Three Easy Steps To A Longer, Healthier And Happier Life
	Step Two Continued: More About Food <  Previous Contents Next  >

Now what if you can produce your own food instead, and make sure they are all natural and chemical-free? That is a smart idea. In fact, there are people doing that. For instance, there are producers of really clean and natural honey. They grow them in secluded and tightly covered farms so that the bees they are keeping will only sip nectar from chemical-free plants grown inside the said covered farms. Look for these people, but they may be hard to find.

Most people would rather forget all about the hazards of modern food and just get right into business selling them.

If you desire, you can grow your own organic veggies and fruits right in your yard, and have them fresh on your table three times a day! All you need is enough space to have at least three plots for planting.

Have your yard (or a portion of it) covered with screen to protect from insects. Use plastic or fiberglass roofing materials for your roof. Place small earthen pots or any small containers on your plots, and arrange them in rows. Put beats of dried coconut husks, instead of soil, in your containers. Putting soil in them might defeat the purpose.

Grow your seeds in these husk-filled containers, and water them daily. If you want, water them with mineral water. To safeguard against stray insects that manage to break through your green house, spray your plants with a concoction of water and salt.

You may want to maximize your green house. Construct shelves in it instead of plots. You may even want to build shelves all around the walls. Put your containers on these shelves. Hang some of them like orchids.

Here’s the best part. When the leafy vegetables are ready for harvest, do not take them by the roots. Simply cut the leaves from their stems. Leave the plants in the containers and wait for them to bear new leaves again. The bodies of the plants can reproduce leaves for a number of harvests before you replace them with new plants. Thus, it is good to keep a seedling box for new plants while harvesting from the present ones.

Do the same for fruit-bearing small plants like tomatoes, eggplants, etc. The continuous harvests would start about 2 to 4 months after your first planting. For more information, contact your government agency on agriculture.

Producing your own food is possible even if you have a limited space at home.

With some imagination, you can even have your own private little gardens right in your living room, kitchen, front yard, or clothes-drying area. Make sure to take them out in the sunshine every morning when you plant them indoors.

The important thing is that you must have the patience and determination. You must believe in this thing to make it happen. Once you are deep into this undertaking called hydroponics, it can be a meditative discipline. It is being one with your “little creatures” and making an art of it all.

This private food production is possible even on a small budget. A study says hydroponics eventually can yield as much as 30 percent more than usual home gardening. It can even develop as a small (if not full-scale) business.

From this gardening, you can also later produce organic feeds for your small poultry or piggery, if the local laws in your place would allow you to engage in these.

Don’t be fooled by some commercial producers who think only of profits. Most of them do not believe in these natural foodstuffs. They join the modern trends of commercialism only because they are more lucrative.

Plant foods grown naturally can rebuild and restore great health, specifically the immune system. However, even if you could grow your own food, you have to know some very important facts about what you need specifically to make your food nutritious. Just because you eat chemical-free meat, fish, veggies and fruits, does not mean you consume nutritious foods.

A real balanced diet includes maintaining a balance of macronutrients and micronutrients in the body. Examples of foods giving macronutrients are the following:

1. Protein-rich foods

2. Carbohydrates and energy foods

3. Fats

From the above, you will notice that foods with macronutrients give bulk and weight to our bodies. However, when we consume too much of these foods, we grow big but not strong. Whatever “strength” we feel comes mostly from body bulkiness — from burning energy. Bulkiness won’t protect us from diseases. They won’t give us staying power to go on even when the energies are burned out.

Only our immune system can do that; and the immune system is not fed or strengthened by macronutrients, but by micronutrients.

Here are some micronutrients — natural minerals and vitamins — many of which are likely to sound strange:

1. Polysaccharides

2. Rhamnose, Xylose, Glucose, Mannose

3. Amino acids

4. Trace minerals

5. Catechins

Micronutrients are found in vegetables like broccoli, and citrus fruits like oranges and grapes. However, these vegetables and fruits might not carry enough micronutrients today. If they do, they might be insufficient to give us the needed nutrients our bodies need to build strong defense systems. Hence, we need to eat bowlfuls of them each meal.

