With the recent media hack job and witch-hunt of celebrity chef Pete Evans – that has an all too familiar flavour of what the highly reputable Universal Medicine has also suffered from the media for promoting healthy living – it feels very timely to express a few things about my food experiences.
Firstly, one does begin to question what is at play when the media challenges the promotion of healthy eating and self-care, especially when you look at the appalling statistics of world-wide obesity, illness and disease that is increasingly on the rise.
How dare one empower themselves to feel what is right for them to eat, and feel so much more vital and healthy as a result!
Now I am not one for diets and I do not follow a ‘Paleo’ diet like Pete Evans advocates because quite frankly ‘diets’ are driven from the head and do not consider how one feels after eating and our relationship with food – such important aspects to look at if one is aspiring to healthy eating. However, if there is a diet that comes the closest to my style of eating, it would be a Paleo diet because of my choice to eliminate gluten, grains, dairy and refined sugar. I also chose to eliminate alcohol and caffeine because I didn’t like the way they made me feel. The choice to make these decisions was because I valued feeling great every day, and it made more sense to listen to my body than any so called ‘expert’ dietician, book or mass imposed dietary guidelines. Surely it makes sense for every individual to stylise their diet based on their individual needs.
Since being introduced to Serge Benhayon and the teachings of Universal Medicine, I have never been told what to eat by them, nor would I let anyone have that power over me.
No one before Serge Benhayon had presented the notion to ‘feel what to eat’. This was a revelation in itself and an empowerment back to me to trust what my body had already been communicating to me.
What Universal Medicine has given me is so valuable – presenting information that made sense about food, the body and energy. As I always do, I simply tried things for myself and let my body tell me what felt right for me. And I knew that what felt right for me wasn’t necessarily what felt right for another… so I could only discover this for myself. It’s a work in progress as I discover and let go of patterns of emotional eating and beliefs about food that I had taken on.
Personally, I have had a fairly healthy diet for most of my life, but couldn’t quite understand why my moods and energy levels would fluctuate on a daily basis. Whilst there would have been many contributing factors as a result of choices of how I was living, I can now really appreciate how important it is to feel what to eat. Food can dramatically impact my day in the way that it impacts how I feel – it can ‘take me out’ or ‘lift me up’.
One hour after eating is a great gauge of what foods are right for my body and which ones are not. The more I listen to what my body is telling me after each meal, the more it teaches me about what is right for my body. Not just what I eat, but how much I eat and the energy I am in when I eat.
From first hand experience I can now confidently say…
- the consumption of alcohol is poisonous to my body and one of the most un-loving things I can do to myself
- gluten makes me tired and just about falling off my chair
- dairy clogs my sinuses and forehead and I can’t think to save myself
- too much sugar gets me fired up for about an hour or so and then I’m useless for the rest of the day because again I’m just about falling off my chair
- caffeine gets me even more fired up with zing, but also makes my hands shake and a few hours later I well and truly have fallen off my chair!
I applaud people like Serge Benhayon for not holding back in sharing information on matters of diet and wellbeing that are very clearly having enormous benefits to so many.
What is really going on when the media attempt to shut down those who are encouraging healthy eating? It doesn’t make sense, right?
But when I look at it from the perspective that what is being attempted to be shut down is the value of what one feels in the body, in favour of textbook theories and dietary guidelines – then I can understand. I understand because those who have vested interests in the plethora of beliefs and ideals held in the food industry stand to lose much should the consumer begin to listen to and care for their body.
To discredit the value of what the body communicates does not make sense to me anymore. To ignore the messages of the body in favour of the many dishes of knowledge we are served by the food and diet industries is allowing the corruption to continue.
A corruption that says what your body feels is not important.
We are living in a world where ‘everything is energy’ first and foremost. How the body responds to food cannot be ignored no matter what a textbook may say.
We live in a world that has a high rate of illness and disease that is not slowing down: this also cannot be ignored and clearly shows that the medical system does not have all the answers.
However, when you look at the students of Universal Medicine who have made lifestyle changes that include their diet, they are going against global trends and looking/feeling very vital indeed. How can this be?
What makes more sense?
- Following the recommended dietary guidelines or a specific rigid diet, that then leads to a way of eating that doesn’t feel great in the body.
OR
- Listening to how the body responds when one eats so as to make food choices that allow you to continue feeling great.
Please excuse my bluntness here, but it really is a no-brainer!
We live in a pluralistic society where everyone has free will to choose what to eat and drink. ‘Live and let live’ is a great motto… and from what I have observed, those who listen to their body are certainly living a far more vital and healthy life than those who do not.
At the end of the day the proof is in the faces of the people who are glowing with vitality and feeling great, which is why I always say… MY BODY IS THE BOSS!
By Anonymous
Further Reading:
Jane Hansen, Pete Evans and “pseudoscience” – more of the same from Jane Hansen
The Diet Solution
True Nourishment
It just doesn’t make any sense to me that the media would go on these witch hunts against people who advocate eating healthily so that they stay fit and healthy. But what if we were to look behind the scenes so to say, it may be that there is more going on than we realise. Is it possible that there is a consciousness that wants to keep humanity dulled by foods, drinks etc. so that they are not truly aware of what is going on around them. What if we were to wake up from this induced food coma and realise that life is not actually what we were led to believe it was, that it was so much more and we have all been missing out.
Feeling what my body needs is far healthier than following what my mind wants. In the end, it is my body that is going to process and assimilate the food I ingest, not my mind.
Our bodies share so much and the way we eat definitely has a huge effect on us, but the way we use our whole body needs to be studied so that it becomes known that the intelligence of our bodies delivers all we need, and when we understand how to Truly reconnect to the divinity or essence in us all equally – food becomes so simple and yummy.
This makes perfect sense, ‘Listening to how the body responds when one eats so as to make food choices that allow you to continue feeling great.’
“Surely it makes sense for every individual to stylise their diet based on their individual needs.” We all have a choice and the most self-loving choice we can each make is to listen to our own body.
There are so many diets out there, that choosing what to follow and eat, could be a very confusing and complicated decision for people. I like to keep my life simple, listen to, and honour what my body says, and what works for me, in regard to what and how I choose to eat.
It is actually a no-brainer, or so we would think, but the fact of the matter is that many or too many of us choose food due to how we are feeling emotionally which will never point us in the direction of a healthy meal because there’s no comfort in that. Using food to medicate has become a lifestyle choice that will/is backfiring on us.
I find it amazing how our stomach actually knows instantly if we’ve eaten something that’s not right for us, I find it’s actually painful within minutes – it shows how responsive our body is and how empowering it is to be able to choose the food that is exactly right for us and our bodies, rather than just eating whatever we like.
I hadn’t really appreciated just how much control the diet industry has. But really, it’s a lot! And it’s subtle too. But let us not forget that this industry is supplying a need that is being called out to be fulfilled.
Yes, I agree that the diet industry, and the food producers as well, have a huge impact on what diets people follow and what food they eat, but as you say they are simply ‘supplying a need’, and it is a need that so many are calling out loudly for these days. In a world where most want a quick fix (the demand) there is always someone ready to provide this fix ( the supplier), so it follows that if we stopped demanding all these special diets and food choices that are harming our bodies, the suppliers would no longer have any customers; yes, the power at the end of the day is ours.
Often, we see attacks on those who speak out and challenge the ‘norm’, especially when we are asked to honestly consider if and why we just are following the norm, especially when it is ‘norm’ that is not working and is actually making us sick. With the majority of us looking and feeling more and more unhealthy, lacking vitality and needing stimulants and medications to prop us up makes sense to ask if there is another way, and to then have another way that is presented and evidently working it then makes no sense as to why we resist it. Honoring our bodies as to what feels true over just following a ‘norm’ or set of ideals set by society is more and more becoming a true norm as is live by many such as the student of The Way of The Livingness. If you take an honest look you can feel the difference in the quality of life lived.
‘feel what to eat’ and may I also add ‘feel what to buy’ In the supermarket we can be tempted to buy what’s on offer without discerning how it feels to us. Even when things look good and have labels like organic or homegrown it is wise to feel for ourselves and not jump to conclusions that at all is good without our bodies decidiing for us.
There have been thousands of diets published over time – so many answers to what people can try next – but in this we forget that the best way to establish what to eat is by listening to our bodies. But we don’t want to truly feel what is going on and we like to be told what to do because then we can blame the diet and not look at our part in it. To clock how the body feels an hr after eating and start with this point of honesty is a great starting point for us to want to feel what is going on.
This is a really great sharing, to take time to feel how we and our body is feeling after eating certain foods, so we let our body become our expert advisor, ‘To clock how the body feels an hr after eating and start with this point of honesty is a great starting point for us to want to feel what is going on.’
More and more my body is the boss but my mind still tries to make takeover bids every so often when I disconnect from how I am feeling. What is being exposed here is the vested interests who do not want us to listen to our bodies but instead want to force feed us ideals and beliefs that keep us eating out of their hands and into ever increasing ill health both mental and physical. It is time to call this corruption out and allow everyone to discern for themselves what truly sustains them.
It’s clear that diets don’t work and we feel miserable while restricting our food intake out of willpower, as we are still craving the sweet treat that helps us to cope with life. If given the opportunity the body will always highlight what it can and cannot eat and getting clear of the sugar, and other stimulants enable the body to have a louder voice.
You know what is really interesting, you can advertise any fast food you like and no-one gets worked up about it even when we know the health effects of this, yet when someone presents something that is healthier, they get attacked relentlessly when it is clear it is much better for you than eating junk food. We do need to question why this happens. Seriously doctors will jump on board claiming it is scientifically not proven yet won’t blink an eye at alcohol or fast food ads- what is going on here?
It is truly shocking that doctors are being disciplined for giving potentially life saving advice and heart warming that an increasing number are not being cowed by this attempt to shut them up.
‘How the body responds to food cannot be ignored no matter what a textbook may say.’ hear hear. There is no denying what the body shows, it can be over ridden or ignored but the body always shows us the truth about the foods we choose and eat.
Anything can be said, argued and believed in however, you will be the fruits of your labour – the results of choices and thus what you align to.
We can be sooo good at lying to ourselves and saying we love cakes, we love a glass of wine etc etc yet this is not coming from the body, the body would never agree to anything harmful to it.
Its hilarious that no-one is furious when a new McDonald’s or other fast food chain opens up or runs commercials, everyone is fine with that, even though we have an obesity epidemic, yet openly discuss a healthy way of being with food and you are shot down- its quite funny to observe what the world will avidly defend, we do have to ask why.
‘Food can dramatically impact my day in the way that it impacts how I feel – it can ‘take me out’ or ‘lift me up’ – this is so true. On numerous occasions, I have felt the affects of certain foods on my body, and the difference is more than noticeable. One minute I feel clear and awake, eyes wide open and feeling fresh, then after eating something like almonds my vision is blurred, my head feels heavy and foggy.
“What Universal Medicine has given me is so valuable – presenting information that made sense about food, the body and energy.” And what my body tells me about food, my body and energy is so valuable and just makes sense.
I know just the right foods to go to when I don’t want to deal with something, its crazy how cunning we can be in order to not be fully aware.
Choosing to listen to my body rather than my mind has transformed my relationship with food which continues to evolve as I become more sensitive to the messages from my body and continue to let go of ideals and beliefs and hurts that have sabotaged past attempts to eat in a way that supports my body. For me healing my deep seated exhaustion has been key as I still find that when I am tired I am more likely to make unsupportive choices including overeating.
Thank you for calling out the corruption and vested interests in the food industry and the media who have an underlying agenda when they attack people like Pete Evans and Serge Benhayon who are speaking out about the current norms of eating that leave so many numbed to the messages from their bodies with all the attendant medical problems that arise from this.
When people find out that I don’t eat bread or cakes and biscuits, don’t drink milk or coffee, that I don’t drink alcohol they either go into sympathy or shocked disbelief. What do you eat and drink then? they ask as if there is nothing left to choose from. My diet is hugely varied and I love to try new ways of cooking vegetables, meat and fish which I do all the time. I used to have substitutes for gluten and dairy in the form vegetable spread, coconut cream and almond or soya milk, honey or xylitol instead of sugar and did de-caff coffee for a while. I made cakes with free from ingredients but now, as my body becomes more sensitive and I become more respectful of its’ messages my diet becomes more refined. Sometimes I might want something from my former way of eating and it is then that I have to ask myself what’s going on. Have I lost my connection and am wanting something to fill the gap? Is it my body or my mind asking? Am I looking for something to satisfy my taste buds or something to nourish and nurture myself?
“My body is the boss” this is so true and when I try to be the boss and eat foods I know my body does not want, but I eat anyway because of the addictive added properties to some food, my body lets me know at a later stage. ” the body is the marker of all truth ” as presented by Universal Medicine. The body holds the truth of been nurtured and cared for or the truth of been over fed and un-nutured, The body lets us know whats the best choices are. No book will change this.
I love the humour in this as for me it shows that claiming what my body feels is right for it even though others may disagree need not be a fight or a defending of my bodies feelings from attack. It can actually be light and joyous as the more I listen the more amazing I feel and I need not get defensive about such. If anything my body doesn’t like it when I tense up to defend myself.
Yes, the body rewards us when we don’t compromise by having more energy and feeling better.
A particular diet means that we use a set of rules instead of following our body’s intuition. That makes sense with a medical diet or when we are not able to discern but following our body’s lead can be much more powerful when we have learned how to do that.
“My body is the Boss” – I love that. Our bodies speak very loudly to us when it comes to food, choosing what to eat and when to eat and what the body truly needs as nourishment is a science, and not a science you can study in a book but a science in which your body and day to day experiences are the manual.
Having never followed a recipe in my life and convinced I cannot cook, I have come to realise the greatest chef is the one that cooks from their body. The body just knows and great food that is healthy does not need to be boring!
Is it any wonder that we are confused when there is so much information out there that is saying do this do that in order to loose weight, and that promise dangling at the end of the stick that promises when you have lost the weight your life will magically be perfect – I know I used to think like this.
The best thing I ever did was stop dieting and to listens to my body, yes I listened very slowly and the weight did come off, very very slowly but my health improved enormously and life suddenly seemed less of a struggle as my health improved. Now my weight has been the same for four years and having gone from a UK size of 16 to 8/10 I feel I have reached my natural weight, as I was when a teenager but without the constant conversation in my head about dieting, exercise and loosing weight.
I have not tried the paleo diet, as I too now eat according to what I feel I need rather than being told what to eat by a diet. This can change each day depending on what my body needs for the stage of my cycle, the seasons and how I have been running my body. I really like the tool you use to assess if foods are good for you or not, by observing how you feel an hour after eating. I suspect that most people, like I used to be would not put 2 and 2 together an hour after eating. If we start to feel down or tired again, that’s when we mostly reach for another pick up. Instead it makes so much sense to start to observe what food does and make adjustments accordingly.
Our body is always the boss of what we eat, whether we like it or not. When you defy the boss and eat what your head says, or someone else says, the body is still the boss and it will respond accordingly if not listened to, with nausea, bloating, indigestion, heartburn, sluggishness, fat gain and so on.
Pete Evans and Serge Benhayon – Sarah Wilson is another – need to be applauded for their willingness to publicly question the role of certain foods in our lives, not denigrated. What they propose has health (and ultimately societal and economic) benefits that have the potential to radically alter the path of death by poor food choices we’re currently on.
If the current food pyramid and dietary recommendations were one of sound truth, we wouldn’t be experiencing globally growing waistlines. Our bodies speak more loudly than books when it comes to our choice of foods and what does and does not agree with us.
When we listen to our body it certainly has a lot to say, it tells us when to rest and sleep and when to eat and play ☺
A truly esoteric approach to food does not have rules, it has observation, feeling and making choices.
Go Harrison 🙂
Rules are strict, rigid and no fun. observation, feeling and making choices can be approached playfully when we allow ourselves to make mistakes.
The media wars that are providing multitudes of information to the public for instance the “Paleo diet” and all of the “experts” that comment – it isn’t really offering anything to its viewers it is simply a form of entertainment with a subtle message, “don’t take responsibility for your health, rely on information which is given to you”
If food is to nourish the body, then it makes sense that this becomes the way in which we approach eating – which needs to come from the body and not the mind.
Feeling what to eat has a beautiful simplicity to it. No diet books and no calorie counting ever needed.
‘Feel what to eat’, how simple and supportive is that; our challenge and responsibility is to listen to the messages our bodies are conveying.
How do we know if what we are eating or when we are eating is truly supporting us or not? If we are honest, we always know as our body has its own unique and simple way of telling us. Perhaps the question to ask is why don’t we want to know?
When you are willing to listen the body tells you everything you need to know.
The nutritional advise of what we should or should not eat has become so complicated, and constantly contradicts itself, is it any wonder that people are confused and give up. Diets do not work because when it comes to our bodies one size does not fit all, so what is fine for one person may be harming another – years ago I would eat salad peppers but the smell and the fumes they give off whilst cutting it up would make me feel nauseous and dizzy, but I would eat them because they were supposedly healthy, but these days I do not listen to what diet books say and go by what my body tells me, then I know for sure if something should be eaten or not.
The more we listen to our bodies the more they communicate with us, ‘how important it is to feel what to eat. Food can dramatically impact my day in the way that it impacts how I feel – it can ‘take me out’ or ‘lift me up’. ‘Worth checking how our body feels after eating, especially so with different foods.
If I were to follow the recommended dietary guidelines for a ‘healthy diet’, I’d probably not get up off the couch because I’d feel so sluggish and dulled by all the grains, dairy and sugar. My body is very sensitive to foods – always has been although I didn’t always listen so it built up an immunity to a point, and then showed that it wasn’t working. Hands down, gluten puts me into a kind of an ‘awake coma’ where I’m awake but feel like I’m going to fall asleep on the spot.
We have more information on diet than ever before and yet we are as a race, unhealthier than ever before which shows all the knowledge isn’t enough or isn’t working. We do need to connect to what we each individually need to support us.
It can be quite tricky to ditch all the ‘knowledge’ about what healthy eating looks like – it’s so ingrained. But I have found the more I simply feel what it is my body needs me to eat, the less power this knowledge has in my life.
I agree Lucy, it can be quite tricky indeed, as we have given our power away so much so that we’ve forgotten that we already have all the info we need way before we decided to prescribe to all that we’ve been fed. But, with a willingness to return to the underlying truth, we get to uncover it bit by bit, and it all becomes far simpler.
Listening to our bodies and committing to building a healthy relationship with food for what they need is the only way forth. No matter how successful diets are, if we are not connecting to what is required within ourselves we will never know the true potential of our expression.
Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine invites us to feel what we eat and be aware of the effect of different foods in our body; the media and the commercial ‘food’ industry is driven by an agenda to get us to constantly consume what they produce in disregard of the effect on the health of the population of the world.
It is interesting that we have so many books that say what is good for us and what not, and there has been so much research done but never has anybody put in the aspect of our body, in that how much our body shows us what is good for us or not. And what also strikes me is that most people actually know this aspect, they can tell you what they should or shouldn’t eat, drink, do etc. So we simply need to add this tiny but monumental aspect and bring awareness to our bodies and counting them in as the number one ‘person’ to go to when things are not feeling right.
“How the body responds to food cannot be ignored no matter what a textbook may say.” We are constantly wanting science or a text book to tell us what we should or should not eat or how to behave. But what our bodies tell us can be ignored if we choose to ignore it, we can numb ourselves so much from feeling that which our bodies are sharing with us. Always a choice, to feel, in any moment, to ignore or be loving with ourselves.
How we feel an hour after food, or in the morning after a big meal – surely these are the best gauge of whether what we are eating is supporting us or not? And as you say, the overwhelming state of the world’s health does not make this an overly complicated puzzle…. so really it’s just about taking responsibility for our choices.
“…and from what I have observed, those who listen to their body are certainly living a far more vital and healthy life than those who do not.” To me this is the best marker we can have and I have noticed this too in other people and myself. I love the ongoing experiments I do with my body and food 🙂
It really does make sense to listen to our bodies when we are looking at what foods to eat what foods not to eat. The food we take in is for the body so listening to it and if it likes it is actually very sensible. It is great that this is being written about as sometimes we don’t see the simple truths just because of everyone doing the opposite and we have to be reminded of the basics of life.
When Australia has…” the worst obesity problem in the world”, and people are getting harassed for promoting healthy eating… There is something obviously very awry with our media… But then… We knew that!
Learning to listen to our bodies is truly an unfolding process, when we are used to ignoring it, numbing it and basically abusing our bodies in a magnitude of ways, we are left with very little connection to what it is actually telling us. Much to consider from what you have shared, thank you.
Diets, food charts, pyramids etc. You name it we have it and you would think we have everything covered. From my experience I could never find a balance in the way I ate. For a period it would be ‘healthy’ but that would always have a period of ‘unhealthy’. Almost like I had a contract to eat a certain way for a period and then I could bust out and eat whatever I wanted. Or if I was training really hard then my reward was to eat whatever I wanted because I was burning it off. As this blog is saying the only way I learnt anything was to feel it for myself. I knew some things weren’t great for me or I just didn’t like how they felt afterwards, or at times during. Alcohol was a big one, I never really actually even liked the taste, I just thought it was something I had to get used to. Then go to the next day, the pain and the feeling nearly makes me sick in the stomach now. I don’t know how I did it but one thing is for sure and not because of cost or anything like that but because of how it feels, I don’t drink alcohol now, I just don’t see the need. There was no AA meetings or quit campaign, just the more and more I took care of myself, the quality I move in and around everything, alcohol just no longer made sense. It’s not that I gave up alcohol but more I lived in a quality that made alcohol redundant, it just no longer fitted.
