Whole foods: Principals For Preventing Ageing and Rejuvenating Your Body (CHAPTER 1 Whole foods) by Huon Feitscher

Description

The solution is simple: eat whole foods to stay disease free and live a long life full of health and happiness. In Chapter 1 of Principles for Preventing Ageing and Rejuvenating Your Body, Huon Feitscher shares his wealth of knowledge about the health benefits that people of any age and background can enjoy by adopting a plant-based diet. Reading this first information-packed chapter of the book, you’ll feel like you’re having a relaxed conversation with your dietician or personal trainer – and indeed food and fitness are the two subjects that Huon is passionate about and devotes himself to.

Starting off with broad brushstrokes, Huon defines ‘whole foods’ and shines a light on the modern Western diet as being the antithesis of a natural eating regimen based on whole foods grown in real soil. Applying logic and commonsense, he explains why organic, pesticide-free produce is the answer to the questions that plague people in all quarters of the world: how to live as close as possible to nature, end world hunger, distribute food equitably, maximise agricultural yields, cultivate food sustainably, and eliminate the unnecessary suffering of both people and animals.

Early in the chapter, using finer brushstrokes, Huon cites the organic ‘Dirty Dozen’ – the 12 whole foods that are the most nutritious when organically grown – and the ‘Clean 15’ – the whole foods that have the lowest levels of pesticides. He then launches into ‘an alphabet of whole foods’, which is an A-to-Z reference list of more than 100 natural-food outlines. This comprehensive major section of the chapter contains an individual outline for each food, from almonds to watermelon, as well as specific outlines of citrus fruits, cruciferous vegetables, fermented foods, herbs and spices for healing, legumes, ‘pseudo-grains’, root vegetables, seeds, sprouts and ‘super-foods’.

To support all the cutting-edge research he’s undertaken, at the end of each whole-food outline, Huon includes a colour-coded list of the human body systems that benefit from the food in question: the brain and nervous system, the eliminatory and digestive system, the endocrine and reproductive system, the heart and circulatory system, the immune and lymphatic system, the muscular system, the respiratory and integumentary system, and the skeletal system. He credits his inspirational research sources in the acknowledgements section at the start of the chapter.

In keeping with the academic rigour that underpins his research and writing, Huon includes a glossary at the end of the chapter. If you’ve ever wondered what essential fatty acids and free radicals are, look no further than this easy-to-understand dictionary with a difference.

‘Chapter 1: Whole Foods’ is a window into the themes contained in the greater book that’s been Huon’s creative focus for some time now. Hot on the heels of Chapter 1 will be ‘Chapter 2: Whole-food Recipes’, in which he takes to the kitchen with gusto to help you whip up a smorgasbord of mouth-watering milks, smoothies, fermented drinks, soups, side dishes, sauces, salads and main meals. And when you’ve realised how good you feel after reading about these cruelty-free culinary delights – let alone eating them – you’ll want to plunge into ‘Chapter 3: De-tox; Re-tox’ and move ever onwards to ‘Chapter 4: Meditation’, ‘Chapter 5: Training’, ‘Chapter 6: Toxins’, ‘Chapter 7: Relationships’, ‘Chapter 8: The Elements’, ‘Chapter 9: Re-hab; Pre-hab’, ‘Chapter 10: ‘Vanity’, ‘Chapter 11: Bullshit and Giggles’ and ‘Chapter 12: Opinions by People I Respect’ – and a host of subsequent chapters to be released down the track.

Healthy living starts in the mind, moves rapidly to the stomach and is peppered with laughs. In ‘Chapter 1: Whole Foods’, you get all the dietary information you need, minus the hidden agenda and vested interests sitting behind the books, articles and blogs that saturate mainstream media. If you want to lose weight, sleep more soundly, have more-fulfilling relatio