by Cherise Holt, Gastroenterology Nurse, Brisbane
Around two years ago I made the choice to eliminate gluten and dairy from my diet and my body instantly benefited from the decrease in stomach bloating, changing bowel habits and other symptoms I had experienced within my gastrointestinal tract. I had eaten these foods all my life leaving me unaware and numb to their compounding symptoms in my body. I had become an expert in overriding what my body truly felt.
The choice to decrease and then to eliminate sugar from my diet came later, and whilst it was obvious my sleep patterns and the raciness I was experiencing in my body did not leave me feeling wonderful – as with all my food choices – I couldn’t make a change without first being willing to understand and heal the reasons why I chose to be unloving with me in the first place, which then lead me to override what I truly felt.
As a human being, I am not just a creature of habit; I know that I actually live in cycles. Just as the Earth revolves around the Sun and our bodies experience a monthly cycle of menstruation or follow the monthly cycle of the moon, there are times when I know I have ‘been here before’ or have ‘made the same mistakes twice’ – if not many times over. But we can always change or re-imprint the cycle that we may find ourselves in, at any time.
Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon have never told me what foods to eat or avoid, but they have greatly inspired me to be more aware of making loving food choices. Through my own process of elimination, I have been graced to feel how these foods were really affecting me and my body.
As I began to make more self-supporting choices throughout my whole life I also experienced moments when I returned to my old ways or when I was not feeling like myself and I ate foods containing gluten, dairy and sugar. My body suffered considerably…and this was how I felt:
Gluten Dairy Sugar
Tired Sinus, Mucous Raciness, too fast
Heavy Chest congestion Back pain
Numb Eczema Headaches
Lethargic Sore throat Watery eyes
Bloated Diarrhoea Forgetful
Foggy Nausea Shaky
Constipated Acne Hyperactive
The unpleasant symptoms I endured also included mood changes and feelings of frustration, worry, anger, fear, stress and sadness, accompanied by poor sleep patterns, nightmares, a feeling of endless hunger and the overall sense of disconnection to me and my own body – awful!
With honesty and awareness of my body, I now know how my body reacts to these foods and with the repercussions lasting for days afterwards, I was left feeling far less than the amazing woman I otherwise naturally feel.
In the field of Gastroenterology patients present with symptoms ranging in severity and always with a knowing that something is ‘not right’ with their health and in their own body. Western medicine and science work persistently to research, perform tests and diagnose the body’s intolerances to certain foods, but as human beings we always have the opportunity to research and feel for ourselves if a certain food sits well in our bodies.
Personally, I have not been medically tested for intolerance to gluten, dairy or sugar but my experience with them is more than enough for me to know that they don’t sit well with me. Without self-responsibility and the willingness to take a more caring approach with me, I was living in a cycle of abusing my body and used food as a harmful form of medication to distract me from whatever I was feeling.
Food has the potential to support us to live our natural way of being, with true vitality and good health, so why don’t we all choose to eat foods that support, build, nourish, confirm and truly complement the amazingness we already are and the bodies we must live with every minute of every day?
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
I had to wonder reading your food symptoms lists how many people experience nervousness or anxiousness that may be exacerbated by foods, especially sugar and coffee? I had a relative with a mental illness and their symptoms improved drastically by omitting gluten. I’m sure the future will document how common foods, many of which are considered healthy, are actually not healthy at all. Why wait for research (which could only confirm what our bodies are already feeling), when we can listen to our bodies now.
There are many foods in this world that are not supportive to the body, in fact what does it say of the intelligence of humanity to have many foods and drinks that are not only unsupportive but can actually deeply harm?
Cherise, this is a whole new ball game, ‘body’s reaction’ to substances. Research does not account for how a body’s response is important, then “tests” that prove otherwise. We need to be open to all and not discount an individual’s responses or reactions.
We need to be open when a person says they can’t eat certain foods because they have honoured their bodies. And there are plenty of foods that can nourish the body and support it.
I love your chart that you have put together, Cherise. When all these symptoms are so clearly defined, its a wonder that we ignore them expertly well, for so long.
I agree Rachel, this chart needs to be used more often. And if we presented this to people, many would agree they have most of these symptoms listed. So what do you do afterwards is the question…
‘..as human beings we always have the opportunity to research and feel for ourselves if a certain food sits well in our bodies.’ We give our power away so early to the intellect and received knowledge and we forget that everything we need to know or understand can be felt from our bodies if we are connected to them. Supporting ourselves and our kids to feel first and express what is felt should be in our basic education, way before we learn the alphabet.
“Food has the potential to support us to live our natural way of being, with true vitality and good health.” It so does, food can either harm or heal and it is with this awareness we should bring to every mouthful.
To be honest, I am not so honest about the energetic state my body goes into when I eat foods that my body no longer needs – because I have said goodbye to gluten, dairy and sugar there is a part of me that is a little complacent. We are deepening all the time and we need to keep refining.. there is still a part of me that has got comfortable with where I am at and doesn’t want to look at the energetic outplay of my food choices.
