How to have an efficient and unstressed digestive system.
This
is far more important than most people realise because a system that
struggles to cope will have a detrimental effect on other parts of the
body even those seemingly not linked to digestion, lower back pains for example.
There are two main considerations
to the digestive process and they run in tandem.
The first one involves what
it is that is being digested. To illustrate, say you put a carrot in the
blender and take a sample of this juice to a chemist and asked him to analyze
it. He will take a look at it and assume from its appearance that it might be
carrot juice and test the sample against what is known to be in a carrot, very
quickly therefore coming up with an analysis - vitamin A, fiber, iron etc.
Next you might put half a
carrot, a tomato, an onion, some celery and a few herbs in the blender. Take a
sample of this juice to the chemist for an analysis and he will say "What
on earth is this, it will take weeks to check for everything."
Well, the little
chemist in
your digestive tract faces the same difficulties every day. He needs to
analyze
what you are eating in order to be able to direct the right
enzymes, acids
or alkalines to your chewed up meal so as to break it down into its
constituent
parts enabling them to be assimilated as required. The problem is, he probably has less than an hour to do it so digestion will have time to complete before the next meal
arrives. When it does and the current one's digestion hasn't completed, it either gets moved on prematurely or mixed in with the incoming
one –
neither is a good option. The former results in undigested matter
moving into
the colon where it decomposes and releases toxins, some of which get
into the
bloodstream. The latter means the previous food spends too much time
being
bombarded with acids, now most likely the wrong ones because what is
being eaten this meal may be radically different from the
previous meal, again toxin production will be the result.
Apart from the above, sugars and fats should
not be eaten together.
Dairy products should never be part of our
diet under any circumstances.
Complex carbohydrates (starchy foods) and
animal protein especially red meat should never be eaten together. YES, that means the combination of Steak and Chips (French Fries) or
Roast Beef, Pork or Lamb with roast potatoes should NEVER EVER be on anyone's
menu. Nor should Hamburgers, Hot dogs or protein filled sandwiches.
Those combinations of
consumables bring on extra heavy work-loads for the liver, kidneys and
prostrate gland. The higher phosphate to calcium ratio in the meats accentuates
the work-load of the liver when complex carbohydrates are consumed at the same
meal.
Bearing in mind all the
above, what can we do to make out digestive system as efficient as possible and
keep its workload to a minimum? To begin with we must drastically revise our
eating habits. We must no longer eat, at the same meal, food that takes half an
hour to digest along with food that needs four hours to digest. That also means
if carbohydrates and/or proteins are the main part of a meal then having fruit
as a desert afterwards is adding insult and injury to your digestive system.
Mono diets are easy on the digestive system and give the body a bit of space to carry out the removal of toxins that have been stored in the body for years. Beware though, if mono dieting on fruit (the great cleanser) one needs to monitor one’s blood pressure and pulse rate as, especially in the initial stages, the body can get overly enthusiastic with the toxin removal process. Dumping too many toxins into the bloodstream at once can be very debilitating and make one feel like they are dying. The common misguided conclusion to this happening is “I can’t eat fruit, I’m allergic to it”. NO ONE is ‘allergic’ to fruit, we are all genetically programmed to eat it and it is our body’s response to start vigorous detoxing that invokes any debilitating reactions.
Adopting a mono dieting regime will produce some surprises. Say for example one of your culinary pleasures was gramdma's favourite salad, if when mono dieting you decide to make a meal of each of the ingredients in turn, it is highly likely that you will find one or more of the ingredients entirely distasteful, a good indication that those ingredients are not good for you. So over the years, you have been eating them against your digestive systems wishes, you haven't noticed because the other ingredients masked their presence. The other 'discovery' you might make is that a meal of carrots last week was quite pleasant, they were sweet, juicy and flavoursome. This week they are sharp almost bitter (invariably the produce this time of a farmer employing poor fertilizing practices) and your digestive system just plain rebels to prevent you from eating enough to make a meal of them. This is how your system is supposed to work all the time to prevent you from ingesting unsuitable or harmful substances. It is extremely difficult to sort the good from the bad when they are all chopped up and mixed together - and so easy to make that determination when you attempt to make a meal of just one food item. If you can't make a meal of it you shouldn't eat it at all, not even one tiny sliver.
As to the thought you may get that "perhaps I should eat this or that because it contains XYZ which is said to contain 'essential' something or other". Your organism is inherently far smarter than any book you may have read or any diet expert you may have listened to. Admittedly, initially when you body is overloaded with waste and toxins, there will be mixed signals about what to eat especially from your runaway wayward memories. Just doggedly stick to the mono diet regime until your body cleans itself out and gets into equalibrium, then it will inspire and guide you what to select to eat to meet your needs.
"Men dig their graves with their own teeth,
and die more by those instruments than by all weapons of their
enemies."
Pythagoras of Samos (ca.530 B.C.)