How to know what to eat…

How to know what to eat…

The first thing to consider is to do nervous system regulating techniques before each meal.  When the nervous system is more regulated you uptake the nutrients from your food more easily.  Sitting down to eat feeling stressed/anxious and/or feeling stressed/anxious about what you are eating hinders the proper functioning of the digestive system and you uptake of nutrients, plus can increase things like leaky gut too.  Using nervous system regulating techniques (like one of the one’s in this video https://youtu.be/HpmjrQNWFP4 ) allows your body to be in the best place possible to make the most of what you are consuming.  It also allows you to feel into your body more easily and learn to intuitively know what is best for you or not.  When we are dysregulated, this is almost impossible.

Always ask yourself, is this the most natural, seasonal, local and ancestral version of this meal I can eat?  We can survive on options that don’t fall within this sentence, but it will always be hard to thrive.

We do not have the microbiome to utilize foods, drinks, herbs and supplements from other parts of the World (in fact they can cause us inflammation instead of health).  This also applies to seasonal produce too.  We are part of nature; we are animals still and as such our microbiome changes through the seasons for us to make the most of the natural way we would have once eaten.  Eating foods out of season does not give us the nutrients we require when we require them, makes it much harder for us to make us of nutrients in the food etc and increases the chances of food intolerances, IBS issues, leaky gut, inflammation and even the severity of issues me can have from plant toxins like oxalates and histamines etc.

No matter if you believe we should eat vegan or carnivore eating locally, seasonally and ancestrally is how our body easily thrives on the fuel you are giving it because this is its natural state of being.

For many of us there is simply not enough proteins, fats, cholesterol and salt in our diets.  When you spend a lot of your time in fight, flight freeze you are burning through your salt/sodium supplies too quickly, as such adding quite a lot of good quality salt to all your meals and even some drinks is very important.  Or, consider a mineral/electrolyte powder you make into a drink with good quality (no added nasties) magnesium, sodium, potassium and calcium.  There are many ‘clean’ Keto options on the market.  Once you are eating more naturally, seasonally, locally and ancestrally again and have been for a few months, you would not need this as you would get everything you need from your diet once more.

We are ‘designed’ to be fat burners, not carbohydrate burners.  We have got used to burning carbohydrates for fuel and other things, but we thrive on burning fat, not carbs.  As such if you cut out most straight carbs (flours, rice, potatoes etc) and increase fats and proteins your body will have a better fuel source and will start to thrive once more.

When we eat seasonally and locally we reduce things like intense oxalate consumption, as oxalates are MUCH higher in foods picked outside of their normal times and also when not ripe.  Oxalates (a plant toxin) can be a huge problem for many people, especially if you have made an effort to eat ‘healthy’, you’ll probably find you are eating something like 100 or even (as with me) over 200 times the recommended daily allowance.  But, how so if these are superfoods?  Well, simply put, we just would not have eaten any fruit and veg out of season, and we would have eaten them in MUCH lower qualities when we did.  Our main source of food being proteins and fats and then a small amount of fruit and veg when it was available only.

So, you can see, it’s not about cutting out loads of things, but really feeling into, what’s the most natural way my body would have thrived and follow this.

Obviously when I talk about proteins and fats this would have been from animals and this is how we most easily thrive.  However, I understand this is not an option for everyone.  So, ask yourself what other options are there available as close to this as possible.  Maybe you cannot deal with the idea of eating eggs, fish or meats from supermarkets (I understand that, neither can I), but you could from someone’s ‘happy’ farm, so look at where those are (there are many once you ask around) and see if you can order from them.  Maybe eggs and fish are an OK options for you, so try to increase those to every day and one with every meal.  Maybe using animal fats to cook in, ghee, lard or tallow feels OK for you, so consider this if it does.  Maybe none of these options are OK with you, so try consuming higher amount of coconut, avocado and olive oil (which are pretty much the only good plant based oils we should be consuming, I’d avoid all the rest).  And then consider lentils, pulses etc for now, long term this is not seasonal, local or ancestral and they hold a lot of plant toxins, so it’s not how our body thrives, but it can keep you going until you feel able to consider other options for sure.

To improve fatigue, brain fog and repair in the body the fats and proteins are super important , and there needs to be a lot of them, not just a few times a week (this is better than nothing but our body really needs them with every meal, especially if it has been deprived of them for some time).  We need cholesterol for heart health, for the brain and repairing the body and reducing inflammation within it, so look for foods higher in cholesterol that you could tolerate and move towards those.

