Healthy Diet and Lifestyle
This Week
Halloween at Hallelujah Acres
Oct 31st
Hallelujah Acres Canada Staff dressed up for Halloween – left to right Judy Fleming as Mother Nature Sherry as Vampire in training Adila as a Pirate Lass Steve as King Carrot
Disease Prevention: Arthritis
Oct 19th
Last week I introduced the series on Disease Prevention and the new book (FULL DAY MENUS) that I have put together with all the notes from the classes I did earlier this year. There were nine diseases discussed along with nine full day menus for each of these diseases. This week we will look at ARTHRITIS.
According to the 2010 Statistics Canada website, arthritis and other rheumatic conditions affected nearly 4.5 million Canadians aged 12 years and older – approximately 1 in 6 people. Over one-half of those with arthritis were women, and nearly 3 of every 5 people with arthritis were younger than 65 years of age. www.arthritis.ca
Arthritis is inflammation of one or more joints. A joint is the area where two bones meet. There are over 100 different types of arthritis. To keep things simple we will divide arthritis into two general types; inflammatory and degenerative. The root cause of degenerative arthritis is the breakdown of cartilage whereas inflammation of the lining (synovium) of the joint is the root cause of inflammatory arthritis.
From the book, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by Phyllis A. Balch I have copied the author’s suggestions for healthy eating: Eat more sulfur-containing foods, such as asparagus, garlic and onions. Sulfur is needed for the repair and rebuilding of bone, cartilage, and connective tissue, and it also aids in the absorption of calcium. Other beneficial foods include fresh vegetables (especially green leafy vegetables, which supply vitamin K), non-acidic fresh fruits, whole grains, oatmeal, brown rice and avocados. Be sure to include these foods in your diet also, tart red cherries can relieve pain and inflammation. Eat fresh pineapple frequently. Eat some form of fiber, such as ground flaxseeds, oat bran or rice bran daily. Avoid nightshade vegetables (peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and white potatoes).
Here is one of the many recipes you will find in the book FULL DAY MENUS
Pineapple Kiwi Green Smoothie: (for two) Put the following in your blender:
2 ripe frozen bananas thinly sliced
1 cup fresh or frozen pineapple (peeled)
1 kiwi peeled and sliced
3-4 handfuls of baby spinach (or try kale)
2 thin slices of ginger root
2-4 cups cold distilled water
Blend on high until a smooth and creamy texture. Best served fresh and cold but if put in a thermos full to the top it will keep until lunch – just shake before drinking. Add 1-2 tbsp of ground flax seed or sesame seed to add good plant protein!
In the Kitchen with Judy as she Talks About Disease Prevention
Oct 12th
Every time I ask a class if they wish to be healthy they all answer yes! But for many it is not that easy. I have spent the last thirteen years teaching people how to eat healthier so they can prevent the diseases of the modern world today from becoming part of their lives.
In a series of classes on “Disease Prevention” I have shown how we can avoid the common diseases of today by doing a few simple things. Include in your diet raw food and juices, get enough exercise and rest, manage your stress and emotions and trust in God and you will have better health. Why would we wait until a disease hits us before we do something about it?
Once we understand what good nutrition means, what foods we should eat and why, then it will be easier to adapt healthier habits that will eventually make us healthier and prevent those diseases we dread from being part of our lives.
As I have said there are just a few easy steps to better health, so in my new book, Full Day Menus, there are easy menus and healthy tips to help you with implementing the habits you need to be healthier and prevent disease from turning your lives into hardship. This book is available at HA Canada.
FULL DAY MENUS: A collection of Vegan Recipes from “In the Kitchen with Judy as she Talks About Disease Prevention”.
BREAKFAST / LUNCH / SUPPER / and …. DESSERT! by Judy Fleming
Personal Testimony
Aug 28th
Well we are almost at the end of August and the short Canadian summer, but it has been a wonderful hot summer, so I will not complain! The end of August always reminds me of my first few days working for Hallelujah Acres Canada. I started August 28th, 1998 when HA Canada was just starting, so this year we are celebrating our 13th Anniversary! We started back in Shallow Lake, ON with Bev and Dorothy Shouldice as the Canadian founders. It has been a wonderful 13 years and I still feel that this diet and lifestyle was been the beginning of a new life for me!
For those of you that have not heard my personal testimony I will give you just a glimpse of how my health life has changed in the past 13 years. First my daily headaches (which I had for over 15 years) stopped after just 3 days of eating all raw and juicing, I was taking 6-8 extra strength pain killers every day just to get through my days, but after just 3 days I did not need them and have not had to use any pain killers since then!! I had lost 8 lbs after just 10 days and over 30 lbs after 6 months. My bone mass was that of a women in her late 60’s when I was just 46. I started this new diet when I was almost 49 and after 3 years my bone mass was that of a woman in her 50’s and then by the time I had lived this lifestyle for 10 years I had the bone mass of a women in her late 30’s and I was 60 at that time! Just before starting my work with HA Canada I had been told by my doctors that my polyps in my uterus were cancerous and they were recommending drastic measures but after 6 months of again just eating raw food and lots of juicing, my doctor informed me these polyps (which had been a concern for over 5 years) were now gone and they have not returned since then! I have not had a cold or the flu in the past 12 ½ years and I have been able to work 6 days a week teaching classes and keeping up with my staff over the years, who have all been 20-30 years younger than me!
So to those who are wondering if this diet and lifestyle is for them all I can say is try it and see what it can do for you. I would never go back to eating the Standard American Diet, the SAD diet, because I do not want to be sick!
We had a wonderful 13th anniversary celebration last Saturday and we are starting another new year at HA Canada with lots of new things on our horizon so I welcome all of you who have just started and want to say “Just Do It!” and see what you too can do.