Good Nutrition: What Is It?

Google the word “health” and you’ll instantly see 150,000,000 results.  The word “nutrition” brings up 24,100,000 links.

What bothers me about nutrition is that the medical and nutritional communities are not in agreement about what a healthy model looks like.  So many people are drumming to their own health beat, believing that their way is the right way.  Disturbing even more is how scientific research becomes diluted to the point that where only parts of a study are translated to the public.  If your audience does not understand your message or have ALL of the information, then why would people want to change their ways? Even worse, people change their ways thinking it is a healthier change, when it’s really not.  That is what happened to me.

Many children and adults do not have positive relationships with nature’s food and feel more connected to man-made food.  By this I mean I’m questioning whether we are more connected to a bag of Doritos than an apple.  If we tried to cook Doritos on our own, we wouldn’t be able to because the ingredients are not found in nature.  Which grocery store isle will I find partially hydrogenated oil, yeast extract or dextrose? We’re more worried about the numbers on the label than the quality of ingredients.

Why Do I Care So Much?

Over the years, I believe that I’ve absorbed a great deal of incorrect information as to what constitutes healthy.  This goes beyond food, but my perception of what constituted a healthy food model was my biggest challenge.

I look back at my younger years when I put my trust in medical experts, thinking they had all the answers.  As a teenager, I never cared or questioned the ingredients or side effects of medication.  All I heard were statements such as, “I’m going to prescribe monocyclin for your acne.  There is a chance that your face will dry out, but call our office if you experience any other side effects.”  I was simply treating a symptom of a potentially larger issue.

I was someone who did not smoke or drink.  I exercised a few times a week.  My mom cooked daily homemade dinners, but we also had access to soda, candy, cereals and processed snacks. As I became more conscious about the way I looked, I followed a low-fat diet.  I was still eating low-fat, high processed foods. I was obsessed with reading the numbers on the back of the label.

I was eating things such as 6” turkey subs a few times a week.  I would reward myself with a chocolate chip cookie.  I had grilled chicken strips with a large salad.  I was never into diet soda, but had given up ALL soda by the time I was 25.  I wasn’t much of a cook back then, but if it was low-fat, I would eat it.  I always liked vegetables, but because of my fast-paced lifestyle, I would only get a couple servings a day.  I grew up on rice and starchy foods like potatoes.  I cut down on potatoes but kept eating rice.  I cut down on beef and butter and found an excuse to constantly eat my beloved low-fat chocolate chip granola bars and granola cereal.

On a side note, I remember the first and last time I tried a rice cake and thought the marketing genius behind that idea should have been shot after eating a bag of them.  I felt cheated out of $2.95 plus tax because I could have chewed on a brown paper bag for zero dollars and zero cents.  Anyone in their right mind knew that a cracker could outperform the role and taste of a rice cake.

Unhealthy Detour

You can imagine the shock and “what the f***?” look on my face when I went in to see the doctor for a lump that had grown on the right side of my neck.  It developed over the course of a few weeks and I remember sleeping for 12 hours straight one weekend and still feeling tired the next morning.  I was 19 and confident that the doctor with going to concur with my self-diagnosed issue of hypothyroidism.  To be honest, I read about it in the waiting room right before I saw the doctor and thought to myself, “I have all these symptoms.  I have a thyroid problem.”  The doctor would not confirm anything that day, but suspected cancer.  I was immediately scheduled for a biopsy two days later.  The lump was removed and sent to a lab to be analyzed.  Within a week, two words would change the rest of my life: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a type of cancer originating from white blood cells called lymphocytes.  There are four stages, which depend on how far the cancer has spread throughout the body.  For me, life or death was two stages away.  I was 19 years old and a few weeks shy of completing my second semester of college.  The naive side of me thought I could postpone chemotherapy until I finished my finals.

I followed the advice of doctors and other medical experts and consistently took the medication I was prescribed. But it felt like a quasi fix.  What foods do I eat? What do I avoid? What can I do to detox from chemotherapy and radiation? Do I need to focus on a specific type of diet? These questions never came to mind.  They were never discussed with me, either.  I knew that I was supposed to avoid processed foods and eat healthier.  I had no clear-cut definition of the word healthy.

It’s taken me so long to figure out the truth.  I now follow the Weston A Price principles and beginning to incorporate Kevin Brown’s Liberation Wellness model.  I no longer take any type of medication.  Had I only known then what I know now!  My 33^rd birthday is right around the corner, and I feel blessed at where I am and how I feel today.

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Sadiqua Hamdan is a freelance writer and regular contributor to health related websites.  Her desire to write was well documented at a young age, as she chose to read, write and doodle rather than play with neighborhood kids.

The combination of health and writing manifested itself after overcoming Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a type of cancer, at the age of 19.  She was two stages away from life or death.  It still took her several years to value the importance of nutrition and started taking steps to cleanse the toxins from chemotherapy and radiation.  Sadiqua enjoys traveling, cooking, researching, and connecting with people.  Her favorite authors include Kurt Vonnegut, Paulo Coelho, Sally Fallon, Amy Tan and Elizabeth Gilbert.  Sadiqua is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Leadership and Organizational Change.