It really is that simple, if we want to feel great we need to nourish our bodies with foods that are nutritionally beneficial, if we follow our head and eat what ever we like we will always suffer the consequences afterwards. I have learnt the hard way – and it is really worth feeling what to eat rather then following the cravings.
This is so true ‘No one before Serge Benhayon had presented the notion to ‘feel what to eat’. This was a revelation in itself and an empowerment back to me to trust what my body had already been communicating to me.’ Also how important it is to feel what to eat and not go by what others are eating, ultimately it is about having more love for ourselves. My relationship with food has completely changed this is still work in progress but it no longer governs me like it used to.
I might add that there has been some talk in the complementary health and naturopathy circles that a restricted diet can actually be a facade for an eating disorder and some naturopaths apparently are not picking up on this and referring clients on to the appropriate support. The problem with this approach is that it looks only at the foods being consumed or not being consumed but it does not look at the person as a whole – if we look at the person as a whole and gauge their vitality and their ‘fullness’ in addition to the foods they may or may not eat, then this would not be an issue. When a client comes to you for support around their health and they are on a restricted diet, there are various reasons why they might be eating in such a way, such as foods allergies or intolerance, but even then it is important to gauge how they feel as a whole, and not just make it all about the food they are not eating. On the same token though it is of course important to recognise if someone is restricting their food intake because of an eating disorder and a practitioner needs to be able to refer on to the appropriate support such as a counselor or psychologist.
You’re right. It really is a no-brainer to stick to what your body reflects back to you after a plate of food rather than outsource your responsibility for choosing what to nourish yourself with to an external so-called source of expertise. There is no-one more qualified to know what’s right for our body than ourselves. We are inextricably linked to it, we live in it, feel it, know it and, if we truly connect to and honour it, can understand it in ways that a petri dish, test tube, trials and statistics never can.
We are all very aware that our dietary choices definitely impacts not only how we feel but how our body functions in both the short and long term. So it is going to be very interesting to observe in the future what facts about food, true health and diets will come to light as science evolves.
A recent revelation for me is that eating when it is not truly nourishing makes me tired. It begs the question, how much energy would I have then if I didn’t reach for snacks through the day to distract myself from feeling what is really going on.
Listening to the wisdom of my body and feeling the impact of the food I eat, the way I eat it and when I eat it is a constant unfolding as there is so much here to learn. I once thought my approach to food was reasonably healthy (people would tell me so) now I realise the way I eat needs to constantly change depending on what I am doing, the time of day, where I am in my monthly cycle and as I naturally evolve.
‘How dare one empower themselves to feel what is right for them to eat, and feel so much more vital and healthy as a result!’ One of the biggest shocks to me when I changed my diet was that I reduced the size of my supermarket to about 3 isles. The one with the fruit and vegetables, the one with the fresh fish and meat and the one with the cleaning products! I did my best to hunt out ready made soups or meals that would be supportive which did not include diary or gluten and I found almost nothing. We are so attached to the rich creamy comfort of butter and diary products and the heaviness of gluten because we do not want to feel how exhausted we are, so just imagine if the truth was publicised. The food industry would be on its knees and business after business would fail as we would all be going back to cooking our own fresh food from fresh products at our supermarkets.
‘Feel what to eat’. And when to eat! Great and timely reminder for me to read .. thank you. This is still work in progress for me in the feeling what and when!
“How dare one empower themselves to feel what is right for them to eat, and feel so much more vital and healthy as a result!” My partner and I were talking about this the other day- how people are made fun of because they choose to eat healthily. The conversation ended up noting the jealousy of the choices the ‘healthy’ eater is making… as the other person feels not so great and so they are jealous of the person who feels awesome. Knowing that they too can make those choices but are choosing not to – highlighting an area they don’t want to look at and pressing buttons.
I’ve followed many diet fads all in the quest to get healthy or to loose weight. Each time my body was calling out loud and clear that what I was choosing was harming but I chose to ignore it in order to get results. There results did arrive but were often replaced with old habits as I returned to not listening to my bodies advice. We all know what is truly great food because we feel it to the bone. Our bodies feel lighter, we have more energy, we think clearer and we are more open to learning more.
Great point Victoria. Who says it’s bad to choose what most of the population don’t and feel all the better for it? This goes for anything. I chose not to be stressed at work the other day and have fun, and this was causing a lot of frustration in fellow workers, not because I wasn’t doing my job but because I was confident, committed and joy-full. People don’t like it when things are out of the ordinary and their ways of comfort and familiarity are exposed.
Yes! What is really going on when the media attempts to shut down those who encourage healthy eating – they’re consuming too much dairy, gluten, sugar and alcohol I feel.
Well… It is actually just common sense to listen to your body of what to eat and when to eat because the body is the reason why you eat in the first place. We eat because the physical body needs nutrition. Though in current society it has become so much about theories of what is good for you and what not, it has also become about the taste, or the sensation in our mouths.. But have a bit forgotten that it is about the body first.
The true Diet Revolution will be when humanity finally starts to listen to their bodies, not their minds, and to feel, from their bodies but they should eat… Bodies have extraordinary intelligence and the voice of the body can be taken as delightful whisper that one tends to, or a very intense roar that cannot be ignored.
Now that I am listening to my body in terms of what I eat, I cannot believe how many years I have been unknowingly totally overriding my body in order to eat all the things served up to me or that i have been down to because of their sweetness and appearance. If we were shown how to listen to our bodies at a young age and this was valued part of self care we would not have diets or all the unhealthy food options we have today, as our body would be saying “no”!
Many prescribed diets claim to be based on scientific fact, which in some cases is there to re-assure the consumer that what they are effectively buying in to is sound and trust-worthy due to the foundations it stands upon. However, in my experience of actually training in nutritional therapy, is that the science itself is very subjective and can at times be manipulated to suit the paradigm of thinking that any one school or college wishes to teach – thereby justifying their approach to health and diet. So, with this in mind, is it possible that many of the diets available today have come from places that are not striving for each person to discover who they are and what they are in fact wholly capable of, but rather from a constant need to be recognised? So what are we buying in to when we follow a prescribed diet? My feeling is that it is just very important to discern the quality of the energy in the advice and, if it feels imposing in any way, do not allow that advice to cloud your vision or your ability to feel what is true for you. Because you do know, it’s just a matter of being willing to listen.
“No one before Serge Benhayon had presented the notion to ‘feel what to eat’. ” This is so true, I had never heard this before coming along to Universal Medicine, then even when I did hear it, it took a long time for me to really begin to ‘live’ it. There was so much of my daily life where I was not loving within myself, that I had to understand why, feel it and heal, before really feeling into what to eat. Until you do that, you tend to just want to eat to numb, not feel to eat.
The diet industry will start to lose it power when people take self-care into their own hands and let their bodies govern what they eat through feeling instead of reading a diet book.
This is beautiful ‘As I always do, I simply tried things for myself and let my body tell me what felt right for me. And I knew that what felt right for me wasn’t necessarily what felt right for another… so I could only discover this for myself.’ When it comes to food we often choose to listen to what is being advised by experts and other people, and make our understanding of food come from outside of ourselves. I often listen to other people when it comes to food, and it is a way for me to not listen to my body, which is where the true wisdom is. There will always be messages and advice about food, but it is only when we start to really listen to our bodies that we can discover the truth about what foods supports us. Understanding that what supports me may not support another, really opens up the conversation about food that we can have with our bodies- where we simply listen and respond to what the body is sharing with us.
This is exactly why diets don’t work, because they ‘are driven from the head and do not consider how one feels after eating and our relationship with food’ In fact, with the support of Universal Medicine, I can now see why I used and still use rules about what to eat and what not to eat. Following rules and using my head to think what I want and don’t want to eat/ what I should and shouldn’t eat is a way for me to live from my head and not feel the messages that my body is always sending me
When I was reading this… My body is the boss… I felt gosh, what would be like if people really did listen to their bodies, and what would this mean, what would This entail?… One of those things I realize was that what would have to be let go of is control… That seemingly ceaseless quest for mastery over nature and everything that has seemingly driven humanity for aeons… This would have to be one of the first things to go, and this cuts to the core of this issue, because it does reveal how much we hang onto despite being extraordinarily obvious messages that we have continually been given from our bodies.
Diesel just doesn’t belong in a ferrari
For many years I chose to believe that dairy was good for me. After all it was heavily promoted with all kind of promises for strong bones and teeth. Ironically these are two areas of my body that have suffered the most damage from my way of living until becoming a student of Universal Medicine. The body is the ultimate arbiter.
A very inspiring blog to read, about food and the body!
Despite the plethora of diet and self-help books on the market and campaigns for healthy living, my experience is from looking around me that it hasn’t worked. There appears to be more obese people than ever, and getting younger and younger. Clearly all the publicity about what is or isn’t good for us is being ignored because we, as a society, do not want to take responsibility for our diets instead choosing to emotionally eat through our lives. I feel that people DO feel the affects of certain foods on their bodies, they just choose to disregard these feelings and hence, suffer the consequences. The students of Universal Medicine are bucking the trend, so maybe this is the answer to true health, vitality and remaining at a true weight for our body, to cut out the foods that don’t make us feel good, to feel into what you are eating and start to take responsibility for our bodies and jump off the bandwagon of what everyone else thinks is good for us.
Such an amazing blog – so strong, powerful & true – love the way you expressed it so clearly.
“However, when you look at the students of Universal Medicine who have made lifestyle changes that include their diet, they are going against global trends and looking/feeling very vital indeed. How can this be?” Many times Universal Medicine has been accused of dictating what we should and should not eat – this is totally untrue, what it has always encouraged is for us to feel the impacts of what we eat on our bodies. If you ponder on it, diets can never be right for everyone, we all have different digestive systems and metabolic rates, the vitality that you witness through the Uni Med students is because they do not follow a set diet but are empowered to engage with the buried intelligence of the body and choose what they feel to eat.
Listening to the ” buried intelligence of the body” as you say Lucinda is the key to our individual essence, whether it is in food choices or the path we walk in life… It is already there for us if we choose to connect to this buried intelligence, our inner wisdom.
Its only since being involved with Universal Medicine that I have learnt to feel what is good for my body. Since giving up gluten, dairy and sugar I am far more active, feel so much better and am twenty kilos lighter.
In parenting I found that there was a lot of instructions from books on the best way to feed your child, with many different perspectives and the right thing to do given by each. But never did any of these books offer the suggestion that each child would benefit from confirming their relationship with their body through the foods that they eat, and that each child does in fact know exactly what their body wants, and that it could be our job as a parent to support them to express this, not to override it with what a book is telling us. Could this be a part of why the food industry is so massive now? Because many of us now are adults who as children were taught to override our body’s messages, and are forever now looking to either distract or numb ourselves away from this essentially uncomfortable feeling and deep sadness?
I have never looked back since giving up gluten and dairy, mainly because my IBS cleared up pretty quickly and I was able to get on with my life, without worrying where the closest toilet was or do I have enough change for the public bathrooms. As I started to feel healthier it was easier to drop all the dieting and even though I didn’t loose weight straight away, it was ok because I felt so much more livelier in myself along with an increase in my energy levels.
Totally agree Julie Matson, i suffered from IBS for many years and often felt like my life was dictated by my bowel movements. Removing gluten and dairy from my diet and refining what i eat by how my body reacts is the way forward, I no longer suffer form IBS and have more awareness not only of my physiology but also my emotional state. Recently i have discovered that when i eat too much salt i become very irritated!
Our body feels and registers everything about food – not just its nutritive value, but everything about it, including the way it interacts with our physiology. No book, no matter how authoritative can give that knowledge to us. We must discover it for ourselves, and it is so simple to do. Your point about feeling the body one hour later is an excellent one. By then, what we have eaten is really getting into us on a physical level, far more tangible than the subtle and immediate energetic impact that takes time to discern (work in progress for me). I can recall how I used to ‘love’ garlic pizza. I used to joke that it was my version of Heaven – a pretty poor joke to my body that was bloated and in pain from one to six hours later, struggling to digest the lump of concrete in my belly. I would sleep poorly and suffer reflux. Hm, Heaven or some level of Dante’s Hell?
At first I had a little skitz over giving up gluten (the garlic pizza version of it anyway). Within 6 months there was looking back, and no temptation to return. My body, clear of the assault, said no more and I listened.
So true and made me laugh”…gluten makes me tired and just about falling off my chair…” I can remember eating pasta or a sandwich and sitting on the sofa, and gradually feeling like I was slipping down into a lying position, I used to feel so tired. I also remember thinking that this was normal, as it was what I had grownup with…I know for sure, for me, that gluten does not support my body and this has been discovered by cutting it out for some years now, gone are the slumps on the sofa…it is all the proof I need!
I agree Caroline. There is no ‘one diet fits all’. I have never been a fan of dieting and always knew if I wanted to lose weight that there was so much more to it than simply cutting out certain foods. If you can’t eat something because youve been told not to this is just going to build resentment and frustration, and that won’t help how you feel about yourself. By actually paying attention to how our bodies feel after we have eaten something is the most sure fire way of finding out what foods our bodies like and don’t like. And this way it will eventually find it’s own natural balance and optimum body weight.
When we heed the heart and eat accordingly with the body, rules go out the window, but responsibility deepens.
I agree, Adele. It is truly about self responsibility and choices we make and it is amazing that we let ourselves get brainwashed by all the food fads out there. I can’t believe that I fell for those fads as well when I had less awareness than I have now. My body tells me very clearly now what is okay and what is not.
There is a lot of openness, acceptance, appreciation and confirmation to ourselves when we eat with the body and the heart as boss. This is a process of acceptance and surrender towards our own Kingly-ness.
Eating with the body as boss is an altogether new experience for me and one I must say is absolutely inspiring. Eating this way first and foremost I have found, if we truly trust in the body as boss, can never be hard, in fact, there is a simplicity that is refreshing. Diets or rules on eating are quite often complicated, and there is an extra force that needs to be applied to make it happen consistently.
Seems to be the running trend of the media and on the increase to try and discredit those that see and feel what a mess most people are in with there health, goes to show how corrupt it all is and what some are willing to say and do to another to keep there own piece of the comfort pie!!
When people start truly listening to their bodies and living the truth they feel, there will be little to need for the diet industry to tell people what to do or eat as each person will naturally know what is true for them. So it makes sense that there are those that will discount the ability for the body to communicate to us what it needs, as those invested in this not being the case have much to lose when we all stand up and take responsibility for ourselves.
I agree Samantha, I also feel that those who have not questioned what they eat or who do not listen to their bodies about food, the choices of those who do are confronting and exposing for them; so unfortunately some will refute what is in front of them rather than be open to the obvious benefits.
Our body is our own and is under the influence of our choices for it, all of the time. Therefore we are our own authority with our bodies and what it needs and if we abuse and trash that, we are not appreciating all the unseen things it does for us 24/7, without question or judgement of the things we throw at it, it is constantly working towards homeostasis. A huge reflection right there on total and absolute commitment to a one consistent course back to its true rhythm.
Is it a wonder that obesity is on the rise! Having watched in the past many a TV chef promoting their gastronomic dishes lashed with chocolate, coffee, cream, alcohol soaked and infused food, breads to tantalise and cheese laced dishes – these programmes never come with a health warning. Yet a hard time is given to those who are choosing to eat or present that there is another way for us to look at our food choices (listening to our bodies) that is so much more beneficial to a healthier way of living. Mmm! food for thought!
So true Natasha, ‘How are we to reach true health when we are discouraged to feel what our bodies truly need and want as apposed to being told what is right and wrong’, it makes me realise how crazy it is that we are discouraged from feeling in our bodies what foods work and which one’s don’t for us, there are so many different diet books and plans that we can’t follow them all ( i did try and ended up very ill) and so the only way really is to follow our own way – what works for us.
It has been a great learning for me too. And although I had cut out quite a lot of food already before I came across Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, the teachings now have supported me in really checking in with my body and fine tuning more and more my awareness what my body wants and what not as I continue to evolve on my journey back to me.
This week I have deepened my commitment to listening to my body and eating in response to its needs. It has made an enormous difference in this short time. I feel clearer, lighter, steadier throughout the day, with no slump mid afternoon. And not a diet book in sight!
Yes that was one thing I have really noticed too – the more I listen and follow my body, the more energised I am, and I stay that way. The midday ‘must have a nap’ scenario is so a thing of the past for me – instead a beautiful walk or some other way of moving my body.
What would happen to brewery companies, chocolate companies, soft drink companies and fast food chains to name but a few, if people actually chose food that makes them feel good? They would all need to find a new product line! One that supported people in the foods that support their bodies on the path of health.
What I love about Universal Medicine is they never told me what to eat! There is no prescriptive diet, no complicated measuring. Instead a philosophy, feel what to eat, and follow your own personal impulses. It can be seen in the faces of many that attend Universal Medicine workshops that this philosophy is indeed one that promotes true health.
Gosh the opening paragraph of this blog makes an excellent point! Obesity is on the rise in many countries, but the media feels the need to attack those who choose to eat in a way that supports their body. What is with that?
“Feel what to eat” was one of the revelations for me when I first met Universal Medicine. It made so much sense and has provided my body with vitality, healed some ailments and given me an overall sense of well being. Gone are the days of following dietary guidelines, fads and nutritional pyramids. My body is the final arbiter.
Listening to the body in order to really feel which foods support me at any given time and which do not makes complete sense. Choosing to live and eat according to how a food makes you feel as you have said ‘ I valued feeling great every day’ its like well why would you not choose this? Thanks for the inspiration.
If diets truly worked there would not be all the different options and arguments as which is the best. In many ways it seems obvious that the truth of what is best lies with the body as it is the receiver, consumer, of what we put into it and accordingly how it responds tells us what is beneficial for it or not.
I have used food my entire life to dull my body, numb my feelings and comfort myself. I would think that I ‘felt like that muffin or chips’, but this message wasn’t actually coming from my body, it was coming from my head that didn’t want to feel what was going on in my body, which was often anxiety or a general feeling of discomfort, which I didn’t want to deal with. A big creamy bowl of carbonara or a slab of cheese thick with butter and bread would leave me feeling dulled, heavy and take my attention away from how I was really feeling. My relationship with food totally changed when I saw how I was using it and felt how it could be truly used – to nourish myself and confirm my connection with my body rather than compromise it and take it away. This is a glorious unfolding as I feel more vital and more connected to myself and my body day to day. As my connection becomes more solid, my awareness and sensitivity has grown and I feel more alive than ever. Now I don’t want to dull myself as I have felt such joy, vitality and stillness in my body – and when emotions come up I want to observe and feel them so that I can heal the underlying hurt and let them go… dulling them doesn’t take them away it just puts a lid on top and I want freedom in myself, not containment.
What a great explanation Sarah about how we use food to numb our emotions… The messages we get telling us what we feel to eat offer insight into or truth as to what really is going on with us, what we are avoiding to feel at that moment. And it is often awareness that we are running away from… awareness of ourselves and awareness of whats going on around us.
I feel the same Susan, I feel so empowered listening to my body rather than following a diet that someone else has come up with, it is so much more enjoyable experiencing foods for myself and feeling what works and doesn’t work for me. I always found it hard, time consuming and not at all enjoyable following rules on a certain diet and ?I could never keep it up, now that I feel what is right for me it is an ever evolving process.
I cannot express enough appreciation for Universal Medicine and all that has been presented, that when I try it for myself, my body responds with resounding joy for the fact that I am re-building my awareness of what the body constantly communicates. On the topic of food and diet, the way my body asks me to nourish it now makes so much more sense than the way I used to eat and live.
I like that Gill the “As the feeling from the body grows, so does my understanding to look after myself.” its a beautiful natural progression. One with no force and not a straight path but an unfolding back to much deeper love and care for yourself.
The corruption with our food is wide in its scope. Profit before people is the adage that we are currently living through and it has its consequences even for those who are making all the money. We will wake up and part of that is to listen to your body and not what people tell you to believe rather listen intently to what your body is telling you about food and drink and actions. It is the marker of all truth as Serge Benhayon has been sharing.
There was a number of things that stood out for me when reading this blog. The ‘feel what you eat’ is one, this is a notion that currently is foreign, we mostly just eat with our eyes. In fact the notion is championed. Another is that diets don’t work, that following a diet comes from your head. This is so true, how many times do we make it about calorie counting, fats, sugars and the like. But the notion of listening to our body is so simple, actually it’s not just the listening to our body that is key, it’s the having awareness and being able to hear what our bodies are telling us.
“Surely it makes sense for every individual to stylise their diet based on their individual needs”, that certainly makes sense to me, and THAT’s what the food industry does not like as this would take away their power, because we would be voting with our feet (or should I say bodies) and not buying into the newest ‘super food’ or ‘faddy diet’ but instead buying what is true for our own health, based on our own experience. And that would leave less pennies for them. We all know that by cutting out many processed foods, gluten, dairy, refined sugars, alcohol and caffeine it doesn’t leave much left to buy in the supermarket does it!
