Green, Put A Spring In Your Step

Green, Put A Spring In Your Step

Are you ready to feel good from head to toe?

What brings a smile to your face? Does your heart feel full with the beauty of Nature? Do you enjoy hearing the melodies of birds that sing? Do you indulge in the sweet smells of budding flowers?

When I hear the word green I think about life, a fresh new start, healing, and nature. Spring is the season of resurrection, the period of renewed hope and quickened senses. Spring gives a man a new sense of life. When the spring comes, life in its tenderest, loveliest, and most delicate forms springs out of the cold and frozen earth. God speaks to us through the our physical senses. Spring delights the heart, gratifies the eyes, charms the ears, and excites with its smells. When “Spring has Sprung” it is the perfect time to create new beginnings in our being about how we might keep an eternal spring in our step.

Just think what goes into the creation of green: green being created with the combination of yellow and blue. Yellow is happy, warm, cheerful, friendly, and energetic while we find the mental clarity and optimism with the emotional calm of blue. Yellow’s warming and blue’s cooling effects work together to bring this positive energy. Green represents life and abundance, growth, hope, harmony and fertility. (Please visit my yellow and blue articles to learn more about these two colors.)

The color green also brings balance, contentment, and stability. Wow! Think of it. This brings a fantastic balance to our bodies which our bodies aim for. Green is Spring! Spring brings a fresh new start and a renewing and a restoring of our depleted energy at Winter’s end. When you think of Spring, doesn’t it bring excitement and positive emotions? Green is a natural, serene peacemaker.

Green foods do the same things on a physiological level. Did you know that hyperactive children can benefit from its calming effects, which is sleep-inducing? Isn’t it wonderful how a color can soothe, relax, brings peace, comfort, and rest by nurturing, calmness and harmony both mentally and physically.

The Healing properties of Green and what they offer.

Green foods are the most vital food of all we eat. Green occupies more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye than most colors. Blue comes in second. It’s a good thing because of how it benefits our lives. It brings to all areas and functions of the body a wide spectrum of great internal healing power. Healing with green colored foods is simply using the plants chemical energy. The green color has its own unique chemistry that is very helpful for our entire body’s use. Green plants contain a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that help fight disease. These foods are supportive and cleansing and healing. They help to reverse the activity of cells in chaos.

Every moment of every day your body regenerates. It changes your atoms and cells and tissues. It is very important to remember that green foods heal and keep your body balanced. Green foods produce healthy cells. Green is full of life.

WHAT IS THE GREEN PIGMENT?

Two different types of chlorophyll (chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b). It gets its name from the Greek words “chloros” and “phyllon”, which together means “green leaf.” It is liquid “sunshine”.

Chlorophyllis (a), a green pigment found in the leaves of plants, gives foods their green hue. Chlorophyll is good for you because it similar to that of heme in hemoglobin-the oxygen-carrying pigment in your red blood cells. First scientifically identified in the 1850’s, both chlorophyll and the blood are produced through the same metabolic pathway. The central atom-basic unit of energy in chlorophyll is magnesium instead of iron. Chlorophyll is fat-soluble and insoluble in water so you need a fat for it to assimilate and work at its best. So every green smoothie, every salad should have a fatty food like nuts, seeds, or avocados.

Chlorophyllin (b) can neutralize oxidative damage induced by chemical carcinogens and radiation. After treatment with Chlorophyllin, colon cancer cells are held back. Chlorophyllin may block the amount absorbed during digestion and help lower your risk of developing cancer. It has been used in alternative medicine as an aid to reduce the odors of urine and fecal matter intended to improve the quality of life in people who have fecal incontinence due to spinal cord injury, bowel cancer, psychotic disorder, terminal illness, or other disorders. Chlorophyllin has been used orally as an internal deodorant and topically in the treatment of slow-healing wounds for more than 50 years without any serious side effects.

1. Green is the most restful color for the human eye; and believe or not, it can improve vision because of the hidden lutein (yellow). So, if you want to improve your eye site, green is one big way to go. The yellow color of the human macula lutea (literally, yellow spot) in the retina of the eye results from the hidden lutein and zeaxanthin it contains.

2. Green leaves withdraw toxins from the cells and help to purify the blood by keeping free-radicals away and blood purifier from germs, bacteria and rotting material. This leads to detoxifying the skin. Clean blood does amazing things!

3. These leafy green vegetables are particularly rich in vitamins B, C and K as well as iron a great blood builder. Iron also carries much needed Oxygen from our red blood cells to our tissues and muscles. The darker the leaf, the greater the nutritional value.

