I don’t read major newspapers because I don’t believe in supporting their mainly misinformed views, corporate and political pandering, and negative stories with my dollars. But yesterday I was visiting my family and flicked through one of the Sunday papers they had next to the lounge.

As I turned the pages, a health story grabbed my attention (as they always do). I wish I had cut out the article and bought it with me, because I can’t quite remember the headline, but it was about how women are increasing in weight around their mid-section because they are now drinking as much alcohol as men are.

Men have been known to suffer from the “beer belly syndrome” where chronic drinkers increase in weight around their waist, but can lose it from their legs, giving them a certain type of appearance. The article went on to explain how this body type (fat belly, skinny legs) is now occurring in more women as their alcohol consumption increases.

All sounds quite straightforward up to now doesn’t it?

And it would have been, except for the photo’s they chose to put with the story. Two young girls, Brittany Spears and Charlotte Church, both in bikini’s and being described by the newspaper as “overweight” and representative of the problem featured in the article.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. These girls both looked absolutely gorgeous. Feminine, womanly, totally in proportion, not anorexcially thin, but by no stretch of the imagination could you even call them plump. They looked fantastic and I was left wondering about what motivated the matching of these photo’s to that particular article.

To me there didn’t seem to be any connection whatsoever.

Ok, maybe the girls drink a bit, but the story wasn’t about drinking per se, it was about drinking related to a certain body shape and the health risks associated with that. But the girls didn’t have the body shape they were talking about in the article at all.

Quite obviously the photo’s were chosen because the girls are famous and it provided the content with a celebrity link that probably grabbed more readers attention than it would have otherwise.

But what message is this sending out?

That we all must be skinny to the point of emaciation to gain approval in the eyes of the mass media? That a woman’s naturally fit, healthy, curvy body is not to be appreciated, but denigrated in print?

No wonder I don’t read newspapers! They take the worst of human nature and glorify it for mass marketing consumption and that does not help the state of our minds or the world we live in.

What we fill our minds with is just as important as what we fill our bodies with, and this derogatory slant on what could of been an informative article, just highlights what a warped sense of “news” abounds in the world.

I think next time, I’ll just line the bin with newspaper BEFORE I flick through it!

Following on from my food related posts “The Amazing Apple”, “The Brilliant Blueberry” and “The Classic Chick-Pea”, comes “The Delicious Date” - one food that is a must in your household pantry.

Dates are the fruit from the Date Palm Tree and are cut from the palm and ideally sun-dried.  The palms are found in dry, tropical countries and the fruit when dried is very sweet. 

Saudi Arabia is known as the “Home of the Date Palm Tree” with the palms having a 10,000 year history in that region, and more than 300 different varieties of date grown.

Dates are little powerhouses of nutrition, being high in fibre, amino acids, minerals especially potassium, vitamins, and they are low in fat.  The carbohydrate content is high (65-85g per 100g), but the fibre assists in slowing down the absorption of the natural sugars, and often they are eaten with other foods such as nuts, which also balances the carbohydrate content.

Dates are a wonderful replacement for sugar in recipes that need some sweetness, and soaking them for a few hours softens them ready for blending. 

One of my favourite sweet recipes using dates is from Alissa Cohen’s Living on Live Food book- and it literally takes 5 minutes to make!

Date Nut Torte:

Base of Tort:
2 cups raisins (or dates)
2 cups walnuts

Blend in a food processor until well blended and moist, it should be a fudgey consistency. Press into a pie plate about 1 1/2 inches thick.

Frosting:
1 cup dates, pitted and soaked
1/2 lemon, juiced

In a food processor, combine dates and lemon juice until smooth and creamy. Spread frosting on top of the torte base.

For a firmer texture, refrigerate for a few hours.

Enjoy!

For most of my life I have had a passion for not only physical healing, but for healing on an emotional and spiritual level as well - and that has led me to all sorts of discoveries and insights over the years.

One area that I have had enormous trouble with myself though, is learning to feel and indentify my true feelings - versus what I think I “should” feel in a certain situation.

For various reasons that I won’t go into here, I grew up doubting my own feelings and always believing that what I felt was “wrong”.  So getting back in touch with my truth and not doubting what I feel, is a continuous journey that at times I travel well, and at other times I definitely don’t.

Just lately it came up again where in a certain circumstance I have ignored my true feelings and pushed them aside, in favour of choosing to believe what someone was telling me about a situation, rather than trusting in what I was feeling about it.  As it turned out, my feelings were spot on, and it was another reminder to not ignore those physically based sensations that you might call intuition, sixth sense, or just a feeling.