I followed many diets in my life but never did it bring me anything more than a temporary feeling of being more clear and healthy. I had to learn to feel what to eat, at first I had no idea and started to follow others but the more I listened to what my body was telling me by signals of bloating, foggy in my head, headache, pain in my stomach etc. the more I started to get the idea of what to eat. I am my own experiment and it differs every day and my body and I are a great team together!
When it gets to food, we have government’s advise, people’s advise, industry’s advise, expert’s advise. What we get as advise may be different depending on who of them you pay attention to. And there is Serge Benhayon, who does not give you any advise but encourages you to feel what you eat. In the first case, it is a voice from the outside coming at you and telling what is right or wrong for you. In the second case, is your body talking to you. It may sound small potatoes, but it is not at all. It is a paradigmatic shift.
Indeed Eduardo, its almost so simple, so close that we cannot see it for ourselves, for Serge Benhayon has re-empowered us, given us permission to be BOSS and as Gill says “As the feeling from the body grows, so does my understanding to look after myself.”
When it comes to diets and deciding what to eat, nowhere, apart from Universal Medicine, are people encouraged to “feel what to eat’, and to ‘listen to their bodies’. This is the only true way however, of determining what to eat as our bodies are all different and react differently to food.
Listening to your body is a huge statement, and yet a very simple one. We have been so convinced that experts need to tell us what to eat, how to exercise and so on. The truth is we innately know and as soon as we give ourselves permission to feel, we are able to truly know what our body wants and does not want.
This quote ” We are living in a world where ‘everything is energy’ first and foremost. How the body responds to food cannot be ignored no matter what a textbook may say. ” Unfortunately the text books don’t relate to the messages our body is sending, its up to us to listen and feel the teachings from within .
It doesn’t make sense to me why we want to follow a diet and eat in the same way as someone else as in other areas of life we have differences eg. we all dress differently, have different jobs, styles of homes etc. So when it comes to our bodies it is the same – we have differences so obviously different foods will suit different people at different times. I have found the key is to be open to what others have to share but ultimately it is my body that shows me what suits it best. And this can vary from day to day so it means always being willing to feel and listen and act upon the request.
Very well said Julie, we do change day to day and it is important to listen to these changes. We get taught to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, yet sometimes we don’t feel like all of these meals, but because it has become a normal part of life, we can be considered abnormal if we don’t eat all three, versus intelligence for listening to what our body needs. We currently have a very warped perception of what true intelligence is.
A great point Fiona, it is also how I am eating the food, this makes a big difference.
“When Serge Benhayon introduced me to the concept that we need to ‘feel what to eat’ I was a bit perplexed, mainly as I had many decades of eating a certain way behind me and I thought I had all the answers, but it was the fact that my body had been speaking very loudly in the form of illness and exhaustion that I made the choice to listen. I am so delighted that I opened my mind to the possibility that I had been fooling myself all these years thinking that I knew what I should eat, and in the process let go of the huge and damaging arrogance that I knew better than my body. Nowadays my mind doesn’t get a look in when it comes to what I am to eat as I know that this wise and very patient body has got all the true and healing answers I will ever need.
Very true, Raymond. It is a mentality of ‘hands off my food’ as it is ‘hands off my alcohol’ or don’t expose any other behaviour that may not be truly supportive because we then have to deal with our issues and our hurts that we cling onto.
The media are relentless in their pursuit of the paleo diet and I have vague memories of the same type of pursuit with the Atkins and Pritikin diets. I don’t like the sledging of Pete Evans, I am not a follower of any diet so the questioning and challenging on one level is a good thing but the agenda seems completely off. It feels a bit like a blood sport to take an individual down rather than promoting a discussion about health. Let’s face it the food pyramid supported by the government isn’t working either. But in all of this the fundamental flaw is that we are responsible for what we put in our mouths and bodies and there is still a very strong pull by humanity to want to be told what they should do rather than listening to their own bodies and taking responsibility.
Great points Nicole, it is true there is ample evidence to show the Pyramid diet is not supportive to a healthy diet. Yet how confusing it all can get, this study saying this and that person that. Truth is the only real diet to follow and should be directed to your body. It will tell you if you are prepared to listen. But if food is your comfort/drug than no amount of anything will confuse you that it is bad for you. We are very selective in what we hear when we don’t want to hear.
Exactly Gayle. I share along the same lines – I have far more energy, feel so much lighter and clear in my body, and enthused about my day from making such choices. And that they didn’t happen overnight, but most surely the exploration, and feeling my way with it was so deeply empowering.
Wouldn’t have it any other way today, and there is definitely no ‘fixed point’ either, as I find dietary choices (and so much more in life) continually refines – if I stay with the way now well established, and simply listen to my body and the signals it’s giving me.
Yes, our bodies are the our truest guide. I have found many times in the past when a superfood craze has come about, or just a particular food recommended to me for it health benefits appeals, and I eat it only to find it leaves me feeling bloated, or gasey, or heavy or racy etc etc. Case in point for me was the recent coconut water craze. I wanted to drink it because it was sweeter then water (if i’m being honest) and tasted good, and the experts talked about how great it was and hydrating, but it always left me bloated, no matter how good it was supposed to be for me.
This has been my experience “No one before Serge Benhayon had presented the notion to ‘feel what to eat’.” what a revelation, what an awesome freeing and common sense approach to food. If you eat it, feel what it does to your body. I Love it and it has been so beneficial for me to learn to do this in my life, and there is still so much to learn.
Samantha, that has also been a revelation for me, to learn the teachings of Serge Benhayon ” that everything is energy and everything is because of energy ” even the foods we eat has changed so much including my food choices. The result is we do know what and when to eat, and I know a child I had the same awareness as Julie highlighted.
Beautiful said Kathleen – to make food choices that allow us to continue feeling great.
Absolute Raegen, to substitute the smoking with sweets is not making any difference – when the root issue is not addressed it is only a different way of numbing the hurts that are not looked at to heal.
I totally agree with you Jane. This is the real diet revolution – supporting everyone in the world to get to know, feel and be aware of their own body, and to get to feel what certain foods do to the body. No books and no diet and knowledge about food can give this true answer of – what does my body really need to stay vital and full of joy? The journey begins here and is forever growing to a deeper understanding about myself and true health in the body,
The feeling of wanting to snooze after eating is such a great indicator that something in what or how we’ve eaten needs adjusting. The trap that many fall into, and I used to, is to go and get a coffee or sugary drink/snack when the tiredness comes on to pick themselves up. It’s like taking a pill for an ache without looking at why the ache is there in the first place. If I feel sleepy after eating these days, I’m just very honest with myself about it and get to whether it was too much, I wasn’t really hungry or the food was too heavy. That in itself helps me to not feel so sleepy, and to change the next time.
Exactly Jenny. We absolutely need health professionals, there is no doubt about that but there is so much we can do for ourselves just by being willing to stop and listen to what our body is telling us. I sometimes feel that there is so much that is obvious – for example, the rise in the consumption of sugar and processed food and the rise in type 2 diabetes and obesity. It’s not a coincidence. And people can help themselves by being honest to the fact that these two are intrinsically linked.
My body confirmed loud and clear that it was boss this week. I ate something that I don’t usually eat (a comfort food to numb something I didn’t want to feel). The following day…and a few more after that, my stomach felt like a boxing match had gone on in there, I felt tired and a bit like I remember hangovers from alcohol to be. I don’t need a book or a test to tell me that that food isn’t right, I now know 100% that it no longer is part of a way of eating that nourishes me.
Having experienced many years of dieting and listening to other people, I can vouch for the fact that diets don’t work – following someone else’s guidelines for what is good for us is the first clue to why this is so. For years I would eat salad peppers with my lunches in the belief that they are healthy for me, but actually every time I cut one up I would feel nauseous but eat it anyway. So what I am saying is that everyone would have their own dietary needs according to their body, what suits one person does not automatically mean it will suit another.
I totally agree with you when you say: “one does begin to question what is at play when the media challenges the promotion of healthy eating and self-care”, I have wondered many times, who is running the show of the media? Who or what interest is behind them, is it just economic interest, or is it even worse? Is there some kind of force that thrives with humanity staying stuck in illness, disease, misery? And why do people individually react so much when one choses to listen to one´s body, as you say in this great blog: “How dare one empower themselves to feel what is right for them to eat, and feel so much more vital and healthy as a result!” Is it just the fury of them not making healthy, respectful, self loving choices?
Julia it’s ironic that we have such a commotion over one thing Pete Evans did… The rest was educating people into the alternative way of feeling the difference in their bodies, you think that would be seen as a good thing but alas it stepped on someone’s toes, who obviously have investments in this being quashed.
I appreciate the honesty when you decided to be vegetarian, and you admit that you never asked your body how it felt about that decision that was taken totally from your mind. I did the same thing, I decided to be vegetarian completely from an ideal that it was less aggressive, more loving, not really feeling it, but from a belief, driven from thoughts.
I can also relate to the cement pouring into your stomach, when I had some pastries after been gluten free for a while. Then I felt the effect, so heavy, exactly like a stone in my stomach.
I also agree that Serge Benhayon has never told me to not eat gluten or dairy or caffeine or alcohol. Yet, I have given them up. I wish I was as non imposing as he is, cause when I preach I do feel I am imposing and put people off sometimes.
We can spend our whole life looking for the ideal diet to loose weight, but how often do we listen to the body and the simple signals it gives us of what foods feel great and no so great. The body brings us the menu for the diet that brings true vitality.
I spent years reading diet books. Not one of them worked. The only guide I needed was myself, and thanks to Universal Medicine, I can now say I choose what I eat from a place of deep self-care and self-love. It is a whole different way of eating.
Yeah I love that too – awesome statement!
Food is a massive industry and one that is protected strongly by those with vested interests, the marketing message we get about food is always lathered with this self interest right down to every piece of research we see no matter how valid it may look. Without being paranoid it is much easier to trust ourselves and learn to build a relationship with how our body responds to the food we eat, simple and very effective over time as we can all learn to become masters of our own wellbeing through food truly being medicine.
It’s no rocket science is it Stephen… We can actually treat food as medicine – and true medicine that supports and nourishes us and our bodies to be all that we are.
The vested interests of which you speak are clearly enormous here, as is our own investments in not having our boats rocked – our ways of mistreating ourselves exposed, plain and simple – by such simple choices as Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine present, over and over. That indeed we DO KNOW what supports us and what doesn’t – and how immensely we’ve behaved in ways that favour the latter, but don’t want to go there for fear of what it may bring up for us. i.e. please let me eat my cake – even though it’s hurting me…
One of the plethora of things I have learnt through Universal Medicine is to feel, feel, feel. What am I feeling before I open the fridge, am I actually hungry or reacting to something? After I eat am I still feeling light and lovely or am I heavier and more dull? and so on. It’s not a diet, but a way of understanding our body and it’s relationship to food and our food choices.
Great sharing Libby, it is not a diet but like you say, it is about you and your relationship with food. But not only with food, as it all starts with the relationship you have with yourself. Food and what and how you eat, is a reflection of that relationship.
Yes an absolutely true and simple answer which states what everyone else actually would like in life debases and dissolves all sceptical opinions coming at one … thank you for this reminder of simplicity and everyday language. I’ll be travelling next month and this response to queries will remind me to just say it how it is for me, no need to justify, rationalise or for lengthy explanations!
” … one does begin to question what is at play when the media challenges the promotion of healthy eating and self-care, … ”
It seems to me that generally the media lost its way long ago and left its neutral position of simply reporting and presenting situations and facts, to that of controlling what its readers understand, believe and think, and with sensationalism, to also arouse emotion. Why would healthy eating and self-care be unreportable as it is? Why create controversy by manufacturing distrust and attacking a ‘celebrity’ personally? …
Simply to make it ‘news’ so that people will buy newspapers and digital media to read about the newly created controversy. Not a healthy state of being nor care by the media, perhaps it/they could learn much from the healthy eating and self-care approach!
I had lunch with some friends on Sunday and the subject of diet came up again. Why do I not eat gluten, dairy….? I have explained many times that my body feels so much better for it but since they do not appear to suffer from what they eat it is hard for them to conceive of a better way. My friends mentioned the paleo diet and that Pete Evans would be on the television that night. They were all going to watch the segment and I did too.
I loved the fact that Pete Evans said that, unless we took a stand and spoke up about the truth nothing will ever change. He is a brave man bringing such awareness to the masses and his stance will make ripples.
Hi Patricia, it seems to me that you are also making ripples because just by listening to your body there is a response by those around you to ask questions. This is tremendous, simple and very sweet when the power that you bring is fully appreciated.
What I have noticed, too is that the change of diets has to come from our body and the willingness to deeply care and nurture for ourselves. In my eyes this is the most import part when changing our way of eating. I compare it with the same as quitting smoking, there is a reason behind every need of smoking, eating gluten, sugar, dairy. If we are honest and allowing ourselves to feel this need and what it stands for, what the reason is behind the need. For example; I used to smoke because I did not want to feel my loneliness and the fact that I was not satisfied with my life, but I did not change anything and I did not listen to my feelings, smoking kept me in the illusion, and I could numb the hurt for the minute of smoking. But the reason for the hurt wasn’t gone, so I found comfort as well with cake and cookies, crunchy chips and bars, pasta, pizza, sweets… With self-care and the awareness for my body I could move out of the self-made prison.
It is that, a choice Shirl. Just as us being honest about our lifestyle is a choice and us choosing to stay with what we feel is true and supportive for our bodies is also a choice.
I feel often that the choice to eat these more heavy foods, stimulating foods, dulling foods etc along with the so called ‘heathy eating beliefs’ that have been bantered around for years, are also driven by previous choices that have taken us out of ourselves in our day to day eg rushing instead of taking our time or driving our bodies from a task and outcome approach.
It is truly about us beginning the journey of developing our relationship with ourself , learning to care and support our bodies and developing a relationship with food that works for each of us- which I am sure if we continue to feel and listen, will always adjust.
I agree she is very inspiring and I love the way she has expressed in this one very important topic for society.
You are very true when sharing about the reaction and how it makes sense when we look at the fact that we do use food to manipulate and control how we are feeling what we are feeling- in most cases avoiding feeling.
A relationship with ourselves and food feels very supportive and loving, speaking from experience.
I have found over the last few years that my body really does know what supports or does not support me when I eat something. There are certain things that I would never have thought I would not want to eat in the past, but when the body says no to a certain food, you just don’t want to eat that food anymore, so you just have to follow that.
Listening to the body allows us to feel what is truly needed for it to be nourished and nurtured. As soon as we go into what we think our body needs we allow right and wrong to enter the equation and then it becomes a haggle of knowledge, concepts and theories rather than a simple truth of what is truly needed in that moment
So true and great to the point, Joseph, “When you consider the possibility that we actually use and manipulate food to control our feelings this reaction starts to makes a lot of sense.” and in a consequence the control goes further to everyone and everything, that is questioning it in changing the own way of eating manners to get more responsible.
The difference for the body to be nourished or to be fed is like day and night. As we in our society accept ourselves to feed the body with food that is more to satisfy, delight and distract – in a common accepted, yet shared and advertised way, we also accept the media to feed us with lies about food, hand in hand with a food industry that promotes food to hold people in a special way just to come back to the same food and drinks again and again. Certainly again hand in hand with a beauty industry that is living from the pressure of a body shape and how to look and never promoting true beauty from within. So this has to be turned up-side-down. To feel what is truly supportive for the body is the best way to cut this circle for oneself and become independent and self-responsible and automatically an inspiration for others.
I agree Stefanie König, there is a lot of corruption going on in the food industry. Listening to our bodies is the way to not be fooled and/or controlled by an industry that is more concerned with money and power than the health of people.
This is an awesome response Gayle, absolute GOLD! No messing around with the choices that support our body to feel vibrant and well.
Absolutely Leonne, this is such a powerful example that contradicts the idea that there is a perfect “healthy” way of eating which is so obviously not the case due to the fact that everyone’s body’s react differently to different foods and are at different stages in development, this is shown so obviously to us when some people can be allergic to a particular food, but for others it could be truly nourishing
I watched a video today about gluten and what it does to every humans body and how often it is not what you feel after eating that is going to show you what is really going on. Gluten affects all parts of the body and will go to your weakness so it may be the brain and you will have no feeling that this is occurring until you end up with degenerative disease. I found this fascinating as even though I never felt bloated after eating Gluten I definitely felt better for not eating it so this made sense of why I didn’t have classic gluten sensitivities.
I feell Pete Evans is onto something here… He has stirred up the people with vested interests in supplying the very food Pete is discouraging , the well being of the public is not there motivation … money is.
I agree Merrilee, it is a sad but true how in our society we have got to this point where we put financial gain first instead of people’s health and wellbeing, there is so much misrepresentation of food guidelines and not enough true education for people to listen to and honour their own bodies.
I’ve been reading a few blogs and forums recently on diet and nutrition and what I observed is how forcefully many so called experts put across their subscribed point of view about what is right for the body. This is all based on scientific knowledge and often relies on scaremongering describing how essential it is for us to eat dairy and gluten and quoting text and research. Yet to me this feels like it misses the largest and most important element of our dietary needs, how our bodies actually feel. Why would I choose to override the messages that are ingrained in society when my body screams that this is not right for me.
Exactly Stephen. Most science and research is all done to prove a point that already exists and not to confirm a truth our body knows. If science and research was all done this way it would be far more beneficial and there would be much “force” as you have accurately put it into trying to get people to believe what is said, all because we have a disempowered relationship with our body anyway and want to rely on science to tell us that we are okay and don’t need to change.
This is very true, and having just recently studied a subject in nutrition and healthy eating in a midwifery course, it is very difficult to fit the way I choose to eat which is supportive in every way into the guidelines for healthy eating and the food pyramid. As students we had to role play a health assessment that involved measuring BMI and checking how many meals a day etc we eat. My BMI was the same as it was in high school and it has always been the same. My height and weight measurements mean that I fall into an underweight category. In summing up the questions, my responses meant that I fell into a category of needing to be recommended to a dietician for further support with healthy eating when I know I couldn’t be eating more healthy, with no coffee, alcohol, sugar, gluten, dairy and other refinements as well.
I agree Stephen, the style of reporting you are referring to does indeed miss the largest and most important element of our dietary needs – how our body feels! What is on offer from diet ‘experts’ and the constant research reports in the media is always changing, they are completely inconsistent in what they offer up as ‘truth’ for us to remain healthy. All of them miss the mark and that is – what is right for each individual. We cannot all be pocketed into the same box as to what will work for us food wise, and what won’t, but the thing we can be absolutely sure of is that our body will tell us clearly what it needs if we are prepared to listen.
Leaving aside the ideology around the Paleo diet, I was astonished to visit a franchise and be told there was no dairy yet they were using clarified butter (Ghee) in some foods. When I questioned it the answer was yeah but only in some foods and Ghee is good for you. If this can occur then what else can? important one to watch when concepts of nutrition come from an ideology. Without choosing those foods, I still had a stomach ache and felt quite tense after the meal and have not been back since. It is great to let your body choose!
I used to choose diets for a quick fix, for a special occasion, an easy way to lose a few pounds, although the weight never stayed off for long. Looking back I never took responsibility for what I was eating or how it affected me. Through the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I have found that getting to know my body has helped develop a greater understanding of foods, my body functions better without gluten and dairy, and what feels right today, may not tomorrow, I am now taking responsibility for my own body, and what feels right for me to eat.
So many great points made here. Most peoples diet today is so numbing and debilitating for the body that it is even hard for them to feel that most of the food consumed is poison for the body. But people who have the openess to listen and try are very much honoured by the body’s messages. The journalist, Mike, who interviewed Pete Evans, was open to go on a 10 weeks trial has the honesty to at least say that there is definitely a difference and that the food he is consuming is making him sick, but that at the end of the day it is a choice and he does not know if he is willing to take this choice. That shows that he assumes responsibility and this is what is needed in the world.
So true Rachel – the majority of people (including myself at times) are using food in a way that is so harmful to the body yet they are too numb or raced up to feel this to be the causes of their illnesses, aches or pains. Thank God for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for the crystal clear teaching in listening to your body and giving it what it needs to survive rather than dull or attempt to silence its wisdom with food.
Great comment Leonne, your peanut example here is perfect and we could say this of every food. Even the most nutritious super food, full of minerals and other nutrients can be toxic to some bodies. This is a great example in support of listening to and eating from our own body.
Awesome comment Jane, its makes so much sense, that how to eat and what to eat would naturally come from our body – and not from something or someone outside telling us this. A Stupendous instrument indeed.
Puts consumerism in new light – perhaps the word ‘consumer’ is more apt then we realise for are we not consumed by a false that does not allow us to see – an in-pouring in of all that we will swallow whole, gulp down and gobble up when we negate our bodies wisdom and deep knowing.
The idea that my body can guide me along the way in choosing what to eat seemed impossible at first, but as I chose, and observed how I reacted it all began to change. My levels of energy that were in the past gone by 2pm now last well into the day with no “afternoon drop”. This literally is a miracle to me.
Exactly Raegan, the Paleo diet is no different to any other diet in that people still give their power and responsibility away to a set way of eating. It does not support a person to feel what to eat there fore is just another diet. In fact it is more dangerous in a way as it says all the right stuff, no dairy, sugar, gluten, etc. so many will get fooled by this not realizing that in truth, it will not support their health and well-being.
