Overcoming Food Sensitivities

When we are blind to context, we create superstitions. If a door opens and shuts by itself, someone might think that a ghost did it. If they understood how heat and pressure cause wind to move through a house, it becomes a lot less mysterious. When people have ills after eating a certain food, they likewise want to identify a single factor. Much like they might imagine a ghost, they also invent dietary scapegoats. Ignorant of the larger context of life, they find something like gluten, wheat or meat to blame. In doing so they create a scapegoat. A scapegoat was originally said to carry the sins of the people. It was released into the wild to absolve everyone of their problems. It is the idea that you can blame our way out of trouble and absolve yourself of responsibility. It is a very bronze age tradition which was probably served some social function to maintain tribal unity. That said, this sort of mentality is unsuitable as a medical philosophy. In blaming the substance, you don’t always get to the root of the problem.

There are two approaches to take when something doesn’t agree with you. You can try to adapt yourself or you can blame the food and attempt to cut it out of your life. Both methods are perfectly suitable ways. However, an overreliance on blaming objects is very limiting. Ideally you want to be adaptable. If something is bothering you, it's reasonable to avoid it until you can become strong enough to adapt.  To avoid everything puts you into an ever shrinking cage of incapability.

People take this approach with wheat, gluten, carbs, fats, sugars, salt, nightshades, meat or whatever else they may be tempted to vilify. This is the same as vilifying sweaters, scarves and mittens. Yes, those choices of clothing are evil if you are trying to jog through a hot desert, but they could save your life in a colder climate. Even for foods which take more effort to digest, there is a time and place for them. Sometimes the problem isn’t the substance, it's simply understanding when to use it. Humans have an incredible ability to adapt. Our species spans the globe thriving in a variety of climates and grows strong on a variety of foods.

Attempting to change the external environment rather than making the internal body more flexible is an approach which leads to increased weakness and inflexibility. As a kid, I was also allergic to milk products. The strange thing was that this was only conditionally true. I was only allergic to milk at home on the Oregon coast. The minute I got to a more arid climate, my allergy magically disappeared. The doctors suggested that I was outgrowing my allergies, yet somehow I was magically growing them back based on the climate. This was puzzling to say the least. I would later come to understand that dairy products are simply cold and moistening. They are perfectly fine in an arid climate, and they can help to moisten the nose and throat. However, these types of food aren’t very appropriate if you live in an environment that is also cold and damp. I had no context for understanding how to strengthen myself from the inside out. I didn’t understand how to adapt. The allergy test said that I had a food sensitivity and so it seemed that I was doomed to never have chocolate milk again. The allergy test was true, yet this idea held me back. By telling me that nothing could be done, it prevented me from learning how to adapt. Had I known how to warm and dry my internal microbiome, I could have easily gotten rid of the allergy and enjoyed milk products in moderation. I wouldn’t have spent so much time sick and afraid of dairy.

The more people know about the so called evils food, the more it blinds them. It puts the focus on the external world. Sometimes having a bit of knowledge, even if it is true can blind us from seeing the bigger picture and how we can adapt to it. Sure there is poison and bad food out there. Poisonous food is nothing new. Our ancestors were forced out of necessity to eat unknown mushrooms in the forest and in the days before refrigeration, food spoiled quickly. Sometimes dinner didn’t work out so well.

Through processing and combining foods, people over the world have learned to render poisons inert and grow strong on foods which would otherwise be poisonous. Using this same base of knowledge, you can adapt your gut and discover how to get rid of food sensitivities and ameliorate poisons. When you understand how to garden the gut, a little of everything is perfectly fine.

 

 Weight Loss through Community Health

Andrew Miles L. Ac and Qiu Xuelan Ph.D 

In China there are two main times for exercise. The first is in the morning when hundreds of people can be seen in the park. They typically do taichi or some kind of dao yin posture training. You don’t need to sign up for classes, you simply find the healthiest and oldest person you can and copy what they are doing. There are more formal ways to learn health exercises, but this is the most common. After a few thousand years of doing the exercises that the healthiest old person does, they have it down. It’s not about burning, its about regulating the body and building up strength in a relaxed and easy manner. Exercising in the morning is particularly important because the trees have just finished breathing out fresh oxygen which is relatively clean in the early morning before traffic kicks up too much dust and air pollution.

Morning exercise should focus on relaxation and internal development to  energize the body and set an even pace of life.

The second time for exercise is after dinner. People have dinner at about 6:00 and around 7:30 families go out for a stroll around the neighborhood. This light exercise after meals helps to improve digestion. After the walk some people will return home, while others will stay for group dancing, ping pong or badminton. Group dancing seemed strange to me at first, but a few generation back in America that was how people relaxed and socialized as well. When I’m in China I enjoy group dancing. Ages range from toddlers to the elderly and its surprising how the simple and relaxed dancing can be such a balanced way to exercise after meals. Many of the dances are based on Tibetan or other folk dances and so they serve to also preserve culture and keep it relevant. 

Evening exercise should be more dynamic as the body has had all day to warm up.

Someone like you will buy some speakers and play the music and anyone who dances there regularly will chip in around 50 cents per month to help pay for batteries. In this kind of environment it is impossible to feel isolated. It is the kind of social event normally seen at country fairs, only it happens every day. Let that sink in for a moment. What if we shut off the T.V. and lived our lives as a society within a healthy community. How much healthier and happier could we be? Do we really need to sign up for special classes in buildings when we have so much beautiful public space? If it's cold, we can put on a jacket and then get out and move. Long before the days where sport meant staring at a television screen in a bar, people actually went outside and participated. Not genetically and hormonally enhanced super athletes, but regular people. Now we watch life rather than live it. There is a lot we could learn from our great grandparents generation.

At one time American sports were about community and involved physical movement by regular people.

Consider going outside after supper and inviting your neighbors on both sides to join you. It won't be long before social health extends to mental and physical health within your community. This simple step will lead to long term fitness, happiness, and a more loving neighborhood. 

Its the tiny steps that make the biggest impact on our lives.