I understand what you’re sharing here Michelle. I am aware also that as each of us changes and deepens back to where we all came from then all of our choices need constant refinement. Sure food is an obvious one but our relationships is another, as is the way that we move, the tone and quality of our voices, the way that we work and the way that we parent. Nothing in our lives can stay the same if we ourselves are deepening.
Agreed. It is easier perhaps to isolate food choices than the way we express but all of it counts. One thing that is really important however is to understand why we make the choices we do and to nominate them. In the nomination we give ourselves space to understand why the choices play out as they do and in the honesty it is much easier to address the root cause.
“It is easier perhaps to isolate food choices than the way we express but all of it counts” and in truth our food choices are an integral part of our expression.
The fact that we have the term ‘junk food’ shows that we know that some things we choose to put in our mouth are not supportive of our body.
I know Mary we know we are eating ‘junk food’ and yet we continue to eat it, at the same time we believe humans to be the most intelligent species on earth? How intelligent is it then to eat ‘junk food’?
That’s quite a list of symptoms for all those foods, which makes me wonder how many symptoms that people suffer could be avoided if more attention were paid to what was being eaten. This would be a great piece of research and could potentially save the NHS and the whole medical system vast amounts of money.
There is a kind of genius in that we keep eating the food that doesn’t really agree with us and therefore/ because that very food is the one that numbs and disconnects us from knowing what is going on with our body so we do not even register that certain food is not supporting us.
Despite the fact that all those symptoms can be experienced I can speak for myself that I too carried on eating what didn’t agree with me simply because everyone else was doing it. These days it happens less as I’m not afraid to say I don’t eat certain things because going against my body would be far worse than upsetting someone for not eating cake.
Making simple changes to our diet can have amazing results, I simply chose to stop eating bread and I felt far less bloated, and from there I continued to make changes with other foods, and now I feel far more joyful and vital.
Looking back over my life, and all the ill-health I seemed to continually suffer from, I can see so clearly, that just like you Cherise, “I had become an expert in overriding what my body truly felt.”. And I can also see that I was not alone as growing up in the 50’s and 60’s there was little knowledge, or wisdom, of the impact of certain foods on the body. But also like you, once I removed gluten, dairy and sugar from my diet my health, and naturally my life, changed beyond anything I thought possible. These days, my body speaks and I listen – well, most of the time!
Our body is a great guide when it comes to food, when we allow ourselves to feel the connection between what we eat and how we feel, there are foods that make us feel bloated, tired, restless and through Serge Benhayon’s presentations and experiencing how food feels for myself I have made changes to my diet that have supported me to feel better, and have more energy through the day.
Thanks to Serge Benhayon who simply shared by his own experience that there is another way to life; eat, sleep, walk, talk etc. That we are inspired out of the constant motion we all life in, that there is another way existing, that this is not it.
Everything that we do impacts on our ability to be in step with God. Pretty much all of life as it is currently lived jars our bodies and makes them incongruous with Life and therefore God. So it’s a case of looking at everything that we do and the way that we do it and allowing ourselves to do it in such a way that we settle back into the Life that we’re naturally a part of.
We can only truly change and make lasting changes in our lives when we understand why we do what we do, and begin to see the triggers / patterns we can fall into, and see what it may be we do not want to feel in those moments – and the more we are willing to feel, and the more we are willing to see the consequences, we eventually get to a point where we ask ‘is it worth it?’ and ‘I don’t feel myself’ … I know that’s how I quit smoking, I saw how I was being over time and I didn’t like it and eventually one day I decided I didn’t want to be that way anymore and so I stopped smoking. Our bodies are remarkable, they always show us the impacts and they keep doing so, until we listen.
Overriding what our body truly feels is so commonplace. Not until we feel terrible cos we’ve overeaten or drunk too much do we take notice. And even then we can conveniently forget just how awful we felt and do it all again. All of which is madness, but we tend to do it anyway.
It is true, we let things creep back into our diet believing that because we are well that we will stay well until we get sick that is. It doesn’t make sense that we would identify something we eat as contributing to our ill health and then have a period of being well only to go on and eat the offending foods again.
Medical testing is I am sure very helpful, but as a first port of call how much do we notice our own bodies’ reactions to foods and drink. I know I ignored hangovers for years, or the mild depression I’d get after sugar excess, or the bloating after certain meals. We can feel a lot of it no question, it’s just whether we want to?
For some people they have to be told that they are intolerant by another person rather than asking their body. But then I’ve met people who when told relate to it as a restriction and begrudge having to cut that certain food out. Yet that medical professional is only saying what the body has been communicating originally as an act of love rather than restriction.
What a great list! What if these warnings were required to be put on products? But then, how successful have the horrible photos that are required to be on all cigarettes been?
It’s wonderful to read this check list … it’s like a pilots check list before take off… and so we can, if we are diligent and honest enough, really start to take off and not be weighed down
How apt about being ready to take off! After the bottle rocket made of sugar takes off that then crashes back to earth!
We can eat to our detriment or we can eat to support our vitality and health – either way it’s a personal choice that should not be judged or critiqued.