Spring is related to the Liver which controls the flow of Qi and Blood through the body. When out of balance it may cause a selection of disorders including Stress, High Blood Pressure, Skin disorders, Itching, Anger, and more serious disorders such as Strokes and Heart attack.The Liver is responsible for the tendons in the body and also for controlling the flow of Qi (energy) around the body. If you get angry the liver constricts and the Qi doesn't flow properly. We call this Liver Qi stagnation. The taste that is related to the Liver is the sour taste. Foods which have a slight sour taste can be used to improve the Liver function such as Lemon juice.
Gentle exercise is good for moving the Qi around the body and therefore helps to reduce feelings of anger and stress. Foods that can help to improve the function of the Liver are: beetroot, broccoli, carrot, celery, dandelion, grapefruit, hawthorn berries, lemon, litchi berry, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and most green vegetables. Most of these ingredients are seeds, fruits and vegetables and can be easily incorporated into your normal food dishes.
As Spring has arrived we can start to change the way that we eat and cook. We can gradually over the next 3 months move from eating heavy, casseroled, stewed foods to eating lighter meals such as soups and stir fry's. Stir frying is one of the quickest and most nutritious methods of cooking as you generally don't over cook the food. If using meat cook the meat first separately and then add the vegetables towards the end of cooking. Add a few spoonfuls of water if necessary to help to steam the vegetables. Add very soft vegetables for the last few minutes.
When vegetables are raw they are good for cleansing the intestines and removing toxins but over a long time period they will cause imbalance in the digestive system and you won't be able to absorb the nutrition from them easily. If they are lightly cooked to the point where they taste sweet then they are perfectly cooked and very easy to absorb into the body. If overcooked they lose their sweetness which indicates that they have very low nutritional content. The sweet flavour in vegetables and fruits is caused by carbohydrates which transform into fruit sugars as they ripen or are cooked lightly.
From the fruit sugars your body can produce PROTEIN, build the blood and nourish all aspects of your body. We generally eat too much protein (from an external source such as meat) and this is a major cause of disease. We also eat far too much food at every sitting. By simply reducing our food quantities by approximately half we can keep our natural body weight, improve our health and remain healthy. The human body develops disease due to an over abundance of toxins from too many additives and from eating too much food. Keep it simple!
We are the only animals in nature that mix lots of foods together in each meal and add lots of extra flavourings. When eating fruit, vegetables and meat in one meal your body struggles to digest them all together as they all need different acid levels to digest.
Try to eat fruits separately from any other foods and always on an empty stomach. Eat vegetables first in a meal and then the meat. Never combine vegetables and fruit in the same meal. In order of ease of digestion fruits digest most easily, then vegetables and then meat which is hard to digest.
Andrew Loosely
Buy Andrew's Book "7 Secrets of Staying Healthy" here.
For further information about Healthwise please visit the clinic online at: www.healthwise-clinic.com
October 2006 |
Safe Use of Traditional Herbal Medicines
