Keys to Healthy Eating Habits & Good Nutrition: Matching 3 Food Groups with 3 Meal Times

A few days ago we discussed good nutrition and the three key food groups that should make up your daily nutritional diet. Today I would like to teach you how to develop healthy eating habits around those three food groups in relation to what time of the day is best for each group. One specific food group should supply the majority of each of your three main meals.

Breakfast - Fresh Fruit (Food Group #3) Your daily breakfast should be made up of fruits. As mentioned earlier, fruits must always be eaten alone on an empty stomach. So, why eat fruits first in the day? The reason is because mornings are when your body is in the process of cleansing itself through the process of elimination. While you are sleeping at night, from 11 pm to 5 am, your digestive, assimilative, and restorative systems are hard at work processing the food you ate from the previous 12-14 hours. Your eliminative system, however, is resting. Then, during the morning hours of 5 am to 11 am, your body kicks in to elimination mode and starts cleansing itself of impurities and toxins through your eliminative organs via your skin, lungs, kidneys, and alimentary canal. Eating a large breakfast early in the morning disrupts this cleansing and elimination process. In order to assist and work with your body to help in its cleansing and elimination process, in the early morning your body needs lots of fresh air, lots of natural spring water, and vigorous exercise or physical work. Then, and only then, is your body ready for a breakfast of fresh juicy fruits.

Follow the advice of legendary health writer and life extension specialist, Paul Bragg, who said, "You must earn your breakfast." Think back 100 years ago to the American farmers who rose early and immediately went out to do their heavy chores (feeding the animals, milking the cows, working in the garden, preparing food) BEFORE they sat down to eat their breakfast. It is simply not healthy to eat a large protein-rich breakfast right after waking up in the morning. Give your body time in the morning to cleanse itself while you exercise or work for a while BEFORE you feed it from the fruit food group. I have personally practiced this principle for many years and have found that doing so keeps me "regular" and assists in the daily morning elimination process. I strongly encourage you to follow this sound scientific advice and start working with your body.

Lunch - Grains, Beans, Seeds, & Nuts (Food Group #1) Your biggest meal should be eaten at lunch, and it should consist of grains, beans, seeds, and nuts. By way of reminder, this is the most important and potent health-building food group of all. Grains and legumes in the form of cooked porridge or cereal, or bean, pea, or lentil soup, are best eaten during lunch. You can combine a few fresh vegetables with your cereal meal at lunch. For example, rice can be combined with vegetables.

Dinner - Fresh Vegetables (Food Group #2) The bulk of your dinner should consist of fresh vegetables (raw and lightly cooked). Always eat a large raw vegetable salad during dinner. You can also add potatoes, yams, squash, or any of your favorite raw or steamed vegetables, stews, soups, or other dishes. Keep in mind that you can combine a few things from food group #1 with this meal such as bread, beans, rice, or corn in moderation. However, the major portion of dinner should always be vegetables.


Daily Quote: "You should breakfast like a pauper, lunch like a king, and dine like a queen." - Paavo Airola

More Keys to Eating Good Healthy Nutrition

Yesterday we talked about the three most important health-building food groups that we should be eating from every day. The three key nutrition groups were grains, legumes, beans, seeds, and nuts; fresh vegetables; and fresh fruit. Today I would like to discuss some complementary foods that can be added to your diet if used in moderation.

1. COLD-PRESSED VEGETABLE OILS - Most commercial supermarket oils should be avoided because they are produced either with the use of extremely high temperatures or with the process known as chemical extraction (cold-processed). Both of these methods result in a processed, filtered, refined, bleached, deodorized, and unnatural toxic oil. Avoid these popular oils which are often inexpensive compared with the truly healthy oils. You want to look for high-quality, cold-pressed, fresh, unrefined, unprocessed, and unheated oils. Sure, they will cost more than the toxic oil, but they are good for your body in moderation. In my opinion, the three best oils are extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil, and sesame seed oil. Keep these three oils on hand, in metal containers or dark bottles preferably. Don't keep them stored in plastic bottles. Refrigerate your oils because natural oils can turn rancid very quickly. And remember that the best way to get the needed saturated and unsaturated fats in your diet is by eating natural fat-containing foods such as nuts, seeds, grains, avocados, raw milk, etc.

