Vegging out-the Great American Pastime. Whenever we turn the television, computer, or video game on, our brain gets turned off. We lounge on the couch or slouch in the easy chair, mindlessly munching chips or eating cookie after cookie, and washing it all down with a sugared soda. It’s time to change our definition of veg out. Veg needs to go from vegetative to vegetable.
Vegetables are packed with antioxidants that help the body maintain health and fight off disease. Raw vegetables are an excellent source of dietary fiber, helping your digestive system stay regular. For those of you watching your weight, a helping of vegetables provides maximum nutritional value with minimum calories. Choosing to munch on vegetables instead of sugary snacks is also better for your teeth and gums.
In our fast-paced society, many people choose salty and sugared snacks for convenience. They’re quick, handy, and right there at the checkout counter in every store and mini-mart. While it might take a bit more preparation, vegetables can be just as portable.
Bernard Jensen, Ph.D. said, "Adding fresh vegetable juices to a balanced food regimen will help accelerate and enhance the process of restoring nutrients to chemically-starved tissues. It is on these tissues that disease and illness thrive." Because it’s in liquid form, fresh vegetable juice supplies nutrition that isn’t wasted-as it is with whole vegetables-to fuel its own digestion. As a result, the body can quickly and easily make maximum use of all the nutrition fresh vegetable juice offers.
For example, because of its high calcium content, carrot juice is valuable in the improvement and maintenance of bones and teeth. One pint of carrot juice a day has more constructive body value than 25 pounds of calcium tablets. Like all minerals, calcium must be in an organic (living) form to be utilized by our body. Dr. N. W. Walker, author of Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices, warns that a calcium deficiency can result from drinking pasteurized cow’s milk, and that this form of calcium is just as inorganic as that used in making cement. It can’t be used by the body, and it ends up forming kidney stones, gallstones, hemorrhoids, or tumors.
As for foods such as candy, soft drinks, and ice cream, the human digestive processes were never intended by nature to be called upon to convert these so-called foods into nourishment for the cells and tissues of the body. The result of using them is apparent in the degeneration of the human system. It’s a shameful admission that we don’t know how to live and haven’t taken the trouble to learn the first principles of regenerating our body. It’s a confession that we eat ourselves into the grave by catering to our appetites.
Give yourself 10 days of eating fresh, nutritious vegetables. In just that short period of time, you’ll find yourself well nourished and may notice you’re feeling and looking better. Not bad for vegging out. IBI