. Sodium fluoride was first used in water by the Nazis, who consciously put it in the water that people at concentrations camps drank. This was to destroy their wills to escape and their mental capacities, for sodium floride can cause mental sluggishness.

Sodium fluoride is put in much of the water that people drink in the United States supposedly because it helps our teeth. Yet sodium fluoride "is so deadly that in 1979 a dentist was sued for the death of a three-year-old child who swallowed a fluoride rinse." (Spiritual Nutrition, 2005:433.) In government and scientific reports fluoride has been shown to be linked with "a wide range of harmful health effects including: bone and tooth decay (including dental and skeletal fluorosis, bone pathology, arthritis, and osteoporosis), Alzheimer's, memory loss and other neurological impairment, kidney damage, cancer, genetic damage, and gastrointestinal problems." (http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Fluoride.htm)

Fluoride has also been linked with thyroid conditions. People who suffer from thyroid conditions can benefit from eliminating fluoride consumption. According to Dr. Shames, M.D. on http://www.nspforum.com, it is important for these people to stop drinking fluoridated water as soon as possible. They should additionally begin making their lives as chemically free as possible. This includes reading labels for foods, medications, and household cleaners to see if they contain fluoride. Dr. Shames recommends that people with thyroid problems refrain from receiving fluoride treatments from dentist visits or using fluoride toothpaste.

On the back of the children's toothpaste called Kids Crest, there is a warning label stating "WARNINGS: Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek PROFESSIONAL HELP or contact a POISON CONTROL center immediately." (http://www.aroma-essence.com/research-reports/fluoride.html) The Federal Drug Administration has mandated that in the United States products with fluoride contain a warning label. If the amount of fluoride in toothpaste is above 1000 ppm (parts per million) for adults or 500 ppm for children, the fluoride is considered to be a poison. However, at the lower levels it is still used in toothpastes.

Other options to using fluorinated toothpaste certainly exist. For one, there are "all natural" toothpastes that do not use fluoride. Secondly, there are home remedies for alternative toothpastes. One of these is to use food grade hydrogen peroxide and sea salt. Food grade hydrogen peroxide kills the bacteria, while the sea salt exfoliates the teeth.

Sodium fluoride can be removed from water by reverse osmosis or distillation. Also, since calcium will combine with sodium fluoride to form calcium fluoride, you can stir a teaspoon of calcium powder into water, let it settle at the bottom, and use the water on top. As for calcium fluoride, the stuff that strengthens teeth and bones and protects us from germs and viruses, it is the 13th most distributed element on earth and you can get it from the food you eat, also from herbs. However, calcium fluoride in food is volatile so cooking it will make it evaporate. Some good sources of calcium fluoride are goat's milk, seafood, seaweed, rice, meat, rye, avocados, cabbage, and black-eyed peas. Also the herbs licorice, parsley, lemon grass, juniper berries, and various teas include calcium fluoride.

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Calcium, Bones, & Osteoporosis

Written by Laurel Sherer

Calcium is one of the minerals that make up life on earth. Gabriel Cousens M.D. states in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), "Calcium is one of the key minerals for health. It is the alkalizing mineral of structure and solidity." (427) According to Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions (2001), calcium is needed for teeth and bone strength, as well as heart, nervous system, and muscle growth and contraction. James and Phyllis Balch add to these functions of calcium in Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997), by saying calcium also lowers cholesterol levels, prevents muscle cramps, gives energy, and is essential for blood clotting.

There are contradicting ideas on what are good sources of calcium. Sally Fallon states in Nourishing Traditions (2001), "The best sources of usable calcium are dairy products and bone broth." (42) Gabriel Cousens, however, has found that over time consuming dairy products may lead to calcium deficiencies.

David Wolfe tells us in Eating For Beauty (2002) that when nuts and seeds grow, they convert phosphoric compounds into calcium. Nuts and seeds are great sources of calcium, especially when they are soaked because soaking them helps to deactivate acids and enzyme inhibitors. Soaked nuts and seeds are easier to digest. Sesame seeds have a particularly high amount of calcium and at the end of this course, you will find a recipe to make a delicious sesame seed milk, which can be drunk every day. Figs are another great food for receiving calcium. Figs have one of the highest concentrations of calcium of any food. Hemp seeds, which are one of the most mineral-rich foods, contain both calcium and magnesium. If one's body is not receiving enough magnesium, calcium will not be as easily absorbed. Olives have the highest amount of calcium of all fruits. They are additionally high in magnesium. Additional foods that contain calcium are onions, maca, papayas, watercress, dulse, Irish moss, kelp, leafy greens, and most grains.

Gabriel Cousens says, "Dairy products and table salt can lead to calcium losses in the body, and a variety of research clearly shows that high intake of the wrong calcium such as milk is connected to high rates of osteoporosis" (428). David Wolfe states that The American Journal Of Public Health published an article on a 12-year Harvard study of 78,000 women. This study found that those women who drink cow's milk are more likely to have osteoporosis than those who do not drink cow's milk. Several sources state that while the United States has the highest calcium consumption per person, it also has the highest rate of osteoporosis in the world. Gabriel Cousens says that this is because the U.S. population is generally receiving calcium from the wrong sources, such as from dairy products, and eating and living in ways that are harmful to calcium metabolism. Stress, for example, pulls calcium from the body. Foods that pull calcium from the body include white flour, coffee, junk foods, and alcoholic beverages. Many people receive calcium from dairy products. Cousens states that up to 32 percent of the calcium in food is destroyed when the food is heated above 150 degrees F, as all pasteurized dairy products are.

