Health is Fragile - Handle with Food
What is health? What is food? In today’s American lifestyle, these are actually the questions we need to answer to walk in vibrant wellness. You can think of it this way: if health is the target, food is the arrow. What if there were hundreds of items on the target range and you couldn’t tell which one was the target? And what if there were hundreds of arrow types, and you had no idea which one to use to hit the target?
Somewhere along the way, the true definition of health got muddled. As for food, well, that’s certainly our biggest problem. We believe 75% of what Americans put into their mouths isn’t food. We’ve seen this in the last 6 years as we’ve examined the food journals of hundreds of our clients. We’re not eating real food, folks, we’re just not!
At our clinic, we believe health is best assessed by a few pertinent questions. If you can answer “Yes!” to them, then you are most likely healthy.
Are you without physical complaints? Are you rested when you wake up? Do you sleep soundly? Do you have the energy you need to do what’s required of you? Do you eliminate well? Are you free of excess cravings? Are you free of digestive troubles? Do you rarely get sick?
The definition of food, as taken from the dictionary, is not enough for the seeker of wellness. So, we submit this as our current relevant definition: “That which has been provided for humans as food, as close to the way it exists in nature as possible, and grown and raised correctly.”
Now, if these definitions of health and food are at all accurate, then we as a nation are not healthy and we’re not eating real food. It’s not just because of the clients we have helped over the last 11 plus years that we are able to say that, it’s something everyone has seen. As we all go out and about, we look at the population of this nation and we see the signs of ill health all around us – perhaps also just as we assess our own lives and look in the mirror. It’s plain to see.
For example: according to a 2009 report from Mission: Readiness*, “27% of young Americans are too overweight to join the military.” That’s over one out of four in their 20s turned down due to obesity!
In the 1930s, Dr. Westin A. Price, a successful dentist at the end of his career, set out to travel to remote areas of the world where western civilization had not yet arrived. He was looking for the root cause of dental caries (cavities), but in the process, he gave us a tool of enormous value, one which could help our fellow man achieve and maintain wellness.
In his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, we read of some amazing things. Time after time, in every degree, he saw vibrant health in the indigenous people of regions where there was the complete absence of westernized food and culture. Here, among people with perfect bodies and perfect teeth, including robust healthy 100-year-olds, there were no hospitals, no stores, no cancer, no diabetes, no dental caries, no refined sugar, no refined salt, no refined oil, no refined grain, no refined anything.
The point is this: if you wish to be truly healthy, you need to “opt out.” Opt out of the Standard American Diet (SAD), and switch to properly prepared, nutrient-rich, whole foods! We stand by these words in our clinic: Real food has real power if you give it a real chance!
Steve Fry, CHFS, and Sherry Fry, CHFS, NTP, of Common Sense Nutritional Therapy at Rody Chiropractic Massage & Health, help their clients understand and reverse the unsuspected effects of the modern diet. Contact them through rody-massage. com/nutrition, CSNtherapy.com, or by calling 360.477.1930.
References
Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve. http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/MR-Ready-Willing-Unable.pdf
