 Assalamu alaikum everyone. It's a pleasure to be here Alhamdulillah. So inshallah today we'll talk about a muslim's approach to preventive health. Just a brief introduction about myself. My name is Alham Malik. I have a master's in dietetics from the US and India. I'm a certified health code and I have a Ijazah and Hadith studies. My aim inshallah is to combine the wisdom of prophetic nutrition and modern nutrition and to bring you the best of both worlds and the best of both knowledge inshallah so that we can take care of our health in the best way possible. So today we'll talk about the importance of health in Islam, the different body types. What does it mean to eat according to your body type, the temperament of different foods and we'll talk a little bit about the gut flora and how to nourish that as well inshallah. So Subhanallah we know that our body is a miracle that was given by our you know the most gracious of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. Our body contains more than 37 trillion cells. The heart beats almost 35 million times a year and the kidney filters over 142 liters of blood every day and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala says in Quran in Surah Takasur was aid that on the day of judgment you shall we ask about the favors of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. So we need to know that we have a duty to take care of our health and how we do that is by doing our best in eating as healthy as we can and taking care of our body. In Surah Baqarah in verse 172 Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala says O believers eat from the good things we have provided for you and give thanks to Allah if you truly worship Him alone. So we need to remember this that when we eat we are changing our health. Every bite and every thought we have does change our DNA and our genetic makeup. The genes that we are born with may be the seed but the environment is the watering can. Our food, our lifestyle, our mental state everything affects our health Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. And we are really blessed that we as Muslims have been given guidelines to and rules for everything from marriage to prayer to eating to dressing and we have you know we were blessed that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was a was born a man a human being and he showed us how we should be eating and how and what we should be eating as well. Allah in Surah Al-Azab says in verse 21 there has certainly been for you in the messenger of Allah an excellent pattern or an example for anyone whose hope is on Allah and the last day and who remembers Allah often. And in Surah Najam verse 2 to 4 Allah says your fellow man is neither misguided nor astray nor does he speak of his own whims it is only a revelation sent down to him Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala. How blessed are we that we have been given the perfect Prophet and the perfect example to follow. In today's world we see there's so much misinformation there's so much confusion there's you know you just type on Google you go on Instagram you go on Facebook and there's so much you know talk and chatter that you know we don't know what to follow what to eat but Subh'anaHu Wa Ta'ala if we just go back to our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam what was you know what was it so now what is said in the Qur'an inshallah we'll have a clear guideline as to what to eat and how to eat. So going a little bit into the Islamic medicine now we know that this the Islamic medicine took the best from all the different ancient traditional medicine that is a Greek medicine or traditional Chinese medicine the Ayurvedic medicine and the Persian medicine and Islamic physicians like Ibn Sina and Arrazi adopted the full constitution from the works of paper critis and it is also important to note that a doctor of our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was Al-Harith Ibn Qalada and he was a companion and the oldest known Arab physician who was also educated and practiced the Greek medicine or Unamitid and so we see that the Islamic medicine is a combination of the of the Sina that is the prophetic medicine and then it also took the best of the practices from Ayurveda the traditional Chinese medicine the Greek and the Persian and with this we have the different branches right we have the herbs that we that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi spoke about such as the Black Sea the Sina and then we have the dietary practices about how he you know recommended that we eat the honey and olive oil and then we have mind and body therapy the spiritual healing which is Rukta Ya which you know a lot of times unfortunately we are so concerned about you know the modern medical practices that we forget to do Rukya right so inshallah we should make a you know we should make effort that when we are afflicted you know whether it is you know not only with evil eye that's what we usually go for Rukya towards right but even for any physical ailment that we always turn towards that as well as well as applied therapy that is the modern medicine you know Subhanallah Allah has given us you know so much information and so much advancement so obviously we cannot you know ignore that or turn our back on it but inshallah what we need to believe is that it's a combination of everything right and Islamic medicine as we know was during its time was more advanced than the European medicine in medieval times and this there are two reasons one was medical learning was promoted in Islam as the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that for every disease Allah has given a cure and as a result the Caliph supported the development of medical knowledge and understanding and they helped in many different ways but that for example was a key location where medical manuscripts were translated from Greek into Arabic under the rule of Caliph Harun al-Rashid and you know we had the Islamic hospitals called the Maristans which is from you know where the MCC took its you know the mental health the clinics that they are opening and unlike the Christian hospital that was focused on caring for patients the Muslim hospitals were focused on treating patients so you can see that you know Subhanallah we have always had a very rich history of you know treatment and you know treating any illness rather than just you know sitting back and taking a you know laid back attitude and even the book the healing with the medicine of the Prophet by Imam Ibn al-Qaim ar-Rahman Allah we see that you know the minute we dive into it the four constitutions are just given very naturally it is assumed that the reader knows this and at that point of time this this was common knowledge but Subhanallah as modern medicine took hold you know this the four humors were kind of pushed back into the background right here what happened the human body was considered to be different from like you know as a different compartments right so we have the cardiology we have the you know the gastric department we have different departments but the if you see any you know traditional medicine it was always you know the body was taken as a whole and then the the constitution of body was given a lot of importance so today we'll just go ahead and learn a little bit about the four temperaments or the four humors in regards to your health and how we can eat according to that inshallah so these personality types were defined by Plato Aristotle and Galen in the second century ad and these were based on the four elements of fire earth water and air and then these were incorporated into medical theories by the greek physician hypocrites and even recently now whenever you do personality tests like mudamaya bricks tests and everything this is what it is always based on and i'm sure a lot of you all have already heard this we had us dada hosai as well talk about this earlier in regards to your personality so today i'll connect this in regards to your food and you know how it affects our health as well so the first thing is what are these four temperaments so these four temperaments are based on the four humors are the fluids in the body and the blood is connected to sanguine the black bile is melancholic flam is phlegmatic and the yellow bile is choleric so what this means is that we as human beings we have one of this dominating our health and our personality but all of them exist right and we want to be you know we want to make sure that these all are in balance and it is when there is you know an imbalance that is when you see some health issues coming up so many of you all know you know you all have must have taken personality tests and everything but the food the the health the food the you know the temperaments regarding to health are not exactly connected they may they might be an overlap but for example if you are you know like melancholic and your personality doesn't necessarily mean that you are melancholic and your health as well you could be something else because they there's not you know like it's not the same but there it there could be an overlap inshallah so how do we know that this is from the sunnah so there are two ways right though the one of the most common hadith that we always you know hear about especially in Ramadan is Abdullah ibn Ja'far reported that I saw the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam eating fresh dates with cucumbers right and our Aisha radi allah Anha has also said that the alas messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to eat melon with fresh dates and then said we remove the heat of this one that is the dates with the coolness of this that is the watermelon right so we know that there is a temperament in foods that a lot of you know traditional you know medicine and you know like for Ayurveda they always talk about but again modern nutrition doesn't believe but inshallah if we you know go back and we think about it you'll see that there's a lot of wisdom in this and it is you know and we obviously have the proof from this hadith as well and about the body energetics this was again mentioned in the hadith by Um Al Munzir where the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam entered upon me while Ali radi allahu Anhu