Anyone who is feeling unwell should first look at the foods they eat, writes Dr Brian Clement, who believes that cooked food compromises our capacity to heal.
I HAVE been director of Hippocrates Health Institute, located in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, for the last 34 years. At our health institute, we have been studying the effects of optimal nutrition on the human body.
We are involved in scientific studies with universities and governments around the world, and constantly test and prove our beliefs about the healing powers of raw, living foods.
Our clinical research has scientifically validated the elements in plant-based food, which search out, attack and destroy viruses, bacterias and cancers.
Health is based on the amount of absorbable nutrition we provide to our bodies.
Simple lifestyle tools like positive attitude and proper plant-based organic food, as well as movement and exercise, strengthen the anatomy. Olympic athletes and footballers employ this common-sense principle when trying to build healthy bodies.
Adopting a healthy, plant-based diet can help you lose weight and boost your health.
Losing weight and staying slim are the externally obvious payoffs for moving to a plant-based diet, but the most important fact of all is the effect it has on our immune system.
The immune system is our greatest defence against disease, yet this is all too often overlooked when it comes to healing.
The body's natural defences help us heal cuts, bruises, broken bones, and can also help us overcome more serious conditions.
Foods that are stripped of nutrients will not fuel your body. Rather, they will leave you with an exhausted immune system. If you want to improve your health, eat more raw, living food.
Heating your food is not good for your health because cooked food causes an inflammatory response called leukocytosis (elevated number of white cells in the blood).
When food is heated above 40 degrees, its molecular structure changes — oils turn carcinogenic, and proteins, vitamins and live enzymes are destroyed in the cooking process. Our bodies have to work |harder to assimilate these dead foods.
Diet is one area that many find particularly challenging to change. However, the longer you wait to address your health and get your head around change, the harder it gets.
Here in Ireland, there have been many who applied our principles and healed themselves of a wide variety of illnesses. Their stories of recovery are a testament to the power of living food as medicine.
When they start incorporating living foods into their daily routine, you see dramatic results and a significant decrease in anxiety as they start to deal with their disease in a healthy and confident way.
One such example is your own courageous Bernadette Bohan.
Bernadette spent time with us at Hippocrates after her second diagnosis of breast and lymphatic cancer.
If you have the good fortune of finding others like Bernadette — who have had firsthand experiences with |cancer and made vital changes to their lifestyle — it is very empowering. |The people who have travelled that road can really restore your confidence when dealing with these situations.
While physical illness presents enormous challenges, it also brings an awareness that mobilises the system to change. Life is ever more precious when you come close to losing it.
It is only when we finally hit a wall and know that we can no longer live on nutritionally poor diets that we re-orient our thinking and muster the courage to move away from pre-packaged, ready-to-cook, ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat convenience foods.
I believe these foods are extremely hazardous to our health.
As Bernadette has said to me on many occasions, the one thing she has come to realise is that true health must be earned. There are no magic bullets to replace the body's innate healing powers.
Every one of us faces challenges; how we respond to them is the biggest challenge of all.
With enough determination you can easily accomplish these manageable lifestyle and dietary changes.
Finding ways to make food tasty is essential if you are to move away from foods laden with salt, sugars, additives and preservatives.
If you really want to do yourself a favour, take action now and focus on creating a lifestyle filled with healthy choices that will be shared by those you love.
Despite the fact that it is vitally important to sustain health and wellbeing, it can be difficult if you have a busy and stressful life, especially with work and family commitments.
If you are suffering from an emotional or mental health disorder, there is no reason to feel ashamed or alone.
It is relatively normal in today's world to struggle with anxiety, depression and anything else under the “mental health disorder” umbrella.
I consider emotional and mental health to be the first and most important step in healing. Real health begins with a mind filled with peace. When we release negative emotional feelings and take inventory of our lives, we can identify elements of our emotions that lend themselves to being helpful or hurtful towards our well-being.
With new perspectives on health and healing, we can go forth with a free mind that is ready to absorb all of the healing we can give it.
Emotional healing can be a messy, interconnected web of difficult experiences that can slow the healing process.
There is no doubt the terrain can be difficult; emotional cleansing is by far the hardest step, but once you cross that proverbial threshold and speak your truth, you can then move forward to transform your emotional health.
Free of emotional burdens, you can settle into the comfortable stability that comes with adopting a healthy lifestyle.
When travelling the globe for the last 40 years, I have been confronted with the worldwide epidemic of all the common Western diseases. I am very aware of the large level of arthritic conditions and heart disease and cancer in your country. I find the Irish people are particularly anxious and concerned about the foods they eat.
People have seen the systems around us collapse, finding themselves in the perils of disease and confusion. The scandals in the food chain over the last few years have made us think twice about the foods we eat.
We need to recognise how our food choices can affect our health; it is not only important for us, but for future generations.
Be observant and be wary of processed or chemically sprayed foods. Anyone who is feeling sick should first investigate the food they eat. If they just eat organically grown plant foods they will likely heal because it is the most natural food for them. There is nothing “alternative” about it.
Over the years that I have visited Ireland, I have received a positive reaction and observed a radical shift. People are beginning to connect the dots.
Dr Clemens and Bernadette Bohan speak in DUBLIN: Sunday June 8, 3-5pm
The Carlton Airport Hotel, Dublin
CORK: Monday June 9, 7-9pm
The Marybourgh Hotel, Cork
Tel 01-8452957 or www.changesimply.com
E-mail: b@changesimply.com
Bernadette Bohan survived cancer after adopting a radical change to her diet, switching to plant-based foods