In order for calcium to be absorbed, one's body also needs to receive adequate amounts of magnesium and Vitamin D. Magnesium is found in olives, hemp seeds, apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, cantaloupe, dulse, figs, garlic, grapefruit, green leafy vegetables, kelp, nuts, peaches, sesame seeds, watercress, dandelion, tofu, whole grains, wheat, brewer's yeast, brown rice, dairy products, fish, meat, and seafood. (Prescription For Nutritional Healing, 1996:26) Vitamin D is produced by the body when it receives UV-B sunlight waves. It is possible to receive enough sunlight to produce Vitamin D if we are outside enough, even during cloudy days. Sunscreen does block UV-B waves. Sources of Vitamin D in food include dandelion greens, sweet potatoes, vegetable oils, butter, cod liver oil, egg yolks, halibut, liver, milk, oatmeal, salmon, sardines, and tuna. Moderate exercise also promotes calcium absorption.

Gabriel Cousens states that sodium and chlorine are two minerals that are needed in order for calcium to be properly utilized. In addition to foods such as celery and kale that contain chlorine, natural salts, such as Celtic sea salt, Himalayan salt, Real Salt, and Krystal salt contain chlorine. These salts are high in minerals, including sodium.

It is important to also note certain foods that pull calcium from the body. High amounts of sugar link with the calcium in our bodies and both then leave the body. David Wolfe states that when refined sugar is ingested, the body needs to take alkaline minerals from one's bones in order to buffer the acidic nature of the refined sugar. Another piece of information that can be considered when dealing with or preventing osteoporosis comes from the 1961 Journal Of American Medical Association as noted in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), "Vegetarian women have one-fifth the rate of osteoporosis as meat-eating women and one-half the rate of osteoporosis as meat-eating men." (258)

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Laurel's Super Calcium Drink (serves 2)

Ingredients:
2 cups sesame seeds
4 cups filtered water
1 fig
2 tablespoons cacao (Cacao has the highest magnesium content of any food. Magnesium helps with calcium absorption.)
A sweetener, such as honey, agave syrup, stevia, or maple syrup
1 tablespoon maca (a root from Peru found at many health food stores, it is 10% calcium and a great bone-builder)
Small amount of nutmeg

Soak sesame seeds in water overnight (about 8 hours).
Discard the soak water.
Put sesame seeds and filtered water in a blender. Blend on high.
Strain the mixture using a seed cloth or finely woven strainer (the pulp can then be used to make cookies, pie, or crackers)
Pour the sesame milk back into the blender and add the other ingredients. Add small amounts of nutmeg and sweetener until it gets to a desirable flavor. If you do not have maca, this will still be a tasty and high-calcium drink.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Nutrition For The Eyes

Written by Brooke Gibson

"The eyes are the windows to the soul."-old English proverb

The eyeball is a sphere about an inch in diameter that is covered by a tough outer layer called the sclera, the "white of the eye." Underneath the sclera is the middle layer of the eye, the choroid, which contains the blood vessels that serve the eye. The front of the eye is covered by a transparent membrane called the cornea. There is a fluid-filled chamber behind the cornea called the anterior chamber. In the center of the sclera, on the front of the eyeball, is the highly-pigmented iris, and in the center of the iris is the pupil. The lens is transparent and located behind the iris. At the back of the eye on the inside is the retina, a delicate light-sensitive membrane that is connected to the brain by the optic nerve.

Maintaining healthy eyes is just as important as maintaining general body nutrition. In Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997), Phyllis and James Balch state, "In addition to making sure that the eyes are not strained by too much intense close work or inadequate light, proper eye care includes a healthy diet containing sufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals." The Balchs recommend a diet containing the right amount of B vitamins, vitamins A, C, and E, as well as selenium and zinc. And how does one get these nutrients in the diet? Fresh fruits and vegetables are good sources of these vitamins and minerals, especially yellow and yellow-orange foods such as carrots, yams, and cantaloupes.

There are many different problems that can happen with the eyes including: bags under the eyes, Bitot's spots, blepharities, bloodshot eyes, blurred vision, cataracts, colorblindness, conjunctivitis (pink eye), corneal ulcer, diabetic retinopathy, dimness/loss of vision, dry eyes, eyestrain, floaters, glaucoma, itchy/tired eyes, macular degeneration, mucus in the eyes, photophobia, retinitis pigmentosa, shingles (herpes zoster), scotoma, stye, thinning eyelashes, ulcerated eyelid, vascular retinopathy, and xerophthalmia (Prescription For Nutritional Healing). If you have any of these problems and are looking for specific ways to correct them, I'd recommend checking out the book that I've been sourcing from or any other good nutrition/herb book.

One herb that is a definitive helper for sore eyes is aptly named Eyebright. It can be used as an eyewash and prevents secretion of fluids, also relieving discomfort from eyestrain or minor irritation. It is good for allergies, itchy and/or watery eyes, and runny nose. It is also used to combat hay fever.

There is a medical science known as iridology that is based on reading the markings in the iris of the eye. From Cleanse And Purify Thyself (2000) by Richard Anderson we find, "Each point of the iris reveals the condition of a corresponding part of the body. It reflects the various stages of cellular health: acute, subacute, chronic and degeneration." Since Anderson's book is based on cleansing and fasting, he further says, "When people cleanse deeply, all the way to the cellular level, changes will reflect in the iris... Every unnatural aspect found in the iris indicates two important facts: stuck emotions and toxicity." Iridology is fascinating, and may be a legitimate way of diagnosing illness or imbalance in the body. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Nutrition For The Skin

Written by Laurel Sherer

Food affects the way that our bodies look. As we have said before, the phrase "you are what you eat" does hold meaning! If we want to look and feel healthy, we need to eat a healthy diet. David Wolfe states in Eating For Beauty (2002), "Just as the crashing waves caress the beach cliffs every day, every night, relentlessly, and thus shape those cliffs ever so subtly, so too, do the foods we eat shape our form subtly, slowly, and methodically over time." (20) Healthy skin is vibrant, clear, and soft. It shines with the light of inner beauty. There are many products that advertise being helpful to create healthy skin. While these may help acne to clear up, they may also be creating further toxicity of the body. We do not need to decide between helping our bodies to be less toxic and having healthy skin, though. They can go hand in hand when we focus on what type of nutrition and natural habits help the skin.

