Using FHOD to stay Healthy, Wealthy & Wise!
By Lainie ‘Sevante’ Wulkan
While we are all doing our best to live longer by eating the right foods, getting the proper amount of exercise, sleep, meditation and balance while learning “the ropes” of good nutrition can be daunting, especially when big clinical names are being thrown around in the learning process.
The Food Healing Oracle Deck® Vol I and Second Helpings Vol II were created to entertain life’s questions through oracle readings, but also to provide you a gateway into learning about your everyday foods and the power they hold for your emotional, mental, physical and spiritual (EMPS) wellness. While many use our decks to get your spiritual message or as we call it “healing wisdom,” we always encourage you to also look at the “practical gifts” section of the cards to see the fun, nutrition and/or historical facts of the foods at play.
Lycopene one of the top anti-inflammatory antioxidants is found in many of our foods between both decks and there is a number of reasons why. Take a looksee at why we’re big fans of this naturally occurring compound. Mother Nature’s once again badassery on how food is medicine shows when you know where to find it in her natural medicine cabinet.
Whether it’s inflammation, Heart, Brain, Prostate, Eye or Skin Health, fighting cancer, diabetes or focused on disease prevention in general, you’re going to want to keep reading. Lycopene has been shown to help with all of these.
To back up a bit, I’ll share first what an antioxidant is and why they’re so important. Without knowing what an antioxidant is, you wouldn’t be able to let lycopene get its bragging rights.
According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, antioxidant molecules have been shown to counteract “oxidative stress” which are caused by free radicals, highly unstable molecules that are naturally formed when you exercise and when your body converts food into energy. Your body can also be exposed to free radicals from a variety of environmental sources, such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, and sunlight. Free radicals cause “oxidative stress,” a process that can trigger cell damage. Also for those that know me, I always talk about one of the most common ways of exposure to free radicals which is by cooking vegetable or monounsaturated oils, such as olive oil at high cooking temperatures. Coconut, Avocado (polyunsaturated oils) or Butter for the non vegans are your best bet being saturated fats or healthier cooking oils.
Ok, back to our star, lycopene. It’s primarily stored in our fat tissues, liver adrenal glands, prostate, ovaries, kidneys and lungs. While it is stored there, our body doesn’t manufacture it. So our source for these powerhouses is from nature – food. Since it only occurs in plants, our need to vary our diet to include the following food is necessary and important to consume. Knowing the foods lycopene is in, which as you can see below is in red and orange hued foods, allows you to truly become an intentional chef in the kitchen and create meals that are not only tasty, but are keeping your body temple nourished.
Most people associate lycopene with tomatoes. While tomatoes are a major source of lycopene, it turns out that the greatest source of lycopene is found in Guava – our WEALTH card. Go figure. If you want a wealth of health, eat guava!
A couple other fun facts (if you’re food science nerdy, like me) about lycopene:
- Lycopene is also known as a non provitamin A carotenoid. This means that it’s similar in color due to its phytochemicals, it doesn’t convert to Vitamin A in the body, but stays in the power warrior protection mode to help fight the free radicals.
- What’s best way to consume While a wonderful watermelon smoothie or fruit salad is delicious and nutritious,the most bioavailable way to absorb lycopene is with a fat. That’s because it’s fat soluble vs water soluble. You hear this a lot with supplements such Vitamin C being water soluble vs Vitamins E, D, A being fat soluble. So think Italian and bake up some nice nice sauce in the oven with olive oil or make a great guacamole and salsa dish.
- Lastly, for those who just want to take a supplement for lycopene – don’t. Like all suggestions that will come from FHOD, eating food is best before you resort to supplementation, which is another form of processing that you can avoid if you just pop on over to your farmers market and buy the foods enriched with reds and oranges.
So grab our decks, make a meal, pull some cards and in the words of Jeff Primack, Author of Conquering Any Disease (and whom I studied under) “think red to get ahead!
Stay Nourished,
Lainie “Sevante” Wulkan
About the Author
Lainie “Sevante” Wulkan, aka “The Food Oracle” is Founder of IFT – Intuitive Food Therapy.™ and CIFT – The Center for Intuitive Food Therapy. She is the Co-Author of The Food Healing Oracle Deck® (FHOD) – Nourishing Wisdom from Mother Earth, Vol. I, Second Helpings, Vol. II and Smoothies – Nourishing Wisdom Beyond the Blend! She teaches intentional eating for emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual (EMPS) Wellness.
She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Food Science, Nutrition, and Dietetics from California State University Northridge’s renowned Food Science Center and is a Certified Advanced Food Healing Instructor from Jeff Primack’s Conquering All Disease Program.
She’s a fourth-generation intuitive and advanced Theta Healer. She combines her energy healing and oracle readings in private sessions to unlock subconscious beliefs and discover the areas of stagnation to allow greater flow and health for your mind, body, and spirit.
CIFT offers online classes that include the FHOD Reader’s Certification Program, “Food, Archangels & Ascended Masters”, “FHOD & Tarot’s Major Arcana”, Conquering Your Cravings and how foods connect to crystals, essential oils, nature and chakras. She is the Creatress of Mastering Mother Nature’s Five Elements five month intensive.
Sevante is also passionate about creating sacred altars and has a forthcoming e-book and FB group dedicated to Altars, Shrines & Sacred Spaces.™
She’s a Recording Artist for meditations, including Amazon’s #1 bestselling “Gulf Coast Meditations,” a five-album series to awaken and soothe the soul.
Her Nourish Your Soul Show can be heard online on various platforms throughout the world. Visit the Nourish Your Soul Youtube Channel and Subscribe.
When she’s not teaching about food, you’ll find her in the kitchen preparing an intentional feast for her family and four-legged brood, practicing yoga and traveling to some exotic locale.