The Tribune

By CHRISTINE CAREY

“Let medicine be your food and food be your medicine,” said Hippocrates, the man with the reputation of being the father of Western medicine.

You may be familiar with the notion of energy. The Chinese, along with many cultures and modern physics, recognise a subtle energy underlying everything in our life. The reality of energy and vibration is becoming better understood to the general population more each year. The subtle movements of energy are traced in medicine, in agriculture, in all fields of human life. The cultivation of our life force, our energy – our Qi – can be considered the fundamental principle of leading a healthy life.

Enhancing your energy through food may be easier than you think. The simple guidelines outlined here can be as health improving as a change in diet.

1. Enjoy your food

If our feelings at meal times are of celebration and welcoming of the food then we are more likely to benefit. Start each meal with a few words of gratitude.

1. Relax

If our posture is twisted, slumped or tense our intestines can easily be constricted, hindering the free flow of food through our system. Inhaling the aroma of food before we eat helps stimulate our digestive juices.

1. Chew well and eat slowly

There is a saying that the stomach has no teeth. Unchewed food creates extra work for the digestive system and may easily result in digestive discomfort. We can assist our body with predigestion by chewing thoroughly.

1. Keep drinks and meals separate

Too much fluid with a meal will over-dilute the digestive juices and make digestion less efficient. Our main fluid intake is best half an hour before to an hour or so after eating.

1. Stop before you are full

If we habitually overeat, our digestive system becomes overburdened and we feel tired and congested. Too much of our energy is used trying to clear a backlog of food and less is available to us for moving and thinking clearly. It takes discipline and attention to regulate this habit but the benefits are soon felt and the hunger we sought to fill with food often turns out to be at root an emotional hunger instead.

1. Eat as much local and naturally grown food as possible

Food which has grown in the same country as you is far more likely to resonate harmoniously with your body than something grown in another season on the other side of the world, picked unripe and sprayed with preservatives, consuming huge amounts of the planet’s energy to get to you and probably encouraging a global economy which makes the rich countries fatter and the poor thinner.

1. Dark leafy greens are a must eat food

Find out the best way to prepare it in order consume this essential food. Mix it with other foods, blend it, chop it, lightly steam it, eat in soup etcetera.

It is also worth noting that from an energetic perspective, foods which are grown by organic methods from stock which has not been genetically manipulated or weakened by selection has a stronger and more health giving energetic structure than commercially grown, overwatered and chemically fed foods. The energetic structure of food is also severely weakened by the use of microwaves.

• Christine Carey is a certified holistic health and life coach (www.christine-carey.com), partner at Liquid Nutrition (www.liquidnutrition.com) and Director of Corporate Wellness at 242 Consulting (www.242consulting.com). With over ten years of coaching experience, Ms Carey works with individuals and groups to assess and define their diet and lifestyle goals. She focuses on increasing knowledge, implementing new habits and creating personalised tools for success.