Weāre midway through a six-part guide to feeling good. Thus far, weāve explored the importance of breathing, sleep, rest, pleasure, human connection and this week weāre focusing on āsoulā food.
Now, before we get into all the chocolatey details, I want to talk a little about the importance of soul food from my perspective.
Having spent a couple of decades in search of the best diet for humans and in the process, experimented with the bulk of the dietary and detox protocols out there, I can tell you firsthand that overly restrictive eating isnāt the best path to feeling good.
Naturally, eating well is important, however for some, it can be a slippery slope to becoming obsessive or fixated on compartmentalising foods as āgoodā or ābadā.
The importance of soul food
One thing Iāve come to know is that soul food, whether itās homemade or even the processed store-bought variety (gasp!), is an extremely important component of a healthy diet. And the way we approach it will make all the d...
This week weāre hearing from my friend, local Dentist Dr Steven Lin who practices out of Luminous Dentistry in Long Jetty. Heās the author of the international best-seller, āThe Dental Dietā which touches on many of the dietary concepts weāve been discussing over the past few weeks ā namely, the importance of returning to a diet based on traditional foods, based on the findings of pioneering Dentist, Dr Weston Price.
Steven and I are equally passionate about the oft-overlooked vitamin K2 and this article expands on my introduction of this important nutrient from last week.
How Vitamin K2 Fuels Jaw Growth, by Dr Steven Lin
One of the biggest problems of modern dentistry has been a failure to address the cause of crooked teeth. However, as weāll find out, nutritional science has misunderstood the vitamin that caused the problem in the first place.
Today, at least 75% of kids have some level of dental malocclusion. Many patients ask me, āAre crooked teeth genetic?ā
If they were, this...
Weāre mid-way through a discussion of the work of Dr Weston A. Price, who studied the diets of traditional people and found them to be almost entirely responsible for their near-perfect health.
Activator X: a missing nutrient
In his research, Dr Price discovered a fat-soluble vitamin he called āActivator Xā, which we now know to be vitamin K2. He referred to it as an activator because, as we discussed last week, like vitamins A and D, itās an important catalyst which helps the body absorb and utilise minerals.
Price observed that āpeople of the past obtained a substance that modern generations do not haveā and that its absence from the diet could explain many of our modern diseases. He was able to reverse dental decay and cure degenerative conditions in his patients by supplementing foods rich in this nutrient ā the foods that all traditional cultures revered as sacred: animal fats, eggs, concentrated forms of dairy like butter and cheese, and organ meats.
Itās worth noting that wh...
Weāre mid-way through a discussion of the work of Dr Weston A. Price, who studied the diets of traditional people and found them to be almost entirely responsible for their near-perfect health.
I thought Iād expand on what was arguably his most important discovery, especially with respect to the diets of our modern children ā that these indigenous diets contained ten times the amount of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D and what we now know to be K2) than their Western counterparts.
Ten!
Just to make sure weāre clear on the impact this deviation from tradition has had, especially with the anti-fat and anti-cholesterol campaigns over the past seven decades, there are now widespread epidemics of deficiencies of these vitamins.
Some 85 per cent of Australians are now deficient in vitamin D, despite our sunny climate.
And because so little is known about vitamin K2 and deficiency has also reached epidemic proportions particularly in children and adults over forty, Iām going to dedicate an en...
Last week we introduced the findings of Dr Weston A Price, who studied the diets of indigenous peoples. His work demonstrated exceptionally clearly that any deviation away from their nutrient dense traditional diets would inevitably lead to a rapid decline in overall health, with rampant tooth decay, mental health issues and susceptibility to infectious and degenerative disease.
Principles of traditional diets
Given that Price travelled to all corners of the globe, the foods consumed by each indigenous group varied widely, however, regardless of where he went, they intuitively followed the same dietary principles and there were no exceptions.
These principles can serve as a flexible blueprint for us in this modern age.
I thought Iād expand on just a few of the ways weāve deviated from the traditions and practices that Price noted were common to these cultures.
Thankfully weāre already witnessing a resurgence in popularity of some of these ideas.
1. Proper preparation of grains, s...
Bitter: the abandoned flavour
Itās a flavour that is universally associated with harshness, pain and the downright intolerable, yet bitter foods (and especially greens like radicchio, endive and dandelion) are an overlooked and very essential food group. Itās possible that many of the health complaints that plague us in the modern era, such as reflux, indigestion and type 2 diabetes, may in fact be traced to a deficiency of bitters in the diet.
For the health conscious folk among you, who probably prioritise getting enough fibre, vitamin C, iron and calcium ā and for the finger-on-pulse types, probably also bone broth, liver, kale and chia seeds ā when was the last time you pondered whether youāre including sufficient bitter foods in your diet? Did it ever make your checklist, I wonder?
Certainly not mine, until several years ago when my all-time favourite food author, Jennifer Mclagan penned the modern classic āBitter: a taste of the worldās most dangerous flavourā. I had the privi...
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