Nature Colours Itself Green

Have you ever asked yourself this fundamental question, "What is the diet nature designed for us?" Green foods may be the answer. These "super foods" are quickly becoming part of modern diet as health-conscious individuals recognize their importance.

A survey of the human diet through history is revealing. The forces that shaped prehistoric life hardly seem relevant today.

Our ancestors, whose genes we have inherited, were modern human beings expressing themselves in fully human speech and with the same basic biological functions as people living today. At that time our basic digestion, absorption, distribution and elimination processes developed, as well as our vitally protective immune defense systems. This was long before anyone knew about planting and spraying crops or domesticating and injecting animals.

When conditions of life deviate from those to which it has genetically adapted, biological adjustment is inevitable. The human species is no exception!

Biological adjustment between our current lifestyle and the one in which we evolved has prompted the chronic and deadly diseases of civilization such as heart attacks, strokes, cancers, diabetes, excess anxiety or stress, obesity, lung disease, liver disease and atherosclerosis. These conditions have only been around for 500 years or less and now cause 75 percent of all mortality in industrialized nations.

Once it was introduced 5,000 years ago, agriculture prevailed as the leading pattern for human subsistence. About 200 years ago, the Industrial Revolution occurred. With it has come: pesticides; herbicides; toxic waste; pollution; and factory-made foods that smell good, look good and taste good, but undermine our health in unprecedented ways.

Current research overwhelmingly indicates that by reintroducing essential elements of our ancestors’ lifestyle, we can forestall the development of some of these modern chronic diseases. This means a naturally-derived and improved dietary strategy emphasizing "green" (fresh, wholesome food); less exposure to alcohol, tobacco and all other drugs; reducing stress; being out in nature more often; and increasing physical activity such as walking.

Back to Basics

Our ancestors, therefore our present day biology, developed on a diet that was highly diversified and nutritionally rich. It varied seasonally and from area to area, but was made up of green vegetables and grasses, green algae from ponds or the sea, herbs, edible flowers, sea vegetables, green leaves, fruit, seeds, stalks, roots, tubers, bulbs, nuts, beans, berries, fungi (mushrooms) and wild game.

A generalized profile of their diet compared to ours shows that their diet had no salt, refined sugar, hydrogenated or refined oils/fats. Clean water was the main beverage they consumed, dietary fibre was five times that of ours, they ate a wide variety of seasonal green vegetation and their intake of saturated fat was much lower (wild game contained one-seventh of the fat of today’s domesticated animals) and they consumed virtually no alcohol or tobacco.

Of all the modern vegetable choices, the most nutrient-rich ones available are predominantly the same ones our ancestors consumed. Their intake fits our genetically inherited predisposition perfectly. They are green vegetables and grasses such as wheat grass; sea vegetables such as Nova Scotia dulse, spirulina and chlorella; bee pollen from pristine areas; fresh green sprouts from seeds or beans; and medicinal herbs such as green tea, milk thistle, chamomile, stinging nettle and ginkgo biloba.

I call the above-mentioned green foods "superfoods," as they maximize life span and give you enormous amounts of vital nutrients with no fat and very few calories.

All of these ancient green plants contain the green pigment chlorophyll, which is almost identical in structure to the red pigment in our blood. Chlorophyll colors nature green and is fundamental to superior physical and mental well being. Chlorophyll heals tissues in the body, counteracts inflammation, renews tissue growth and eliminates toxic waste debris from cellular metabolism.

In Chinese medicine, the green color is associated with spring, the liver and invigorated renewal.

The Green Age

Stunning new research demonstrates that vitamin K from green plants is one of the most extraordinary anti-aging vitamins ever discovered and has unique powers no other vitamin possesses. Vitamin K requires chlorophyll synthesized in green plants. Surprisingly, vitamin K deficiency is common. This is probably due to an inadequate green diet. If you want to test your vitamin K levels, the only reliable test is the osteocalcin test, not the standard coagulation test. This test is new; Canadian medical plans are just now reviewing if it should be covered under insurance.

Vitamin K is shuttled around the body by lipoproteins–the same proteins that carry cholesterol, so low-fat diets reduce vitamin K since it requires fat in order to be absorbed. It is the extra virgin olive oil on your salad and the flax oil sprinkled on your lightly cooked spinach, kale or swiss chard that enables vitamin K to be absorbed.

Vitamin K from Green Plants:

• is more powerful than vitamin E and CoQ₁₀ as a mega antioxidant;

 

• is stored in the pancreas and is critical for glucose-insulin balancing and regulation of blood sugars;

 

• absolutely regulates the protein osteocalcin and calcium, promoting bone calcification, greater bone density and preventing osteoporosis;

 

• powerfully regulates calcium in the brain to probably prevent Alzheimer’s disease; at the same time prevents hardening of arteries and other soft tissues;

 

• clots blood proteins to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

In addition to green foods, today’s colorful fruit and vegetable selections should also contain red, green, yellow, orange, purple and blue. These colorful plants, from organically grown and non-genetically-engineered produce, contain powerful phyto-nutrients. These include catechins (green tea); ellagic acid (raspberries, blackberries, apples, grapes); glutathione (asparagus, avocados, broccoli); isoflavones (soybeans, legumes, seeds, herbs, clover); lignans (flax seeds, whole grains); sulphur (cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts); and bioflavonoids (squash, carrots, yams). These nutrients collectively destroy and eliminate bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and cancer cells before they can destroy your delicate cellular structure.

This superfood diet will give you a modern-day "survival advantage."