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Centered Foods
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centeredfoods
Marilu's Tips for Centered Foods
Marilu Henner
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The idea of "centered foods" comes from macrobiotics. Macrobiotics is often scary for people, but really it's an intuitive way of eating. The idea of macrobiotics is to stay in the center.

  • The extreme foods are either contractive or expansive, based on the way you digest them and the way they make you feel.

  • Extreme contractive foods include salty foods and animal protein. They make our bodies pull inward to digest them. All our energy is directed inward.

  • Extreme expansive foods are the opposite – they draw all our energy out of us in order to digest them. Expansive foods include sugars and sweet foods, alcohol and recreational drugs.

  • Our bodies are always seeking balance – that's why, after a night of drinking, we want to eat a big cheese omelet to balance ourselves out. Or why we go between soda and chips, soda and chips. Or why we eat a heavy protein meal, and then crave a light puffy dessert.

  • Centered foods bring us balance, and stop that pendulum swing from contractive to expansive and back again. Centered foods include whole grains, vegetables, and legumes. Some fruits are also very centered (apples and pears, for example).

  • Centered foods are plant-based. They're loaded with nutrients, and they'll keep you from the big pendulum swing.

 

Marilu Henner's personal health recommendations do not reflect the policy or views of Discovery Home Channel or related entities of Discovery Communications, Inc.. Her tips are presented as consumer health information, not medical advice. See your health care provider before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.

Pictures: PhotoDisc/Getty Images |
Contributors: Marilu Henner |

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