Not many of us would wonder why our car broke down if just a few days earlier, we had poured a bag of sugar into our gas tank. And yet, so few of us think of the food we put into our bodies when we suffer from chronic health issues like indigestion, diarrhea, eczema, post-nasal drip or infertility.
More and more, Canadians are visiting Naturopathic Doctors in our quest for greater health. ND’s, along with other complimentary health care practitioners offer us a holistic view of our bodies and our overall health. Naturally, with this integrative approach to health, the food we eat is often one of the first things to come under fire. And if you’re like me – one of the first things your ND told you to do was to cut out wheat, dairy and sugar from your diet.
Now, I can only speak for myself, but when I was told to cut these foods out of my diet, my first reaction was sheer panic! What was I going to eat? For weeks, I literally wandered around aimlessly in my kitchen, starving, and staring at a pantry and refrigerator full of foods that I could no longer enjoy. I remember feeling a whole lot of anxiety… and hunger!
I used to scour endless food labels in stores, often leaving empty-handed and frustrated. I even scoured the Internet for hours looking for an elusive recipe, free of gluten, dairy, sugar, corn, soy and yeast, only to be disappointed yet again to sit down for another dinner of brown rice, steamed veggies and fish. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love these meals (my tastebuds love them even more since I’ve given up on sugar and highly processed and salt-riddled packaged food). But it is nice, once in a while, to satisfy that nostalgic craving for pizza, pasta and an afternoon muffin.
While my doctor suggested this diet as an 8 week detox only, I felt so much better that I decided to adopt it as my new diet everyday. The first year was the hardest – my diet felt incredibly restrictive and isolating. But, the day that I embraced my “new diet” as my “new lifestyle,” I finally felt truly satisfied and self-sufficient. So how did I reach this point? Well, in one simple word: substitutions.