Dr J’s Top Tips for fighting inflation and promoting health using Nature’s pHarmacy: Part 3

Save Money; Live Better Dr J’s Top Tips for fighting inflation and promoting health using Nature’s pHarmacy™: Part 3

Claim health, well-being and thrive in the 21st century while spending less money and gaining more value. Invest in yourself. You will need to pay less at the doctor or hospital if you put this information into practice. Knowing is good. Doing is better.

For Part 3, we cover a few more healthy changes to make when eating and drinking at home and out to save money now, as well as to keep medical costs down into the future.

Now that we have provided a few tips for healthy gardening, cooking, and shopping, let’s take a look at a few other tips for eating and drinking at home.

Most importantly, eat in harmony with your nature. For me, eating my calories within a 6 hour time window and staying hydrated throughout the day works best. If you are going through a growth spurt, working out vigorously, wanting to improve your digestion, if you are pregnant, then eating well but more calories and more often may make sense.

Speaking of keeping hydrated, drink more broth and mineral water, and eat wet. Even being a little dehydrated puts a big stress on your heart, lungs and blood vessels; on your liver, spleen and pancreas; on your digestion; and on brain function. Target a total fluid intake of a gallon (4 quarts) plus an additional glass for every caffeinated or adult-beverage you consume.

Water is fine but tap water is often contaminated. Well water, mineral water in glass, or spring water delivered to your home or office is recommended. We have well water at our home. Mineral waters like Pellegrino, Apollinaris, Gerolsteiner, and Acqua Panna are examples of ‘therapeutic’ waters. People used to vacation at spas with mineral springs; today that is less common, but waters from these springs can be purchased.

Become friends with lemons and limes. Both combat acidity and add flavor.

What about adult-beverages? Depends on for whom. Below the age of 40 and above the local age for drinking, it is up to you (the less the better). Above the age of 40, many stresses become less after a pint or two. Do these beverages bring you up or bring you down? There are many possibilities to enjoy in moderation, from cider and beer to red wine or white wine or rosé to cachaca or tequila.

Remember to drink a glass of water after each alcoholic beverage, and to stretch every time you drink. To bring fluids to where they are needed, we must stretch. Recommended are Trager mentastics, The Feldenkrais Method, The Anat Baniel System, the Alexander Technique or Pilates. Find a practitioner and practice.

Tea, coffee, and spiced beverages. Silver needle white or quality green tea or India spice tea or biodynamic hibiscus tea are delightful, fragrant, and uplifting.

Organic shade-grown peaberry coffee roasted the day it is sent to you is delicious, has many beneficial nutrients, and stimulates dopamine (pleasure) in the brain. Bought online in modest volume, you get a superior product at surprisingly little cost. We prefer a burr grinder and French press or an espresso maker.

Here are a few other principles we like to follow with respect to healthy eating:

  • No added sugar; you are sweet enough as you are. We get plenty of sweetness from whole fruit, berries, vegetables, and salads. We prefer undressed salads. The amount of sugar the average person eats today in a week is the amount our grandparents ate in a year… and it was molasses-containing whole sugar, not the processed product today that is empty calories, adds weight, impairs metabolism (measured by a hemoglobin A1c test), and encourages digestive disorders. Hear Dr J talk with Dr. Robert Lustig about metabolic health and nutrition.
  • No edible oils. Cook with broth, wine, soy-free tamari, and say yes to apple cider vinegar, nuts, and seeds. When you separate any oil from its seed or nut, oxygen begins to attack essential fats, often rendering the oil rancid. Today many additives are used to mask the rancidity. We cook with broth, wine, vegetable juice or in a tagine that uses the moisture in the whole foods to cook.
  • Healthy snacking. Nature’s pHarmacy™ snacks are nuts, seeds, fruit, berries, crunchy vegetables, hummus, guacamole, and undressed salad. If it is chipped, crisped, comes in a package or box, it is processed and contains too many anti-nutrients to eat. This simple step of avoiding processed foods will dramatically improve your digestion and metabolism.
  • If possible, before consuming, rinse all fruit, vegetables, berries, and nuts first in baking soda and then in apple cider vinegar. Food often picks up contaminants or mold spores or small bugs before you buy it. Do not peel. The nutrition is in the skin of the food. The rest is mostly fiber and some nutrients.
  • Use lettuce curls in place of crackers, chips, and bread. To be nice to your digestion, you will go grain free and that includes crackers, chips, bread, rolls and anything that comes from a package or box. You can use Romaine or several broad leaf lettuces to pick up a dip or provide a wrap. You save yourself anti-nutrients and digestive distress by avoiding grains, added sugar, processing chemicals and edible oils.
  • When going out to eat, only go to restaurants that feature whole foods prepared fresh. Much restaurant food is highly processed.
  • Special occasions and social events. When going out, eat very lightly if at all. Your muscles and brain are taking the energy. There is likely so much going on to pay attention to at the event. Your stomach is effectively closed for the event. You can have mineral water (with or without Campari) without ice. A slice of lime or berry makes it more interesting. Iced beverages cool the stomach enough that digestion is impaired. You can say something polite like, it looks lovely but I’m on a strict diet regarding when and what I eat. Or something like, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it and the event be more productive.
  • Eat only until half full. One way to improve digestion and maintain a healthier weight is to eat until you are about half full, stop for a few minutes to have something wet and warm, and then decide if you want to eat more. Many people eat more than their stomach can handle by habit.

Beans and lentils, for example, contain lectins. Lectins in foods help tune up the immune defense and repair systems in healthy people. Pathologists and clinicians have often confused isolated effects in the test tube with biological effects in people.

  • Periodically use Nature’s pHarmacy™ liquid nutrient plan to rest and nourish your digestion.
  • Using food as medicine, Nature’s Alkaline Way and Nature’s pHarmacy™ allow you reduce risks of cancer, heart and vascular disease and autoimmunity dramatically by eating each of these once a week:
  1. Multi-bean, well-seasoned chili
  2. Curry (green, yellow, or red)
  3. Lentil stew or Dal
  4. Fermented foods day including kombucha and probiotic based yogurt
  5. Wild rice or other grass with herbs, spices, vegetables, and/or nuts
  6. Liquid nutrient plan day
  7. Surprise yourself on day seven with something unusual.
  • Finally, explore different cuisines with an emphasis on traditional food. Rules governing traditional eating patterns are generally simpler and healthier, while at the same time diverse in content. Eat a wide variety of foods in a wide variety of ways. While we recommend avoiding meat, cow dairy, farmed fish, plant-based meat substitutes, and grains, we suggest a wide variety of ‘low on the food chain’ options as most nutritious, least contaminated, and easily digested whole foods.

By eating a wide variety of foods, you encourage your microbiome and metabolome to thrive rather than just survive. Your microbiome has to do with digestion and the microbial ecologies that make you up. Your microbiome is in constant communion with your metabolome, your metabolism. Your metabolome includes both the brain in your head and the brain in your gut, connected through the vagus nerve, bidirectional neuro highway that connects all of you in real time.

Stay tuned for Part 4; the final part in this series, where we’ll examine additional changes you can make to your environment and life to keep you healthy and thriving.