Health & Wellbeing
Powerful parsley is your weapon against sludge Taking responsibility for your own health, particularly in this present climate, is very empowering. Many enzymes in our body which, very simply, are proteins that do all the hard work by creating energy, breaking down food, sorting nutrients from toxins, making these safe and getting rid of them, are shaped to attract a particular ‘substrate’ or particle that, with the help of co-factors such as the B vitamins, which act like little helpers, bring the particle in to fit snuggly into the shape of the enzyme where it can be broken down and sent on it’s way. It is called a lock and key mechanism. So if the the lock (enzyme) has been damaged, or the key (particle) is the wrong shape the breaking down of substances is not so efficient. Plants have been on this planet long before us. By eating them, they have
helped make us what we are now. Our bodies use every part of the plant in a synergistic way, so it makes complete sense to eat these plants as whole structures and to accept that they have the power to keep us or even make us well. It is since the Second World War with factory and intensive farming and processed foods, that what we put into our bodies has fundamentally changed. We are not made for many of the chemicals that have been put in our food and water. Our hard working enzymes will do what they can to process these foreign substances, but in some cases they don’t recognise them or are overwhelmed and so a sludge of toxic material builds up in our bodies that will make us ill. If we clear this and give our body what it needs: lots of organic fresh, green and
A walk around... FIFEHEAD MAGDALEN Park near the church, which is at the upper, eastern end of the village near the Manor. Visit the church if it’s open, then walk south down the road for a quarter of a mile as far as a left hand bend. You carry on south along a footpath across meadows until you meet the parish boundary, the bendy river Stour. Here you join another footpath that takes you back up to the road about a furlong west of your car. That path can get a bit muddy at times so it might
be wise to wear wellies if there’s been rain recently. Turn left and head west along the road through the village down Fifehead Hill until the road turns left. Join a footpath that takes you west across a couple of fields then join a path that takes you south to re-join the road near Factory Farm. Turn left and head north east along the road for a mile or so until you’re back at the car. You’ll have walked about four miles If you have time, you might like to walk a furlong north up the road past the village hall and, on your left, enter and explore the 50-acre wood owned by the Woodland Trust. It is an
coloured vegetables, herbs and fruit, good protein and some complex carbohydrates we can be healthy. gives you a good boost of Combine this with exercise iron and vitamins and which is absolutely vital to freshens the breath, but in keeping us well; it gets the this instance it is used as a blood moving which diuretic, helping to expel oxygenates all our cells and toxins from your body helps balance us mentally through the urinary system. and you can take charge of It is also good for clearing yourself and your life. the kidneys of gravel and To start, simmer a bunch of stopping stones from fresh, organic parsley in two forming. litres of filtered water for 10 minutes. Strain and keep in the fridge. Drink a glass each morning. Parsley was a revered and is a very powerful Fiona Chapman is herb, now studying naturopathy rather and herbal medicine at overlooked. the College of Just eating it Naturopathic Medicine
with retired Dorset rights of way officer Chris Slade The Stour at Fifehead Magdalen
important site for nature conservation and has bats, birds and butterflies as well as broadleaved trees and flowers. It’s a very popular walking spot for the local villagers. Halfway through the wood, you could join a footpath that
takes you south to join the road near Manor Farm which will take you up Fifehead Hill and back to your car If you’re into geocaching, a popular pastime, you’ll find an easy one, a ‘Church Micro’ not far from the church. 49