2. RAW HONEY - Raw, natural, unheated, unfiltered, and unprocessed pollen-rich honey is one of the best sweeteners to include in your diet. Honey has always been the ancient natural sweetener used by the healthiest people in the world. For example, most centenarians in Russia and Bulgaria use honey as their only sweetener. In fact, a high percentage of these centenarians are actually bee farmers who eat the darkest, cloudiest, unfiltered raw honey they collect. Honey is known the world over to have medicinal-type properties and almost miraculous nutritional properties. One word of caution: use honey in moderation (1-2 teaspoons a day). Using too much honey (or any sweetener) may adversely affect the pancreas, liver, and adrenals, and cause blood sugar problems. One final warning: avoid at all costs white processed sugar, white artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame, Nutra-sweet, Sucrulose, Splenda, and Saacharin. These man-made highly processed artificial sweeteners are toxic to your body and are causing a whole array of major health problems in our country.

3. RAW MILK - Raw milk is an excellent food for those who are milk tolerant and a poison for those who are not. If you are milk tolerant, you can supplement your diet with high-quality, uncontaminated, raw milk from healthy animals that are grass fed or fed organic food. The best way to consume milk is in its cultured sour form such as yogurt, kefir, acidophilus milk, or regular buttermilk. This soured form is better for you because it is in a predigested form and is easily assimilated. In addition, it helps to maintain a healthy intestinal flora and can prevent intestinal putrefaction and constipation. Goat's milk is better than cow's milk for people of every age. A word of caution: today's pasteurized and homogenized supermarket milk is loaded with toxic and dangerous drugs, chemicals, and residues of herbicides, pesticides, and detergents, and is not fit for human consumption. If you're going to drink or eat milk products, make sure they are made from raw milk from healthy animals. If you are concerned about good nutrition and eating healthy, consider adding these three foods to your diet in moderation.

Daily Quote: "The chemistry of the food a person eats becomes his own body chemistry."

Nutrition Food Group Keys to Eating a Good Healthy Diet

According to Dr. Paavo Airola, world-renown nutritionist, the optimum diet for superior health should be made up primarily of three basic whole food groups. These foods are universally adaptable and will supply adequate amounts of all the nutrients required for the maintenance of optimum health, including high-quality proteins in sufficient amounts. It is important to eat healthy and create your daily menu from foods of these three key food groups that are indigenous to your area and grown locally (on organic farms whenever possible). Make sure that your diet is composed of a variety of fresh whole foods from these three food groups.

#1. Grains, Legumes, Beans, Seeds, and Nuts - This is the most important and potent health-building food group of all. The good nutrition of these foods is unsurpassed because they contain the secret of life itself - the germ! The germ is the reproductive power and spark of life in all seeds, and it is essential to life, health, and reproductive ability. This food group contains all of the essential nutrients for human growth and maintenance of health. Even though all grains and seeds are beneficial, it is best to predominantly eat those that your ancestors ate and those that are grown locally.

Contrary to what you may have heard, buckwheat, almonds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and peanuts all contain complete proteins, which are comparable in biological quality value to animal proteins. This food group is also the best natural source of essential unsaturated fatty acids, which are necessary to maintain health. The vitamin content (especially vitamin E and the B-complex vitamins) of this food group is unsurpassed. Grains, nuts, and seeds are also a treasure chest of minerals and trace elements. Minerals also help balance the body chemistry, especially regarding alkalinity and acidity. This group also contains pacifarins, which increase the body's natural resistance to physical ailments. And finally, whole grains, legumes, beans, and seeds provide the body with necessary fiber and roughage content. This is critical to avoiding all kinds of colon and intestinal tract problems that currently plague our nation as a result of refined and processed foods.

The best grains to eat are buckwheat, oats, millet, and brown rice. Most other grains are beneficial, but be careful with wheat because it is one of the most common allergens today. These grains can be eaten daily in the form of cereal, porridge, breads, pancakes, soups, etc. or sprouted. Cooking grains or sprouting them actually helps release the vital minerals by breaking down the mineral-phytin bond so that minerals can be assimilated in the intestinal tract. The best seeds are flax seeds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds. Beware of sunflower seeds because they are extremely vulnerable to rancidity. The best nuts are almonds and hazelnuts. Do NOT buy roasted nuts and seeds because the high heat renders them carcinogenic. Always and only eat fresh raw nuts and seeds, including raw almond butter and raw peanut butter.

