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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Where's That Magic Pill?

Wouldn't it be great to find that magic pill that turns you from that health disaster you are (or feel like) into a model human being?  Discover that fat gene or that cancer gene... and just turn it off!  Get rid of it. Or the miracle vitamin that will make future doctor visits evaporate? I know they're right on the verge of finding it. Every day in the news you hear some new discovery about how beer is suddenly hydrating or all that coffee drinking you've been told is bad for you is actually good for you. Wine prevents cancer. The secret to long life is eating more vegetables or it may be in a naked mole rat (I'm not making this up!)

The point is, we are obsessed with being healthy and we're looking everywhere for it when the answer is right under our noses-- food.  Food is the fuel that builds our body, gives it energy, and provides the nutrients it needs to repair itself. With the right food fueling us we could, theoretically, live a long healthy life. After all, our bodies were designed to live forever. It's kind of ironic that it was food that ruined it all for Adam and Eve--but, there it is. They ate the forbidden fruit, and it was downhill from there. Another interesting point is that just 5,000 years ago, people were living 600, 700, even 800 years. Noah was 950 years old when he died (recorded in Genesis, chapter 9). That's a seriously long life! These days it's a rare individual who makes it to 95. Wouldn't you like to be one of those people?

The answer to that question is more than likely, that depends. It depends, of course, on how you feel. Nobody wants to spend decades of their life miserable. The problem is -- and it's a big problem -- all the health "experts" out there giving advice on what to eat, what to avoid, what kind of exercise you should be doing. Screen for this, screen for that. Get this test or that test. And above all...(fill in the blank!) This abundance of advice might be useful except for one thing...nobody seems to AGREE on anything!  How do we know who's right and who's advice will send us to an early grave? Run. Don't run - walking is better. Stay away from carbs. Healthy carbs are okay - meat will kill you. Soy is health food - eat tons of it. Soy will give men boobs and women cancer - avoid it at all costs. Bread makes you fat. Bread is the staff of life. And whatever you do, don't eat fat - especially saturated fat! Wait a minute-- strike that...saturated fat is a requirement for good health.

Well, you see where I'm going with this diatribe. And there's a reason I'm feeling a bit jaded. I have no patience. And I'm sure my sugar deprivation may be a contributing factor as well. Over the past year or two I've read book after book filled with accounts of people on death's bed with cancer or some other chronic ailment like diabetes or crones disease, who miraculously recover in a matter of months by simply changing their diet...eating grass fed beef and organic vegetables. Lots of organic vegetables. Lots and lots of vegetables. I'm thinking that's me. I'm doing that! Why do I still feel crummy?

You see, I'm looking for that magic pill. And I'm starting to think it doesn't exist. (No patience AND slow on the uptake, it seems.)

What I need to keep in mind is that cleaning up a diet is only one factor of health. Maybe the other pollutants I live among on a daily basis, like the air for instance, and electromagnetic pollution (which is probably much more damaging than we think) and the local Ruby Tuesdays at which we eat far too many meals are slowing down my progress. In the big picture, it took me 58 years to arrive at my current health status. To expect a sudden reversal of all that by eating a more or less healthy diet for one year is, well, silly...in spite of the anecdotal evidence to the contrary (not that I'm casting any doubt on the anecdotal evidence).

So I decided to write this post as a sort of encouragement to those of you out there who, like me, may be feeling a little discouraged at not seeing great results from starting a 5,000 IU capsule of vitamin D every day, or gulping down that fish oil faithfully with a clothespin on your nose. Take heart. Be encouraged in the knowledge that the changes for good that we make to our diet are working behind the scenes -- in the cells and glands and organs, doing the work of restoring and rebuilding. Good health is a process and it takes time.

Do I give up and go back to eating out of cans and boxes just because I still don't seem to have my afternoon energy back? Do I cave in and pick up a case of Pepsi? Funny thing is, I don't even want those things anymore. McDonalds no longer holds any appeal to me. I will still read every label and ask the waiter, are these scrambled eggs made from fresh eggs or powdered? And I will still shop organic. Why? Because once you know the truth about food, it's hard to go back. It's kind of like swallowing that red pill and seeing the Matrix for what it really is. I know that the hidden poisons in processed foods-- the fructose, the soy isolates, the genetic modifications that will have who-knows-what long-term effect on my health-- work their evil over time. Because I understand this now, I have the tools I need to make good decisions about my diet...and eventually, gradually, I will begin to notice how much better I feel.

That's all for now. I'm going to go read my book about fluoride. Wait till I tell you about that! It will blow you away.

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