By Michael G. Rehme, DDS, NMD, CCN
In my biological dental practice, I focus on the oral cavity as well as the rest of the body in relation to it. After all, mouth and body are intricately connected. The illness of one affects the other. Over the years, hundreds of patients have shared their success stories with me that vividly show this relationship from their personal experiences.
The key to good health in your teeth, gums, and body? Balanced body chemistry. How do you achieve this? Good nutrition and lifestyle habits.
The following steps are the beginning to guide your body towards that optimal goal of health and wellness.
1. Personal responsibility. Are you ready to make some lifestyle changes for yourself? The first step is to make the commitment. The second is to educate yourself on the differences between healthy and unhealthy eating habits. You’ll understand the difference as you read this article.
Although you may struggle at first, the benefits of doing something positive for yourself now will far outweigh the uncertainties that may adversely affect your health in the years to come. You are the only one who can change how you feel. Become an expert on your own health. Take responsibility. Be proactive rather that reactive!
2. Become aware. Become aware of the different types of foods and drinks that you are currently consuming. Are they mostly processed or refined foods such as white rice, foods made from white flour, foods containing chemical additives and preservatives, or fast foods? Do you eat a lot of salt and sugar? How much coffee and soda do you drink in a day?
To move to a healthy diet, keep a journal of everything you eat and drink for one or two weeks. Include every food and drink, along with the quantities of each. Include snacks. Do you see any unhealthy patterns that you can change?
3. Introduce and reduce. During the next 30 days, gradually reduce your intake of processed foods. What’s an example of a processed food? The simple answer: If it has a label.
Introduce more fruits and vegetables into your daily diet. Increase your intake of white meats (turkey and chicken). Reduce your consumption of red meats (beef and pork).
In other words, eat real, natural, organic, whole, fresh foods. Eat free range chicken eggs. Eat grass fed, hormone-free meats. These animals are less stressed and have healthier diets, which have been shown to produce higher nutritional quality foods.
Follow this protocol for two more months. By the end of 90 days, you should be pleasantly surprised by your gradual, “painless” conversion to a healthier diet. I bet you’ll also begin to feel better.
The very “Standard American Diet” (the SAD diet) is about 80% processed foods (acid-forming) and only 20% natural foods (alkaline-forming). An acidic diet creates electrolyte deficiencies. When this happens, your bile becomes too acidic. Your body can’t digest foods efficiently.
One of the easiest ways to gradually shift to a more alkaline diet is to STOP buying “junk food.” Have healthy foods in your kitchen, especially for times when that “hunger-craving-psycho” takes over your body during weak moments at home. By eating foods closer to nature, i.e. with less processing, you’ll regain the life force within.
Reach for a glass of water when these cravings hit. Wait 5 – 10 minutes, and your hunger will diminish. Each time you succeed in making a better choice, make a mental note to yourself that you’re winning the battle as you slowly convert to a healthier lifestyle.
4. Don’t overeat. Only eat until you are satisfied and no more. Overeating places an enormous burden on your digestive system, liver, and detoxification pathways. Don’t feel like you have to clean your plate every time you sit down for a meal.
While making this change, eat without any distractions. Pay attention only to how “full” you feel. Feel the feeling of “fullness.” Mentally note when your stomach feels “full.” Then pay attention to when you stop eating. You may very well find that you stop eating long after your stomach actually feels full. If this is true, then you are overeating.
5. Shop on the outer wall. Have you ever noticed where the healthier, natural foods are located in your grocery store? That’s right, on the outer wall. All the fruits, vegetables, dairy, fish, poultry, and meats are found on the outside. All the processed cans, bags, boxes, bags, and other packaged goods are located in the middle aisles. The next time you’re at the checkout counter, look in your cart. Take note of the percentage of groceries from the outer wall.
6. Buy organic if possible. By eating organic, you eliminate the chemicals, antibiotics, preservatives, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, hormones, and other additives that are found in our agricultural and livestock products. This reduces your exposure to these harmful irritants and toxins. Eating organic reduces the stress on your liver, which is the major detoxifying organ in the body.
We’d like to believe that we could achieve all the nutritional support that we need from our food. Unfortunately, this is not possible. Even eating organic foods, we still don’t get enough nutrition to counter all the toxic bombardments from our environment. Therefore, nutritional supplementation is almost mandatory to support good health.
7. Take time to enjoy eating at least one good meal per day. Dedicate 30 minutes (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) every day to eating a healthy meal. It may take effort in the beginning. However, these new habits will soon become routine. Your digestive system will thank you for taking the time to slow down and provide it with nutritional, alkaline, supportive food that makes its job easier.
Our bodies are bombarded by a combination of nutritionally depleted foods, resulting from synthetic farming and processed foods, with toxic overload from chemicals in our food, air, and water. This causes an incredible challenge to our ability to stay healthy. The steps above make it easier for your body to support good health for your whole life.
Edited from the original
