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KUFM Commentary- June 2008 --------------------------------------------------------- The Language of Food and the Body’s Innate Understanding Health and food are inseparable. Put another way, the state of one’s health is largely dependent upon the quality and quantity of the foods that one ingests. So, how does one define quality when it comes to food? Let’s think about this for a minute; we have hundreds of foods to choose from up and down the supermarket shelves – it seems like a true abundance and that we are very lucky indeed to have such a magnificent variety. But, are these really foods? I mean, does the body recognize them as such? When ingested will the ingredients be useful to carry out the metabolic processes to sustain a healthy body? For millions of years, animal life, of which man is a sub-specie, evolved by eating what the good earth provided. Through adaptation and symbiotic relationships, the animal kingdom has been completely inseparable from and dependent upon the plant kingdom. All the useful material for animal life throughout time has been provided by plants save for water and sunlight. At the cellular level where complex functions take place on the order of billions of times per second throughout the body, it makes sense that providing the body with the ingredients it was designed for would be essential. When smashed up in the mouth and separated in the gut by acids and enzymes, food essentially becomes little bits of information for cellular metabolism. The information contained in food is like a very old language that is in a sense universal. And, it is very specific, down to the subatomic level – none of it is trivial. We call this innate wisdom. So, what of all the so-called “foods” we see on the grocery shelves? Is the information contained within useful or even recognizable? Could the information perhaps be detrimental to the natural flow of our metabolic function? It begs the question: at what point in our evolutionary scheme did things like preservatives, stabilizers, pesticides, artificial colors or even certain forms of synthetic vitamins or contrived minerals become recognizable to our cells? And how does a cell recognize a genetically modified substance? As we’ve only seen these foreign molecules enter our food over the last fifty to one hundred years, I would contend that our cells cannot evolve fast enough to keep pace with this new information. The body, in its remarkable bid to stay alive, has ways of dealing with a foreign or unrecognizable substance by attempting to store it in out-of-the-way places where it will do the least harm. But sometimes the unrecognizable substance can over-run or overwhelm the metabolic system especially when the normal channels of storage and elimination become clogged or congested – and this can cause havoc. The information contained within the foreign substance can be misinterpreted as well, often to the detriment of a cell or a multitude of cells. When this happens, the body can become mired in its own waste triggering the onslaught of parasitic organisms which then feed on this waste. This we call disease. Anyone looking at the general state of health of the people in our nation might conclude that we aren’t adapting well to all the new so-called food substances. The latest generation is especially showing signs of mal-adaptation particularly in the overwhelming number of attention deficit and autism cases. And mid and older generations as well are wondering why their memories are faltering or why they can’t lose weight or how they acquired things like irritable bowel syndrome or any of a host of other more or less insidious illnesses. We must ask ourselves what is causing all this disruption to what should be our natural state of well being? Stresses are coming at us from many directions in our chaotic world and certainly it isn’t just food affecting our health. How we think about and deal with our lives - our illusions, our aversions and our cravings all play a role in our well being, as do the thousands of man-made toxins and electromagnetic frequencies now found in the environment. Yet eating consciously and naturally, according to our ancient evolutionary practices is an essential first step to give us the strength to handle these other stresses. There are dozens of excellent books written on the many nuances of a good diet and despite their differences such as omnivore versus vegetarian or cooking versus raw, they all agree that eating natural, organically grown and unprocessed food is healthiest. In the highly esteemed book “Healing with Whole Foods”, author Paul Pitchford sums it up this way: “Unprocessed, unsprayed, organically grown food is vastly superior to supplements and chemically raised food in nutrition, taste and vital energy.” Imminently, the greatest control we have is to eat foods grown locally, getting to know the farmer and her practices. Or just as well, growing our own food - perhaps in place of a lawn - and reaping the many stress reducing benefits inherent in the act of gardening. I’m Brett Tallman for the Alternative Energy Resources Organization. My commentary is one of the many conversations we’re having at AERO. AERO is a grassroots membership organization that’s been building communities by linking people with sustainable agriculture and energy solutions for 35 years. To join the conversation and become part of the solution, call us in Helena at (406) 443-7272.
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