It’s tomato season on our hobby farm. This year I planted an unprecedented variety of tomatoes since I got some for free from the local feed store. So into the ground they went. I figured if I got some fruit, great, and if not, it was worth a try anyway.
I’m pretty relaxed about my gardening efforts due to limitations from the two autoimmune diseases I live with. I’ve been dealing with a flare- up for some time, which has led me to reevaluate how I’m eating in an effort to reduce inflammation. That’s where the homegrown tomatoes come in.
I was diagnosed with my first autoimmune disease at age 24. I developed intense fatigue, brain fog, and constant drowsiness. I felt like I could barely lift my limbs. It came at the worst possible time; I was working toward completing my master’s degree and beginning a new job in my field of counseling. Working toward my license and learning new skills required intense focus, but I could barely get out of bed. My doctor determined that my thyroid was not functioning properly. I was given a pill and sent on my way without any discussion of diet or lifestyle changes. I was not the same person after this diagnosis.
Unfortunately, only three years later, I received another, scarier diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis. My joints simply stopped working properly, swelled, and brought on intense pain. It took months to figure out what was going on. I had to have my knees drained of fluid so I could walk. Once the diagnosis was made, I was again given several pills and sent on my way. My life seemed derailed permanently by two diseases, and I was only 27 years old. It would be more than a decade before I was able to return to myself through the healing power of good, clean food.
Food is essential to our existence, but the quality of the food we eat is even more important to quality of life and longevity. During my childhood, I was mostly fed ultra-processed foods. Both my parents worked outside the home, and the food offerings at school or day care weren’t very healthy. My grandparents’ house was the only place where I was consistently offered home-cooked, whole, unprocessed food.
A diet of foods that “are made mostly from substances extracted from foods, such as fats, starches, added sugars, and hydrogenated fats” is associated with many health issues including diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. In the United States, 73 percent of the food on the grocery store shelves in America is ultra-processed; the U.S. is currently the top-ranked country for UPF consumption in the world.
Finally, a doctor whose credentials included naturopathy and functional medicine suggested I remove gluten and processed foods from my diet to reduce the symptoms of the thyroid disease. “Eat whole, unprocessed food. Nothing from a box,” she encouraged.
I began to change my diet as the doctor had suggested. The transformation was astounding. Within five months, most of the symptoms of inflammation–such as eczema, rosacea, general brain fog and fatigue–were gone. Even the joint pain from the arthritis improved. While I’d never been particularly overweight, I lost four clothing sizes within five months. I hadn’t felt that good in over a decade.
This reprieve lasted for about three years, after which I began to rapidly gain weight. We’d just moved to our hobby farm, which was very stressful. I had a miscarriage right after we’d moved as well. Later that year, I was diagnosed with appendix cancer. I underwent two surgeries which cost me the entire right side of my colon. The stress of recovery seemed to kick me into early menopause, and I began to experience mood changes, continued weight gain, sugar cravings, and more. I began to slide back into less clean eating habits while my level of physical activity increased with work on our farm. I was exhausted. I saw a primary care doctor, an oncologist, a surgeon, and an OB-GYN. I asked about dietary changes and received little to no advice, but continued to have increased joint pain, low energy, and crippling anxiety.
This past year, when I began to experience heart problems, I’d finally had enough and did some research. I discovered that I could safely go on hormone replacement therapy to treat the symptoms of estrogen deprivation from menopause. Within three months of starting these hormones, my cardiac symptoms calmed down along with my anxiety, and I began to evaluate my situation with a new clarity. It was time to clean up my diet again.
Recently, Dr. Casey Means, a Stanford-educated doctor and former surgeon, released a book titled Good Energy where she describes the current health crisis in the United States. It turns out I’m not alone. Alongside her brother (who has equally impressive credentials from Harvard Business School), Dr. Means points out that it’s “not normal for 74 percent of the country to be overweight or obese, for fifty million people to have autoimmune diseases, or for 25 percent of young adults to have fatty liver disease.” And yet here we are.
Dr. Means points out that there have been significant changes in the quality of our food, lifestyle, and environment in the last hundred years. She challenges the assumption that disease is often random or hereditary and that we are powerless to fight it. We have created a brewing pot of metabolic dysfunction. We are both over-nourished (from eating too much) yet deficient in necessary nutrients. The food we eat has been tampered with so much that it’s barely recognizable as a food.
