thoughts on food.

Amazon.com: The Untold Story of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows and Raw Dairy Products: Books: Ron Schmid

that's what i've been reading lately.

"your food is your medicine, and your medicine is your food." ~hippocrates

so i am just exiting the fog induced by last weekend. what, partying, you say? nay, says i. i was holed up in a hotel for 3 days with co-workers for the annual company meeting. bored bored bored siily. it was tough being around a bunch of drinkers having only been completely sober since new year's, but not as hard as i thought it would be. i mostly wanted a glass of red wine with dinner, but was afraid that would lead to more as dinner ended and everyone moved over to the hotel bar. i had many sparkling waters and cranberry and sodas.

ah yes, dinner. the food. we grazed all weekend. it seemed they were afraid we would fall asleep if there was not caffeine and snackage a-plenty. who said snacks were the proud invention of the american? anyhoo, of course it was all conventional food, and though i made smart choices when i could (salad bar instead of sandwiches) i definitely noticed some effects on my body.

i have been striving to eat as much organic food as i can for several years now. but since january i took it even further, doing a juice fast to detoxify, and staying on a mostly raw foods diet with some meat and raw dairy added. that combined with sobriety and the yoga has made me more aware of what's going on with my vessel.

so what i noticed about myself when i returned home:

-incredibly tired all the time, could have been jetlagged a little, but this was more pronounced than after the flight to germany last summer, so i don't know....
-cranky. probably goes with being tired.
-uncomfortable gut noisiness. interpret this as you will.
-skin problems. i haven't had acne in years. all of a sudden i had zits popping out everywhere, including my shoulders and back. i did not change any cleansing regimen while out there.
-hair listlessness
-eczema
-water retention, feeling large for my body.
-crankiness.
-inability to concentrate.

i guess i felt generally toxic. i had not expected a weekend of the SAD (Standard American Diet) to make such a marked difference in my general well-being. i know most of you may refute the above with the retort that is how one feels in general after traveling, but i must say i fly great distances often and the above symptoms go beyond the usual travel blahs.

so without using health nut propaganda, and instead, personal experience, i can say for certain that organic food makes a difference.

i can only imagine the difference in cost will be made up for with less hospital bills later.