I am not talking about your personality or your likes and dislikes. I am asking, how well do you know yourself at a genetic level?
It's important where and by whom you came from, and here's why: your genes carry the code to your health and well being. That adage is true: if you have your health, you have everything. And if you don't have your health? Then what?
My grandmother Mimi -- whom this blog is named for -- was paranoid schizophrenic. She had what once was termed "blue baby" in 1952. They didn't talk much about post partum depression back then. My own mother was a single child and she grew up listening to her mother fret every single night about the communists and the Beetles, both of whom were out to get her (in her warped mind).
Both my mother and grandmother were thin. Both had pale skin. Both were anemic. Both had restless leg syndrome. Both had osteoporosis. Both had emotional issues that overwhelmed them throughout their lives.
Why is this important to me, or to you? Because I now know in my bones that Mimi was intolerant to gluten. I believe it was the starting point for all of her many health woes. She loved her wheat toast every morning and saved a piece in the oven to enjoy at lunchtime. She didn't know that wheat toast was killing her. Just as my mother was unaware that her emotional concerns came from food her body saw as an invading enemy.
My mother and grandmother didn't know. But I do. And I will never knowingly ingest gluten. Or dairy. Or corn. Or yeast. I have a physical response to all of those ingredients. I am lucky that I did not suffer the same mental demise that other women in my family have suffered . . . but I could have gone down that path had I not caught my health concerns when I did.
Do you know about your mom's health? Do you know if she had a problem with wheat? Do you or someone you are related to crave sugar, alcohol, or carbs? Could you or they be self-medicating?
Before you are quick to write off such a person, find out if they have a food allergy or are battling Candida. Rule that out for yourself as well. It's not an excuse, nor does it give anyone a free pass to abuse substances . . . but it is often true that we self-medicate because we feel so very fatigued, or achy or generally like hell and the starting place of feeling that way could very well be a food allergy or a leaky gut.
You need to know. Find out and do better with your own food choices.
Knowledge is beyond power -- it is health.
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