There’s a million and three ways to view your health. OK. More like a few billion and four.
Everyone will have his or her views — including you. When you are letting loose and enjoying some beer, it’s ‘OK to indulge.’ We must ‘live,’ right?
When you are on an exercise kick and focusing on maximizing performance, there is ‘no room for unhealthy choices.’
When you are on a path to healing, ‘sugar, alcohol, refined processed foods are an absolute never.’
When looking for more energy, ‘certain foods just must be eliminated.’
So what is exactly good for you? And what is exactly is bad?
What’s the truth?
Or, more importantly, what’s your truth?
“Food is selected according to a harmonic order to give a body to your thoughts, and your thoughts determine your choice of foods. So your choice of foods perfectly embodies your view of reality at any given moment.”
— Richard France, Healing Naturally.
Of course, there are those scientific truth seekers in search of the perfect quantities of nutrients that the body needs.
Viewing your body as a vehicle requiring the right fuel to take you places has its merit.
Quantifying the exact nutrients required is important but there is an element of this mechanistic, scientific complex that looks at only quantities of nutrients, not paying attention to the form in which it is supplied, i.e. supplemental or whole foods form.
It’s important to remember that there are synergies to food that cannot be quantified, especially in the individual biochemistry of each individual’s body.
Then of course there is the truth that food does not in fact make you healthy? Chew on this one for a second.
The right kinds of food can of course support your genetic potential for your constitution and avoiding the wrong kinds of food can allow for fewer blockages in the body deferring buildup and ultimately helping deflect potential illness and disease. Both help in reach your maximum health potential.
But the truth is that food is just a tool in supporting optimal health. Looking at miso soup or green juice as a magic wand to health is not truth.
They can be used as tools to reduce stress in the body and provide nourishment in supporting the immune system creating an environment supportive of health and healing.
There is a difference.
The biggest truth around your health in comes from your own ability to cultivate a deeper understanding in your own body; to not only learn to listen but to interpret what is happening.
The most effective way to seek this self-empowered understanding is to get back to whole, natural, organic foods for a 30-day period, eliminating some of the non-foods that have snuck into our diet.
The book Food and Healing By Anne Marie Colbin has some great recommendations on how to proceed with this approach.
In my experience, getting back to nature is getting closer to the truth about your health.
Keep in mind that even your own theories are in fact fluid and ever changeable and it’s important to be open to discover what may become a new truth to you.
Kristin Fraser, BSc, is a holistic nutritionist and local freelance writer. Her column appears every second Thursday. She can be reached at kristin@somethingtochewon.ca.