I was on diets on and off since teenage years that is when I wasn’t starving myself or indulging in bulimia. I may have lost weight for a while but I always put it back on. The diets never supported me to feel good about my body nor myself in general. Since coming to Universal Medicine and being presented with the option to listen to my body as it knows what I need to eat has totally changed my relationship with food , my body and myself. So simple yet so profound. The whole world needs to “Feel what to eat not eat what you feel” SB
I can relate Mary Louise- not to the exact way you used food but similar for me it was this try diets, stay focused, exercise then it would all fall apart and I would start again.
Diets don’t work. It is absolutely about the relationship with ourselves, knowing our bodies and listening to them then developing a relationship with food. This is a true way that I have found super supportive and empowering.
I agree Annie. And honesty is one of the key ingredients in the recipe for true vitality.
What book could give truer or clearer advice on what to eat (specifically for you) than your body??
It’s interesting that a diet such as the Paleo diet should get such negative press. It is after all just another diet. There have been plenty presented to the world over the years. The real news however is the fact that we can eat in a way that does not follow any diet, but that we can simply feel for ourselves how food affects us and follow the signals our bodies give us. This means we do not effectively give our power away by following something, but empower ourselves by eating in a way that helps us feel vital naturally.
I agree Rebecca, to follow this advice. “… We can simply feel for ourselves how food affects us and follow the signals our bodies give us.” is incredibly empowering. I feel the reason it is not promoted as much is because there is no money to be made from it, as no book, dietician, doctor, drug, etc. is needed to follow it. That is the amazing integrity of Universal Medicine and why they promote this way of life, their focus is not on making money, they are interested in people and to truly support people in their health and well-being.
Doing a hatchet job and running a defamation campaign against healthy eating do smack of possible collusion with vested interests that want to hang on to the status quo and have people consume what they dish up, edible or not. And most of our manufactured food items do not look to me as though they are actually edible, but more like addictive concoctions that make sure the consumer comes back for more, from cigarettes to sugar-laden breakfast cereals.
‘To ignore the messages of the body in favour of the many dishes of knowledge we are served by the food and diet industries is allowing the corruption to continue.’ This point is something we can all understand if we simply stop for a moment to feel the effect of anything we ingest and find out if it agrees with the body or not, simple. I know for myself how listening to the body is the best guide to what I eat or not. All of the health foods, supplements, super foods, etc. that I believed were necessary in the past, were eaten out of the guidance of my mind, which all to easily overrides my body, now, my body is listened to and the decision is clear.
It is hugely empowering to truly feel the nourishment and nurturing aspect truly living from what the body is asking for can bring and no diet or amount of knowledge of any recipes can ever surpass this. Our bodies have more wisdom than we often realise!
So true Jane, and there is such a difference between “feel what to eat” and “eat what I feel like”! “Eat what I feel like” can come with so many old patterns of eating from babyhood and can be very misleading, taking no notice of the messages from the body.
Absolutely Bernadette. Food has become the trusted friend, the companion, the baby blanket and the soother on a cold night. Food to reward, food to hide, food to protect, food to dull, to numb, to distract, to stimulate, to anaesthetize – pretty much any need you can possibly muster – food will temporarily fill the void.
It strikes me that we have developed a very unhealthy relationship with food and its all about bringing something to us and giving our power away rather than developing a healthy relationship with food and utilising its value to build a body that can express the love we are in full.
My grandmother used to tell us growing up to ‘feel what to eat, don’t eat what you feel’ – this ancient wisdom is known and has never left. It appears to be us in society that turn a blind eye to such living truths and stop listening at some point. Thank god for Serge Benhayon who not only presented this wisdom but embodies its living truth.
Feeling what to eat has opened so many doors for me. It feels amazing to feel what your body is craving and what your body is truly calling for. I can be adverse to soups at time but today I made a light soup because that is what I felt would support me best throughout the day..and it did. I totally nailed it and had all the energy to do what I needed to in the day, plus the soup was delicious.
Thanks Abby for this beautiful example, out of your life. It feels so easy and inviting – now I want to make myself a soup!
To ask the body what he wants to eat to be supported is a great way to communicate with the inner health doctor.
I feel this article is really well written with very goods points made. I particularly agree with:
‘Now I am not one for diets and I do not follow a ‘Paleo’ diet like Pete Evans advocates because quite frankly ‘diets’ are driven from the head and do not consider how one feels after eating and our relationship with food – such important aspects to look at if one is aspiring to healthy eating.’
Anything that we do just because it is a rule does not make sense, as it does not consider us and our ever changing bodies.
Listening to our bodies will provide any support and answer we may need – no rules needed anymore, but the will and commitment to honestly observe ourselves and take responsibility for everything that we do.
One of your sentences “one does begin to question what is at play when the media challenges the promotion of healthy eating and self-care”, being true and powerful, it still excites in me the reaction to the world. But without getting too vindicative, and seeing things as they are, there must be very dark forces running under part of the media, to go against the people who present a way to healthy and responsible eating. It is obviously economic and market reasons, but not only. Are we being mislead as a species by the wrong energy, the wrong intention, or at least one that does not take the best interest of humankind as a priority?
Why is it that people can be attacked for pointing out the obvious – sugar is not good for you, in fact is very harmful. Ask the World Health Organisation for starters – yet despite the efforts of many men and women around the world to expose the real truth a few people in positions of power and lobbying have made sugar the stable diet for the past 50 years and with that our world population has got sick. very sick. Surely its time to take a responsible look at this – is that not what newspapers should be reporting about – things that will actually make a difference to our lives rather than hyped up stories to incite hatred? We all know our bodies, we know when we eat too much or when we feel racy – we now have the opportunity to pay attention and listen to them. Thats a great gift that I’ve learnt in recent years.
It is amazing how our bodies talk to us. Things our body tells us what we don’t need but if we keep listening it keeps changing. There are things I loved to eat in the past, but now the body tells me something else; sinus problems, sleepiness, headaches and others signs if we just feel what the messages are telling us. I has always been our choice to choose what we feel is right for our body.
It makes perfect sense to really listen to your body and go with it. So often we get conflicting advice from experts that is all very heady but fails to take into account the individual body. That’s when it seems only sensible to find what is most supportive for your own body.
Love this Paul. This truth is always simple…and yes, food has become such a complex battle ground for so many. When we bring it back to the simplicity of the body, everything makes perfect sense and we can rest on the wisdom of our inner knowing. Then we don’t allow food to have this enormous power over us, which it so often does when we let it rule the roost and become such a huge focus.
I love this term Carolien – “your personal diet coach” – what a great and ‘modern’ way to describe the inner knowledge our body holds.
This guy Pete Evan gets attacked for subscribing to a diet that seems filled with a huge array of common sense eating and yet those same people who rubbish his lifestyle have nothing to say on the fast food culture and our reliance on sugar and caffeine to get us through the day. The world is in exhaustion and while I don’t follow the Paleo diet, it seems to have a lot of common sense goodness running through much of it. The question is why is there always an attack on things that have made people healthier, like Universal Medicine for example, is it because it challenges people’s view of what normal is and exposes that we are not living as healthily as we should and easily could.
This is quiet a reveling process for me, feeling what to eat. Often I feel like not eating anything, or just a little. But I’m getting thinner and thinner, so I try to snack in between to keep my weight, still needing carbohydrates to give me substance. I’m just worried that I’ll get too thin and weak, too light and then I’ll disintegrate into the air.
Maybe I need to exercise more? Dance and claim myself more?
Feeling what to eat incorporates also feeling how to be in all other areas of my life.
Too true Kevin! The messages become much louder a lot lot earlier, which it makes it a lot easier to respond to and to truly nourish and care for the body. I am finding this is a lot more supportive than abusing it and continuing to over-ride its messages, and then instead of having a choice, being forced to listen when the day comes when the body provides a more definite stop in the way of illness and disease (which it eventually does when it is ignored over weeks, months, years or decades).
I agree, Kevin and Angela. I feel as if I am developing a brand new relationship with my body after many years of disregarding it and being stuck in my mind. I can already feel that my body is delighted about it and, as you say, is communicating quite loudly these days, so learning to care for my body has become a top priority.
I love this blog – it’s simple, clear and makes absolute sense! Who needs gimmicks, tricks or diets when we are willing to simply be honest and listen to what our bodies are telling us?! It’s a no brainer to me!
Isn’t it interesting? The word ‘Diet’ is an old greek world and meant : way of living. Now we use it as a description for a limitation (eat not this or that) – mostly for a period of time saying No to some food. The original meaning however is about what we are saying YES to.
Thanks for that Sandra, I found this really interesting. It seems we have bastardised the word ‘diet’ which is far removed from its original meaning and what we really need to do is actually return to a ‘way of living’.
Exactly Angela, that is the key – ‘what we really need to do is actually return to a ‘way of living’. – And this is applicable in all areas of our lives, food of course included.
Wow this is fascinating… what a switch for that word. Universal Medicine really has hit the nail on the head then as it doesn’t ever purport to dictate a ‘diet’ as we’ve known that word to mean, but simply presents on how to develop your own ‘way of living’ in relationship to food…. BRILLIANT without even trying, and there’s the ancient wisdom for you… ageless!
Wow, this is so interesting, and encapsulates it all. A way of living that we are saying yes too. When we put it like this I feel expansiveness in my body, as opposed to the contraction felt by the word the way we know it now.
I love that Ariana and yes the body carries the consequences of each and every choice we make. heron may lie the reason we tend to spend a lot of time and effort in numbing ourselves from the messages it is giving us!
Eating to numb ourselves from feeling the choices we have been making – now that I can relate to, and it makes a lot of sense when we look at society. If we continue to live in a culture of irresponsibility for our actions, we are only going to get fatter and sicker, until such time as we are willing to listen to our bodies and start to honour the wisdom that resides within.
I love the wisdom shared with this blog, one quote after the other. Irresponsibility for our actions is making us fat and sick, until that point we are willing to listening to our body.
“What is really going on when the media attempt to shut down those who are encouraging healthy eating? ” This is just a bigger scale reaction than the one we might tussle with, within ourselves. We can recognise that to cut out certain foods means we will no longer have that numbing or speeding up effect in the body that those foods provide… therefore we’re going to feel more and so, with this increased awareness, the likelihood is we are going to have to deal with whatever we were trying to numb out and avoid. We can chose to continue to stay ignorant, or we can choose to go with the awareness… The media attempt to shut out the awareness in order to sustain the irresponsibility with which they function.
I agree Stephen – in answer to your question; ‘Why do people get into such a bother defending the protected food industries of grains, dairy and sugar’, I would say it is because of comfort. Food produces MASSIVE amounts of comfort for us, and I’m sure everyone has had experience of coming home after work or school and looking forward to their special food hidden in the cupboard that provides them with that ‘mmm’ yummy feeling, that more often than not is a type of serious indulgence haha! Dairy and sugar are common ingredients in ‘mmm’ foods, chocolate being one of the most widely used ‘indulgence foods’. I definitely used to do it all the time!
No one can tell you what to eat.
Generally a pretty good marker is to ask your self why am I eating that certain food even though I know it doesn’t agree with my body.
Oh… and don’t say “because I like it” you don’t generally get very far in your food awareness.
I was reflecting on how much food is the untouchable subject. It is something that moves us so much. And the word “witch-hunt” is very descriptive of what has happened to someone who simply challenges the status quo, of FOOD! And I realize it is not only the obvious economic interests of the big multinationals, it also touches our deepest attachments, our most established on rock beliefs. One of them is “I am english and this is what i eat”, or “It is easter so this is what you should eat”. When you free yourself from all of that and decide to listen to the boss, as you say, the body, you can feel what is best for you at every moment and health and vitality start to come your way, symptoms start to fade or totally disappear, and the body´s renewal is the evidence to you and everybody that knows you.
Agreed Liane, I just watched the Sugar Film and the powers that be are funding research and then influencing what the scientists say about the findings. The powers that be will not be coming to the table any time soon to truthfully take a look at what is impacting on people’s health. But we are making different choices and people are noticing that there is a spark to us, a vitality and a presence that they may just want for themselves one day. We can share what we know to be true when people are ready and ask the questions.
It seems that the very mention of us having to look at the food we are eating, how much and why causes people to adapt a defensive stance. Somehow we do not want to be confronted with the possibility that some of the food we are eating is actually harming us. I find for myself that even though I feel that certain foods do not agree with me, it often takes a little time from that moment of awareness to actually not eating that food altogether. This just shows our attachment to food and to the comfort we get from it.
My body definitely knows what it wants to eat and I have spent most of my life ignoring it. This means that at times I override my body and still eat what taste good or what I think I want. However my body screams at me if the wrong choice is made. I can be anything from bloated, tired, snotty, heavy, moody – shall I go on? ‘Feel what to eat’ works and my body loves it.
Yes absolutely. ´Feel what to eat` works and I can let my body be without feeling, bloated, tired, heavy, racy, moody or lethargic afterwards. It feels good not to eat because I want a certain relief but instead take care of myself in every moment.
My body is definately the boss, and has been all along – I just chose to ignore this fact for a very long time. My body has always shown me very clearly what’s going on, particularly with food. I didn’t need anyone to tell me about gluten or dairy as I’d already worked out for myself what it was doing to me. I’d literally be falling asleep at my desk after eating bread or pasta at lunchtime until I started to investigate why this was happening and discovered through books and the internet the affects of eating gluten. Interestingly, removing gluten from my diet also helped me with letting go of sugar because I wasn’t needing a mid-afternoon ‘pick me up’ from the lethargy I felt from eating bread at lunchtime.
Food has been by far my greatest addiction to break. Since I was young I turned to food to make me feel better, to make me not feel and to celebrate in good times. I would say there was always an excuse/reason to eat food. What I find really amusing is that whether we want to admit it or not we know it. I mean we even call it comfort food. The step we are missing though is why do we need comfort food? How we eat can be a science unto itself, if we truly assessed how, when and why we ate we world learn a lot about ourselves.
Well said Caroline… the beautiful thing about Universal Medicine’s approach to food is that it isn’t about a diet, but a ‘way of living’, as per the true meaning of the word ‘diet’ to begin with. And what’s more, it’s rich as you say to discover so much about yourself by virtue of how, when and why we eat the things we do, not just what we eat.
Awesome, true diet is a way of living – discovering self and undoing all that what is not true and held in the body. All the food we eat that does not agree with our body is damaging and hanging in our cells and organs as waste and fat storage and so the energetic damage food does to the body.
It is often that by going against the mainstream that something is actually being exposed about the culture of the mainstream and that is what there is then a reaction to as we don’t want to address whatever it is that is being exposed, and hence why the media but also everyone else condemn the actions of all those who go against the norm. And so in the case of food that when someone starts making choices to eat based on how foods make their body feel it exposes everyone else and the norm of food choices and so there is no surprise that they get uncomfortable and try to bring these people down.
Its such a simple tenet – to let your body inform us of what to eat. I know for me that over the years that I have been living like this different layers have come off; gluten, dairy, caffeine, sugar – each one informed by a sensitivity that has been built up listening to how my body was responding. When I get too theroetical, or hear someone else has stopped eating this or that (the diet mentality) – quite often that food will ‘sneak’ back in and I feel like I’ve failed and go into so much judgement. This just shows that for me I’m not ready to move on from that food yet… so enjoy it and simply keep feeling.
Thankyou for sharing Julie. I think many of us are in the same boat. Food is an easy thing to indulge in. Many of us just eat anything and everything, I know people that just eat and eat and eat until they are way past full and then by this time its hurting me to watch. What I wonder is, how do people skip over the feeling of being over-full, or bloated and do the same thing over and over again? The way we eat kills our senses, and is abusive to our bodys.
Perhaps Deanne it takes less effort to rely on the expert’s diets than take responsibly for our bodies and feelings by looking at what foods suit us and their effects.
Indeed it seems we have become a society where we look to the experts and their views regarding how to live and eat, where did we lose our own innate ability to make self-loving choices for ourselves?
It is also interesting that the media does not discriminate really about what it promotes about food as I imagine a great deal of its profits comes from advertising food.
I love it Matilda and I agree – best Boss ever.
Very well said, Ariana. It is very powerful indeed to let the body inform us of the choices we are making, and for us to be open to the reflections it gives us of where we can still be irresponsible or unloving towards ourselves. If we are willing to ‘go there’ it can be life changing.
I am really starting to realise this Jane, ‘Our bodies are stupendous and right under our very noses are the best barometer in daily living – as the body knows exactly what it needs in any given day.’ The more I take care of my body the more clear my bodies signals are, if im too cold, if its time to stop working, to stop eating, my period is about to come, there is something i do not want to do, it is very beautiful relationship to have, to honour what our bodies are telling us, and so simple, this is such a natural, ‘normal’ way to live rather than listening to everything and everyone outside of us first.
“Not just what I eat, but how much I eat and the energy I am in when I eat.” I find this too. It’s not just the food choices that are important, if I over eat it has a detrimental effect too, and way I eat food is so important. I can eat to nourish my body respecting myself and the food by staying present with what I am doing, or I can eat while being distracted, or shovel the food in without awareness or out of desperation. My body can feel the difference – one feels healing, the other feels harming.
Ann, I first heard this expressed at a Universal Medicine workshop: ‘Feel what to eat not eat what you feel’, it changed the way I viewed my relationship with food.
My family was very much into healthy eating and as such I experienced that what you are eating and how you are eating is affecting your health.
Still it was an eating habbit which did not support my heath and wellbeing in full, as there was.still gluten and diary in it. I got very ill, but as I thought I am eating healthy I never felt what my body truly was saying. After some time I found out about Universal Medicine, where I learnt how harming gluten and diary is . Already after a short time eliminating gluten and diery out of my diet, I started to recover and gain health again.
Yes Deidre, I ask that question too, the other one is “am I really hungry or am I feeling something I don’t want to feel?” This question came after noticing how often I ate when I got anxious or uncomfortable.
I have been on all sorts of diets and fasts and eating regimes for as long as I can remember. They are all so empty. They work for a period of time, but it is not sustainable and I Can see now that that is because it wasn’t a choice that I made in knowing what MY body needed. I outsourced my inner wisdom which comes at a very great price because in truth, it is not wisdom at all, only knowledge…and this is not it. What is presented by Serge Benhayon is revelatory yet is the most simple of truths, that we listen to our body and we will know everything we need to know.
This is great Bernadette, we are indeed eating ourselves into illness and disease…and this is just one of the behaviours that we do daily. IT all comes down to quality and the way we are with our body…in honour of what we feel and of who we truly are…or negating it all and staying in the cycle of comfort that compounds the ill we see in our body and in the world.
Feeling what you eat rather than eating what you feel was the absolute breakthrough for me… I gave up gluten and dairy alcohol and caffeine over 14 years ago, but still remained extremely overweight. It really wasn’t until I started to feel what I was eating and I was able to start to let go, really connect with myself, and gently and gradually the weight started to come off. This was the real diet Revolution for me
This is inspiring, Chris, and needs to be shared because it cuts through all the beliefs about weight loss. Eating in connection to ourselves (and not for comfort, to numb etc) has a completely different quality of energy, and it is no wonder that the body responds so well to such loving support.
Yes well said Janet – “eating in connecton with our self” – is totally revolutionising any so called ‘diet’, it is a way of living and the body will show us how we are doing with this.
This is profound Janet ‘Eating in connection to ourselves (and not for comfort, to numb etc) has a completely different quality of energy’ Thank you.
I agree Janet, what Chris is sharing is inspiring. We have so many ideals and beliefs about weight loss. Although i have always been slim and weight has never been a problem for me I have noticed that eating ‘healthy’ becomes even healthier when I take care to eat in connection to my body -(for nourishment) rather than to eat for comfort. The same foods impact my body completely differently depending on the quality I am in when I eat them. If I genuinely feel to eat a certain food my body feels great, if I eat that same item of food when my body is not calling for it then I bloat, can feel sluggish and tired. Feeling what to eat rather than eat what you feel is a complete game changer.
Very inspiring Chris, thanks for sharing. Stopping and connecting before we eat is an awesome way to ensure that we are eating what our body needs to support it.
This is valuable sharing Chris, showing again that it’s not what we eat but how we relate to what we eat. You describe it well ‘It really wasn’t until I started to feel what I was eating and I was able to start to let go, really connect with myself, and gently and gradually the weight started to come off’ This will inspire many and not just those who feel they have a weight problem, me included.
Oh yes! I can see the changes you have made. Going this path is worth it and is the most honest way to self and to the body. No diet that I know, is going that deep -to the root issue of overweight. Since you have looked at the patterns of your eating habits and what there was that you used food as substitute for, not to feel something, what you had created to numb it away with food.
Taste buds! They are in the body so you would think this would mean feeling what to eat from your body right? For me taste buds equal stimulation and all about the er ….. taste!! In some ways they seem separate from the whole body! Whereas feeling what to eat from your body for me comes from a wisdom deep within the body; it is the whole body speaking and not just one singled out area!
One should certainly begin to question what is at play when the media challenges the promotion of healthy eating and self-care. There is no doubt that the growth of awareness does not suit the personal interest of many.
