What Do You Notice?

2.50
I think we often fail to see what is right in front of us. Because we think one day naturally melds into the next with no change of norms and outcomes, much of what is happening to us goes unnoticed. I think our body's interactions with food can be a lot like this.

We want life faster, more convenient, with less cost and definitely with no need to engage our brains. And some of life will flow to us, and right past us, in that manner. A truth I have learned over the past 4-5 years is that in order to not slide into suffering caused by poor diet and food-related ills, we need to engage our brains.


Simple observation of cause and effect in my life has clearly shown me this: my body doesn't like dairy and gluten! I've researched all sorts of information on sensitivity to dairy and gluten, and I can unquestionably say that these two foods cause my body significant distress.


The thing which causes us to not connect consumption of a food to the pain or suffering we feel, is time. It takes about two weeks to get the offending dairy or gluten proteins out of my system, and that can be a long time to patiently observe.

So if I splurge on pizza and ice cream, I'm going to suffer a couple weeks of joint, neck and back aches (sometimes it's intense), skin irritation, and sometimes schedule-altering migraines. This will continue for 10 days or so, before my health gets back to the pain-free baseline I've grown used to for four years.

The key to recognizing the connection is observation. But not the casual, speculative kind; it needs to be more deliberate and thoughtful. And the key question is: "what do you notice?" Simply asking that question in relation to a food we eat can change everything. If you have aches and pains and sluggishness, instead of relating it to old-age, try reducing and then eliminating gluten and dairy for two weeks and see what happens. You may be very glad you did.

By the Way

The top list of distressing foods is (unfortunately) common and very much at hand. I had posted about A Sensitive Issue last year recounting these sensitivity triggers as: dairy, gluten, corn, soy, peanuts and eggs. Check out that post to learn more.