When it comes to health, digestion is where the process all begins. If there is anything off-balance, it can affect not only how we feel before, during or after we eat, but also throughout the entire day (and beyond). Balance is affected both by the food we eat and by how we feel. Our digestive system is sensitive to our emotional state and stress response through direct connections with our brain and nervous system via nervous innervations and neurotransmitter communication. Carly Balsz RN knows this first-hand, after experiencing digestive problems and a weak immune system for years. She was inspired by the work of Donna Gates and the Body Ecology Diet as part of her own path to health and wellness. Gates emphasizes the use of raw cultured vegetables as part of an overall program which also includes elimination of refined sugars and the use of colon therapy. After using Gates’ recipes and cultures to make her own raw cultured vegetables and kefir and suggesting that people she worked with incorporate cultured vegetables in their diets, popular demand spurred her own line of raw cultured vegetables available in Whole Foods, health food stores and other locations (including Healing Movement itself).
The benefit of having fermented foods such as raw cultured vegetables or coconut kefir is that they help stimulate agni (the digestive fire) and support balance of the natural flora in our digestive tract. Through this, they cultivate health in body – and mind.
When incorporating raw cultured foods in your diet, you might want to start slowly, as these veggies have a distinctive taste and you may need your digestive system to get accustomed to the microflora infusion. These vegetables can also be beneficial for raw food diets to add additional enzymes and flora and spark digestion. Try them in creative ways. Combine them with mineral rich nori in a wrap, or add a spoonful to a green salad with Carly’s dressing to add zest and flavor. –– FMT
Cultured Vegetable Wrap by Carly Balsz, RN
1 sheet of raw nori
Raw hummus or raw nut paté (enough to spread on the entire sheet of nori)
1 handful of organic spring salad mix
Sliced avocado
1/4 cup Healing Movement Raw Cultured Vegetables or homemade cultured vegetables
Sea salt to taste
Spread the hummus of nut pate across the nori sheet. At one end of the nori sheet stack the avocado, cultured vegetables and salad mix. Roll up like a burrito. Slice in half, and enjoy this wonderful healthy treat.
Carly’s Salad Dressing by Carly Balsz, RN
1 yellow onion
1 bunch cilantro
8 ounces flaxseed or olive oil
1 dropper liquid stevia
4 ounces wheat free tamari
6 ounces raw apple cider vinegar
dash of cayenne pepper
Put all the ingredients into a VitaMix or blender. Store in a glass jar in the fridge.
Carly Balsz RN is also a colon hydrotherapist and certified body ecologist who loves experimenting with raw cultured vegetable recipes: healingmovement.net.
By Felicia M. Tomasko, RN & Carly Balsz, RN
