before, are all acid-forming foods that increase the pH of the body. The body’s desired state is an alkaline state. You can check your alkaline levels by putting a strip of litmus paper on your tongue to test your saliva. Healthy saliva gives a reading of pH 6.5–7.5, meaning it is in an alkaline state. It is important to make sure that the body is not in an acidic state, as acidity increases inflammation of the body, leading to acid reflux, digestion problems, allergies, indigestion, bloating, heartburn, fatigue and mood swings. The long-term health problems of a body in a constant acidic state can lead to serious and more chronic illnesses.
Food provides sources of both acidic and alkaline properties, and by eating the right foods, the body can maintain a healthy balanced state of alkalinity. I have created recipes with this balance in mind. Most foods, such as meat, fish, dairy, grains, most nuts, sugar, shellfish, soft drinks, processed tomatoes, corn, beans and sweet potatoes, are acidifying. Whole fruits and vegetables, barley, buckwheat and Brazil nuts are alkalising. It is important to be aware of the pH of the food you are consuming, together with food ingredients, so that you can keep the body in balance. By limiting alcohol, sugar, caffeine and dairy products in your diet, your body is on its way to a low acid state and so low toxicity. By eating the right foods, the body has a chance of healing and re-balancing itself.
Routine is Good For Health: Cleanse Every Day
Back in our primordial days, we slept when it got dark and we woke with the sunrise. There were no in-between snacks or munchies at midnight, and so our body had a long rest period from eating. This is a period of natural fasting when the body has a chance to renew itself and the digestive system gets a break. So when we wake, we awake hungry and ready for food, hence why we break-the-fast. Breakfast is considered to be the most important meal of the day, setting you up for the day to come.
However, many Chinese practitioners recommend drinking a glass of body-temperature water (also known as the ‘life-saving first drink’) before breakfast, because it helps to rehydrate the body after a long night’s fast. It also cleans the gut so that it can work most efficiently and absorb nutrients. Many health books recommend drinking up to 1 litre of warm water first thing in the morning and then waiting 90 minutes before eating, to help flush out all the toxins. Toxins also build up in the saliva around the teeth at night, so it’s important to get up, clean your teeth and then drink warm water, otherwise you are flushing the toxins that have collected in your mouth right back inside your body, meaning that it has to work harder. During the 90-minute wait it is recommended that you try to go to the toilet so that any waste matter can be expelled.
If you have trouble going to the toilet, you can try 1 tablespoon of organic castor oil mixed with the juice of 1 large orange. Wait 90 minutes and drink a cleansing herbal tea during this time until you get some bowel movement. This can be done once a month to keep the system cleansed. Personally I find it is not as harsh on my system as other detox pills and methods.
4 Drinks to Help You Break-The-Fast
1. A litre of warm water from the kettle
Drink and wait 90 minutes before eating solid foods.
2. Organic castor oil and orange juice (once a month)
1 tablespoon organic castor oil
juice of 1 large orange
Mix together and drink on an empty stomach. Wait 90 minutes, during which time sip herbal tea before eating solid foods.
Note: If you are pregnant or have bowel disease, please consult your doctor about taking castor oil.
3. Organic cider vinegar drink
1 tablespoon organic, unfiltered, natural fermented apple cider vinegar (look for ones that contain ‘mother’ – strands of proteins, enzymes and friendly bacteria)
250ml warm water
1 teaspoon organic manuka honey (optional – leave it out if you are diabetic)
Mix all of the above together, stir and drink on an empty stomach. Wait 30 minutes before eating solid foods.
4. Lemon juice warm water
juice of ½ organic lemon
250ml warm water
Combine the two, stir and drink on an empty stomach. Wait 30 minutes before eating solid foods.
It is important to get the body into a routine. Breakfast doesn’t appeal to many people and it is to do with lifestyle. For example, if you eat late at night, the body won’t feel hungry until midday the next day, especially if you have had a heavy meal, although the length of this time can vary from person to person depending on their digestion. So it is no wonder that some people don’t care for breakfast and usually skip it.
Some health experts say just eat when you are hungry and listen to your body, and this is true – which is why most late-night eaters would say that breakfasts are not for them. It works, too, because the body naturally adjusts and works around your lifestyle. However, this puts a lot of stress on the body. The body has to work harder to adjust; it has so much waste to eliminate, with thousands of chemical reactions taking place every day, trying to get clean air and supplies all around the body, why shouldn’t we make it our priority to give it a helping hand?
The least we can do is try to follow a regime. This may require a huge change in lifestyle, but a commitment like this is for life if we are to live a healthy long life and make the best use of our bodies and our time on Earth. Personally, when I have a routine I find my sleep patterns are more regulated, I sleep more soundly and when I am fully rested I don’t need an alarm clock to wake me up in the morning – I awake naturally. This is correlated to the time of your last meal: for example, if you wake up at 7am, work back 12 hours and you will notice that a meal that ends at 7pm the night before will mean you will wake up by 7am the next day, because the hunger pangs will naturally awaken you. There are many studies that report that our liver will detox best while we sleep and ideally if we are asleep before 1am. It takes a couple of hours to reach a deep sleep, so the optimum time to get to sleep is around 11pm. As it can take 3–4 hours to digest food, by the time you sleep, the body will be ready to heal itself rather than having to concentrate on digesting food, because the gut will have had time to heal any inflammation it may have.
So try to make a routine and stick to it. By eating a sensible and balanced diet and taking regular exercise, this natural rhythm of fasting and giving your digestive system a break will allow you to keep your weight in check. This is because your body will have the chance to rest, and if we need mental R & R, so does the gut.
The best way to ‘break-the-fast’ is with nutritious, low-GI foods (foods that don’t spike blood sugar levels) that make you feel satisfied and energised for longer.
Calories, Nutrition and Yíngyǎng
For men, nutritionists recommend a guideline consumption of 2,500 calories daily, and for women, 2,000. However, even these values can vary depending on age, metabolism and levels of physical activity. Calories are used to measure how much food you are consuming and it is relatively easy to understand if you are on a weight-loss programme. Of course, it’s simple to say and assume that if you consume more calories than you burn, you gain weight, and if you consume less than you burn, you lose weight.
However, this shouldn’t be the only way to measure food, because it is misleading. Dieticians in the West and Chinese food therapists also think in terms of nutritional value – Yíngyǎng. They think of the food in terms of its nutritional content: fast food has no yin-yang and fresh food has lots of Yíngyǎng. Thinking of the nutritional value of the food, as opposed to its calorific content, helps with your food choices. When we use the term nutritional content or value, we mean in terms of nutrients. So, for example, is the dish or ingredient rich in vitamins, amino acids; is it acidifying or alkalising?
Is the ingredient yin or yang; does it impart a warming quality or a cooling effect on the body? These principles are what differentiate the Eastern and Western approaches to nutrition and therefore to diet and dieting. Having lived in