In my late 20s I had a bad chest infection, of which I’ve only had 3 or 4 in my whole 58 years of life. The infection was persistent, even after high doses of tetracycline antibiotics. I was feeling constantly nauseous and unwell, and was craving something but did not know what. Intuition told me that I’d find it in the Adelaide Central Market. So I went to town on market day and walked up and down the aisles of food stalls with no idea what I was looking for (and feeling a bit silly, too).
Cheese? … Really?
Something made me stop at a kind of stall I’d normally pass by as quickly as possible because they smelled strongly of dried fish, fresh oysters, and other things I can’t handle the odour of. However looking at the goods behind the glass, suddenly there was the thing my body wanted!
I still had no idea what it was. A block of some weird greyish-bluish-greenish translucent rubbery stuff, it looked more like a pencil eraser, shoe sole or ‘sea monster’ gristle than food! It turned out to be some kind of cheese, and though I was a great cheese lover then, it did not look appealing at all.
It didn’t matter, because that’s what my body wanted. I bought a piece and went off to try it. It smelled strong but not offensive, was intensely salty and had a weird flavour and texture. But my body said: “Yes!!” So for about 3 days I had tiny pieces of it, no bigger than a fingernail, and loved it!
The Off Switch
About the fourth day I got my weird cheese out of the fridge and could not bear the smell. Something in me had switched off and I felt that my body no longer required it. I had evidently obtained whatever was needed, some uncommon substance or nutrient or microbe not present in my usual food. Crucially, it had stopped the nausea completely and I began to improve rapidly. After the ‘switch off’ I tried a bit of the cheese and almost vomited. It tasted foul and intolerably salty. End of story with that strange cheese!
Here’s what amazed me ever after: how did my body know that in the Adelaide Central Market there was a food I had never seen or heard of before that contained what my body needed to restore itself after the tetracycline therapy?
Spam (and I don’t mean on the internet)
Decades later in 2011 I had another similar experience during a major illness. Again, I’d had a multitude of powerful antibiotics and my guts were very miserable. I was taking a range of probiotics and nutritional supplements, but there must have been something missing. I walked up and down the supermarket aisles ‘following my feeling’ and it stopped me at the Spam shelf.
Spam?! How is that possible? I’m a vegetarian, Spam is meat, it’s preserved and full of chemicals, which I avoid.
But it had whatever that magic thing my body wanted. So I bought a small tin of it, ate it in 2 days, and hey presto! My body got what it wanted and hit the off switch.
After that the mere thought of Spam was revolting again. I got the feeling this episode of craving Spam had something to do with sulphur, but I didn’t really make time to do the research.
Meat
I don’t digest animal protein very well. Usually meat smells, tastes and feels offensive to me. But occasionally, particularly when I’m sick, I suddenly crave meat (usually chicken) and find myself thinking about it against my mind’s will. Then meat suddenly smells good to me and I find myself drawn to the smells in supermarkets and barbecues. So I buy some organically raised chicken. It tastes great, I still have some trouble digesting it and must eat it very slowly with a lot of fresh vegetables, but it works. I know when the ‘switch off’ has occurred, because once again I can’t stand the smell of meat and I don’t feel the need for any more for quite some time.
So I’ve learned: body knows best!
By Dianne Trussell, BSc Honours; 16 years in Biological & Medical Research & Teaching
Further Reading:
The Body Knows
Serge Benhayon on Food and Diet
599 Comments
A beautiful confirmation that our body is much wiser than our mind.
How astute is our body as it will always tell us what is great for us to eat when we are prepared to be open to the on off switch of our body, and in a similar way to you Dianne my body would refuse to eat chocolate at times with my jaw locking up and refusing to chew.
It’s really interesting how our bodies will tell us what it doesn’t want to eat and drink. Wine for instance smells like vinegar, going down the sweets and chocolate isle at the supermarket is easy as there is nothing in my body that wants to hook me into wanting anything from the shelves. It has taken me a long time to truly trust myself and not to run away from myself by indulging in something that has a harming effect on me. I had to take a stop moment to appreciate just how far I have come from all the self abusive ways I devised to stop myself from feeling the magnificence of who I truly am.
