Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Eat what makes you feel good

This next installment is loaded with tripwires, because doughnuts and french fries make me feel good - when I'm eating them...
     Here's the devil in the details:
     Eat what makes you feel good - not just when you're eating it, but also 30 minutes later and 4 hours later, and the next morning. Especially the next morning.
     Case in point: I love bread, pasta, and other starchy foods. Sometimes I downright crave them. Same goes for cheese. (Not so much other dairy foods, but definitely so for cheese.) When I eat bread & cheese, or one without the other, I feel great when I'm eating it and still alright 20 or 30 minutes later. But before too long I'm feeling quite tired, even sleepy. And the next morning I wake up feeling like I'm 80! I'm tired, stiff, achey, and lacking in energy. I just want to lie there like a lump of dough that has no intention of rising.
     We could go into how this phenomenon is probably a delayed hypersensitivity reaction to foods which are common allergens. Right; fine; whatever.
     What I'm proposing is far simpler than that. You don't need to know the hows and whys and wherefores of why you don't feel good after eating certain foods; you just need to notice that you don't feel good. And then avoid eating those foods. (Easier said than done, I'll admit :-)
     (Advocates of NAET - Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique - would probably say that these allergies can be eliminated with NAET. Perhaps; but I'm more of the mind that these foods are not the healthiest things for human bodies to be consuming en masse, and we'd do better to avoid them or eat them only occasionally. I'll discuss why in a later post.)
     I've put this approach to the test more times than I care to admit (because I love bread, pasta, cheese...) And every time the same thing. You'd think I'd have learned by now...
     Well, I have; long since. But still I break down and eat the foods I know aren't good for me. Especially when I'm really hungry, really busy, or on the road. We all do the right thing imperfectly. That's life.
     The trick is to make those mistakes less and less, because we value ourselves more and more. I love feeling healthy. I especially love waking up feeling well rested, energised, and ready to meet the day. So, the payoff for making good choices is that I feel good when I do. Not just when I'm eating good food, but 30 minutes later and 4 hours later, and the next morning.
     (I'll have more to say about what I consider good food in future posts. But let me whet your appetite by emphasising that it's got to be delicious and fun to eat, or I'm not interested!)
     The other aspect of eating what makes you feel good is stopping when you're full. Overeating does not make me feel good! It's easy to overeat when I'm hungry and I eat without paying attention to what and how I'm eating. (For example, mindlessly eating while watching TV or a movie.) It's also easy to overeat when I don't eat nutrient-rich foods. Even if my stomach is full, my body may still ask for more, minutes or hours later, if it hasn't gotten what it needs in that big, "empty" meal.


How all that translates to feeding the animals in our care might seem an impossible task - until you start to watch your animals closely. Yes, they make just as many bad food choices as we do, being led into just as much trouble by their taste buds or their empty bellies as we are. But they'll also make good food choices when we give them the opportunity.
     Ms. Lilly won't eat something that has made her feel sick in the past. It needn't have made her vomit; it just needs to have given her a gurgly tummy or a nauseous or bileous feeling (readily apparent on her face once you know her :-)
     For example, I once accidentally poisoned her with garlic by adding too much garlic to her food. Now she won't eat anything that even smells of garlic!
     You might argue that she is not making a good food choice now by refusing garlicky food. I won't disagree. My point is simply that animals can and will choose foods based on what makes them feel good - or not good! When we give them the opportunity.
     A friend feeds his beloved dog a "premium quality," "all-natural," low-calorie kibble and wonders why she's a poor eater. Truth is, she has a great appetite - for fresh foods. She just hates her kibble and tries her best not to eat it. But she's not offered anything else, so she nibbles her way through every boring, disgusting bowlful of the stuff and stares longingly at what Ms. Lilly is eating. (Nobody messes with Ms. Lilly at mealtimes, so her poor friend must stand on the sidelines until Ms. Lilly is finished - and then the kibble dog dives in and licks Lilly's bowl so clean I don't need to wash it!)
     On the other hand are the countless overweight labs who will eat just about anything! Same goes for overweight cats who are kibble junkies. I'll have more to say about obesity and how it's a form of malnutrition. These dogs and cats remain ravenous until their diets are adjusted to provide more protein, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients that are often lacking in the typical highly processed, high-carb commercial dog and cat foods.
     The same principles apply to horses. I have a formerly obese horse in my practice who is now trim and healthy for probably the first time in his adult life. In concert with his person, we've been encouraging him to make good food choices, giving him ever-expanding opportunities to do so while still providing enough boundaries to prevent disaster (e.g. restricting pasture turnout time when the grass is lush).
     Of course, we've made sure his diet is calorie-controlled and also contains plenty of other nutrients - not to mention lots of interest and flavour. But diet and exercise alone were not enough to effect his remarkable transformation. We've seen him go from a dense, dour chow-hound to a horse who selects what he eats in his pasture with both great care and great enthusiasm.
     We're still very careful about how much time he is turned out on pasture when the grass is lush, but we've also noticed him ignoring grass and eating various other plants that not only are safe for an obesity-prone horse to eat, but are actually beneficial. He's making food choices when left to his own devices that seem to have both good nutritional and medicinal value.
     Self-medication is a fascinating phenomenon that is well documented in wild animals. It's a topic for another time, although it does dovetail nicely here with making food choices based on what our bodies need and what makes us feel good (or better, in the case of medicinal choices).
     So, to the best of your ability, with the facilities and resources you have available, allow your animals to make their own food choices. Provide a range of healthy options and let them eat what makes them feel good.


That's it for now. I'm going to go eat something that makes me feel good! :-) 


More on food next time. Lots more to say on my favourite subject!


Until then,


-Dr. Chris King-
Nature's Apprentice
www.animavet.com





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