A long time ago, I had stupid-horrible teeth. I mean, bad. I still have my teeth, but I hadn’t been to a dentist in decades so I never had regular cleanings. My dentist’s crew wailed on me with their tools and I got religion about pre-rinsing, flossing, and brushing. The week after the fires were put out in my mouth I felt awesome. The inflammation was gone and I didn’t even realize that it was the cause of what was making me so tired then. I have only wavered badly with dental care since then when I have forgotten the lesson that life gave me: take care of your mouth and your body will feel better. But that was only one level of inflammation: I was still eating sugar and simple carbohydrates like flour in the forms of breads and pasta. I needed to go deeper but I did not know this. I needed to take care of my body by understanding what I my mouth was taking care of.
Fast-forward 13 years. Now, what you put into your mouth also has new meaning to me. I had started improving the quality of the food I was eating and learned that now, there was a reason why as we get older we all seemed to gain 1-2 pounds of weight despite eating “healthy.” The quality and types of food you eat have more impact than just their flavor and if they’re organic or not. You can buy organic food that’s bad for you: wheat, sugar, agave, etc. All because of their insulin load—that is, they flood your body with glucose which forces your pancreas to make insulin just to clean it up. Insulin of course tells your fat cells to collect the glucose and store it. Eat simple carbohydrates without a “load” on your system (hard work, exercise) and your body has no choice but to clean the blood and store it for later—after all, the body is adapted to store the energy for the times it isn’t available. This feast/famine cycle of course doesn’t exist in first-world neolithic society thanks to modern food distribution so the entire society gets “fatter.” Now no one throws even these organic ingredients in their mouth just because they’re organic—they’re often processed into glucose delivery systems like…
Cake is a Lie.
Chocolate brownies. Fudge. Fettuccine alfredo. Cake that wasn’t a lie. These are all things we grew up eating for the last century and they are delicious—at least while your sense of taste is desensitized to them. The list of possible dishes involving sugar and flour is daunting and every neolithic culture (first-world or not) has their favorites. Thanks to modern food distribution, favorites from your “homeland” can be found in every grocery store. At least for a while, you can eat them in your cheat meals—but plan to drink a lot of water during your cheat day and the following day to dilute your glucose-laden blood. Exercise immediately afterwards to burn it off if there is time. But even that may not be enough to stem the inflammation of ingredients that we’re not adapted to eat.
My dentist turned me around at just one level of the Inflammation and Insulin Inception—the inflammation. Paleo took me deeper and helped me remove it via wheats and grains and added lower insulin-loads to the mix. So go ahead and cheat. Pay close attention to how you feel afterwards, and make your decision. Did you have headaches? Did you need to take a nap and sleep it off? Did you feel aches and pains? Did your midsection expand and bloat? It isn’t the end of your world, if you cheat, but I find that it’s just not worth it because feeling healthy has become a drug and not cheating is the next fix. I went deeper.
