10 Easy Ways to be Healthier and More Balanced Now!

10 Easy Ways to be Healthier and More Balanced Now!
January 18, 2012

What we eat is directly related to how we feel, how we look, and how we act. While most experts advocate a balanced, organic diet which enables our bodies to efficiently metabolize food and rid ourselves of the unhealthy toxins that cause fatigue, imbalance, and disease, I wanted to share more. I believe that proper nutrition is the key to living a healthy and balanced life, but what exactly is proper nutrition? It is not only eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables, but also eating according to your blood-type. Eating whole foods is different for different people. How you ask? Read on for my 10 easy ways to be healthier and more balanced now!

1. Replace the lettuce in your sandwich with kale. This is the simplest and least noticeable way to add raw vegetables to your day. Another trick is to prepare a batch of what I call “kale pesto”. Instead of using basil leaves, puree kale leaves, add olive oil, toasted pine nuts, and a bit of reggiano and now you have a super healthy spread to use instead of mayo.

2. Find out your blood-type, and then replace a few key foods in your regular diet. Don’t know your type? If you are a woman with children, call your OB and ask. Everyone else can order a home blood-type kit for about 10 bucks at this website: http://www.4yourtype.com. It takes about 5 minutes to find out your type with the home kit. Do you love to order a sandwich for lunch? Well knowing your blood type is probably the most essential ingredient for optimized digestion. If you are a type-B, for example, then you should be ordering a turkey sandwich instead of a ham sandwich! Ham contains a lectin which is not friendly to people who are a blood-type B. Lectins are involved in many aspects of our overall health, and knowing which lectins you consume everyday and their impact on inflammatory response, agglutination and autoimmune diseases are important factors. Your blood cells, in fact, bind to different lectins and either flush out free radicals through your bowls or they agglutinate to become fat. If you are eating foods that contain lectins that do not metabolize efficiently with your particular blood type, then you are highly susceptible to an abundance of problems ranging from allergies to auto-immune disorders, to simply the full, bloated feeling that causes fatigue. Titus Lucretius Carus, a Roman Poet and Philosopher once said, “One man’s food is another man’s poison.” Which brings us to number three…

3. White bread or wheat bread? Am I really asking this question you say? The answer is that it depends on your blood type! It has been engrained in our society that consuming wheat bread is better because the flour is not refined. But the most important part of this equation has been left out…certain blood types have a sensitivity to wheat gluten! This is not only the case for Celiacs Disease sufferers which have become more prevalent in recent years, but for both the O and the B blood type. Wheat is distinctly bad for me, but Oatmeal is just perfect. So the answer, for a “B” or an “O” type, is that in fact, eating white bread is actually better than eating wheat bread. What people should do is focus on the whole grains that are beneficial to their blood type. As an example, for me they are oats, spelt, and rice. Whole grain brown rice is a thousand times better for me (ie: for Type B or Type O) than whole wheat. Still don’t believe me? I challenge you to try it for a week. Let me know how if you loose any weight without trying. Let me know how you feel on twitter (@VogueMedia). Do you feel fatigued or energized? I used to eat a chicken sandwich on whole wheat bread for lunch and wonder why I was so stressed and fatigued by 3:00 pm. Then, I realized that both whole wheat gluten and chicken contain lectins that are poisonous to my blood type! Hence, my body had to work a thousand times harder to metabolize the wheat gluten and the chicken than if I had chosen turkey on oat bread! Still not convinced? Try it for yourself. But confirm your blood type first. You need to take into consideration what blood type you are, and which whole grains are best suited to your genetic make up. If you are a blood type A for example, then whole wheat is a good choice for you.

4. Chicken or Turkey? Another interesting fact society had engrained in us is that chicken is the lean white meat of choice. Really? Well if you are a blood type B, then that couldn’t be further from the truth. Chicken has a lectin that is detrimental to our digestion. Replace chicken with turkey. Turkey does not contain that lectin. There is a whole list of what foods are suitable for what blood-type in a book called Eat Right for your Type by Dr. Peter D’Adamo.

5. Drink only water, milk, and tea, and for goodness sake, stop using artificial sweeteners. Is there really explanation needed for this one? It’s sort of like pesticide, herbicide, or insecticide. Why are we putting this poison on our foods and into our bodies? We know that when formaldehyde binds to DNA it is very difficult to remove; it will stay there for long periods of time. What that means is, if you drink just one diet soda or sweeten something with NutraSweet, you’re accumulating damage in your body every day. Eventually, your body produces the necessary pattern for DNA damage to initiate cancer, and once you develop the cancer, the aspartic acid component of aspartame makes the cancer grow rapidly. Consider alternatives, for example, Tea, (as in fresh brewed with no sweetener). Water, as in pure water, not “artificially flavored water”. Stop drinking soda. Stop drinking juice and eat fresh fruit instead. Another option is to puree fresh fruit or vegetables and make your own smoothie in a blender or juicer. But for goodness sake, stop adding sugar. I am thrilled that my 3 and 4 year old children choose water when offered juice at school. I am truly saddened when I see children who are overweight, and their parents carrying a bottle of juice in for the class snack. Are these parents really that oblivious? It is the parent that sets the example. You are what you eat. Your children are what you feed them. If you don’t buy it and keep it in your house, then they won’t eat it!

