Detoxification and stress-reduction in our modern world

It is a universal theme- beauty, but what defines beauty? It is my understanding that beauty is much more than how much you weigh or what blemishes you have on your skin. For me, beauty emanates as an ‘energy field'. Most children still have this clear energy field in tact, which is why we find most children beautiful.

As we revolve around the sun we find that some things ‘wear us down'. It is my intention to bring awareness to what we eat that wears us down, and I will start with an extreme example.

Meat that is putrefied dead animal flesh and bones. This carries with it an energy field, even the words alone do! When an animal is killed of other than natural causes, and its carcass is then processed by other than natural means, what are we left with? A lump of dead energy. Some call it food, some call it a steak or burger. What does this mean to our bodies? Massage amounts of enzymes are produced to digest such heavy proteins and fats. Totally digesting a meal consisting of large amounts of meat may take days. During this time, unless we fast, our bodies are given new items to digest and this requires more digestive work, and the circle goes on until we wonder why ‘incurable diseases' become common place.

How is this related to beauty? It is not. The body is unable in the above example to go about the regular jobs that include cleansing our blood, detoxifying natural elements such as dealing with stress and other daily actions we sometimes take for granted.

A diet consisting of mainly living, natural, unprocessed foods comes in tact with a whole army of living enzymes designed to naturally digest these foods. This allows the body to carry out the regular cleaning jobs. We all know what happens when the regular cleaning chores are not carried out for a week or two, but what about after years and years.

Cooked fats are another reason much beauty has been lost in our culture- but vegetarian fats are ok you say. Most cooked oils and margarines are particularly destructive by being inflammatory and harming the cardiovascular system. Cooked oils negatively affect our skin's health leading to acne and pimples. Cooked oils are rancid. Rancid oils suppress our immune system and are the largest cause of free radicals in the human body. Free radicals run around our body stealing electrons from healthy molecules causing more free radicals in the process. Free radicals lead to wrinkles, dull skin and cause scars to linger. It is my opinion that these free radicals cause much of our modern diseases.

The best fat to use if you must cook is coconut oil, with organic butter not too far behind. Olive oil is average, though best kept for your salads. Don't give up oils- they are essential. Good quality cold or stone pressed oils have quite the opposite effect of cooked oils. Using flax or hemp (tastier) oil in your salad dressing (or juice, or by itself) will eventually lead to smooth silky skin.

There is much more to beautifying nutrition and this includes the acid/alkaline balance, food combining, re-mineralisation of our foods, an understanding of carbohydrate, superfoods and more than just food- relaxation, exercise, mental and spiritual focus all play a part and I look forward to sharing more on these next time. Until then enjoy some beautifying foods such as cucumbers, fresh figs, macadamia nuts, olives, onions, pepitas + paw paw and make it raw!

Heaven & Earth Total Health Weekend Residential Retreats are run by Paul in the rainforests overlooking the ocean of Northern NSW . Limited spaces are offered to insure personal attention for all.

Paul is available for personal 1 to 1 consultations, by post, email, telephone or in person. His retreats can be held anywhere in the country, with bookings of groups of 12 or more. Cost of the residential weekend in Northern NSW is $495 and can be booked here