People often ask, "whats energy work?" and explaining is usually sort of a challenge. Its not that its so complicated or complex, its more like, how can I get the person to appreciate it best? I'll share with you what Energy work and Intuitive Medicine is for me; because its awesome, and its a different experience every time.
Chewing, its what we do after every bite, but did you know it has more function than getting the food in your body? There was an episode of "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain on TV visiting Ethiopia and he commented that, "American food has a low 'chew to swallow' ratio. If it requires too many chews in order to swallow, most Americans probably wouldn't eat it." Maybe he's right. Popular American food items are things like hamburger, french fries, hot dogs, burritos, donuts, pizza, and pasta; these all have a relatively low chew to swallow ratio and are fast foods that are eaten on the go. How can less chewing affect us in the long run?
A study by the Centre for Occupational and Health Psychology that found chewing gum may increase alertness and lead to 10% improvement in cognitive performance on intelligence tests. The Journal of Oral Rehabilitation reported, research in animals and humans has shown that mastication supports cognitive function in the area important for learning and memory (hippocampus) and improves the performance of cognitive tasks and processing (prefrontal cortex). Chewing increases blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, increases cardiac activity, blood sugar/oxygen levels and the brain is aroused; as a result, helps with brain function according to an article in the International Journal of Medical Sciences.
From a growth standpoint, learning to chew food is important in infant development and has an effect on speech development too. When speaking, you briefly stop breathing and coordinate moving your jaw, lips, tongue all at the same time; so you can appreciate why it is a major milestone in a child's development. However, as adults, speech requires only ~20% of the force used for chewing. Chewing less, is actually one of the risk factors in people for the developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease later on in life (this includes the absence of molars, the teeth we use most to chew with).
The Taoist recommendation is to chew your food well. Give yourself enough time to chew your food thoroughly during meals produces more saliva, helping improve your digestion and naturally gives you a moment to have more awareness of what you are eating. Just as the jaw movement while chewing affects the brain, mental stress can also affect the jaw causing teeth grinding, or temporo-mandibular joint disorder (TMJ) and tension headaches; all of which are manageable and often alleviated successfully with Chinese Medicine. If you have frequent digestive complaints such as, constipation or bloating, you may want to slow down and try chewing your food more. Great things to incorporate in to your daily diet, if you haven't already, are more vegetables, like Burdock root. Limit foods that come from a bag or a box. The best part of this all, is that its something you can do for both digestive and mental health..
“Food is the only medicine that we take in large doses at least a few times a day, every day of the year, for our whole life. The cumulative effects of food on the body’s biochemistry and Qi makes it more powerful than any drug.”
Notes:
According to the Alzheimer's Association, studies indicate that as many as 10 to 20 percent of people age 65 or older have Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) . Among patients who experienced MCI symptoms that contacted their physicians for an exam, as many as 15 percent progress from MCI to dementia each year. Nearly half of all people who have visited a doctor about MCI symptoms will develop dementia in three or four years. An estimated 5.2 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s disease in 2014.
If you're curious about the intelligence tests mentioned in the beginning of the article used to measure performance, you can take a sample test here.
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19356310
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3894406/
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2842.2010.02079.x/abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2737457/
http://www.lion.co.jp/en/oral/role/02.htm
Cohen, K. S. (1997) The Way of Qigong: the Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing New York, Ballentine Books
Burdock root
I recently attended a class with Acupuncture Master, Kiiko Matsumoto. You've probably heard me mention her before. She runs a busy and successful acupuncture practice where she treats patients, does research, and frequently travels to teach in all different time zones, all year around. I often wondered what she does to stay healthy. She told us her favorite food is gobō (牛蒡), aka Burdock Root or Arctium lappa. Its called gobō in Japanese, and often prepared as a savory and earthy stir-fried side dish called "Kinpira Gobo" (金平牛蒡). She eats gobō everyday.
This made me curious, so I did some reading. The University of Maryland Medical Center reports, in Japan and Europe, burdock is eaten as a vegetable (much like a carrot). Burdock as a root vegetable possess more potent antioxidant activity than common vegetables and fruits, and has anti-inflammatory properties. In fact, recent studies confirm that burdock has prebiotic properties that could improve health.