In looking at how we can affect our skin's health through nutrition, let us start by first looking at the skin's role in detoxifying the body. The skin is the body's largest organ for detoxification. According to Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1993), "If the body contains more toxins than the kidneys and liver can effectively discharge, the skin takes over. In fact, some doctors call the skin the 'second kidney.'" (88) A wonderful step toward the radiant health of our entire bodies is to detoxify them. We take in toxins through the environment, products we use, and sometimes food we eat.

What foods cause toxins to accumulate in the body? Any non-organic foods have chemicals in the form of pesticides, herbicides, and others that come into your body upon ingesting the food. According to Richard Anderson in Cleanse & Purify Thyself (1998), highly acidic foods are toxic to the body as well. Highly acidic foods include meat, dairy, coffee, and sugar. When such acidic foods reach the stomach, they cause the stomach to produce mucous as a way to protect itself. This mucous can build-up in the intestinal track over time, forming what Anderson calls, "mucoid plaque." (See the UMS course Cleansing & Fasting.)

Releasing these toxins can be a life-changing process, for as our bodies become clear, so do our minds and emotions. Detoxification can be done through eating certain foods on a regular basis or during a specific time of cleansing. Raw foods are wonderful for cleansing each organ and cell of the body. In addition, alkaline cooked foods help the body to cleanse to some extent as well. It is important to note that during the process of cleansing, our skin may have more outbreaks than usual. Once our bodies are cleansed enough for our skin to not have to detoxify, our skin will regain its naturally beautiful health.

In addition to cleansing, there are certain minerals that we can take which specifically help the skin. David Wolfe states in Eating For Beauty (2002), "Sulfur is the foundational mineral of all beauty. It produces a flame-like tint in the skin. It creates a subtle luster as delicate as the halo around the full moon on a clear desert evening... Sulfur-residue foods make the complexion radiant." (98) In nature, sulfur is present in MSM (methyl-sulfonyl-methane). MSM comes in rain water, ocean water, and all living things. However, many people are deficient in MSM because MSM is either evaporated or destroyed when it is cooked. David Wolfe suggests taking an MSM supplement regardless of your type of diet. In Wolfe's own words, "I had been eating 100% raw plant foods for over 6 years when I began to include additional MSM in my diet... The beautifying effects have been startling?no pimples, fast and thick hair growth on my face and scalp, no soreness in any muscles even after vigorous exercise, more elasticity for yoga, better brain function, and more." (101)

MSM is available as a supplement in a crystal powder form, which Wolfe recommends. Additionally, foods that contain sulfur can be added into one's diet. These include blue-green algae, bee pollen, hot peppers, broccoli, garlic, hemp seeds, kale, onions, pumpkin seeds, spirulina, and spicy cabbage. Sulfur is thus the foundational mineral for healthy skin. Other vital nutrients for healthy skin are silicon, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. Since the skin is furthest away from the digestive organs in one's body, it is the last to be nourished. David Wolfe states, "The skin should radiate exquisite freshness, thus expressing the inner truth of excellent health." (201)

If you or someone you know experiences acne, David Wolfe states that this is often a sign of poor oil/fat assimilation. The main source of poor digestion and assimilation of fats comes from cooked oils. Other foods that lead to acne are cooked animal fats, pasteurized dairy products, and roasted nuts and seeds. Prescription For Nutritional Healing (1997) recommends eliminating sugar, dairy products, alcohol, butter, caffeine, chocolate, fried foods, meat, and all processed foods.

Another point to keep in mind is that the skin's pH can be easily thrown off by soaps. It can be beneficial to reduce or eliminate the amount of soaps that you use on your skin. A skin brush can be used instead or in conjunction with a mixture of lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar and water. Skin brushes serve to remove dead skin cells and toxins from the skin.

To conclude this section, here are a few skin treatments that are done with food. These come from Eating For Beauty (2002).

Cucumber Mask

This is especially beneficial for those people with oily skin. Peal and grate one cucumber. Apply grated cucumber to the face and neck. Leave on for 20-30 minutes while you relax. Then rinse off.

Aloe Vera Mask

Cut open a small piece of aloe vera and rub a thick layer of the gel on your face and neck. This is a wonderful mask for tired or sagging skin. It is a natural face lift! The aloe vera mask can be left on overnight and rinsed off in the morning.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Age Defying Nutrition

Written by Tristan Anderson

The quest to extend life-span has brought forth a plethora of ideas and practices. The Taoists in China sought to create a magical pill that when ingested would lead to immortality. Yogis in India have created various practices with herbs, meditation, and rest to rejuvenate the body to a youthful state. Many of the people mentioned in the Old-Testament were said to have lived into their 900's due to living in communion with God. In this section of the course we will take a look at how nutrition might aid in the process of defying age. This topic is too vast to cover all the nutritional aspects that might help in extending life, but we will look at three major modern discoveries that may assist us in living healthy long lives, as well a special "food" that seems to have rejuvenating and almost magical properties.

