I was on elimination diets for a long time and needed to be in order to quiet down the chaos in my body. I now know more than when I started and hope that the general method of learning to listen is helpful to others since I know the details will be different for everyone.
Recently I went through a stint of eating lots of gluten and cheese as I add many different foods I avoided for many years back into my diet. I jokingly call it “retoxification.” It’s a joke because I am very careful about quality and/or getting whole real foods. I have, however, also rarely but sometimes found it helpful to eat something that is (mostly rightly) straight up junk (highly processed) food. When I do that it seems that the pharmaceuticals (chemicals) in the food are actually helping something detox out of me (perhaps in both somewhat homeopathic and toxic medicine fashion)…it generally feels really bad coming out but then I feel better and I no longer need that pharmaceutical laced food again. I trust my body now and eat whatever it wants once I sink into my body and feel what is needed. I learn to be more and more precise about what it needs and I continue to heal. My body was gravely harmed from decades of excessive pharmaceutical use. It’s taking time. A long time.
I’m no longer eating gluten and cheese daily. That period served to reestablish my gut lining and flora after an intensive period of change. Now I’m eating mostly fruit and fasting since my body is still cleansing. Intermittent fasting is always part of the scenario now, though I never force fasting of any kind. The body wants it, or it doesn’t. I go through cycles of different foods it seems with layers of crud that is still coming out. See detox posts if interested in more details. These are reports of what is happening as it’s happening so conclusions are never made and interpretation is a moving target.
My gut is the happiest it’s ever been right now after (and during) the gluten and cheese extravaganza. ~ I have perfect poops. PERFECT POOP ~ comes out smooth, snakelike and intact. I don’t even have to wipe it’s so clean and lovely moving out like nature intended. My gut feels good. (I realize some might not want to know details about poop but those of us who are healing longstanding chronic issues will appreciate the importance of poop!)
If any of you balked at the medicinal use of gluten and cheese, well, it was a most beautiful shock to me as well. I have learned on this long chaotic journey to wellness that almost everything you read in capitalistic driven healthcare (both western and “alternative”) is almost total BS.
Basically what we’ve got on the market is a bunch of rogue self-proclaimed health gurus who claim to know what YOUR body needs. Confidence sells. They claim authority. Thing is the only thing they know is their own experience and then it gets validated by some of their followers who happen to do well with that experience. Still there are many that don’t respond or get worse. Gurus know their experience. Not yours. Not mine. Always listen to your body first. The guru is within.
Then we’ve got the medical establishment which actually knows even less then most of the health gurus. The health gurus are listening to their own bodies most of the time at least to some extent…the problem lies in them imagining that everyone is going to be like them and it’s simply not the case.
Also, there is nothing wrong with learning from these people. I sure had to as there was nowhere else to go…it’s best however to understand that they are often claiming far more knowledge than is appropriate or honest.
Gluten is a protein and seems to be a prebiotic as well (in how it has helped my gut healing…it also seemed to really help re-establish my blood/brain barrier…this is stuff I feel in my body as I have a high level of interoceptive capacities…it’s conjecture and speculation, though it’s clear I feel both good and bad stuff within my body that I can respond to in ways that help me navigate my life better and better…I don’t always know what is actually going on, of course…health gurus like to pretend they really do know exactly what is up and then project it to others. I try to avoid that as much as possible.
Cheese and yogurt has a rich and varied probiotic profile. I’ve eaten a lot of plain yogurt too. There were certainly times that I didn’t tolerate any of this food. NONE OF IT. So if you do go off it and feel better it seems possible, based on my experience that as you heal it’s worth trying things that made you sick again. It all came full circle for me. It also might be that you really need to always avoid some of the foods. I seem to go back and forth at this point as I learn to come into complete alignment with simply knowing what my body needs now.
The more variety of cheese./yogurt one eats the more probiotics you get. What heaven that period of rebuilding was!! I hadn’t even realized that I missed bread and cheese. Also, I respond far better to goat and sheep milk products rather than cow. Fresh milk doesn’t agree with me and that seems to also include raw milk. I do buy raw cheeses when they’re available. I try to stick with grass fed and avoid factory farms. Some of this seems more or less important at various times.
Will cheese and gluten help out everyone like it did me? Absolutely not. I’m Italian and it very much seems linked to my ancestry. I’m first generation American so my microbiome wasn’t far removed from my ancestors. It’s going be different for other people. Radically so some of the time. All the details in my story are moving parts (even for me!) so please don’t attach to any of them. The goal is complete flexibility and resiliency for me, so that I can move about in the world without fear eating whatever makes sense in this moment now, wherever I happen to be. Since I want to travel again some day, flexibility seems critical.
One more thing to show the diversity of what my body is going through: I go through periods where I’m essentially fruitarian and eat lots of fruit. (I avoided most fruit for many years too…the paleo and keto worlds have really removed fruit from the lives of many people). Fruit is wonderful and healing for me. So glad I can eat it again. …The first time fruitarian like eating happened I thought it might be permanent but now it’s clear that there are times my body needs high fruit for cleansing and all the antioxidants but then I go back to eating more variety again. Happens a lot now as I cycle through layers of stuff that is coming out of the body and brain. I love the saying in yoga: “your issues are in your tissues,” because it seems to be true for me. That stuff comes out both via movement that includes yoga for me and also via detox by diet and fasting.
I lived a long time before I started making changes and took more pharmaceuticals than any human being ever should. It’s taking time.
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Our bodies hold the past in a physical manner. Being “present” includes being with what is still in the body. It’s not always possible to just blink or sit in meditation and magically be changed. Trauma (the past) is held in our bodies. As such it remains present until tended to. Paying attention to diet is one way we do this. It may or may not b appropriate for you. Trust yourself.
- Trauma and the body
- updated: more somatic mysticism
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- Returning to roots and well-being with food
- Detox
- Diet and nutrition
- Somatic imperative / listening to the body
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