(AND WHY FOR SOME IT IS)
In the last couple of decades we have seen an upsurge of modalities previously unheard of focusing their treatment plans entirely around diet. These include naturopaths, functional medicine and nutritionists.
The premise that these modalities build upon is that a) there are increased levels of toxicity in the environment, and b) our food sources have been nutritionally depleted due to mass industrialised agriculture. The third premise is that once those issues are remedied and our bodies provided with optimal resources, they will have the opportunity to mobilize their innate healing ability and rebalance themselves.
So far so good.
It is true that the body has an inbuilt capacity to repair itself. No healer, doctor or shaman has ever ‘done the healing’ for anybody. It’s always you and your natural ability to heal yourself. When you get a cut, the body naturally stops the bleeding, closes the wound, and grows new skin over it. When you get a virus, the body naturally mobilizes its immune defences and produces puss and mucus to expel the defeated invader out of the body. No outside help needed. Nature knows what to do.
Except, when it doesn’t.
When the natural force becomes overtaxed by constantly having to deal with excessive levels of toxicity, or when it becomes depleted by not getting the essential building blocks for its function, or both, then, over time, things begin to slip by. In order to preserve the organism as a whole, the vital force must now prioritize and focus on the most important organs to function, since it doesn’t have the strength to maintain equilibrium between all the parts anymore. Sacrifices must be made and chronic disease ensues.
To say that adding what’s essential and removing what is toxic is all that’s ever needed, is a gross oversimplification of the mysterious process that healing truly is. Not to mention that attempting to mimic the inexplicably delicate and precise one billion processes that occur between the cells of out body in every millisecond is, hats off, probably the most ambitious undertaking yet.
To claim that this is the only root of all disease would mean that a hundred and more years ago when toxic petrochemicals weren’t yet invented, and the soil wasn’t yet depleted of essential nutrients, everyone who got enough food and decent sanitary standards was always healthy. Yet this isn’t the case, is it?
So there must be something else at play. Something more individual and closer to home. And this is the concept of the governing individual vital force, on which all of the nutritional approaches rely so heavily, yet rarely giving it a mention.
The vital force/chi/prana/kundalini or whatever you wish to call it is what animates everything from humans, animals, plants, to whole universes. It’s what keeps us alive and the universe spinning. If we pay just a little bit of attention, we can observe that there is an intelligence to it. And if we look just a tiny bit deeper we will find profound beauty to its designs.
This intelligence is within each and every one of us, and it speaks to us through our gut feelings, intuition, and through the signals of the nervous system. Most of us don’t listen.
Most of us were taught that it doesn’t matter. We were not taught that it exists. We were conditioned to ignore it. We were taught that the body is a machine made up of separate parts, and what you put in, you will get out.
Science is beginning to catch up with that it’s simply not true. What with the cholesterol fad, low-fat diet fad, and the discovery of the microbiome. Yet it’s still rigidly holding on to the possibility of a future discovery of some truly mechanistic model of the universe and the human body. One that doesn’t have to take into account emotions, and matters of the Soul. One where people can be reduced to human resources and mortgaged workers.
But that’s a model of medicine in denial. By separating the body from the very force that keeps it alive of which they know nothing off, they will never understand, yet alone discover the actual sources of chronic suffering that ails humankind.
Apologies for the meta tangent. And back to why it matters – to You.
In the form of natural practice that I am schooled in, we recognize every condition in terms of a disturbance of the life force. This is the foundation that every singular symptom can be traced back to. The disturbances can be divided into three main categories – either there is too much of something, the vital force is over-functioning (ie. toxicity), or there is too little (deficiency), or it’s just plain wrong with twists and knots and what not.
In
practical terms, what this means, where the organism is struggling with
toxicity or deficiency, but the vital force hasn’t yet been impacted by this on
a deeper level, it can be very beneficial to address this via dietary changes.
Same goes for food sensitivity, where the immune system launches overbearing
reactions towards quite benign food items. Then you definitely need to listen
to your body and give it a break from these items.
But why is it sensitive to these items? Where does that susceptibility come
from to begin with? Why one person can eat strawberries, and they be even
healthy for them, while the other can go into anaphylactic shock and die?
Surely, the problem isn’t strawberries.
The issue is that this person is predisposed to be overly sensitised towards
certain triggers via a disturbance in their life force.
If the only problem is deficiency or toxicity, we can address those and the
person will heal. But it’s rarely the case that those are the only issues
nowadays. Often, there are other sources of disease, mainly trauma and stress.
When those are addressed, nutritional issues can often resolve on their own,
without any dietary intervention.
To sum it up – yes, a balanced diet does relate to a balanced state of health. But is it the only answer? Sometimes.
Now, what does a balanced diet look like? Simply put, it’s one that makes your body and mind feel balanced. I will leave that up to each and every one to determine what that looks like for them.
Struggling to maintain a healthy diet or finding that no matter what you try your health isn’t getting any better?
I can help! Click here to see how you can work with me.