Free-Radicals

Modern science has detected that atoms have the ability to lose an electron and thus become unstable. These atoms are called free-radicals. Once an atom is unstable it searches for the nearest atom in order to take an electron from it, and this once again stabilizes the atom. However, free-radicals produce a chain reaction where atoms keep stealing an electron from each other, which eventually leads to the disruption of a living cell. Researchers on free-radicals have concluded that free-radical damage may be one the major factors in aging and degeneration of the body. The good news is that modern science has also been able to detect certain elements in food which counteract free-radical damage. These elements are known as antioxidants. Antioxidants lend an electron to these unstable atoms, while not becoming a free-radical. They are stable in either state. Some of the major antioxidants are vitamins C and E, and the minerals zinc and selenium. The key discovery here is that by eating a diet high in antioxidants we can prevent free-radical damage and thus prevent cellular damage and increased aging.

The number one antioxidant food is the goji berry. This amazing little red berry is now available at many health food stores and on-line stores. Its power as an antioxidant is overwhelmingly more than any other food studied thus far. Consider these numbers, called orac units, which is the measure of the antioxidant's ability to stabilize free-radicals.

Food Orac Units (http://www.extremehealthusa.com/goji-berries.html)

Goji berry 25,300
Prunes 5,700
Raisins 2,830
Spinach 1,260
Brussel Sprouts 980
Broccoli 890
Oranges 750
Cherries 670

The evidence from this is clear. In order to prevent free-radical damage, eat lots of fruits and vegetables and consider adding goji berries into your diet as well. These foods realign and regenerate our cells and contribute to life long health.

Under-eating

The next modern discovery that has been shown to produce age defying effects is the principle of under-eating. It has been found that your lifespan is extended if you eat only 2/3 of what you normally eat. This concept may be new to you since we are constantly bombarded with the idea that we need an excessive amount of calories through a massive amount of food. Has anyone ever tried to eat all the recommended servings of food listed in the food pyramid? That's a lot of food! Opposite to this trend, which has created an overwhelming number of people considered overweight, is the idea of eating super nutritious food in small amounts. It is important to point out that under-eating of non-nutritious foods is not a healthy path. They must be foods that are good for you. Otherwise, you will suffer from malnutrition.

It is clear that most people in this country do not absorb or digest their food as well as is possible. This is partially because of heavy food processing and cooking which destroys digestive enzymes in food. Another major factor is that people eat so much food. Enzyme-deficient foods eaten in excessive quantities put a great strain on the body. After years of this type of diet the body loses more and more life-force and shows this visibly through the various signs of aging.

Many modern progressive nutritionists are presenting another path. This path involves choosing foods that are rich in nutrients and still have their enzymes intact. If you are going to under-eat, you must be sure you are getting enough enzymes to digest the food. Eating this enzyme-rich food allows us to eat less because we are getting more. These foods include fruits, vegetables, soaked nuts and seeds, sprouted grains, sea vegetables, and others. Basically, anything that is vegan and raw (live). As Gabriel Cousens, M.D. points out in Spiritual Nutrition (2005), under-eating nutritious foods produces vibrant health, less strain on the digestive system, and dramatic increase in longevity. He cites personal experience, the experience of his clients, and many experiments that were done to prove that eating a small amount of nutritious foods increases longevity.

Human Growth Hormone

The third modern discovery we will explore in relation to defying age is Human Growth Hormone (HGH). HGH is a chemical protein hormone that is released in the body from the pituitary gland. Its main functions are to promote growth, cell reproduction, stimulate the immune system, and keep us youthful. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone)

When we are young this hormone is produced in abundance. Generally, the older we get the less human growth hormone we release into the body. However, it doesn't have to be this way. The amazing discovery that has been made is that there are ways to stimulate the pituitary gland to release more HGH and thus defy aging. At this point I want to stress that synthetic unnatural ways of stimulating HGH, such as the many products you can find on the internet, have not been thoroughly researched or scientifically validated. Your safest bet, as with most, if not all forms of healing, is to go as natural as possible.

There are several factors that have been shown to stimulate the release of HGH such as meditation, the beginning stages of sleep (first two hours), certain kinds of exercise, living a healthy life, and certain foods. In terms of food, researchers have shown that protein plays an important role. By daily consumption of foods that supply us with high quality protein, we assist our bodies in HGH release. There are various theories on high quality protein, but I feel it is important to mention that the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that cooking foods makes around fifty percent of protein unusable or un-absorbable. This may be a reason why people in the U.S. are having significant drops in HGH release even though they are eating a lot of protein. People rarely eat raw protein in this country, which can come from algae, nuts and seeds, green leafy vegetables, sprouts, or raw meat (if you consider this appropriate). Goji berries contain 19 amino acids and have been shown to be one of the most effective foods at stimulating HGH release.

More research is being done on HGH each day. So far humans have found HGH to have a direct correlation to aging. Therefore, we would do well to assist our bodies in its release if we wish to live long. One way to do it with supplements is to take L-Arginine, L-Ornithine and L-Lysine together right before you go to sleep. These have been found to stimulate HGH levels during the first two hours in your sleep cycle. These are amino acids that are precursors to protein and also HGH. It is best to give your body precursors if possible rather than HGH itself. Note from Tristan: I was trying to make the point that food is probably the safest way to increase HGH and that supplements can be dangerous. I don't recommend using them, so I wouldn't want to put all the stuff after aging into the paper.

Monatomic Minerals

If this information is new to you consider this an auspicious moment to learn about a discovery that could dramatically shift human consciousness and increase longevity. According to information found at http://www.inspiredliving.com/energy-medicine/monatomic-minerals.htm, monatomic minerals are "single-state atomic minerals that have not evolved into the complex atomic structure characteristic of metallic minerals. The electrons of a monatomic mineral exist in a high spin state. Minerals in the platinum group of elements that are in their monatomic state are reported to have superconductive and anti-gravitational properties."

