Natural Healing

Pay attention! Your body is talking

By Sari Huhtala

I can always tell if my partner has been swept off his feet by a bag of Hostess potato chips – literally. He hobbles across the room like a 100-year-old man with his ankles screaming at him. Surprisingly, if he eats organic potato chips, made with a healthy fat like avocado oil, his ankles tell a different story. It’s amazing how our body speaks to us through subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, signs.

I cringe when he tells me that, for as long as he could remember, every morning stepping out of bed felt like he was walking on broken ankles. That’s the result of past injury coupled with a lousy diet. He’d even land himself in the emergency department from time to time, writhing with pain, only to have a doctor tell him there was nothing he could do except pop a painkiller.

That is, until three years ago when we met, and a diet of wholesome, nutrient-dense foods became a gamechanger for him; and it can for you too. You just need to be willing to pay attention to how you feel after consuming certain foods, and then decide whether or not you want to feel better by making a better choice.

I was once at the grocery store with a friend with COPD, and I was gently guiding her to eat healthier. Nearing the checkout counter, I spotted a four-pack of ice cream drumsticks she had slipped into her cart – you know, the kind of treat that has diabetic coma written all over it.

She looked at me as though anticipating a gasp, but I just smiled and said “It’s ok if you eat that. Just do me a favour. After you eat one, please notice how you feel.”

The next time I saw her she blurted out, “I did what you asked me to do, and I realized I felt awful after eating it. My breathing was worse and I had a headache.”

Being a Finlander, I grew up with milk as a staple in our household. I would turn down a slice of the world’s best pizza if I didn’t have a glass of milk to chug with it, that is, until about 15 years ago when a friend said “What the heck are you doing? Don’t you know how inflammatory milk is?’ No, I didn’t. My mother never told me, and the Canada’s Food Guide affirmed my mother’s belief that everyone needs milk. I had it all wrong, and so I gave up milk right then and there, followed by yogurt, and then scaled back the cheese, eating only goats milk and the occasional Jarlsberg cheese. I had connected the dots and realized when I ate cheese the inflammatory effect of the dairy went straight to my nose, clogging up my sinuses. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy found that “milk allergy is frequent in patients with chronic sinusitis and nasal polyposis.”

About 65 per cent of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. Who knew?

Issues with eczema also disappeared after kiboshing dairy years ago, not to mention asthma.

Months ago, my partner came home with an artisan pizza made by a local real Italian pizzeria. I hadn’t eaten a takeout pizza for well over a decade. My homemade spelt crust pizza was the bomb, as far as I was concerned. So, I thought, let’s live dangerously and indulge in this delicious artisan pizza. And we did. Hours later, we laid in bed sharing our grief. My nose was stuffy, my stomach bloated, my hands ached, and the occasional hot flash was thrown into the fold. He writhed in pain from unhappy ankles and hands, while he slipped away into a wheat-induced coma. He never brought pizza home again.

My 21-year-old son strolled downstairs one day, moaning about his allergies – like anyone really owns allergies. He felt crummy. I empathized, then blurted out “Of course you do. Look at what you’ve been eating lately.”

Thing is, he never had allergies until into his late teens, when I could no longer control his diet, and the occasional fast-food craving got the best of him. In a study of over half a million youngsters between the ages of 13 to 14 and ages six to seven, researchers found the regular consumption of fast food raises risk of allergies and asthma significantly. But you don’t even need to be a scientist to figure that out. You just need to be a caregiver who has honed the art of tuning in to signs and symptoms – and they are everywhere.

All you really need to do is become mindful of how you are feeling, physically and emotionally after consuming different foods. Pay attention to the big three inflammatory culprits – dairy, wheat and refined sugar – and the effects on your mood and physical state. Because we are all different, inflammation will present itself differently in each individual.

Low mood? Anxiety? Check in to see if inflammatory foods are affecting your brain. Arthritis? Inflammation is going into your joints. Choose a different path. My mother forgets she needs a cane after spending a stretch at my house. That’s what happens when you cut out the symptom-inducing culprits.

I had asthma from childhood straight through till the day I canned nearly all dairy. The inflammation went straight to my lungs back then. I’m no longer plagued by symptoms of asthma, but as I age, I notice how, when I consume something inflammatory, the inflammation settles into my hands, and even stiffens my ankles at times.

The other day I sipped on a glass of non-organic red wine. The consequence? Hot flashes, stiff ankles and a stark reminder that I’m still nursing an injury to my hand, which was too painful to use for the better part of the following day. Live and learn.

Cravings offer another clue that something is amiss. Years ago, I celebrated my 48th birthday with a two-hour colon hydrotherapy session gift to myself. I watched the practitioner’s eyes practically pop out of her head when she caught a glimpse of my excretions, which were swimming in a sea of parasites. Small wonder, considering I’d spent a decade cuddling my dog in bed at night.

On my way home I picked up a couple of parasite cleanse kits from the health food store, and parasite purging became my focus for two months.

The real eye opener came when I realized my obsessive craving for homemade popcorn disappeared as I bid the parasites farewell. Why? Because popcorn contains zearalenone, a fungal mycotoxin, and parasites love fungus. So, the more popcorn I ate, the happier the parasites were, and the more my cravings grew. Cravings are not normal.

A couple of years ago, during a crazy busy time in my life, I began to notice that if I consumed a little too much sugar, even natural ones like coconut sugar, I would awaken the next morning slightly itchy, as though I was on the brink of a yeast infection. I realized what a delicate balance the microbiome was, and, although I maintained all of my daily health regimes like fitness, yoga, meditation and wholesome foods, stress was wreaking havoc on my life. This fact was reaffirmed when I woke up one morning with a hint of psoriasis on the sole of my foot. Psoriasis is merely an outward symptom of an internal issue. Stress was definitely wreaking havoc on my gut. As soon as the stressors subsided, so too did those two warning-bell symptoms.

Your body is infinitely wise, and will talk to you when it’s not happy. Subtle signs like headaches, fatigue, skin issues, aches and pains are whispers from body telling you something is not quite right. Heed the warning. Ignoring the signs will only cause your body to talk louder, until it screams, and then you are diagnosed with something more severe, like cancer. 

If tuning in is a challenge for you, then keep a food diary, recording what you are eating, and then how you feel later on. Notice what might be missing, such as adequate hydration, and how you feel if you are not drinking enough water. You might even unveil some profound insights, like jam and toast in the morning are causing you to become a nap-a-holic.  Perhaps even seek the guidance of a holistic nutritionist. I guarantee, once you tune in and eliminate the triggers, you will feel better, and I don’t even need a medical degree to make that statement. I just know.

Sari Huhtala is the publisher and editor of Alive and Fit Magazine. She has over 25 years experience in journalism. She is a mother of 3 adult children. She has spent over 20 years navigating a healthy path for her family, one health hack at a time, as a single mom feeding her kids healthy on a shoestring budget. She also has over 15 years experience as a certified fitness specialist and personal trainer, 10 years experience as a reiki practitioner; she studied Shamanism and is currently completing her yoga teacher training certification.

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