Food Therapy
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Get hydrated, hit up the phytochemicals, and optimize your amino acids!!! Eating healthy requires variety and COLOR! Use your imagination...the more things you try, the more bases you cover on the vibrant living checklist. Food therapy is all about using your culinary encounters to drench your cells in potent nutrients and address your unique physical needs at the deepest level.
Water in its many forms - pure, in fruits and vegetables, as herbal teas, infusions - is KEY to your health. You are 60% water for a reason...everything within you has to flow. Know what a dried up stream bed looks like? Cracked and parched...that is NOT what you want going on inside of you. Looking for some dehydration clues? Check out your tongue. See the cracks? Go drink some water. Another big indicator is how you feel. Tired? Moody? Headache? Cravings? Sore joints? Everything in your body runs on water. Everything. It is always the first place you should start if you want to improve any symptom or condition in your life. There are very few situations where water will not improve health or should be limited (special heart patients, I am talking to you). So if you are going to pick ONE THING to do, this is it - drink some water! In my food therapy pic above, you can see herbal teas (green, etc.), fruit infusions, pure water, AND fruits and veggies. Choose your form and run with it.
Every day, you should be eating fruit, vegetables, and other powerful anti-inflammatory foods such as nuts and fish (shout out to the healthy fats!). You want to get in those plant compounds and amino acids. Lean chicken, or full-fat free-range chicken (they are different, believe me) is/are a powerhouse of protein packed with what you need to build your tissues, create neurotransmitters, and construct enzymes (fyi, nothing would happen in your body without these). You can get protein in beans, quinoa, lentils, hemp seeds, seafood, eggs, and plenty of other places, too! I like to mention chicken and fish because they are readily available and give a lot of bang for your buck.
Notice I SPECIFICALLY highlighted berries. These concentrated mini-fruits are loaded with some of the most vibrant colors in the spectrum. And that means super antioxidant power. I recommend you eat them daily since they are packed with what you need to keep your brain, vision, heart, and blood vessels on point without the sugar that some fruits get a bad rap for (I'm talking to you, banana-haters!).
And last, but never least, greens and herbs. Yep, by now I am sure you know about the magnesium benefits of green foods (wanna relax? eat magnesium-rich foods...wanna do 300 more things in your body? I am not exaggerating, eat magnesium-rich foods). Green plants contain chlorophyll which has such a similar make-up to our own blood that it is a great builder and purifier for our entire circulatory system. Green foods support the liver, brain, and, honestly, you name it, they do it. I specially recognize herbs because they often have wild compounds that especially educate the immune system and tonify in ways that many modern foods do not. Wild foods specifically contain elements that challenge the system - much like exercise does for the heart - and activate genes that promote health. Modern food is often a much milder, more dilute version of these nutrient-dense bundles. Think of herbs as cross-fit for the inside of you!
Now, go get some vibrant living food inside of you and for a quick resource, check out the Top 10 Foods you should Eat Every Day in my resource library!!!