This is amazing Diane in so many ways, but mostly that you listened to your body and followed the impulse to let it take you to exactly where you needed to go to get what it needed. It begs the question of how much medical intervention do we actaually really need when we are ill, as its quite possible that our bodies are simply lacking a vital mineral/vitamin/microbe or such like that can so easily be rectified by eating a certain food instead of swallowing a heap of medication.
I love how you follow your Intuition Dianne with regards to food and listenting to what your body needs, and then giving yourself that food with positive results. Yes, the body knows exactly what we need, all we have to do is listen.
It is a very gentle approach to listen to the body and honour what it communicates. We can tend to think the body is less intelligent than the mind, but your body knowing Dianne the specific things it needed to reverse the antibiotic after effects indicates an intelligence way beyond the thinking mind.
This is very inspiring, Dianne, as well as a confirmation of the clear body intuition we all have when we simply listen and honour what we feel. Very different to the push of some cravings that precisely suppress that intuition in the numbness we experience after eating. The more love we bring into our lives, the more discernment we have in distinguishing each one of these options we experience.
This is quite incredible that you followed your intuition to such an extent that you even knew exactly where to go to find what your body needed! We do know exactly how to heal or support ourselves through illness and live in a way where we don’t get ill in the first place. The question is, are we humble enough to listen?
It is incredible, our body is so wise, and I love how this blog captures and confirms that.
It is interesting to read how the body knows what to eat and when. I have the same thing with liver. I never eat it as a rule and then once in a blue moon and usually when I am unwell or trying to recover from an illness, I get the urge to eat liver. Then after about a day, I can’t stand the stuff again, until the next time that is.
Such a great example of the wisdom of our body and to not let the mind interfere with diet rules etc. Our body knows best and when the relationship we have with our body is one of knowing or trusting then the outcome is always honouring our whole system.
I feel a key word here Annelies is honouring, learning to listen to our body and honour what it communicates and how we feel.
I have noticed that with animals (cows or sheep), who will seek and lick some particular soils occasionally. Animals naturally listen to their bodies, we humans have kind of forgotten how to do that but as you share, if we simply listened we would be richly rewarded.
They can also seek out specific plants at times to self medicate when they have different health conditions.
Re-establish an honouring relationship with our body and we have the greatest diviner of truth that we could ask for, on hand 24/7.
Yes the body is constantly working on being in harmony and so often we sabotage that by letting our minds dictate our choices. Great reminder to be open to messages from our bodies whether we are feeling sick or not.
It is amazing how when we allow it to our body can sniff out what is needed in any situation and then when it is no longer needed that switch is switched off and the same substance can make us feel nauseous. The wisdom of the body is far greater than we are often willing to acknowledge.
Our bodies are truly amazing, and I can relate to similar examples, where at certain times I feel my body has really needed something, I was not sure what nutrient was required, but once my body has had what it was craving my body was satisfied, and settled, it feels very lovely to truly honour our bodies.
When it’s a true craving it has that off switch, if it doesn’t, chances are it’s something else we are feeling that needs discerning and expressing. Otherwise there is no off switch.
Thank you Dianne, this is always a joy to read and I laughed at your line “Spam (and I don’t mean on the internet)”. I must pay more attention to my body and what it’s asking for because sometimes I notice I feel really drawn to eating something, like lamb, and the next day it might make me feel nauseous to even consider it.
I’m pregnant at the moment. And in my first trimester – my body wanted bacon. I never eat bacon – but that’s what it wanted. So I honored it, ate it for a few months and then one day – I wanted nothing to do with it. I was amazed about how our bodies can just give us clear messages and how we can lovingly respond.
It is lovely to read about your freedom in food choices. Not constrained by what should or should not be, you are wiling to listen even if this messes with your preconceived ideas, you trust your body no matter what, and this is amazing.
It is interesting that in today’s times this sounds a little odd because we are so used to numbing our bodies that to have this level of responsivity to your body is rare. In the past it would have been considered quite normal to use foods, herbs and other sources in this way.
Using food as medicine is not new but something we have forgotten about in this age of fast food, drive throughs and loads of sugar, salt and dairy.
And as we connect to a deeper and deeper level, we will learn to listen more and more to those messages loud and clear.
