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Mind, Body and Spirit Interview – Part Two

The Power of food: An Interview with Warren King
Recorded on the TV show: Mind, Body and Spirit with host Tina Johnson

Tina: Welcome to our show Mind Body and Spirit, I’m your host Tina Johnson. Warren King, a healing practitioner, has seen over 10,000 consultations in over five years. He has seen a common thread between most of his clients. What do you think that common thread is? Let’s find out. Warren, welcome to our show.

Warren: Thank you Tina, it’s great to be back.

Tina: Our show today is “The Power of Food”. There are a lot of people who need, or feel like they need, to be healed. You have had over 10,000 consultations in five years, you’re a busy man!

Warren: I would be less busy if people ate well! [laughing].

Tina: What is that common thread then?

Warren: I think a whole generation or more of people have forgotten how to eat real food and the cost of that is that many people are sick. For 30% to 90% of the people I see, food is a big or small part of their health problem. If they could just change that aspect of their life, it would be easier to feel well.

Tina: So there is the common thread between diet, food and health, an exact link. Health food is becoming more mainstream.

Warren: I would say yes, at least in theory. I noticed 20 years ago you could hardly find a salad bar anywhere. Here they are even in fast food restaurants even though the quality is not the best. Once the big businesses and the money enters the health food industry, it is easy to be lead astray by the fancy labeling and the words. When you look at the small print, often its the old food, but with the word natural or healthy. Sometimes people have forgotten the basics of how to cook for themselves and eat simple food.

Tina: You made a good point. When there is a label that says “natural sweetener” it doesn’t necessarily mean its good for you.

Warren: Years ago companies did use rice syrup, barley malt or maple syrup, now about 90% of the sweeteners used are sugar cane juice, or cane juice which is really just dried sugar. It’s basically just sugar, but people will eat it, thinking it is healthy.

Tina: So just because health foods are becoming mainstream doesn’t mean that people are becoming healthier.

Warren: I think people are becoming less healthy.

Tina: Is there a right diet for everyone?

Warren: Every one has a right diet just for them. Everyone has a different constitution given to them at birth. People have different nutrient balances, different cravings. Everything is individualized, but I am finding common threads. There are certain foods that are eaten all the time and these are the main foods that are triggering sensitivities in people.

Tina: If there are sensitivities in people from these common foods, what happens when these foods are eaten? Do people feel less energetic?

Warren: When I was 22 and studying acupuncture, I was falling asleep in the class, I had to open the window to stay awake in the car, I would feel depressed often for no reason and want to take a nap. I went to a chiropractor who told me I had an allergy to wheat and gluten. I had been eating sprouted wheat breads and pita breads everyday. Just the next day, from cutting out wheat, I didn’t have these symptoms anymore. That’s when I really saw the power of food. Many people just by changing the things they eat everyday to things they almost never eat, feel healthier and can experience an incredible lessening of a number of symptoms.

Tina: You felt better after one day?

Warren: Yes. Tomatoes often cause joint pain in people. Many people eat them once or twice a day.

Tina: Tomatoes are in everything, salsa, spaghetti sauce…

Warren: …Pizza, soups. Sometimes just cutting tomatoes and potatoes out of the diet for a week, a person’s so-called arthritis will go away.

Tina: Wow. Are there specific foods that you would definitely recommend us to eliminate from our diet?

Warren: Yes. First are the non-foods, artificial chemicals, preservatives, additives, colorings, especially NutraSweet and the artificial sweeteners that damage the nervous system. Basically the body can’t deal with these chemicals. The reason they put them in the foods is because nature can’t break them down, so the food doesn’t break down. Well, our bodies can’t break them down either. They build up in our systems and get stuck in the cells causing diseases and severe problems.

Tina: So the first piece of advice is to get rid of anything that says “artificial”.

Warren: Yes, but its not easy!

Tina: They are in everything!

Warren: If you go to a fast food restaurant and ask for the ingredients they will have to give you a list of them. Just a list for a bun will be eight sentences of chemicals where a natural bread might be sourdough start or wheat, water and salt and that is all. There is a big difference.

Tina: Artificial sweeteners are in cereals.

Warren: Even the vitamins they add are not good quality. There is a children’s science project “Nails for breakfast” where we take commercial cereal and put it in water then add a magnet. Iron actually comes out because that’s how they add iron to the food. We are eating these foods that are supposed to look like natural foods and taste like natural foods, but they are chemicals. Why don’t we just eat the foods they are trying to imitate.

