Food for Health

Here are some foods that have helped me a lot since getting sick:

Magnesium in nuts. (Couldn’t sleep without my night cashews at one point.)

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in beef. Had to force myself to eat beef for a while even though my body wanted mostly fruit and binders, but I’d get too weak. Probably needed the protein and iron too?

Probiotics in Bubbies pickles, yogurt, home-fermented fruits and vegetables, etc.

Fish oil in kippers, sardines, wild salmon, and sometimes “pickled” herring.

Monolaurin in coconut.

Antioxidants in garlic.

Polysaccharides, terpenoids, and sterols in shiitake mushrooms (I eat the powder form of shiitake in Bare Bones beef broth but I don’t know how much of those nutrients the powder has).

Fruits: Antioxidants, resveratrol (such as dark berries), quercetin (such as grapes), anthocyanins, carotenoids, tannins, polyphenols, flavonoids, ellagitannins, proanthocyanidins, enzymes (pineapple and papaya), lycopene (watermelon), and healthy fats (avocado and olives).

Sulforaphane in broccoli.

Curcumin in turmeric.

When the body encounters mold or chemicals or a xenobiotic compound [a chemical compound (such as a drug, pesticide, or carcinogen) that is foreign to a living organism], the body has to figure out a way to remove it from the body. One way the human body does this is through fiber in the diet. However, fruit fiber is not very efficient at binding toxins, especially certain specific toxins. More efficient binders include whole grains, nuts, and coconut.

Stay tuned (subscribe to my blog) if you would like to know how some of these nutrients benefit the human body.

Christa Upton Black Hills Picture Books Edgemont, SD 57735