Food is the fuel for our body. From what we will fill it, depends on how long it will serve us. How to take care of yourself and whether it is possible to change your life by changing your diet, said Ayurveda specialist Maria Kanevskaya.
It is hard to imagine that this slender woman weighed 30 kg more a few years ago. Not an ounce of makeup, no jewelry. Simple clothes in which you remember a person, not a suit.
Meanwhile, this successful businesswoman got into the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest woman to earn a million dollars from scratch. Maria Kanevskaya lives in Israel, owns a service company accredited with the best blades in Israel, and helps to cure the most terrible diagnoses. But in her immediate plans is the opening of a clinic where patients are not only treated, but also taught how not to get sick at all.
Once upon a time, Maria Kanevskaya herself needed help. The ancient Indian science of medicine helped her save herself. Maria studied it at the University of Ayurveda in Toronto. Now she provides free consultations on proper nutrition and believes that almost all diseases can be cured if you listen to yourself and eat right. She told our readers exactly how to do it.
Psychologies: Did you get into Ayurveda because of fashion?
Maria Kanevskaya: No, due to illness. A few years ago, I started having terrible pain in my side. Not just pain, I almost passed out. Despite the fact that she herself was engaged in medicine and knew all the best doctors in Israel, no one could help me. I drank medicine, swallowed probes, they opened me up, they even removed my bile duct for some reason. Nothing helped. I went through hundreds of examinations — all to no avail. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. Then I decided: the salvation of drowning people is the work of the drowning people themselves. I shoveled a mountain of literature, a bunch of sites. And I came to a banal truth — all diseases are from nerves, roughly speaking, you need to change your life, your diet, your thoughts.
Any illness is a sign that something is wrong with your lifestyle, with your internal state.
The first thing I did was to go to the Czech Republic, to South Bohemia, to a house in the mountains. And she was silent for three months. I was sitting on a farm, in the forest, and suddenly realized that we can do absolutely everything if we fasten the “extra sound” around and in our head, in other words, if we learn to hear only the main thing. But the problem is that some don’t know how to screw it on, some don’t know where, and a lot of people don’t know that this sound even exists. After I realized this, my life changed dramatically. First, I changed outwardly, lost more than 30 kilograms. Second, the pain in my side is gone.
So your pain was triggered by stress?
M.K .: I was in such a state when the body, emotions, nerves came to a complete decline. Plus, my emotional state was affected by work — it’s hard to see people with terrible fatal diseases every day. The ancients said: at the right time, an ant can become a messenger. This pain in my side was my herald, our body always tells me if something is wrong. And any illness is a sign that something is wrong with your lifestyle, with your internal state.
And how did you change your life?
M.K .: I became a vegetarian, went in for sports — running, yoga, swimming. I turned the sound down a bit. Our brain is a great tool, but we have entrusted too much to it, it has turned from an assistant into a leader. To realize this and change, you need to calm down. After all, the bottom is not visible when there are ripples on the water, but it is visible when the water is calm. I stopped living someone else’s life. I began to do only what I like, what I dreamed about as a child. I have greatly reduced my own consumption. I gave up a lot. This is the first thing everyone should do. The more we need domestic comfort, the more it enslaves us. After all, every attachment has its price. Each takes a lot of energy. And very little is needed for health and happiness.
But after all, it is impossible to cure all diseases only by proper nutrition and the right way of thinking.
M.K .: Of course not, but if you live with the right thoughts, do what brings you satisfaction and joy, and don’t eat anything, you will simply never get sick. And Ayurveda teaches all this.
What are you doing now, in addition to the main medical business? Do you teach Ayurveda?
M.K .: No, I’m just giving advice. After I recovered, I decided to help others. Change starts with diet. If a person is ready to completely change him, endocrinologists send him to me. I draw up a nutrition system, determine the type of constitution, advise what needs to be changed in lifestyle, etc. I am not a nutritionist — the Western approach to diets is not close to me, there is too much unnecessary information. I just give recommendations and do not take money for consultations, this work gives me pleasure. Anyone can email me.
Over the past hundred years, humanity has achieved and learned a lot in terms of medicine, but even more has been forgotten.
