Food facts:clean foods; angel foods

Organic Foods: These are foods that are free of chemicals. They’ve been grown in soils that have not been sprayed with chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides. If chemicals have been sprayed on crops or if they are from chemically treated soils, the chemicals (which are often toxic), enter your body and blood stream when you eat them. 
Who knows what damage they can do? Numerous studies show that chemicals inside our bodies do not help our health.
Good Protein: Vegetable proteins are easy to break down in the body. Beans serve as a more efficient, cheaper and healthier form of protein than meat. Combining beans and grains produces complete protein too. It is easy to digest and enhances metabolism.

Good carbs (carbohydrate): These are carbs without added refined sugar. They include whole meal breads, grains, brown rice and vegetables. These healthy carbohydrates (called complex carbs) contain naturally occurring sugars that the body can easily and slowly metabolise for balanced brain function. THEY ARE NOT STRIPPED OF THEIR NUTRIENTS.

Good Fats: Fats have a terrible reputation. In this era of low-fat foods and fat-free diets, crusades against fats seem to have gone off the mark. Over zealous individuals even condemn oil-rich nutritional foods like nuts, seeds and avocados, but no one can blame heart diseases on NUTS!

I advocate good fat foods such as nuts, seeds and avocados. These oil-rich foods contain healthy fats which are necessary for aiding weight reduction, lowering cholesterol, enhancing immunity and nourishing reproductive organs, skin, hair and bone tissue; effectively lubricating our bodies. These good fats help you to metabolise fat. They are so important that they are called ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS (EFAs).

Your body cannot produce EFAs so, you must get them through the foods you eat. They actually help you trim down with a proper diet. Flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, fish and avocados are some of the good sources of these essentials fats.

Unprocessed Foods: These are foods that have no added chemicals or other additives. They are in their original state; the way nature grows them. Please note that some packaged foods do contain foods and ingredients in their original state.

Angel Foods: All foods that come from natural sources have beneficial properties, but some are considered to be “angel foods” owing to their exceptional hoard of specific nutrients. The angel foods listed here show that they are essential to life-long healthy diet – but they should, by no means, be the only food you eat. 

The wider the variety of foods you eat on a daily basis, the greater the range of nutrients you supply your body. What is most important is that you don’t eat the same foods day in and day out. Aim to try a new vegetable or fruit every week and vary your whole-grain intake so that wheat is not the only grain you eat.

No natural food is “bad” for you, but some may be considered richer in their energy-growing nutrients, while others are good anti-oxidants, and yet others are essential for repair and growth.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Apples – calcium, magnesium, vitamins C and beta carotene. Apples help to relieve constipation and contain pectin which helps to reduce cholesterol as well as remove toxins from the gut.

Bananas – vitamins B6, C, K, beta-carotene, potassium and tryptophan. Tryptophan helps to stabilise your mood and encourages sleep; B6 is important for mood and mental health. Bananas are natural anti-fungal and antibiotic; and, help to lower cholesterol. They also contain pectin which helps to remove toxins from the digestive tract.

Warning: Banana is a high calorie fruit. Two bananas daily is not a bad idea. Another source of getting all its benefits is to eat GREEN PLANTAIN.

 

Berries: Not easily found locally, they are wonderful angel foods. They include raspberries, blue berries, straw berries, Accai berries and cranberries and contain vitamin C, vitamin B3, magnesium, phosphorus, beta–carotene, folic acid and potassium. 

They are rich in antioxidants which protect against cancer; they are anti-viral and anti-bacterial. Raspberries help to dispel mucus; blue berries are a blood cleanser and help to improve circulation. All berries help to support eye-health.

Carrots: They contain calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous, vitamin C and beta carotene. They are a good detoxifier of the digestive tract, liver and kidneys and contain potent-antioxidants. They are naturally anti-bacterial and anti-viral.

Garlic: It contains calcium, magnesium, sulphur, potassium, and vitamin C. Garlic is a potent anti-oxidant. It is liver supportive (sulphur); reduces cholesterol and is a heart and circulation tonifier. 

Olives: Rich in Oleic acid, iron, beta carotene and vitamin E, olives support liver and gall-bladder health; reduce cholesterol. Oleic acid is a potent antioxidant. 

Onions: They contain calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, beta carotene, folic acid and sulphur. Excellent as natural antibiotic, they help prevent and repair stomach ulcers and relieve stomach cramps. Onions are a liver supportive detoxifier.