The amount of advice regarding food and diet available today is mindboggling. How do you separate fact from fiction? How can some people eat whatever they please and not gain an ounce, where others just have to look at food and put on a pound? Those who are guilty of the ‘crime’ of carrying excess weight are also expected to carry the excess guilt of a fat-obsessed society.
Obesity and diabetes rates are skyrocketing, heart disease is on the rise, thyroid disease is becoming more prevalent and on the back of these dilemmas we are constantly bombarded with quick fix pills, shakes and diets that are the most popular in the media at any given moment.
One of the most potent crazes at the moment is from the health food industry in the form of superfoods.
I would argue that most naturally derived, non-GMO, organically grown food could be considered a superfood. But marketing gurus would have you believe that the latest discovery in the food world is designed to deliver astronomical benefits in terms of achieving ideal weight, boosting energy, ‘killing’ fat and enhancing libido. And they sell these superfoods by the bucketload and at a premium.
And that is just the new wave of food marketing madness.
On the one hand we are told to cut down on fat, eat less sugar and exercise more. Well meaning experts advise us that it’s a simple calculation of calories-in vs calories-out. But there are many people who eat very few calories, exercise excessively and still cannot lose an ounce of fat.
To confuse matters, we are told that fat is not the enemy, that good fats are essential for brain function and many other processes naturally handled by our bodies’ magnificent sympathetic and parasympathetic mechanisms, and that some fats actually help us lose weight.
The people who have the misfortune of not being in the right BMI range are vilified and criticised for gluttony and lack of control.
No wonder we, as a society, are in a health crisis!
Many scientists, experts, nutritionists and government agencies, who all have their own opinion to offer as irrefutable truths on the matter of healthy weight, have perhaps overlooked one thing. In the rush to find a ‘one-size-fits-all’ recommendation that treats every body on the planet as equal and that has resulted in the inane ‘food pyramid’, the fact is that every body is different.
Each has different stressors, different preferences, different emotions, different ideas and beliefs, different access to nutritional resources and so on.
These ‘experts’ are forgetting the one source of absolute authority on any matter related to the individual, food-related or otherwise.
I am talking about your own body – yes, yours!
There are accurate methods to measure the responses of your own body to any substance, thought, emotion, or idea.
What if there was a way to go to the source and ask it directly?
Well there is – it’s called muscle testing. Muscle testing was developed by chiropractor George Goodheart in the ‘60’s and has gone on to be used by many practitioners to assist with diagnosis by asking the body what it needs and also for testing organ function. It works by testing a strong or weak response in the muscles to a certain stimulus. A strong or ‘Yes’ response indicates no resistance and a weak or ‘No’ response indicates resistance to the item being tested.
Another method to find out what is happening is to test for an inflammatory response in the body from foods and liquids ingested. As outlined in her book “The Plan: Eliminate the Surprising “Healthy” Foods that Are Making You Fat”, Lyn-Genet Recitas suggests that weight gain can be linked to the body’s response to ingesting substances the body is sensitive to. By eliminating the food substances most commonly held to cause an inflammatory response, and then reintroducing favourite food items slowly, she has shown it is possible to isolate problem food items by testing body weight on the day following the introduction of that food. Sensitivity is said to show up as water weight gain the next day, meaning the body’s response is to flood the tissues with fluid to minimise possible damage and assist in healing. If a sensitivity is noted in this way, then the following day one only eats those foods that are known to be ‘safe’. Staggering the addition of new food items in this way is said to assist the body to let you know the foods it needs and prefers.
Yet again, many of our eating habits are based on our emotional responses to stressors and to childhood training, and when we self-medicate with food whether or not we are hungry, it accounts for excess weight. This is an area which I believe warrants more attention. If we retrain our bodies (and minds) to eat when we’re hungry, we can utilise the inbuilt mechanism we were born with to recognise true hunger and satiety signals.
Since each person is an individual with their own history, genealogy, preferences and experiences, it makes sense to me to go direct to the source when wanting accurate feedback.
In other words, give your body some credit for knowing what it prefers.
Note: Do not rely on the information in this article as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.