“Lennie -My grandmother thinks it’s really funny to put all sorts of things in our – my lunch. I never know what’ll be inside: e.e. cummings, flower petals, a handful of buttons. She seems to have lost sight of the original purpose of the brown bag.
Joe – Or maybe she thinks other forms of nourishment are more important.”
Excerpt from ‘The Sky is Everywhere’ By Jandy Nelson
Since time immemorial the idiom has been doing the rounds but how true is it? How important is nutrition in health?
Consider these three things that made me go WHAT and blew my mind.
A: In 12th-grade psychology, in the chapter ‘Stress’ the NCERT mentions how 70% of all doctor visits are for stress-based symptoms. Recently I visited a dermatologist with glowing referrals– waited an hour for my turn – only for him to say “sleep well, wake up at the same time every day, relax and have these multi-vitamins.”
B: FDA has a specified percentage by which medicine has to outperform the placebo drug to gain approval. This is a major hurdle because the placebo effect is surprisingly strong in most scenarios. There are scenarios where a placebo drug has an effectiveness of 30-60 % and the medicine of 70 %.
C: The book ‘Radical Remission, The Nine Key Factors That Can Make a Real Difference’, written by Kelly Turner a psychotherapist outlines the nine key factors that all radical remission patients had in common. She defines radical remission as any statistically unexpected cancer remission. From research 75 factors were found after interviewing thousands of survivors and healers. Later they were distilled to 9 factors which are as follows-
- Changing your diet.
- Taking control of your health.
- Following your intuition.
- Using herbs and supplements.
- Releasing suppressed emotions.
- Increasing positive emotions.
- Embracing social support.
- Deepening your spiritual connection.
It is interesting to note of the nine factors only two to three have to do with food.
Most of my life I ate healthily, avoided that ice cream, those momos and what not. Recently my internal dialogue transformed into “the joy eating XYZ will give me would do more good than the harm eating it will cause” – little did I know how correct this thought was. (I am in no way suggesting you eat an entire box of doughnuts – it won’t bring you as much joy as guilt and discomfort)
Interestingly a study has found happier people eat healthier diets. A lovely virtuous cycle.
‘Heal’ a documentary on Netflix talks of people with extremely healthy lifestyles falling sick, getting terminal diseases. It concluded the reason for the same was how they felt, their lifestyle. The claim feels rather far-fetched at first but as the documentary progresses it makes more and more sense.
Eat fresh, healthy, practice discretion however when you think of health know of what really matters.
We are stuck up on food when we talk of nourishment. We are all starving in terms of real nourishment, which every day, more and more scientists are proving are salient in determining health.
Scientific evidence suggests that being happy may have major benefits for your health. For starters, being happy promotes a healthy lifestyle. It may also help combat stress, boost your immune system, protect your heart and reduce pain. What’s more, it may even increase your life expectancy.
I agree with Lennie’s Grandmother’s perspective- Other forms of nutrition are more important. Eat that apple, also paint that apple, share that apple, dance on your way to buy that apple, dance on your way to buy that apple.
Bhavna Chaudhary
Author & Wellness Enthusiast
