What Eating YELLOW Foods Does to Your Health

The FIRE is one of the most challenging systems of health for just about everybody I work with. At least 80 percent of my clients and students struggle with an imbalanced FIRE, most commonly feeling burnt out with too much stress.

A huge FIRE issue is unhealthy foods, the fast, burning refined carbohydrates and sugary sweets that set us up for a huge flare up of energy followed by a swift, exhausting burnout. Think about the way a carefully tended fire blazes sky high when you throw paper or dried leaves on it, and how that quick- burning fuel seems to be gone in an instant, leaving your flames starved and exhausted.

That’s exactly what happens when you eat refined carbohydrates and sweets: a rush of quick burning energy followed by an exhausted crash and the desperate need for another quick burst of fuel.

Whether the problem is too much work or too many refined carbohydrates, imbalanced FIRE energy creates blocks and imbalances, resulting in belly fat, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. These are health challenges that are nearly as common among my patients as stress and burnout.

To balance your FIRE, try eating some healthy yellow foods: yellow summer squash, yellow bell peppers, wax beans, Asian pears, lemons, pineapple, and bananas.

Yellow plant compounds include lutein and zeaxanthin, two carotenoids that are needed for healthy eye function. And lemons contain compounds like bioflavonoids, which support your liver through all phases of detox.

I also think it’s good to eat slow burning carbohydrates on occasion: quinoa, brown rice, and other whole grains. These FIRE foods offer you long burning fuel whose flame reaches every part of you. Some of you prefer no grains whatsoever, which is fine. However, I have found that some people actually need this sustainable and high-fiber fuel source.

Copious studies support the inclusion of whole grains in a mixed diet. The goal is not to let them have “power” over you but to make thoughtful choices about when to include them for your energy.

There are also several studies that back up that healthy yellow foods generate energy. A study conducted in Oxford, England, found that yellow mustard bran helped a group of young, active men have a better post-meal response to glucose after eating potato and leek soup compared to eating the soup by itself.

Likewise, a Canadian study found that whole yellow pea flour, a complex carbohydrate, helped overweight people improve their use of insulin.

If you want to find some other ways to tap into the power of yellow outside food, try these tips:

• If you work in an office with fluorescent lights, see if you can bring in your own lamp with a soft yellow bulb, so you can enjoy the cheery and balancing effects of yellow.
• When you need a break or a moment to balance work and life, try lighting a candle, perhaps even a yellow candle, so you can focus on the slow, steady yellow flame and enjoy the healing, energizing properties of fire.
• You can also decorate your workspace with yellow, uplifting images, like a yellow smiley face, to remind you of work life balance and to steer you away from burnout.

Open yourself to the joys of yellow as you seek to balance your own personal FIRE!

This amazing post was written by Dr. Deanna Minich, an an internationally-recognized health expert and author with more than twenty years of experience in nutrition, mind-body health, and functional medicine. Check our her website, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter!

Source:

theheartysoul.com