Food Misconceptions

Reading this post will likely improve your health

“I eat what I like.”

That pretty much sums up the most common reason for food choices I’ve heard.

For 25 years I’ve been successfully helping people change their health by educating them about food. From this experience, I can say that if you read this post, you’ll likely make some change in your food choices that will positively impact your health.

Food Misconceptions

MISCONCEPTION: Food is fuel, like gas in your car. You can fill up on almost anything edible, it doesn’t matter.

TRUTH: Look in the mirror for a second. Pinch your cheek. How old is that tissue you’re pinching? Would you believe it’s less than three months old? Cells don’t live very long and are constantly being replaced. That face you’re looking at in the mirror is almost brand-new (if it has wrinkles and looks old, it’s because bodies are designed to change appearance and function as they age. But the tissue it’s made of is being continuously regenerated).

If all those millions of cells are being replaced every hour in your body, where does the raw material come from to make them? The parts that make up your cells are overwhelmingly made from the cellular material from the food you eat. Sure, the body uses food for energy as well, but what you’re seeing in that mirror is the food you’ve eaten in the last few months, transformed into YOU.

MISCONCEPTION: The definition of FOOD is “what you eat.”

TRUTH: Food is the living (fresh or preserved) tissue of plants and animals. Your body can’t make healthy cells from old, damaged or over-processed plant and animal tissue. It certainly can’t create cell parts from artificial flavors and sweeteners, preservatives and refined sugar.

Two simple rules you could follow to improve your health:

1. Don’t eat things that aren’t food. (Didn’t your mom used to tell you this when you tried to eat mud pies?)
2. Don’t eat things that CONTAIN things that aren’t food.

This is a simple test: Is diet soda food? Is (popular brand) pasta sauce food? (Read the label, what are all those unpronounceable chemicals at the end of the ingredient list? They sure aren’t food!)

But there’s a problem: This test is too simple. The truth of this is too obvious.

People freak out.

Patients call me from the grocery store in an actual panic, “There’s no food in here!” The problem is that they’re RIGHT. I tell them that I can don my pith helmet and take them on a safari through the grocery store jungle looking for the elusive FOOD. Lighten it up a bit. But it is grim.

Happily, with a bit of training and help I’ve never had a patient who couldn’t master how to shop. They’re able to eat almost everything they normally would, just with a bit of change here and there to shop for FOOD instead of, well, something else (what DO you call “non-food sold as food”?)

There’s Much More to Know About Food

At my clinic, I teach all my patients some specific dietary tweaks to dramatically improve their immune system. If you’re trying to recover from a health problem (or just need to recover from the flu) these diet tweaks can make all the difference.

A basic fact about food and diet: people don’t need to eat the same foods! For example, if you are having a very hard time being able to deal with stress, you likely have some issues with your adrenal glands and should be careful to eat regularly, as being hungry stresses the adrenals. If you have high cholesterol, you can probably dramatically lower it by reducing sugar and refined carbs from your diet.

At my clinic, I test patients to find out what organs and systems are under stress and help them to adjust their diets based on this testing. How logical is this? Yet, when was the last time you had your doctor tell you anything but “diet,” or “eat less fat.”

Here’s some help:

10 Super Veggies to Boost Your Health

Sugar and Your Immune System

For more helpful information about diet: Read my book, Your Hormones in Harmony: A Smart Woman’s Guide to a Lifetime of Energy, Focus and Vitality

I hope this has helped you to see the possibilities to a proactive approach to controlling your own health rather than hoping for the best.

As always, I’m available to help in any way I can. Here is a free booklet with the story of how I developed my techniques and how those techniques work (very practical information that shows how your body works and how to bypass the hidden symptoms problem).