was with him and we had a cluster of unripe dates hanging she said that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam began eating and Ali radi allahu alayhi wa sallam ate with him the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said stop for you are still recovering so Ali said and then the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ate and then she said I have made some charred and barley for them so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said oh Ali eat from this for indeed it will be more suitable for you so this shows that the unripe dates which are very heating you know the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked him to avoid it as it didn't you know was not conductive to his health but when the cooling foods like the barley and charred was presented he asked them to eat so in this way we know that you know there is proof that the foods as well as the body energetics was also acknowledged and accepted by our prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and we can also see this you know like during every you know winter when we you know the winter comes in we see that most of us fall sick and we always blame it on the cold but this is also because a lot of the times we are not changing our eating habits right in the summer we are eating you know the smoothies and salads and you know ice creams and all these fresh fruits but we need to understand that as the fall and winter comes and we need to change our eating habits and in shall I try to incorporate more of the warming foods so that they can warm us and give us health right so soups and stews your dried fruits nuts these are all warming foods so we can see that you know we we see that in our day to day life but sometimes we don't realize it and now you can understand that yes this is because we need to also change our eating habits and incorporate foods that are more warming to us so the next few slides are regarding the body type are taken from norasuna and they have an extensive course as well if any of you would like to take it regarding the four body constitutions and how to understand your body type so this is just a quick guide to your body type there is an extensive questionnaire that you can you know go in and take a look and you know take the course if you're interested so take your index finger and your thumb and then use it to overlap your wrist okay so if your fingers overlap significantly it's called you are the melancholy type okay so it goes almost like this because this is the part you know this is the part where we are usually bonded and we very rarely put on fat on this so it's very easy to distinguish our body type you know matter how you know which stage of life we are in and how much weight you know we have or have not put so the next one is choleraic so if your fingers just overlap slightly just a little bit that means you are choleraic okay and then if your fingers touch exactly you know there's no overlap that if they're touching perfectly then it is sanguine and if your fingers don't meet at all there's a significant gap that means it's phlegmatic okay so this is just a you know this is a very basic way to find your body type like I said there's you know like the questionnaire has a lot more questions that you can take a look at okay so Insha Allah we'll start talking about the first body type which is the sanguine there is no equivalence of this in the iraida and the traditional chinese medicine because this body type is considered the natural state or the perfect state and this is you know it is hot and wet that is it's warm and moist which is what the blood you know and this constitutes the humor of blood and this is considered you know the perfect body type and it's the traits of a sanguine constitution are you have an oval face you're neither too fat nor too thin you have you have a medium frame and a build you have you know a normal good appetite you have a moderate balanced metabolism you have a good digestion good elimination and you sweat moderately however what can happen is if you are not eating regarding to your body type you know and you're eating excessive of fatty foods or sweets it can definitely lead to an imbalance and that's when you know different conditions may arise for example you know you have a sluggish metabolism high cholesterol diabetes doubt you know so these can definitely occur if you're not eating according you know to in a balanced manner and definitely just you know adjusting your diet again and hijama will help in excess in elevating those diseases so you know this since this body type is warm and moist which is also coinciding with summer sorry with spring you can have a lot of you know like many of the the the regular fruits the vegetables dairy grains you know most of the herbal teas like rose fennel mint are very you know calming and healing they have a like a standard you know the the regular digestion so the standard america diet can definitely cause a lot of imbalance because it's very high in salt and fat so the foods to avoid would be excessive consumption of meats fatty foods and sweets the next body type is the choleric body type this coincides to the yellow bile so if you have you know that is the humor that is you know the predominating humor in you then you would be considered the choleric body type now this is the hot and dry body type and it is one of the most you know the the most hottest of all the body types because it's dry and you can you know because it's off balance there is no moistness you definitely want to have you know foods that is going to promote that so the traits of a choleric constitution are you have a broad jaw a sharp nose high cheek bones you have a very ravenous appetite of fast metabolism you know a lot of people they say oh you know this person eats so much but then they were gained weight so now you know that this is also influenced by these you know the the temperaments and or your body types right we all know someone who eats a lot but never seems to gain weight and we know someone who doesn't barely eat anything but they gain weight so soon right so this is this is because of your body type so they also have a very powerful digestion because they have a lot of heat in their body and so you know that sometimes what happens is you're not able to absorb all the nutrients and even your your stool tends to be a little loose and you know you might have a lot of deficiencies sometimes and you also sweat quite profusely the following you know if your body is out of balance then you might have fevers because you're already hot you might have high cholesterol cardiovascular disorders high blood pressure headaches infections and anything that you know the foods that aggravated are the foods that are already heating in nature so you like the salty foods the vinegar sour or fermented fruit cheeses all these kind of aggravate this condition more so nacella dietary adjustment will help where you can have more cooling fruits and more you know the foods that have a lot of water content in them so zucchini cucumbers lettuce celery apples oranges all fruits rice barley the chicken and eggs you'll see that these are all cooling foods and this will help to calm down your body in case there is an imbalance and also they have you know like any herbal teas such as mint rose chamomile tea which is a very calming tea are also very helpful in this body type the next body type is the melancholic so this is the cold and dry body type and in this if you see this coincides to the water in ayurvedic and this is the black bile this or is called sauda in arabic and this is again you know a body type that can cause you know some health conditions because it's cold and dry remember we want it to be warm and moist so you can see this is completely opposite to that right so it can you know cause issues so you have to be a little more careful regarding your health regarding your diet now Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us with this you know body type we cannot say that oh i wish i was born with this i was born with that you know the you know we are all you know blessed and tested with various things so if if you have a melancholic body type knowing this and then understanding it and eating according you know the foods that can bring it to the warm and moist will help you inshallah so if you know someone who has a melancholic body type they usually have a rectangular face very prominent cheekbones and they tend to be very thin or lean and they usually have a very poor appetite right and they have a very you know erratic metabolism so sometimes they'll be able to eat a lot and then sometimes they have you know gi issues they have irritable bowel syndrome they have constipation they're usually people who have you know very high emotions and they have a scanty sweat as well and if you see the most of most of their you know their conditions are because of the cold and dry nature so they have a poor appetite they have you know they might have anemia depression arthritis hypoglycemia so these are these are the problems that do tend to plague them and foods that aggravate it are all dry stale foods beans astringent foods peanuts rancid fats and nightshades so things like this tend to aggravate the condition so you definitely want to have some warming and some moist foods such as you know steamed foods sauteed foods you know grain sourdough bread soups too so these foods will help to bring it back in balance so it's about a lot we can see that you know there's so many different body types but if we just tweak our diet a little bit to you know make make sure our body is is balanced we can you know do a lot to increase its health inshallah and the last one is the phlegmatic constitution so this is the bulgurum you know the it coincides with the phlegm humor that is the the body fluid in our body and it's kind of considered to be the most cold and wet and this body type has around face full cheeks and awful they have a dimple chin they are well developed they have you know a slow steady appetite and they usually have a slower metabolism so you'll see a lot of people say I don't eat anything but you know they tend to be a little overweight this is because they have a phlegmatic constitution and