Micronutrients not only feed the immune system; many of them directly fight bad cells and viruses in the body. These are mostly what experts call phytochemicals or plant chemicals. These natural chemicals from plants fight off synthetic chemicals formulated by man.

It might come as a surprise that availing of foods rich in micronutrients is actually both hard and easy. Just get natural food supplements sold anywhere. The problem is that natural food supplements are always met with negative bias and destructive criticisms.

Micronutrients are simple natural foods designed to empower our natural bodies. The more you live a simple life, the more you will enjoy these simple yet very powerful natural foods.

Though killer foods (like processed and junk foods) are on the rampage, more and more people go crazy over them. Slowly, a growing number of people on earth are realizing the benefits of a vegetarian and fruitarian diet with natural food supplements, and are joining the crusade to return to the basics and to what are 100% natural.

Another wrong but popular notion we must discuss here is that good health means the elimination of all bacteria. They say clean is healthy.

In a way, yes, clean is healthy. However, “clean” and healthy does not mean zero bacteria. It means a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria. The balance is not 50-50, but about 85 percent good bacteria and about 15 percent bad bacteria.

The reality is often the other way around — that bad bacteria are 85 percent and the rest are good bacteria. In this case, the immune system suffers. Bad cells and bad bacteria are on the loose in your blood stream, destroying every healthy activity in your body. In such cases, the immune system often overreacts to some stimuli and gives you allergies.

The body has trillions of cells. Bad bacteria and free radical cells can destroy about 10,000 of our cells per year; but if our cells are healthy, they will reproduce healthier cells and will likely outdo the destruction of the bad cells. Science has not yet fully understood why we need the 15 percent bad bacteria. It has been observed that if you wipe out the 15 percent bad bacteria, you will grow very weak. Balance is needed to sustain good health.

What happens when your body cells are weak? With 10,000 cells destroyed each year by bad bacteria and bad cells, what do you think will happen as age catches up? Aside from wrinkles, body aches, gray hair, weak eyes, falling teeth, failing health, bending posture, and impotence, some other strange reactions in the body may lead to fatal, terminal diseases.

Nutrition experts say natural food is the only suitable “drug” for the natural body. A healthy body is designed to heal by itself. Natural food will help greatly in this natural healing process.

However, since the natural body has been taking chemically treated foods, as well as synthetic “vitamins” given to it since infanthood until adulthood, the balance between micronutrients and macronutrients (as well as the balance between the good and bad bacteria), has been gravely interrupted to alarming proportions. The immune system and body cells weaken; and when invaded by deadly viruses and bad bacteria, the body is then introduced to another deadly synthetic remedy — the antibiotic.

Antibiotic (as opposed to probiotic or pro-life) cleans your body of bacteria thoroughly. It aims to eliminate both good and bad bacteria. Yes, you get a cure, but only temporarily. The next time around, other bad bacteria will find the place swept clean (without the good bacteria that could fight off the bad) and make a more powerful comeback. Thus, when you get sick again from the same ailment, you may need a stronger synthetic antibiotic.

From then on, each time you get sick, you may need a stronger medicine.

Take the case of penicillin. Fifty years ago, all bacteria were sensitive to it. As the years passed, more bacteria became resistant to penicillin. Currently, it is reported that 50% of bacteria are resistant to it, and 25% of such bacteria are also resistant to newly introduced antibiotics. Bacteria know how to adapt easily! Scientists are left with only one remedy — try to discover and develop antibiotics that are more powerful. New, stronger antibiotics can take years to develop.

Here’s another rub. When synthetic drug cures you in some way, it only means it has compromised some other functions of your body. Many diabetes drugs destroy the kidneys. Most synthetic drugs are good only for a short while. When taken for long periods, they cause untold damages to your body organs.

A balanced diet of meat, vegetables, carbohydrates, and fruits is the common answer; but from the information above, we found that good nutrition is something more than what meets the eye. We need to look for REAL foods that retain enough micronutrients to sustain and empower the life energy (not just body energy) in us.

