Any
animal out in the wilds knows exactly what to eat. Animals will avoid
poisonous plants and instinctively seek out the most nutritious ones to feed on. Why then
do we humans consistently make food choices that are detrimental to our health?
I believe that our bodies also have
an innate mechanism that allows us to select foods that will contribute to our health and
well-being. Unfortunately, this mechanism has been "over-ruled" by our cultural
conditioning. Let us take a look of two of these mechanisms: the desire for sweets and the
desire for fats, since each of these is actually a health promoting mechanism that has
been subverted into unhealthy channels.
Humans usually like foods that are sweet. In
nature, the sweetest foods are the vegetables, fruits and berries that grow in mineral
rich soils. Minerals are essential to our health so eating foods that have a naturally
high sugar content due to their mineral content is perfect for us. Unfortunately, many of
our foods are now grown in depleted soils and no longer have much flavor. They are picked
before ripening so their nutrient content and sugar content are not fully developed. As a
result, they no longer taste as good.
In addition, we have lots of processed foods full
of artificial flavors and refined sugar available which somewhat mimic the tastes of
superior fruits and vegetables. We’ve grown used to their flavors and have come to
associate all kinds of good feelings with eating those foods. Thus our natural instinct to
pick foods that contribute to health because of their mineral content has been subverted.
When we substitute processed sweets for the
naturally sweet fruits and vegetables the acid/alkaline balance in the body is upset.
Fruits and vegetables generally leave an alkaline residue when digested and sugars and
grains leave an acid residue. The resulting over-acidity may lead to many of our
degenerative diseases. (Please see my previous article on acid/alkaline balance.) This
could explain why primitive people rarely suffered from these conditions that are running
rampant today…their innate body wisdom led them to naturally sweet, alkaline
balancing, high mineral content foods.
The desire for fats also served a
useful biological purpose. In nature, unsaturated fats are found in nuts and fish, along
with high quality protein.
Saturated fats are found in
animals, again accompanied by protein. We need protein, saturated fat and unsaturated fat
for optimal body functioning. The build in body mechanism that causes us to desire fats
ensured that we also ate the protein necessary for cell building and replacement as well
as for hormone production.
Unfortunately the taste mechanisms
weren’t designed to differentiate between natural fats and artificial fats (the ones
produced by refining vegetable oils and hydrogenating them to produce margarine and
shortening). Yet the body thrives on the former and cannot digest the latter. Therefore,
those French fries may seem perfectly acceptable to the taste mechanism designed to
identify necessary dietary fat, yet be causing toxic buildup in the arteries and liver,
simply because the oils and trans fatty acids (caused when oils are heated) cannot be
digested.
So can we trust our taste buds or food cravings to
know what is best for us? Not if we are used to eating the Standard American Diet. The SAD
way of eating has subverted our built in mechanisms for determining what is beneficial.
Our food cravings, which used to lead to nourishing, mineral-rich foods now lead us to
substances that further upset the balance in our bodies.
So what do we do? We need to overrule the
programming that says we want candy bars and ice cream when what the body really craves is
mineral rich fruits and vegetables…the alkaline forming foods. At first this may be a
challenge because the body keep sending messages to the brain saying, "give me
sugar" or "give me chocolate"! However, if we can identify the source of
these cravings and substitute nice sweet berries or other delicious, sweet, nutritious
fruits and vegetables, or wholesome, fresh nuts, the body soon starts to desire those. It
has been my experience that after eating natural foods for a while, the sugary,
artificially flavored junk food just doesn’t taste as good anymore. |