Monatomic minerals are found as a white powder in volcanic soils, places meteorites are believed to have hit, and ancient sea beds. They are also found in foods that grow near these areas. Research has shown that plants can absorb monatomic minerals from the soil. Trace amounts can be found in almost any food, but higher concentrations of it appear in foods like aloe vera, carrots, ginko, blue-green algae, St. John's wart, grapes, and cacao. (http://www.earthspectrum.com/minerals.htm)

Many researchers believe that this white powder is synonymous with a substance described by ancient cultures. The Egyptians called it White Gold, in the Old Testament it is called Manna, some alchemists called it the Philosophers Stone, and some believe that Soma in the Vedic tradition was also monatomic minerals.

These minerals can be ingested as the pure white powder or one can eat foods with small amounts of it. It is a highly natural substance. Our brain has around 5% of monatomic minerals in it, and these minerals are found all over the earth. People who have taken the pure powder have reported such things as increased mental clarity, feelings of expansion and access to higher Universal knowledge, increased intuitive powers and sixth sense stimulation, increased feelings of Universal flow and serendipity, increased ability to deal with stressful situations from a higher perspective, deeper prayer and meditative states, and greater insights into self and life situations. (http://www.inspiredliving.com/energy-medicine/etherium-white-gold.htm) These are not the typical reports one might give after eating a mineral powder. Obviously, we are dealing with something very special and magical.

Other reports claim that when the powder is ingested the energetic field that the monatomic minerals hold, rebuild, and realign the body's energetic field. We begin to resonate at a higher frequency. People have even reported being cured of cancer. How this relates to longevity is probably becoming obvious.

In order to live long and healthful we must assist the body in maintaining its main functions of taking in nutrients and expelling wastes. If this process is disrupted by not getting adequate nutrients or not being able to expel wastes, we begin to lose vitality and consequently age.

David Wolfe reminds us in Eating For Beauty (2002), "The miraculous thing about us is that we are dynamic beings. We rebuild ourselves constantly. General wisdom holds that 98% of the atoms in our body are replaced in two years. Studies have shown that 100% of our atomic structure is replaced within seven years!" (89) Who we become in the future is dependent on our choices now. You will have an entirely new body in seven years, so choose wisely what you want to use to build that new body.

Monatomic minerals, HGH, eating high antioxidant foods, and undereating with super nutritious foods, are just some of the ways to help bring our bodies back into a state of increased health and flow, yet it is still up to each one of us to assist the body in maintaining this state. This is where nutrition as well as all the other courses in this program play such an important role. Enjoy the process!

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Weight Loss

Written by Laurel Sherer

This section of the course is about giving you more information on ways to lose weight through the food we eat. Nutritional ways of losing weight are ideally complimented with exercise, positive thinking, and lifestyle changes. However, eating good foods are a terrific start, even if other lifestyle changes aren't made right away.

David Wolfe in Eating For Beauty (2002), tells us that eating nutrient-rich foods helps to prevent us from over-eating. If we eat foods that have very low or no nutritional value, our stomachs become full of food, but we will still feel hungry because our bodies our searching for the nutrients that they need. Plants that are domesticated and commercially grown tend to be high in sugar/starch and low in minerals. These foods, according to David Wolfe, include grains (such as those found in bread, pasta, and beer), potatoes, and corn. Raw foods, especially those that are wild, are very high in nutrients. These foods give us a strong signal to stop when our bodies are full of the nutrients in the food we are eating. The flavor of the food changes when we've gotten the nutrients we need from it to a very strong flavor that is undesirable.

In order to lose weight, it is best to limit two groups of foods: starchy carbohydrates (potato chips, bread, beer, corn chips, rice) and cooked fats (pasteurized dairy and high fat meat). It is important to note that fats in general do not necessarily create fat in the body, but instead serve to lubricate joints, hair, and skin. There are even fats that help us to lose weight! Victoria Boutenko in 12 Steps To Raw Food (2002) tells that when she was overweight and began to eat raw foods, her body intensely craved avocados. She followed her body's intuition and lost weight while eating large amounts of avocados. Boutenko later found out that avocados contain the enzyme lipase, which breaks down excess fatty tissue deposits. David Wolfe, in Eating For Beauty (2002), states that coconut oil is another fat that is helpful in weight loss. When farmers in the 1940's tried feeding their animals coconut oil to fatten them, they found that these animals instead became lean and active. These farmers found that corn and soy feed successfully caused their animals to gain weight, so in turn corn and soy based foods cause humans to gain weight. These foods cause weight gain because they slow the thyroid. Coconut oil restores thyroid functioning for those who have hypothyroidism.

David Wolfe states that hypothyroidism, which is the state of having an under-active thyroid, has been targeted as the reason for excessive weight gain. While Wolfe says this is the case for some people, it is not always true. One of the contributors to hyperthyroidism is cooked, unsaturated oils. If someone does have thyroid problems, Wolfe suggests that he/she eat coconut oil, fruits rich in vitamin C, such as oranges and peppers, and foods high in B vitamins and enzymes, such as raw sauerkraut, and kelp. A helpful herb in reducing weight is stinging nettle. In Eating For Beauty (2002), David Wolfe states, "Nettle leaves increase the function of the thyroid gland, increasing metabolism, and helping to burn away fat, while increasing energy." (142) It is important for people who take medication for thyroid conditions to use caution when coming off their medication.

The Columbia Encyclopedia Of Nutrition (1988) tells us that fiber can additionally help with weight loss. "As the amount of high-fiber containing food increases, the quantity of other foods will gradually come down by itself. You will soon find yourself filling up with smaller portions... You can still enjoy all your gourmet delights; the only change will be that the size of your portions will go down and the fiber will allow you to accomplish this without feeling hungry."

