"You are What you Eat"... is a Big, Fat Lie.

We’ve all heard that saying “you are what you eat”. Search for that on Pinterest and you’ll be there for hours looking at all the inspiring and well meaning quotes, but they’re all wrong. Heck, there’s even been books and documentaries with the “you are what you eat” concept at the center of them, but again… they’re well meaning, but flat wrong. 

 

If “you are what you eat” were true then why do you see so many sick people wandering the aisles of their local health food and they know the first names of the all the cashiers? And then there’s other people who eat like a racoon in a campground where nobody keeps their food lockers closed and they don’t have any health issues at all? Because there’s more to it than what you eat. 

 

What you eat matters, but it’s not everything. (not even close) 

 

The idea of “you are what you eat” is a good start, but there’s two more concepts attached to that bumper sticker quote that matter just as much. Have you ever wondered why the fruits and veggies from your local farmers market taste so much better than the stuff you get for half the price at your local supermarket (here’s lookin’ at you Costco, Safeway, Winco, Raley’s, etc)? 

 

The tomato from the farmers market and the tomato from the supermarket look the same, but they are not the same food. One was grown in well cared for soil with a broad spectrum of nutrients, minerals, and healthy bacteria with little to no herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or insecticides. And one was grown in soil that’s deficient in many nutrients, minerals, and bacteria and needs to be pumped full of chemical fertilizers to produce a crop year after year. And the fruit or veggie is then sprayed with all sorts of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, insecticides, and then it’s picked early in order to not spoil during the shipping process (which can be weeks). The farmers’ market tomato tastes better and has more nutrients, the supermarket version tastes bland and doesn’t pack the same nutrient punch. 

 

The second concept that quietly lies behind the often touted “you are what you eat” montra is your body’s ability to properly digest and absorb food – your digestive function. If you’re digestive function is all messed up then it doesn’t really matter how fresh or expensive your food is because your body can’t squeeze the good stuff out of it anyway and all your well meaning efforts go right down the… well, you get the idea. The key to getting the most out of your food is having a digestive system (and an immune system) that is working well. 

 

How do you test the quality of your digestion? Two ways… first, there are blood labs and stool (poop) labs you can take that measure what’s getting absorbed into you blood and what’s passing through. Second, you need to measure the function of your autonomic nervous system – the system that controls your digestion (and your immune system). 

 

That’s where upper cervical chiropractic comes into the picture… measuring, analyzing, and, if needed, improving the function of your autonomic nervous system. In fact, the nervous system part is where you need to start. Even if you got the lab work results and it said you have poor digestion, what then? Restrict your diet even further and miss out on those nutrients too? It makes more sense to start at the beginning… fix the nervous system, then fix the food, then watch your health return (which is what you really want anyway). 

 

Here’s the new bumper sticker quote…

 

You are what… your nervous system allows your body to properly digest and assimilate and the source of your food matters because all food is not created equal.

 

Yeah… that’s not as catchy, is it?