I Like to Eat...

That's the Picture of the Day prompt. I like to eat...well in the great before times the answer to that would just be yes. And it still is, really. Just eating doesn't always like me back. 

I like to eat. I like food. I like all sorts of different things. I think eating is a full body joyful experience. I have been known to happy dance over a perfect bite. When asked for my favorite smells freshly baked bread is almost always on the list. I like to eat. 

But...

As you all know I've changed the way I eat so I can feel better. There are foods that just don't agree with me. Joint pain, itching, constipation. It's lovely. So I don't normally eat those things. Even though I really like to eat those things.

I've gone to a quarterly break in normal diet. Not diet like losing weight, temporary, horrible industry, sense of the word, but diet as in my normal eating. Once a quarter I indulge in some sort of gluten or nightshade or a little of both meal. Soup dumplings, pizza, biscuits and gravy. Those have been the last run. The day I eat them I get a little itchy, the next day my joints are all a little puffy, the next day they are all a little sore, the next day I'm full bloat, and then finally a few days later I poop again and all is balanced. 

I had no idea that my chronic constipation was partially caused by gluten until I quit eating it and then went back and had some. I mean I'm never going to be one of those lucky daily poopers but it's a lot better now. I was able to quit the stool softeners the doctor put me on and everything. 

So yeah, I know, nobody wants to hear about my pooping, but it is all part of the better health through eating. 

Which just seems so logical right? Like if you eat better you'll feel better. The challenge has been and still is that the recommendations for what is supposedly better are constantly changing. Eat this! No, never eat that! Eat these things! 

What I've discovered is that we don't train our medical professionals in nutrition to the level we should, most doctors don't know much about eating over and above what we all think we know from the media. Our government recommendations are dictated by the lobbyists. Our "best" nutritional studies are funded by whatever they are trying to get you to eat. Chicken is great for you! (funded by the Chicken Growers of America Institute) How Much Soda is Too Much Soda? (funded by Pepsico) And on and on. 

It's kind of a crap shoot at times. 

Except it's not. Not really. I'll quote Michael Pollan here, "Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants." We should all be eating food we recognize as food, not food like substances. Read the labels and better yet buy food that doesn't need labels when you can. Don't eat a lot of meat. Probably best if you don't eat any meat but I know that's a big ask for a lot of us, so how about eat less meat.

And if you are having issues, like I was, joint pain, skin issues, constipation, try a food test. Eat very simply for a couple of weeks. I suggest eliminating meat, dairy, sugar, gluten and nightshades and then add them back in one at a time (meat gets added back in as types, add back in poultry see how that goes, then add back in pork, then beef, then fish). You all know it was a process for me. It took a couple of months to get everything added back in. But that was a couple months, which in the grand scheme of a lifetime isn't much.  

I'm looking at making a few more changes to our diet starting in September (don't try and change your diet while you are stressing out, it's setting yourself up for failure). My blood work came back with my cholesterol a little high again and I've really caved in to just eating all the sugar lately. Those things could very well be related... And we're pretty sure Brent's sugar levels are messed up as well, even though he has not been as "what the fuck" about sugar as I have. 

So starting in September I'll be cutting back on sugar (again) and cutting back on our animal products as well. I'm not going vegan or even vegetarian but I am cutting us back on those things. As much as I hate to admit it, they aren't good for us. And they aren't good for the environment either. Time to make some more changes. 

I like to eat. But I like to live pain free even more.