Vegetables, sprouts, legumes, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains, water, tea, honey

Cover the jar with a sprouting screen or cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band. After soaking, drain well and keep in a warm (65 degree) dark place or cover with a cloth or bag. Rinse two times per day (four times for soybeans) and drain well. After three days place alfalfa, red clover, radish and mustard sprouts in a cool place with indirect sunlight to induce chlorophyll. To remove loose hulls, place in a large bowl of water and agitate. Gently reach under the sprouts, lift them out and drain. If refrigerated they will keep up to one week in a plastic bag or covered glass jar.

Alfalfa is more nutritionally concentrated than other sprouts because of its rich mineralization. Roots can reach down 100 feet into the earth where it has access to minerals and trace elements untouched by other plants. Alfalfa benefits the urinary system and intestines, and detoxifies the body. It contains eight enzymes that help assimilate protein, fats and carbohydrates.

Sea Vegetables (seaweeds) are classified by colors: red, brown, green, blue green and yellow green. The colors, light exposure, depth, temperature, tides and seashores in which they grow correspond to the distribution of nutrients and variety.

Sea plants contain ten to twenty times the minerals of land plants and an abundance of vitamins and other elements necessary for our metabolism. They are an excellent source of food and medicine. Certain sea vegetables actually remove radioactive and toxic metal wastes from the body. In addition, they are a wealth of iodine, calcium and iron.

For instance, kelp moistens dryness, softens hardened areas and masses in the body, benefits kidneys, is a diuretic, anti-coagulant, natural fungicide, and relieves hormone imbalances and more. Kelp greatly increases nutritional values of all food prepared with it as it is considered the most completely mineralized food. It is excellent added to beans since the minerals help to balance protein and oils and increase digestibility.

Fruits:

Fruit contains valuable minerals, vitamins, enzymes and fiber. It is easily digested and most are alkalizing, cleansing and balances overuse of rich foods particularly those of concentrated proteins. The alkaline element combined with its acids stimulates the liver and pancreas. Let's look at the health benefits of some fruits for examples.

Apples produce fluids for your body. They particularly moisten dryness of the lungs, protects the lungs from cigarette smoke, stimulate the appetite and remedies indigestion.

Avocados build the blood, harmonize the liver, and lubricate the lungs and intestines. They are a natural source of lecithin, which is a brain food. More than 80% of the caloric content is easily digested fat in the form of monounsaturated oils. They are rich in copper, which aids in red blood cell formation, and are a nutritious protein source.

Purple grape juice offers most of the same benefits for the heart as red wine but the moderate level of alcohol in red wine does offer one more apparent benefit: It increases HDL, the good cholesterol.

Reservatrol, another constituent of grapes, has demonstrated anti-cancer and chemopreventative activity, and may also protect and maintain brain and nerve health.

Legumes:

Legumes are beans, peas and lentils. Each has high protein content. This protein can help regulate sugar, water and other aspects of metabolism. They are also high in fat and carbohydrate and rich in potassium, calcium, iron and several B vitamins. Sprouted legumes are an excellent source of vitamin C and enzymes.

Soy, as an example of legumes, is full of beneficial nutrients. It contains plenty of protein, both soluble fiber, which is good for your heart, and insoluble fiber, which speeds intestinal elimination, as well as a wealth of vitamins and minerals including B vitamins, calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc. It also has an abundance of phytochemicals such as flavonoids, phytates, phytosterols, polyphenols, terpenes and saponins. Soy has anticancer characteristics, too, and may very well prevent breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Soy also seems to slow benign prostate enlargement. Research is ongoing in the area of menopausal symptoms relieved by soy isoflavones, in one experiment relief from hot flashes was seen in as little as two weeks.

Soy is considered a low-fat, no-cholesterol food that can also help fight heart disease. It can also potentially slow osteoporosis, a disease of aging, which weakens bones, due to the fact that soy offers abundant calcium in a form the body readily absorbs.

Soy drinks, soy beans, tofu, soy sauce, tempeh, miso, soy oil, soymilk, soy flour and textured soy protein are good ways to get your soy.

Nuts and Seeds:

Nuts and seeds are fatty foods, which are typically the best sources of vitamin E, an immune enhancing antioxidant and nerve protector. They contain the largest quantity of fat of all unprocessed foods but much of it is in the form of essential fatty acids. Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates, and others are just a part of their remarkable properties. Looked at in total, nuts and seeds are the "spark of life, a living and perfect food". They are best consumed in small amounts. Most tonify the body and add weight and strength.