The first step toward healing may be as simple as trusting your own body. Dr. Means suggests that we “trust the system on acute issues, ignore it on chronic.” Our current medical system is not equipped to help us thrive. Most doctors are taught to put out fires, to save our lives in the event of a crisis, but there’s simply no incentive within the system to prevent patients from getting sick in the first place. What’s worse, most medical schools do not teach courses on nutrition, rendering it an afterthought in the medical field.
But we must eat healthily if we want to heal. Dr. Means argues, “The environment for the cells of the average modern human is now radically different from what the cells expect and need.” Starting with our diet, we can begin to turn this ship around.
As I begin a new chapter in my journey toward health, I can see how fortunate I am to live on a hobby farm. My desire to grow and consume organic, whole food is a good one. But you don’t have to live on a farm to access healthy food. Most cities have farmers markets that offer locally grown fruits and vegetables, often heirloom and beautiful. Many vegetables can be grown in a pot on a sunny deck or porch with very little effort. Daily walks, meditation and prayer, regular bedtimes, and realistic expectations for oneself can also work wonders.
If you are one of the millions of Americans suffering from disease, dependent on pain meds just to live, I hope you’ll consider reading Dr. Means’ book Good Energy. She optimistically suggests that our symptoms of disease are a gift. They offer information, a window into our body’s needs and how to meet them. It has given me a sense of hope that I can not only continue to live, but live well, and age well.
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Image credit: Pexels
15 comments
15 Comments
JoeD
October 9, 2024, 4:54 pmAbsolute nonsense. You're problem was a lack of nutrients from a sh** diet. It was not, necessarily, processed foods. And 4 clothing sizes? Yes, you were overweight. You act as if the food produced in this country is the problem while missing the fact that it is consumer choices that have made the food this way. Sure, there's tons on processed foods on our shelves.. I'm fact ALL food is processed to some degree, and what happens to that food matters. Even heavily processed foods are not the cause of illnesses… It is the fact that people ONLY consume these foods and neglect nutrient dense foods. There is nothing wrong with processed foods. It is the fact that you were not getting the nutrients you need by consuming almost nothing but highly processed foods. Plus, even if 99% of the food on grocery shelves is highly processed, it doesn't take a college degree to understand that eating those foods exclusively is probably not a good idea. We all know this through societal osmosis if nothing else.
REPLYJohn@JoeD
October 12, 2024, 10:52 amWhat processed food company do you work for?
REPLYCwaters@JoeD
October 12, 2024, 7:13 pmJoe – you just don’t know – you have not experienced what so msny ifvus have – being diagnosed with autoimmune disorders even though all our tests come back ‘healthy as a horse.’ After surgeries, biologics, steroids – nothing works . So we turn to diet. I have eaten only animal meat, fish & eggs for over a year now. I was never overweight and went from size 12 to 6. I can sleep, feel great and my doctors are speechless.
REPLYMatthew
October 10, 2024, 10:14 amThe impact of our food and lifestyle is starting to be studied more. Human jaw size has changed in the past 150 years and is thought to be related to diet. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2020/07/toll-shrinking-jaws-human-health
REPLYJoeD@Matthew
October 10, 2024, 10:20 amAnd yet we have left leaning doctors coming on television and telling people that obesity is a disease.
REPLYJoeD
October 10, 2024, 10:15 amIn addition, you set people up to fail by telling them to get their food from farmers markets or by growing them themselves. The whole food in the supermarket isn't any different than what the local farmers are growing, and study after study has shown organic food has no nutrients difference than non-organic. And just because it's organic doesn't mean it doesn't use pesticides. Your audience would have been better served by telling them just to shop the outter aisles of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
REPLYAng@JoeD
October 12, 2024, 6:19 amCarnivore is the ultimate elimination diet. Check out Doctor Ken Berry. Dr. Shawn Baker. Dr. Georgia Edes. Dr. Chris Palmer. The list goes on…
REPLYCatwaters@Ang
October 12, 2024, 7:17 pmYes – i have practiced the carnivore diet for over a year now and check out these doctors on YouTube- SO HELPFUL. My quality of life has improved – and I am no longer turning to pills or alcohol for pain management.
REPLYDc
October 12, 2024, 7:08 amThank you for sharing your story. We should all have another look at how and what we eat.
REPLYJeannette
October 12, 2024, 7:19 amThank you for your insight. Studies have proven that conventional fruits and vegetables today are so different than they were 50 years ago! They are lacking so many nutrients, and heavily sprayed with pesticides and synthetics. Heavy processing, flavoring, coloring, and the addition of artificial NON-BIOIDENTICAL vitamins has changed "food" into something else…and it's not good for me! I feel so much better when I eat real meats and vegetables like people ate 100 years ago!
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