The current climate is a big wake up call to improve your immunity. You won’t be surprised that recommendations include increasing nutritious home-cooked meals, but healthy food alone won’t make the big difference you might be looking for without the mind-body connection to lifestyle basics:

  1. Beneficial physical activity
  2. Fulfilling work
  3. Practicing spirituality
  4. Fostering supportive relationships

When these areas are balanced, you will be putting your body in a better position to boost your immunity by what you bring home from the grocery store.

Bio-individuality

You may have noticed that people are different. Everyone’s body has highly unique bio-individual nutritional/emotional requirements and no one diet will work for everyone. Bio-individuality overrides all the fad diets emphatically recommended to you by your friends. When that happens, be gracious, say “Thank you very much for caring,” then experiment and listen to your intuitive cues to discover what foods work best for your body. Connect your mind and senses by savoring the flavors, aroma and textures you enjoy, to tickle the gastric juices which assist digestion. Honor your bio-individuality to let your health shine brighter.

My story

While growing up, my mother and I had juiced, blended and exercised along with Jack LaLanne, American fitness and nutrition guru. We relied on Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC for guidance on utilizing the grocery story as our pharmacy.

Do you remember when I shared that my husband was diagnosed with lymphoma and told he only had 10 days to live? After recovering from the shock, I turned to the internet. The big ah-ha was that the healthier and positive one is going into chemo, the healthier one is coming out. His Rotary Club chopped and split enough trees into firewood to last us three years, boosting his morale for the fight of his life. Every day I started making fruit smoothies in the morning and juicing vegetables for lunch and evening in addition to regular healthy meals and snacks to boost cell immunity.

After three weeks of intense nourishment, the grapefruit-sized swelling in his neck reduced to the size of an orange. And it continued reducing. We never intended for food to replace chemo, and I don’t recommend that to anyone, but that’s what happened. The oncologist was impressed with the results of the regime, but since it was a study group of just one, it was not viable for him to recommend it to any patients.

General Food Guidelines: Include more variety of green vegetables and fruits. Sweet vegetables like carrots, onions, and sweet potatoes, help to satisfy sugar cravings. Drink lots of water and nourishing juices. Read labels.

Foods to include in priority: Vegetables, fruit, berries, beans, whole grains, mushrooms, raw nuts and seeds, fish, poultry, eggs, healthy oils, dairy, meat

Foods to avoid: Sugar, processed foods, refined grains, trans fats, caffeine, tobacco.

Pros: This is a lifestyle rather than a diet, providing for a wide range of nutrients and flavors.

Cons: It might not work for those with allergies or specific food sensitivities. Observe how your body reacts. It may require more strict guidance to see results you are looking for.

Juicing

Juicing allows for quicker absorption to get many of the health benefits your body may need. It’s not a replacement for eating whole foods, it’s in addition. Confirm that your body accepts each of these ingredients individually before you start combining them then adjust. To be clear, some of the juices and blender recipes Mom tried on us were not very palatable. The one below is delicious and one of my favorites for variety. And yes, I still have a Jack LaLanne juicer:)

Magnificent 12

The quantity of this recipe is approximate depending on ripeness, size of fruits and vegetables you use. Wash everything before juicing. Do not peel.

2          carrots

2          large green leaves rolled in a bunch, rotate- spinach, kale, collard green, swiss chard

1C        cruciferous vegetables, rotate – broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage

2          stalks celery

1          large bell pepper

½          cucumber

6          asparagus stalks

¼          beet

¼C        cilantro

2          tomatoes

¼          lemon (peel intact)

Tabasco/pepper to taste, but not so much it replaces lip plumper

Makes about 28 ounces. Pop a stalk of celery in your glasses and enjoy it as a virgin Bloody Mary for happy hour.