Here's the catch. Nuts and seeds lose their nutrients and become rancid once hulled or shelled. Deterioration begins immediately. Only buy them in their shells. They will last up to one year. Store hulled seeds in dark glass bottles in cold places since oil rich foods, such as seeds, combine with plastic to form plasticides.

Polyunsaturated oil contains essential fatty acids, which our bodies cannot provide. There are three essential fatty acids - linoleic, alpha-linolenic, and arachidonic acid. The latter most people have in excess from eating animal products.

Linoleic and arachidonic acids are "omega-6" fatty acids and encourage blood clot formation. Alpha-linolenic acid,"omega-3" oil, reduces clotting. The objective is to achieve a balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.

Essential fatty acids promote healthy, youthful skin and hair, support proper thyroid and adrenal function bolstering immunity, promote healthy blood, nerves and arteries, and are crucial in the transport and breakdown of cholesterol.

Deficiencies can lead to skin disorders, dry hair, loss of hair, nail problems, gallstones, irritability, liver problems, varicose veins, susceptibility to infections and retarded growth, among other problems.

With our heavy use of vegetable oils it would seem a lack of essential fatty acids would seldom occur, but most oils contain rancid forms of these fatty acids. Polyunsaturated oils easily oxidize and turn rancid creating free radicals in the body that fosters aging and weakened immunity. However, when polyunsaturates are eaten as whole, unprocessed food they are preserved within the food and are the freshest, most beneficial form, with the correct balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Nuts and seeds are the highest sources. Some other sources are avocados, olives, and soybeans.

Whole grains:

When whole grains are complemented with a good variety of other unrefined food plants, all the elements for nutrition are available. Grains satisfy hunger and taste, provide energy and endurance, calm nerves, and encourage deep sleep. They promote elimination, quick reflexes, long memory, and clear thinking. Whole grains, along with legumes and vegetables, are commonly called complex carbohydrates. The digestion of these whole food complex carbohydrates gives a harmonious, steady, balanced metabolism providing complete nutrients. Unlike highly refined, nutrient deficient grains (refined rice, breads, cereals, etc.) and sugars, which give you a rush followed by depression. Complex carbohydrates are lacking in our modern diet more than any other item.

Whole wheat is a rich source of vitamin E, one of the most powerful antioxidants that occur in food. It contains zinc, which is essential for over 200 biological enzymes and critical for normal hormonal levels and a healthy immune system. Magnesium, a must in over 300 enzyme activities - especially the production of ATP which helps supply energy to every part of the body - when added with the calcium inherent in whole wheat, is 16 times more effective at promoting bone density than calcium alone.

Whole wheat reduces estrogen levels in the blood stream and helps to normalize cell regeneration. It also contains necessary dietary fiber, folic acid, chromium, B vitamins and phytochemicals.

Amaranth is consumed in areas of Africa and Latin America. There is no malnutrition there. It has a high nutritional value and is able to thrive in poor soils and drought conditions. Amaranth can be used to help fulfill protein and calcium requirements. It is also rich in lysine, an amino acid low in wheat and most other grains. Amaranth is high in fiber, protein, amino acids (lysine and methionine), vitamin C, calcium, magnesium and silicon. It benefits the lungs.

Use amaranth in breads, cakes, soups and grain dishes. You can pop it like popcorn, toast it for a nutty flavor, or sprout it to use in sandwiches or salads.

Barley has a sweet and salty flavor. It regulates the stomach, fortifies the intestines, strengthens the spleen-pancreas, builds the blood, moistens dryness and benefits the gall bladder and nerves.

"Sproutable" barley is mildly laxative and much more nutritious than "pearl" barley - more fiber, twice the calcium, three times the iron and 25% more protein. Barley tea is also a coffee substitute.

Buckwheat has a sweet flavor. It cleans and strengthens the intestines and improves the appetite. It contains rutin, a bioflavonoid that strengthens capillaries and blood vessels, inhibits hemorrhages, reduces blood pressure and increases circulation to the hands and feet. It tastes absolutely wonderful in pancakes!

Rice expels toxins, strengthens the spleen-pancreas, soothes the stomach, and is hypoallergenic. Whole brown rice is rich in B vitamins and therefore benefits the nervous system and helps relieve mental depression.

