Do you still recognise hunger?
What we eat today is making us sick and is destroying the planet.
We are alienated from our nature. It ensures that we often no longer interpret hunger correctly.
Which signals of hunger do you recognize?
1. Thirst
the primaeval man always ate water-rich food, from sea vegetables to leafy vegetables, rich in moisture. In this quest, the body is not hungry but mainly thirsty.
Solution: drink more water and eat more vegetables.
2. Emotions
As humans, we are conditioned from a young age by linking nutrition to positive and negative emotions. We eat at birthdays, eat at funerals, and when we fall or feel sad, we get a treat to cheer us up. We unconsciously link nutrition to these emotions, causing us to reflexively eat later in life when we feel very good or awful. The body does not need food but an emotional need.
Solution: allow space for emotions. Feel and let it be.
3. Variation:
Variation gives us the most excellent evolutionary chance of getting all nutrients sufficiently. In the absence of variety, the body continues to search for the right nutrients through hunger. This form of need occurs with a one-sided diet.
Solution: eat 100 different foods per month, for example, with the OERsterk Challenge Vary your Nutrition.
4. Low blood sugar
Many people reach for food when they have a dip in energy or a sudden decrease in focus. The brain is then running out of fuel because the body can probably not use fats for fuel.
The body can burn fats and sugars. Suppose the body is mainly offered sugars as an energy source. In that case, you will suffer more from fluctuations in the blood sugar balance. Fats provide a more stable blood sugar balance.
With a drop in blood sugar, most people experience a strong need for fast sugars, i.e. artificial carbohydrates. The paradox is, of course, that these low blood sugars are also the result of the wrong diet: eating too often and eating bad carbohydrates.
Solution: eat less processed carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, biscuits, sweets, soft drinks and fruit juices and eat more healthy proteins and fats.
5. An empty stomach
Many people eat processed foods that prevent the body from getting what it needs. Hunger – so a search for the right nutrients – is a logical consequence. Processed food has a much faster transit time from the stomach to the intestine, resulting in an earlier stomach emptying. The result? Hunger. In the long run, the body links an empty stomach to starvation. In contrast, this link is incorrect if you eat naturally (again). An empty stomach, in this case, is a physical sensation and not an indication of hunger.
Solution: give the body more of what it needs (primordial nutrition) and less of what it can do without (processed modern food). Learn to recognize the difference between a physical sensation (without a need for nutrition) and real hunger (with a need for nutrition).
6. Search for real food
Our ancestors did not have a supermarket and lived on everything present in nature. Nature was the only supplier and provided man with all nutritional necessities. Modern processed food is lacking in essential nutrients, so the body keeps searching with a hunger signal.
Solution: eat whole foods, a combination of lots of plant foods (vegetables, fruit and herbs) and healthy proteins and fats such as eggs, nuts, seeds, poultry and fish.
Which forms of hunger do you recognize in your life?
Signals are natural feedback mechanisms. Every signal is a quest of body and mind. When it finds what it’s looking for, the signal disappears again. Peace arises. If the body – or mind – doesn’t get what it seeks, it keeps looking. It only stops when what is missing is found.
Due to our unnatural lifestyle in modern society, these feedback mechanisms are disrupted. We no longer live according to our design. Nature does not condemn, but it does work with natural consequences. We see this reflected in the rising rates of illness and healthcare costs.
The nutritional advice is as simple as it is challenging: Get some peace of mind by feeding the body pure, unprocessed food. This food is rich in nutrients and low in anti-nutrients.