The only things I would avoid with a bargepole are; soya, gluten, wheat and seed oils.  These foods cause not only a lot of inflammation and hormonal imbalances but work their way through the lining of the already leaky gut and into your blood stream, where the wreak havoc and fuel auto-immune conditions, thyroid and hormone problems and so much more.

I would greatly reduce if you can all straight carbs, even the slow releasing ones like sweet potatoes etc, as we just would not have eaten this daily or even weekly like we do now and they hinder the body’s ability to fat-fuel and are all high oxalates.  Remember, this is about eating in the most natural way possible to allow the body to thrive and not about some new crazy-ass diet!

The things I would add in; lot’s of salt, fats and proteins (with every meal).

I know there is a lot to consider here, and this can feel overwhelming and stressful, this is why I keep coming back to SEASONAL, LOCAL & ANCESTRAL.  Keep referring to this as your guide! This is how the body easily thrives, other ways keep the body stuck for longer in survival and make it much more difficult to thrive because they are simply not natural, so not easy for our body.

Do, what you can with what you have locally and know that this is enough.  It does not help us to get stressed over what we cannot change for whatever reason.  None of us are perfect, life happens, but we can give our body the best, natural and easy to use fuel as possible as often as we can to thrive.

I know a lot of what I am mentioning is going against a lot of what other people may say including Government guidelines (I think we probably all agree these are being created by big Pharma though and not for any of our benefits, but for their pocket).  When we think about it logically, we know we are animals and need to eat and live as close to our natural way of being as possible to be happy and healthy human beings.  So, this is what I am recommending here, not just with food but with lifestyle choices.  Get outside as much as possible, get skin in contact with the earth, use blue-light blockers when looking at screens, sleep on a grounding sheet &/or use a zapper if you cannot get outside, use what you have to create the most natural environment you can to help your body not only heal but really and truly thrive in this crazy-ass, overstimulating, unnatural society we currently live in.

Just a quick notes on supplements; I think everyone can benefits from some good quality electrolytes until their diet has shifted to closer to a natural diet as possible.  But if you are veggie or vegan then B12 (Methylcobalamin lozenges or patches) are essential as the only other way we can get B12 if not eating animal proteins is from some seaweed, algae and a small amounts in some fermented foods, all of which you would need to eat in huge qualities daily to get the same amount as a supplement.  A good quality amino acid complex it advisable if you are not eating animal proteins every day also, as we simply cannot find most of the same ‘building blocks’ in plant-based foods.  Vit D3 is essential spring through to autumn (in winter none of us would have much of it) if you can’t get outside much and Vit K2 is also essential for us to thrive and difficult to obtain if you are veggie or vegan.  If you are eating animal-based instead of plant based you don’t need these or hardly any kind of supplement.

If you are still unsure in any way about how we thrive when we move back towards our natural state of being then maybe some of these books and links below will help.  I see and hear every day of people now thriving because of working with their nervous system, mind, reducing toxins and diets and moving back to a natural way of being.  It’s not the next crazy protocol, program, supplement or treatment that heals people, it’s returning to our true nature as human beings as much as we can as often as we can.  As I said above, do the best with what you have right now and let go of the rest!  But, most of all just listen to your own body, but remember whilst you are consuming addictive foods, processed foods, carbohydrates and sugars your body is always going to tell you it wants more of this, this changes when you move over to more fats and proteins and things become more balanced physically and mentally too.  Focus on what you are gaining by moving towards a more natural way of being instead of what you feel like you are missing out.  Fuelling your body in the most optimum way can give you your life back, so then any changes are totally and utterly worth it!

Seasonal, Local, Natural & Ancestral, do what you can with what you have and let go of the rest!

 

Additional Reading Resources:

Vegetarianism Explained – Making an Informed Decision by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride https://amzn.eu/d/4zIoquM

Put Your Heart in Your Mouth by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride https://amzn.eu/d/1pxXYql

Toxic Superfoods by Sally K Norton https://amzn.eu/d/2nHbYoN

My recent interview with Sally K Norton https://youtu.be/dmLCBvxF0es  Remember when watching this, it’s just a nudge towards a more natural and ancestral way of eating and not ‘another’ new diet to follow.

The Plant Paradox by Dr Steven R Gundry https://amzn.eu/d/2XVThyt

The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith https://amzn.eu/d/41yOjZ5 I share this only for anyone that really wants to understand the potential health/environmental implications of this way of life.

Why Vegans Have Smaller Brains & How Cows Reverse Climate Change https://amzn.eu/d/5d0iQbh This is very similar to the above book but talks a lot more about the impact of this lifestyle on brain development and health.