you know so when I took this course I could understand you know my children as well you know one of them you know is a little has a round face and you know and she actually is the one who doesn't have much of an appetite and in fact when she was you know a baby and she never used to eat I used to take her to the doctor and I used to be like you know I'm a dietitian but I'm struggling she's not eating and they used to tell me that no but she looks fine you know she's so chubby and now after knowing this I can now see that it's because of her constitution that you know that's her the physical frame that she's blessed with right so you you'll see that they actually crave for more carbohydrates and more milk and more dairy products if for example if I have to get you know like bread or any croissant she can just eat it plain you know and now I understand that okay it's her body type so I have a little more you know I have a more empathy with her because I know that it's not her wanting it but it's her body type so inshallah you know just knowing your body type will help you understand why do you crave certain fruits or why is your body type like this right inshallah and you'll see that a melancholy a phlegmatic sorry that's a typo a phlegmatic has you know more of you know the physical conditions that are associated with having a cold and wet body for example they may have more you know water retention when you have a cough you develop a phlegm very easily you know you have a slow digestion so you have constipation your hypothyroid you tend to gain weight easily so you know and you get frequent colds as well so this is because of your body type and inshallah if you have more you know warming and drying foods it'll help you for example yogurt kefir which are you know fermented foods the chicken fish organ meats so having soups all this will really help you inshallah so so now we understood that you know this our body type can be in four different categories so just as a body has a temperament and and our organs so does the food that we eat right so inshallah we can briefly just go through the different food categories and you can find a lot of information about this as well you know there's a whole book on amazon that's available called you know the i think guide to chinese um you know foods where you can there's a extensive list of all the foods and their you know properties whether they're heating the cooling the warming on their drying so um the foods that are cooling and drying that is the melancholic foods pomegranate indian uh gooseberry that is amla lemons mur fresh olive oil all these are you know very cooling and drying so if you actually had to you know just close your eyes you know and you can actually experiment this as well and you know you take this in your mouth you'll see that it has a very cooling and a drying effect right your mouth actually feels dry when you eat it versus if you actually take warming and drying foods for example all seeds and pungent herbs like black pepper dates tamarind garlic you know all these are you know very warming foods and naturally you'll see that these are the foods that you tend to put in your soups as well when you fall sick or you tend to make soups when the winter is coming right so these are all very warming foods and drying so you want to you know reduce the phlegm content in your body and warm it up and uh for example even if you have like you know just tape a teaspoon of ginger juice right and just if you eat it your your throat is burning right and you feel very warm in your body because these are warming foods and then you have the warming and dampening or moist foods that's sanguine and this is lamb go chicken dairy products like the sheep dairy products the rice wheat squashes fermented vegetables so these are the warming and the you know the moist foods and these help and replenish our body as well as the cooling and the dampening foods are the phlegmatic foods which are the the dairy products the kidney cucumbers melons lettuce berries and finally now you can see that you know earlier when we were small and we had a cold and our mother used to tell you know like don't have milk it causes phlegm uh you know my brother who's a medical doctor you know used to say oh these are old women you know grandmother's tales you know nothing is going to happen it doesn't matter but subhanallah now even when you go to their medical doctors and your child has a cold they'll actually tell you don't give them too many dairy products because this will increase the phlegm production and cause more mucus and throw you know vomiting etc right so this is because of the constitution of the the the temperaments of the different foods so if you actually you know the last time that I had this talk I actually got all these food ingredients and I you know we actually you know all of us we took a bite of all the different foods and we could actually experience the you know the different textures and we could experience how our mouth would react to all this for example if you take salt it's just a pinch of it it actually increases your saliva production right but if you take it in a very large quantity then you'll see that it is dehydrating right and that's why you use it as to you know preserve food as well milk you'll see that it's cool and damp lemon again it's cooling and drying if you just you know suck on a lemon you'll see that you're you know you constantly have saliva production because it's drying up your mouth ginger like I mentioned is warming watermelon like I mentioned is cooling right so now let's see what are you know most of the foods that the the the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam actually if you see they belong to the sanguine category which is the most balanced of it right so we have the lamb the goat the chicken the the sheep the dairy products the grains squashes bananas olives fermented vegetables most of these belong to the sanguine category so although this is you know obviously because he's the most perfect human being you know we you know we can say that you know he would have had a sanguine body type and the foods that he ate as well belong to the sanguine category right so now after listening to all this you might be confused right there's so many different diets that are out there there's the keto diet the atkins the paleo you know and now we just spoke about the body types and then there is the blood types as well so what should we be eating right so it is very simple in Surah al-Bakara verse 168 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says O you people eat from the earth which is halal and tayib and follow not the footsteps of shaitan right and then Surah Muhammad verse 12 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says surely Allah will admit those who believe and do good into gardens under which rivers flow as for the disbelievers they enjoy themselves and feed like cattle but the fire will be their home right so subhanahu wa ta'ala when you know there are all these diets you know these are the diets that the you know the non-believers have you know just come up with just because they feel that this might be beneficial to them but you'll see that each of this diet you know removes food groups that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has blessed us with right for example in the keto diet you're removing all the grains you're removing most of the fruits right and this is not what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran over and over he mentioned so many fruits and he says that these are given as a blessing to us that we will be able to eat them in Jannah right we have grapes and bananas right so many fruits are mentioned so who are we in this world to deprive ourselves of this niyama of this blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right or we have the you know the paleo diet or the raw fruit diet the vegan diet so we what we have to understand is that all these are blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala every food given is a blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so don't deprive yourself and don't you know blindly follow you know these diets that are you know people who who have no guidance or understanding are following right so whenever people ask me I say just follow the sunnah diet that is eat in moderation right so that is something that we first have to understand right Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah al-Baqarah says and do not throw yourselves into destruction so the first thing what we have to understand is don't eat foods that we know are going to be bad for you and what are those foods right those are simply the most processed foods that you'll find are the foods that are bad for you right so you have all these you know the Twinkies and the you know the Takis and you know all those foods that you know are so processed that we there's nothing real left in them so you know okay fine you know you're having it you know your child wants it like once in a year once in six months you know we are blessed with the body that Allah has one of Allah has made so beautiful that you know the liver and the kidney can detox and remove the stocks and but imagine if you're having them day after day every day you know after a point your body is also going to start you know complaining giving up and starts going to have you know some disease conditions right so inshallah the first thing to understand is to have you know the foods which are the most pure and as well as to have it in moderation right so it's one a lot when we are you know it's easy when our children you know want something to have snacks that are packaged but you know it does take some effort to you know research first of all you know if you can cook that's best but if not you know there are many many products nowadays that are very you know there are healthier alternatives for example that are made with you know chickpea flour or almond flour which are much healthier alternatives to the processed foods you know so just doing a little bit of research and trying to get those foods will also be really helpful and the next one of the most important part that you know we at with age especially tend to forget is how much to eat