Tina: [Jokingly] Well, it’s just too much work for most people!

Warren: And there is too little profit.

Tina: What are some other foods that should be avoided?

Warren: Coffee. That’s an important one. People criticize smokers, but in my practice, I am finding coffee is worse than tobacco for people’s health.

Tina: What does it do?

Warren: The cells can’t detoxify. I can’t treat people if they don’t give up coffee because the body can’t cleanse.

Tina: Is it the caffeine?

Warren: There are other things in the coffee.

Tina: So if people need caffeine they can drink tea?

Warren: If people need caffeine then they have an adrenal problem. The cause needs to be addressed which is weak adrenal glands that are under stress. Sometimes is takes a while to eliminate caffeine. I’ve had some people who quit drinking coffee and they came back to tell me their PMS is gone, acid indigestion, insomnia, anxiety… these all go away within a week in people who drank coffee once or twice a day.

Tina: The next item on your food list is chocolate.

Warren: I consider that more of a drug than a food. I think it is used often as an antidepressant. People don’t want to feel their feelings, so they reach for the chocolate. Chocolate also has a chemical called theobromine which means “food of the gods” that is the same chemical your body releases when you are falling in love. It gives us this false sense of being loved. That’s why on Valentine’s Day we give people chocolate.

Tina: It takes the place of love.

Warren: But is doesn’t fulfill the need, so we get more depressed. The blood sugar can take days to re-balance, plus the saturated fat, milk and sugar in chocolate isn’t good. It is quite a bomb in the body.

Tina: The next one: sugar. Eliminate sugar.

Warren: It’s the universal drug. It is empty calories. It robs nutrients out of the body as the body processes it. People eat such large quantities of it.

Tina: It’s in a lot of foods.

Warren: Remember, 4.2 grams of sugar on a label is a teaspoon. When you have a can of pop that is 8-11 teaspoons of sugar. Some people eat over 30 teaspoons of sugar a day, sometimes 40-50. People get fat but they don’t get nutrients, they are actually starving for nutrients. This causes diabetes.

Tina: The cells don’t get the nutrients they need.

Warren: No, and it is a quick sugar. People get quick energy, then the energy drops and they need coffee or nicotine or alcohol to pick themselves back up. All these things contribute to a blood sugar roller coaster. That is why a healthy balanced diet is needed to keep the blood sugar steady.

Tina: The last food on your list is pork. Why pork?

Warren: I have a way of testing people for food sensitivities and pork shows up almost universally negative on everybody. There is a reason. The one food it says not to eat in the bible is pork. Pigs are used quite often in research on heart transplants, eye surgery, and other medical research because they are the closest animal to humans. I wonder if it is almost like cannibalism because we are a very similar internal structure to pigs. Calling it the “other white meat” doesn’t make it any healthier.

Tina: Exactly. It’s that marketing amazing?

Warren: It’s like eating grass and saying “the other green vegetable”.

Tina: Then you have a list of foods to minimize. We know which foods you want us to eliminate, now what foods do you want people to minimize?

Warren: These are the foods that people, when they first come in, are eating at least everyday, sometimes three times a day that are causing many of their symptoms. When you eliminate them yourself you can tell by experimenting and noticing what symptoms go away. First, eliminate milk products. It’s strange, we are drinking the breast milk of a large mammal. When you try to avoid it you will see that it is in everything. People are universally allergic to it.

Tina: So you are saying most people have allergies to milk? What does that do to their bodies?

Warren: The phlegm and mucous in the sinuses and lungs are a symptom. Ear infections and acne are others. I find that with the homogenation and pasurization it changes the chemical composition so it actually scars the walls of the blood vessels so the cholesterol can stick to them easier. There is a lot of fat in milk. When you think of 2%, that is still a lot of fat.

Tina: Other foods are tomato and potato.

Warren: These are part of the nightshade family which includes potato, tomato, eggplant, peppers and tobacco. If you eat the leaves of these foods you can actually die, they are toxic. There are a little bit of eisaminoids in the foods, the tomatoes (which are actually a fruit from South America, Peru) are acidic and create cidic conditions in the body. I find joint problems are often related to these foods.

