Just a Few of the Health Questions I get Asked Regularly
By Paula Youmell, RN
I plant to keep a list of these questions that get thrown at me via email, text, social media DMs, and face to face conversations (those are my favorite!) I may replicate this post every so often, adding new questions and thoughts.
1. What is your favorite food.
Keep in mind, I love food. Good food that comes from Nature and is grown or raised naturally to feed the body with nourishment, the mind with fire for our synapses, and the spirit with Vitality. BodyMindSpirit needs real food nourishment.
My favorite: butter. From pasture raised cows. Butter that is bright yellow like bright orange yellow egg yolks from free roaming chickens. So now I am thinking about eggs being a favorite food.
Photo from the Organic Valley website. Organic Valley butter is available at the co-op!
We need the fat and cholesterol for:
healthy brain function,
hormone production,
hormone transport in the body,
healthy cell membranes that are pliable and easy for nourishment to cross over to feed each individual cell with nourishment, and
pliable so the metabolic waste products can be removed from each body cell, back into the blood stream, to be detoxed out of the body by the liver and our other pathways of removing wastes. Think poop, sweat, breath…
2. Why do you avoid sugar and sweet treats.
First off, I do not always avoid these sweet indulgences. I am very particular, see above, about the quality. I would not eat cakes, pies, pastries, etc. from the average bakery or similar homemade goodies created with
refined flour
refined sugar
vegetable oils
various other cheep ingredients to create a product for the main purpose of profit. Food is meant to nourish the body cells. When we consume items that fall short of this nourishment mark, they deplete our cellular nutrient stores and contribute to the degeneration of our cell health, vitality, and longevity.
Cookies I will eat, occasionally, are from the Nourish Bakery in Brasher Falls. Try their chocolate chip cookies: whole food ingredients. If I was making them myself, I would definitely cut the sugar amount in half. I realize for the bakery to sell to the general public, used to hyper sweetened foods, accommodating my preference for at least one half the sugar being removed would probably cut sales.
Nourish is delivered on T/Th/Sat
Sugar depresses one’s immune system function. The sugar in 1 cookie, donut, piece of cake, soda, etc. has profound effects on the immune system for hours. I will say no more and I invite you to connect the dots.
3. What would you do if you were diagnosed with cancer? Yes, I get asked this one a lot. This is a tough question to answer because we can have our idealistic ways of “this is absolutely what I would and would not do” but that is all easy to say until our feet are right in the fire.
Our bodies need to be fed real food. I would take a gentle and loving kindness inventory around where I am slack in my commitment to whole foods, raised organically, locally, naturally, etc. Goodbye to the occasional bag of olive oil or avocado cooked organic potato chips. I have purchased Vandy brand beef tallow cooked potato chips, they are not my absolute favorite despite being tasty. Maybe if they sliced the potatoes into thinner chips??
Essiac Tea daily OR another recipe formulation of an herbal tea whose nourishment purpose is to support the body’s detox pathways (liver methylation), alkalize, and add needed minerals and nutrients to the daily intake.
More FUN! Laughter, connection in simple situations with people I love, meaningful conversations not idle small talk about things that literally do not set my soul on fire, coffee/chai tea and contemplation on my deck with those people who set me soul on fire with meaningful conversation about life - the universe - etc.
Really growing food in my backyard: greenhouse, raised bed boxes of some form or another, berries to pick and apples – pears – plums - peaches to pull from a tree or two or three.
Bringing BodyMindSpirit back into balance. Cancer is our being, our energetic presence, out of balance in one or many ways.
Get rid of inflammatory and toxic products, foods, chlorine and fluoride in water, people, and situations.
Tuck in with an Energy Medicine Practitioner to get some feedback where my energy, as a being, is out of balance.
There is probably more I would add here, it is a complex concern. And just writing this… complex concern when above I wrote “connection in simple situations.” Simple being the key. Our culture turns cancer and its re- balancing BodyMindSpirit needs into something way more complex than it needs to be. This last statement is a litmus test to see how many people actually read these posts because I am certain this will create some lash outs. And if so, that is fine. We all have our perspectives.
4. Do you recommend exercise every day?
Yes, absolutely. Our bodies were created for movement. Movement makes every organ system function more vibrantly. Movement makes the whole being, Wholistic Health, more vital and vibrant. Exercise, hopefully, gets people outside for natural sunlight on their skin, in their eyes, fresh air flowing over their skin and into their lungs, bathing the glandular system in the connection to Nature and the circadian rhythms we are meant to sync with, rise with, sleep peacefully with.
Not sure where to start? Add in dynamic stretching to your mornings!
Feel free to ponder these things over a cup of organic coffee, tea, chai tea, fresh pressed juice, a glass of cool well water from your tap, whatever lights your soul on fire and send me your thoughts. Meaningful BodyMindSpirit healing conversations are always welcome.
Information is from my wisdom, research, training, and experience in western medicine and wholistic modalities. My views are not necessarily the views of the Potsdam Food Co-op. When we make choices about our health, use other’s advice, and make choices based upon that advice; we are taking our health into our own hands. Our choices, and any actions that result from said choices, are our own responsibility. Using herbs wisely, as food and medicine, requires hands on learning and working with a trained herbalist while your own knowledge is being created.
Yes, this is my disclaimer. -Paula Youmell, RN