Though our bodies, our Soul moves, and though this movement we are able to bring to this world all of who we are, what we are here for. This intelligence that you speak of Dianne, of our bodies, is truly one of the greatest wonders in this world, one that we would be wise to invest in to explore the extensive potential it is continually offering us to live.
If our bodies are made of particles that come from the universe, and if we can get ourselves out of the way by surrendering to living from our soul, our bodies just may show us all kinds of amazing things.
This is a cool sharing.
I had a recently similar experience where my body wanted some lamb and I denied it. So after 2 days of serving up fish, I was feeling sick just by the smell of it. I was going off my food. And funnily enough, my toddler didn’t want the fish either. So I cooked up some lamb mince, served it to both of us, and we ate it all. Now I am craving it anymore. It tells me life is so much simpler when we just listen to our bodies.
Extra-ordinary Dianne Trussel(!) and I do not say that often. When you write a book on true science meeting the whole / all I will definitely read it. It is truly nourishing to the body how you discover the meaning of life so simply through how the body shows it. I always become truly inspired and confirmed in what I have always known and felt myself.
The body can have some surprising messages when we are willing to listen to what it has to say.
As you say Dianne, our body really does know best… The thing is we have to learn to actually listen to our body, and this means listening to ourselves, and this means really starting to tune in, to everything, to the way we speak to the way we listen and to the way we move.
The body knows best in every situation. This is now becoming a regular understanding in my life.
There is an infinite amount of wisdom available to us, all that is required from us is to develop and deepen the relationship with our bodies so we can tune-in to what is needed at any given time.
Isn’t the wisdom of the human body amazing the way it tells us what it needs? The trick with these cravings we do get though is to read between the lines and understand if what our body is telling us it needs is a true need that will build us up and nourish us, or one that is a sabotage to stop us from feeling what we don’t want to feel.
This exposes the fact that the diet/food/nutrition industry does not always know best. It can be a valuable source of information, but if you use it alone, without your body, it will only bring you part of the picture. Our bodies are incredible, and this blog highlights that if we get ourselves out of the way, and trust our bodies, they will show us to take great care of ourselves, bringing us the whole picture.
I have been unwell in bed for the last few days and funnily enough have been feeling to eat citrus in particular grapefruit. It’s funny and yet brilliant how our body knows exactly what is needed and when we listen to it can truly support us.
I have had experiences of following my gut and eating something that I would never normally eat because it felt true to support my body in that moment and it still fascinates me how this is communicated but also why I am more likely to do this in circumstances where I am feeling particularly unwell whilst some of my everyday choices are less supportive for my body/gut.
It is amazing how our body knows so clearly what it needs and how often we override these clear signals and either eat things we know do not agree with us or just get stuck in a rut of eating the same things without feeling if they are what would support our bodies.
What an amazing science – following the body’s lead without judgment and prejudice and giving the body what it is asking for, genuinely asking for and not something based on appetite or a craving.
Dianne, thank you. Your blog has me wondering if when I’m in the supermarket I go into autopilot and just buy what I normally buy, and whether the same foods serve my body every time. Perhaps there is a opportunity to experiment and see what it is my body really needs.
More and more I’m observing my body’s messages that when I’m in an moment of emotional response, being invested in something and I’m not getting my way, my body sends out a signal – a kind of niggly feeling to indicate something’s not quite right. What’s become more and more interesting is that somewhere along the way – way back when I was little this signal got interpreted as hunger pains. But it is not hunger – however eating will quell this uncomfortable feeling so I can avoid the emotion that has been stirred up. The mind can play some amazing tricks interpreting what it wants on the body.
Everyday is an opportunity to develop our awareness around food, when we truly feel into what we are eating and why our whole body reaps the benefits. When we eat the wrong foods for us we are leaving ourselves open to energies that take advantage of our numb or racy state.
I am forever in awe of how our bodies work and the magic that lies therein. And I am astonished at how much we choose to negate and live in disconnection to our amazing divining vessel that serves solely to guide us to live the full potential of who we are, our Soulful light and no less.
Delicious! There is so much medicine in life if we are open to feeling and seeing it. Medicine is not just pills and syrups it is in how we live, what we eat, what we do. There is an amazing science to this.