From past experience with dieting – yes – in the dieting industry there are ‘big bucks’ to be made at the expense of vulnerable people with low self esteem or self worth who can get taken in by (yes, I was one of them) the information given. Everything is promising the ‘pot of gold at the end of the rainbow’ type scenario which works for a while and then tumbles down when the pounds start creeping on again. Serge Benhayon’s suggestion to really ‘feel what to eat by listening to the guidance from the body’ was the first time I was ever able to break the continual diet addiction and my weight has remained stable for the past 7 years by choosing to listen to my body.
The dairy industry is a great example of a pressurised marketing message of a food we “must eat for our health.” Strong bones and teeth need calcium and dairy is the only way is a message that is literally drummed into us from birth. It takes a lot to resist this message as the fear factor is massive. Yet more recently I have read many reports that say that the calcium in milk is difficult for our bodies to absorb, so wherein lies the truth. I chose to listen to my body and consider that the sinus issues and blocked passages in my body that dairy brought on, along with the acne and lethargy were sure signs dairy wasn’t right for me. It’s a fact though that dairy isn’t right for anyone, this is a scientific fact, just not one that is given much airtime, which is the problem with most of the food industry, it is grounded in self interest and financial gain and is never about the people that are eating the foods.
Well said Stephen – the food industry is grounded in financial gain and self interest never about people. It also concerns me that research into healthy food is often payed for by food companies thus guaranteeing the outcome of the research. Recently there was some research sponsored by Coca-Cola that advised that obesity was more related to the amount of exercise a person does than what they eat. Messages like this backed by researches stop people from taking responsibility for what they consume and feeling the effects that food and drink have on their bodies.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coca-cola-s-research-funding-criticized-by-obesity-expert-1.3186279
And my understanding is that there are other foods that are ridiculously high in calcium, like Broccoli, Spring greens, Almonds, Salmon, Figs etc. They just do not have a huge and corrupt industry behind them that is trying to find ways to ‘sell’ the product, I guess because they have no problems in being seen as unhealthy in the first place!
The dairy industry is a great example Stephen and studies are now showing that in countries where dairy consumption is high, so are the cases of osteoporosis and conversely where dairy consumption is low, osteoporosis is low too. But the tide is turning. I was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 45 having consumed dairy for 35-40 years of my life, and when I shared the fact that I no longer have dairy with my GP, she agreed that dairy isn’t necessary as calcium from dairy is poorly absorbed.
So true Stephen dairy is not right for any-one and I am sure the industry knows this but this is a classic example of putting money before people, pure evil These companies need to be prosecuted for killing people and at the same time humanity has a responsibility in this because we continue to buy a product that is destroying our health.
Yes the more I read the different blogs on food the more I realise that there is a lot more depth of understanding and honouring required for evolution.
This corruption extends to all facets of life with the same message – to negate the body and deny our natural wisdom and knowing so that we will willingly follow, fall in line and give our power away to the latest idea, trend and flavour.
Imagine the revolution of Humanity’s return to honouring the body’s natural wisdom and lived authority.
Leonne it makes sense for everyone to stylize absolutely everything to their individual needs. Food, drink, clothes, car, work, exercise, routines, environment etc. All styled in conjuction with the body. Perfect !
Alexis I love the way you’ve expressed this: be your own body and personal stylist!
Awesome point alexis, if we connected first to what our body needs in the way of all you’ve mentioned above there would be no room for comparison. Just a potential to be inspired by another or confirmed by first knowing what your body needs. Love it!
My family was very much into healthy eating and as such I experienced that what you are eating and how you are eating is affecting your health.
Still it was an eating habit which did not support my heath and well-being in full, as there was still gluten and dairy in it. I got very ill, but as I thought I am eating healthy I never felt what my body truly was saying. After some time I found out about Universal Medicine, where I learnt to listen to my body and realised how harming gluten and dairy is. Already after a short time eliminating gluten and dairy out of my diet, I started to recover and gain health again. Thank you Universal Medicine, I feel deeply touched that there is such a truthfull business in this world.
Same here Kerstin, my mother was following the Macrobiotic diet since I was 14 years old and decided to try it (on and off) for ten years. Gluten was still part of the diet, in terms of alcohol, I was advised to completely stop because of my rumbling appendix which I did for two years, but then I thought from what was discussed amongst Macrobiotic students and teachers, having a glass of draft organic beer now and then would be harmless. Fairly quickly I started to make exceptions with champagne and wine too. However, because I was off vodka, whiskey or tequila and other liquors and brandy, I thought it would be ok! Six years ago, I completely took alcohol in any form off my diet again, even in the cooking. I have never felt so good than before, and I have been asked to listen to my body and how it felt after a glass of draft beer let’s say. I agreed that the sensations are pretty strong and putting my body completely of balance and very quickly off my chair so to speak!
I agree Kerstin Salzer. When my body has had enough of eating something, I just can’t eat that food, my body just doesn’t need or want to eat it and I honour that. It is a constant process of testing and refining but well worth the choice to do so.
I know, it really is silly to realise something as common sense as feeling what is right for you to eat based on your body was a revelation until Serge came alone, but to me it just shows how controlled the food and dieting industry is, that it has us all hooked on a hamster wheel.
I recently have experimented with not eating breakfast, just to see what I would feel. I was actually scared to not eat, what would happen, I spoke to a friend who does the 2 day fasting a week and she shared it was freeing to not feel bound to food. I realised I held so many ideas about food when I should eat, what I should eat, how I should eat, how much I should eat – endless shoulds but no feeling! Having not had breakfast or lunch for three days I can say I feel freed from the bounds of my thoughts and patterns to do with food, it doesn’t mean I will not eat at these times but I kind of needed to reset my body to not be afraid of not eating. I survived and rather I thrived so now I can start to listen truly to what I feel will support my body to eat rather than walking around just doing what I have always done.
This is a great sharing Vanessa, thank you. I too had been totally caught up in ‘having’ to eat 3 meals a day, for fear of what may happen if I didn’t eat – things like ‘I might pass out from hunger’, or I may not be able to work properly because I might get the shakes’ amongst other things. But in the last few weeks I have found that I have been able to go without lunch several times, and have found that I do not get sleepy in the afternoon, in fact I have more energy, and I simply don’t feel weighed down with food. But like you I survived, and it has made me appreciate that my body does know what it wants and does not need the amount of food that I thought it did. It is very liberating.
I love what you have shared Vanessa and it is so relevant to what is going on for me at the moment. I have such a fear of letting go of how many times I eat a day, and still often eat when I am not hungry out of comfort and habit. From having been a constant snacker my whole life the thought of not regularly having a top up freaks me out. Food is basically my drug, but slowly the more I appreciate myself, the less I am relying it.
I can so easily get caught up with comfort in the way I choose the food I am going to eat. Ideally I want to be full of energy and vitality and it doesn’t take long to be off track with a couple of choices coming from my head. Also what I thought was amazing yesterday in terms of food to eat do not support me any longer today and I tend to get stuck with old habits and then “I will fall off my chair” quite easily!
Ive heard about many diets and programs that go for 12 weeks, a 12 week fitness challenge. I say whats the point of only doing it for 12 weeks? I hear people complain about going ‘back on the program” or “I need to start eating properly again”, my question is, is that even a true commitment? There is no struggle if you are committed to yourself and your own body, it is worth cherishing and will tell you everything you need to know. Programs and diets however DON’T. They don’t ask you to be aware of your body and sense what is going on, they are a set of instructions which don’t fit everybody. And whats the point of only wanting to feel great for 12 weeks? I want a whole life of greatness.
Yes I found that also James, there is no true intelligence in placing people in boxes (not just in nutrition) , it just stops us from being in touch with our self and our body, not listening to what the body is communicating, be it around food or other things.
I even stopped eating rice after I felt great before lunch, had rice for lunch and then had to sleep for two hours in the afternoon to deal with the heaviness in my stomach. Finding out what suits you or doesn’t suit you can be quite hard in the beginning because we eat and drink so many things that are perfectly acceptable but that actually affect our body. Only once eliminated a number of items that don’t work for me I could then easily see which food works and which food (or drink) doesn’t.
Christoph I also noticed that: foods which were OK one time became not OK and I had to stop eating them. I also found that for foods that are OK for my body, there will be particular brands and sources of it that are OK and others that are not. The fact that two products can be made from exactly the same ingredients and one is right and one is not right for my body tells me that there is something going on beyond the material – that there is a difference in the energy of the two products and this is what my body is responding to. I don’t mean ‘energy’ in terms of the calorie value, etc, but something not material, an energetic quality imprinted into the product from the people who were involved in its making and distribution. This opens up the possibility that we must continually evolve our discernment to more and more subtle levels as we evolve our bodies.
Well said Christoph!
Yes, Christoph. It is a worthwhile process to go through to find out what foods do and do not suit you personally, as everyone is different. It also changes over time, so it’s good to keep reviewing and refining things as your body becomes more vital and full of energy, never mind the fact that your body starts speaking really loudly to you and won’t be ignored once you start listening!
It certainly a ongoing process of listening to the body and what foods suit us.
Exactly Christoph, I found when I started to consider what foods were making me feel uncomfortable, fatigued, and ill there were actually many foods that I were having that quickly dropped away even though they were commonly seen as normal accepted foods to eat
A guy at work asked me why I didn’t eat gluten when I said I didn’t eat pizza or pasta. I told him it made me feel sleepy and bloated and he said ‘I always feel sleepy and bloated’. So it shows that we are not raised to take notice of how we feel after eating, and that symptoms like bloating, wind and lethargy are often considered a normal part of eating and digestion by some.
You are spot on Bernadette “We will just keep eating ourselves into disease, chronic illness and bankrupting our health systems”. How many people try hundreds of fad diets which may appear to work for a while but then the weight comes back or the issue that we were wanting to address through the diet resurfaces. Most diets do not consider that emotional eating is one of our biggest issues, that we eat to numb ourselves and so as not to feel our hurts. I have explored with various foods over the years what it is like when I eat them and what it is like when I don’t, feeling the effects that they have on my body. I also feel into if I am eating this food because there is something that I am not wanting to deal with or am I eating it because it will truly support my body. No diet needed, just a connection to my body and a lot of honesty.
Agree Donna, food reveals (when we choose to see this) the relationship we are having with ourselves: if we are eating too much/gorging or not enough to nourish ourselves/body, then it raises the subject of feeling (good) enough in life generally and also with ourselves. So food becomes related to the (very deep) subject of acceptance. Do we feel enough and worth it; or the opposite and in need of filling – by food, or anything we can use/find.
Yes, and not only is this absurd our very own medical system and many of the professionals within it do not value and acknowledge our body as the boss and its anecdotal wisdom when it comes to diet and food. Preference is often given to scientific research that can be manipulated by agenda, especially corporate and financial agenda. The other problem with research is it can take a lot of effort and time to eventually arrive at what can be felt as wisdom and known very quickly from the body.
Katie – what an inspiring line “…the more we feel the more responsibility is staring straight at us.” I too am grateful for what Serge Benhayon has shared about the energy of food. One of the greatest examples of this was the energetic impact gluten has in our bodies and how it dulls and makes it harder to feel in general as well as harder to feel the body and how other foods might be affecting us. Even though I did not go gluten free upon learning this it opened the door to experiment for myself and pretty quickly I figured out that I felt far better without the gluten in my diet.
‘How dare one empower themselves to feel what is right for them to eat, and feel so much more vital and healthy as a result!’ This line highlights the complete ridiculousness of all those involved in trying to bring down Universal Medicine.
It does make me question the things the media does champion that clearly do not work long term and yet they are so dismissive when something comes along which has the possibility to help so many and save the government all kinds of money, with regards to health care costs.
So true Mary-Louise it is a no-brainer. For an evidence based, reductionist thinking society we don’t seem to like to apply this kind of logic to what we eat, in fact what we eat seems to be defended to quite literally the death of some and or the true affect on our well-being is being denied by many others.
It is one thing for the media to attempt to shut it down but who is listening and feeding the media? My own diet choices have caused many a reaction in people, but my diet affects me and no one else, so why is anyone bothered? Is it really that confronting?
My question is: why do healthy eating choices cause such a stir? Something to ponder…
Great Question Nikki! They should be causing stir-fry instead…
Feeling what to eat is a great step to let go of all those concepts about eating which do not truly support us.
The next step is feeling what different foods will do to our body and from there choosing what is supportive for us and what is not – and this may very well vary from day to day.
Yesterday I saw ‘That sugar film’and this is truly a powerful and inspiring movie. It just shows how we as humanity are not in contact with our bodies and how we are numbing ourselves with enormous amounts of sugar. We don’t need any diets, books or gurus, the only thing we need to do is re-connect with our bodies again and start listening to what it is telling us.
I too have seen “That Sugar Film” Marietta and found it very powerful. It was great to have documented on film the way that sugar effects our moods and how we feel about ourselves. It is interesting to consider that when we crave something sweet it can be because we are not wanting to feel the disconnection from our bodies and that we have separated from our own natural sweetness.
It is ‘feel’ what to eat. It is not ’emotion’ what to eat. Once you feel what to eat, life becomes much simpler and you don’t want to go back to the old ways. When you are stuck in emoting what you eat, it is hard to believe there is a better way but it exists. Stop, breathe, and feel. Then eat and enjoy.
I was discussing eating healthily with a friend of mine, and what we had both encountered was the way that your choice to eat healthily can make people very uncomfortable – for example my friend had experienced people constantly trying to get her to eat things she doesn’t want to because ‘a little won’t hurt’, but actually it was more that they felt uncomfortable by her choice to take care of herself – why is it that the people who love us don’t always support our decision to take care of ourselves, trying to take us off track or saying we are somehow being selfish. Why is listening to our own body not celebrated?
” I applaud people like Serge Benhayon for not holding back in sharing information on matters of diet and wellbeing that are very clearly having enormous benefits to so many”, this is so true. Having someone like Serge present to us that we should feel what we eat and not eat what we feel is so unique in this world. There is so much conflicting information out there, I was reading an article recently relating to a diet and nutrition course and it stated that without milk it was difficult to get enough calcium in our diets, when the reality is there are certain vegetables ie choy sum, bok choy, Chinese spinach and wakame that contain lots of calcium. I don’t drink milk or eat diary any more because it is mucous forming and bloats my body so I can say that it is not good for me.
I never tried diets, to be frank I never thought I had the ‘will power’ for it and there was part of me that was hard on myself for not being able to eat food that would keep me more slim. Another part to me said these books don’t make sense, why would you follow them, why would you do what some one told you with out thinking for yourself. And then I went to a presentation by Serge Benhayon and he said something very powerful, he suggested to “feel for yourself” for me a missing link, the thinking for myself would just go around in circles but to ‘feel’ what my body said concerning food and actually absolutely everything else meant that I have true evidence of what supports me and what does not. Ten years or so later my health has improved so much that I feel and look better than I ever have as an adult. True evidence, feel how that pasta makes you feel and you will know you do not ‘need’ to eat it, simple.
It’s a great saying – that ‘my body is the boss!’ It makes life very simple and very clear. If we are not sure of what to eat just ask the body. If we are not sure of the way forward just ask the body. It takes all the guessing out of it, and opens the way to a very real way of living that is based on truth.
There are many downsides to the freedom of the internet in being able to post whatever one likes, such as the issue of cyber-bullying. However, there are also more people online telling the truth, sharing what they are learning and experiencing, and blogsites such as this are a great example of what true communication can be like without the imposing and self-serving control of the media.
When I override what my body is clearly communicating to me about what food is needed to nourish it I can feel a deep arrogance and a complete feeling of disregard and not caring. It’s like in the moment I put the taste and need to numb over what is self-nutruring and caring. The more I feel my body afterwards and the deeper I hold myself in love saying ‘no’ and listening to and acting on what my body is communicating becomes easier and easier. Tracking back to the emotion underneath the impulse to eat foods which are used as an indulgence is the most supportive thing I have done in regards to my diet.
I too can attest to the power of feeling what to eat and eating what works for my body. I live with other people and we all eat different things. Some things that I eat they simply cannot and visa versa. The whole trick is to honour our body in what it is presenting. It just might be unlocking the keys of the universe to us.
Feeling what to eat is so vastly different to eating what you feel like. When I feel what to eat I am listening to my body. When I eat what I feel like my head is operating in and of itself without considering the consequences to my body ie. the side effects my body will produce later. My head is where I go to override what my body feels. Sometimes I find I eat to make myself feel dull because I am feeling amazing. Sometimes I choose to eat foods to blend in with others ie. eat what everyone else is eating or what the group deems to be appropriate. It’s amazing how often this happens and this can be in any group. It is a constant work in progress to truly listen to what food is best for me to eat and how much and I am forever grateful for the inspiration and insights I have received from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine who only ever support me to honour what I feel always.
The problem with having a “diet” is that it asks us to to become idealistic about the way we eat, rather than encouraging us to determine our own personal relationship with what we eat. Everyone knows how to identify healthy food from unhealthy food, and yet this does not stop most of us from making such choices. Why? Because the reason most of us eat what we eat has less to do with nutrition or what tastes good, and more to do with how it makes us feel. In other words, we eat according to our emotional state, or more correctly, to suppress what we do not want to feel. If we understand this, we can see why people truly struggle with diet, and why diets rarely last, even if they are true for our body. It is for this reason why it is a fallacy to look at diet on its own, and why our relationship with what we eat needs to be looked at with our relationship with all of life. Only then can we truly discover what food truly serves us.
Great point Adam, the issue with an idealistic diet will always be that it is created by looking to the outside world, creating an image of what we think we should be eating, however as you say this is completely unrealistic as it doesn’t take into account the body of the person who the diet is being created for. I love the way you say that we eat to suppress our feeling as I have never considered that this could be such a huge issue when it comes to dieting, as when one stops eating foods that will numb them of how they are feeling, they still have that tension in their body and so there is the ingrained way of living that trys to numb it with food that has become so hard to resist for so many people
“Surely it makes sense for every individual to stylise their diet based on their individual needs.” There is so much wisdom that our body offers us every day…and to support that in a loving way has so many positive repercussions – not only in creating health, vitality and joy within our body but also builds our self confidence, self acceptance, and self-love … how awesome is that!
Great simple analogy Leonne with the peanuts. It is up to us to feel what is right for our own bodies (or not). I have loved letting go of eating ‘healthily’ as it really is just another trap for us and to just eat what feels right for me.
“A corruption that says what your body feels is not important” What a powerful line and so true. The ‘scientific studies’ sponsored by various food industries with a vested interest are testament to this fact. Food has become a deadly weapon of mass destruction leaving millions trapped in bodies that are dense, hard and riddled with illness. Many of us are stuffing ourselves with foods that are poisonous as it is ‘normal’ to do so. Pure madness.
We allow this truth to stay hidden because we contribute to this corruption very time we choose to ignore the signals our bodies give us. We have vested interests too.
So true Leonne we have all have a vested interest in wanting to keep eating those foods that are probably harming us because we do not want to look at the emptiness and negative feelings we have as a result of our hurts. It seems way much easier to comfort and soothe ourselves with sugar, diary and heavy foods.
My body is boss too yet sometimes I like to battle with the boss to try and be the boss and I always lose! My mind loves to override what my body feels, the more I am able to connect to my lovely inner heart the less the mind wins, though it gives a good fight! In the end its always a choice.
It’s incredible such one-sidedness can continue to cause so much harm to the well-being of humanity. While nearly everyone is either too numb from what they are ingesting to see any problem or they are too invested in creating the problem. Suggestion: “Don’t shoot the messenger”.
Yes Bernadette there is a requirement of honesty if we truly want to get past the comfort eating. I have used food to comfort myself or deal with anxiousness. I had to first be honest that I was often eating when not really hungry, and then be willing to experience the feelings I was trying to suppress with the food and deal with the underlying cause. I got support from an esoteric healing practitioner and took things gently. I did used to feel like food was in charge of me, but now I’m in the driving seat.
I have been on my fair share of diets and they were only ever a temporary fix that I could never sustain. It’s remarkable to me that without trying, I lost weight when I stopped dieting and started paying more attention to what felt right to eat. This was something I too learnt from attending Universal Medicine workshops. My weight has been stable for the last 4 years with absolutely no diet in sight
No more diets since learning to eat what makes me feel good! What a relief, and what a difference in my body! After 30 years of searching for the perfect diet, I have found the answer was already there inside. Thank you Universal Medicine for setting me free to make my own choices, from my own inner knowing.
The body always will know what it needs and how much it needs. We just need to listen
And developing that listening relationship breaks through all the learnt behaviours and social impositions about how, what, when etc. we eat. I still override my body’s wise voice, out of habit and stubbornness, but it is always spot on and the more humble and open I become the more I am supported.
Yes, listening is key as well as acting upon what we hear as sometimes we eat or behave in a way to ignore what we have felt isn’t right for us but enjoy the food or drink so much we don’t want to give it up! For example I remember in the past, the day after a night of alcohol my body was very clearly telling me it was not well, so I would just eat something to make it ‘feel better’.
There is such a strong consciousness around diets with big promises of losing x kgs in x days or with a focus on changing a particular part of the body. They often have very enticing names – one I remember years ago was the hip and thigh diet … every woman who had a thing about her hips and thighs would look to this diet as her saviour. I lost a load of weight on it and got into those jeans I wanted to, but my hair, skin and nails were terrible and I felt depleted from the lack of fat and nutrients in the diet. Most diets focus on what you look like, and how to change that and to achieve a certain look or weight. But none of them address the core of why people feel the need to look a certain way or achieve a certain target weight. Universal Medicine supports people in dealing with and healing the underlying cause of eating and body image issues so that the focus is no longer on what shape or weight we are, but on how we feel.
