There are a few basic natural elements that we must expose ourselves to daily, in order to remain healthy and free from disease.
These elements are fresh energised clean water, fresh moving clean air and of course natural light.
We live in a time where we have removed ourselves from these elements, and become for lack of a better word, domesticated. We live indoors, we have shut off from the elements, we close the windows thats restricts fresh air, we drink water that has been contaminated with industrial pollutants, we pull blinds to block out the sun.
Over the years the building of houses has become highly efficient, gone are the days when rain would drip through a roof or draughts would circulate through the house, under uneven doors, sneaking through all nooks and crannies.
Our houses are now air tight vaults, protecting us from the extreme heat in Summer, but also the cold in Winter. This comes at an extreme cost to our health, the more weather proof the house, the more weather frightened or delicate the occupants.
We cannot bend the laws of nature, we cannot live in a cool air-conditioned house, then go outside on a hot summers day and expect the body to cope.
A story
Let me tell you about a group of Apes, who were bought from the tropics to a Chicago zoo back in about 1930. The zoo was so excited about their arrival that they built an enclosure closely replicating the environment the apes had come from. A heating system was installed that would maintain a subtropical temperature all year, independent of the climate in Chicago at the time.
The apes loved their enclosure and their heating system, they would often crowd around it. Visitors were shown the enclosure with great pride by zoo staff, it was often remarked upon how well it mirrored their natural surroundings, the only catch was soon there would be no apes, out of the original twenty they were down to five.
The zoo had purchased another 20 apes from the tropics and were awaiting their arrival. It was at this point that a Dr Evans stepped in and asked if he may have the remaining 5 apes, his request was granted considering the remaining 5 were thought doomed, and would probably be dead soon enough anyway.
His experiment is described by the famous Dr. Hindhede, Superintendent of the Danish State-Institution for Food- Research, who quotes him as follows: -
"Late in the Autumn the five ailing animals were taken to a place, where they were continuously exposed to the rough changes in the weather. Through this exposure, however, they were soon turned into real out-door animals. A special shelter had been provided, so that the apes would have a refuge in frosty weather, but they had no access whatever to artificial warmth. Curiously enough these ailing, thin and shabby- looking patients from the tropics did not care much for their shelter in the day time, only using it for resting in at night. When the Winter set in, the five consumptive apes seemed, to the astonishment of Dr. Evans, not only to prefer the cold, fresh and often crisp air but to love it just as much as they had formerly loved the radiator in their ultra-modern ape-house. On their emaciated bodies which had lost almost all the hair in the tropical ape-house, new hair began to grow, getting thicker and thicker progressively as the temperature fell until, by the end of the Winter, Nature had dressed them all in superb fur coats. The former dull and listless animals seemed at the same time to wake up, obviously enjoying life more and more every day in spite of the winter weather. Instead of sitting huddled together in a corner, as formerly in their sumptuous ape-house, they began to climb and chase each other, performing all kinds of antics. By the end of the Winter they were all in excellent health and provided with a good covering of flesh and tough muscles. They had good appetites and turned more and more to their favourite occupation - pilfering. In their open-air house they soon became one of the chief attractions, where they were often seen sitting in the snow munching, with obvious relish and delight, bananas and other fruits, whilst the teeth of the warmly clad onlookers were chattering in a temperature at zero F. (- 18° C.).
"To their twenty sisters and brothers, who had, since the beginning of the Autumn, been enjoying the 'hygienic' and well-heated indoor life provided for them in the scientifically constructed ape-house, fate was not kind. When Spring arrived not a single one was left alive. They had all fallen victims to consumption. In the five tropical apes, who had been suffering from consumption and who had now, for the first time in their lives been exposed to all the severities of a Winter in the temperate zone, not a trace of consumption could be discovered."
We must learn from this if we too are to regain our health. The old saying if you don't use it, you'll lose it (regarding muscles and exercise)is true and also apples to our circulation.
Simply if you do not expose yourself to your environment, hot or cold, you will not adapt!!
Increased exposure to cold increase your capillary network and circulation, so in effect your body perfects being use to the cold. The reverse happens with heat, your body becomes highly efficient at cooling you down. It masters it!!
This means where possible, reduce or even stop using your air conditioning as often as you do, open windows, turn on fans and try to reduce using your heater continuously all winter.
Wear thermals, exercise to warm you up for the day, expose yourself to the Sun. If you constantly turn the heater on all winter then your capillary beds recede due to them not being needed.
Then when you go outside it won't matter how many layers you put on, your always cold, why? Because the body has lost its ability to warm you up.
So, I guess its time go outside and rewild yourself.
Your body will thank you for it.
My name is Blair Harvey and I have had the pleasure of working at one of Australia's best Health Retreat's for the past fourteen wonderful years. Over those years I have had the delight of working with a spectacular kitchen team, we all have an immense passion for cooking good healthy food that is unique and tantalizing to your taste buds. Together we have not only developed our skills in cooking wholesome, nourishing and out right delicious foods, but we have been committed to broadening our knowledge of healing with whole foods and exploring the beauty of healthy living. Because of our enthusiasm in the benefits of foods and there healing properties I developed a blog to help us SHARE what we have learnt with the rest of the world.
You will find tasty gems of wisdom on health, food and healing, helping to expand your mind and revitalize your knowledge of healthy eating.