Since we have also discovered that most foods available to us today in markets are actually so poor in REAL nutrition, and that most are for macro nutrition (giving us mere bulk and weight), we need to look for other alternative and non-traditional sources of nutrition. Natural foods sold in the market must be supplemented with alternative ones. The following are alternative and common sources of micronutrients.

Camellia Sinensis or Green Tea is rich in Catechins, which are antioxidants. The best variety is said to originate from tea farms in China, especially those protected from pesticides. It is best to drink pure green tea without preservatives or other artificial flavors.

Teas have been found to have powerful effects on levels of cholesterol in the blood stream. Green tea in particular can also help in battling cancer. In Japan, it was discovered that drinking 10 or more cups of green tea daily delays the onset of cancer by some nine years among women and about three years in men.

Another source of good green tea is the high-grade tea sold at Japanese Tea Online. These are delicious kinds and contain large amounts of polyphenols and flavenoids (catechins which are also immune system boosters), and natural vitamins and minerals. Catechins destroy free radicals. Green tea also has carotenoids, chlorophyll, polysaccharides, fats, natural vitamins C and E, manganese, potassium, and zinc.

Pure green tea is said to be 100 times more effective than vitamin C from other sources, and 25 times better than vitamin E from other sources.

You may find green tea mixed with other medicinal herbs in leading drug stores, but rarely can you find pure green tea sold alone. Green tea is usually sold in tea bags, but modern processing has made possible its liquefied form in bottles, and also its powdered form in sachet packages, without damaging its health and healing benefits.

Green tea and other natural food supplements carry micronutrients that feed your immune system and strengthen your body cells. When the immune system becomes stronger, tissue and cell repair is enhanced in a way that the body retains the ability to heal itself; thus, ailments and even serious diseases are healed. It is not the food supplement itself that heals, but the empowered immune system.

A Japanese monk, Eisai, wrote in 1211 AD that (green) tea is a miraculous medicine for the maintenance of health. “Tea has the extraordinary power to prolong life. Anywhere a person cultivates tea, long life will follow.”

Eisai further wrote that tea in general was known as an elixir that created the “immortal” mountain dwellers.

In the 16th century, European explorers were said to have found that tea, especially green tea, was used to treat fever, headache, joint pains, and stomachaches.

Green tea, according to modern nutritionists and herbal medicine experts, can help prevent high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, heart ailments, skin diseases, and lung ailments. It actually delays the aging process. It eliminates distress by refreshing your mind and body.

Many call it the “happy” berry. The Chinese call it gougi, or sometimes Xinjiang berry. The Koreans call it Kugicha, and the Japanese call it Kukoshi. Whatever it’s called, this “happy” berry is said to be the most powerful food on earth.

It has different varieties growing from different parts of central Asia, but the best variety is said to be those growing high up in the Himalayan mountain ranges, especially on Mount Everest, the highest place on earth, cutting across the boundary of China and India.

These red berries have a history to tell in the world of ancient healings and nutrition. Records date as far back to the time of Bodhidharma who crossed the Himalayan mountain ranges to reach China. This Buddhist monk was said to have accomplished impossible feats and was never beaten in any challenge.

His secret, according to legend, was some strange form of exercise adopted from the movements of animals found in the lowlands of the Himalayas, and a diet of fruits from unusual plants growing on the harsh environs of the Himalayas.

Later, explorers found a certain red berry abundant in the Himalayas that folks living at the base of the mountains claimed were responsible for their long lives and experience of zero ailments.

Indeed, there was a Buddhist temple in China (situated near the Himalayan slope) that had a well where the water was said to be miraculous. From it, the monks drank and never became sick. Curious people came and found red berries at the bottom of the well, fallen from a crawling shrub on a wall of the temple nearby. From then on, the red berries became popularly known as longevity berries.

Much later, Western scientists and nutritionists investigated the phenomenon of the red berries and took samples to their labs. What they found was truly fascinating. The red berries contained the highest concentration of a unique variety of polysaccharides never before encountered in the world. This unique type of polysaccharides has a tremendous effect on the immune system. It can help the body fight off even the mother of all cancers.

So far, Himalayan red berries have proven to be the mother of all natural food supplements.