#2. Vegetables - This is the next most important food group to incorporate into your daily diet. Vegetables are a rich source of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes. Most green leafy vegetables also contain the highest quality complete proteins. Some vegetables, such as green beans, squash, yams, and potatoes, should be steamed or baked. However, most vegetables should be eaten RAW in the form of a daily salad. A few exceptions would be spinach and chard, which contain too much toxic oxalic acid, and asparagus. Cabbage-family vegetables should be either cooked or prepared in lactic-acid-fermented form. Garlic and onions are powerful health-promoting vegetables and should be part of your diet. Other excellent vegetables are Jerusalem artichokes, horse radish, black radish, celery root, and parsley. Be sure to also include root vegetables in your diet such as carrots, potatoes, beets, turnips, parsnips, and yams. Potatoes are extremely nutritious and are best baked or steamed. Keep in mind that potatoes must be kept in dark storage because a highly toxic chemical, solanine, develops when they are exposed to light. Also, be sure to remove the "eyes" (sprouts) of the potatoe before cooking.

#3. Fruits - Fruits are a powerful source of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements, as well as easily digestible fruit sugars. In addition, they are an excellent cleansing food for breakfast, and they can be eaten between meals, but not with meals. It is best to eat fruits RAW, fresh, and in season, because they lose their vitamin content quickly. It is also beneficial to eat sun-dried fruits, but they must be unsulfured and preferably organically grown. Avoid all dried fruits with sulfur preservatives. The best sun-dried fruits to eat are raisins, figs, apricots, and currants. Now, two cautions about eating fruit: eat fruit in moderation and eat fruit on an empty stomach, by itself. Eating too much fruit will put too much sugar into your blood stream, and eating fruit with other foods will cause them to putrefy in your system and lead to poor digestion.

Daily Quote: "There is a great deal of truth in the saying that man becomes what he eats. Healthy foods = healthy body. Unhealthy foods = unhealthy body." - Gandhi

8 Keys to Eating Healthy Nutrition Properly - Part 2

Today we will discuss the remaining 5 keys to eating healthy nutrition properly. Our emphasis is on HOW to eat correctly because your eating habits will affect your health.

Key #4 - Practice conscious under-eating. The less you eat, the better you will feel because your digestive system will not be overloaded. This is the Number 1 health and longevity principle. Remember, over-eating is one of the main causes of premature aging and degenerative illnesses.

Key #5 - Eat fruit by itself. Don't mix fruit with your meal; it is best eaten alone for digestion purposes. Many older people say that they can't eat fruit because it gives them gas. However, the real problem is not the fruit, but rather that they are eating fruit along with other foods which causes it to putrefy in their systems. The secret to eating fruit is simply to eat it by itself on an empty stomach.

Key #6 - Eat your whole meal within a one-hour period. Do not go past 60 minutes because your body will kick in another boost of insulin.

Key #7 - Learn not to drink fluids while eating your meal. Liquids will only dilute the digestive enzymes and slow down the whole digestion process. There is a time to drink lots of liquids, and that time is between meals, not during meals.

Key #8 - Give thanks to God for the food He provides you. Be grateful for the abundance of His provision.

Bonus Suggestions - Eat several smaller meals in preference to two larger meals. Also, try not to mix too many foods at any one meal. Keeping it simple will enhance your digestion and assimilation. And finally, don't mix raw vegetables and raw fruits at the same meal because the digestive enzymes are incompatible, and this will result in gas and poor digestion.

Daily Quote: "To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals." - Benjamin Franklin

8 Keys to Learning How to Eat Healthy Good Nutrition Properly - Part I

Knowing WHAT good nutrition to eat is critical to eating healthy. However, it's also important to learn HOW to eat properly because the way you eat affects your health. I would like to give you eight keys on proper eating habits.

