The body knows (long)

[Guest guest]

wrote:

> ## I have heard that before, . How can we identify what our

> body is telling us that we need? If only the body had an unambiguous

> voice ... This reminds me of instinctotherapy. Have you ever heard

> about that? They say we " should " (I don't know if they use this verb,

> anyway) eat following our forlorn instincts, especially the smell,

> and everything will be all right. I am not very much convinced about

> that, but anyhow it is a way. Perhaps you think along these lines?

Well, my big exception is glucose addiction. Once you control for that, it

becomes much easier to :hear: the often quite unambiguous messages that our

bodies tell us. I do not know of any studies regarding this so I only have

anectodal evidence and reasoning to back up my idea.

The first major experience I remember along these lines goes as follows: I

had a weird dream, one of those dreams that lingers all day as an unnamable

feeling. The dream took place in South America. As I was driving home from

work thinking about the dream, I suddenly had an intense desire for Brazil

nuts. Up to that point I had never liked the taste of Brazil nuts, but I

didnt question the urge. I stopped at the store and bought some nuts and

they were the best tasting food I had ever eaten. I wondered how I could

have ever disliked them. A couple of weeks later, I was reading an article

on Selenium deficiency and recognizing symptoms that I had had up to the

point of eating the nuts. Sure enough, Brazil nuts were listed as the top

source of natural selenium.

I got to thinking (this is the reasoning part), if cows can search out herbs

that help with various ailments, maybe it is just the way bodies have

evolved. Our bodies can analyze the nutrition in food and create cravings

for those foods it needs. Our bodies have all sorts of feedback mechanisms

to tell whether certain hormones or enzymes are needed. Its not a big jump

to think that the body can tell if it needs other things.

Since this time I have worked to find out how my cravings relate to my

experience in my body. I dont think you can just eat whatever smells good.

The cravings for things you need arent always based on what seems like it

will taste good. Another anecdote: Because of antibiotic overuse, I am

prone to yeast infections. One herbal remedy that helps me a lot is Myrrh

tincture. This stuff tastes awful!!! And yet, after I had taken it a few

times, my body started to crave it whenever I had binged on junk food. This

is not a craving for the taste at all. I still have to hold my breath when

I take it, but my body clearly tells me: I need this stuff.

This does seem to be something you can teach yourself. Recently, I had to

get on a medication and it made me soooooo tired. I decided to see if I

could :hear: what my body needed. I meditated and got the image of a

particular color of blue green. Jumped from that to :spirulina:. Sure

enough, adding a lot more protein to my diet, some of it in the form of blue

green algae, really helped.

The wrench in the works is glucose addiction. This is when something is

happening in the body that causes a person to crave glucose when they dont

really needed it. Or shouldnt need it. If you have a systemic yeast

infection (and men get those too) the yeast will eat a lot of the sugar you

injest making you want to eat more. You will not get a good reading on how

much carbs you really need until you beat back the yeast to reasonable

levels.

As far as I can tell, glucose is the only substance naturally used by the

body that can so easily get out of whack like this. Endorphins are the

other substance, but you have to get addicted to opiates for that. Its a

little bit easier to get hooked on wheat!

The other thing this connects to in my mind is that alcoholism is the only

major addiction that you can die from in withdrawals. A person has to be

pretty far gone, but it is possible because the body of the alcoholic has

shifted the way it gets energy. No other addiction is like this.

YR