So rather than beat myself over the head about it, (well OK, when I stopped beating myself over the head about it!) I decided to explore the realm of Equine Facilitated Therapy - where horses are utilised to help us connect with our more authentic feelings and emotions - horses do not allow us to mask our truth.

Having grown up with horses and having a deep connection with them, I have been interested in this area for quite some time.  Horses are very good at picking up what is called “emotional incongruity” a term used to describe the act of hiding one emotion by trying to feel something else.

The horse will not let you get away with that, and will sense the truth behind the mask and will feel off balance and unsafe in your company.  When working with a human facilitator who is experienced in the nuances of equine behaviour, they can assist in translating the horses interactions with you, to assist you in recognising your patterns of incongruence.

It is a fascinating area and one that I could write about in depth - but suffice to say that I had my first experience of this work yesterday, and it was very interesting.  Already I have gained some insights that are quite valuable and I felt a raise in my energy that came just from interacting with such magnificent creatures.

Of course there are many ways / techniques / therapies to help us connect with our feelings, but I just know that this is going to be one of the most enjoyable! 

I will keep you updated on my progress with my equine tutors, and will write more about this area of healing in the future.

Following on from the topic of my last blog post, I found this video of a talk by Mark Bittman, where he explains in a really great way, what is wrong with what we eat.

Maybe not what I eat :-) or maybe even not what you eat either - but he speaks in a very down to earth sensible way about what the general public eats and what the problems with that are.

It is an enjoyable video to watch and Mark Bittman makes some great points - if you’re interested in learning a bit more about food and health, then I would encourage you to have a look at this one.

Mark Bittman - What’s Wrong With What We Eat..

In various situations either in clinical practice or just in my daily interactions with people, I invariably get asked - “What can I do about X condition?”  It might be arthritis, or diabetes or one of any number of chronic health problems.

Unfortunately, this is a question that I find really hard to answer, because there isn’t just one simple quick fix pill that someone can take and heal themselves of their problems.  To really heal, not just cover up the symptoms with medication, or even push the body in a certain direction with high dose herbs or supplements, takes a change of eating and lifestyle habits that most people are just not willing to do.

When someone is in a desperate health situation they often say they would be willing to do ANYTHING to get better.  Yet “anything” comes with conditions.  “Anything, except change the food I eat, the drinks I drink and the lifestyle habits I’ve become accustomed to.”

The crunch is though, that the food and lifestyle habits that the person is engaging in has led them to develop the chronic condition in the first place, so continuing to do the same things and expecting different results, is completely irrational.  Even when you do use alternative methods to treat the problem, often once the treatment is completed, slowly the same condition or another one appears because the underlying causative factors haven’t been addressed.

Chronic health problems are not just a “disease” we catch, or an isolated problem in one area - they are a whole body condition and because of that, the whole body needs to be treated.  You can’t just say “I’m really healthy except for this pesky arthritis”.  To have created the arthritis in the first place means that there is an imbalance in the body that just taking glucosamine is not going to fix.  Of course it can help, but it is not the full picture.

So when I am asked that question “What can I do to fix X ?”  I hesitate. 

How can I, in just a few minutes, explain how the body needs lots of fresh whole living food, full of an abundance of nutrients, to function at its best?  How do I tell busy people that they need to make real food one of the priorities in their life and that they need to give up convenience, packaged, processed, and takeaway foods? How can I tell them that a 30 minute stroll a couple of times a week is not enough exercise?  How do I say that they need to address their attitude, their outlook on life, their limiting beliefs, fears and thought patterns?  Where is the quick fix in any of that?

The real answer is that there’s not.  Healing chronic illness does mean a change in all of these areas and more, but that doesn’t mean that it needs to be viewed as a punishment or as a life full of deprivation, because that’s not what a healthy lifestyle is meant to be.

Embracing changes in habits can be daunting at first, but once new habits are in place, then they are no more difficult than the habits we already had, they are just different!  And because the benefits are so enormous, once someone FEELS the improvements within themselves, then they wholeheartedly take it on.

Exploring new food choices (you can do so many yummy things with raw food!), learning to get in touch with your physical body again, and working through your emotional issues, brings with it such self-empowerment.  The confidence you gain from treating yourself with care and respect, flows through into all areas of life.

So if someone is really searching for answers and not just a quick fix, then I love nothing more than guiding them towards the simple truths about food and lifestyle that can make profound improvements in their health.

Just being here reading this shows you that you one of those special, open-minded people willing to explore these ideas. 

Welcome to the club!.  I hope I can keep inspiring you and encouraging you to keep on this path of creating extraordinary health!