Key #1 - Eat only when you are truly hungry. If you aren't hungry at mealtime, skip the meal. Too often people end up eating when they aren't even hungry purely out of habit instead of need.

Key #2 - Eat slowly and chew your food well. The enzymes in your saliva begin the digestion process; therefore, chew your food thoroughly. Never eat in a hurry. Far too many people suffer from poor digestion because they don't practice this common sense principle.

Key #3 - Relax when you eat and make it a truly enjoyable culinary experience. This is something we can learn from some of the more laid back southern Europeans who truly take the time to relax and enjoy social time around their meals. Also, never eat when you are upset because your emotional turmoil will lead to digestive turmoil as well.

Daily Quote: "Chew your solid foods until they are liquid; no stomach has teeth." - Paul C. Bragg

Eating Healthy Good Nutritious Food Will Be Your Remedy

"Your Food Will Be Your Remedy," said Hippocrates, the great physician-teacher and father of medicine. In this profound maxim, Hippocrates described the secret to living a healthy lifestyle. Natural, organic, fresh fruits, berries, greens, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and sprouts have remarkable nutritive compounds that give life to the human body and help cleanse, purify, and rebuild the body when it is weakened and struggling to overcome ailments. These live whole foods are loaded with thousands of naturally occurring nutritional compounds, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants, live enzymes, and amino acids in their natural synergistic state that can only be obtained from these live foods. These bioavailable nutrients cannot be isolated and placed into a synthetic vitamin or mineral supplement.

Now, think with me for a moment about your daily diet. Is the food you're eating being a "remedy" or a curse to your body? If you were to take Hippocrates' wisdom and apply it to your lifestyle, what would your eating habits look like? What kind of nutrition would you be putting into your body? Which denatured processed toxic foods would you stop buying and stop eating? What fresh produce would you start eating several times a day? I want this blog to be personal and practical, not theoretical. My hope is that the information you learn from this blog will lead you to make some very significant changes to your eating habits. Start applying this ancient wisdom to your diet today by making good nutritional choices one day at a time. Decide right now that your food will be your remedy and that you will start eating healthy.

Daily Quote: "True wisdom consists in not departing from nature, but molding our conduct according to her wise laws." - Seneca

Good Nutrition & Eating Healthy Are Some of the Keys to a Healthy Lifestyle

I want to begin by saying that it IS possible to be healthy and to create a healthy lifestyle IF you truly want it bad enough. In the end, you, and you alone, determine your health - not your doctor, not your parents, not your spouse, not your genes, and not even God. In fact, God has put the responsibility for your health into your own hands, with the recommendation that you choose LIFE and not death. Every day of your life you will have to make decisions about what you will eat and drink, what you will say and do, and what you will think about. In each of these decisions, you will be choosing life or death, health or ill-health.

This blog will focus on good nutrition and eating healthy as the cornerstone to living a healthy lifestyle. There are other important keys to health: regular exercise and deep breathing, drinking plenty of natural spring water daily, giving your body the rest it needs to rejuvenate itself, detoxifying your body and its environment, giving and receiving love and being forgiving, accepting, and thankful; and developing your spiritual life through a friendship with God. I will touch on these important keys to health occasionally, but the main focus of this blog will be on eating right and giving your body the good nutrition it needs to function the way that God intended it to.

You and I need to be wise regarding what we put into our bodies. The expression, "You are what you eat," is profoundly true and sobering. What we put into our bodies (food & drink) will determine what kind of life we will live. It's a simple "cause-effect" relationship. The cause is what we eat and drink, and the effect is the health or ill-health of our bodies. There is a spiritual principle involved here that comes from the Bible that says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." Think for a minute how this applies to what people "sow" into their bodies every day. Whenever a person eats right and puts good nutrition into his body, he will reap health and life. On the other hand, when a person eats badly and puts refined, denatured,toxic, processed food into his body, he will reap malnutrition, ill-health, and premature death. Unfortunately, most people are deceived about this basic principle, and they continue to eat the wrong foods, all the while mystified about the various ailments they are continually suffering from. I am writing this blog to help people get free from this deception, and to guide them to living a healthy lifestyle through changing the way that they eat.

Daily Quote: "You are what you eat, drink, breathe, think, say, and do." - Patricia Bragg