Tina: Beef.

Warren: Beef is a big one. That is like pork. All red meat seems to act in a similar manner in the body. It is very hard to digest. People eating it for the first time in a while say it feels heavy, it just sits there in the stomach and takes many hours to process. It has a lot of saturated fat.

Tina: That is when I get tired (eating red meat). I found it interesting the tropical fruits, banana, oranges are on your list.

Warren: In Chinese medicine they have the idea that there is a specific energy in food. The fruit that is grown in the tropics is cooling, it helps cool down the animals and people who live there. Here in Minnesota, in the fall, the weather gets colder. Eating these cooling foods here in the winter tends to make people weaker and colder. These fruits have a very quick reaction on the blood sugar. the best fruits to eat here are the ones that grow here, cherries, berries, pears, and apples.

Tina: Should we not eat so many of these tropical fruits in the winter season?

Warren: Yes, when it is 80 degrees and tropcial, fine, but some people eat these things everyday and I think that plays a part in weakening their system.

Tina: Then, wheat and corn.

Warren: Wheat and corn, two things Americans eat everyday. Because people have this dis-biosis, an imbalance of the yeast and bacteria in the intestines and sometimes parasites, they get food allergies to things they eat a lot of. Because they eat a lot of wheat and corn, these cause sensitivities. They are often genetically engineered which alters them further so our bodies can’t recognize them as food. Some people allergic to wheat can handle the older forms of grains, spelt and kamut. Others can’t. There are breads with rye or rice and other grains that are better to eat.

Tina: Now, someone could come in to see you and get tested for the different symptoms they have and possibly understand a little bit more about themselves and what their allergies are?

Warren: Kinesiology and muscle testing also show allergies that often don’t show up in blood tests. People will know by eliminating these foods whether they are sensitive to them. When they add the food back in, they will notice a reaction. If someone eliminates tomatoes and then a week later eats pizza with the wheat, tomato, dairy and yeast they may notice their headache, joint pain and tiredness came back. A person can experiment by eliminating these foods then adding them back in one at a time.

Tina: Are there any foods that you would recommend that overall would be very good for us Americans here.

Warren: Yes there are. The typical diet that I see being the most beneficial is 40% vegetables. Most people think tomatoes and potatoes are vegetables. I don’t include these. I break vegetables down into categories. The green vegetables are the kale, collards, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, which are very healing and cleansing. Then there are white vegetables like cauliflower, onion, garlic, daikon radish, turnips. These help to break down fats in the body and are cleansing. Then there are the sweet vegetable. People who are addicted to sugar, to eliminate it, need something for their blood sugar. Winter squash, sweet potatoes, yams and rutabegas, parsnips, even stir fried onions, are all sweet. Once you get used to that kind of natural sweetness, when you go back to sugar, it just doesn’t do it for you anymore.

Whole grains are important. When people think of whole grains, they think of brown bread. whole grain means not even flour products, but the whole grain, either whole boiled or fresh cooked brown rice, barley, quinoa, millet, and amaranth. There are main natural healthy grains. These should be about 20-30% of the diet. These provide good nutrition and help the intestines move things along. Sometimes, if you are going to have bread, have sourdough, especially the spelt, kamut or rye.

Tina: What about protein? how do you get protein if your not eating red meat.

Warren: Through naturally raised poultry, fish, and seeds like almonds. When people’s digestion gets better, they can handle more of the beans, nuts, tofu and other soy products.

Tina: What about eggs?

Warren: Eggs are very good for most people.

Tina: You also have a list of the good and bad oils.

Warren: There is the pernicious canola oil which is actually rapeseed oil. They used that in World War I to lubricate the guns and machinery. They found out it was damaging the heart, so they genetically engineered it and called it canola oil. There is a reason it is so cheap. Good olive oil sells for $16.00 a bottle and canola for $1.69 in the grocery store. You know every restaurant is going to be using the cheap stuff. When you feel it, it feels like a lubricating fluid. It damages the liver. It is in everything, even health food. It is a big challenge to avoid that. Tina: So stay away from canola oil!

Warren: Yes, if you can. It means you have to cook for yourself if you want to avoid it.

Tina: When we look at the farming techniques that have been implemented to produce mass quantities of food, how has that affected our diets and our health?

