Food and the Immune System...
Wednesday, December 13
Today was all about food and the immune system. Our chef on this topic is a fabulous teacher and was fascinating with her knowledge, experience, stories and tips. Her name is Jill and she's an expert on the use of sea vegetables and has written a cook book called Vegetables from Sea.
In the morning, we prepared a variety of dishes to boost immune systems and to serve to people with weakened immune systems, including sea vegetables of course and Jill also loves using Japanese ingredients so many of her dishes include traditional Japanese components. Dishes included: warm pinto bean salad with shitake mushrooms, fish congee (Chinese rice porridge), brussel sprouts and red pepper salad, avocado salad, cream of yams, hijiki with fresh lemons, apricot parfait (using kanten or agar agar), carrot, burdock and seitan dish (made this... very good I must say).
Some snippets from the lecture today...
- Usually people have symptoms of overactive or underactive immunity. A healthy person usually swings back and forth between the two.
What are signs that you have overactive or underactive immunity?
- Frequent colds and colds that last longer than normal. The normal could should last 7-10 days. - Recurring infections, i.e. nose, ear, throat, bladder
- Skin ailments that don't clear up and are reoccuring
- Fungus around nails and groin area
- Lower energy levels than in the past and not based on sleep
Dietary and holistic recommendations for underactive immunity:
- Stay away from fried foods, in particular foods cooked under high heat
- Reduce or eliminate animal foods and increase vegetables and fruits
- Lots of variety in food selection
- Soaking whole grains in 1T of lemon juice or whey before cooking. Grains are high in phytic acid, which inhibits absorption of minerals. The fermentation process with the lemon juice or whey neutralizes the phytic acid. Throw away the water from beans but you can use the soaking water from grains if you want. Also, the sicker a patient is or the lower the immunity system, beans should be well cooked, which is the opposite of our culinary teachings.
- Use more fresh garlic. 5,000 year old remedy for improving health. Effective free radical scavenger. Eliminates bacteria and viruses.
- Include more unpasteurized miso in your diet. Miso is a probiotic food full of enzymes and a powerful blood alkalizer
- Exercise
- Body rub. Jill believes in this and says if you try it for a week it will make you feel better. Several people were going to try it out. Use a dry brush or hot cloth before baths or showers to rub the skin and stimulate it. In particular, it's important to rub lymph areas... thoratic duct where the lymphatic merges and enters the blood system (at top of chest), behind knees and behind elbows.
- Avoid eating late at night or over eating. Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed. It takes 2-3 hours before the stomach empties into the small intestine. If you lie down after eating, food is in an akward position to move ad tries to come back up, thereby resulting in symptoms such as chronic heartburn, leading to ulcers
- Have fun and do light things to move your energy
- Rest. Lack of rest ages you.
Overactive immunity results in allergies that are traditional, which are life threatening, and non life threatening like hayfever. Alleriges are the body's attempt to rid itself of someting that is foreign or toxic to it. The number of children with ear and throat infections has been rapidly increasing. Also, children with food sensitivities and asthma is on the rise. Conventially produced dairy has been proven to aggravate these infections. Try raw or organic milk instead, and pasteurized but not homogenized. Homogenized milk produces destructive enzymes. Also, in all processed food products there is soy, wheat and corn, which are genetically modified, and children are eating this, which are also aggravating these infections.
Some suggestions to naturally help allergies, slow down histamines and build up health?
- Stay away from dairy, or at least commercial dairy products
- Use ginger more often. Good for digestive problems and helps move out toxins.
- Try to eat only organic soy, wheat and corn
- Use tumeric more often. It's a powerful antiinflammatory. Just use a pinch in grains, etc.
- Reduce stress, relax. Be aware of your reaction to stress (shallow breath, tense muscles, shorter fuse, headaches, more emotional, stomach problems, depression, etc.) and find ways to get rid of it. Immunity is directly affected by stress.
- Some people find freeze dried stinging neetles very effective for allergy relief, especially during the season where your allergies are the strongest. This brings relief to allergies but does not stop histamines, and also helps create strong bones because it's high in calcium, magnesium and iron.
- Vitamin C to strengthen the immunity system and build up white blood cells
- Real fresh food with lots of variety and colour
- Eat seaweed (of course) as it has lots of concentrated minerals
- Use oils such as flax seed and hemp seed and eat fatty fish, which are inflammatory. We need more Omega 3 and have too much Omega 6 in normal North American diets.
What weakens your immune system?
- Environmental toxins
- Toxins in the food supply
- Overuse of drugs weaken the immune system. There is no drug with out a short or long term side affect. Just be aware of what is going into your system.
- Extended periods of stress
- Genetic predisposition
- Water that is not of good quality
- Unresolved emotional issues
- White sugar. 1 t. of white sugar inhibits your immunity for 6 hours. Excess sugar is stored as fat in places with the least amount of movement. When this storage is filled it goes around the organs and arteries.
- Stress. Immunity is directly affected by stress. Asthma has been linked to chronic stress. It makes you you more susceptible to bateria and viruses. Also chronic stress is linked to early stage cancer.
Hopeful news... there are now over 2000 hospitals in the US that are offering organic food as an option to patients.