right our Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam advised the believers you know with eating and drinking and he said the children of Adam fill no container worse than the way in which they fill their stomachs let the children of Adam have a few mouthsfuls to strengthen the loins and if possible then we should have one third for food one third for drink and one third for air right so we all have you know at least once in our lifetime we have experienced this where we have eaten so much you know where we don't realize and we tend to keep eating because the food was so delicious that finally we don't have any space to you know drink water and then when we you know we are thirsty and then we drink water you will realize that you are so uncomfortable that you find difficulty in breathing right so subhan Allah you know no other you know religion guides the people to this but we as Muslims have been you know we have a beautiful hadith which actually tells us not to you know overeat so one thing when we should remember is that we should eat until we are not hungry not until we are full and if you think about it very carefully there's a profound wisdom in it right so until we are full means you know we you know our stomach is expanded you know we go back we lean back and we say oh my god we can't eat anymore but that is not how we should be eating how much should we eat we should eat until we are not hungry anymore right so we should stop when we feel satisfied inshallah and so remember like so a few of the points you know like the takeaways would be we need to eat the one third rule the sunnah fast the halal entire food food that nourishes our body and is it nourishing your gut balance food from all the food groups right so there is no food that you need to avoid or to restrict it right you need to have all foods with moderations and complete nutrition with protein fats carbs vitamins and minerals and you also need to eat according to your weather right so if you are like for example if you like in the place that you are if it's summer then eat more you know foods that are are fresh and moist and more cooling whether it's if it is winter then have more warming foods right but similarly if you are in different parts of the country for example if you are in India or in Pakistan you'll see that it's a more you know like a hot place so you want to have more cooling foods whereas if you are in Canada and it's more cooling then you definitely want to have more warming foods right and to reduce the red meat consumption now a lot of people always ask you know what is the secret to weight loss right that is the question that i think i'm you know i receive the most how do i lose weight right and how do we eat until we are only one third full right the secret to that is fasting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala no doubts has you know has recommended and prescribed fasting for us as a way to attain taqwa right and in the Quran in surah 21 verse 85 we have been advised too fast so that Allah can increase our taqwa right but at the same time we it doesn't mean that acknowledging the health benefits is going to take away from that right our primary aim is always going to be to gain taqwa to you know to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but at the same time we also have to understand that it is a form of healing and outside of Ramadan we can use it to improve our health right inshallah so just some of the benefits of fasting are it reduces diabetes risk because it reduces the you know the insulin resistance and helps in reducing the blood sugar levels and your insulin levels drop significantly which again then you know help in you know preventing the the insulin resistance right and the cravings for sugars and you this causes weight loss the the hormone the growth hormone increases which helps in cellular repair it helps in detoxification so think about this if your car is not working properly are you going to go take it to the mechanic you know and ask them to you know repair it while the car is running no you need to stop it right you need to switch off the engine it is only then that you can repair it similarly that is how it is with our body if you're constantly going to keep eating your body is constantly working to digest the food absorb the food assimilate the food right your your pancreas your liver your kidneys your stomach you know your digestive system where is the time to repair it right so that is the reason why we need to fast in order for to give a body a break so that we can detoxify and subhanAllah we're so blessed that Allah subhanAllah has not only told us to fast right or Monday Thursday and the three lunar days right the 13 14 15 but he's also giving us rewards for fasting right subhanAllah like what a blessing we have so not only are we you know improving our health but we're also getting rewarded in process for that right so it's one Allah you know outside of our Ramadan fast the first like the one thing that I would you know advise everyone to do is to start fasting your sunnah fast right whether it is a 13 14 15 or the Monday Thursday fast try to make this you know as a routine and you'll see that your health is improving so much obviously if you have any disease condition like diabetes or any other conditions you definitely want to talk to your doctor first right but slowly you can start doing this right inshallah and if you see you know so if you look at all the number of fasts that we have like Allah subhanAllah has recommended that the Dil Haja the Ashura fast you know the Monday Thursday fasts we are actually recommended to like in a year it comes up to almost 170 days subhanAllah so that's almost half the year you're asked to fast whereas I know a lot of people like you know most of us just want to fast the 30 days of Ramadan and we are depriving our body you know of so many health benefits right so inshallah when we start fasting you'll see that you'll have a lot of other benefits as well it also reduces the oxidative stress right and it reduces a slows down aging they also are you know they have a lot of you know beneficial changes in several genes that protect you against a lot of ottoman diseases as well it also helps in reducing your cholesterol levels your LDL your blood pressure it actually increases your brain function it reduces depression a lot of us nowadays have seen that there is so much anxiety and mental health you know diseases right so now think about it right if you see all these you know a lot of people they're so like first of all you know there's a lot of you know mental stress right but at the same time you know a lot of these you know psychiatrists or psychologists how many of them actually talk about what are you eating right a lot of them only talk about your you know the life stresses that you have like you know what are the emotional traumas that you're undergoing but how many of us actually asking them what are you eating on a day-to-day basis they have been you know new and you know research has found that there is so much connection between so many vitamins and minerals to our mood right whether it is vitamin d whether it is vitamin b12 you know these are all connected with our you know moods right the vagus nerve directly connects our brain and our GI system right and this has shown to have a direct connections with our anxiety and a mental stress right so then we are talking to people about you know mental their mental stress and anxiety we also need to understand what are they eating how much are they eating are you sleeping well right what are you getting your fresh fruits your fresh vegetables are you having your salads are you having warming foods are you having you know all these foods that are nourishing your gut because if you are just going to have your Starbucks coffee and your donuts you're going to have your processed packaged foods are they giving you all the necessary vitamins and minerals that not only does your body need but your brain needs right so inshallah we need to understand this and one of the most important way is by focusing on our gut flora right subhanallah we have more bacteria in our body than human cells can you even imagine that it's it's it's difficult to imagine right that we have more bacteria in our body but that's how Allah swt made us we have almost 39 to 50 trillion bacterial cells in our body and these are you know if they are responsible for so much right for how we digest the food how we absorb our food our health and our moods like I mentioned right so when we are talking about our gut flora we need to make sure we are talking about both prebiotics as well as probiotics so what so we've you know probiotics subhanallah you know nowadays there's a lot of talk about it there's so much awareness about it but prebiotics are equally important as well so what are they they are the plant-based food that you know feeds the good bacteria and these are the mostly the fibrous foods that are not digested by our gut and they are actually digested by these bacteria so they help the bacteria to grow right so while prebiotics are all of them are fiber-based not all fibers are prebiotics certain ones which cannot be digested by a body for example the oats barley mushrooms leeks garlic honey fruits with peels cabbage coconut oil bananas figs olive oil dates cucumbers squashes these are all prebiotic foods and subhanallah we can see how many of these are sunnah foods right there's so many sunnah foods that are you know like the barley and the cucumbers that are also part of it so not only are you know we're going to get benefited in our body but we can also gain reward when we make the intention of having this as a sunnah food right so for example barley right that is like such a beautiful sunnah food that um not only you know is affecting our health but also our mental health right aisha radiolawan has said that when you know it's someone in their you know in their community used to pass away or have some sadness they you know she used to make talbina and give it because she heard the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam say that have the barley for it wipes away the sadness from the face as it wipes away the dirt right uh from uh from your body so