Warren: It’s very interesting, the other day I saw a article about farmers in this area not being able to make a living because there is too much food. They are genetically engineering it to make it more productive and increase quantity, but they actually lose money by growing corn, wheat and soy because there is so much of it.

The government actually has to subsidize the farmers that produce all the milk and cheese that everyone is allergic too because there is too much of it.

We need to support the organic farmers who use compost instead of petroleum products for fertilizer. If we are eating animals we should make sure they were raised in good conditions where they were petted and cared for and not just stuck in a box. It is important to choose meat from animals that actually had a life because you take on the energy from the food and from the animal itself. It may cost a little more, but you will save on all the hospital bills down the line that you would have by not eating healthy.

It is important to feed children properly because they are more sensitive to the toxins and need plenty of nutrients to grow.

The good oils they say are olive oil, sesame oil and sunflower oil.

Tina: Does the way that somebody eats their food affect them?

Warren: Yes, they have a saying “it’s better to eat McDonalds, chewing one hundred times per bite, than gobbling down health food” because you only benefit by what you absorb into your bloodstream. That means chewing first of all.

Tina: So slow down and chew!

Warren: You should count how many times you chew. It should be 60-70 times for each bite you take.

Tina: There’s a reason grandma said chew your food.

Warren: Yes, if you swallow big pieces, the enzymes can’t break them down. People also need to relax and breath deep so their enzymes can flow. A person shouldn’t eat while watching the news of people being murdered, or about disasters because that affects them emotionally and it is then hard to digest when there is fear. People need to take the time to eat and breath and enjoy their food and its flavor.

Tina: You made a really good point that, when people eat food, they are taking on the energy of the food. If you are in a restaurant and someone is angry or having a bad day, and they are cooking your food, what effect does that have?

Warren: One time I was in a Chinese restaurant and I saw the owner yelling at his daughter and being abusive so I walked out. I wasn’t going to let that energy into my body. You take in the consciousness of the food. Ask yourself “where has this food been? Did it have sunlight, water and fresh air? Was it cared for and loved?” You take on the nature of the food.

Tina: What about the foods that we cook. Does it matter how we cook our foods?

Warren: That’s the only real alchemy that humans do: cooking food. by experimenting, you can see. First there is the cooking methods you use. I recently bought a grill that cooks with wood, hard wood. I can actually feel this energy in the food. It’s like a bliss after eating the food cooked on it. I also have a solar cooker that cooks using sunlight. Any box with tinfoil and glass you can bake with. You can feel the energy of the sunlight in the food.

Gas stoves are more natural that other varieties. I find electric stoves are weakening, especially if you are standing in front of this electric field. The food is actually receiving this 60 cycles per minute of energy and it is draining. The microwave destroys all the energetic value of the food, it also changes the chemical structure of the vitamins and nutrients. I find the plastic that the food is cooked in is getting into the body and creating hormone-like effects.

Tina: The waves coming out of the microwave can’t be good.

Warren: There is a new stove I haven’t researched much yet that works with very bright halogen lights that get hot very quick and then quickly cook the food. I’m interested in experimenting with that.

Tina: You mentioned foods in connection with emotions. How are those related to each other?

Warren: They are very closely related. First of all, the blood sugar. Many people’s moods are related to the rise and fall of their blood sugar. The complex carbohydrates keep the blood sugar steady. These are the whole grains and the sweet vegetables.

Tina: So our food directly affects our emotions.

Warren: Yes. In Chinese medicine, each emotion has a different corresponding organ. For example, anger is connected with the liver. If someone is eating food that is too spicy, they can get angrier. Fear and anxiety are associated with the kidneys. Eating too much salt can create a feeling of fear. There is a direct connection.

Tina: What about the other way around? How do the emotions affect the body and mind in terms of eating habits?

Warren: People try to find comfort in the wrong place. They think food is going to give them comfort. Often they look to childhood. When you see a small child, see how many people offer them sugar in public places as a way of loving them. Halloween is coming up in a few weeks and parents show they love their children by giving them something that is going to make them sick the next week. We need to change our thinking. Does it really comfort us to eat something that is going to make us feel out of balance. The fact is that these foods stop us from healing our emotions. People trying to escape their feelings will eat dense foods like red meat or ice cream or sugar, foods that stop them from feeling emotions. I find this creates serious health conditions when people block their emotions.