“Firstly, one does begin to question what is at play when the media challenges the promotion of healthy eating and self-care, especially when you look at the appalling statistics of world-wide obesity, illness and disease that is increasingly on the rise.
How dare one empower themselves to feel what is right for them to eat, and feel so much more vital and healthy as a result!”
I have been wondering about the same thing, how is it that there is so much attack on things that question the status quo? With the illness and disease rates going up, including obesity.
An awareness diet – I love this Caroline and you are so true in what you say here. Our bodies are different and always changing, so us being aware of that will support us to know what to eat, when to eat and how much to eat.
I love that statement too Johanna. Caroline you are spot on when you say, ‘A true diet is an awareness diet.” When we become aware of how our bodies feel after eating certain foods, it becomes so much easier to say no because the after affects have been so clearly felt. I can feel very easily how my nervous system is activated when eating sugar, or eating starchier foods dulls my body. By marking these effects it makes it easier to not want to eat these foods even if they taste great!
Beautiful Liane. The ‘advice’ we are given regarding what we eat comes from those with vested interests and they would be very nervous about people who make the choice to eat for true vitality. Especially when we realise that the food we thought we needed we actually no longer need. This is only the start.
This is beautiful Caroline and the awareness diet applies to more than just the food we choose to eat. It so makes sense. Why do we need to follow a way of eating that is recommended by experts when our body is the perfect barometer in all things? Not to mention that it is always honest.
I love your term ‘my body is the boss.’ I am learning that when I listen to my body, it tells me in great detail (by how it reacts) what foods feel great and energize me, and which ones don’t feel so good. Bread was one of the first foods that I noticed made me literally fall asleep. I have gradually been listening to my body over the years and have let go of many foods that don’t feel good inside.
I too have been listening to my body since learning the principle of ‘feel what to eat’ from Universal Medicine. This has totally changed the way I eat and how I feel about my body. Previous to this I would be forever going on the latest fad diet to no avail,I would feel terrible, as a lot of the food did not suit my body. It is a very individual choice as to what food works for me as this same food may not be right for another.
I agree, my body is the boss for sure. I am appreciating that more and more. I sometimes already know I shouldn’t be eating a certain type of food i.e tin coconut milk. I often override my feelings and go ahead to eat it anyway. Sure enough, my body confirms what I already knew that I shouldn’t be eating coconut milk. I felt it already in my body like warning signs before I even eat coconut milk, an inner voice was already telling me: ‘hey, I don’t think you should eat this’. It’s like a very natural pre-warning instinct. So, now I get it, it is this kind of awareness that I realise requires a huge amount of trust in what I feel and to listen to my natural instinct in my body even before I eat. So, I feel it is definitely possible that my body is already communicating to me to not eat certain foods as a pre-warning sign just before I add it into my cooking or just before I am about to eat it. How amazing is that? Our body is highly intelligence. If we trust it, we don’t have to go through the effects of feeling tired from not listening and trusting our body. We can simply trust it to guide us.
In listening to my body more over time, I found that bread was difficult to swallow and that I was able to let it go as a staple in my diet. No rigid rules or diet but a simple response to the messages from my body.
It’s a way of eating that is alive, not a way of eating that is strict and full of rules or should do’s. As an example, I don’t eat potato often these days and I had some for dinner last night. I felt quite heavy after I ate, but for me how I woke and how I felt today was the stand out. I was really tired after I woke (and I had an early night) and I just felt numb, which I didn’t like at all. I am so appreciative of how I listen to my body now. There is no perfection here as evidence by my potato eating, but a real curiosity in what I observe and the knowing that I always have a choice. So for me potato will no longer be a choice. Learning to observe and listen to my body has been a wonder and I am very grateful for coming across Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
That’s exactly it Jennifer. No need or desire for perfection here, just a common sense approach to eating – if you feel great before you eat but don’t after you’ve eaten something then look at what you’ve eaten, why you’ve eaten it (boredom, emotional eating, etc) or how much you’ve eaten. If I don’t get it quite right and for example, feel sleepy after eating, then I just make an adjustment next time.
Suzanne I have not heard that expression before ‘feel first and taste second’. It would revolutionize what people eat completely if we all did that and as a result it would have a massive effect on the food industry and also the rate of illness aa well as the amount of accidents that people have. It would revolutionize people’s lifestyles and the way that people felt about themselves, which in turn would revolutionize every aspect of their lives. Good grief, such a seemingly small change to the way that we eat would bring about a completely different world !
“Feel first and taste second” that for me is a entirely new way to view food. I have made many changes to my diet since becoming a student of Universal Medicine and love the fact that there is always more to discover and deepen my relationship to everything in life.
Great point Alexis, there is so much benefit for each individual and humanity as a whole that could be brought about if we developed a way of feeling first and tasting second, for a little while now I have learnt to actually involve my body in the decision of what I am choosing to eat, depending on how I am feeling it may influence my choice over what I go and eat, however in the past it is common only to choose what we are going to eat from our head and out of need of stimulation and therefore it is no surprise that it often doesn’t sit well in the body and can develop into illness and disease
When one experiences the benefits of eating gluten, dairy, alcohol and refined sugar free, it is easy to make it a rule and there is always the need for refinement, for feeling what to eat, for feeling how much to eat and for letting the body be the boss. When one has done many diets all through life and has found a way of eating that works for health, vitality and good mood. I still need to continually revise what I feel when I eat, so I don´t eat from my head. Through your blog we get encouraged to listen to our bodies every day in every meal, and one hour after!
“Feel what to eat” – it’s so simple when we consider it. I had a conversation with a woman yesterday who asked me if I felt granola and yoghurt were good for her. I asked her how she felt an hour after eating it, she said hungry, I told her that there is her answer. She didn’t need me to tell her what to eat and I would never do so, she had all the answers there in the response from her body. She went through all the different foods she ate and how she felt after them, it was really simple, we always feel every choice we make whether we choose to recognise it or not we are all experts in food and nutrition.
This is great Stephen and so simple – how do you feel after eating that food? I agree we do feel every choice we make and if we are honestly listening to our bodies, we know exactly what is needed. It may take some time to remove the numbness from eating out of comfort for most of our lives, but when true clarity is felt in the body it is absolutely astonishing to see what and how we are feeling when we reach for certain foods.
That’s the break through point – removing the foods that are numbing to our body – but to do this removal out of self worth and being loving with our body.
This is great advice to give on diet Stephen.
People give their power away to so called experts when all they need to is feel how it feels in their own body. We all need to do this all of the time; check in on how the food we are eating is making us feel.
Yes- this used to baffle me too. From young I had heard that porridge was such a fortifying healthy breakfast to have but no matter how big the bowl of porridge I ate I was always hungry about an hour afterwards. As you say Stephen G – we can recognise how different foods leave us feeling if we simply choose to tune in although in my experience I know I can work very hard to convince myself I am not sure when I do not want to give up foods I am using as an emotional crutch.
Thanks for sharing Stephen. It really is simple to eat from what we feel. All we have to do is be honest about how we feel!
Hear, hear Liane. The greed, corruption and control of various institutions and industries over society is being exposed left, right and centre at the moment, as more and more people are re-connecting to a truth within them that does not need to be fed by the so-called ‘powers that be’.
This is so true Janet and Lianne, ‘more and more people are re-connecting to a truth within them that does not need to be fed by the so-called ‘powers that be’. It is becoming much more common for people to not eat certain foods nowadays, people are making choices about eliminating certain foods based how they feel, I have listened to stories on the radio and from friends from ‘the powers that be’ saying you can’t eliminate a certain food group even if this person is feeling awful eating it.
Absolutely Suzanne… I’ve certainly never been on a diet that’s been sustainable, all because, as you say – life tends to get in the way… It always seems that after a week of ‘dieting’ my family wants to go out for dinner, or we’re going away, or it’s a birthday, and so on – all of which makes me ‘break’ my diet and eat differently to how I did before. I feel really awful for ‘failing’, when I should have just been listening to what my body feels like eating in the first place and not giving myself unrealistic goals.
I agree, a diet is super restrictive, especially on those sort of occasions where it is hard to comply to the strict guidelines a diet gives you. The ‘diet’ Serge Benhayon is presenting is like no other as it allows you to eat what ever you want but you need to feel your body and whether the food is right for you. Surely the ‘diet’ Serge is presenting is truly revelationary as it is the only one to say ‘feel what is right for your body’ and puts no strict restrictions on what you can and can’t eat.
Yes, when we eat according to what our body is asking for and actually wants, how can we feel anything but great? It completely turns the notion of dieting on it’s head because you are in no way restricting the body, or fighting it, and it becomes very easy to let go of the substances we think we crave, when we actually listen deeper to what our body is saying.
Agreed Kylie, “Yes, when we eat according to what our body is asking for and actually wants, how can we feel anything but great?”. Diets to me have always been about being strict, controlled, open to failure, good or bad, extreme, missing out, pressure etc etc. No wonder they can never be sustained… the body is under an onslaught of so much more than the food we are eating!
This is so true Leonne. There can never be a one size fits all diet because the bodies of different individuals clearly have different requirements as your peanut analogy shows. In fact by observing my own body for the last few years I have discovered that what suits the same body also changes and is not constant. The idea that it is possible to look after our body without the responsibility and care of checking in with it simply does not hold.
So True Golnaz – it is easy to get complacent and fall into autopilot with anything in life – and food highlights this well. I love how the body shows us loud and clear if we are not being present in every moment and listening to what our body needs.
In watching a baby being fed, I have often observed that saying no to foods that do not feel right is one of our first choices of empowerment in this life, and I also have observed how that power can often be taken away by well-meaning parents who are only following the guidelines of what a child should or should not eat. And so I wonder if disharmony in adult relationships with food can sometimes come from a need to feel empowered again.
Awesome comment Bernadette. I can so relate to using food as a comfort to numb the anxiety I am feeling. Being willing to be honest that the anxiety was there led me to seek the support of a nutritionist and esoteric healing practitioner who worked with my local doctor. This was a perfect combination of support and has truly assisted me to look at what is going on behind the anxiousness and how this is effecting my body.
What could happen if the majority of people chose a food regime free of gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine and alcohol? Wow, there’s a few major industries headed for possible decline. So its no wonder that those with vested interests play hard ball when it comes to influencing the greater population. Another side affect of this lifestyle choice might be that people feel healthier, happier, more vital and alive, they may feel clearheaded able to focus and make more informed decisions, general increased productivity is a great possibility. Our overburdened medical system could be greatly alleviated and new truly supportive industries could evolve, etc. This all Seems so good to me, I’d just like to drink it in but, obviously right now its not everyones cup of tea.
Great comment Barbara. If a majority of the population choose to listen to their body as to what to eat and feel the effects of their food choices, to become empowered and to then cut out, alcohol, caffeine, gluten, diary and sugar. So many of the giant food industries will no longer be viable. I can understand why these giant companies would want to pour so much investment in keeping people hooked on these types of foods. It seems to me that it’s no longer about providing nutritious food to people but it has become all about making a profit. They have put profit before the wellbeing of people. So, we do have a choice here, the more people who becomes empowered to know that they have a choice then the more we will see healthy, vitality and vibrant people taking responsibility for their choices.
Our Relationship with food is what really needs to be addressed when we want to change our health. Lately I have discovered that the most important thing for me is connection to myself and hence connection with others. The way I cook, eat and prepare/serve for has completely changed because now the priority is connection all round and food is there to nourish me and my family.
Hello Harrison White and I agree “Lately I have discovered that the most important thing for me is connection to myself and hence connection with others” I love this because it has nothing to do with the food part first but everything to do with connection. The food part comes after this which is how I see it and as you say and again I agree, “The way I cook, eat and prepare/serve for has completely changed because now the priority is connection all round and food is there to nourish me and my family.” Thank you Harrison.
Well Said Caroline. Sometimes I find my body is asking fir certain foods and at other times it would be in-appropriate to have the same one because there is something else that my body needs. As a general rule, I would Never eat anything that has a dulling effect on me, or effects my body in a way that makes it hard to express myself, this includes over-eating.
I find that too Harrison – although there are times my body wants different foods, there is a line I have to draw with things I know just dull me and make me feel heavy, damp, exhausted or hyper. To me food is an evolutionary process of finding out and investigating what feels true to us as an individual – it’s no use comparing to other people because what suits them could be completely different! I’ve experienced that a lot – things my friends or family can eat, sometimes make me bloat, so I’m learning to honour that and not cave in because ‘others eat it so why can’t I?’
“others eat it so why can’t I?’” the amount of times I have used this to justify eating a certain food is ridiculous. Yes its so true, food is definitely about a personal relationship and not ever comparing with others.
What comes before any diet is a choice. A choice to take care of yourself and to be open to what needs to be done. When we are truly choosing to love the body, from the inside out, the choice of what food is needed starts here.
absolutely Matthew. This is an entirely different relationship with food and eating. Choosing love for ourselves is more deeply satisfying than any food can ever be… especially one that offers momentary appeal to the tastebuds, but at the expense of the entire body and the way it feels thereafter.
Awesome reflection Liane and so powerfully expressed.
Very powerful insight Bernadette.
Great point Leonne.
I love this Suzanne -” …eating foods that truly nourish, by feeling first and tasting second.” It is such a relief to be living and nourishing ourselves in this way.
Yes Jeanette we need a wake up call so we start to be our own boss!
Yes it’s great to consider who is running the show in relationship to eating, health and vitality, and in time if we don’t pay attention we eventually get to live the end result in our bodies … Illness and disease! So it does beg the question ‘who is the boss and who’s running the show’ if we are not!
I recently went to a restaurant, which is rare and had a gluten free dairy free meal which was very tasty. Yet the food felt dead – not really vital or revitalising – and though was enjoyable in my taste buds, did not bring a feeling of joy in my body. Afterwards, I felt some bloating and tiredness. This experience confirmed to me the importance of feeling what I eat and the importance of being able to feel energy, in this case the dull energy in the food which had nothing to do with gluten, dairy etc but perhaps related to the mix of ingredients, herbs and spices or the person who prepared the food or the restaurant it was served up in and who knows what other factors. It really made me appreciate my choice of the simple cooking my wife or I provide for myself at home and how alive and nourishing it is, bringing a confirmation to me of the quality I bring to the table.
It is quite absurd Marcia owen, isn’t it. The rate of illness and disease is sky rocketing which is a quite clear barometer of what we are choosing to do to our bodies, yet we still choose to ignore that and shove all and sundry at our bodies, just so we can numb, distract, ignore how our bodies are really feeling and choose differently. Most definitely a lack of any self love or care, as if this were present, no loving body would accept that abuse.
Society seeing eating foods they ‘enjoy’ or bring ‘comfort’ would be hard to accept as a form of abuse for most. But to the body this is exactly what it is, as it is the body that needs to work hard to process these heavier foods, the body that may feel duller or sleepy after foods, the body that cops feeling over stimulated from some foods etc. I guess the main question is why and where are we at that we can not register this change in the body and feel that the slightest alteration in our physiology is in fact a very uncomfortable feeling.
Most of us have dishonest eating habits that have nothing to do with nutrition like eating to numb feelings, or going for comfort food. Universal medicine has been very supportive of me to feel my emotional issues and deal with them instead of numbing them away with food. I was always tired and kept going for sugary foods for an artificial pick up. Being honest and dealing with the tiredness issue means I no longer need the sugar hit. The coffee and sugar was such an assault on my system, I could not truly feel what was good for me until I got them out of my system.
Absolutely agree Jane. I’ve never heard anyone else present that we are to feel what to eat. It’s common sense, so one wonders when and how we came to lose this knowing.
Ann, when I first heard this expressed at a Universal Medicine workshop: ‘Feel what to eat not eat what you feel’, it changed the way I viewed my relationship with food. I learned that if I listened first to my body, in other words being connected. When disconnected I’m most likely to override my body, and just eat what I ‘feel to eat’. There is a clear difference and my body knows it the difference, even if I sometimes don’t.
Its utter madness to ignore the very tangible and clear messages our bodies constantly communicate to us, then to add to the insanity we go searching outside of our bodies to so called experts on what to eat and drink, all based on someone else’s theories, which come form their or another’s body, not our own.
This is a great point Kylie; if we all started to listen to true health advice from our connection with our own bodies it would put a lot of food industries out of business. It is no wonder there is a never-ending array of new ‘health’ foods, diets or products on the market to try and influence and steer us away from this natural knowing inside of us.
Constantly bombarding us with choice and contradictory information and so-called experts to create confusion and self-doubt so that we will blindly follow. The only expert on our own body and what serves us is ourselves.
Absolutely Leonne, Already as a teenager I realised my body did not like cabbage for example. I would feel like a balloon, with a very sore tummy after eating it. Pulses are a bit the same for me; good protein from fish or animals agrees much better with my body. And I’m learning more and more how I need to refine constantly what foods work for me, and also how much. I realise now that so many foods I used to eat actually did not nourish the body at all – these foods actually really put a lot of pressure on the body’s digestive system – the body just has to digest it as best as it can. Since I leave more and more of these unhelpful ‘foods’ away, I need less and less food, and feel so much better for it. And it’s really simple too.
Thank you Nicole for this line, “When we are disconnected we are running on half of our resources and so our ability to make great choices is diminished.” Yes you have hit the nail on the head, this is the real deal for me. Feeling what to eat which changes from day to day as my body needs support in different ways for the day at hand. Maybe in time this will be different, but this is where I am with my level of consciousness now.
How true Caroline, “A true diet is an awareness diet”, that for me is the answer to all dietary needs. For a long time in my earlier life I would often say that, that food is not for me and was branded by “who do you think you are, you eat the food put in front of you.” I have now come a long way from that experience and am so grateful to have awareness of what is right for me, by just listening to my body. Not always spot on, but work in progress.
It is corruption to promote the concept that people need to listen to the latest facts and fads on diet. The biggest crime is that it disempowers the everyday person, as they come to believe that they can’t possibly know all they need to know to make an informed choice. However all we do need to know is with us 24/7. Our body when listened to will always tell us how food affects us. We just have to be prepared to make the changes.
The production of wheat and dairy have beed developed by the western world to provide cheap food for the masses.
Wheat and dairy numb the body and dull the senses and leave us craving stimulation which we appease with sugar in the form of alcohol.
If we leave these out of our diet our senses return and then we can eat what we feel is best for us.
Diets are always someone telling you what to do, none tell you to feel what you put in your mouth and how does it affects us in our body! We have spent a lifetime numbing our body’s responses to the things we eat. Remember the first time you had a cigarette and your first drink of hard liquor? Those were fresh vibrant indications from our body sending massages, in fact it was screaming at us.
I have personally found that slowly is the best way to re-sensitize the body. Pick something from the list of known things that can have negative affects on your body. Gluten, dairy, sugar, caffeine, smoking and alcohol pick an easy one first and just don’t do it for a week and then re-introduce it and feel what it does to the body?
It has taken a life lived so far to get where we are currently at and will never be a quick fix to undo what we have done to our body’s.. every journey starts with the first step.
“Not just what I eat, but how much I eat and the energy I am in when I eat” This forms part of the whole picture of the foods we eat and I would add to the list ‘the why we eat’.. Which is directly associated with the energy in which we are choosing to do so.
Nice add on Cherise, the what, how much, WHY and how did I feel after are all part of any true diet.
Thank you for calling out the corruption behind our prevailing theories of eating. You’ve lifted the lid off the illusion and exposed the raw truth. When we have such a powerful internal feedback mechanism in the body, one that can guide and steer us towards vitality, why do we continue instead to outsource our wellbeing to external sources of so-called knowledge that can never come anywhere near the benefits of working with the body’s own unique messaging service? Getting back to basics by honouring the body’s responses and reactions to food is the quickest, easiest way of restoring our natural vitality.
Beautifully said Jane. Every single one of us can be empowered to great measure if we honoured and listened to our bodies. So simple and yet so easily dismissed and forgotten, but our daily choices would be so very different, in honour and respect of what we need in order to be more of who we truly are if we simply listened to our bodies that are communicating to us always.
I agree vanessamchardy simple steps building one after the other in self-love is the way to go so that it becomes natural to let go of what does not feel good in the body and there is no sense of imposition or missing out.
This is such a great point Vanessa. With all the ideals and beliefs about food and all sorts of things we have internalised, we can even go ‘within’ and at a surface level come up with the ideals and beliefs we have subscribed to. I love how your give a great way of us deepening our ability to truly listen to our body .
Indeed, Katerina. This is something that applies not only to the choice of which food to eat, but to all things that we choose. Our body provides us with a level of communication that is a golden thread leading us to truth.
Great. Being present in the body in what we are doing and gentle self-care will lead to more awareness to feeling what is good or not to eat. And allowing ourselves to honestly feel these feelings and messages of our body and connect a bloated or sick feeling with what we ate. Often we disregard these connections, not wanting to know.
This is a very important point Kylie. The media play a huge part in literally misleading and mis-informing the public, so that free will is literally absent with food choices. We’ve essentially got a choice of one sugary sweet over another, and one dietary solution over another. Nothing I have seen advertised or promoted is ever about connection with ourselves and our bodies. Which is utterly crazy when we consider that what we eat is taken into our bodies that we walk around with every moment of the day.
