3 Healthy Eating Habits for Better Health
We all know that we should be eating organic wholefoods as far as possible and avoiding processed and de-natured foods. But we often forget that it is not only WHAT WE EAT that is important. HOW and WHEN we eat is CRUCIAL. Here are THREE MAJOR HABITS to create when eating, that will ensure that we get maximum nutrition.
- WHY WE NEED TO EAT SLOWLY AND CHEW OUR FOOD 15 – 20 TIMES BEFORE SWALLOWING
In fact, we should “chew” our juices and “drink” our food. Instead of gulping our vegetable juice, we need to slowly swirl the juice around our mouth and kind of “chew” the juice before swallowing – this activates the digestive juices in our mouths. Eating food slowly and chewing thoroughly, until we virtually swallow the food in a “liquid” form, is crucial to the digestive process and certainly counteracts the rushed meals we often have. Eating slowly forces us to relax and ensures that the brain gets the signal in time to let us know that we are full, before we have overeaten.
- MINDFUL OR CONSCIOUS EATING
How often have you got to the end of a meal without REALLY having tasted your food? Do you eat on the run? Or at the computer/while working? Or in the car? Do you eat while stressed or BECAUSE you are feeling stressed? Do you eat when you are emotional – upset, angry or depressed? All these ways of eating ROB us of the total experience and benefits of our meal. When we eat in a hurry or under stressful conditions (working and thinking while eating causes stress) we trigger processes in the body that are not conducive to digestion and assimilation of our food. So, even if we eat the most wholesome, organic wholefoods, but we eat while stressed or emotional, all these beautiful nutrients will be wasted!
Try as much as you can to make each meal (even if it is a small snack) a time of mindful eating. Be conscious of your chewing, of the food you are eating and how it is making you feel. If you do this, you will become aware of foods that do not agree with you and you will feel satisfied after every meal.
- DAYLIGHT EATING
The energy provided by the Sun aids digestion, whilst the Moon Energy is needed for healing. The body is a wonderful machine that given the correct environment, heals itself – that is how we were built. From 22:00 until 2:00 a.m. the body heals and then it lets go of all waste matter until about 11:00. The optimum time to eat is between 11:00 and 15:00. And NOT after sunset when the sun energy is no longer with us.
If we bear this in mind, we are reminded how alienating and counter-productive our eating habits are! (I wonder who invented Breakfast at 7:00 or 8:00 and dinner at 19:00 or later? )
If you are able to, try having your last meal at about 17:00 or 18:00 at the latest and see how you feel the next day. Of course, if we lived in line with the laws of nature, we would eat at 17:30 and go to sleep at 20:30 (3 hours after our last meal). But we don’t. So if you are feeling hungry or snackish later in the evening, eat fruit (slowly) or have a vegetable juice
I heard that CHERRIES have the LOWEST glycaemic index of all fruits, and one of the lowest glycaemic indexes of any carbohydrate source, scoring at a ridiculously low 22. You can snack on cherries in the evening without much detriment as their effect on insulin is minimal at best. BUT if your cherries are not organic, be sure to clean them well to get rid of pesticides and plain water will not do the trick.
