Let Food Be Thy Medicine and Medicine Thy Food- Hippocrates
I grew up playing competitive sports. fast pitch, competitive softball and volleyball made me one super fit teenager, but like most teenagers I never focused on nutrition. I was always taught that you could eat whatever you wanted, as long as the calories that you took in were not greater than the ones you burned. I binged on fast food burgers and fries and I was addicted to soda and Little Debbie swiss cake rolls. It never EVER crossed my mind that my eating habits could be affecting the way my insides worked. I considered myself healthy and strong. I kept my same eating habits on into college, even when I was not exercising and put on way more than the freshman 15. When I got pregnant with my first child, I gave myself the license to eat whatever I wanted to. I gained 75 pounds and a nice case of high blood pressure/ toxemia to go along with that. I still did not understand that my diet was the cause of this and not just something that happens to some pregnant people. I had a very hard time losing the weight, so I started weight watchers. I did well on the point system, but used up all of my points by lunch and was starving when I went to bed. My mom followed this diet with me and lost a ton of weight but GAINED high cholesterol from all of the processed meats we were consuming. Even after losing weight, I continued to gain and lose the same 20-30 pounds over and over again. I never understood food until my oldest child battled eczema, allergies and asthma so hard it landed her in the ER multiple times a year, and made her unbelievably miserable with constant rashes and sores that plagued her sweet little body. It never occurred to me that I had the power to prevent this from happening to her simply by changing the way we ate. I was told over and over again, there was nothing I could do about it except for spend a freaking ton of money on steroids, antibiotics and doctors visits. Why was I never told to just stay away from processed foods? Why was I never told to address the health of her gut? It seriously blows my mind how we slap medicine on every single thing and never point people in the right direction with food. Most of the time, it is just a big, fat bandaid. If they had just told me about the quality of food, I would have done my own research and done ANYTHING to keep her from suffering and hurting for so many years. Not to mention avoid the steroids like the plague that have so many long term side effects. I have my suspicions as to why doctors don’t teach this, I will let you read into that. I just want people to know that there is another way, a better way.
When I joined the wellness community I am a part of, I began to learn a new way of living. I heard the word “Holistic” from a very different perspective and I began to realized that the only REAL food is the food God created. I mean think about it. He created the most wonderful thing when he made humans. How miraculous our bodies are made! When given just half the chance it will heal itself! When God SPOKE creation into existence he did it with us in mind. He knew what we would need to maintain a healthy body so that we could live out the plan he has for our lives to the very best of our ability, with energy, vigor and vitality. He gave us what our bodies are capable of digesting and using for energy and health and healing. His living energy is in this food he created. Think about that. His very breath is living inside of his creation.
When we began as a nation to eat food created in factories and labs rather than grown from the seed God gave us, we moved steadily away from health promoting nutrition and closer and closer to building our bodies, our cells, our tissue, from edible, yet synthetic, FAKE nutrients and poor food substances. Isn’t it obvious that turning our backs on God’s original plan would wreak havoc on our health and the health of almost everyone around us? It only makes sense. We are not smarter than the one who created us.
My chiropractor, Dr. Jessica has a despicable display of fast food on her counter that has been sitting there since 2010/11.
Today as I write this, that is almost 8 years. It is still in tact. Nothing has broken it down. It has no signs of decay. If it will not decay sitting out in the open for 7 years, where is this “food” going when you chew it up and swallow it? Your body was not designed to digest and use this fake food. The only food you were created to digest is what God provided for you.
Unfortunately I was one who was excited for my oldest to eat her first chicken nugget. I fed her so much processed junk, absolutely oblivious to the fact that removing it would cause her health to return and eventually get rid of all 3 of her ailments. Food is Medicine and Medicine is Food. When we began to address the food we were eating and addressed her gut that was so incredibly inflamed, we began to see an immediate turn around.
Over the course of the next few weeks we are going to dive into the health of our guts where 60-80% of our immunity lives. Improving the health of our gut is the very first step to better health, calming chronic inflammation and feeling your best EVER, just the way you were created to feel.
Your action step for today is to go head into your pantry. Pull out something that is boxed. Flip it to the backside and read the ingredients. Once you see one you cannot pronounce, just put it in a quick google search like this.. “Dangers of Sodium Nitrates” or “Dangers of Butylated Hydroxyanisole aka. BHA” Then come on over to Instagram @helloitskelli and tell me what you learned on today’s post.
To Better Health!
xoxo,