In Conscious Eating (2000) another practice for losing weight according to Gabriel Cousens is to stop eating meat. Cousens says that almost universally people lose weight when they become vegetarians. Further weight loss occurs when one stops eating dairy products, and one's ideal weight is often easily discovered when one eats raw food.

It is not only what you eat, but also when you eat that is helpful in effectively losing weight. In Conscious Eating (2000), Gabriel Cousens notes that our digestion is best at certain times during the day. The biggest meal for many North Americans is taken during the evening, which is a time of very low digestive power. Cousens states that if a large meal is eaten after 7pm, or less than three hours before sleeping, the food does not become fully digested and putrefies in the digestive tract. Some spiritual and health practitioners choose not to eat after 2 or 3 pm because of the benefits of only eating when one's digestive powers are the greatest. The Chinese system of health says this time is between 7 and 9 am, while the Indian system of health says it is between 10 am and 2 pm.

Cleansing the body is helpful in reducing one's weight through eating more alkaline cooked food, more raw food or doing specific cleansing programs. Staying positive and realizing you are doing your best at all times is helpful in reducing weight as well. There certainly are many emotions that are tied to eating. We often deal with any emotions of fear, boredom or anger by filling ourselves with food. One idea in dealing with this is to begin to question our reasons for wanting food when we feel like eating. Are we simply bored? Dr. Edward F. Group (http://www.weightlossobesity.com) suggests journaling ideas of what to do instead of eating when we are feeling bored, angry, or sad.

In Eating For Beauty (2002), David Wolfe gives us a point for thought: "Permanent weight loss comes through an inner transformation. This usually arises from an epiphany, a moment of clarity, a clear decision. When the decision has been made and a new path in life is chosen, the weight is already lost." (88)

Kevin Trudeau is a wonderful force in the area of natural cures and healing, and he is a champion for the people against the bureaucracies that are trying to keep people from getting well without prescription drugs, surgeries, doctor visits, and other very expensive money-making institutions. He has written a book called Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About (2004) and he has become a target for attack. However, he made his millions in business, and he is doing all he does because he truly believes in getting the word out to the world that there are natural cures for the things people spend billions of unnecessary dollars on. He doesn't have to earn a living doing what he does, so he does it without selling any products whatsoever, only information, and therefore remains untouchable by the bureaucracies that would like to see him disappear.

Trudeau's book is useful for many things that it includes and is a must read for anyone interested in knowing more about how easy it is to be cured and healthy, but the tips he gives for weightloss are quite appropriate here. One of the main problems with people who are seriously overweight is the fact that they don't eat in the morning or during the day. Almost every seriously overweight person eats most of their calorie intake in the evening. Even if it is very little and doesn't go over the allowance for a day's intake, if it happens after 6 PM at night, your body is becoming a "fat storing machine" rather than a "fat burning machine." What happens during the day is that the body thinks it is starving. Therefore, when it does get calories in the evening, it immediately stores as much as possible in order to preserve itself. The body thinks that it is in crisis and must store energy. Therefore, even if one doesn't eat much food, the person will still remain overweight because the body has entered a vicious cycle that takes at least three weeks to a month to reprogram.

The best thing to do is eat immediately upon awakening, at least a glass of water and within an hour a large breakfast. Then eat small portions several times during the day to keep everything running evenly in the metabolic functions. Stop eating at night after 6 PM. If a snack is needed in the evening, it should be some very low calorie vegetable or fruit like celery, watermelon or grapefruit, and it still won't interfere with the weightloss process. Even if exercise is absent, this turns the body into a "fat burning machine" because the metabolism is working the way it should, rather than the body believing that it is in crisis and must store food. Another great way to combat hunger in the evening is to drink a glass of water with a tablespoon of psyllium husks in it. This will not only fill your stomach up with zero calories, but give you the much needed fiber your body needs to keep the colon clean.

Below are a few (there are more!) of Kevin Trudeau's tips from his book Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About (2004) on how to become a "fat burning machine" rather than a "fat storing machine."

As soon as you wake up drink a full glass of water, at least 8 ounces.
Eat a big breakfast within 45 minutes of awakening.
Throughout the day, continue to drink 8 ounce glasses of water.
Take a one-hour walk (or other exercise) once per day (or at least one half-hour). Walking is all you need to do, it doesn't have to be a serious work out.
No eating after 6 PM.
Do a candida cleanse.
Do a liver cleanse.
Do a seven day colon cleanse.
Do 15 colonics in 15 days for 30 to 40 minutes.
Eat grapefruit all day long if you can handle it.
Take enzymes.
No high fructose corn syrup, white sugar, or white flour. Use rapunzel or stevia instead.
Eat- three organic apples per day.
Eat a big salad two times per day.
Use apple cider vinegar and olive oil for salad dressing.
Use a mini-trampoline in order to cause lymphatic movement in the body.
Deep breathing.
Magnetic finger rings will assist in weight loss.
Add muscle by doing yoga or lifting weights.
Fast for at least one day per month, or two weeks twice per year.
Cheat whenever you want to (to maintain sanity)!

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

How To Increase Immunity Through Nutrition

Written by Tristan Anderson

The immune system is the system of specialized cells and organs that protect an organism from external biological influences. When our immune system is strong we have the ability to stay healthy when certain influences such as bacteria, cancer cells, viruses, etc. show up in our body. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_ system)

The human body has an amazing ability to handle disruptive influences. It is designed to survive. However, in our modern world of increased pollution, genetically modified foods, and chemical laden foods, we are putting the body to the test. We do have the ability to help the body cope with these factors, though, and one of the major ways is through healthy nutrition, such as organic and raw foods.

