MURFREESBORO — In a time when there seems to be a pill to cure just about everything, nutritional author Virgnia Harper of Franklin shares with people how “you can heal you” through food and diet.
And she’ll be sharing her tips on eating right and living healthy the natural way as keynote speaker at the 2012 Wellness Fair on March 15 at the UT-TSU Extension Service offices in Murfreesboro.
“We know a lot about healthy food. Every magazine … has someone talking about health — healthy living and healthy food. … My focus is to tell people how to eat healthy, but also how to eat consciously,” said Harper, a leading macrobiotic nutrition counselor and author of “Controlling Crohn’s Disease the Natural Way.” “If you start being aware, you don’t have to be a victim of your taste buds. Nothing tastes as good as health feels. Until you’ve lost your health does that really, really mean anything to you.”
Health Crisis
Harper knows all too well about health crises. Barely past 20, Harper was given little chance of surviving. At the time, Harper was suffering from debilitating effects of Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disorder, and Takayasu ateritis, an inflammation of the aorta, the artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.
By age 23, she was bedridden, facing radical surgery and very depressed. In her desperate search, she learned about an inexpensive method of eating very simply that promised complete regeneration of her digestive system. In just a few months, she became symptom free from pain that had plagued her for seven years.
Since then, she has gone on to study, promote — and live — the science behind what healed her. Not all healthy foods are created equal, and not healthy foods are equally as nutritional for every person, she explained.
“My condition was digestive. We know salads are healthy. But for me, as a Crohn’s patient 30 years ago, I could not have handled a salad,” said Harper, who created a program called Healing Lifestyles Training. “Basically, my program consists of specializing the healthy food for each individual. And that is where I want to bring the focus – paying attention to what combinations are important for you to move yourself into a healthy state … what balance is appropriate for your symptoms.”
For many, by the time they make it to a consultation with Harper, health is at a critical state. Top dietary-related health issues she continues to see include digestive troubles, autoimmune disorders, autism/ADD and cancer.
Preventative Measures
Harper said she’s not out to tell everyone that eating potato chips is bad. But she said she hopes to encourage others to change dietary patterns now to avoid major health concerns and balance out the “bad” with the best choices.
“If you are happy with your healthy and eating a potato chip isn’t bothering you … but people walking around miserable, then potato chips aren’t really healthy. It’s not about giving up stuff. It’s about putting them in an organized manner in your life so you can enjoy something,” from time to time, she said. domain name states “Always pick better quality.”
If she were to enjoy a potato chip, she said she’d grab one that is baked and organic “instead of that little barbecue chip at the gas station.”
That bag of chips at the gas station is like many of the foods Harper vetoes — items that are far from fresh, and long past the origination point.
“One of the things we lack in the way we we live today is energy. The reason we lack energy is we are eating energy-depleting foods. … Anything in cans, anything in boxes, anything we’re taking out and reheating is energy depleted food because it’s been dead for how long?” The best-case scenario is pick it yourself and cook it.”
You may not be able to grow everything you eat in your backyard. But you can still eat healthy – even if you are working full time and caring for a family. “I did it,” said Harper, mother of two. “It’s not that hard. … It’s a matter of organizing and putting your priorities (in order). Either you’re spending time cooking the meals that are going to keep (your family) well or you’re going to spend time at the doctors or hospitals.”
Fit In Life
When her children were young and into sports and extracurricular activities, she admittedly had to go the extra steps to make sure she wasn’t stopping at every drive-in market or fast-food eatery to feed her family.
“I always say to cook part of your meal in the morning when you’re getting ready. We don’t think about that. If it takes you 45 minutes in the morning to get ready, you can cook a pot of beans or a pot of rice. Those are the longer-cooking items. Then, it’s fast to stir-fry or steam vegetables,” she said. “My alarm goes off, I turn on the fire and put (food) on simmer. By the time I walk out the door, (the pot) is cooked.”
As she heads out the door, she turns off the stove, puts in a little salt, then covers and leaves on the stove for the rest of the day.
“Then you come in and chop up a few vegetables, put a soup together and you have a whole meal — a meal that is strengthening, a meal that gives you more energy,” she said.
For families who are so busy that dinnertime is often eaten on the go, Harper said it is still viable to eat healthy. “Three days out of the week, you have to, in the morning, prepare your food and go ahead and take it a step further and make it into a meal. Make (the rice or beans) into a stir fry and put in thermoses and containers,” and then you have a hot, nutritious meal you can serve on the go, she said.
She also said it’s a good idea to “cook a little extra” to stretch those healthy meals into days where leftovers can be greatly utilized.
Part of her lifestyle change also included giving up dairy, which she said is very difficult for most people to alleviate. “I’m not an anti-dairy person … but human beings cannot handle dairy. Our structure is not made to handle milk from a cow … because we create allergies and we create digestive problems. The molecular structure is too hard (to process),” she explained, adding that humans are the only mammal in the world to consume milk from another mammal. “That’s why we are having the obesity problems we are having,” she added.
If you do have to indulge in a little dairy, be smart about it, she said. Fermented dairy products such as yogurt would be better, and fermented cheese such as feta is better than typical cheddar cheese. Goat milk is also easier to digest than cow’s milk, she said.
While soy and almond milk are alternatives, she also pointed out that those items, too, are overly processed. Her focus is on whole foods that are as close to the source as you can get.
Instead of put the burden on dairy or nut milks for fulfilling calcium needs, Harper said green, leafy vegetables should be the primary source. Vegetables, in general, should be a part of every meal — period. Her suggestion is at least “15 servings of vegetables a day,” and “more vegetables than fruit” because fruit typically contains a lot of sugar.
Still, sugar in the natural form is better than cane sugar — especially the highly processed sugar that ends up in so many places. “Sugar … is one of the hardest drugs we have, and it’s one of the most toxic and addictive drugs we have,” she said. If you are looking for ways to sweeten, opt for brown rice syrup, molasses or agave nectar.
The more natural your food is, the better it will sustain you — and heal you, she said.
“If you start cleaning up and supporting your body, it will take you where your body has always wanted to go,” Harper said. “Your body is programmed for health. It does it on its own.”
In addition to her educational seminar, Harper will give demonstrations on how to make some healthy foods and attendees to the Wellness Fair will have material to take home.
