Meat…should we eat it?
It’s a hot topic!
Last Friday night I was part of a Q&A panel at the end of a fabulous movie called Overfed & Undernourished. The movie was a documentary about a boy called Liam who was clearly Overfed & Undernourished. Sadly a true depiction of many children in today’s society. An example of his state of health was he had trouble walking up a grassy hill without wheezing and stopping for a breather, due to his sedentary lifestyle. Together Liam and his dad decided that it would be best to send him off to his Aunty and Uncle’s place on the Gold Coast as they lived quite a different active and healthy lifestyle that would provide Liam with the opportunity to get back on track with his health. This was an intense and challenging 3 months that changed Liam’s life for the better.
Following the movie I was asked, along with 2 other individuals within the health and wellness field to answer questions from the audience about health. One of the questions was about meat and how much should we eat? This was an interesting and fabulous question, yet at the time didn’t give myself the opportunity to expand as much as I would have liked, so I thought I would use this forum – my blog – to do so.
My philosophy within Seeds Of Health is to increase our plant based food intake. This can be done through fresh juices, smoothies, salads, soups, whole food dips, steamed vegetables, exchanging a meat curry for a delicious Dahl (a lentil curry – ask me for a recipe if you want one!), etc. It’s often about swapping A for B. Which I can help with! Let’s add in so much good food, that it just naturally crowds out the bad, rather than depriving ourselves of certain foods.
Generally speaking, we all have some form of inflammation within our body, however to what extent varies depending on the individual. Do you have signs of headaches, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (changing between diarrhoea and constipation), stiff joints, achey joints, sore back, irregular hormones illustrated through PMS or painful, varying cycle lengths (for the ladies!)?, gout, anemia, a fungal infection under your toenail, etc. All of these symptoms are signs of inflammation and imbalance within the body. By increasing the foods which provide ‘light’ (from the sun – plant based foods) into our bodies, our body is able to heal, repair and bring itself back to balance. The moment we start eating too much processed, heavy, dense, dark and dead food (that is not grown with sunlight and living nutrients) our body has to work very hard to break it down and process it. If it is foreign (ie. the body doesn’t recognise it as food because it was made in a lab with numbers and preservatives, etc) our immune system goes on high alert to protect our body from the ‘invader’. Doing this constantly this wears out our body.
Animal products (namely meat and dairy – yogurt, cheese, ice cream, cream, milk, chocolate) cause a ‘stickiness’ and clogging of our arteries, not to mention the non-organic matter that is entering our bodies like steroids and hormones in meat and dairy as well as horrific ingredients like anti-freeze and leather cleaner found in ice cream. It is so important for these reasons that if you do choose to eat animal products that they are free range/organic/bio-dynamic/happy animals that they themselves live a natural existence where they are able to roam and eat their natural diet.
By increasing plant based foods like fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds (quinoa, chia, hemp, linseed/flaxseed), legumes, lentils, etc and finding replacements for the everyday consumer items (listed below) our body is able to clean the colon and arteries and repair, reaping the benefits from there – more energy, better digestion, clearer mind, more motivation, weight loss, etc.
CHANGE IT UP:
Exchange cows milk for – almond milk, rice milk, Bonsoy milk (a better brand of soy milk that is non GMO), oat milk, coconut milk, hemp seed milk, coconut water (fabulous base for smoothies).
Exchange processed wheat bread for – sourdough rye or spelt bread (the less ingredients listed the better!), Essene bread, homemade spelt crepes, rice cakes, mountain bread wraps, sushi nori rolls, rice papers, etc
Exchange traditional ice cream for – whole food smoothie (frozen banana, cacao and almond milk!), coconut ice cream (available at health food stores), home made ice cream using whole food organic dairy ingredients, home made icey poles using 100% frozen fruit blended with a paddle pop stick great recipes here.
Exchange traditional Cadburys dairy milk chocolate for raw chocolate
So after providing some background information let’s get back to the question. How much meat should we eat?
As you can no doubt gather from the above information it is more about assessing where your body is at and letting it heal and repair – which in turn increases vitality. Individually we will consider what food is right for your body and most importantly quality of the food you choose to eat – be it animal products or not. It is a very individual assessment depending on your state of health. Using iridology and questioning I assess your current state of health during a Naturopathic consultation. Please contact me if you feel it is time for an assessment of your body.
The AIM is to increase your plant based foods and know exactly what you are putting in to your body (reading every label! and ideally not buying foods with labels).
A great resource to get started with whole foods is The Real Food Chef or The Real Food Kitchen. I was selling these at the movie premiere, last Friday night. I truly believe, aside from the endless blogs online that this recipe book provides not only mouth watering recipes that are functional for the family (both meat based and vegetarian) but opens your mind up as to how to increase your plant based foods with every meal you eat. I stock these recipes books and am happy for you to phone or email me to collect your copy. The authors Dr Libby Weaver and Chef Cynthia Louise are profound in their knowledge of nutrition and plant based foods. I personally have worked alongside Chef Cynthia Louise and cannot speak highly enough about what she has to offer. Dr Libby Weaver is a woman of such strength that acknowledge an epidemic of Rushing Women’s Syndrome – women packing more and more into their lives without stopping to nourish and realise what their body needs. Together, both of these women turn the everyday meal like sheppard’s pie or caramel slice in to something that is so jam packed with vitamins and minerals, your body will be thanking you for it and your tastebuds will be singing!
I would love to hear from you in the comments below what your opinion is of the above information and what journey of health you have been on? Do you agree or disagree with the above information? Did you see the screening of Overfed & Undernourished? What was your opinion of the movie?
I look forward to chatting to you in the comments below.
Signing off with kale kisses,
Janelle.