Nutrition plays a vital role in nourishing the cells and organs of the immune system so that they can function at their optimal level. Malnutrition has been shown to be a major cause in suppressing the immune system, which leads to an increased chance of disease, infection, colds, flu, and so on. One of the easiest and best ways to support the immune system through nutrition is to buy only organic foods. Organic foods are those which have not been genetically modified and have not been sprayed with chemicals. They are far superior to commercial foods in nutritional content as well as life-force content. Sure, they may be a little more expensive, but isn't your health, as well as the planet's, worth it?

The use of genetically modified foods and chemicals is a dangerous act with harmful repercussions that have been proven through numerous studies. We have no idea how genetically modified foods will alter the entire food chain. The earth has spent millions of years evolving seeds to perfection; do we really think we can add to perfection? Gabriel Cousens adds these points about genetically modified foods in his book Conscious Eating (2000), "Currently there are no FDA regulations on genetically engineered food. There are genetically engineered foods in infant formula, pizza, chips, and many other aspects of the general American Diet. There is no guarantee that our children or grandchildren will not get cancer from it or that it will not weaken the germ plasm. Do we know if these foods are safe for pregnant women?" (303) Cousens is making the obvious point that tampering with natural food could have potential harmful affects on the immune system. Many progressive nutritionists believe that genetically modified foods should be stopped immediately for the health of the planet and all beings on its surface.

Chemicals sprayed on foods are designed to kill microorganisms, and they do a good job at it since they are extremely poisonous. Unfortunately for humans (and these innocent living creatures) these chemicals are absorbed by food and then directly delivered to us. Many people claim that ingesting small doses of these poisons is relatively safe. There may not be an immediate reaction to these kinds of food (or there may be) but what are the long term affects?

As stated before, the body's immune system is designed to protect the body from harmful external influences. A poison is a harmful external substance no matter at what amount. Therefore if we are eating chemically sprayed food at every meal we are creating an immune system response to rid the body of these chemicals. Eating in this way puts a strain on the immune system and eventually weakens the entire body.

An interesting experiment was done with animals in the zoo to see if they preferred organic or commercial food. Two plates were offered, one with organic food and one with commercial food. Over and over animals continually chose the organic food. Their instincts showed them which food was best for them. Perhaps humans have lost touch with their natural instincts.

Organic food gives more nutrition to the immune system than commercial food, which increases its ability to function, and does not bring any chemicals into the body. This allows the immune system to focus on any other aspects of healing that might need to take place. Buying organic food obviously benefits humans but it is also important to realize that organic crops benefit the precious top soil of the earth. Commercial forms of agriculture drain and weaken it. Every item we buy at the grocery store is a vote toward the future health of our body/mind as well as the health of the planet as a whole.

Another interesting factor to consider in terms of increasing and sustaining the body's immune system through nutrition is understanding what is known as leukocytosis, which is an unhealthy increase in the number of white blood cells (a major part of the immune system). White blood cells are released into the body when it senses a disruptive foreign substance such as a virus. In 1930, Paul Kouchakoff M.D. scientifically verified that when a person ingested cooked food, the body responded with leukocytosis. When a person ingested raw foods there was no leukocytosis.

The conclusion Kouchakoff reached from these experiments was that the body's immune system reacts to cooked food as if it were something it needed to protect the body from. Raw food did not create any immune system response. Therefore, if cooked food is continually ingested, the immune system is constantly at work. Over time, this once again can tax the immune system and make the body less resistant to harmful influences.

There are many more ways that nutrition can enhance and sustain the immune system, however as shown in this section, organic raw food may be the most beneficial for supporting the immune system. It is interesting to note that all wild food found in nature is organic and raw, and that this is the diet of all other animals on earth.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

A Closing Thought

Written by Laurel Sherer

When we choose to become more conscious about the foods that we put into our bodies, we can feel the various energies that they hold. A specific food will not feel the same to each person, yet there may be energetic similarities in groups of food. Let us look into a few of these generalized energetic qualities to get a feel for the vast difference in how foods can affect us. Food that is highly processed goes through many alterations that involve machines, people, warehouses, and modes of transportation. These foods are seriously altered when they come to us in packages, and they are also packed with the energies of our fast-paced, consumerist society, perhaps even with the energies of depressed or unhappy people who work in the food factories. We often eat such foods when we feel emotionally unclear, sad, unconnected, or angry. We take in a glob of hectic energies that need to be processed by our energetic bodies, taking the place of processing any emotions we were experiencing before eating. We eat such foods in order to suppress the emotional states that we do not know how to deal with.

An example of food that is energetically very different from highly processed items is organic, garden-grown vegetables. These vegetables are connected to the earth, sun, and water. They hold the peace, clarity, and wisdom of the universe. When we eat these foods, they bring this wisdom and clarity into our bodies. We are then more clear ourselves and can more easily feel our emotions and connections to the universe and our true Self. However, we still need to be ready to deal with the emotions that will inevitably arise just because we are humans living in a challenging world.

A powerful question that I invite you to ask yourself before eating is: why do I want to eat this right now? If you are eating as a way to make yourself not feel the emotions or energies that you are holding, I would suggest finding other tools to help you deal with these emotions. This is when you are ready to do so. It can certainly be challenging to face emotional states that we have built such fear around by suppressing them over time. Yet, do we want these to stay unresolved and continuously affect our bodies, emotions, minds, and spiritual connections?

As with all aspects of life, we can approach nutrition through a rational or intuitive perspective. We can also be forceful or gentle. There is so much guilt and fear built up around food, that I would highly suggest a gentle approach. You have taken the step of deepening your understanding of nutrition and can perhaps next apply any insights you've gained to your life using intuition. Try changing one thing at a time so you don't overwhelm yourself.