Today was all about food and the immune system. Our chef on this topic is a fabulous teacher and was fascinating with her knowledge, experience, stories and tips. Her name is Jill and she's an expert on the use of sea vegetables and has written a cook book called Vegetables from Sea.
In the morning, we prepared a variety of dishes to boost immune systems and to serve to people with weakened immune systems, including sea vegetables of course and Jill also loves using Japanese ingredients so many of her dishes include traditional Japanese components. Dishes included: warm pinto bean salad with shitake mushrooms, fish congee (Chinese rice porridge), brussel sprouts and red pepper salad, avocado salad, cream of yams, hijiki with fresh lemons, apricot parfait (using kanten or agar agar), carrot, burdock and seitan dish (made this... very good I must say).
Some snippets from the lecture today...
- Usually people have symptoms of overactive or underactive immunity. A healthy person usually swings back and forth between the two.
What are signs that you have overactive or underactive immunity?
- Frequent colds and colds that last longer than normal. The normal could should last 7-10 days. - Recurring infections, i.e. nose, ear, throat, bladder
- Skin ailments that don't clear up and are reoccuring
- Fungus around nails and groin area
- Lower energy levels than in the past and not based on sleep
Dietary and holistic recommendations for underactive immunity:
- Stay away from fried foods, in particular foods cooked under high heat
- Reduce or eliminate animal foods and increase vegetables and fruits
- Lots of variety in food selection
- Soaking whole grains in 1T of lemon juice or whey before cooking. Grains are high in phytic acid, which inhibits absorption of minerals. The fermentation process with the lemon juice or whey neutralizes the phytic acid. Throw away the water from beans but you can use the soaking water from grains if you want. Also, the sicker a patient is or the lower the immunity system, beans should be well cooked, which is the opposite of our culinary teachings.
- Use more fresh garlic. 5,000 year old remedy for improving health. Effective free radical scavenger. Eliminates bacteria and viruses.
- Include more unpasteurized miso in your diet. Miso is a probiotic food full of enzymes and a powerful blood alkalizer
- Exercise
- Body rub. Jill believes in this and says if you try it for a week it will make you feel better. Several people were going to try it out. Use a dry brush or hot cloth before baths or showers to rub the skin and stimulate it. In particular, it's important to rub lymph areas... thoratic duct where the lymphatic merges and enters the blood system (at top of chest), behind knees and behind elbows.
- Avoid eating late at night or over eating. Stop eating 2-3 hours before bed. It takes 2-3 hours before the stomach empties into the small intestine. If you lie down after eating, food is in an akward position to move ad tries to come back up, thereby resulting in symptoms such as chronic heartburn, leading to ulcers
- Have fun and do light things to move your energy
- Rest. Lack of rest ages you.
Overactive immunity results in allergies that are traditional, which are life threatening, and non life threatening like hayfever. Alleriges are the body's attempt to rid itself of someting that is foreign or toxic to it. The number of children with ear and throat infections has been rapidly increasing. Also, children with food sensitivities and asthma is on the rise. Conventially produced dairy has been proven to aggravate these infections. Try raw or organic milk instead, and pasteurized but not homogenized. Homogenized milk produces destructive enzymes. Also, in all processed food products there is soy, wheat and corn, which are genetically modified, and children are eating this, which are also aggravating these infections.
Some suggestions to naturally help allergies, slow down histamines and build up health?
- Stay away from dairy, or at least commercial dairy products
- Use ginger more often. Good for digestive problems and helps move out toxins.
- Try to eat only organic soy, wheat and corn
- Use tumeric more often. It's a powerful antiinflammatory. Just use a pinch in grains, etc.
- Reduce stress, relax. Be aware of your reaction to stress (shallow breath, tense muscles, shorter fuse, headaches, more emotional, stomach problems, depression, etc.) and find ways to get rid of it. Immunity is directly affected by stress.
- Some people find freeze dried stinging neetles very effective for allergy relief, especially during the season where your allergies are the strongest. This brings relief to allergies but does not stop histamines, and also helps create strong bones because it's high in calcium, magnesium and iron.
- Vitamin C to strengthen the immunity system and build up white blood cells
- Real fresh food with lots of variety and colour
- Eat seaweed (of course) as it has lots of concentrated minerals
- Use oils such as flax seed and hemp seed and eat fatty fish, which are inflammatory. We need more Omega 3 and have too much Omega 6 in normal North American diets.
What weakens your immune system?
- Environmental toxins
- Toxins in the food supply
- Overuse of drugs weaken the immune system. There is no drug with out a short or long term side affect. Just be aware of what is going into your system.
- Extended periods of stress
- Genetic predisposition
- Water that is not of good quality
- Unresolved emotional issues
- White sugar. 1 t. of white sugar inhibits your immunity for 6 hours. Excess sugar is stored as fat in places with the least amount of movement. When this storage is filled it goes around the organs and arteries.
- Stress. Immunity is directly affected by stress. Asthma has been linked to chronic stress. It makes you you more susceptible to bateria and viruses. Also chronic stress is linked to early stage cancer.
Hopeful news... there are now over 2000 hospitals in the US that are offering organic food as an option to patients.
posted by Caroline at 8:38 PM
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