Do you eat Food or "edible food-like substances"

Happy New Year! I hope 2010 has greeted you with health and happiness.



In my eternal quest for better health, I am currently reading Michael Pollan's "Food Rules". It's an eater's manual. And, since we are all eaters, we should all read this book. It is simple to read; broken down into 64 great rules to eat and live by.



I'd like to review some of them with you. Rule #1 - Eat food. Most of us would say, "Well, of course I eat food. What else would I be eating?" His answer - which I love - is that we are mostly eating "edible foodlike substances". I have long contended that what we are eating isn't food, but some bastardization of a former food. Soy, corn or wheat broken down, ground up, with nutrients removed (or added), mashed together with some colors, flavors and glue and molded back together into a different shape. If your food doesn't resemble the ingredients used in that food, then it is too processed. This one ties in with rule #19 - If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.



Another is rule #25, Eat your colors. The more color a food has, the more nutrient dense it is. And, the more varied the colors you include in your diet, the more varied the nutrients you will receive. Eat a rainbow of foods. And, again, going back to the edible foodlike substances, without the added colors, most are colorless, beige and/or brown.



Perhaps my favorite rule, which few people think of, is Rule #13 - Eat only foods that will eventually rot. The rotting process involves food being broken down into its various components by bacteria, mold and bugs. Why is this important? These organisms know the best fuel sources and they seek them out. If nature can't break it down into a usable fuel source, how well do you think your body will do? It's the bacteria in your digestive system that remove the useful ingredients out of food. If bacteria in nature has no interest in a food, your digestive bacteria won't either. Have you ever seen a 1 year old hamburger from a fast food restaurant? Sadly, it looks exactly the same as a 1 hour old hamburger. Bugs won't touch it, mold doesn't grow on it and bacteria avoids it. It is not food and has no nutritive value.



Reading this book and keeping these rules in mind when you choose your foods, you will certainly make better choices throughout your day. There is even a rule for treats: Rule #60 - Treat treats as treats. It is ok to have treats or snacks every once in a while - just keep them to every once in a while.



If you remember that food is fuel for your body, you will certainly see that these rules will help your body run better. Happy, Healthy New Year.

Health Care vs. Sick Care

Do you know the difference?

In this country we have a "health care" crisis. We spend more money per person than any other country on medical treatment, yet the World Heath Organization ranks us 37th in "health care" performance.

The problem is that we don't have a "health care" system. We have a "sick care" system. Our entire system is geared towards illness. And, you don't get health from focusing on illness. So, what is the difference?

Health care is anything that promotes and brings your body toward better function - proactive activities before illness and injury. Sick care, on the other hand, focuses on removing symptoms - treatment after something has gone wrong. In most cases, it does nothing to restore or promote health. Health care is proactive. Sick care is reactive. Even sick care's idea of prevention is really just early detection. Does a mammogram prevent breast cancer? No, it just detects it. Does cholesterol screening prevent high cholesterol? Health care would focus on what you needed to do to prevent breast cancer or high cholesterol - not just detection and treatment.

Sick care starts with the premise that the body is flawed and needs artificial, external help. Health care begins with the idea that you are born to be healthy and that, given the right tools, your body will do its job.

Sometimes you may need help. We all get sick and/or have symptoms from time to time. But health care focuses on how to get your body to function well enough to deal with those episodes properly. Sick care assumes that you will not get better on your own. That your body doesn't know what it's doing. Sick care claims that you can't get well without outside help or at least not as fast. Health care believes that you can.

Do you want sick care or health care?

How's your innate intelligence?

Do you have faith in your body? I do. And, I have faith in your body.

Most of us know that once we were just 2 separate cells. Those 2 cells came together to form one cell. Yes, that's right... 1+1=1 in this case. That ONE cell is so unbelievably powerful that it creates, through division, multiple cells. Those multiple cells create multiple organs and systems that together make an entire person. And, most of the time, it does it flawlessly. That process is so amazing and happens every second of every day, with all species of animals. The intelligence that drives this process is called innate.

Innate is also the process that directs the function of the body. This phenomenon lies in all of us. When you cut yourself, your body heals. When you are sick, your body reacts with fever, cough, sneezing, etc. When you eat food, your body secretes necessary fluids to digest it. Your heart responds to demand and increases or decreases its output. When you injure a joint, your innate sends fluids in to repair. I think you get the picture.

Your innate is what heals your body. Or as we say, "The power that made the body, heals the body." Most of the time, if you give your body the right tools and let your body do its job, you will get well faster and stay healthier longer. Have faith in your innate and see what it can do.

Would you rather be.....

Would you rather be Happy or Just not sad?
Would you rather be Intelligent or Just not dumb?
Would you rather be Energized or Just not tired?
How about Healthy or Just not sick?

Get the point? There is a significant difference between your two options. You can work towards a desirable outcome, or you can just try to avoid a negative one. The same thing goes for being symptom free or fully functioning. How many times have you heard the phrase "he was perfectly healthy then he had a heart attack"? Was that person healthy or just symptom free? Would you rather be healthy (or working towards better health), or merely symptom free with a heart attack waiting to happen?

Just like you can be symptom free but not healthy, you can have symptoms while functioning well. Let me give you an example...

You have eaten something bad at a picnic. Several hours later you are vomiting and have diarrhea. Are you sick? Not at all. Yes, you have symptoms, but you aren't sick. You body is functioning properly to try to rid itself of something that it doesn't want. Your symptoms are the proper function of your body. So, what happens when you take a medication to stop these symptoms? You are allowing the invader to stay in the body longer - when your body clearly wants it out.

Knowing why your body is doing something will help you understand your path to better health.

Welcome

Welcome to the "For the love of all that is Healthy" Blog.

I am Dr. Debra Bell of Whole Family Chiropractic in Cary, NC. My passion is health; especially children's health. I plan to use this blog to help educate people of their health choices. And, believe me, health is a choice.

The problem, as I see it, is that people are confused about health. Let's define health first....

Health is the state of function of the human body not merely the presense or absense of symptoms or illness. Health can be measured on a continuum from fabulous health to death. You are either moving in a direction toward better health or poorer health (of which the endpoint is death).

This blog is to hopefully help you make choices that will move you on the continuum toward better health.

Want better health, better choices, more energy, better sleep, fewer symptoms?

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