By bringing more light into our bodies through consciously eating, the food will act as medicine for all levels of our being. The light we bring into our bodies naturally illuminates any areas of darkness in ourselves. This means that we will go through periods of feeling wonderful and other times of feeling unwell. The periods of low states of emotions and energy are times of healing and can be treated as such by nurturing ourselves. As we come to hold more and more light, however, we will experience new states of being.

From my own experiences of cleansing, changing my eating habits, and practicing meditation, I can say with certainty that nutrition has played a tremendous role in shaping my own life. I went from flowing in and out of depression and fear to feeling great freedom, inspiration, clarity, and peace. My journey with nutrition has included many times of healing old emotional patterns, yet each time I felt down, I always come back to a state of joy and peace. I've felt drawn to the path of eating raw foods as a way to heighten my awareness, energy, and become more in communion with the Divine. As many others who have made this choice to eat raw foods, I was once addicted to cooked food and the states of being that went with it. Just by bringing raw food slowly into my life, I have been transformed by its clear energy. It has become clear to me that the earth and the universe hold more healing powers than the vast array of formulated food that humans have created.

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Conclusion

Written by Tristan Anderson

As we have seen, nutrition has profound effects on all aspects of our being. The elements in food release subtle energetic properties that shape our body and mind, and affect our spiritual awareness.

One of the most beautiful things about the human body is that it is not static. There is not a single element in our bodies that remains motionless. We are dynamic creatures who are constantly changing in each moment. We can either let this process happen of itself or we can co-create with this force of change and movement. If we decide to co-create, we have the ability to consciously shape who we are and who we are becoming. Who do you want to become? You have the ability to be healthy, beautiful, and full of energy. You also have the ability to create sickness, sadness, and lethargy. The choice is yours.

By learning the art of nutrition and applying those principles which work well for your body, you become an artist. You have empowered yourself with the ability to paint a new picture of yourself and the world. Each conscious bite of food is a new color that adds to your ever-unfolding painting.

Even the smallest changes in your diet will have profound effects. There is not a need to make radical shifts in diet if you want a new painting to emerge. However, if you feel radical, by all means follow your intuition. Start from where you are and make changes as you see fit. This knowledge is meant to be applied to each individual in their own way and not to be strictly followed by each person. Because we are all dynamic and unique we each need an individualized plan of nutrition.

We hope that this process is enjoyable for you and that the information in this course further serves you in achieving your highest visions. There are many choices for how we want to be in the world. We encourage you not to remain stuck in any patterns that do not feel good to you. Nutrition is one grounded, physical way of evolving to deeper understandings, peace, and light. May the wisdom of food fill you with light and love!

Suggested writing exercise for yourself: How has this course affected your views on nutrition?

Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking): Index >>

Bibliography

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Balch, James F., M.D. and Balch, Phyllis A., C.N.C. 1997 Prescription For Nutritional Healing, Second Edition. Avery Publishing Group; NY

Batmanghelidj, F. 2003 Water And Salt: Your Healers Within. Tagman Press; UK

Boutenko, Victoria 2002 12 Steps To Raw Food. Raw Family Publishing; Ashland, OR

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Brown, Judith E. 1991 Everywoman's Guide To Nutrition. University Of Minnesota Press; Minneapolis, MN

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Cousens, Gabriel 2005 Spiritual Nutrition. North Atlantic Books; Berkeley, CA

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Trudeau, Kevin 2004 Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. Alliance Publishing Group, Inc.; Elk Grove Village, IL

Snowdon, Les and Humphreys, Maggie 1992 Walk Aerobics. The Overlook Press; Woodstock, NY

Szekely, Edmond Bordeaux 1981 The Essene Gospel of Peace. The International Biogenic Society; Nelson, British Columbia

U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2005 Dietary Guidelines For Americans, 2005. 6th edition. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office

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Wolfe, David and Shazzie 2005 Naked Chocolate. Maul Brothers Publishing; San Diego, CA

Internet Resources

www.alivefoods.com
www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Lseavegetables.htm
www.amazon.com
www.betterhealth.vic
www.chetday.com/mindfuleating.htm
www.chocolate.org.uk/choclove/women.html
www.drlwilson.com/Articles/water.htm
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruitarianism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system
www.extremehealthusa.com/goji-berries.html
www.fda.gov
www.klamathbluegreen.com
www.inspiredliving.com/energy-medicine/monatomic-minerals.htm
www.living-foods.com
www.mindfuleating.org/
www.nspforum.com
www.positivehealth.com/
www.rawfood.com
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www.satyamag.com/june03/berry.html
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www.weightlossobesity.com
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www.zerowasteamerica.org/Fluoride.htm

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Nutrition (Spiritual Eating & Cooking)

Written by Laurel Sherer, Tristan Anderson, Brooke Gibson, Julie Achterhoff, and Athena Hope

Introduction

Energy In The Body

Enzymes

Vitamins & Minerals

Vitamins

Minerals

Various Modes Of Eating

Vegetarianism

Raw Food Nutrition

Mindful Eating

Cooking

Blessing Food

Using Intuition To Choose Foods

Colors Of Food: A Spiritual Perspective

Chocolate

Sea Vegetables

Water

Balancing The Body's pH Levels

Detrimental Foods

Sodium Flouride

Calcium, Bones, & Osteoporosis

Laurel's Super Calcium Drink (serves 2)

Nutrition For The Eyes

Nutrition For The Skin

Age Defying Nutrition

Weight Loss

How To Increase Immunity Through Nutrition

A Closing Thought

Conclusion

Bibliography