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Living Foods and Vital
Energy
by Dr. Mark Pitstick
Optimal nutrition is really very simple:
just provide your body with healthy water and whole
foods in appropriate amounts. Eat unprocessed living
foods using what I call the real food diet.
If God made it, eat it. If humans have processed or
manufactured it, eat it very sparingly.
Many millennia have shaped the nutrients
your body needs. Until very recently on an evolutionary
scale, there were no refined, artificial, or heavily
sugared foods. Hunters and gatherers primarily ate
fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lean meats, and eggs.
The advent of agriculture and domestication of animals
added beans, grains, and dairy products to the list of
available foods. The only available sweet was honey . .
. and that required outfoxing an entire bee hive.
Until recently, all food was organic
because no pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones,
antibiotics, and other chemicals were used to raise
crops and animals. Now we have to pay extra for
certified organic foods but it’s worth every penny.
Organic foods taste fresher, contain more nutrients, and
are much healthier. As more and more people buy organic
foods, prices will decrease and availability will
increase. Optimal nutrition is so critical and you
deserve to have the best diet.
Regularly consuming high quality food is
a prerequisite for radiant living. It’s impossible to
enjoy heaven on earth with poor nutrition.
Everyone is unique and has different
dietary needs. I made many refinements over the years
until I found the combination that works best for me.
Ultimately, how you feel and function is the best
barometer of what you should eat. Use these principles
as guidelines and work with your natural health care
professionals until you have found the right formula for
you.
Fresh and raw living foods contain
high levels of nutritive value and are a must for those
desiring radiant health. Make fresh and raw fruits and
vegetables, sprouted grains, and raw nuts and seeds
about 50% of your diet each day.
This requires more time than picking up
‘convenience food’ from a drive-through, but the extra
effort is well worth it now and in the future. Watch
the movie Super Size Me to get more motivated.
Processed convenience foods are a big reason why
obesity is at epidemic proportions in the U.S. New,
improved and fortified is inferior to fresh and natural.
Eating lots of living foods prevents food cravings
and overeating in an attempt to obtain essential
nutrients.
I’m not advocating an all raw and fresh
food diet, but most people can benefit by increasing
their intake of living foods. This is not new advice.
Orthodox dieticians have long counseled that the
nutritive value of food decreases when cooked, frozen,
processed or stored. Fresh is best, frozen next, and
canned is the least nutritious choice. Frozen foods
lose about 20% of their original nutritional value and
canned foods about 60%.
A Paul Harvey radio commentary best
exemplifies what I mean by living and vital foods. A
sunken ship was recently examined after several
centuries of submerged isolation. Among the ballast
were various plant seeds that actually sprouted and grew
when given the right conditions of soil, water, and
sunlight. After hundreds of years, those seeds still
contained sufficient life-giving properties to grow
healthy plants.
There is a spark of life and creative
energy in all living things. This life force has
long been recognized by other cultures: the Chinese
called it chi, the people of India prana,
in Japan ki. Whatever the name, there is a vital
energy in all living things.
Vital energy. That’s what people are
looking for, often in all the wrong places. Having lots
of vital energy almost all the time is a key to
experiencing radiant wellness.
Read Dr. Mark Pitstick’s book Radiant
Wellness for much more information
about how optimal nutrition can improve your life.
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