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
619 Comments
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.
The wisdom that our body shares with us is for the benefit of our health and wellbeing and also for all whom we come in contact with. So it really is a responsibility we all carry to listen, read and heed all the impulses which arise within us.
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.
Accepting and appreciating that our body knows best brings a flow and simplicity to our whole relationship with food and if we are willing to listen it guides us so that we are able to clearly discern what is truly nourishing for our body and what is not.
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.
I had an experience of this recently having returned from a foreign trip feeling slightly nauseous for a few days. I felt my body needed some carbohydrates, in particular bread – so I bought a loaf of gluten-free bread. I have to say it worked. I ate it for about a week and then had no desire to continue. It seems – as Dianne shares here – my body knew what it wanted and then when to stop having it. I am now enjoying exploring and listening more intently to this innate intelligence and find myself feeling more assured in myself, with less doubt and anxiety. I am quite simply being more me and it feels wonderful.
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.
Getting to accept that the body’s intelligence is far greater than that of our minds is quite a hard step but it is the absolute truth.
The amazing intuition. How might it be if we all trusted this more and used it to guide us through life?
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.
I love how the body communicates very clearly what is truly nourishing and supportive and what is not. It is our relationship and connection with ourselves that directly affects how we discern and make lifestyle choices and in listening and trusting the natural wisdom of our body we are able to truly nurture and support ourselves.
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.