subhanallah you know we like how many of us when we have someone now you know who's falling sick or you know is going through some you know turmoil or a people in their life how many of us actually take talbina and go how many of us actually when some of the suffering from anxiety you know they're given prosaq and they've given all these you know medications how many of us actually tell them have you tried barley right we have such a beautiful sunnah and the hadith saying that this helps our mental health so inshallah let us you know try to incorporate this as well and try to have more of barley right when we are dealing with anxiety and the next is the probiotics foods so probiotic foods are those that actually have the bacteria in them and these help to increase the bacteria in our gut right so most of the fermented foods like the nabees the yogurt kefir kombucha sauerkraut apple cider vinegar you know with the mother in it the cheese the olives you know these are all foods that increase the probiotics i'll talk a little bit more about the nabees as well and inshallah how to make it and the benefits of that okay um and there are some foods that you know which are can kill this uh the the gut flora in the body and most of these are you know the artificial sweeteners antibiotics hormones t-reyes acid blockers too using too much of antibacterial soaps or hand sanitizers and a lot of foods that contain too much of um you know the high fructose conserve can all destroy our gut flora so you know a lot of people always ask me you know can we take artificial sweeteners you know we have we don't want you know we are not we are not diabetic we are not you know we don't have any health conditions but isn't it better to take it instead of sugar you know why can't we that is because these artificial sweeteners they might not have you know like overt or very you know explicit health conditions but they can you know internally change our gut flora and this can cause changes in our mood and other ways that we process the food right and another thing that what happens what i've seen is you know a lot of people they you know in their chai or in their coffee they take you know like the instead of sugar they just have the artificial sweetness and they feel oh my god you know i'm doing you know like amazing i'm avoiding sugar and then they'll have like the you know like the biscuits and the rusts and all these you know like just packaged processed foods which have all these hydrogenated fats and so much sugar in them so they feel you know the whole day that you know way i avoid the sugar but then you know like you'll see like the rest of the day it has all these foods that have so many other ingredients which you should actually be avoiding sugar if you take the pure sugar just like a teaspoon of pure sugar that's just burnt away by your body right you just go for you know like in an hour it's burnt away but it's all the other ingredients that are there and all the processed foods that are just actually accumulated so that is the reason why you know don't be so focused on you know just avoiding like simple things but be more focused on avoiding like the processed foods with you know excessive ingredients right so what is nabis so nabis is a fermented drink that our prophets allah alayhu salam used to actually have and subhanallah i was not you know like a lot of us i think are not aware of it until we actually start studying about it right so it is so simple but it has so many health benefits so you take one or up to any odd number of dates preferably ajwa because we all know the blessings of ajwa dates uh or take raisins but never mix them again this is because you know they have different uh you know the temperaments are different so never mix them so you can either take make you know the nabis out of ajwa dates or out of raisins right and you can soak it up to eight to twelve hours outside or up to three days in the refrigerator and avoid over fermenting because obviously this will then turn into alcohol and then you can drink as is so for example if you're going to take one date and put it in the night right in a glass of water in the morning you can just drink the water and have the date you can just chew it it does change the texture obviously it gets a little mushy and um if you like it i mean it's fine i you know i don't mind it you get used to it after a point but if you feel that it's become too mushy and you don't want to have it as such you can always cook it into your oats or you can know you can even just like blitz it so when you blitz the nabis like remove the seed of the date uh and then blitz it it becomes a little frothy and it's actually very delicious and just squeeze some lemon and you know it tastes absolutely delicious um you can definitely try this in Ramadan you know a lot of us have you know the sugary drinks the ruhavza right if you actually do this it's actually very delicious if you make the nabis and add a lot of lemon juice and you can have it in the morning or evening so if you soak it in the morning and have it in the night if you soak it in the night you can have it in the morning inshallah and um there are a lot of benefits so it is it becomes a slight probiotic obviously it improves your gut flora it's uh you know it's it helps in detoxifying it increases and energy it reduces acidity of the stomach so you know one of my aunt during Ramadan you know she used to have severe acidity because of the fasting and when you know when i told her about nabid and when she started doing it her you know her acidity reduced drastically and she was so surprised subhanAllah at how much it helped her right so you can definitely use this to reduce your acidity it helps in strengthening memory it improves the function of spleen liver prostrate but if you have any other conditions definitely you know you can check with your doctor or your dietitian inshallah so as you can see that you know healthy eating is you know very simple but it is it has to be very personalized right a lot of people just you know tell oh what's a good diet you know just give us a diet plan but you can see that you know what you eat depends on many different factors right it depends on your basic predisposition on the body types that we just spoke about on your genetics on the diseases that you may already have it depends on the gut flora it depends on the food that's available around you it depends on your budget as well right so that is an important factor it depends on the culture that you come from right so what we see is that the culture like their genetics right what you come from is different and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made it like that so for example we all look different physically right our faces our colors everything looks different what makes you think that internally we are the same right we are as different internally as we are different externally so where you come from also really depends on how we should be eating for example you know you might hear you know that there's some success stories with keto diet I don't say they're not right but you'll see that most of this is from North America where the people over here are genetically predisposed to have more protein so they can do well their deans are designed that they can absorb and digest more of the proteins and the fats on the other hand if you know people from you know like that they see you know from the South Asia you know countries they tend to have keto diet you'll see that the cholesterol increases they develop other health conditions because we are more you know genetically programmed to have more of carbohydrates right so the amount of carb and the diet products we have the people from North America cannot have right so regarding you know like again another question I just want to mention it here regarding milk right we have been hearing so much about milk it's back for us you know it's like it's considered white poison now you know like they are asking to us to avoid it for children but subhanallah there's a whole verse in Quran praising milk right so how can we as Muslims fall into that trap right we know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that he has given us this pure fluid but you know between the digested food and blood which is palatable to the drinkers so what we need to understand is that milk is pure but what we are doing to it is what has spoilt us you spoilt it right we have taken it and you know first of all processed it you know so much and made it no fat one person fat two person fat so what I always tell people is if you don't have any health conditions any cholesterol problems always use the whole milk right because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made it as the complete perfect package form it has a complete right amount of carbs right amount of fat right amount of protein why are you taking away the fat when you don't need to right so always try to use the whole milk if you don't have any health conditions right your children now I know that you know according to the American guidelines two year olds are supposed to be given skim milk right why why are you taking away the fat from the milk and then instead of that giving them chips and cookies right so give them the whole milk this will actually satisfy them more here you have people drinking dipping Oreos and eating in milk right which has so much sugar and artificial fat why are you doing that just give them a glass of nice rich thick whole milk and they will feel much more satisfied right similarly with you know with all the other food products try to have the most unprocessed kind of foods that you can have right whether it is wheat or meat right you try to have like halal and tayyip food so when we are talking about you know meat as well right when we are going to a grocery store ask them how is this meat you know so is it tayyip right because Allah swt in the Quran says halal and tayyip right so it's apart from being at halal it's also important it is tayyip and what does it mean it means that the animal was you know treated in a humane manner it was not abused nowadays we have so many you know instances we know in the documentaries as well that they're you know the animals are crammed and they kept you