4. The healing properties of green are diverse. Green affects blood pressure and all conditions of the heart. It has both an energizing effect and a moderating or soothing effect, stimulate the circulatory system (Arugula), which includes the heart and its flow through the arms hands, legs, and feet. The antioxidant beta-carotene and the vitamins C and K help neutralize toxins and remove them from the body. Arugula strengthen the liver.

5. Many green foods are rich in isothiocyanates (pronounced eys-so-thigh-o-sigh-an-ate), a sulphurcontaining phytochemical (plant chemical), induce enzymes in the liver that assist the body in removing potentially carcinogenic compounds by inhibit cancerous cell division and brings about cancerous cell death and stop them dead in their tracks in three different ways: a) They don’t allow carcinogens to be activated by neutralizing them; b) they counteract the poisonous effects of carcinogens that have been activated by reducing their effect; and c) they speed up their removal from the body. Carcinogens are the bad guys of the cancer battle. Many of these foods are bitter. If you are a “super-taster” and tend to dislike bitter foods because their tastebuds are more sensitive to them, try to find ways make them more appetizing to you and add power to your plate.

Spinach: Spinach is considered to be a magic cocktail of all the greens. Being a rich source of magnesium it helps to lower stress level by keeping a person in a calm state.

Broccoli: One of the good mood foods is broccoli which has stress-relieving vitamin B6. It also contains folic acid which is important in fighting depression.

Green tea contains L-theanine- a protein, relaxes the brain, thereby reducing stress and anxiety with tranquilizing effects. stimulate the alpha-brain waves and the beta-brain waves are associated with reduction of tension. It also contains an active component, epigallocatechingallate (EGCG) which has been associated with reduced physical and mental fatigue.

6. Green foods rich in Vitamin K help by alkalizing the blood through the production of a hormone that regulates the production of platelets by the bone marrow. This cures hormonal imbalances, stimulates growth hormone and brings rejuvenation.

7. Strengthens the nervous system.

8. As a good side-effect, eliminating the toxic substances of environmental contaminants and ingested pollutants, like heavy metals, radioactive isotopes and pesticides, can help to uplift one’s mood, alleviate depression and promote increased mental focus and clarity.

9.Naturally, green foods are associated with any kind of cleansing diet.

WOW! I like that don’t you?

Bottom Line: Chlorophyll is a phytonutrient that oxygenates & detoxifies the blood. It is rich in enzymes and high in amino acids. It alkalizes the body (more on pH here), is antiinflammatory and is an antioxidant. It has been shown to repair damaged DNA and speed up the healing process of wounds. Heavy metal chelation is another function of dietary chlorophyll as is the reduction of bad breath. It helps eliminate the odors of the mouth and throat, but more importantly of the digestive tract where bad breath originates.

Top green (Chlorophyll Superstars) that to add spring to your step: Spirulina, Chlorella, Barley Grass (9.82mg), Oat Grass, Alfalfa Grass, Wheat Grass (70%).

Other top sources on Linus Pauling’s list are:

• Spinach (23.7 milligrams/cup)

• Parsley (19 milligrams per 1/2 cup)

• Garden Cress (15.6 milligrams/one cup)

• Fresh green beans, arugula and leeks each have (8 milligrams/cup)

• endive and sugar peas supplies (about 5 milligrams/ cup)

• Chinese Cabbage 4 milligrams/cup

More Chlorophyllin sources include: green peppers, Brussels sprouts, peas, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini and cucumbers. High amounts of Chlorophyllin deodorizer are found in cilantro, asparagus, beet greens, green bell peppers, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, celery, collard greens, cucumbers, green beans, green peas, kale, leeks, mustard greens, green olives, romaine lettuce, green sea vegetables, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnip greens can provide you with valuable amounts of chlorophyll.

Not all chlorophyll-containing foods are vegetables, of course. You can find visibly green foods in the nuts and seeds group (for example, pistachio nuts and pumpkin seeds) and also in the fruits group (for example, green grapes or kiwifruit.)

For highest chlorophyll content from the foods you consume, it is best not to prepare them with high heat, but eat them raw or use low-temp steam settings to preserve nutritional quality.

I hope this information brought with it a little courage and a little curiosity to try adding more greens to your day. What are your thoughts about the color green? What is your favorite green vegetable, fruit, or herb? What ways have you discovered to get greens onto your plate for daily consumption?

Putting it all together: Green is the great harmonizer and balancer. Allow yourself the pleasure of green consumption on a regular basis, you will be more balanced and relaxed.

Spiritual Insight: With green that ushers in the new life, I cannot end this writing without remembering what 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Receiving Christ into your life puts a whole different level of peace, comfort, and what can happen when you make Him Lord of your life. “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul:” It is my prayer you have found and have embraced this truest form of life for yourself.

1. The Food Network

2. Joy Food Cures Life is hard, food should be easy

3. Phytochemicals

4. Super Foods