Short grain rice has a nuttier flavor and chewier consistency. Whole grain basmati rice is slightly aromatic and is lighter than other rice. Sweet rice is rich in gluten and contains more protein and fat than other rice. Wild rice is not true rice but has a sweet and bitter flavor and benefits the kidneys and bladder.

Other whole grains you may want to look into that have excellent nutritional and healing abilities are millet, oats, quinoa, rye, and spelt.

Bread is the major medium for the consumption of grain in America. For people to adapt to grain in its whole, un-milled seed state is not practical, nor necessary. The milling of grain causes some loss of nutrients but at the same time natural leavening contributes more vitamins and enzymes through the action of beneficial fermentation. It's important to find or make bread that is naturally leavened. This makes it light and totally digestible.

Commercially yeasted breads, even the whole grain varieties, typically contain flour bleach, which forms alloxan, a compound known to cause diabetes in animals by destroying the beta cells of the pancreas. Flour bleach does more than bleach. It acts chemically to soften and age flour, and to repel insects.

Some natural leavening agents are sourdough from a culture, miso, rejuvelac, and fermented cooked grains.

Salt:

The controversy over salt has raged for decades. Studies have shown salt to be a true culprit. However, the salt being tested is the refined, chemical variety that is 99.5% sodium chloride, with additions of anti-caking chemicals, potassium iodide and sugar (dextrose to stabilize the iodine). Not the whole salt used for a millennia. The denaturing of whole salt should remind us of refined sugar and white bread.

The advent of chemical farming and food processing since World War II, the soil and food of much of the world, have been depleted of minerals and other nutrients. Our food, animal or vegetable, is also full of pollutants and farm chemicals. Minerals are a basis for the formation of vitamins, enzymes and proteins. A craving for salt is quite possibly a craving for the many minerals lacking in chemically grown food.

Salt has many benefits to our bodies - clarifying, alkalizing, purifying - but there is also great potential for misuse. Salt intake should be limited to about 3,000 mg, about 2/3 of a teaspoon, per day. The average American consumes about 17,000 mg, about 3-1/2 teaspoons, per day mostly unintentionally from eating refined foods.

Water, Tea & Honey:

The amount of water in your diet will significantly influence your long-term health. In cases of a healthy diet, most people can listen to the wisdom of their bodies and drink according to their thirst. Vegetables and fruits are generally 90% water and most grains and legumes are more than 80% water when cooked.

Those of us on a rich meat or salty foods diet usually have insufficient body fluids and should drink eight glasses of water per day. Insufficient water consumption causes toxicity, constipation, tension, tightness, overeating, dryness and kidney damage. Fluoridated water suppresses thyroid activity and chlorinated water destroys vitamin E.

Water is best consumed at least 30 minutes before and one hour after meals. Otherwise digestive enzymes and secretions are diluted and food nutrients are not effectively extracted. If you feel you need to drink something with your meal have only a few ounces of warm water, tea or an herbal tea.

Tea is believed by researchers to have potential health benefits including cancer prevention, cardiovascular assistance, antiviral action and life extension. The components in tea believed responsible for these benefits are the powerful antioxidants called catechins as well as flavonoids. Green tea contains a higher percentage of catechins than black tea.

Honey is valued for its many healing properties. Treatment with honey is called "apitherapy" and is used to replenish energy, enhance physical stamina and strengthening after illness. Honey can help calm, promote rejuvenating sleep, relieve indigestion and is used to treat respiratory ailments and cardiovascular disease. Simple sugars, glucose, and fructose, predigested by bees, are quickly and easily absorbed in our digestive tracts. This provides us with a quick pick-me-up and yet has an overall calming effect. Other ingredients in honey are water, pollen, organic acids, enzymes and various proteins. Since honey contains pollen, eating honey harvested locally is thought to be useful for the relief of hay fever. Additionally, the germ killing substance in honey, inhibine, helps prevent infections in minor wounds. Spread a thin layer over the wound and cover with a sterile bandage.

If you're following along in the sequence as I am offering it page to page, the next part delves into the top three killer diseases and how they can be prevented, at least in part, through sound nutrition - heart disease, cancer and stroke. We will also look at blood pressure, blood flow, and digestion. Note: Please be advised that some examples of diseases given in the next two parts are rather shocking and graphic in nature.

But first, let's take a look at the nutrients your body needs...

Healthy Foods