know they fed antibiotics and they given hormones and that is not how the animals should be treated right because that eventually trickles down into the meat and the milk and that is then what affects us right so if we are getting the you know the food from halal and tayyip like from humanely treated animals then we won't have all these problems as well right there are a lot of now you know the grocery stores online stores that are focusing on organic food, organic meat, organic milk, organic eggs definitely if you know if you are able to then I would definitely say try to purchase those right and for those of you who say you know it's very expensive well you know that is what I meant right our Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was always a semi-vegetarian right they were they used to be two months that used to pass before he would eat meat right so meat is something that we should be eating on a you know in a moderate form right we shouldn't be eating it for breakfast for lunch and for dinner right so we should be eating it moderately so in this way when you buy organic food and it's expensive that is because we need to eat it rarely as well so inshallah you know we use this opportunity to purify intentions we know umar ibn al qatab radi allahu anhu relates that he heard the passenger of allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam say rarely actions are by intentions and for every person is what he intended so inshallah if we make the intention that I want to follow the sunnah I want to you know improve my health and eat like how the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam ate inshallah we will be rewarded not only for you know for following what the sunnah as well as inshallah and our physical health right and so the main thing over here is you know it's not important that tomorrow we you know get up and we you know just go clear out everything that is bad follow it for the next um you know like the next one month you know we're excited and then we say oh this is too overwhelming you know and you know we slowly slip back into the old habits right so start doing small things consistently and build it up as a lifestyle habit and inshallah it will be more easier to sustain right the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said take up good deeds only as much as you're able for the best deeds are those done regularly even if they are few right so inshallah try to you know take up deeds that are most easy consistent and start doing it and one by one you can add inshallah more and more um deeds right so inshallah I pray that we all eat according to you know our sunnah according to you know the how a prophet has guided us and how we are guided in the Quran inshallah so thank you for bringing the two words together the sunnah and the Monday day tish so we have about 30 minutes before zohar prayer and um we have some questions coming in online those that are watching online the deck is there as well so if you want to um there's a lot of information here so if you want to process this later and look at sister alham's deck the deck is in the video description and those that are in person uh so go and put your questions in the chat box inshallah and we'll have sister alham look at it first we'll take questions from the room uh so we'll take the mic around and we'll just raise your hand I'll come over to you chala salam alaikum thank you very much it was very fruitful discussion your your presentation uh I have a question you haven't mentioned about uh about hijama uh cupping uh can you say can you shed some light on that yeah inshallah so um definitely I didn't uh you know like uh brother munez said there's a lot of information so I didn't want to overwhelm so uh you know we kept focused on the body types but hijama you know subhanAllah is also a way of the islamic uh treatment right uh and unfortunately that is a way that has been uh you know again put in the I would say in the back burner a lot of people don't realize the health benefits of it and uh you know we kind of only look at it you know if you have any muscular problems or something like that but subhanAllah there's a lot of benefit to hijama right I mean this is because they're uh you know the two types of hijama right there's the dry cupping and the wet cupping and subhanAllah we can do it you know the hijama based on what our ailment is the first thing I would say is always when you do a hijama go to a muslim practitioner right because hijama is not something that is like a physical healing but it's also spiritual healing so we need to make sure that they are you know muslim and they can also you know recite the ruqya and you know the the surahs that should be recited so inshallah try to go to a muslim practitioner the second thing is also you know try to go for ailments that you don't think even you know need it for example a lot of people you know like I mentioned go only for muscular you know ailments but you can go for it for anything right for you know for headaches for migraines for diabetes you know for cancer as well for skin conditions you know so this is really helpful we know from the hadith that our prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used cupping when he had migraines and he always recommended to his sahaba as well so inshallah you know this is one of the modality of islamic medicine and you know it's important that we definitely go back to it and we try to you know get more familiar and more you know more regular with it inshallah all right we'll take some online questions then so the first one is how did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam know his blood type and his temperament type so like I mentioned we have no knowledge about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam blood type and I did not mention you know the blood type diet over here simply because I personally don't you know believe in that because I haven't seen any benefit or anything like that you know if if it benefits you like I mentioned we all are very different and if it benefits you please go ahead but I personally have not found any benefit or any scientific evidence supporting that and regarding the body type like I mentioned because our prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam you know is the perfect human being the perfect example and because the sanguine the body type is the perfectly balanced we can you know assume that he was sanguine but we don't say that he was sanguine with any certain you know with authority or with you know as a statement we don't do that yeah another question is uh so what's the preference on whether we're mother should try raw organic milk or pasteurized organic full fit full fat food milk so definitely if you have access to raw milk that is the best you know we all grew up drinking raw organic milk and we you know that is the best milk but I understand you know we have to be practical as well right I mean I wish we had a cow that we could all just milk and we could have that you know obviously nothing like that but we also we have to be practical in this day and age you know we are here in the US and we have so many responsibilities it's not easy raw milk does get bad in three to four days so if you are able to purchase raw milk raw organic milk and you know consume it within that time frame that's perfect but on the other hand if you cannot then I would say the next best alternative would be organic pasteurized milk recently you know from a few years the Costco carries a to milk as well which is again an amazing option so just to briefly tell you about the difference between a to and the regular milk most of the cows initially used to be the a to cows and this was the protein that was very easily digested in our body but then they found that the cows that had the A1 type of protein you know they gave more milk so they started you know obviously going towards more of the A1 milk just because it was more easily available and in larger quantities but then you know we are supposed to have a balance of A1 and A2 with a predominantly more A2 protein so this was again rediscovered and you know this was brought back and a lot of people have seen that who have actually lactose intolerance actually intolerant to the A1 protein so they found that when they shifted to A2 milk they were able to digest it better they had less of the bloating less cramps less acne problems and things like that so you can definitely have the A2 organic pasteurized milk as well inshallah all right we have another question coming in online about this is not directly related to nutrition but can you comment a little bit about some of the non-muslim practices that are kind of the modalities these days yoga reiki how can this help us as muslims practicing in america so yoga obviously you know we can take it as a form of exercise you definitely you know don't want to chant you know the om and everything but you know if you're taking it as a form of exercise and definitely there's nothing wrong in that you just have to make sure you know the person that you're going for yoga is you know it's not doing it in terms like you know it's not including anything that would bother on shirt whether it's like you know like the sun salutations that you know with the intention that this is you're doing it for the sun or you're doing it for a religious purpose if they're doing it purely as a means of exercise then you know it's acceptable but again always you can always like check it with your local scholar inshallah but you know definitely you want to focus on exercise we all know again that you know in Islam as well we are you know encouraged to be physically fit to do exercise you know so whatever way you want to incorporate that inshallah and you know even if it's yoga like you want to take away anything that is you know not Islamic and just you know focus more on the stretches it's fine but again you want to check which yoga instructor you're going and with your local scholar as well and as far as Reiki goes there is nothing regarding that inshallah I know that you know it's they use the crystals the body energy honestly I have no you know information regarding that and again it really depends on who's doing it and what the intentions are so