This blog reminds me of how animals live in the wild, sourcing just the right foods for them, like a vibrational pull towards each other, everything knows how to sustain itself through co-operation or harmony.
I love the way you treat your body and life as an experiment Diane, constantly observing and testing what will work and what will not. So many of us are numb to this amazing intelligence in the body and simply eat on auto-pilot without regard for what it is needing.
Dianne I loved the way you were so connected that you listened to your body – we all have that on/off switch but we have over ridden for so many years that we eat from what our heads are signalling instead of what our bodies are signalling. Without perfection, I from time to time receive these signals from my body and I love listening to it and I know I will the more I connect with my body, the body knows exactly what it needs. The question is are we prepared to listen to it?
Great sharing of how to listen to your body, and follow its intuition. I can learn from that as I still follow many beliefs, dogmas, ideals and rules of what I should eat, which is stored in my head, and do not support the body necessarily. Thanks for the inspiration Dianne.
our bodies really will let us know exactly what is needed, how to live how to move and what to eat… Our bodies are truly amazing
This confirms that there are no ‘shoulds’ or shouldn’ts’ in what we eat if we are open to what our body is telling us.
A great article Dianne showing how the body knows best, I am amazed at how in tune and allowing you are in allowing your body to lead the way against what the mind would say. Shows how much our particles are connected to everything.
What amazes me Dianne is how in tune you are with your body; I love reading your blogs and am inspired by your knowledge and wisdom. Yes the body does know best if only we would listen.
I felt drawn to this blog today and I can see that it is because I am allowing my mind to override the dictates of my body. My body does know and if I allow it to impart it’s wisdom and honour the messages I know in my heart that this is the way.
Our body’s cravings offer us so much to learn from – and in this also, just where the cravings may come from… Are they truly supportive? Or driven by a part of us that is seeking something that may satisfy on one level – but offer complication and potential harm on another.
‘Food for thought’ – and much mastery for us all in my books, in truly discerning the difference…
It’s great to come back to this story today Dianne, it’s such a good one with such a good message. We do tend to get in a rut with food, even healthy food and foods that we know our body loves. This is a great reminder to always stop, listen and respond, otherwise we are eating like a robot.
The body certainly does know best; thank you for sharing your insights, knowledge, experience and your wisdom Dianne. Our responsibility is to listen and respond to the messages our bodies are continually sending; you inspire me listen and respond with greater and deeper self-love.
When I look this page up in google, it says ‘I have visited this page many times’… and I will keep re-reading this blog because it contains such an important message…. If we can listen to our bodies they will be able to tell us so much , but there is such a fog around this subject that the voice of clarity gets washed away in a tide of dis-information, salt and sugar.
This is so true Chris what you share: for me it is also about staying committed and consistent with knowing and choosing that there is an awareness to well-being communicated by our bodies constantly. The tidal pull towards certain foods dulls this awareness for me and dairy and gluten, plus sugar and salt are all part of what the tide dumps back on my body. This all perpetuates the cycle of dulling me down so I don’t make the choices that are true for me.
Allowing myself to eat exactly what I feel to is at times a challenge, because often this can go against the logic that I think I know and have based much of my understanding on. But what I am coming to see is how this logic was accepted without consultation with my body in the first place, so although it may make sense, it may not actually be what my body needs. And what I notice is how this polarity always creates a cross-roads moment, when I have the choice to go along with what my head is telling me or what my body is communicating.
Great sharing Dianne, the more we develop our relationship with our bodies the more intricate our knowingness becomes of what foods are supportive for our bodies according to our evolution.
Wow how much our bodies knows what it wants, it so explains why sometimes we have the cravings for some wired stuff and its just for a small moment or a day or 2 then its gone. If we stopped to listen to these we would get a better understanding of what our bodies are really needing to be in optimal health.
Every time I read this blog I just love how accurate the body can be when we are willing to follow the impulses it is giving us. And your surrender to the most awkward foods is very inspiring and teaches me to have a go, also when it is not something I expect at first hand.
It’s interesting about your feeling to eat spam. I know it’s not something I have eaten for decades, however you went with what your body was calling for. That’s inspiring to me because I can become quite rigid with myself in applying rules, when sometimes what’s needed is something totally different.
