Over the years, in my research to improve my own health, I have often come across an observation made about the overall health of British people after World War II. Having endured years of food restrictions and privations, amazingly, the Brits were generally healthier, much healthier, after the War…
What a shame that advantage has been lost! But the War was also the impetus behind developing intensive farming, which resulted in a glut of just about everything edible, and at cheap prices, although most often at the expense of quality. In the years after the War, people were able to compensate for what they had perceived they missed out on, and the usual result was over-indulgence. So, unfortunately, the wartime level of improved health was steadily degraded and eventually lost…
Today, few people live a normal lifespan, but rather are cut down prematurely with diseases ‘of civilization’, meaning resulting from personal dietary choices and lifestyle, with the number of victims literally exploding, and undermining the potential for quality of life. In fact, look at what most people are eating : Junk food, which is often not even food, but just tasty chemicals (see a ‘chips’ package today : no potatoes!) which neither nourish the body nor satisfy the soul… leading to more self-indulgence, and compounding auto-intoxication.
Peace Pilgrim always said, If you eat junk food, you will think junk thoughts… (Don’t know who she was? Look her up… Her story will amaze you…) Most of us are already aware firsthand of the truth of this statement. And considering that our brains are our first means of assuring the survival of our species (and ourselves!), we are in a very dangerous place.
Besides intoxicating our bodies with bad ‘food’, there is also intoxication from pharmaceutical drugs. Over-indulgence here, as well as cross-prescribing from various, uncoordinated practicioners, increases the risk of adverse side effects, and also the building up of chemicals in the body, many of which can be stored in our systems for years, extending the risk not only of adverse events, but increasing intoxication levels… A US Senate hearing in 2014 was told that preventable deaths in the US related to prescribed pharmaceutical drugs amounted (then!) to about 1000 per day, a whopping 400,000 people a year, and the third highest cause of premature death, after heart disease and cancer…
When you think about it, the difference between a voluntarily restricted diet (for weight loss, or disease management) and a restricted diet which is imposed on an unwilling subject, is the psychological element. You can either embrace the restrictions (be happy that you are cutting out unnecessary junk food, that you will finally lose that extra weight and purify your system, as well as strengthen your ability to think clearly), or resent the imposition just because you did not choose it, are not ready to improve your diet, which will just motivate you to compensate by over-indulgence… whether that is possible or not. And if it’s not possible, what is going to happen to your level of frustration ?
I remember that my elderly aunt, who lived through the Great Depression, described to me how her mother (my grandmother) would work magic in the kitchen to make simple food not only palatable, but enjoyable and, most importantly, satisfying. In any case, my aunt and her brother (my father) knew the number one mealtime rule : one good serving of everything, and no seconds (it was already a challenge to provide that one serving each, and more was simply not in the budget). An afternoon treat, for those two growing children, was a slice of bread and a spoonful of jam, not store-bought goodies (with their preservatives to cover up for not being freshly baked). Years later, my aunt would delight in remembering how satisfying and delicious those everyday afternoon snacks were…
Living with the restrictions that are certainly coming will be difficult and challenging for everyone, both nutritionally and psychologically. But keeping a positive attitude, and helping those we love and those around us to maintain a good attitude, too, will make the situation less unbearable. And detoxing regularly will keep us on our toes! Just think how hard things will be for anyone who has let themselves go, and whose body is filled with toxins from junk food. What is it going to be like for people if, against their wills, they cannot any longer get their ‘food fix’ and, because of restrictions, can only eat plain, simple food? They will, essentially, go into a de-tox cold-turkey, and unwillingly, and probably without understanding what is happening to them. When you know that eliminating toxins from your body is a process that can last, on and off, for weeks, if not months, that the toxins being eliminated can cause physical and psychological distress, and that these victims of their own bad food choices may not know this, we realize that they will probably be emotionally unstable, and feeling frustration, generalized anger and resentment, which will certainly aggravate an already difficult situation. Multiply that by the hundreds, even the thousands, and the resulting picture is not encouraging.
The bottom line has got to be a return to the realization that we eat to maintain health. When resources are scarce, healthy choices are critical, rather than indulging in the usual junk or self-indulgent food to which we’ve become accustomed. We will all need to learn the wisdom, if we have not already, of being satisfied with what we’ve got, and forgetting about what we haven’t got. So, a positive attitude is an ally, and a good detox program will be not just helpful, but a real necessity. Detoxing, once again, can be a choice, or an imposition… And we can get a head start on making survival easier, by already adopting a good detox program, to be ready for likely even greater restrictions later on.
Detoxing is something everyone should do regularly, anyway, like brushing your teeth (meaning that it’s even those with a healthy diet)… A good discussion of the two aspects of detox, physical and psychological, can be heard here, in this interview featuring the very distinguished Dr Dean Ornish, and his wife Ann, who run the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in San Francisco. In their work, Dr and Mrs Ornish are demonstrating that lifestyle choices not only affect physical and psychological health, but that choosing healthier lifestyles and diets can even reverse disease and undo apathy and depression.
As well as the lifestyle changes that Dr Ornish recommends, there is another detox technique that is proving not only useful, but popular: That is fasting… Specifically, intermittant fasting… This involves abstaining from all food and drink (other than water, and maybe coffee) for short periods, up to 20 hours. The usual formula is 16 hours of consecutive fasting, followed by 8 hours during which one eats reasonably. Some practice 20/4 (20 hours fasting, 4 hours feasting), which promises significantly greater health and psychological rewards during the regular extension periods, beyond 18 hours…
Science seems to have finally caught on to this ancient detox (and spiritual enlightenment) technique, fasting. And, once one’s mind is set to do it, integrating the technique into a busy work schedule is relatively easy. Also, one finds that one can adapt it and apply it more or less strictly, as daily conditions require, and still enjoy the benefits, despite occasional slower progress. Some of those benefits include resting the digestive system and resting the heart, resulting in easier weight management and a better ability to cope with stress.
These two techniques can even be combined, for maximum quick-detox results. Perhaps it’s time for all smart people to start thinking about this question, maybe even experimenting with these techniques, while it’s still a choice to make, and not imposed by conditions in society. As there are rewards to be reaped, whatever food resources are avilable, the effort is bound to be worthwhile…
Do you have detox tips to share? Or a detox success story? Let us know in the comments section below. And remember, eat to live, not live to eat. That has always been good advice, and never more so than today.