Well said Katerina and Kylie, what if our choices are being made for us by us accepting a lie and not actually feeling where we are at with our body. If we are not wanting to feel our tiredness but instead consume redbull or a number of coffees in our very busy day, then where does that leave us in time when our adrenal glands, pancreas and nervous system shut down from overwork.
yes Katerina, this is something we should have learnt when we were younger. If our bodies were the bosses, how very different would the food world look today (and our bodies!!!) ???
This is great, feeling what our bodies need makes so much sense. While on the other hand the whole food industry is saying otherwise. There is a big push in just being as everybody else to fit in to the norm of eating everything that is easily available. But choosing to feel what is truly needed brings so much more enjoyment to live.
We are what we eat, as what we eat makes up our physical body and enormously influences our feelings and well-being.
Supercool blog!!!! I like the emphasis of you that diets are coming from the head and that we should feel what we eat and don´t follow blindly a bestseller book that says what is good for your own body!
To be able to actually feel how the body reacts to certain food, one has to omit it for a certain period. If you do not have felt the difference you cannot judge it. My body speaks loudly too, when I eat gluten & dairy. I have tried out.
This is so true,Caroline. Our diets may be all different depending on how we individually feel in our bodies. Food pyramids, diets and fixed menu planning all take us away from truly feeling what our body is telling us it needs. It encourages another area in our life where we don’t take responsibility as we rely on what others are saying that we need, rather than what we truly feel.
Thank you also for exposing the corruption in society when it comes to our body. We are being robbed of the wisdom of our body so we can allow ourselves to be fooled into all kinds of diets and health choices that are not in line with what the body needs to expand, be vital and support a loving healthy life.
The energy behind foods and why we have them is actually more impartial for us than necessarily the food itself. Listening to the body and being very very honest with where one is at, is one of the ways to truly heal our relationship with our food to make it as super supportive as possible for us.
I couldn’t agree more that Universal Medicine presents information that makes sense about food, the body and energy. I have never had a way of eating that suits my body so well, I no longer feel bouts of tiredness, mood swings, dips in sugar levels or agitated. Having the understandings that my body knows best…and all I have to do is be prepared to honestly listen and adapt, has made a huge change to my day-to-day life.
Spot on Leonne. Perhaps we should stop thinking ‘healthy diet’ and start thinking ‘healthy diet for me’, as we all have very specific needs when it comes to food. Even if two people ate a diet that was identical in terms of food – the frequency, amount of food and best time to eat would vary greatly between them.
Our bodies really are the greatest measure of what to eat, and if we all learnt how to listen to ourselves in this way when we were young, countless issues, diseases and illnesses would all be eradicated.
These are really good points you and Leonne have raised and in line with what Serge Benhayon has presented in ‘feel what to eat’, instead of what most of us do .. eat what you want and ignore what your body is saying!
Yes Vicky and then also blame or be annoyed at the body afterwards…. ignoring the fact that we chose to eat something in the first place that affected the body.
Awesome Kylie Connors ‘healthy diet for me’ is exactly it. I live in a household of five and we may eat similarly but our actual meals differ based on what we feel at the the time. Just the same as someone wanting a whole glass of water and another not wanting any – our bodies and everything we choose is different and we need to consider this on all levels.
One’s body knows what is good for it, and if it’s not right, will let you know very quickly.
There are so many people telling us what is right for us, and so much contradiction out there. Diet books can be confusing. Go with what you think is right for you.
‘Feeling first and tasting second’. Thats my kind of diet Suzanne.
I was talking to one of the mums at school today who was sharing with me the changes that she had made for the family and their food choices. They have chosen to cut gluten, and sugar from their diet. So when it came to birthday party time at school where one of the children had bought in cakes to share the child told the teacher that she doesn’t eat sugar anymore so didn’t want one. The teacher said that she must take one as she usually has one and the other children that don’t have them have ‘allergies’ she asked her Mum to tell the teacher she has allergies so she doesn’t have to take a cake, it made me remember when I used to tell people that my daughter had allergies when she was young just so people would try to get us to eat things that we chose not too. It seemed that it was only acceptable not to eat the cake if you had an allergy.
Yes, when we don’t let our body be the boss then it often ends up being bossed by another.
Precisely – if we are not in charge of our body….than who is?
Great question Deborah!
Ultimately there is no other to answer to at the end of the day, or start, or middle for that matter. After all it is our own hand that brings to our own mouth the fuel we choose to run our vehicle. To take for granted the instant communication our vehicle provides is inevitably to ones own demise.
I love your comment Paul ‘The truth has a beautiful simplicity to it ,..’ so true when we look at how complex food has become….and as you say the body has an undeniable wisdom that I see is the answer ~ to our food issues, need for diets, food related conditions such as obesity, etc etc!
Yes Kylie i fully agree with what you share here…our body knows what it truly needs for its existence, but more than that for a quality of vitality and wellbeing! The key being as you say, starts with a relationship with your body, getting to know your body and then your body has a relationship with food!
When you think about it there is no way a mass produced diet can suit you as an individual. We have to take more responsibility for our health and nutrition. We each have our own personal nutritionist in our own body. Mine certainly tells me when any food has increased my heart rate or I feel sluggish. We just have to be honest and take the advice our body is telling us.
I have tried many diets over the years but never once was it mentioned to feel what to eat as Serge Benhayon has presented; this isn’t dictating a diet but actually empowers people to come back to their body and listen to what it is saying. All my life I have overridden my body with my mind, this isn’t living it’s functioning! What I am slowly learning is to come back to the body more and more and let that lead the way then life becomes more harmonious, flows and is healthier on so many levels.
Food is a big industry and I feel you have a point when you say ‘those who have vested interests in the plethora of beliefs and ideals held in the food industry stand to lose much should the consumer begin to listen to and care for their body.’
Also the media has gone far away from what it was originally intended for in publishing news in a transparent way, now it seems journalists feel they have a right to dictate the ideals and beliefs that they hold on others, which is so imposing. This is not true journalism but a power trip.
In a world where statistics are showing that we are basically eating ourselves to death, and where every other shop seems to be a cafe or restaurant, it is about time that people who are making the choice to eat a healthier diet should not be shot down or set aside as unusual, but celebrated and supported.
Yes indeed, there is so much judgement fed by the media I think, because when I talk to people I meet about food about what and how I eat they all say they feel the same and have made similar choices around their eating patterns. Many more are having the conversation and perhaps the people who make money out of our not so healthy habits are feeling the pinch on their pockets.
When you put it like that Rebecca, it is quite startling clear. Every shop does seem to be a cafe, or restaurant and we are making ourselves so sick with what we choose to eat and drink; that we are literally ‘eating and drinking ourselves to death.’ Eating in a healthier way should be celebrated rather than being slated and demeaned. But it is understandable that those that want to hold onto their ill, but comfortable ways will protest the loudest.
I like that little sentence Bernadette where to repeat your words “….we will just keep eating ourselves into disease, chronic illness and bankrupting our health system….” and that from my observation, and my own experience from some time ago before I began hearing about our choice to listen to our body, is exactly the scenario that plays before us in many homes and communities everywhere where there is a dearth of endless food enticements to keep us from feeling what is truly going on. Of course it is up to us, each one of us, to see and accept the responsibility that we have to support our own body that is endlessly endeavouring to alert us to listen to it, and with awareness to make appropriate choices as a result of just knowing that we do in fact have a choice – whether to be a reflection of vitality and good health or that which is opposite to that. Seems so simple really, but I found the simplicity came from my developing awareness and this was a tool that I discovered I had at my fingertips, but not until my own overweight body, sinus overactivity, lethargy etc. etc.came under scrutiny by my finally listening to my body and dissolving some of the myths that we had been fed since I was a child.
I agree. A no brainier indeed.
We do really have to look at who is driving the media to want to rubbish what is so obviously good for our health and vitality. This is a really great no holding back article, which to me makes so much sense.
Great comment Paul.
It is difficult to believe that the reaction to a healthy lifestyle can be so strong. It is seen as extreme and a hype to cut gluten, dairy and all sugar. We are so afraid to let go of our comfort food that we gladly listen to the negative media regarding this subject. Maybe it is time for a new hype ‘listening to what your body has to say about the food you eat’ . More awareness to the effect of food on our physical and mental well being and why we need comfort food in the first place is what should be on everyone’s agenda.
So well said ilja. I wonder how these comfort foods ever became the stable and considered healthy diet in the first place as I can feel, now that I have eliminated them, just how unhealthy they feel in my body.
The fact that these foods are defended has to come from a comfort of not wanting to let them go, much like you say. Perhaps we need to look at what it is we are avoiding to feel that we need to defend such heavy and dulling foods in the body.
Like everything else like exercise, sleep, work etc it makes complete sense to simply let our body do the talking and listen to it and be guided by it when it comes to discerning what feels healthy for it or not. If we only rely on outside information we diminish the power of this relationship we naturally have with our bodies.
I love your bluntness and we need that strength of reality to be spelt out plainly. From the state of the health of the world in terms of obesity levels, that have grown at such an alarming rate, it certainly reflects that we need more bluntness and honesty. Until we are willing to see how integral our diet is to our health and well being, we will continue in the same seemingly arrogant and mindless way.
I know that for me ‘It’s a work in progress as I discover and let go of patterns of emotional eating and beliefs about food that I had taken on’ and as I open up to this awareness I can begin to support my body more by listening, and lovingly taking more care of my body.
I am finding the same Hannah, I notice that a food that I was enjoying eating no longer feels right, I may stop eating it for a while or I may stop eating it for good, it does not matter, what matters is that it is constantly changing and I need to honour what my body is communicating with me and when I do I feel my natural vitality.
When no two people are the same, we are all different in size, shape, age, gender etc., live in different climates, with different ryhthms how could a diet with specifics ever work for all. One size does not fit all, what I feel to eat changes daily depending on what I am doing, where I am in my monthly cycle and so on. Thank goodness I learnt to listen to my body to feel what to eat because it has inspired me to fine tune my very own bespoke diet that works for me.
This is so true Kylie – “It is no wonder true health advice is attacked by the media and other sources, because it actually makes sense.” I have had in a lesser form felt attack towards me because of the choices I make to eat certain foods or to not eat certain foods. I find its when others are not caring for themselves with the level of detail I do especially with food and they feel uncomfortable with the choices they have made. It makes so much sense to listen to how the body feels after eating.
Great point Kylie. The true meaning of “freedom to choose” is totally misunderstood and people believe in a freedom that actually restricts us in lots of ways. As Caroline said before our diets are about building awareness in our bodies to be able to discern and feel and live from our bodies. But with this restricted feeling of “I can do/eat what I want to” we cut ourselves off from our body and then live at the mercy of our food cravings that are all impulsed by the emptiness and discontent people live today. There is no freedom in eating whatever you want to without listening to your body first. That was an amazing learning for me and today I feel truly free of this need to eat everything. True freedom is not measured by the amount of things I can consume, but by the awareness I have in my body!
Beautiful Rachel, it’s crazy that we see food as a liberty – we can fine dine, choose what we will and won’t eat, diet or not diet… however, so often we are actually slaves to food, cravings, stimulation, addiction, comfort and all the things we rely on food to bring us. It is only when we put the love for our body first, that we can say no to this slavery cycle and free ourselves to live an entirely different quality of life that is not shackled by what we have considered as ‘normal’ when it comes to food.
Having lost 5.5 stone (35 kilos) from listening to my body I have no doubt that “my body is the boss”.
My body is my boss as well and carries so much intelligence. It talks to me every moment of the day, letting me know what feels true and supporting, what does not and what it needs. The question is though: do I make the choice to listen?
“No one before Serge Benhayon had presented the notion to ‘feel what to eat’.” This is also my experience now I think of it. It makes so much sense to simply listen to your body, instead of following what a book says or what another person says.
I remember many instances in my life where my body just knew what to eat, depending on how I would feel, the season, the location I was in etc and that this feeling was like an inner instant knowing, and much faster to arise in the body than any thought in my head. I remember trusting it at times but also question it and override it at many others considering all the ideas around diet, nutrition in society I came across , my upbringing etc. It feels very liberating and very supportive of a personal development to come back to such a simple approach of “feel what to eat” with at the basis the fact that food is for true nourishment not for reward or numbing. I always find fascinating to observe my food choices and how much and or often I want to eat based on how I feel.
I love what you say about gluten, dairy, sugar and caffeine. It was the same for me. I was falling off my chair and the tip of my nose itched every time I had a bread roll for lunch. I used to get the shakes after drinking coffee and drank gallons of tea and water to dissipate the effect. Very silly really, but that’s how much I wanted the comfort of my morning latte! Was it worth it? No, definitely not. Being on a gluten-dairy-free diet has been an absolute blessing. I have so much more vitality these days!
Putting down advocates of healthy eating in the era of burgeoning yet preventable disease makes about as much sense as promoting cigarettes and whisky…oh hold on, they still do promote whisky, and gee wasn’t cutting the cigarette promotion a fight and a half.
Look at any one of a dozen cooking shows and you see the delicious comfort of sweet, fatty and alcohol laced foods tempting you. Any one of a dozen food magazines call to us with chocolate in every decadent form possible. But hey! That’s cool. Indulge away and then we will fix you all on Medicare.
No brainer indeed.
It was also a revelation for me when Serge Benhayon presented, “the notion to ‘feel what to eat’, and also “an empowerment back to me to trust what my body had already been communicating to me”. There was and still can be an urge to eat out of comfort, but when I am connected to myself and truly feel what my body needs I can feel so nourished and supported by the food choices I make.
Comfort eating is huge. How many of us eat to relieve tension or avoid emotional discomfort? Although my food awareness and choices have improved enormously over the years, I know I have a way to go with comfort eating. I can also still eat to alleviate tiredness. Continuing to get to the heart of how, why and when I do this is key, as is the understanding that food is actually needed only to support the body, not stimulate or dull it, is crucial. Balancing enjoyment of food with its practical purpose is too.
And the other thing that really got under my skin was the shocking level of bullying and abuse the competitors had to endure – and they call this ‘entertainment’. Not one ounce of love! Thank God we know another way of living.
This article is so spot on from every angle. I too have stopped eating many foods as they so disagree with me and, as a flow on, my health has increased exponentially. Yes, I agree that there also is so much more going on behind the scenes with dietary recommendations, the food pyramid etc. Food recommendations are presented in a ‘one size fits all’ manner which overlooks we are all different in where our wellness and related energy levels are.
Exercise is another place where our bodies sure tell us when we have overdone it. We moderate what exercise we do based on what we feel both before and after. In my experience, choosing what to eat can be approached the same way and my doctor keeps smiling and saying to keeping doing what I’m doing. You can’t get a better recommendation for one’s choices than that.
Very true Judith – food is definitely not ‘one size fits all’… It is super important we FEEL and work out for ourselves the right amount of food we eat, and what foods actually sit right and support us in our body. I have a super sensitive body, and something I’ve had to work with is the ability to sit in the lunch hall at school with some fried fish (which to be fair tastes pretty great) while watching a lot of my – much thinner framed – friends gobble down some pizza and chocolate bars… But my body is just different to theirs, and it’s something I’ve got to accept.. I’ve become a pretty great chef in the process!
Beautiful Said Susie! “I have a super sensitive body, and something I’ve had to work with is the ability to sit in the lunch hall at school with some fried fish (which to be fair tastes pretty great)” I bet they are all jealous
And this sensitivity can tell us so much. I even find that I feel extremely uncomfortable when I sit at a table and everyone is just stuffing their faces, but not sitting and enjoying their food, eating gently and connecting with one another. But one thing I’m learning to do is accept that and just start the conversation, I seem to be always the one to start things haha.
How interesting it also is that from this place of push, rush, drive and doing food is often the very thing we reach for to provide us with the fuel required to keep the push, rush, drive and doing going. This in part explains our addiction to sugar, carbs, fats, caffeine, alcohol and more. Use of food for this purpose is on a par with using illegal drugs for the same purpose. We might not be snorting cocaine, but are we mainlining energy drinks, sugar, coffee or donuts?
Victoria, I’d say I was addicted to sugar as it had a huge hold on me. I’d reach for something sweet when I was tired, needed a lift, felt sad, felt anxious, felt lonely or depressed – you name it, sugar was my drug of choice for anything that I didn’t want to feel, or to keep me going. Until such time that I started to have healing sessions to address the underlying cause of any of these feelings and that’s when sugar started to lose it’s hold on me, to the point now that I could wear a ‘sugar-free’ label 😉
The “many dishes of knowledge we are served by the food and diet industries is allowing the corruption to continue” is a very real statement in a world where most science is bought and thus, the outcomes of research predetermined by those who hold the purse strings. Listening to and feeling one’s body – how revolutionary and radical is that really? Isn’t it just common sense?
We rely so much on knowledge from books and professionals but the truth is, no one has authority in knowing our body like we do. The wisdom That we can access through our body has got to be the most untapped resource on earth.
So true Sara…”our body has got to be the most untapped resource on earth” – the animal kingdom can likely show us a thing or two in this respect. We don’t see animals in the wild with obesity or adults in one species drinking the milk of another species…they know as a species what to eat and drink without any outside help.
And animals don’t overeat, they only hunt when they need food to sustain and survive…whereas we humans indulge like nothing else. Simply eating to support the body to hold more of the essence that enhouses it, is a revelation…and something we ought to pay attention to.
Very true Sandra and Sara… Humans pride themselves on being the ‘smartest, most superior species’, but how can this be when we can’t even seem to get our food right! We overeat, eat the wrong foods, indulge, starve ourselves on crazy diets – all whilst (as you both point out) the animal kingdom are eating only what they need, what’s right and what’s in alignment with the food chain.
I know I did Sara and I did follow this myself. So I did practice what I preached, but my health was deteriorating and I was putting on weight (an extra 20kgs). I was a little bit of everything kind of girl. It’s interesting this morning I caught morning TV, while I was at work and they were talking about “should we eat breakfast?” The answer was a big yes we should. What was interesting for me was that I felt not like having breakfast this morning, so I didn’t and I was perfectly fine until I had a break at 10am. I remember when I used to have porridge for breakfast, I was starving about 2 hours later.
That is interesting what you say about breakfast Jennifer.
I rarely have breakfast these days by choice, I have never liked it and often forced myself to have some because you ‘should’. I will have cup of tea but never really feel like eating until about 10 or 11 am. This is what works for me. I dont feel hungry nor do I have a dip in my energy levels as I would if I had had porridge or cereals.
Awesome Sara Harris and so simple. We know ourselves inside and out.
The notion of “feel what to eat” changed my whole relationship with food. The very idea of feeling in first place is an instant reflection of where I am at. I get to ask myself does the feeling come from being connected or does it come from a desire, need, an emptiness wanting something to go away? I can eat in a way that supports my body to be more aware or I can eat to make myself disconnect and and have less awareness. I used to say to my kids it is like superman and kryptonite. We all have our powers – Sight, smell, touch, feel. When we eat food that does not support us we lose access to these powers. When we are disconnected we are running on half of our resources and so our ability to make great choices is diminished.
Great point Nicole and love the kryptonite analogy. It can quickly become a snowball effect whereby we make choices to dull our awareness and then this diminishes our ability further to make clearer choices about our health and so we keep making more and more choices that are not so good for us. Diet is one of the quickest ways that this vicious cycle can be broken in my experience. As soon as we stop and feel into why we are making the choices we are we are immediately asked to be more honest with ourselves which can only be a good thing, if at times uncomfortable.
I love this simple sharing about superman and kryptonite Nicole. It might be a simple and playful example but really true in my experience!
Great comment about Superman and kryptonite Nicole. Amazing analogy that suggests the majority of the world may be unable to use their super powers because their food choices are reducing their experience of life. What a shame the media don’t support us to discover the truth about the effect of food on the human body. The impression is that their motive is to protect profit margins rather than increase awareness.
I agree Nicole, we can use food to connect to the wisdom within and live in the flow of life or we can use it to disconnect and live in a fog with the struggles of what we can easily identify with.
i love the simplicity and realness of how you have expressed re Paleo diets and how to determine what’s right for you in food choices, by ultimately allowing your body to be the boss.
I also ate gluten, sugar, dairy and pretty much anything and everything. One day I was so sick I felt I needed a change. It came to me that food like gluten and dairy were contributing to making me sick, so I stopped them and I was totally Amazed at the results! I never looked back. The power of choosing from my own body Is what has made it easy to follow. I think if I was told by a doctor or dietician to stop having them I would have found it hard, but still tried.
This so highlights Harrison how important it is for everyone to feel from their body for themselves. Saying one diet fits all is very irresponsible. I can remember at different stages through my life following the food pyramid, and believing that it must be right even though I would feel sick especially eating the carbohydrate section. There are so many beliefs around foods. I just thought how poignant this statement is “This food is to die for!”
These foods didn’t make me fall of a chair! But likewise, an hour or less later I would be unable to keep my eyelids open, dreaming of a comfortable bed or actually curled up sleeping at any hour of the day. This way of living didn’t feel normal to me but was all that I knew at the time. It wasn’t until I experimented for myself with how my body reacted with and without the foods that I came to realise the effects I was having.