Here is a summary of the record of one of the early users of the Himalayan berries. The user, Li Qing Yuen, lived to be 252 years old. He was born in 1678 in a mountainous region of China. His life was documented and confirmed by many modern scholars. A noted Chinese herbalist, Ron Teeguarden, wrote about Li.

Traveling around, Li became an herbalist expert under three master herbalists. Li was known for his amazing vigor and excellent health, especially when he started devouring bowlfuls of the Himalayan red berry soup every day, along with steamed aboveground vegetables and other herbs. His eyesight remained sharp and his legs stayed powerful even at an old age. He died in 1930 after a celebration in his honor given by a government official.

He married 14 times and lived to see 11 generations of his offspring — 200 people in all.

Probiotics are good bacteria. They can be derived from the cultivation of lactic acid, which in itself will also produce numerous other types of lactic acids. In other words, it is a process of fermenting milk products to produce good bacteria.

We need a large population of probiotic bacteria to help in digesting food, killing harmful microorganisms, and keeping our bodies functioning properly. Probiotics also produce many important enzymes, Vitamins B and K, lactase, fatty acids, and calcium. Probiotics strengthen the immune system by producing specific proteins that act as antigens. These are used by the immune system in battling or “shooting” enemy intruders or diseases in the body.

Probiotics also attach themselves on the walls of the intestines and “ambush” harmful bacteria there, allowing the immune system to focus its work on other parts of the body. As good bacteria attach to intestinal walls, they also pluck out hardened thick plates formed by undigested food residues that clog the intestines. Probiotics help kill viruses and parasites.

They also “recruit” new antibodies by actually producing huge pools of extra antibodies that will act as defenders of the body’s total health.

When you buy a probiotic fermented drink, make sure you check the label for the ingredients. The best brands carry eight good microorganisms, namely:

a) Plantarum: It has a high digestive capacity to break down proteins. In other words, it helps you absorb more proteins. Think of what that can do to your body and immune system. It produces the natural antibiotic called acidophilin. It also produces trytophan, which helps to improve your nerve fibers. That means more emotional stability and calmness for you!

b) Acidophilus: It helps to maintain a balanced flora in the small intestine, contributing to good digestion of milk and sugar (lactose). It helps produce natural vitamins and enzymes, fights against microbes in the intestine, and controls yeast overgrowth. It also produces the natural antibiotics called lactocidin and acidophilin.

c) Casei: It helps in digesting carbohydrates and produces secretory IgA, which is a natural chemical weapon of our immune system against pathogens, a deadly virus. It also produces peptidoglycan, which considerably strengthens the immune system.

d) Bulgaricus: It has natural antibiotics and produces blastolycin in the body’s cell membrane. This helps prevent tumors in the intestine and colon.

e) Bifidus: It produces certain acids that stop the colonization of deadly bacteria, such as salmonella. It protects against diarrhea, intestinal infections, tumor cells, constipation, and cirrhosis of the liver. It greatly helps prevent cancer.

f) Rhamnosus: It treats and prevents diarrhea, arrests negative effects of synthetic antibiotics, gives the intestine the ability to survive acid and bile digestion, and protects the respiratory tract (a tube to the lungs). It helps the white blood cells kill harmful bacteria.

g) Buchneri: It revitalizes the immune system.

h) Delbruechi: It inhibits the accumulation of toxins in the body.

Chili not only enhances flavor, but it is also a good source of vitamin C and beta-carotene. It is good for heart protection. It also helps relieve nasal congestion, and prevents blood clots that can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Eat them raw or half-cooked.

Asparagus is a good source of folate (good in treating heart disease) and potassium. Folate helps in pregnancy since it protects against neural tube defects in babies. The asparagus stalk is high in antioxidants.

Here are the wonders of this common fruit. The pink or red kinds both give beta-carotene and lycopene. Lycopene is good for the heart and lowers the risk of prostate cancer. Grapefruit also gives potent antioxidants and potassium. It also has pythochemicals and bioflavonoids that fight cancer, inhibit tumor growth, prevent inflammation, and fight heart diseases. It is high in pectin, which is a soluble fiber that helps reduce blood cholesterol.

