If you are reading this article, you likely think that you eat pretty well but could improve. It might feel like the onslaught of information out there about healthy eating is overwhelming. You may at times feel paralyzed or confused about what to eat and when to eat it.
How do we deal with consumer food culture?
The answer is simple: ancestral eating is the ideal diet.
In a world where there is a fad diet to try to atone for every processed food out there, we need to stop looking at what corporate food culture is trying to sell us and start using our bodies as guides for health.
As Chris Kesser explains, “clear benefits of a whole foods, ancestral diet are demonstrated in studies that compare traditional diets to the standard American diet.
Instead of looking outside of ourselves for messages about nourishment, let’s start taking a look at what’s happening on the inside.
Our bodies are always trying to tell us where we have hereditary “weak spots” and how we can strengthen and even heal them. Do you feel that you struggle most at a certain time of year? For me, it’s winter.
Is there an organ that tends to be a weak spot for you, or an illness that recurs every year? I have digestive weakness from 10 years of chronic intestinal parasites, so I need to take extra care in the fall to tonify my large intestine. Before I knew this, fall was typically a time where my digestion would go haywire and I would suffer for months before regaining balance.
Make a list of symptoms that you notice in your body.
For example:
Gas / bloating: large intestine / colon — eat pungent food and slow down during autumn
Belching: stomach — enjoy cooked, orange, warming foods and smaller portions in late summer
Joint pain / swelling: liver inflammation — follow a dietary simplification / cleanse in the spring
Heart palpitations / shortness of breath: heart — take time to enjoy bitter foods in the summer and take digestive bitters
Allergies / auto-immune conditions: liver heat and triple warmer (lymphatic) stagnation — choose uplifing greens like nettles, bok choy, parsley and cilantro; avoid grains and legumes for a three weeks in the spring and fall
Recurring respiratory infections (cold/flu): lung / large intestine weakness — include potatoes, turnips, parsnips, daikon radish, oats, sesame seeds, onions and garlic
Your points of weakness can become your strengths as you learn to heal them and feel better than ever before.
As we listen to our bodies, we can also spend more time understanding who our ancestors were (before the industrial revolution) and what they ate. These traditional foods are literally programmed into our DNA as being the most nutritious and digestible choices.
What do you know about your ancestors? Write about who they were and what their ethnicity was. If you have time, do some research about the traditional foods consumed by those ethnic groups.
The more we eat in accordance with our ancestors, the better we feel and the more we learn to appreciate and respect the wisdom of traditional cultures. That’s why looking to the past can truly guide us about ways we can change our eating for the better.
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