Its been used traditionally as a powerful "blood purifier" to clear the bloodstream of toxins, as a diuretic (it makes you pee more), and as a topical remedy for skin problems and burns. In Traditional Chinese medicine, Burdock seeds/fruit (Niu Bang Zi) are commonly used in herbal formulas to clear symptoms of heat; such as sore throat, skin eruptions (rash, carbuncles and boils) and relieve constipation. Animal studies have found that Burdock root has liver protective qualities and helps reverse liver damage. The high fiber content (up to 50% inulin) is great for improving digestion.
As always, please consult with your health care provider before taking any supplements or herbs, especially (in this case) if you are pregnant or nursing, on diuretic medication, taking diabetic medication or on blood-thinners; to avoid complications. If you also have poor digestion, please start out easy and in moderation. When you eat it, its considered safe and is pretty yummy. Burdock root can be found at your local Asian grocery. However, if you have difficulty gathering all the ingredients, you can lightly stir fry thin-sliced (washed and unpeeled) burdock root (no oil) in a pan till golden brown and then let it dry out in the sun for 2 hours. Once it is dried, you can steep in hot water and enjoy the benefits of burdock root as a tea!
Below is a basic Japanese recipe for preparing burdock root. I hope you will give it a try.
Ingredients: (4 servings)
2 (5 1/4 oz) Burdock roots
2 carrots
2 tbsp sesame oil
Sauce: 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp sake, 1 2/3 oz soy sauce
toasted sesame seeds
chili pepper flakes
Directions:
1. Wash the burdock roots and carrots well and cut into in to fine strips or shred with a peeler. Rinse briefly with water and drain.
2. Heat sesame oil in a frying pan and stir fry burdock and carrots over high heat.
3. Add all sauce ingredients and cook down until almost all the liquid is evaporated.
4. Serve in small dishes with toasted sesame seeds and chili pepper flakes sprinkled on top to taste and Enjoy!
Sources:
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/burdock
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12218354
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045362/
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/burdoc87.html
Freshfield Farms Market is a busy grocery store located south of downtown Orlando. So far, it seems like this place has the cheapest Organic produce in town. They have separate departments for produce and fish/meat. There are always so many people shopping here, so its got quite a following. I appreciate the fact that they sell variety of vegetables including Bitter Melon, Bok Choy, and Chinese gourd, as regular food staples in their store. If you are juicing on a regular basis, you will love this store for its variety of Organic Kale, Carrots, and fruits.
Eat More Produce is a smaller family-owned grocer that mainly sells fruits and vegetables and wines. They now have a Deli counter that offers sandwiches to-order and cold cuts. This is one of my favorite places to get local free-range pasture raised eggs from Todd's Mini Farm and Amish churned Butter. Yum. This is also my go-to place for ripe fruits and avocados, that you want to eat the same day or so. Funny to say, but this is quite rare. Most major supermarket throw away any ripe fruits, leaving only the unripened as optimal produce with longer shelf-life. Not necessarily the best if you want to eat it now, and not have to wait a few days till the food ripens. They also sell some locally grown produce, which I always appreciate.
Orlando's newest addition is Trader Joe's. Its newly opened location near Winter Park Village seems to be doing very well for itself. Parking lot and store are always bustling with shoppers. Trader Joe's offers some affordable choices for Organic foods. Although I've noticed they sell many foods that have the Trader Joe's brand, but are not GMO-free or Organic.
Home Grown Food Co-op is still a growing venture. They have a weekly online market that you can order direct from local farmers and pick up on assigned days at their storefront. It still hasn't thrived in Orlando, despite the high demand for Naturally grown, Organic produce. Membership to Co-op is recommended if you're going to order from them regularly.
On weekends, there's always farmer's markets around. There are some local produce available, but most are the same source of foods you see at your regular supermarket. So in essence, most of the produce sold at these Farmer's markets, are not direct from the farm in the US. This defeats the purpose of a Farmer's market, but still popular none the less. 3 Farmer's markets around town that are nice to stroll through on a weekend are, Lake Eola Farmer's Market, Winter Park Farmer's Market, and Maitland Farmer's Market . Its important to remember that no matter where you are getting your produce, if you're eating a colorful array of seasonal fruits and vegetables, you are on the right track.
If you'd like to find out more information on local produce, visit http://www.localharvest.org/
