Originally published March 4 2010
Heal Yourself in 15 Days by eating MORE (not less)
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) Can you really heal yourself by eating more food? It seems counterintuitive, but in this article -- part eleven of our 15-day self-healing series -- I'm going to share with you how eating more food can actually be a powerful tool in accelerating your body's own natural healing potential.
But there's a catch, of course: It's not about eating more junk food, processed food or factory-made food. Eating more of that stuff would only promote more disease of course. It's about eating more of some specific foods and superfoods I'm going to share with you in detail right here.
The whole point of this "heal yourself by eating MORE" approach is to chill out and get away from the "avoid everything" trap that becomes a psychological obstacle for a lot of people who are trying to improve their health. The demands to avoid everything can seem intimidating and repetitive: Avoid cheese, avoid sugar, avoid diet sodas, avoid processed meat, avoid MSG, etc. For many people, the list of things to avoid becomes so large and confusing that they just give up trying to be healthier.
So I've advocated a totally different approach that's focused on eating more of the right kinds of things and worrying less about all the other stuff. You might call it a more balanced, relaxed approach to healthful living for a more mainstream audience.
But how does it work? How does eating MORE food actually help heal your body?
How eating more promotes real healing
Here's how: There's a physical limit of how much stuff you can eat in one day. So by adding certain healthy foods and aiming to achieve the goal of eating MORE of those foods, you will automatically end up dropping something else out of your diet without really trying.
For example, one of the action strategies here is to aim to eat three whole fruits per day; one before each meal. So each day, I want you to consume a total of three whole fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, mangos, large plums, etc. But here's the key in all this: You must eat one whole fruit BEFORE each meal.
While you're following this strategy, I don't want you to worry about what to avoid. Eat whatever it is you normally eat, but add three whole fruits per day. (Not dried fruits. They must be fresh, whole fruits of a significant size.)
The reason this strategy works so well to improve your health is because by eating three whole fruits each day -- one before each major meal -- you will tend to crowd out the less healthful foods automatically, without any real effort and without worrying so much avoid what to avoid.
Let's say you eat at McDonald's each day, for example. And let's say you order a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for lunch each day (in which case it would be weird that you're even reading NaturalNews, but go with me on this...). Now, with this "eat more" principle in place, you precede each McDonald's meal with the consumption of a whole, fresh fruit. Two important things will happen:
#1) The fruit contains nutrients that will help protect you from the damaging ingredients of cooked foods, processed foods or chemical food ingredients. (Because fruits contain natural medicines.)
#2) The whole fresh fruit will take up more physical space in your stomach, making you feel full faster and causing you to stop eating the other stuff sooner. You may find yourself suddenly unable to finish your Big Mac and fries, for example. You may not even know why but then it hits you: Oh yeah, I ate the fresh fruit before this meal!
Naturally, I hope you choose organic fruit for this, but even if you don't, eating conventionally-grown fresh fruit is better than nothing!
Eat more superfoods
Here's another element in this strategy: I want you to eat a handful of superfood supplements each day, preferably before noon.
By superfood supplements, I mean microalgae like chlorella, spirulina or food-based vitamins like those from Pure Synergy (this could be in the form of powder, tablets or capsules). So at some point each morning -- it could be after breakfast or before lunch -- I want you to swallow an entire handful of these superfood supplements (with water, of course). You may want to do this with food for the first few weeks, to get your body used to these nutrients arriving all at once.
Note: I am not recommending you swallow a handful of vitamins, many of which are made with synthetic chemicals. I'm talking about real food here -- superfoods in a supplement form.
Doing this will cause something else quite amazing to happen in your body: Unhealthy cravings will start to vanish. Within just 30 days, in fact, you may suddenly begin to notice that your cravings for unhealthful snack foods and carbohydrates begin to fade. You may no longer feel the need to eat the cookies, donuts, ice cream or fried foods that you were once drawn to.
Why does this work? Because many cravings are simply biochemical translations of your body's cry for nutrients. And superfood supplements fill your body with abundant nutrients that you might be missing. As your body realizes it's no longer deficient in crucial minerals and other micronutrients, your cravings are automatically turned off, putting YOU back in control over what you choose to eat.
Also, another benefit here is that eating the superfoods will displace something else in your diet (because you can only eat so much physical stuff in one day, remember?). So a mid-morning superfood habit will ultimately end up knocking something else out of your diet without even trying.
Eat more REAL salt
This one will shock many people. Some doctors swear this is bad advice, but that's only because they don't acknowledge the difference between real salt and processed "refined" salt. Refined salt is bad for you. Real, full-spectrum salt is good for you!
Processed salt raises blood pressure and promotes disease. Full-spectrum salt, on the other hand, may actually have the opposite effect. One thing I've noticed over the years is that cravings for salty snack foods are often just cravings for full-spectrum salt.
When I crave snack foods, I've found that those cravings are 100% of the time dismissed by eating things like raw nuts rolled in full-spectrum salt. And the more you exercise, the more salt you lose from sweating so the more salt you need to replace. As a person who exercises regularly and drinks a lot of fresh veggie juice from my garden, I find myself frequently salt deficient. I actually have to add salt to my diet, and I do so by eating full-spectrum salt sprinkled over raw nuts (or I add salt to other foods I'm making).
