Blood-boosting nourishment enlivens the body to our core quite literally. In three simple lifestyle ways, we can boost our blood:
- Breathing creates oxygen that nourishes our blood!
- Eating and drinking wholesome foods and liquids create matter that becomes our body (by nourishing our blood).
- Moving the body tones, restores, and exercises our muscles, tendons, fascia, and bones. We are also able to build muscle tone to support our body’s structure.
Why blood-boosting matters
I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t get a little squeamish when I discuss the nature of digestion and blood-boosting. It sounds gross. However, it is helpful to get comfortable with the nature of our body’s systems and the circulatory system is our life-blood (literally) system that carries every other system in the body. It circulates blood from and to the heart from every part of the body. Our organs are vital because of this system. Experience a break down in this system and we will begin to find signs and symptoms of disease.
Blood-boosting can also be known as immune-boosting, prevention of disease, and healthful lifestyle. Without blood-boosting with nourishment, we may experience poor immunity, signs and symptoms of disease, and a lifestyle focused on convenience, ease, and what we like to eat. The latter of what we like to eat can be a fun way to live. However, by focusing on what we “like”, sometimes we can create habits centered around limited nourishment.
We need a diverse landscape of fruits and vegetables to nourish our blood (and all of the matter of our body). Micronutrients in herbs and teas can offer deep support to our blood and tissues. We miss out by limiting the body to what we like to eat.
To take this further, we only have so many hours in the day. I like to eat waffles for breakfast. However, if I eat waffles everyday, I am limiting my body to the same nutritional content every day and that is a simple way to nourish and create my body. If I eat something different every morning for breakfast, I am nourishing with a range of nutrients that will support and prevent disease. It is pretty simple, actually.
Situational Obstacles to Nourishment.
Focusing on these three simple lifestyle supports to bring vitality into our bodies and watch the ripple effect into our mindset, feelings, and prevention of disease. We become vital humans and can realize our potential in our situation.
Food deserts are a situational obstacle to be aware of and to offer support to our neighborhoods and global neighbors who have poor access to clean water, transportation, groceries, and diverse foods. This is a systemic obstacle in our society which is in dire need of repair. Organizations like food banks can be beneficial to foster generational support to individuals who live in these areas.
On the flip side of food deserts, we find privileged situational obstacles to nourishing our body well can be mild, but also depleting to the body’s systems. For example, when we travel, go on vacation, or are visiting family, we adapt to the local and culturally appropriate fare. This is part of leaving your home space. However, depending upon your current health state, this can be enough to put us into a jag in your wellness journey. If you sustain a nourishing, blood-boosting lifestyle usually, then you can probably handle a short amount of time eating junkfood, grandma’s pies, or limited vegetables.
However, a complete lifestyle shift with long-term travel or a stay with a family member who does not have a health lifestyle can create systemic problems. Undoing the health nature of your body takes time, but when habits are shifted into a way of being — a lifestyle, we can see changes begin systemically.
Check out my Well Pantry Instagram account for recipes and other fun food passions like this passion tea!
Remedy: Cultivate a lifestyle that you bring on the road with you. Create a kit of teas, supplements, and props for exercise in small spaces. This can offer you support to sustaining a healthy lifestyle that benefits from this kind of forethought and attendance. No need for obsessing, rather, finding balance requires intentionality like a care kit just for yourself! Add some things like these to it:
- Passion tea (diuretic, facilitates digestion), rooibos, green tea, white tea — examples of teas with antioxidant support to clear free radicals from the body which can build up with travels (eating sugar and high carb foods then sitting for long periods or suppressing emotions to stagnate the moving out of free radicals).
- Herbs like ginger, turmeric, ginseng, ashwagandha, chaga, turmeric, cumin, fennel, guduchi and guggulu offer grounding support and energy to sustain a change of scenery and offer a gentle support. Bring a small kit with you to add to hot water and enjoy the soothing benefits to your digestion as you immerse in a new environment.
- Find fresh herbs in your environment or grocery like: thyme, parsley, rosemary, and garlic to boost your blood flow and enliven your blood creation.
Nourishing Foods
Diverse range of fruits and vegetables offer dynamic support to blood-boosting. This means that we offer nurturing fiber to the digestion to clear the cilia in the digestive system. This allows for clear release of enzymes which help us digest our foods. A plant based diet enhances this action of clearing the digestive system and also adds the pre-biotic nature to our gut that plant fiber holds.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Prebiotics are foods (typically high-fiber foods) that act as food for human microflora. Prebiotics are used with the intention of improving the balance of these microorganisms.” You don’t have to buy supplements to get this, unless you are concerned about the range of plant-based fiber you are eating naturally. Supplements can be helpful, but make sure you aren’t creating an overgrowth of bacteria in your body by self-diagnosing and doing this on your own.
If you have any questions about this, I recommend working with a holistic or medical practitioner to sort our any questions that you have about this before you begin investing in supplements.
All plants facilitate sound pre-biotic support and nourishment to the body. Some more than others. Finding balance in eating a rainbow of foods are the key to mastering your gut microbiome and your body’s biome to be that of vitality.
Fresh seasonal foods are the key to what your body needs. Try to eat foods grown close to you, as they have the most nutrient-dense support for your body. When you look to foods grown in other hemispheres or from afar, consider these as “extras” in your diet. Don’t obsess about acai or goji, when they grow in a place that isn’t local to you. Consider these an addition or an extra fun nutritional support for your body and love that you have the privilege to eat such amazing foods!
I don’t recommend obsessing about anything, but if you were to “geek” out on nourishing foods for your body, I do suggest looking to what is offered at your local farmer’s markets. See what is in season and that will attune to the nature of your body, because like the fresh June strawberry, your body is also living in June and will assimilate and synthesize this better than an apple grown on another continent in another climate.
I live in San Francisco and appreciate learning from the local fresh sheets what is in season right now. You can sign up to receive this AMAZING FRESH SHEET from Oxbow Market in Napa to get you going. For those of you in other locals, find your organic store, purveyor, or CSA farm and enjoy getting their fresh sheets from time to time. This will not only get you excited about changing up your home menu, but bring awareness to new foods and veg that can support and build your blood. Blood boosting can be a goal for vitality, but the best part is it is so beautifying from the inside & out!
If you find that you are curious about supplementation with plant-based pre-biotics, let’s have a 15 minute conversation, so I can help you find the right one for you! I can also guide you around a good herbal formulation to support your blood-boosting and offer radiance to your appearance and lifestyle, too! Follow me on my health & beauty Instagram account to learn more tips to keep you on your health and wellness journey!
Angela Rosoff is an Ayurveda Digestive Health Counselor, 500HR Yoga Teacher, and Face Yoga Method Instructor. She offers online courses, 1:1 Ayurveda Health & Beauty Consultations, and Teaches Yoga with Seattle-based Cancer Lifeline & Divine Yoga Studio in San Francisco, CA.
