The following are certain things to keep in mind when eating to ensure that the nutrients from your food are making it to your cells- glands, organs and tissues so that they can perform well to keep us healthy. If you have any health condition, please try to follow this advice which will help you to heal faster:
1. Fluids alone – drink no more than 4 oz. of fluid with a meal and don’t drink anything for 2 hours after a meal. Fluids dilute digestive enzymes needed to break our food down. Take digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid (HCL) in your 4 oz. of water if needed.
2. Take digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid (HCL) in 4 oz. of water if needed before meals. A sign of needing digestive enzymes is gas and bloating after eating vegetables. A sign of needing hydrochloric acid to digest protein is gas and bloating after eating protein.
3. No coffee with meals – wait 1.5-2 hours after a meal or 1 hour before eating for your coffee. Coffee, being a fluid, dilutes digestive enzymes and being highly acidic depletes our body of essential minerals like calcium and magnesium which can lead to muscle cramping and poor bone density. It also depletes our battery (adrenal glands) which impacts the thyroid and pituitary glands. This leads to a host of other health implications. Coffee, which contains caffeine, similar in chemical structure to nicotine, is addictive. A good alternative is Matcha latte (antioxidant-rich green tea powder with almond milk), Chai latte (make your own with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger and almond milk), Yerba Matte and / or herbal teas.
4. No milk with meals- wait 1.5-2 hours after eating or drink milk 1 hour before. Besides diluting digestive enzymes, milk is also a common allergen and causes mucus production which can block sinuses and respiratory passageways. Dairy feeds Candida albicans, a pathogenic fungus behind vaginal and chronic infections. Dairy can cause skin blemishes and if it isn’t organic causes hormone imbalances leading to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and others.
5. Fruits alone – wait 1.5-2 hours after a meal or 1 hour before a meal to eat fruit. The digestive enzymes involved in breaking fruit down are different from those that break other foods down. If these enzymes are combined with for example enzymes for breaking protein down (proteases), this will decrease the breakdown efficacy of both foods leading to fermentation – gas, bloating and pain in the digestive tract.
6. Melons alone- wait 1.5-2 hours after eating melons or 1 hour before eating them before eating anything else. Melons particularly, are the fastest food to be digested and will ferment easily if they aren’t broken down quickly. Other enzymes secreted to break other types of foods down will interfere with melon digestion.
7. Small meals with some raw vegetables and/or leafy greens contain enzymes which help to digest the rest of the meal.
8. Eat slowly and be mindful – savor, rejoice, bless and celebrate the food. By eating slowly, we avoid heart burn and indigestion and give our digestive tracts time to thoroughly break the food down. As we know, the biological reason for eating is to fuel our bodies. Try not to do other things while eating.
9. Eat for nutrition, not for stimulation – eat when hungry not bored. Let’s be mindful about our eating habits and choose to do other positive things when we are bored such as exercising, reading, yoga and meditation, etc.
10. Rest comfortably after eating for 35-45 minutes to maximize digestion. This will help to alleviate any potential for heart burn and indigestion and ensure better nutrient absorption.
11. Eat more nutrient dense vegan meals. Too much protein and fat in our diets deplete hydrochloric acid production in the stomach and cause our liver to become sluggish and under function. Vegetable protein sources are: Peas, spinach, kale, broccoli, sprouts, mushrooms, brussels sprouts, artichokes, asparagus.
12. Make and eat food with love and kindness, no aggression or negative emotions as these affect the frequencies in the food. Everything reverberates with energetic frequencies including our thoughts which others can feel, despite thoughts being invisible.
13. Do not take ant-acids - prescription or over the counter. In most cases, indigestion leading to acid reflux is caused by a lack of hydrochloric acid (HCL) and digestive enzymes rather than an excess. Taking ant-acids, depletes HCL in the stomach, impairing food breakdown and defeats the purpose of digestion. Lack of HCL allows bacteria, yeast (Candida), parasites and other pathogenic microbes to invade our bodies, compromising our immunity.
14. Do not sleep for 3 hours after eating. We need to stay upright after eating to properly digest our food and remain in a relaxed state (parasympathetic) but not too relaxed…
15. Chew food well to give the body time to produce amylase- the digestive enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates. Amylase is secreted into the mouth and starts the digestive process, which also stimulates HCL and digestive enzyme secretion. Chewing (mastication) also grinds it down small enough for optimal absorption of nutrients into the blood stream- the whole reason for eating – feeding the body’s cells.
16. Eat in season, raw vegetables when your skin is exposed to sun in warm weather and lightly steamed/stir-fried vegetables in cold weather. Our ancestors were forced to eat foods available each season and our bodies are genetically adapted to this. Raw food vs. cooked is weather dependent and impacts the valve (ileocecal) separating the small intestine from the large intestine. If raw foods are eaten in colder weather, this weakens the valve allowing normally “good” bacteria from the colon to migrate into the small intestine where they aren’t supposed to be. In the small intestine, they become “Bad Guys” stealing nutrients like Vitamin B12 and tryptophan before you’ve absorbed them and dumping toxins into your liver.