See some full-spectrum salt products here:
http://store.naturalnews.com/index.php?main_...
If you already exhibit symptoms of high blood pressure, don't add salt to your diet without removing some processed salt from it first. Check with your naturopathic physician on this matter. But if your blood pressure is normal, adding full-spectrum salt to your diet is generally considered remarkably safe.
Drink a fresh superfood smoothie each day
Here's the last item to add to your diet to improve your health: Drink a superfood smoothie each day.
It doesn't even matter what time you drink it, really: Just find a way to add a full 8 oz. glass of freshly-squeezed fruits and vegetables to your daily intake of foods and beverages. I like to do this mid-morning, but you may enjoy it in the afternoon or evening, too. Some people drink it for breakfast.
The ingredients should be fresh produce only. Examples: Celery, parsley, cucumbers, apples, pears, watermelon, beets, kale, broccoli, berries and so on. You may add a natural sweetener such as stevia.
You'll need to make this juice yourself. The very best juicer for this is the amazing Hurom Slow Juicer that I've already recommended here on NaturalNews (http://www.naturalnews.com/028232_Hurom_juic...)
By doing this, you'll be adding a huge burst of living nutrients to your diet. This simple addition of a daily superfood smoothie will displace other things in your diet that aren't very healthy. This happens automatically, without any real effort on your part.
Alternatively, if you cannot make fresh juice each day, the next best thing is to drink a superfood product that you mix with water instead. There are many to choose from in this category. I've recommended Rejuvenate (http://www.naturalnews.com/028242_Rejuvenate...), Boku Superfood (http://www.naturalnews.com/024479_superfoods...), Pure Synergy (http://www.naturalnews.com/027006_food_vitam...), Healthforce Nutritionals (http://www.naturalnews.com/023398_Jameth_She...), Living Fuel (http://www.naturalnews.com/021637.html) and so on. These aren't quite as fresh and "alive" as homemade juice made from fresh produce, but they're the next best thing, and they do provide a wide assortment of nutrients that you normally don't get in fresh produce (such as super-healthful seaweed extracts).
Do not make the mistake of thinking that pasteurized, bottled "superfood" products bought from the store (such as Naked Juice or Odwalla) are an equivalent replacement for real superfood products. They are pasteurized and do not meet my requirements for high-end superfood beverages. They're better than Coke and Pepsi, of course, but not as good as the superfood products listed above.
Eating more really works!
So far, then, we've talked about eating MORE food to improve your health:
• Eat three fresh raw fruits each day (one before each major meal)
• Eat a handful of superfood supplements each day
• Eat more full-spectrum salt (ideally as a replacement for processed "refined" salt)
• Drink a fresh superfood smoothie each day
And remember, during all this, you're not going to think much about what to avoid. Instead, you're just going to focus on what to ADD to your diet! Eat whatever else you're normally eating; just add these four things to your daily diet.
By doing so, you will find remarkable things happening with your health even if the rest of your diet isn't the greatest in the world.
You see, you don't have to focus on the things you shouldn't eat. Instead, you can greatly reduce your stress and increase your enjoyment in life by simply adding more things to your diet and letting your biology put them to good use. Focus on what you're adding!
This is a very different approach to health than what you might normally get from a more strict dietary regimen. Strict dieting works for some people, but not most. Most people are still going to eat at restaurants, or pick up a snack from time to time, or snarf down some processed foods at some point during the day. The approach I've outlined here gives all those people a powerful nutritional advantage that displaces many of those foods with something far better.
I've found that this approach works even for super busy people who are under a lot of stress and don't have time to think about all the details of which foods and ingredients to avoid. All they have to remember is to add four things to their day:
• Three fresh fruits
• A handful of superfood supplements
• Full-spectrum salt
• A superfood smoothie
... and a partridge in a pear tree. :-)
Previous articles in this 15-day "Heal Yourself" series
Part One - Remove barriers to healing
http://www.naturalnews.com/028053_self_heali...
Part Two - Unleash your inner healing potential
http://www.naturalnews.com/028060_self_heali...
Part Three - You are what you absorb
http://www.naturalnews.com/028067_self_heali...
Part Four - Transform your health by making new blood
http://www.naturalnews.com/028075_blood_heal...
Part Five - Experience the healing potential of living plant juices
http://www.naturalnews.com/028100_self_heali...
Part Six - Accelerate your healing with a 24-hour fast
http://www.naturalnews.com/028117_self_heali...
Part Seven - Heal yourself by rejecting the mainstream crowd
http://www.naturalnews.com/028136_self_heali...
Part Eight - Stop making disease
http://www.naturalnews.com/028153_self_heali...
Part Nine - Correct your nature deficiency
http://www.naturalnews.com/028203_nature_def...
Part Ten - Protect your skin exposures
http://www.naturalnews.com/028249_skin_healt...
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