The Number One Cause of Chronic Disease?

In 1968 Frank Zappa released a song that asked: “What’s the ugliest part of your body?…some say your nose, some say your toes, but I think it’s your mind…”.  Frank was singing (sort of) about a fundamental truth.  …what you do to your body, how you feed it and how you treat it in all ways, is entirely decided by your mind.  Nothing to worry about, right?

Health problems can arise from circumstances seemingly out of your control – like petro- and agrochemicals in the air and water, virulent pathogens, injuries, the side effects of drugs, second hand smoke, toxic amalgams leaching mercury into your body, food gone bad but the sauces masked the flavor – until it started coming back up, and other mishaps of nature and circumstance.  Of course, those are all factors that can significantly affect your health. And they do.  But, what is the one thing you do to yourself every day, at least three times a day that provides endless opportunity to significantly alter the state of your health?  Yes, ingesting large quantities of potent bioactive materials, a.k.a. food, in three meals a day has the potential to make a little air pollution look like a small hors d’oeuvre.

What if you eat foods that are organic, non-GMO, you grind your own grains, only eat grass fed beef, and thoroughly chew your food? Of course, it helps.  A lot!  But… what most people don’t realize is that the most consistent and relentless impact on health is how your body responds to or tolerates the food you eat – much more so than its nutrient and antioxidant content, which are significant, but secondary to tolerance.

Take for example the incredible walnut.  It is not just a food, but is also used as a remedy in Chinese herbal medicine.  Walnuts contain healthy oil and nutrients that build the strength of the kidneys, lungs, and lubricate the large intestine.  You’d think they would be good for everyone – except for the fine print that says it may kill you, as has happened many times to people allergic to nuts.  Okay, you think, I’ve eaten a lot of walnuts and I’m still alive, so there’s no problem with walnuts, right?  Maybe.

Somewhere between a deadly anaphylactic allergic reaction and your body welcoming the nutrient-rich elements of food, are any number of problematic immune or other physiological reactions which may occur in response to walnuts or any other food.  Most food reactions are subtle, difficult to trace, and can even be delayed so that cause and effect correlations are very difficult to pinpoint.

Statistics published about food allergies suggest that only a limited percentage (<15%) of the population experiences food allergies.  But most food allergy tests only measure an IgE mediated immune reaction to chemical components in food, yet every other biological system, organ, and gland can also react to foods in a pathological way.  For example:

• We’ve all read about cardiovascular pathologies developing in response to diet.
• Food can also induce hormonal effects that can influence menstruation, testosterone, cortisol and other critical physiological factors.
• Nervous system food reactions are not uncommon and can significantly affect sleep, mental focus, trigger headaches, and other seemingly unrelated health concerns.
• Of course digestive reactions to foods range from diarrhea, pain, and nausea to constipation.
• Inflammation, acute and chronic, is also a common reaction to foods that may not test positive on food allergy tests.

The list of pathological food reactions is almost endless.  But the key point is that in my 28 years of practicing natural medicine I’ve arrived at the conclusion that this scenario is commonplace and happens regularly to nearly everyone… to many of us, on a daily basis!

That may sound like bad news, but even more disconcerting to many is that the worst food offenders are often the ones you consume the most.  Yes, favorite foods that are consumed on a regular basis can, over time, develop into problem foods, even if they don’t start out that way, whereas less frequent consumption might prevent this problem from developing.  Since beverages can trigger the same potential problems, and people tend to consume the same beverages day after day, this is an area of particular concern.  Over-consumption of coffee, tea, sodas, and naturally sweet fruit juices…day after day could be your health’s greatest nemesis. If your body is rejecting any of them, the potential for daily insults to the affected body systems is much greater than most people realize.

I’ve seen young vibrant school kids who have limped off a soccer field because they ate fruit at halftime. Yes, wholesome, nutritious, antioxidant-rich gifts from God growing on trees – but the child didn’t tolerate the fruit and suddenly developed “mysterious” and debilitating muscle cramps.

What to do?   There are a number of simple suggestions, but this is not a simple problem.

Dietary rotation (not eating the same thing twice in a four day period), smelling your food before eating in order to develop your sense perceptions of what’s good for you, paying attention to how you feel during and after you eat, and following an important rule: If a food doesn’t taste quite right, smell quite right, or feel like it wants to be swallowed, you should not eat it!  If you’ve eaten a few bites before you figure this out, stop right away.

Yes, this is a great way to blow money on what looks like perfectly good food.  And it may be perfectly good, but just not for you, at that particular time.  That $14 you’re about to pay for the eggplant parmesean masterpiece in front of you, that you realize is not going down as easily as it should (maybe it’s just the parsley), will start messing with your mind.  The spiritual poison of “ignore-ance”, a.k.a. denial, will tell you that the food is perfectly good, that you’re hungry, you need to eat, that you should ignore those sense perceptions that are alerting you to the fact that this food is not going to sit well once it gets past your taste buds. And over time, eating that eggplant parmesan – combined with meal after meal of other foods your body isn’t tolerating well – is going to cost you a fortune in both money and misery, as you struggle with inflammatory reactions that can lead to joint discomfort, headaches, cardiovascular disorders, organ dysfunction, immune imbalances, back pain, and many other side effects that result from a lifetime of food intolerance.  It will be far cheaper to forego the eggplant and forget the $14!  Over time, as you tune in to your body and the effects of various foods, your food choices will become more informed and you’ll waste less.

You may have heard that many animals can discern whether a particular food will be well tolerated or not.  They pay closer attention to the subtleties of their senses, especially smell, taste, and body sensations that humans often ignore, but which are supposed to serve as a message to your mind to stop eating that whatever-it-is.  That’s what you will need to do as well, assuming you want to limit the potential for developing chronic diseases as a result of the foods you eat several times every day.

There are many ways to fine tune and develop your sense perceptions of food.  The first step is to realize that you have them!  Take the time, next time you eat, to listen more carefully.  Your body will talk to you in sense perception sign language. It tells you when you’re hungry.  That’s not too subtle. It will tell you when you’ve had enough to eat. That’s one that often slips by unnoticed unless you’re paying attention (eating more slowly will help), so you sense the feedback right when it’s being relayed.  But, other more subtle messages are right there too, trying to be heard.

Yet, some of these messages won’t get through to your consciousness and therefore need to be processed after the fact.  Like the one that only mentions later that night that you aren’t going to sleep because of something you ate; or the mild to pounding headache the next day that’s trying to remind you to reconsider yesterday’s dietary choices.  It might be the cracking sound coming from your kneecaps that’s trying to tell you to stop eating ice cream, or that recurring back spasm – screaming at you in a language you haven’t deciphered.  Yes, it’s like learning a whole new language.  Your own personal body language.  It’s been talking to you for years and is likely feeling a little neglected.

So adjust your antenna.  Open up perceptions from your head to your toes. Prove Frank Zappa wrong and use every aspect of your amazing mind to decipher the not so subtle language of your body.  Yes, it’s talking to you!