My Green Diet

Last month I attended part 2 of Tiffany Higgins nutrition class. (see my take on part 1 here). I really enjoyed her lectures and think there is value in what she teaches.

She said she focuses on 2 overarching themes when eating. One, getting the nutrients the body needs. Two, cleansing out toxins.

Getting enough nutrients: in our modern world, it is virtually impossible to consume all the minerals our body needs through diet alone. She argues that with current farming practices and diet, even eating organic and “healthy”, our diets are seriously short on minerals. Her focus wasn’t on the micronutrients, vitamins;  but on the macronutrients, minerals. Our body uses large amounts of minerals, for example: the not so well know, magnesium, aka, the relax mineral. Every time we are under stress or use adrenaline, magnesium is consumed. Every time calcium is used, magnesium is consumed. She went though minerals in great detail.

In conclusion, she recommends that every one supplement.

My take on her most needed supplement list is:

Enzymes – she really sold this when she took a container of store bought shelf stable pudding. In one bowl she left it alone and in another bowl she added the contents of an enzyme capsule. Within a minute, the enzymes had turned the pudding to the consistency of water. It was incredible. With diets containing so much cooked or dead food, we need enzymes!
Magnesium
Probiotics
Calcium
Vitamin c – start taking when any disease or sickness threatens. She called this the immune vitamin.

She spent some time underscoring the importance of quality vitamins. Calcium carbonate for example is worse than not supplementing. Read the ingredients and make sure that the vitamins come from whole foods. For example your vitamin c might have cherries as the ingredient. Look for minerals that are chelated with an amino acid. Those are the most usable. 

Supplementing is such a bit topic and there is so much contradictory information out there, I don’t want to write a book here, but I do want to start the conversation. What do you do about supplementing? Do you? What is your opinion on this?

I will say that I have done a better job of supplementing since that class and I can tell a positive difference- I’m more surprised than you. Unfortunately, quality vitamins are expensive!  Here a rough sample of the schedule I like: I take a nano pak from NuSkin about every other day or the women’s formula and then supplement as I feel like it with a few of these divine nature products. I really like the divine nature products (not getting paid to say this, I wish because they aren’t cheap). I like the enzymes, adrenal support, and probiotic especially.  They have some great chewable ones for kids, too.

Cleansing out toxins: we encounter chemicals, free radicals, and toxins all day. They are in the air, food, and objects everywhere. Tiffany said we need to clean them out regularly. When toxins enter the body, they are stored in the liver and fat cells. If a fat cell is storing toxins, it will be much harder to lose the fat cell. So how do we get rid of toxins? One of her favorite ways was with fresh vegetable juicing. She argued that the properties of the juice pull the toxins out. Adding citrus such as lemon is important so the liver doesn’t scoop the crap back up. 

Tiffany’s go to green juice is: romaine lettuce, cucumber, carrot, celery, lemon (peeled), and an apple. She runs everything through her Hurom juicer and that’s it. I’ll talk more about cleansing another day, but it is important to try to “eat clean.” What are your favorite ways to cleanse?

I am loving the winter in Arizona, but I am still missing my favorite color. GREEN. I love trees. (this photo is from the beautiful Snowmass, CO)

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