Its phenolic acid inhibits the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines. Its limonoids, terpenes, and monoterpenes induce the production of enzymes also responsible for preventing cancer. That’s multi cancer protection for you.

This is a green leafy vegetable common in Asia. When chewed, it releases isothiocyanates found to be effective in preventing certain cancers, particularly lung cancer. It is rich in vitamin A and fiber.

Eating garlic is the cheapest way to protect yourself against heart diseases, says a study at the All India Institute of Medical Services in New Delhi in 2002. It is all in the compound called allicin, which comes out when garlic is chopped or crushed. This compound helps in preventing the accumulation of platelets on the heart’s vessel walls that can trigger a heart attack.

This yellow fruit is an important source of vitamin A and beta-carotene. Vitamin A is good for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Mango is also rich in fibers and vitamin C. Choose the ones with solid yellow color.

It is high in vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and pythochemicals. It also contains pectin, which is good for controlling blood cholesterol. It has lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that are good for the eyes.

Aside from being fat-free and high in minerals and pythochemicals, mushrooms also have glutamic acids that combat infections, and eritadenine that helps lower bad cholesterol. It contains potassium, which is good in lowering blood pressure. Flat and button mushrooms have selenium which helps prevent prostate cancer.

Soya bean curd, or tofu, is not only an excellent meat substitute but also a very healthy one. It helps prevent cancer, especially of the prostate, and is a fat burner. It has fiber to clean your veins and intestines. A study in Japan showed that Tofu helped the Japanese counter their cigarette smoking and heavy drinking habits.

The Japanese are known for their workaholic attitude and are among the worst smokers in the world. Yet, majority of them stay fit and healthy. Upon close examination, experts discovered that their daily consumption of Tofu helped them lick serious diseases.

Fresh coconut water is complete with natural minerals and vitamins taken straight from the nutrients of the soil. Make sure you get this fresh from the tree if you want to reap all the benefits. Some of the coconut drinks available commercially are diluted with water and added with sugar. Some have preservatives. Fresh coconut water can help clean the kidneys and gall bladder of toxins.

The coconut shell that protects the water from any outside contamination is hard enough for said protection, and soft enough for sunlight to affect it favorably.

There are certain everyday foods that can cause damage to your health when taken in excess. Here are some words of advice to enjoy good health and long life.

Taking in too much salt, or any spices for that matter, is bad for your heart. However, studies indicate that natural spices like garlic and onions are good for your blood pressure. Remember the simple rule that moderation puts you on the safe side. Salt has a corrosive effect, as salt water from the sea corrodes even the steel parts of ships that touch the seawater.

Salt deposits in the body can cause serious side effects like gout, kidney stone or gall bladder stone, and even clogged blood veins.

Coffee and tea taken in moderation is not bad, except when your doctor says otherwise. The problem occurs when a person gets too addicted in drinking these beverages. The accumulated caffeine in the body, especially from coffee, has dire side effects that eventually connect with the brain. If you treasure a strong memory, watch your coffee and tea consumption. On the contrary, green tea has been observed for decades to contribute only good health to the body.

Ordinary tea has about 15% to 30% caffeine, while green tea has 3% caffeine, which many nutritionists say is minimal.

Cutting down your food consumption by 40% than your usual intake can be advantageous to your health. This helps add to your life expectancy. A study says it actually increases life expectancy two times. Eat smaller meals more frequently. Smaller food consumptions taken 6 times a day are better than enormous food intakes taken 3 times a day.

Consuming too much sugar makes you susceptible to a host of diseases, among them diabetes and cancer. Cancer tumors devour sugar and actually triple their growth because of it. Besides, it has negative effects on aging and the eyes.

Taking in too much of them may lead to heart problems. A better choice would be drinking skimmed, non-fat, or low-fat milk.

Take sips of hot water instead. This is to avoid the accumulation and hardening of fats in your stomach and intestine.

For some, smoking is especially tempting after a hearty meal. If you reduce your eating by 40%, you fill your stomach less; and that lessens the temptation to smoke.