Cleansing Your Body and Mind
The Quest for Life Foundation recently held a webinar Cleansing your Body and Mind; a conversation between Petrea King and Joanna Rushton. You can see the video at the bottom of this post. There were many questions asked and we were not able to respond to them all live, so here are the answers from Joanna.
Candida
Candida is a yeast infection of an overgrowth of Albicans strain of yeast.
Addressing candida is similar to addressing fungal overgrowths where the following foods need to be eliminated from your diet;
- All processes sugar and foods containing sugar
- Fruit – fruits contain natural sugars that can still support the growth of yeast. As dieting protocols can often be very restrictive and hard to adhere to, I would certainly look to eliminating fresh stone fruit, frozen, canned and dried fruits and juices. Limiting ones intake of green apples, blueberries, strawberries and other fruits low in sugar.
- All foods containing yeast such as; pastries, breads, crackers, bagels, muffins, wine, beer
- All foods containing gluten; bread, crackers, pastries, sauces
- All vinegars; white, rice, balsamic, red, apple cider and any foods made with vinegar such as; Mayonnaise, commercial salad dressings, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, BBQ sauce, soy sauce , mustard, pickles, pickled vegetables, relish, horse radish and chili sauce to name but a few.
An emphasis is placed on quality sourced meats, fish, low starch vegetables, fresh salads and high enzyme foods. If using fermented vegetables during this period, prepare yourself using filtered water and quality salt eg Celtic sea salt or Himalayan rock salt.
Foods to limit but not rule out:
- All dairy products. Candida is thought to impair the body’s ability to digest fat, so dairy should be had sparingly.
- Creating a natural herbal remedy for addressing candida needs to be done on an individual basis and often includes garlic, oregano oil, colloidal silver, edible clay, pre and pro biotics, caprylic acid in conjunction with an anti-candida diet. However, I would consult your naturopath as the program needs to be individualized.
General Wellbeing and the CSIRO diet
I’ve been asked to share my thoughts on the CSIRO diet. I’ll start with the fact that there is merit in the overall philosophy where no foods are excluded, and variety is encouraged. However, my concerns lie in their recommendation for low fat products, the use of grains and unstable vegetable oils. It also doesn’t put any emphasis on where and how we source our foods and it advocates low fat options which I avoid even when assisting people to lose weight.
Choosing an eating plan that meets your individual biochemistry is exactly that, individual. We must move away from the mindset that a ‘one size fit’s all’ works for everyone and instead educate ourselves on firstly where we source our foods from and ensure that all foods come in their complete ‘form’ as mother nature intended, without human intervention.
To increase your energy levels follow the 3 steps in the webinar;
- Drink more water according to the formula .033 x your body weight kg =Lts per day
- Learn how to breathe diaphragmatically
- Follow a diet that honours the LHI philosophy (Low Human Intervention)
If you missed the webinar that Petrea King and I did on the benefits of cleansing, you can listen to the replay here:
http://www.questforlife.com.au/webinars
In terms of the need to cleanse your body, learning to listen to your body and how you feel will guide you as to your need to cleanse.
If you are ticking all the boxes, however, still not feeling energized, clear headed and vibrant then clearly something is still not functionally optimally. It is at this point that I would have the function of your gut addressed by your naturopath. In my experience time, money, and energy can often come of no avail when the function of the digestive system is not functioning as it should.
Water; tap, purified or bottled?
The topic of water is a loaded question and often rich in debate. My personal experience in Australia, UK, USA and parts of South Africa, are that in the built up areas of industrialization, tap water is no longer the healthiest option. The main concerns being Fluoride and Chloride and trace chemicals. I therefore recommend filtered water, I’ve used a Dalton counter top filter system that filters all chemicals except Fluoride. Systems that extract Fourfold are often costly however I would invest in such system for home owners.
Brita water filters in my opinion are the least effective as they don’t extract many of the chemicals, the filters require changing far more regularly than other systems.
In terms of bottled waters, I would recommend ones that have a minimum of 350 tds (total dissolved solids), minerals and trace minerals and bottled in glass where possible to avoid xeno estrogens.
If using a home filtering device, that extracts all minerals and chemicals, it is important to re-mineralise your water with quality salt. I would always recommend a small pinch of Celtic or Himalayan rock salt.
Dairy and yoghurt
As a rule with dairy in general, because of the pastuerisation process that the milk goes through, any value dairy could offer us is essentially made redundant.
All beneficial enzymes and bacteria are destroyed in the pastuerisation process of heating. Common dairy allergies and intolerances such as lactose intolerance, stems from the inability digest lactose, which requires the digestive enzyme, lactase, to break down the lactose. Lactase is naturally found in raw dairy products.
Lactase however is killed during the pastuerisation process. Lactase is a digestive enzyme that we do not produce ourselves, hence, the common problems associated with diary with respiratory issues such as sinus, excessive mucus production.
Only raw dairy such as raw goat or sheep products that are legal in Australia offer us beneficial gut flora and enzymes. Cleopatra milk (for cosmetic purposes only) is another well-known brand of raw cow’s milk.
All homogenization, where the blending of the fat into the milk, changes the molecular structure of the fat, making it harder for us to digest. I there for recommend, at the very least, sourcing biodynamic or organic unhomoginised, full fat dairy products. A word of caution for all low-fat dairy products, where the fat is removed, additional sugars are added in replacement of the fat.
Digestion
Cleansing your digestive system is firstly a process of avoiding all processed foods and excessive sugars. Working with your naturopath to support the killing off of unwanted bacteria/parasites/fungus and then re colonizing the gut with beneficial gut flora. Supplementing each meal with a tablespoon of fermented vegetables, aids in supporting us with digestive enzymes and gut flora.
There is no need for fermented vegetables to be pastuerised, traditionally they are prepared with sea salt as the preservative and if available to you, a whey protein as a starter. Whey protein is the bi-product of raw milk and can be easily sourced by working with Cleopatra’s milk.
Chewing our food is essential in supporting optimal digestion. By chewing our food to a liquid, (known as ‘Chew’) we utilize the digestive enzymes within our saliva to assist in the pre digestion process. By breaking down the food particles, the bacteria of our food can be neutralized by the hydrochloric acid released from the lining of our stomach, therefore aiding in a healthy digestive system. Undigested food particles contribute to immune responses especially in a leaky gut, where these food particles pass through the cell membrane wall into the blood stream where they are attacked by white blood cells creating excessive inflammation and food intolerances.