all right I think that's that's coming up I really appreciate hearing about how you know it takes time for modern science to catch up with sunnah and so when I we talk about intermittent fasting I think pretty soon here there was a pretty recently there was a article one of the medical journals about how after the child comes through the birth canal having something sweet helps with brain damage you probably had that in your deck there but that's something that now is coming up so it's going to take time for you know medicine to catch up with our sunnah and intermittent fasting and you know not eating to your full all these things yeah actually you know had it at the point thank you for bringing that up you know I wanted to mention that the first probiotic food that we have actually the technique right subhanallah after a child is born what are we recommended to do which is a sunnah right we are supposed to chew on a date and then we are supposed to take you know the saliva which has the sweet particles and put it on the baby's mouth and that actually is not only does it you know stimulate the baby to start the sucking process which obviously you know the baby will do inshallah but that is actually one of the first form of the probiotic as well right so when we have a normal delivery like that is also a way that the baby is exposed to the probiotics right to the gut flora from the from the mother's body but then we also have this way where a father can be part of the you know the baby's gut flora right so subhanallah this is a way that you know we like the probiotic foods are mentioned in the sunnah we have the nabees as well you know we have the olives so this is like the probiotics are a big part of our diet and our health as well inshallah and like you mentioned you know like when we were small right a lot of y'all must have experienced this when we would be fasting people would be shocked like not even water right that was what we would all be asked not with water right we would it was something shocking and now then this whole you know awareness came about the health benefits of intermittent fasting but what I want to mention is that you know when we have been given the sunnah and the knowledge and the wisdom by Allah subhanallah about the benefits of our fasting we should be doing that right so because the intermittent fasting we know that when the you know a Sahaba radiolano came and asked the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam what how do fast what what is the best way he said you know the best of the fast is the fast of the da'ud alaihi sallam which is every alternate day right that is like the like the maximum that we can fast otherwise we can fast the Monday Thursday and you know 13 14 15 but when you see when you do the intermittent fasting you see that you know these fasts are there for years or months or days right and that is not how we should be fasting we shouldn't be depriving of our body of food for you know like 18 20 hours for days on end right like and this also like completely mess messes up our circadian rhythm right like you are they say that they fasting but you see that they stop eating at you know six or seven and then they start eating again at six or seven in the morning which is technically not fasting or if they you know go on fasting till four they still keep drinking water green tea black tea and coffee and things like that but as you can like what i mentioned is when you want to detoxify and you repair your body you don't want to keep putting in things because your body then is still secreting the enzymes and the hormones and it's still doing the digestion if you want the maximum benefits of fasting it is by the sooner way of fasting that is which is then again called as dry fasting in modern science and they have found that this is what actually gives you the most benefit the dry fasting where you completely refrain from food and water for you know certain hours inshallah more more questions coming in online sister may allow a word you for sharing uh such useful information can you share anything with us about a connection between nutritional deficiencies and eating disorders and addictions so we know you know the condition called paika obviously is very common we know that you know if someone has a deficiency of iron you know they tend to eat mud and sand and you know they even like you know take you know scrape the walls and eat the paint they have ice chips so we know that there there is definitely a connection between food deficiencies and you know any disorders that is an area that has actually you know undergoing a lot of research now you have a doctor umma from doctor from harvard university who's also talks about the connection between brain and food because we see that a lot of vitamins actually are you know they're deficient in people who come with bipolar disorders and schizophrenia and any other like I mentioned in anxiety so you definitely um you know when vitamin d for example was just initially uh connected only to bone health but then they found that there was a huge connection with depression people who were deficient in vitamin d actually have depression as well so similarly you know vitamin b12 has also been um you know um uh indicated in a lot of cases with depression and anxiety so definitely there is a connection between this so you if you have any uh you know mental disorders you definitely want to go get you know your blood test taken and uh you know you definitely want to take a look at that as far as eating disorders concern it's it's a very complicated uh area um you know anorexia or you know bulimia they definitely have you know both aspects where they have like a mental aspect to it where they have like a very you know difficult and complicated relationship with food leading to a lot of you know like food deprivation which leads to you know uh deficiencies and then that kind of just messes it up so there is no um you know confirmed studies that this deficiency causes this um you know so and so mental disorders but that is because this field is very recent and new so inshallah you know that is a thing with nutrition right it's always changing so there is a lot of information that is coming up uh so you definitely want to keep abreast of that and inshallah i hope that you know i can come back here and talk about the connection between mental health and food i have spoken to dr rania as well earlier on that um and inshallah you know um we can have a complete presentation on the connection between that as well inshallah we look forward to that presentation inshallah so uh questions keep coming in online um we have another question about the can you speak about the impact um on account of availability of fruits and foods from various countries not per our local weather conditions that are available throughout the year that is a very good question um you know i think in this day and age when there are so many imported foods we don't understand which food is growing in which season right and we all struggle with that for example you know like berries or even watermelon is typically a summer food because that is when you're supposed to be eating it right uh we need that cool the coolness and the nourishment and the the moistness though you know of these foods in summer but then you see that these foods are available throughout the year in winter and that is why you'll see that like i mentioned before you'll fall you know people tend to fall sick because they don't change their eating habits so it is our duty to be honest that we take a look at you know the growing seasons and change our foods accordingly so if watermelon is available in december it doesn't mean that we actually buy it right we should know that this is not a food that we should be consuming in winter and inshallah we you know we can gravitate more towards um the foods that come then for example persimmons like i mentioned they they are a drying food right so those are perfect apples they are available in fall why because again those are drying foods so we if we understand what foods grow in which season and you know shopping in farmers market is honestly one of the best ways of actually being aware of this because they actually give foods that are only available and grown locally right it's only when you go to Costco and say fate that you'll have foods all the time so going to farmers markets is a really good way of understanding what foods are available at that season and eating accordingly and uh and also we have like dried fruits and nuts you know those again the the food temperament changes when you dry the fruits they they no longer become moist but they become drying so that is why you have a lot of like you know dried fruits etc that you can have during the um winter you know you can have like you can put this in your milk you're right and have like you know like the hot hot drinks etc so you definitely you need to change what you eat and even though these may be available in the supermarket doing our own research is important to understand which foods fruits and vegetables to eat in which season thank you so this is a kind of long question but I'll try to summarize it here um she's asking with factory farming and even with pets that are getting depression medication at home um can you speak to the effect not eating halal or Dave and the effect that has what happened depressed animals and that then being them being slaughtered in ways that are not they have and then the effect that has on our bodies as a result uh definitely I mean this is like I mentioned a very very important factor when we are choosing halal and taib right that is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and his wisdom wisdom right I mean whatever word is mentioned in the Quran every single word is mentioned with his divine guidance so if he had wished he could have just said eat the halal foods but why did he mention mentioned halal and taib that is because how an animal is raised is definitely has a lot of effect on us so when an animal is stressed out right the cortisol level increases in the animals and this is then present in the meat and the blood and you know the milk and everything in the body right and then when we eat this this in turn affects us