6. Eat raw vegetables. Raw, raw, raw. Plants build themselves out of water, minerals and air, using the sun as their energy source. Out of these simple building blocks plants synthesize a tremendous amount of different molecules, vitamins, and phytochemicals. Vegetables loose most of their nutritional value when they are cooked, especially the water-soluble vitamins such as B vitamins and vitamin C. On the other hand, some vegetables such as tomatoes release a lycopene when cooked that is beneficial for some blood types (not the B type!). The bottom line is, eat both raw and cooked vegetables, just make sure you are eating vegetables for your blood type, otherwise you’ll experience stomach discomfort and gastro intestinal issues!

7. Forego the fast food. Deep fried foods are notorious sources of free radicals, caused by oil being continuously oxidized when it is heated at high temperatures. This seems obvious, but for many of us, convenience wins out over health. Consider your health and the health of your family, and then figure out for yourself what is most important in your life.

8. Consider the toxins in that candy bar and how it affects your blood sugar. Everyone needs to control their blood sugar, not just diabetics. Having high blood sugar is dangerous, so insulin is released to counter that, but when that happens, your blood sugar goes plummeting down and you feel fatigued and hungry. Sound like a familiar diet? We all need a certain amount of insulin in our blood stream, but if you release too much, then you will not loose weight. So which foods will not put you on an insulin roller coaster? Fruits and vegetables. Good carbs are needed to help you function properly, but certain carbs put you in a fat storing state. I can’t stress the importance of eating the right foods for your blood type. If you’re a b, eat rice, spelt, and whole grains like quinoa. Sweet potatoes are all good carbs. Fruits and vegetables are filled with fiber, vitamins and nutrients that will help you naturally burn fat. If you don’t know what kind of fats you’re eating, the real truth is that the right kind of fat can help you burn fat. When you give your body the right kind of fat, the metabolic process is more efficient. Fake butter products are not the healthy alternative to butter. If you think eating a chemical concoction that is not even a real food is better for you, then you are sadly mistaken. Raw nuts, avocados, and natural unprocessed fats are examples of what you do need to burn off unwanted fats. Processed foods, or anything that contains ingredients on the label that you can’t even pronounce are examples of the worst of the worst.

9. Take vitamins. Consider Spirulina and Chlorophyll, considered by many to be the most nutrient-rich botanical superfood in the world. It is important to consult with your doctor prior to use, especially if you take pharmaceutical drugs. However, do know that vitamins and herbal supplements play a significant role in generating cell repair and strengthening the immune system so that we can naturally fight disease.

10. Exercise. We all know exercise is good, in any form, be it running, walking, or even yoga. Some blood-types require intense physical exercise while others do better with moderate exercise. You need to find out your blood type and do what is right for you. Do what feels good. Push yourself when necessary, but know that you’re only competing with yourself. Be consistent. If you’ve ever watched someone with an illness fight a battle and loose, you know that getting up early in the morning is the least you can do. If you need some motivation, run for a charity. It will make you appreciate your own health and ability to get out of bed and into the fresh air. Get up, get out. Even in the rain. The rain will wash away everything if you let it.

To sum it up, do yourself and your liver a favor, eliminate processed foods. Diet drinks, diet health bars, anything with soy in it, packaged meals, even yogurt that claims to be healthy but if you read the ingredients you find high fructose corn syrup and a host of other ingredients you can’t even pronounce. The bottom line is, your food should have one ingredient! If it looks like a banana, it is a banana. Shop the farmers market. Shop the outer aisles in the super market, and for goodness sake, stop believing in the fad diets that attempt to count your calories. Calorie restriction leads your body into starvation mode. Then your body holds on to all the bad radicals in an attempt to compensate for the starvation.

It’s not only about knowing what foods are good, it’s about knowing your body and your blood type, and following an exercise plan. Knowing your blood type will guide you in your food selection. You don’t have to eat like a bird, you just have to make the correct selections. You can count calories, but face it, the people who look and feel like a million bucks know that calories don’t count!

This spring, I will be running a free screening of the 1.5 hour documentary entitled “Food Matters”. If you live in the Reading area, contact me for more information about how to see the movie. It will change your life!

Sources:
Adams, Mike & David Guiterrez, 25 Amazing Facts about Food, Startling things you never knew about stuff you swallow.
D’Adamo, Peter J. Eat Right for Your Type
Falth-Magnusson K., Elevated levels of serum antibodies to the lectin wheat germ agglutinin in celiac children lend support to the gluten-lectin theory of celiac disease. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. May 1995; 6(2): 98-102.
http://www.foodmatters.tv

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Kate Murray is a web & graphic designer, creator of Vogue Media & Managing Partner of Triumph Virtual Media, an e-marketing strategy firm in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her dynamic style is influenced mostly by her family, but also by her travels, 10+ years in the corporate financial services industry, and by her ability to genuinely connect with people. Kate has the unique ability to introduce aesthetically pleasing design alongside innovative programing to create a user interface that is both beautiful and functional. She received her Master's of Business Administration in 2003 and her Bachelor of Science in Communication in 1996.