Since I last talked about growing healthy foods to nourish your immune system, today I want to expand on this.
Having food based nutritional supports which I can rely on for consistency is wonderful, but what are the food choices we can make to insure a constant supply of critical nutrition. After all, we have to eat, so why not make food the primary source of our medicine.
Hippocrates famous quote “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” is just as true today as it was back when he said it. The problem is that so much of the food consumed today no longer contains the same level of nutrition it did when he stated this.
Thomas Edison stated; “The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing enough of this to be the case. Instead, we see repeatedly where high potency supplements and drugs are what we’ve come to expect and receive.
I’ve had to take a long hard look at many things which we’ve embraced to be consistent with health and found that many of them are contraindicated. Vitamin C and Vitamin E as held by the FDA are only small portions of greater nutrients.
Consuming these in the high potency isolated forms often found in stores and on line, you would find they’re missing critical elements required to function in your body. An example of imbalance would be hoping to get benefit from zinc when you’re deficient in phosphorous.
With the evidence of zinc requirements during this time of questionable immune abilities with COVID19, many are seeking additional zinc supports. Great sources of both phosphorous and zinc are foods like pumpkin seeds and Brazil nuts. Unfortunately, sugar, even small amounts can destroy your phosphorus levels. Low phosphorous is one area I see regularly on blood tests. This can result in calcium depositing in areas of your body where you don’t want it like in the joints, the lens of the eye, and as tartar on your teeth, leaving your white cells without.
Besides needing phosphorous to function well, zinc needs vitamin A to be complete. Good sources of vitamin A include colored fruits and vegetables, carrots, green leafy vegetables, eggs, milk, fish liver oil, and liver (which is also a great source of zinc and phosphorous). A great source of vitamin A is in fresh vegetable juices. Juicing things like carrots, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes, and parsley can provide rich, readily absorbable nutrition. Several of these are in my morning smoothie.
When thinking of fish liver oil, this is one tried and true treatment of our elders. Friends have shared how they remember when people in the family were getting sick, grandma grabbing their nose, waiting for them to come up for air, and spooning in the cod liver oil. Besides the vitamin A, the vitamin D found in the liver increases the calcium uptake to aid in white cell activity.
Selenium is at the core of vitamin E, and required for this critical vitamin to do it’s work. To obtain straight alpha tocopherol as vitamin E is pretty much useless. Even the mixed tocopherols still don’t get the job done. Without adequate selenium there’s increased liver damage, muscle degeneration, premature aging, heart disease, and muscular dystrophy. Prolonged deficiency can lead to gastrointestinal cancer. This is why I insist on the food based vitamin E containing all the factors including selenium and all the polyunsaturated fatty acids required for calcium transport.
When I think about immune boosting foods, many of them contain selenium. This includes Garlic, Onions, eggs, kelp, mushrooms, seafood, most vegetables, and brewers yeast. These are more beneficial when consumed with healthy oils in the diet.
Avoidance of immune robbers is critical during this time in the world. Excessive drugs, either medicinal or recreational, should be avoided like the plague. If you smoke anything, now is not a safe time to put yourself at greater risk. These all put a far greater stress on your entire metabolism.
Stress itself is a killer in many ways. Besides physical stressors, emotional stressors have the ability to destroy adrenal reserves and impact blood pressure and blood sugar. These are two areas which have been seen to increase the potential of death with COVID19.
Having food based nutritional supports which I can rely on for consistency is wonderful, but what are the food choices we can make to insure a constant supply of critical nutrition. After all, we have to eat, so why not make food the primary source of our medicine.
Hippocrates famous quote “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” is just as true today as it was back when he said it. The problem is that so much of the food consumed today no longer contains the same level of nutrition it did when he stated this.
Thomas Edison stated; “The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” Unfortunately, we aren’t seeing enough of this to be the case. Instead, we see repeatedly where high potency supplements and drugs are what we’ve come to expect and receive.
I’ve had to take a long hard look at many things which we’ve embraced to be consistent with health and found that many of them are contraindicated. Vitamin C and Vitamin E as held by the FDA are only small portions of greater nutrients.
Consuming these in the high potency isolated forms often found in stores and on line, you would find they’re missing critical elements required to function in your body. An example of imbalance would be hoping to get benefit from zinc when you’re deficient in phosphorous.
With the evidence of zinc requirements during this time of questionable immune abilities with COVID19, many are seeking additional zinc supports. Great sources of both phosphorous and zinc are foods like pumpkin seeds and Brazil nuts. Unfortunately, sugar, even small amounts can destroy your phosphorus levels. Low phosphorous is one area I see regularly on blood tests. This can result in calcium depositing in areas of your body where you don’t want it like in the joints, the lens of the eye, and as tartar on your teeth, leaving your white cells without.
Besides needing phosphorous to function well, zinc needs vitamin A to be complete. Good sources of vitamin A include colored fruits and vegetables, carrots, green leafy vegetables, eggs, milk, fish liver oil, and liver (which is also a great source of zinc and phosphorous). A great source of vitamin A is in fresh vegetable juices. Juicing things like carrots, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes, and parsley can provide rich, readily absorbable nutrition. Several of these are in my morning smoothie.
When thinking of fish liver oil, this is one tried and true treatment of our elders. Friends have shared how they remember when people in the family were getting sick, grandma grabbing their nose, waiting for them to come up for air, and spooning in the cod liver oil. Besides the vitamin A, the vitamin D found in the liver increases the calcium uptake to aid in white cell activity.
Selenium is at the core of vitamin E, and required for this critical vitamin to do it’s work. To obtain straight alpha tocopherol as vitamin E is pretty much useless. Even the mixed tocopherols still don’t get the job done. Without adequate selenium there’s increased liver damage, muscle degeneration, premature aging, heart disease, and muscular dystrophy. Prolonged deficiency can lead to gastrointestinal cancer. This is why I insist on the food based vitamin E containing all the factors including selenium and all the polyunsaturated fatty acids required for calcium transport.
When I think about immune boosting foods, many of them contain selenium. This includes Garlic, Onions, eggs, kelp, mushrooms, seafood, most vegetables, and brewers yeast. These are more beneficial when consumed with healthy oils in the diet.
Avoidance of immune robbers is critical during this time in the world. Excessive drugs, either medicinal or recreational, should be avoided like the plague. If you smoke anything, now is not a safe time to put yourself at greater risk. These all put a far greater stress on your entire metabolism.
Stress itself is a killer in many ways. Besides physical stressors, emotional stressors have the ability to destroy adrenal reserves and impact blood pressure and blood sugar. These are two areas which have been seen to increase the potential of death with COVID19.
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