Dianne I appreciated the on/off switch analogy for listening to the body in terms of what is needs and for how long – it’s very clear.
I am inspired by the level of trust and communication you have with your body Dianne. If today my body said, ‘cheese please’, having not eaten dairy for a decade, I would ignore it which means I am allowing my mind to dictate instead of allowing my body to reveal what is truly needed. This is a big challenge for me I have just discovered after rereading this blog! And Spam, well there is NO WAY! I would need to know that it was medicinal before I ate it.
Too funny Bernadette your comment on ‘medicinal’ had me laughing. It’s been true all my life I would turn my nose up at certain items, but mostly I can feel now out of some form of snobbery. Not discerning any real truth just what-ever convenient truth that suited me for different foods. Some would be ‘health foods’, some ‘gourmet – but not healthy’, ‘qlty wine/coffee’ all based on how I wanted to manipulate the sliding scale of justification why I ate something or not.
I was thinking of this article today, the main thing that came to me was how in tune with your body you were during these moments (and probably all of the time : ) and also how you got yourself (mind) completely out of the way buying things like spam even though you were vegetarian because you knew there was something in it, that in that moment your body needed. I have been sick for the last week, my body is having a big clearing, which is a blessing but I have been absolutely floored and have gone through so many different symptoms in just as week! Including loss of appetite and feeling sick. I went to the supermarket today and I could feel my body wanted something but I had no idea what it was and because I was feeling so sick didn’t want to spend to long in there. But it has made me reflect on how in tune am I with my body and how much does my mind dictate what I can or cannot get?
I agree Vicky, I feel that the imposed rules we make about food get in the way of being in tune to our body and it’s messages. My body may want something unusual or a food I don’t eat anymore, but the rigidity of rules and the mind can get in the way of simply following through on how I feel.
Great example of how the body is able to communicate what it needs in order to heal itself, and wonderful how you allowed your body to take the lead, when it would have been really easy to override it.
This is amazing and it just goes to show when we get ourselves out of the way our body knows how it wants to move or when it needs to eat. This is also not just with movement or food but can be with anything, a job a place we need to be at. If we are aligned to truth and love our inner radar will guide us to where we need to be and what we need to do next, this is definitely I know something I can surrender to more. It also reminded me how I loved meat but became vegetarian for years completely overriding what my body needed. Years later when I started eating meat again I could feel just how much I had denied my body of what it wanted. Also what I really loved was your openess and willingness to flow (no rigidity) in that you were vegetarian but felt your body needed meat so had it for a few days. Our bodies do certainly know best.
I really love this part about the off switch, that your body gave you the message to stop eating cheese. I like this because I often override these particular messages – the ones that tell me to stop.
Not stopping eating is quite a strong theme in society, evidence by bigger servings of food and ‘all you can eat’ smorgasbord type restaurants. I feel that indulging with food is seen as a fun and often accepted social activity, perhaps even indicating that we are experiencing the ‘high life’. Overdoing it and having a sore stomach can even been seen as a type of contentment or ‘love’ (eg being overfed by ‘loving’ relatives). It’s interesting how far we have moved away from the simplicity of listening to and honouring the body, and eating to nourish.
From reading your many contributions to this and other sites I can say that you are a great and true scientist and that you deeply honour and trust the messages that your body conveys. And the greatest thing is that you know when to hit the off switch; you don’t let yourself be swayed by any fanciful ideas of what you can and cannot eat, you follow your body to a T and give it what it needs, no more and no less.
Our bodies do absolutely know what food and beverages support us and what does not. Our body giving us signs and signals all the time. The issue is if we are listening and supporting the messages or not.
I suffered from a blocked noisy my entire adult life. Visits to my GP all lead back to an allergy to dust and pollution. A friend suggested a second opinion and a visit to a naturopath lead to the discovery that dairy, which was consumed in large quantities, was causing the congestion. The message from the body was clear and the connection with the right person has lead to a healthy lifestyle and a dramatic change in my general health and well-being.
Thank you for all you have shared here in your learning Dianne that the body makes sense. And this blog makes a whole lot of sense and should be published on a greater scale so many others have access to all the wisdom delivered here.
