Innate Intelligence vs The Modern Diet

Human beings are gifted with innate intelligence, or instincts, that guide us toward foods and habits that help us survive and thrive. Innate intelligence acts on a subconscious level guiding us to what we need. Can you recall a time when cravings and intuition led you to eat just the right food? You feel satiated but not overstuffed, you have consistent energy that lasts all day, there's no need to reach for sweets after every meal, you feel mentally and emotionally balanced. You don’t experience digestive discomfort during or following the meal. 

Sadly, there are Modern pitfalls that have brought us far from this source, and ultimately less connected to our bodies and our innate intelligence. We need to get back to it. Chronic diseases are now rampant and the correlation between food, lifestyle and these modern diseases is astounding. Innate intelligence is bigger than the food we eat. It’s our whole connection with the natural world. How many times have you decided to go for a walk, go for a swim in freshwater, sit under the trees, head to the park to just relax? Not only does our good, conscious mind lead us to these places, but there is also something deeper there. The need to be outside and close to nature is in our DNA, just as is eating whole foods given to us by the seasons. 

How are so many people sick and tired these days? Why do people make choices again and again that degrade their health? Is it a question of will? Can you will yourself to a healthy diet if your innate intelligence is bombarded with infiltrators, outside influences, that create a toxic and addictive load on the body and brain? 

The list of factors leading to this modern disconnect between humans, their environment, and their food can seem insurmountable. For many of us this means that our innate wisdom has become confused and less able to discern what we need to achieve optimal health. A clear example are the chemical components added into modern foods that increase hunger levels and turn off our innate cues of satiation. Think of a bag of chips. When you sit and eat a bag of chips (YES, even the health food store organic ones!), you may have a certain burst of energy only to have a swift downfall in a couple hours (lack of energy, need for a nap, run to the bathroom). And why do you eat the entire bag instead of just a handful?

Now, for a traditional potato chip fried in olive oil with a little sea salt, eaten in moderation, you can get by with this as a wholesome snack every once in a while! But Doritos, Hot Cheetos, “health food” chips made with soy, processed salts, sugars, preservatives, and chemical flavoring agents- these will confuse the cells, and in a sense “bury” the body’s ability to choose healthy options. Our communication with innate intelligence is disrupted. The solution to this is to add in more foods that provide the body with the nutrients it needs to process the toxins, while slowly eliminating junk food. Once your body starts getting what it actually needs, your tastes change and you will no longer be attracted to the fake and enriched foods: candy, chips, snack foods, processed meat and cheese, excessive alcohol consumption. I would say, then, maintaining a healthy diet in our modern world, is not a question of will (“I can’t lose weight”). It has more to do with a genuine interest, and the wherewithal, and the resources to reclaim your health and follow a lifestyle more akin to that of our ancestors. These changes lead to reclaiming your vitality, one of your many God-given rights. You are in control of starting to refill your tank. 

To the body, processed “food” doesn’t register as food at all. It’s met as a toxic invader that has to be eliminated. The body uses cellular energy to detoxify through your liver, and digestive track. Optimal detoxification requires an unburdened liver and a properly functioning digestive tract. If detoxification pathways are unable to do so, the body stores the toxins in adipose tissue (fat tissue), another reason why processed foods are linked to obesity. A body burdened by a nutrient-poor diet and a toxic world simply cannot do its job of detoxifying properly, compounding the effects of these foods and keeping one in a cycle of dis-ease and discomfort. In addition, these intelligence blocking foods contribute to the rapid rise in food reactions and to picky and disordered eating, and lead to imbalances in the microbiome.

Many foods today can be described in one word: hyperpalatable. We have replaced whole, nutrient dense foods with prepared foods bought at a shopping center, stored in the freezer and heated in the microwave. These foods bypass our normal hunger regulation systems and confuse our innate intelligence. The overconsumption of hyperpalatable foods and under consumption of nutrients leads to illness and increased appetite as we continue to eat in search of sufficient nutrients. In the short term, we end up with unsustainable energy, pesky symptoms such as allergies and digestive upset, and a long term degradation of health and innate intelligence.