Tina: Well no wonder there are so many food challenges and emotional issues going on right now, anorexia, bulemia, diabetes, there are a lot.

Warren: As a child, the only thing we have control over in our lives is what we eat by saying “I will eat this,” or “I won’t eat this”. We have gotten into family habits and social habits of eating that aren’t based on biology, they are based on marketing. It’s the best thing to start eating healthy while a women is pregnant and start her child on natural food from the beginning. By growing up eating healthy natural food, the children will think it is good. We have to retrain everyone to eat the foods they now think are strange.

Tina: Macaroni Cheese and Hamburger Helper is what people reach for when they are in a hurry and need a quick fix. They have all the artificial ingerdients.

Warren: They have a saying in Japan, “Where there is a front, there is a back”. The front is, we save five minutes here, the back is that we lose twenty years of our life. We lose our memory and our health for the last twenty years.

Tina: That’s a good point. Let’s talk about mental clarity and food. How are those related?

Warren: There is one diet called the Zone diet that says we need more protein, but the whole idea is that when you are in the zone you can achieve things, you are not spaced out, you are clear. That is because the blood sugar is balanced. Avoiding some of those foods mentioned will help achieve that. Since everyone is different you have to experiment. After a meal, you can keep a menu diary and record how you felt. Did you feel clear and productive or spaced out?

Tina: How long does it take? I know if I have certain foods, within ten minutes I’ll all of a sudden feel my energy drop or I’ll get crabby.

Warren: People have to experiment so they can really notice these things.

Tina: So we should try to track our foods and stay away from the ones that make us tried. How can we use our minds to help us eat better?

Warren: Emotions are stronger than the mind in terms of food choices. The mind can help by planning ahead. Have that baked sweet potato ready so when you get a sugar craving you can have that instead. You have to bring your lunch with you to work so you have that instead of the sugar that is offered. We have an inner child inside of us that wants to feel comforted. The mind has to help tell the soul that we can find other ways to be happy besides through food. We can choose good food or make a natural dessert with natural sweeteners or eat a baked apple. Sometimes when you get a craving due to low blood sugar your mind will just flash “sugar” or “ice cream” so you can interpret these messages. If you crave ice cream, your body might be looking for fat, or for sweets, so maybe make an apple butter and almond butter sandwich or steamed squash will satisfy you.

Tina: You make a really good point Warren, its about planning. Do you recommend two meals a day, or three meals a day?

Warren: People have to determine what they need. After fasting all night, its good to have a good breakfast. Probably three meals a day with lunch or breakfast being larger than dinner. When you go to sleep, you don’t want to be digesting food, so it’s probably not good to eat much after 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening.

Tina: Do you see a direct correlation between our diet and spirituality? Are they linked at all?

Warren: It’s amazing. You would think that they are totally separate, but if anyone has ever done any fasting, they can tell. You need to take energy in at some level, when you stop taking it in at a physical level, you take more in at the spiritual. You can get to very high states by fasting. Some people will fast, then start binging, then cleansing out. It’s better to just eat foods that are basically cleansing and non-toxic all the time, then you can stay at that spiritual state. The monks in Japan eat very simply, they eat rice and tofu. Eating simple food make the spiritual life more clear.

Tina: For someone who is watching the show right now, what can they do with their diet, with their health and with food. What would you recommend?

Warren: The first thing is to look at themselves and ask, “do you feel happy, do you feel healthy, do you feel energetic?” If not, then look at the list of foods to minimize. Look at the food to avoid and start slowly cutting them out. Add the grains, take a cooking class at one of the health food stores. Learn how to make vegetables palatable. Get more protein. You will be amazed. This might be the key to your happiness because if you are physically sick, you can’t focus on anything else.

Tina: Thank you Warren. You are going to be giving away some information as well?

Warren: I have three tape sets, one is A New Paradigm in Healing , an overview of natural healing, the next one is Love Your Organs, Love yourself , which goes through the major organs explaining how they relate physically and emotionally to your healing and thought diet, the last is Raising Healthy and Extraordinary Children that is about starting your children out right with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. There are booklets that go along with these.

Tina: Thank you. For that information you can go to our website atwww.mbspirit.net or you can give me a call at 651-452-2955. Please feel free to register to those give aways and also, if you would like more information about what foods to minimize and maximize in your diet you can also get that on our website as well. Thanks for joining us.

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