In my last post on how to avoid getting sick the season, I talked about eating vegetables and how they help to make our bodies more alkaline. I thought today I could go further into the importance of vegetables.
We have all been told since we were little tots to eat our vegetables and you know, mom was right, again. There are very important vitamins, minerals and enzymes in vegetables that are vital to our health and a long life. Most people do not like to eat vegetables, they do not taste good. The reason they do not taste good is because they are not sweet. There is no sugar in vegetables, and there should not be. We have become a nation addicted to sugar and this is reeking havoc on our health. We no longer enjoy the taste of vegetables or know what they taste like due to all of the genetic alterations, pesticides and fertilizers being used today. There is always that notion too of it if it tastes good it can not be healthy for us. Let us talk about some of the health benefits of eating vegetables and easy and great ways to add more to your diet.
As I disused in my last post, one of the most important things vegetables do is keep our bodies alkaline. What this means is our bodies our more basic. A little chemistry lesson for the day. The pH scale is a measure of acidity and basicity. When we usually see it, there is a rainbow of colors along with numbers on the side. These colors and numbers relate to how basic or acidic something is. The scale goes from 0 to 14. 0 is the most acidic. These are going to be things like gastric acid, the acid in our stomachs, which is about 1, lemon juice is about 2 and so on and so forth. What this is measuring is how much acid is in it. On the other side of the scale we have the basics. Bleach is about 13, soapy water is about 12, baking soda is 9 and so and so forth. This is the lack of acids. Seven is considered neutral, distilled water. For life to happen, your body has to maintain a certain pH balance. Human blood is between 7.34-7.45, not a large margin. For optimum health, we want to be more alkaline, which is basic. When we eat to many sugars and processed foods, our bodies become more acidic. The consequences of this is sickness, an inability of being able to absorb minerals, the energy production of our cells goes down, the body has a more difficult time repairing it's cells, we can not detoxify heavy metals, a cancer cell haven. Does this make sense of why cancer is abundant today? Cancer is a disease of the common era. Our ancestors did not have this disease because of their diets, their bodies were more alkaline. Not only does an alkaline body ward off cancer, it will also defend the body from other diseases. For more on this, read my previous post here.
Some of the best ways to get our vitamins and minerals in everyday is to eat vegetables. Do you need more Vit. C, eat citrus fruits, putting lemon or limes in your water is a great way to both drink more water as well as the added benefits of these powerful foods. How about Vit. A, eat pumpkin, kaleor leeks to name a few. Pick any vitamin you would like and Google it, see how many and what types of vitamins and minerals are in it. The best way to make sure you are consuming all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs is to eat a rainbow of colors. You want your diet to be colorful. It also makes it more fun when you can see if you can eat all of the colors in a day, especially if you have kids. I think we all know this, we just need to apply what we already know! As a side note, if you are going to take a multi-vitamin, it is best to take one which is plant based, not synthetically made.
Enzymes are proteins which act as a catalysis. A what? A catalysis is a protein which makes a chemical reaction happen faster in the body. There are some reactions that take so long to perform that they simply would not happen in the body if it were not for a catalysis. They are very important to the functioning of the body. One of the best sources of enzymes is raw vegetables. You can steam your veggies if you prefer them this way, just make sure you do not cook them over 104 degrees or to soggy. At this temperature and above, the enzymes are destroyed. It is good to do a variety of both, raw and steamed vegetables. The reason for this is because some of the vitamins are more bio-available to our bodies when they are steamed. Things like calcium from spinach and kale. The lycopene in tomatoes is most available once the tomatoes are cooked and eaten with fat. Other vitamins will be destroyed with cooking. So, to account for this, I eat both raw and steamed vegetables. When steaming or cooking your veggies, be sure it is not over 104 degrees or that they are overcooked and mushy. If you cook them this long, you can kiss everything good bye.
Another health benefit of raw vegetables is fiber. Fiber helps to keep things a moving in your digestive track. If you are not eliminating everyday, two to three times a day, with none stinky poops, you have some problems. It is important to eliminate our wast products. When we do not ride them through urinating and poopen, they will stay in our bodies and this causes problems. If your poop stays inside of you, the toxins can reabsorb into your body. Yuck! All of the crap your body is trying to rid itself of stays in and becomes a toxic waste land. This is even worse for your body because it is more toxic than it was before. If you do not poop for days, it has to go somewhere and that somewhere is making your stomach stick out and you gain weight. Not helpful in weight lose. An easy to help this problems is eating more vegetables and drink water. The fiber will bind to toxins and take them out in the elimination processes. The fiber is also some roughage and will push things out. The water will help to make things softer. Pushing to hard can cause problems. Be sure to drink water especially if you are not used to fiber, this can cause you to be constipated. Water is also a natural way to detoxify your body.
I believe this is enough to swallow. We will continue in the next post.
In the love of Christ,
Jenn
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