EATING RIGHT? FEELING WORSE?

by Donna Wine

If your answer is “Yes,” then congratulations!  You may well be on the path to optimum health through improved nutrition!  While it sounds like an oxymoron, as you improve your diet, symptoms may develop that, for a relatively short period of time, may make you feel worse instead of better.  Don’t despair; the best is yet to come!

To embrace this concept and react to it in a welcoming, constructive way, it is imperative to understand what good nutrition is and how your body responds to the introduction of higher quality food products.  A good nutritional regime replaces poorer quality foods with those of higher value.  On a continuum, the poorest quality foods are highly processed, difficult to digest, and/or contain larger amounts of spices, salt or other ingredients.  The higher quality foods are those that are utilized in, or approach, the raw or natural state.  The most nutritional foods have the easiest digestibility, lowest saturated fat content, contain intact, beneficial enzymes and amino acids, and are packed with essential minerals, vitamins, and trace elements.

In a nutshell, the foods, both protein and carbohydrate, that are the most nutrient-rich, easily digested, and lowest in saturated fats can be used by your body to produce the healthiest tissue and, in turn, help you promote health and prevent illness.  Keep in mind, however, that, as well as replacing inferior foods with better quality ones, you must also eliminate toxic substances from your diets.  These include coffee, tea, chocolate, salt, tobacco, and others.

As you embark on your improved nutritional program, your body will begin to discard the less desirable food materials and tissues in order to utilize the quality ones to make healthy, new tissue.  During this process, you may experience symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, muscle weakness, rashes, diarrhea, irritability, colds, fevers, or other symptoms.  Coffee drinkers, for example, may get headaches and a “let down” feeling when they eliminate coffee from their diets.  Toxins, like caffeine, in coffee are removed from body tissue and are transported in the bloodstream.  Before they are totally eliminated, these toxins can produce pain in the form of headaches.  The “let down” feeling occurs because the heart beats more slowly as the stimulants from coffee are removed from your body.  The slower heartbeat results in a more depressed state of mind.  These symptoms usually disappear within three days.  A similar process takes place when you replace poor quality foods with better ones.  While the symptoms may last longer, ten days to several weeks, you will soon after begin to feel better and stronger than before.

The extent to which you suffer unpleasant symptoms may depend on the nature of your previous diet.  If your diet consisted of better food choices, your symptoms could range from none to mild.  Others, with a poorer diet history, might experience more numerous and/or more severe symptoms.

As your body recuperates from a poor diet and begins to benefit from a better nutritional program, remember that the symptoms you experience are reactions that demonstrate that your body is ridding itself of harmful substances.  Let nature take its course and rest and relax during this period.  It won’t last indefinitely.  Your body is always striving for optimum health.  Provided that you don’t interfere by taking medications to treat the symptoms or give up prematurely, you will be on your way to a “younger,” more healthful future.  Rejoice in the knowledge that you are giving your body its best opportunity to defend itself from the worst diseases.  Ultimately, you will enjoy unsurpassed vigor, stamina, and sense of well-being.

Adapted from "Improving Your Diet May Cause You to Feel Sick" by Stanley S. Bass, 1984

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