I, and I am sure many more can relate with what you share here Cherise. By becoming aware of the effects of certain foods and the quantity of food eaten has on our body empowers us to make more loving and supportive choices.
The media’s treatment of Universal Medicine and Pete Evans – and I’d add Sarah Wilson to this list – is appalling. It makes no sense at all to abuse people who are simply pointing out the dangers associated with eating certain foods – unless of course you factor in the food industry, as is pointed out here. But is there more to it than this? Given it is us who en masse keep the media alive – and have failed to call it to account for so long – do we need to consider that we are somehow part of this story? Are we collectively so attached to food and the comfort, indulgence and stimulation it brings that we resent anyone who brings truth to the situation or might be seen to be taking away from us that which we so desperately need to get us through life?
I agree wholeheartedly Victoria! The excesses of ‘the media’ must be brought to book.
Great questions to consider Victoria. Could it be that many don’t call this kind of attack from the media and some food industries when it comes to anyone presenting the truth is because it is one big distraction? As while all this toing and froing is going on many can throw their hands in the air and say oh well they can’t even get it right so why should I try. It’s all feeding more and more irresponsibility.
Imagine if the media stopped attacking and they actually wanted to know the truth and if the food industries would just say ‘oops got it wrong’ lets look at what needs to change. There would be nowhere to hide from the truth.
I’d say that there is a lot of attachment to certain foods that offer comfort, indulgence or stimulation by many. What would workplaces look like on a Monday morning if there was no coffee? It would look like a war zone!
I recall someone saying to me a while ago Victoria that food is a very controversial subject and I have to say that I do agree and it’s through the attachments that we have to food and why we eat what it is that we eat. Food can be very healing or it can be a replacement for the warmth, intimacy and a deep connection that we are not living ourselves. I know this too well.
Is it possible that we are not able to bear the ‘news’ that is what we are fed, what is happening in the world, and how removed we all are from it we seek maximum comfort and distraction through food to numb, anaesthetize and shut down our ability to feel that we as a collective have done this to ourselves. The media reflect what we allow and continue unrestrained into all areas of life with systematic abuse and derision. The fact is the joke is on all of us for we are the ones that are dying, getting obese, putting overt pressure onto the medical systems throughout the world.
We are so attached to our food that we really do not want to be eating less, changing what we eat etc. We like the quick gratification we get from food and we have learnt to disregard and ignore the impact of this on our bodies. So much so that many people do not make the connection between what they eat and how they feel.
And then your article goes so much deeper, exposing the corruption that pushes a relationship with food that comes from the head and diets which are prescribed to fix or better the body but do not encourage the development of a true relationship with the body…ironic as the key reason our bodies get run down and out of shape is because we have not fostered our ability to listen to and care for our bodies.
Well said Hannah, our bodies let us know so clearly what agrees with it and what not. When I was still eating lots of gluten and dairy and sugar, I was constantly having issues with weight, cravings, skin, constant runny nose and respiratory infections, and digestion issues – and also moods and lack of motivation, even depression. When I then went travelling in Asia as a young woman (30 years ago) I learnt a totally new way of eating; so much lighter and natural, with plenty of fresh vegetables and protein and some lovely fruit. And I felt the difference in my body straight away, feeling how much this way of eating agreed with my body and felt really natural. Moving to Australia helped me so much, as there wasn’t all the enticing coffee shops with decades of ‘tradition’ and pastry and other sugary specialities on every street corner. That was such a relief and I actually never missed any of it.
What a great article about listening to the body to choose what to eat, especially important is the part about how the body feels after eating. From my experience with young children they are very driven by what tastes good in the mouth as opposed to the slightly more long term affect of the food, after the meal. But I am aware that the drive of their taste buds is also very much influenced by their surroundings, media, social, cultural etc where the message is all about eating for its appeal. Re-educating our children and ourselves to eat based on what serves the body in how it functions and how it feels is a great way to start to listen to what truly works for each of us. Do we want to fall off our chair or race around like crazy and then do so, are we bloated, achey, blocked up congested, or do we feel nourished and vital? Gauging how we feel after we eat a meal is a brilliant way to start to focus this way, and what a simple yet effective way to teach our kids 🙂 .
What a difference listening to the body makes. It has transformed my life, transformed my energy levels and transformed me physically, mentally and emotionally. What more can I say – the proof is in my body (not the pudding)
Hilarious and true Alison – the proof is in my body (not the pudding). ‘feeling what to eat’ is transformational!
Not only is it transformational Karoline, but revealing. When we don’t ‘feel what to eat,’ it soon rebounds in the body telling us something needs addressing.
My body has been all the proof I need to support the decisions I have made to make changes in my life. Once I started to really listen, I realised that it had been speaking to me all along. The discomfort I had been feeling when I ate certain foods was my body telling me that I was not supporting it, but many of these things fell under the category of “good for you” so I just overrode what was being communicated to me!
I work in the health and beauty retail industry and am constantly surprised at how much we can give our power away to some diet or other, even at the expense of our own bodies. I have many conversations when someone may be expressing concerns over uncomfortable symptoms in the body and yet have never considered that it might be to do with an ideal that has been subscribed to. These ideals and belief can have a massively strong hold over us. We may have only read an article once on how it’s vital to have a particular food or food group in our diet and yet this has a hold over us for years to come. It’s almost like there is a fear of ‘what if it’s true?’ which means we then hold onto this belief literally for dear life. Once we start to listen to what our body is communicating to us, all the time, it becomes so much easier to let these beliefs go and free ourselves from their bonds.
A great example of this would be the ‘five a day’. How many of us have subscribed to this belief when it may not be a true way to support our bodies. To me it feels like a marketing ploy to encourage us to buy more fruit and vegetables, therefore making it about money first. Ok, we can accept that many fruits and vegetables are good for us, but it is how our bodies feel that is important. Once upon a time I ate a lot of fruit, enjoying the sweetness of it. I don’t each much fruit anymore because of the sugar content and can say that my health has not suffered at all because I can get all the vitamins and minerals I need from salads and vegetables.
It’s a great point you make here Sandra – sure fruit and vegetables are a good for you but the type of vegetable or fruit, the quantity, how it’s prepared and the time of day you choose to eat it, all vary from body to body and day to day. Rather than take a prescriptive approach to food, simply relying on whatever we are told is “good” for us (which changes every 5 minutes and as you’ve said is often more related to propping up an industry – agricultural interests, the wellness industry, the diet industry, to name a few – than truly improving our health!), how about we try something truly revolutionary and start listening to what our bodies have to say?!
It is very strange that there needs to be a revolution involving people being empowered to connect to and listen to their bodies. How did we end up in a situation such as this? We have developed many helpful guidelines as human beings, to assist in living on this planet of ours. When it comes to food, these can only be guidelines as what is true for someone to eat at one moment in time, differs often completely from the person sitting next to them. Therefore it is futile to compare ourselves to others, or to try to adopt a regimen not guided by our body.
Good point Sandra or how much water we ‘should’ be drinking. It is seen as healthy as drinking lots of water but sometimes the ‘recommended’ amount could be overloading the body and not what it needs at all. The body can let us know exactly what it needs to support it and when … it is just a case of listening to it!
I agree Vicky and I can feel that how much water I need to drink to support me is different from day to day.
Water is a good example Vicky, and it could be transferred to anything that is ‘good’ for us. That ‘good’ is often lost when we overdo it. I can recall trying to be healthy by eating more fruit and vegetables in the past, but having too much was not good for my body and it told me quite loudly. Thankfully I listen a little more intently to the signals these days, we don’t need books to tell us what to eat, just empower our bodies to guide us all the way.
Absolutely true Stephen, when we start to feel our bodies after eating and become honest about it we know exactly what doesn’t work for us. It is a great empowerment to let our bodies decide.
This is a great point Stephen. As children we know what our body wants and doesn’t want, but very often we get made to eat things because they are supposedly goo for us. I have to admit I did that to a certain extent with my own children depite their protests, but there were equally things that they would say absolutley no to and I would respect that. Our bodies are so very clever in telling us what they need and don’t need – we’ve simply got to learn to pay more attention to the signals.
I have always been a great advocate of drinking what my body needs rather than subscribing to the belief that I need another plastic bottle of water, or 8, to keep my body hydrated. Again, back to what the body knows best and not what the food industry want us to buy into (literally).
True Vicky; ‘The body can let us know exactly what it needs to support it.’ I was recommended a diet of raw food but after one meal my body felt so cold and undernourished I knew it wasn’t for me. I didn’t have to listen too hard to get the message – it was very clear. I guess however, it’s easier to override the messages if we have certain food addictions or like something a so much that we don’t want to give up even though we do know it is not good for us.
Yes I can relate to what you have shared Sandra. It all comes down to how each individual feels when they consume certain foods and drinks. It is then each individual’s choice to be honest with the outcomes and aware of how the body feels. I too used to try to stick to the ‘five a day rule,” but that is no longer right for my body and find too much fruit to be too sweet for me now. It’s really about finding what works for you.
I don’t eat too much fruit anymore, I feel I can get what I need from a good selection of vegetables that suit me. After all, why would I want to introduce so much sugar into my diet when vegetables and salads contain what I need. My experience is that if I find myself wanting to eat fruit it is because I am craving sugar because I want emotional comfort, so is it then better for my body to address why I want to eat the fruit in the first place!
This is great point Sandra. You can see on the shelves of supermarkets smoothies which are labelled as being worth 1 or 2 of your 5 a day, making people think they can’t be anything but healthy. But the sugar content in these smoothies is so high that its not so different to drinking a can of coke. If I drank one, I know I would suffer from the sugar rush afterwards.. headache, nausea, feeling racy, and then a sugar hangover the next day. It ain’t worth it.
Lucy this is brilliant, as there may be so many things that we are doing or that we struggle with and it’s because we have subscribed to an ideal or belief of what is good for us and how we should be. Have we considered that our body is the BOSS and to understand and listen to it will reap many rewards.
Yes Lucy, what you’re speaking of is ‘food fads’, and which are so often endorsed by celebrities too. We are literally eating for another to be like another, as opposed to truly eating for our own body, and thus the relationship we have with food is tied to self acceptance. Hard to do when there are, as you expose Lucy, all those ideals or beliefs getting in the way.
‘We are literally eating for another to be like another, as opposed to truly eating for our own body, and thus the relationship we have with food is tied to self acceptance.’ Brilliant Zofia. This is a powerful revelation.
Wow Lucy, Shevon, Zofia – absolute gold! I love the depth of what you have exposed here in relation to our relationship with food. POW!
Yes Hannah, pow pow! Lucy Shevon, Zofia, you have all nailed it! How different would the worlds approach to food be if everyone one came at it with this awesome understanding..
The food industry would certainly look and be very very different!
That is so perfectly put, Zofia. Food already has so many rituals and ideals around it that it is very easy to construct yet another thing to assign to it, and in this case it is, “I want to look like that person/ have that person’s life, etc. etc. So if I eat the way they tell me to I will be able to”. Quite a tricky one!
I love watching the latest ‘health food fad’ and the way they are created. Coconut is one of the more recent fads to hit Australia. It wasn’t that long ago that coconut water and products were found only in the Asian sections. Now they can be found everywhere. Health food fads seem to occur when a product floods the market with some clever marketing and the promise of a quick profit. Ultimately what these fads do is to create more ideals and misinformation about what is truly considered ‘healthy’ for our bodies.
I can relate to this Lucy, ‘how much we can give our power away to some diet or other, even at the expense of our own bodies’, I read a few books at the same time about different diets, they were all saying different things, I followed them all at the same time – there were lots of things that I eliminated from my diet in a really short space of time and I ended up barely able to walk because I felt so weak, I lost a huge amount of weight, and it was not until a family member talked to me about this that I realised this was not working, this was a huge stop for me and made me realise that following a diet that someone else is telling me to do simply does not work, that I need to feel in my body how certain foods affect me personally and that just because someone has written it in a book does not make it true. Since this time I have been listening to my body and feeling what to eat or what not to eat and I feel so much more well as a result.
Rebecca It is not just diets that we give out power away to, we are almost constantly giving our power away to others or institutions or ideals or beliefs; basically anything and everyone outside of us.
This is the basis of consumerism is it not? Reliance on our giving our power away and the constant seeking outside of ourselves.
True power lies within. Learning to trust our own intrinsic knowledge of our bodies, rather than books, is the way.
Beautiful Kehinde2012 – true power does indeed lie within. It is, as you say, simply a matter of learning to ‘trust our own intrinsic knowledge of our bodies’ – which can at times be difficult when there is so much pressure from outside offering us a “short cut”, a “quick fix” while trying to tell us that our bodies are somehow not right. It’s a crazy trap I have found myself caught in many times before, a trap that takes you further and further from the power and knowing that has always been within.
Absolutely Hannah. Temptations and traps are endless, there to trip us up and keep us away from ourselves. Letting the body be your guide and listening to it helps us make more loving choices.
Wow powerful words kehinde2012. Our bodies are all knowing, there is nothing that escapes them. You don’t need a book to tell you how to live you have to feel it in your body.
Very powerful, indeed “Or bodies are all knowing…”
True!
True Kehinde, and I would add learning to trust our own bodies and not be swayed by what others (who we may admire) around us are eating and feeling we should eat the same way when in truth that may not be right for us at this time.
Yes Josephine, the impact of ‘fashionable foods’ is enormous and advertising has much to answer for. It has such an influence over us from a very young age, and that doens’t even take into consideration what our parents or teachers tell us to eat. As babies, we know what we like and dont like and we will soon reject anything that doesn’t agree with the body. We could learn alot from babies!
I cannot but agree with what you say here Kehinde2012 as I can feel the truth of what you have written in my body 🙂
This is a gorgeous comment Rebecca about the simple and pure quality that lives within you and has a voice that can easily be heard once the imposed language of what you ought to be doing had been silenced.
As you say Catherine it is seemingly so much easier to follow someone else’s idea of what is ‘good’ for us around diet and my feeling is that when we choose a diet like that it is because somewhere it fits our predilections and so is still feeding us emotionally. It does take conscious presence, commitment and love to really listen to what our body is telling us about what we are eating and then let go of what the body does not require. Often for me the struggle part is where I am still using food emotionally, even something apparently healthy I can be holding onto and including in my diet, when my body is intimating it no longer needs it.
Josephine, your comment I feel provides the answer to Catherine’s questions above. It’s when we are ‘still using food emotionally’ to fill a need or an emptiness that we avoid listening to what our body is telling us in relation to the food we have just eaten. There’s a part of us that perversely enjoys the ‘downer’ that we get from certain foods and it creates a vicious cycle in that the more we eat those foods, the harder it is to feel the body and read the signs and it becomes a kind of ‘normal’ way of being so we forget that there is any other way to feel. So we continue to follow some diet or belief or addiction which conveniently gives us an excuse not to take responsibility for what we are eating.
Yes Josephine, I also still do this. ie. What for some would be a very healthy snack, has become for me something I eat for comfort. We are not eating food, we are eating Energy. We are also Often not eating because we are hungry.
I too gave my power away to diet books – always wanting them to fix me so i could change my body, but the truth was, I was overriding my body, the very thing that can tell me exactly what i need all along.
I was caught up in diet books because it came from the head and advocated a sense of discipline that I wanted to see through – but actually as I listen more and more to my body, I can feel how my mind aligns with this and allows the choices my body is yearning to make. As you say – diets are mental, but true eating in response to where you are at can only come from the body.
Great point Catherine, I too in the past just wanted to follow a diet and for it to provide me with all the answers and be suitable just for me. But over time I realised that, as you say, it had been my lack of not wanting to put the effort and love into listening to my body. I do more so now, some days I can still override what my body is sharing, but I soon feel it when or if I make unloving choices.
Lucy I recall years ago a doctor saying to me that grains were not essential to how we live and that we don’t need them. I remember having just studied a nutrition subject being mortified at that idea and that a little part of everything was needed to maintain a healthy diet. The question was, was it healthy for me? It took me 10 years to realise that what I believed was healthy was not healthy for me and it’s been a wonderful thing to discover.
I didn’t formally study nutrition but I have read a lot on and around the subject. What I noticed was how arrogant I could be about the beliefs I’d subscribed to. If anyone challenged them there would be quite a forceful backlash towards them – a fury almost at having my knowledge challenged. The more of an expert on nutrition we consider ourselves to be, the more stubborn we can be about making changes our body is asking us for.
It can be a massive thing to not let the mind override the body in the food choices we make. We are bombarded with messages that often change about what is right for the body and for years I have eaten foods based on what it supposed to be right. Yes in this ever changing dietary jungle is one constant, and that is the consistent messages my body gives me in response to the foods I eat. Am I just going to accept feeling ok or am I going to choose the type and quantity of food that is just right to make my body vital and energised. it is amazing to know how much we can refine our eating when we take on board the signals we get from the food we eat. And what I have found in doing this is how far off the mark the mainstream messages about correct nutrition actually are.
I love that Stephen – the one constant within the myriad of information on food, what to eat what not to eat, cooked versus raw, carbs or protein, calorie counting etc is the messages our body is telling us. Listening to our body and always responding to its messages may not always be the easiest thing to do, but will never lie and will always thank us when we do listen.
Jane, yes listening to our body is key in all of this and this takes time and practice too. Realistically we are often a long way away from what truly sustains our body and what it needs when we come to our choice of what, when and how much to eat. We are pretty loaded really, with so many beliefs and habits around food. It’s easy to listen to the dramatic messages the body sends out, for example I never had another migraine when I stopped drinking coffee, but the more subtle messages require a real commitment and a listening attitude that is very attentive to the oh so subtle changes the body is revealing to us. It also takes humility, surrender and I have to say it the willingness to experience discomfort and a bit of pain as we let go of old ways.
I agree Stephen – there is always another diet, another form of instructions waiting to be published in a means to tell us what to eat – which is purely based on the mind and does not take into account that every body is different, and every body will respond differently – plus the fact that our bodies are always changing and evolving so no fixed diet will ever be the answer.
Is it also possible that diet industries have capitalised on the fact that by releasing a stagnant diet that is not in response to our bodies, it ensures the user will try something, not be able to stick to it, beat themselves up for a bit and then go and find the next diet. Have we made diets a money making ideal that will never work but always have customers who are insecure or desperate about how they look? If you think about it – we have given our power away to these corporate giants telling us what to eat rather than listening and trusting our own bodies. What a window of self worth issues this delivers.
Brilliantly said, Lucy. I have worked for charities which provide certification for various foods for the past several years (the ones that put a little label on a product to say it meets such and such standard) and know first hand the enormity of the industry that is built upon the beliefs that we have around food, the way it should be grown, and who should be producing our food. This just adds to many of the complexes that we are fed from a young age about food. Very rarely is the question asked, “what is this food doing to me? How do I feel when I eat this food?” Instead we go looking for foods that fit into our mentally-driven picture about what makes good food, but where do these ideas come from? More often than not they are based upon something we read or were told, not by our own lived experience of what makes us feel vital and alive.
There is certainly great complexity created around food and nutrition, the fads, the diets, the popular belief running the day…even the labels are unnecessarily complex and hide the truth of what we are buying. We can hardly expect we are being given upfront honest information on nutrition, health and diet when there is secrecy, research undermining research and with many vested interests in our palate and choices. We are literally bombarded with seeming choice and complexity and contradictory information. With the sugar industry exposed and our bodies living proof of the so-called nutritional food myths that have plagued society we are left to discern what is true and what our bodies need or stay on the love-less rollercoaster and handover control to another.
This is a great comment Lucy. Ideals and beliefs around food and what we should and shouldn’t eat can bring up so much for so many and do indeed have an immensly strong hold over us. To consider that some of our physical symptoms could be result of what we are eating is almost unthinkable for some people, including myself until I was introduced to this possibility by Serge Benhayon. It was only after hearing this that I began to ponder on the fact that there might be something in what I was hearing. After experimenting with certain foods and listening to my body, it became very easy to let go of certain foods that I was very attached to, but that I identified as making me bloat or feel sleepy. Im still experimenting, and Im finding the simpler my diet becomes, the more vital I feel.
Yes, when we read something that has been expressed with certainty and it resonates with us, it can deeply influence us. If it fulfills a need of ours it may take us years to find out that this confident statement is not true or was completely misleading. This happens much less often when we listen to our body.
I can feel for myself how I can still have remnants of those beliefs Lucy especially about calcium and how diary is the best form of calcium. This has been a big one for me to break and as a post menopausal woman and the potential for osteoporosis, beliefs can creep in like water through a small crack! Great point you make here – timely and confirming. Deep listening to and care for the body are the key here.
I know what you speak of here Lucy, we are all so busy looking for the answers outside – the texts, the experts, the magazines – whatever your fancy, but few of us have actually stopped to take the time to listen to the truest teacher of a all, our bodies.
We do hold onto many food beliefs for dear life and these held onto beliefs are killing us instead of allowing us to live a healthy and well life.
Thats right Sally, the statistics on obesity say it all
Lucy what you’ve written here is so familiar! One can read or even hear a food ‘fact’ second hand and it can stay with you regardless of how your body feels if you’re not listening to it. I know this has been true for me. Reclaiming my body from all my ideals and beliefs is certainly a work in progress but wow what a valuable one. This for me is about saying my body is the expert on itself not any body else and my body is worth listening to all the time, not just when it suits me or I can’t ignore when it’s unwell because of my ill choices.