“So I’ve learned: body knows best!” – If we listen to it, However for years I was numb to its messages and ate whatever my mind and my eyes wanted. No more as my body shares its wisdom with me and I rarely get seduced into eating food my body no longer cares for.
The wisdom and natural intelligence our bodies hold, wow, just imagine our lives if we honoured this from day one onwards…And we have the blessing of understanding and honouring this now forwards in our lives.
That our bodies can be knowing exactly what is needed to restore balance is a powerful message, that we have the ability to listen to what our body is saying with such precision is even more extraordinary
The more I realise the rules I’d be placing on myself about food – the more playful I’m being in observing what to eat and when. Playful is far more nourishing and sustaining than the rules that’s for sure.
Oh what a wise friend we have in our body, but what a shame it is that we are not introduced to its wisdom from childhood so we can grow up respecting it, honouring it and listening very carefully to its messages. This week my message has been to eat lots of parsley, so I have, and can feel my body thanking it me for it from the moment I put the first piece in my mouth.
I love the simplicity of this blog and what it is presenting. Ideals about our diets and life really do get in the way of these otherwise very simple and clear truths of the body which it communicates all the time.
You are describing an intelligence that we all possess if we can learn to listen to what our bodies need. Its just a question of re-developing our sensitivity… and interesting to note that its well known to us all. Just consider how often this crops up with women when they are pregnant – they know what they need (no matter how unusual).
Beautiful science Dianne. And I am impressed that you did not put the weird cheese and then the spam through analysis in the lab to determine the ‘magic’ ingredient but just appreciated and accepted the wisdom of your body.
The body does know – if we don’t let the mind chatter over rule. I have been to the best of my awareness following my bodies insight to what it needs and what it doesn’t, however I discovered a big but in the way. If I stop feeling like a food I stopped eating it (I’m referring to nourishing fresh produce here). What my mind then did was make a rule of this. So then for even if I felt to eat something – say beef or even tomato I’d thought I wouldn’t because I hadn’t been. There fore over ruling feeling what my body truly needed at that moment. Like you share Diane, sometimes it only requires a very small amount for a very short period of time to offer our body what it truly needs. Rules don’t work they mess with our innate senses, which truly are wise beyond explanation.
It’s too easy to get into habits around food and what we prepare for ourselves on a daily basis. This blog is a great reminder to get connected more deeply with the body and let it choose every time.
Stunning examples of the wisdom of the body against all sense or logic. There is so much we are yet to learn but listening to our bodies through honouring what we feel is sometimes all we need.
An inspiration that we all have this capacity to have such a fine tuned awareness… just imagine if we all listened to our bodies like this all of the time.
We can work against our bodies with the many diets and ideals and beliefs we may have about food. You have illustrated Dianne how the body knows what it needs and the results are great the we listen to it.
When I read this blog I smile to myself – Spam! The trust you have in your body’s communication is extraordinary Dianne!
Yes …. Given the opportunity our bodies will let us know loud and clear exactly what we need…. Its built in!
I am so inspired to let my body do the talking. Amazing, and yet it shouldn’t be really as this level of communication is going on in our bodies all the time – we’re just not choosing to listen.
I agree Dianne, I was vegetarian for many years and when I started breastfeeding I was continually hungry. I had to listen to my body as all it was saying to me was to eat chicken, but I was so identified with being a vegetarian I had to let go of this label as my body was screaming loud and clear. I ate chicken and it is like my whole body was free of this tension I had been carrying, I felt so much better and my energy levels lifted – listening to our body is a great way to support ourselves.
When we are aware of our body and listen to it, we cannot but become aware of what foods we need to eat. I now appreciate how intelligent it is to be able to lead us to eat just what our body needs, and how it also steers us away from the foods that don’t support us.
This is a great blog Dianne, it really highlights how our body can direct us as to what it needs in order to support the body.
Its interesting to note what the body feels like and what we feel like eating can be two very different things. Learning to read when the desire to eat something is actually coming from our body knowing what our cells need rather than that bit of us wanting the comfort from food overriding that what is being wanted actually is an assault to the body and its cells is very valuable.
The key in your sharing Dianne, was that you were open to listening to your body instead of overriding it, even when the smell was unpleasant. That is an extraordinary trust in the bodies knowing and great inspiration to read and learn more about.