Little things to make us feel better
Food as Medicine Column with Lynda McFarland
We are constantly being bombarded with advice on how to be healthy and a lot of it is trying to sell us something, our health is big business nowadays but from my experience, it is the little (mostly free) things that really make a difference!
1. Sunlight & Nature - spending maximum time outdoors in nature, in all weather, is probably the best thing we can do for our mental and physical health, feel anxiety disappear after spending a few hours planting, weeding, walking or even just being in nature. Set your circadian rhythm by rising with the morning sun and winding down with the setting sun in the evening. Like all living things, we do better when we spend more time outdoors. Look at the tiny houses large families lived in years ago: they were just somewhere to lay their heads at night after spending the day working outdoors. The healthiest pets spend most of their lives outdoors too, the indoor ones suffer from all the same modern ailments humans have.
2. Movement, Exercise & Minimising Phone use - Again, nature is best. Keeping the body active is so important for both our mental and physical health, and it is good thinking time away from phones and technology. Phones are a proven addiction and are affecting us in so many ways, including concentration problems, radiation poisoning. An app was recommended to me recently called "minimalist phone" designed to minimise how phones draw us in and constantly distract us.
Alternatively, go back to a simple Nokia or landline if you can, more and more people are!
3. Maximising Nutrition - so much food these days in packaged, processed and contains very little nourishment, so preparing a home cooked meal is the best thing for the body and soul! If you can grow a few veggies and herbs and plant a few fruit trees or bushes, do, it is so satisfying to be able to harvest some of your own food to cook with. And even if you don't or can't grow, nature provides a heap of wild food includingnettles for soup, dandelions or wild garlic for dressings and pestos, blackberries and elderberries right now for jams and cordials. It's free and it is full of goodness.
At the moment, I am making a fresh herb dressing every day to drizzle over our main meal. I use fresh parsley or basil but almost any green leaves will do, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and sea-salt, whizz it up in a blender and enjoy over rice, potatoes, pasta with fish, chicken, meat, eggs or veg. It adds loads of nourishment to a meal, like a multivitamin and mineral but tastier, cheaper and much better! And if you really want to make your meals healthier and help with digestion, also add a spoon of sauerkraut or kimchi to your meals. The Koreans will tell you you'll live to be 100!
Lynda McFarland is a local nutritional therapist, cheft and co-owner of Lowe. & Co Organic Grocery on O'Connell Street, Athlone along with her partner Eddie Lowe. Lowe & Co. opened in 2016 to provide nourishing chemical free food that Lynda's nutrition clients were finding it difficult to source locally, such as sourdough breads and other fermented foods, organic vegetables, meat and dairy. Lynda manages the shop and Eddie manages their small-holding where they grow vegetables and keep chickens and pigs, and hopefully this year, bees for honey. Lowe & Co. is open Thursday to Saturday from 9.30am to 5.30pm.