I love working as a holistic health coach as it allows me to help many people that are in need of healing. Unfortunately, I am noticing an exceeding number of people develop chronic health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart conditions, constipation, joint pain etc. Even more alarming is the fact that most doctors and patients seems to unaware of the impact nutrition can have in healing from these conditions. More often than not, a prescription for medication is given to manage the symptoms.
How chronic conditions develop:
Almost all chronic conditions have their roots in unhealthy food and lifestyle habits. The conditions start to develop early on in our lives. I use the following analogy with my clients to show how many chronic conditions take hold within our body.
Analogy:
If we do not throw the trash in our home for 15 - 20 days, what will happen? It will begin to rot thus offering a perfectly hospitable environment for the bacteria / bad bugs to start living and thriving on it. Now, instead of throwing the accumulated trash from our home we spray some bug killing spray on it to get rid of the bad bugs. A time goes by, we continue to accumulate more trash and keep on spraying bug killing spray when it starts to stink and putrefy. Overtime, the bugs develop immunity to the spray and starts to multiply in greater numbers. What do we do? We find an even stronger bug spray and spray a lot of it on the bugs, thinking this time it will take care of it. Over time the bugs becomes immune to the stronger spray as well and multiply even more. All this while, the pile of toxic trash is increases (layer upon layer) providing great nesting place for the colony of bugs to hide and become even more stronger - immune to even the strongest bug spray. As they multiply very fast, its a matter of time that they spread to different parts of the house. Thus starting from a tiny corner of the house, a day comes when they literally take over the whole house.
This is pretty much what happens inside our body. The toxicity starts to build in our cells from a very young age and over time spreads to different parts of the body. We only come to know something is wrong when the first sign of symptoms appear. In most cases, symptoms are nothing more than body's own defense mechanisms doing their job to neutralize the harmful substances / toxicity that has build up inside. One must be thankful to the symptoms and take this opportunity to look deep into our food choices and lifestyle habits. But what do we typically do? When we feel discomfort or pain, we think something happened to us suddenly and we want to take "Something" to make that feeling go away. We happily take medications to get rid of the symptoms (which they do momentarily) and continue merrily with our unhealthy food habits and lifestyle. Eventually, our symptoms return even more strongly and we keep on adding medications after medications. This is how my friends, we end up with chronic "XXX" - just fill in the blank.
What If I don't have any chronic illness?
In case you are one of the lucky ones and have not yet develop any chronic health conditions, simply look at your parents. There is a high probability you might develop similar conditions (if not more) and at a much earlier age if you are eating foods that do not promote health and wellness.
What about the children?
Most parents want their children to have a healthy future but find it challenging (due to time or financial constraints) to feed them the best possible foods for optimum physical and mental growth. Unfortunately, nature doesn't takes into account our personal challenges when it comes to our health and well-being. If less than ideal diet is given from an early age, the result will surely be less than ideal health as adults. It is scientifically proven that the genes or as I like to call them "seeds for chronic diseases" are passed on by parents. If we do not stop fertilizing these seeds through unhealthy foods, we are looking at a very dark and sickly future for children and their future generations. Please understand this, EVERY TIME a slice of pizza, burger, oily foods, a piece of candy, cake/ice cream, donuts, ghulab jamun, pack of chips etc. is consumed, an immense harm is caused to the body - more truer for the kids. The body can survive for sometime as it has amazing repository of life force, but it will never be able to thrive to its fullest potential. Sometimes, it makes me extremely sad to see what's happening all around us and within our own homes. The children should primarily be raised on "Unprocessed - Whole Foods" that primarily come from the plant kingdom.
Be cautious about medications:
All pharmaceutical medications, be it pain killers, antibiotics, statins, blood pressure lowering drugs, allergy medications, diabetes etc. are extremely powerful chemically. Sometimes, they have a role in maintaining our health, but they can potentially cause great harm to the internal operations of our body especially the balance of our gut bacteria (very true in case of antibiotics and pain killers) which is crucial to our overall health. Isn't it better to never come to the point where we would resort to taking medications?
Diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, arthritis, heart disease, and many forms of cancer are now proven to be directly linked to the consumption of bad diet and their seeds are sown very early in our lives. We can blame our body or bad genes all we want but they are typically turned on / triggered by bad food habits and lifestyle choices. For the most part, if the body is repeatedly showing symptoms that are not going away or continue to come back, there is a good reason for it. Throwing medications on a chronic symptoms with the hope that it works this time around is Akin to breaking the "Flashing Engine Light" in one's car and saying - see no more engine problem, we are all good. No, it is not. The "Flashing" engine light could be a symptom of something really wrong with the engine - perhaps its time to throw out the old junk oil and put in the new one before the whole engine gets blown up.
Can we reverse chronic health conditions?
The answer is "YES" in most of the cases. If not completely, it can improve significantly provided a highly nutritious diet and lifestyle changes are made and adhered to. In some conditions, the extent of recovery will be limited to the amount of damage already done to the body. That is why it is all the more important to make changes even before the symptoms have a chance to show- up.
What's the healthiest diet?
What's a healthy diet, one might ask. First, let's just drop the words "healthy diet" for now. If we are not careful, it can mislead a lot of us. A diet which is so called "healthy" for one might be harmful to someone else, especially if that person is dealing with chronic health issues. If you have chronic health issues, the last thing you need to do is to look into the magazines and say oh it seems like Palio or the Keto might work for me. Don't play Russian roulette with your health. Instead, create your own "Safe Zone" of foods that works best for you and your family and stay within that zone.
What diet changes are safe to make ?
If you have already developed symptoms of chronic health issues, the first thing you must do is to go for the most safest and cleanest diet. It doesn't mean drinking fresh green juices and eating salads all the time (although, they might be necessary in some conditions) but the overall diet must be such that it does not put excessive burden on the liver or the kidneys. Animal proteins such as meat, fish, egg and dairy put a huge burden on the kidneys. Also, usage of Oils needs to be minimized (if not eliminated). Oils are processed foods - e.g. it can take up-to 40 olives to make just 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Also, always read the labels, if you can't find the particular ingredient in "nature", better to avoid it.
Creating "Safe Zones" for yourself and your family .
You might have seen in some war movies, the soldiers create a green zone (safest zone) for the majority of the population that includes unarmed men/women, children and elderly. They must always stay within the green zone for their safety. Outside this zone is the yellow zone where only the soldiers are allowed to go for patrolling. Third is the orange zone or the danger zone where only the elite force is allowed to go as the enemy might be waiting there. Last is the "Red Zone" where no one is allowed to go as it's in the enemy territory.
Using the above analogy work with your family to create safe zones for yourself and your family. Because of your health condition, you might only be able to consume foods in let's say "Green Zone" while the family can get away with occasionally eating from yellow or even orange zone.
My recommended "Green Zone" Foods
Eat colorful vegetables (Include plenty of leafy greens). Eat some in Raw form as in salads, juices, smoothies. Cook them lightly or have them in soups, stews etc (Avoid cooking in Oils)
Sprouts (Lentils, beans, broccoli, clover are all good - sprouting release many more nutrients)
Fruits (seasonal fruits should be priority, water rich fruits are great, but eat a good mix)
Lentils / Beans (cooked without oil - add plenty of vegetables)
Whole grains (whole oats, brown rice, quinoa, millet, buck wheat etc.)
Note: If you stick within this safe zone, you will notice your health will improve faster.
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