Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Real feelings and fake KFC


The elimination diet that I have been talking about, devised by Dr Alejandro Junger, is about eliminating foods that cause inflammation and therefore pain, in the body. The list of foods is long, you can google it to see what they are. I wrote earlier of my despondency with superfoods, which are a central tenet of this diet. I was missing the foods I loved, and becoming a bit suspect on the claims made by some of the manufacturers.

Shortly after that post I decided to do the 21 day first phase again, and recalibrate. I was getting too free and easy with a lot of restricted foods, with the result that my back and hips were once again aching and I was irritable and tired. In spite of my regular yoga, and mostly on track eating. I just didn't feel as good as when I was 'eliminating'. (Yuck. Sorry. It's not actually that kind of 'eliminating'). It was obvious to me that there was something to this. Time to start again. But first a little reflection on the difficulties I had last time. Learn from those mistakes.

sharp shock

I am simultaneously reading Michael Pollan's "In Defence of Food" and Steven Poole's "You Aren't What You Eat- Fed Up With Gastroculture".

 Both these books are doing a fair job of dismantling my core life philosophy, and highlighting just how bamboozling, contrived and wrong Western food science/culture is. Nice one.

I have spent two days living that very zen experience of having my ego destroyed. Realising that all which I value and am valued for may be superficial and facetious. While undertaking a crazy, faddist diet chock full of untested and trendy super-foods, which cost the earth (monetarily and maybe environmentally) and may actually be messing with my hormones/adrenal system, which I am trying to fix.

Aaarrghhhh!

Fascinating stuff.