Being sensitive to bad food–a blessing in disguise?

My teenaged daughter Emma came home from camp today.   After giving me a hug and saying hello, the first thing she said was, “MOM! Did you make green smoothies yet?   I neeeeeeed one! I missed them so much!”

Just now, at dinner, she sat down to a big plate of veggies and said this (I ran in to write it down so I could get it word for word):

“I am so happy to be home.   Every single meal at camp, I felt disgusting afterward.   I didn’t eat the meat, but you just couldn’t avoid all the junk.   It’s just not what I am used to.”   To support each other, Emma ate meals with a 12 Stepper mom/leader at the camp, another girl who is a veg, and one of Emma’s friends who loves animals and is kind of a “veg wannabe.”

I have always been amazed that some people eat toxic sludge, three meals a day, and they seem to be okay.   They’re not, of course–they’re ticking time bombs, and many of them, when you get to know them, suffer from multiple chronic conditions and a lack of energy.   But I once read that Heather Locklear (a size 1 who looks 10 years younger than she is and gets paid to show her skin and hair close up) never eats ANYTHING green and hates vegetables.   Some people don’t look, on the outside, like they’re unhealthy.

What gives?   Why do Emma and I feel so terrible the minute we eat bad food?

I think the human body, being fed the S.A.D. long-term, goes into coping mode.   It isn’t able to repair, regenerate, cleanse, or fight infection or cancer cells well.   It just has to survive, put all its energy into just completing required tasks.   Some people seem to be getting by, drinking lots of caffeine and eating lots of fried, processed, sugary foods and animal proteins.   But if you think about it, it’s SCARY that some people’s radar or response to bad food is stunted or damaged.     We NEED our bodies to tell us what’s good and what’s not.   It’s nothing to be jealous of.

On the other hand, a body fed a regularly pure diet of plant foods is more finely tuned.   All body systems are functioning at a higher level and the instruments register more sensitively.   If I were to eat a Krispy Kreme donut or two for breakfast, instead of my daily 100% raw-food breakfast, I’d be ill for hours, and it would zap my energy all day.   I might even have to just go to bed!   I haven’t eaten a donut in many years, just because the consequences aren’t worth it.   Donuts don’t even look good to me.

Sometimes it doesn’t seem fair, what other people are “getting away with.”   It might seem like a drag that the whole police dept. appears to feel fine eating daily coffee and donuts for breakfast, while one donut would put me into a tailspin.   But I believe being sensitive to bad food is a blessing in disguise.   People who feel horrible when eating horribly learn NOT TO!  

How about you? Are you sensitive, or can you eat just anything and feel no different?

Posted in: 12 Steps To Whole Food, Mind/Body Connection, Relationships