Sometimes I give seminars for restaurant owners. The nearest plans are to open a clinic together with Academician Vyalbe. There will be no traditional medicine. There will be highly qualified specialists in Ayurveda, phytotherapists, homeopaths, specialists in Chinese medicine. Alternative medicine has always been popular in Russia, and we have preserved its traditions and recipes. Unlike the West, where they destroyed all the «sorcerers» and healers, and with them the accumulated knowledge. Over the past hundred years, humanity has achieved and learned a lot in terms of medicine, but even more has been forgotten. That’s what I’m trying to remember.
The famous Soviet singer Aida Vedischeva, who left for the United States, suffered from cancer and claims that she was able to cure herself by changing her diet, in particular, giving up meat. Is it really so much about food?
M.K .: There is such an Ayurvedic saying — if you eat wrongdrugs won’t help you. If you eat correctlyYou don’t need medicine. Everything in our world is energy. Food is our source of energy. We do not pour cheap gasoline into an expensive car — the engine will simply burn out. But for some reason we allow ourselves to «refuel» the body with all sorts of nonsense. Now any information is available. You can study and understand for yourself what is useful, what is not, there are a lot of books on this topic. But in this stream it is important to separate the main thing from the husk. And before you go on a diet, go to the doctor. For example, there are people who cannot live without meat. We often go to extremes — either starvation and a raw food diet, or, on the contrary, we throw in ourselves what is killing us. It is necessary to study food sources, read the inscriptions on the packages, understand the composition of the products. There is no other way out.
If people want to change their diet to a healthier one, where to start in the first place?
M.K .: White sugar, white salt and white flour are the first things to cut out of your diet. There is nothing wrong with wheat, but we process it in such a way that it loses everything useful, and the harmful — gluten and starch — remains. There are many people in the world with gluten intolerance. And there are more and more of them. Second — give up yeast baking. Yeast and baking powder plus sugar is a ticking time bomb. Plus, these buns are often underbaked. The third thing is to throw out everything factory-made, processed from the house — in bags, in bags, in plastic bottles. All this is done with one goal — to stand for a long time and bring money. Juices in bags, muffins, chips. It doesn’t need to be eaten. There is one chemistry. And she’s killing us.
The main principle is to simplify everything. The fewer components, the better. Look at Italian cuisine — the whole world loves it, and yet it is very simple. The main thing is a quality base product. Think not about quantity, but about quality.
Everyone knows that harmony in everything is important. But not everyone knows the keys to it. It doesn’t matter where you start — with food or with a run, with moving out of town, with leaving work, with leaving an unloved husband — it does not matter. The main thing is to start and slowly go to yourself. And then your body will thank you.
Why are people today returning to Eastern practices — yoga, Ayurveda, meditation? What is the fashion for them?
M.K .: Too fast time, energy-consuming, and a lot of energy goes nowhere, and Eastern practices allow you to weed out the excess, recover, focus on yourself, hear yourself. Look, there is a lot of money in Moscow, but this does not affect the quality of life, the energy of the city. They do not make the city or the people better. Muscovites walk around gloomy, stooped, embittered, and it doesn’t matter whether you come to the most expensive restaurant or go down to the subway. People both there and there look unhappy.
Happiness today is replaced by pleasure. And food is one of the pleasures available to everyone.
Today, everything related to nutrition, gastronomy, is insanely popular, why do you think?
M.K .: It’s just the fashion of a wealthy consumer society. Happiness today is replaced by pleasure. And food is one of the pleasures available to everyone. True, we are talking about developed countries. But in the world one billion people are starving, we must not forget about it. They do not face the question of proper nutrition.
With such a crazy fashion for a healthy lifestyle, healthy food restaurants are a rarity, why?
M.K .: Rather, it is a matter of technology. Fresh products cannot be stored for a long time, it is impossible to make preparations from them. This means that costs cannot be planned. But I think that new format establishments will appear soon. Look, they brought me porridge, but with milk (what if I’m lactose intolerant?) And very sweet (and if I’m a diabetic?). Why can’t you boil porridge with water so that everyone can add cream and sugar to taste? For a year I traveled all over the world, took master classes with famous chefs, cooked, came up with recipes and menus for restaurants. My dream is to open a restaurant where the client enters, and the waiter or chef immediately sees what the guest needs and what he likes. There are such people. But there are no such restaurants yet.
You say that harmony is needed in everything, that it is important to do everything for pleasure. What do you think is the secret of happiness?
M.K .: This brings to mind a Jewish anecdote. A man comes to the rabbi and asks: wise rabbi, tell me, what is the meaning of life? And he says: do you want to exchange such a good question for an answer?