right so this definitely has an effect on us and that is the reason why we need to make sure that the animal is also taib so how do we do this first is by me by asking the grocery stores right so if you never ask your local you know your butcher market or you know where you buy meat is this you know how is this animal grown what they will know what they will say okay I'm giving you halal food people are buying it quietly so why should I also make any effort because growing an animal in a taib way is more expensive right you are giving them more space you're giving them more like fresh food for example modern you know unfortunately the modern farming they they did not have this connection so what did they do they started saying okay the cows are there why do we take them to the grass and why do we need to feed them it's fine you know we'll just give them whatever food they want because at the end of the day we're just slaughtering the meat so they started giving them you know all the genetically modified foods and corn and soy and then they went one step further and they started giving them these you know the feed that is made up of other dead animals other like the roadkill other you know the dead parts of the animals they started doing all that and they said we don't care because at the end of the day you know we are just eating the meat and that is when you know the diseases like the mad cow disease started coming up right because this the the microbes from this dead animals that they were eating when we're going into the cows and then we passed on to the humans as well so this was like a very very clear example of how what they eat was affecting us so that is why then they stopped doing that then they started giving them antibiotics and hormones because they said we just want more milk and we don't want them to fall sick they would cut their beaks right so that they don't pick each other and this caused so much pain to them then the cortisol levels would shoot up and then again you know we would have like the sick and the disease chickens right so it is our duty as a muslim that we find out was this animal injured what where the beaks removed where the claws cut off where they you know where they tied up where you know you have these chickens that are you know in such cramped areas that they are not able to move so a chicken usually you know typically takes around four months three to four months to grow but nowadays the modern practices you can have a chicken within like you know a fully grown chicken in 60 days right so you need to you know make sure that where you're getting from you need to ask them so if you ask your butcher's your grocery store that i want thai food they will make sure that they ask their source from where they're getting from that oh like where are you getting it from is this halal is this thai and um you know like i mentioned yes you may have to pay more for that but then that is how we are also advised to eat right we know from asuna that red we are asked to reduce our red meat consumption we know that a prophet sallallahu asalam ate more of you know like the vegetarian food right so if we know this we'll understand you know when we were like you know during the olden times when they used to actually cut their own chicken right they would take one chicken and they would cut it and then they would use every part of it like or one cow or one sheep right and they would use every part of it for days but what do we do now we have like keema roti for breakfast and then we have like you know like a chicken fry for lunch and then we have like you know like you know like nihari or something for dinner can you imagine how many animals we have just slaughtered right like so when we think of it in just in terms of pounds we don't realize it but when you think in terms of animals you'll realize how many we are eating so in that way inshallah once we slow down on that everything else you know we'll follow inshallah we look forward to having you more at mcc because the you've really struck a nerve here mashallah a lot of people are thinking i think uh we're pushing give gents over here so we'll make this our last question uh this is from a young person i want to go vegan or vegetarian so badly but my parents won't let me because they think that i'm leaving islam or committing a huge sin how can i convince them because i've learned now that they were sahaba that were vegetarian and is that okay uh so i personally from whatever i have studied i have not heard of sahaba who are vegetarian like i mean always we all are lifelong students i'll definitely uh you know do more do more research and i'll see if that is the case inshallah but from what i know um there you know we we like the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ate meat eggs you know he had you know milk obviously it's you know like i mentioned it's in the quran so um the reason why we are not you know like i wouldn't advise any muslim to go vegan is because you don't want to deprive yourself of a blessing that allah has given us right why do you want to deprive yourself right so like i mentioned if your answer is because i don't want to like harm the animals then we also have to understand that we all are created for a purpose everything in this life is created for a purpose and the purpose of the animals is to give us food right and that's not i'm not talking about it in like a joking you know sarcastic manner but that is the purpose of the food Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has mentioned in various verses of the quran that we have given you the animals to be slaughtered right and to be eaten so that is their purpose so them being slaughtered is not something that we are need to be made to be guilty about so that is a blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala second is again when milk is praised in the quran who are we to refrain from that right even in jannah Allah says that i'll bless you with the rivers of milk and honey so it is not something that you know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us to refrain from right we are that is a blessing we are given so why are you you know depriving yourself of that blessing right so you try to have it in the most pure form like i mentioned halal and tayyid but don't deprive yourself of those blessings third is if you want for health reason a lot of people in fact there are many facebook groups and instagram even you know influencers who actually talk about how they went vegan and then they faced a lot of problems a lot of deficiencies to the point where it affected even their mental health and then they actually came back and started eating meat so when you go vegan you are depriving yourself of first of all an enormous amount of protein so that is what i would like actually take this opportunity to mention right so when people say that they don't want milk and then they start having soy milk and almond milk and pea milk and so many oat milk and so many different types of milk right but then you see that this milk how is it being produced right so if you actually research it no other milk is as perfect as cow milk every milk is deficient if you make for example almond milk at home you have you're getting the protein because you're not you know removing the almond but then you don't you're barely getting any calcium or you're very getting any vitamin d which is so important for your bones on the other hand if you go ahead and you drink almond milk the store bought ones it is it has barely one gram of protein so how are you going to get your protein you need at least one gram of protein per kg body weight so if you for example weigh around 65 kgs you need 65 grams of protein and if you are getting one gram of protein from your almond milk from where are you getting the rest of your protein right then you go on to having more of soy and we all know that anything in excess is bad so you have a lot of controversy about soy that it has the phytoisrogens and it affects your hormones because obviously if you're going to eat it excess of what Allah swt wants you to it is going to start affecting your body so where are you getting so much of protein then you go towards your pulses and then they have lectins as well small amount of lectins no problem your body you know can process it but if you're going to have like two cups of beans of peas because you want your protein content obviously the lectin then will start accumulating in your body so you'll see that this all starts kind of building up and by just trying to you know deprive yourself of one of the blessing of Allah swt you are you know your body is so um imbalanced and then you have all these health conditions and then you try to do you know get more and more complicated and you know I just feel it you're going down a rabbit hole so um you know and another thing I want to say is when you are following any health advice from a person who's living you don't know at the end of the day how they died right you when a person right now might say I'm having a raw food diet I feel great 10 years later they might say you know what I actually made a mistake we did have a recent influencer who then changed and started incorporating more cook food into the diet because they said yes no body was not able to digest it so always try to you know like as a non-muslim you know the advice is on you know the medic modern nutrition to take your advice from persons who have already died just because you you want to make sure you know you know the end result but we as Muslims we don't need to like get confused by the chatter we take our you know we take our advice from the best example that we have that is a prophet sallallahu alayhi salam and if it was he had milk then you can have milk if you don't want cow's milk because it was not as common during the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam's time definitely you can go towards goat milk sheep milk which is what he had so you can tweak your diet but I would say don't deprive yourself of any blessings that was a beautiful marrying of practical and spiritual advice in your presentation and your Q&A so well bless you we look forward to having you more at MCC here everybody for joining us and we'll see you soon inshallah