The deeper I get into my study of nutrition the more I have come to embrace bio-individuality as the best term to sum up my personal beliefs about healthy eating. You may have heard the saying “one man’s food is another man’s poison.” Well, bio-individuality is the concept that best summarizes this because it is essentially saying there is no one perfect way of eating for everyone. Every single human being, including you and I, have unique genetic make-ups, blood types, ancestry, metabolism, and food intolerances.
Part of your job, when walking the healthy living path, is to be your own health guru and figure out what makes your stomach and your body happy and healthy. Some bodies metabolize carbs better, and some proteins. Some people cannot be optimally healthy on an animal based diet or diet that includes dairy. Some people may not thrive on a vegan or raw diet, either because of improper supplementation, eating a diverse group of foods, or because their body is simply not getting the levels of essential nutrients or fat soluble vitamins it needs to function at its best. When this happens individuals find themselves with candida imbalances, tooth decay, fatigue or other signs that something is off-balance in the body.
I am a firm believer that optimal health should always be the end goal, and sole focus. This means that rather than clinging to a diet like a religion that leads to illness and eventually disease, each of us should carefully mine the information we hear about different food choices and diets and filter out by testing on our own body, and discovering what is appropriate for us. So how do we avoid falling into the fad diet trap?
As the ancient Egyptians put it: “Know thyself.” You have to know your ancestry, learn what foods your body does and does not like, and decipher what any imbalances that arise are trying to tell you. Most doctors can’t do this for you. It takes some personal initiative and perhaps some digging with the help of non-traditional and traditional health practitioners along with a nice dose of intuition. But when you put in the work it’s well worth it. My idea of a healthy and balanced world is one is which bio-individuality is embraced fully, where all of us avoid the factory and embrace the field, and where dietary labels don’t need to exist because everyone eats whole fresh good karma foods that support their unique and incredible body. -XoXo Raw Girl
Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 of Make Your Health Your Best Accessory.