We are unknowingly at war. Not in the traditional sense.
Yet a far more important battle rages on — within our bodies, silently wreaking havoc. More and more, the destruction is discovered too late, after irreversible damage has already occurred. The very sources we depended on to sustain us — air, water and food — now simultaneously attack us.
What gave life, now destroys health.
Controlling the air we breathe is nearly impossible. Guaranteeing high water quality means installing expensive water filters and lugging bottles around. But where we can affect change, and subsequently have a direct and profound impact on our health, is by carefully choosing what we eat. The food we are presently consuming, but barely assimilating, puts our first line of defense — our immune system — on heightened alert. Constantly scanning our bodies to ward off the many harmful substances that environmental alteration and decimation catapults at us regularly, food itself switches this system on by serving as a toxin. By triggering, and ultimately tricking, the steadfast soldiers that constitute our body’s defense, food is causing disease.
Here is the good part: we can change.
How?
Start simple.
Eliminate a substance that should no longer be a part of our daily intake: WHEAT.
The wheat that is rolled into bread, baked into crackers and crowded into supermarkets is a far cry from the wheat that our ancestors enjoyed. Standing side by side, it barely measures half as high as the crop from a century ago. It has been modified, adjusted and manipulated into a form that our immune cells cannot recognize. These cells, responsible for patrolling the largest mucosal lining of our body (the gastrointestinal tract), bring the breakdown products to other cells and present them as something dangerous. This begins a chain reaction that eventually leads to our own bodies being regarded as foreign.
What’s supposed to protect us then begins attacking us: benign and healthy cells that form joints, bones and vessels are literally devoured. In simple terms, eat wheat, get arthritis.
Or, eat poorly, get inflamed.
It is one big reason why backs stiffen, hands swell and joints ache. Prove it. No problem: Take someone with fatigue, poor focus and now arthritic changes to her body and be fastidious about changing her diet and eliminating wheat. Time and time again, mental acumen returns, energy improves and joint pain dissolves. We can do this. We can feel better by simply removing the harmful, and taking the leap.
Eat healthful, nourishing food that supplies our bodies with the sustenance and fuel we need to heal, recover … and then thrive.
Dr. Anthony Lyon is a sought after Functional Medicine physician, radio talk show host, author, speaker and acupuncturist. Follow him @AnthonyLyonMD
Originally published at medium.com