Our bodies need food and water to continue to function. Intuitively we know that all “food’ is not food. How do you shop for quality, nourishment, and longevity? More and more research shows that our food quality is diminishing from mass food production, insecticides, and hormone injections. In addition, good food is limited by pre-selected food availability, the quantity of local organic growers, and access to small farming industry products. Your ultimate health comes down to what you pack into that grocery bag and bring home. This could determine your health and quality of life. How do you know what you are truly eating; how do you make better food choices; and what are the food myths or fallacies to health and nutrition? The secret to wellness is often in food, movement, and stress management. The focus here is food. Unlearning and relearning what is healthy for your body can be a lifelong lesson, but worth investigating and changing.
Supplementing your nutrition with medicinal herbs is also of great value. Medicinal herbs are often regarded as the ‘forgotten foods’. There are certain herbs that should be available in your kitchen that have medical benefits. Examples of these dried or fresh herbs are licorice root, cinnamon sticks, Astragalus root, burdock root, yellow dock, Echinacea, goldenseal and turmeric root. Some therapeutic grade essential oils can be safely ingested and cooked with as well.
For people who ‘do not cook’, eating out is often a risk. The quality of food choice and the way it is prepared is in someone else’s hands. We hope those hands and kitchens are clean! We know that fast food isn’t the answer and that slow cooked meals are an asset to health and wellness. Choosing to prepare more of your meals at home can be a life saver.
Ideal nutrition balances the body. Nutritious foods help to bring the body to its ideal alkaline balanced state, making it harder to nourish disease living in an acidic body. To balance the body, it is important to eat fresher living foods, move closer to a plant-based diet, and drink enough water to help release toxicity. When looking into your food consumption, access the following. What foods are alkaline or acid? Which foods give the body more yin or yang? What type of food gives you life, based on your body’s constitution? Let’s consume the good stuff that raises your internal vibration. Start a revolution in your kitchen.
Gbeda Tonya Lyles is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, and sound therapist. Her nutritional experience with food therapy comes from treating clients with gastrointestinal disease, studying Asian food theory, learning holistic and folk medicine, recommending dietary changes, and researching professional health and wellness literature. She is the founder of Gbeda Acupuncture and Sound Medicine in East Austin and is pursuing a doctorate at AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine. For an appointment gbedaacusound@gmail.com or 512-426-4595. Gbeda.com is coming soon!
We invite our QPOC community members to continue this conversation with us Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 from 6:00pm-8:00pm at allgo during our “What is in your grocery bag?” discussion group facilitated by Tonya Lyles of Gbeda Acupuncture and Sound Medicine.
