Food is Medicine: Eating to Feel Good
Hello Friends Happy Friday, and welcome to the blog today.
I recently watched a Red Table Talk about nutrition but it wasn’t just nutrition it was learning to eat to feel good. We all know how to eat to look good but looking good doesn’t always translate to feeling good. Skinny doesn’t equal happiness.
Here are the links for both segments. I think you’ll find them to be eye-opening.
RED TABLE TALK … Part 1: Emergency Family Meeting
RED TABLE TALK … Part 2: The Results
Since my diagnosis I’ve learned to eat for that diagnosis but it’s doesn’t really make me love food or feel my best. I’m eating for my diabetes, I’m eating so my stomach doesn’t hurt, I’m eating to lower my cholesteral, which are all things we need to do. However my energy levels are low, I sometimes have trouble concentrating, and I’m not sleeping well.
I’m still learning that food is not just calories, and carbs, and fat, food is medicine and the right food can do wondrous things for the body. Food can affect your mood, your brain chemistry, and your sleeping. Food is literally tied to everything, because it’s not just nourishment for the body but also for the mind.
The RRT (Red Table Talk) begins with the family addressing their issues around overall health, food, and stress. They bring in Mona Sharpa, Registered Nutritionist and Wellness Educator to address the family. Mona says that “the road to eating better and good health begins with 15 questions”. These questions can help a nutritionist or your doctor better understand your health and life habits, and goals. Knowing the underlying issues can help guide you towards a nutrition plan that works for your overall wellbeing.
15 Key Questions – Health Quiz
- How do you feel when you wake up in the morning?
- Any Physical or emotional trauma in the last 5 years?
- Do you experience nervousness, anxiety, worry?
- What’s your stress level on a scale of 1 to 10?
- Are you an emotional eater? (This could mean eating, or not eating …triggered by a strong emotion)
- Do you sleep well?
- Do you snore?
- Do you smoke tabacoo or medical marajianna?
- Do you take prescription medication?
- Are you constipated?
- Decline in sexual interest?
- Do you drink alchohol?
- Do you like sugar?
- Do you like salt?
- Do you have dry or brittle hair?
After the quiz there are some simple elemination protocols to help fine-tune what food upsets your system vs. what food works with your system. Check out How To Eleminate Protocols Booklet for more information.
Your doctor can also do an extensive cholesteral, and poop test to find out why some of these problems manifest.
After the Smith family answers some quesitons Dr. Mark Hyman is brought in to address some underlying issues.
“Sugar is also the culpret for many ailments in the body”, says Dr. Mark Hyman. Dr. Hyman says that sugar is like herion for the brain, making you feel good for a time which relases those feel-so-good endorphins, but leave you always craving more.
Food is not just calories but it’s instructions for the brain. These instructions can upgrade or downgrade your overall health. Some other cultprets are gluten and dairy.
The RTT discussion (Part 2) also goes into telomeres…telomeres are the ends of your chromosomes which shrink as you age. There are ways to increase these like meditation, exercise, clean diet, sleep and a multivitamin. You can grow biologically younger, as you age chronologically older.
Meditation, Exercise, and a clean diet can increase your biological age, becaue although you actual age may be 40, your biological age can read 50.
Over time some foods can clog your system, which can lead to fatigue, stomach issues, anxitey and trouble sleeping. Some great ways to help detoxify your system are taking Magneseum, fiber, and probiotics.
Some other basic items to detoxify are oregano, dark green leafy veggies, onions, and garlic.
The gut is the center of your health, so if you’re gut’s not working properly…nothing else will. Poor gut health is the cause of stomach upset and intolerance. Some of those culprits are sugar, dairy, and starch.
Healthy fats can counteract these because no one is telling you to completely cut these things out of your diet. Doing so can lead to an unhealthy mindset about food. (Source: Doctor Mark Hyman)
We all want a healthy relationship with food, because food is medicine and has the power to cure ailments and make you feel amazing.
At the beginning of my diagnosis, I was miserable when it came to food and what I could or couldn’t have. I didn’t have the best sources in the beginning so I was told several things that were not accurate. I was also put on a medication that made me sick every time I ate, thus putting more stress on my body.
At one point it didn’t matter what I ate, everything made me sick. It was at that time that I choose to see another doctor and tried to come up with a better plan because this was no way to manage my diabetes. Seeing a new doctor put perspective on what was important for my health.
Along with my coach, nutritionist, and family support, I feel like I have the tools to better understand how food can work for me, make me happy and sustain my body and mind. Through all of this, I can eat to feel good.
Thanks so much for visiting the blog today, and hanging with me as I enter this journey and explore how my food can become medicine. Don’t forget to follow and subscribe, and have a great weekend. — Peace —
Oooh those 15 questions seem really helpful! Even though I don’t eat meat I still don’t feel amazing. I think it’s just the foods I eat which aren’t healthy at all. I want to start getting into meditation so that I can feel a bit better because even though im young, I could def feel way better instead of feelings like my body is of someone older.
Hope you have a nice weekend!
Agreed, because my answer was yes to a lot of questions, which has me thinking …”ok I’m doing everything wrong”. I will find the link for the chronological age test and post it as soon as I can. — Thanks for commenting..you have a great weekend as well.