What are you surviving?
Imagine you are a human being thousands of years ago, when there were no cities, no streets, no refrigerators, and no stores. None of the things we consider to be the basic aspects of modern life. Just you, naked under the sun, with a bunch of others, naked as well, wherever on the planet you were born, eating your environment, and spending most of the waking day looking for those parts of your environment that were edible. Whenever you found food, you would eat it, right then and there. Within a day and it may be spoiled.
Whatever we eat will be digested, that is, broken into little pieces, the building blocks of which everything is made of. The main building blocks: proteins, carbohydrates and fats are combined with many ’toppings’ (vitamins, minerals, herbs, tonics, phytonutrients). These are absorbed from the intestinal lumen into our blood. Food is broken down into simple nutrients that will be used by our cells to make more cells and all the hormones and other chemicals of which we are made.
These nutrients that circulate in the blood serve another purpose that is less talked about than the fact that we ARE what we eat, which means that we are made of the food we eat. The nutrients we absorb are supposed to be parts of our environment. The reason this matters is because we are discovering now that our genes are analyzing our blood constantly. Depending on the combination of nutrients, our genes respond by turning some on and others off. Nutrients are our genes periscope to ‘see’ the environment they are living in. At times perhaps the combination of nutrients was so ideal that genes governing sexual behavior and reproduction were activated and genes that would support migration were turned off. For example, a good nutrient content meant that the pregnancy would have a better chance of producing a healthy baby.
The new science of Nutrigenomics studies which nutrients affect what genes.
Our genes, for thousand of years, detected subtle changes in our environment by eating it, breaking it into little pieces and analyzing it in the most complex chemical laboratory, our body. In that way it would turn on and off the genes that would influence behavior and cellular expression to maximize chances of survival. Changes would be subtle. Fruits and vegetables varied according to the seasons. Maybe the autumn nutrients turned on genes for hair production, and winter nutrients turned on the genes for hair thickness. The sun, constantly hitting our skin, provided enough vitamin D. Nature living in nature, eating nature; the design functioning as the designer manifested it. Our cells are always, permanently, constantly, all doing whatever they are doing for one and one purpose only, to survive. This has occurred for thousands of years.
And suddenly, within a time period that has not allowed our genes to respond, we are living in very different conditions. We are no longer naked under the sun. In fact, we invented all kind of chemicals that we dissolve in creams and spread on our skin to prevent the rays of the sun to touch our skin. The boxes we live in are loaded with chemicals that we use to wax our hardwood floors or to retard fire from burning our mattresses like a match in case of a fire. The gases that are released as fumes have been pointed out to be one of the triggers of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Tonight, as I was writing this blog in my flatiron district apartment in Manhattan, I walked to the corner deli and got bananas from Mexico, blueberries from Argentina, a pineapple from Hawaii and kiwis from New Zealand. I wonder what my genes are thinking. I bet they are confused. Should I settle and mate or migrate south where our ancestors always found greater sources of magnesium, or should we turn off those genes and grow hair because the winter seems to have come all of a sudden. Oops, wrong, it was the summer after all. Wait a minute!
Our genes don’t see that we now live in cement buildings, and that we grab our food from fridges. Our genes still analyze chemicals, nutrients (and the lack of them) to get a reading that will reflect the environment.
The chemicals in our food and the combination of nutrients, as well as the quantity and frequency with which we eat, are turning genes on and off to maximize survival. These genes are blind to what it is that they are trying to survive. What we consider ‘disease’, mostly seen as the body being defective in some way or function, is really the result of the highest intelligence attempting to survive. What is ‘diseased’ is that which created the confusion of our genes, our modern lifestyle.
For example, coronary artery disease is the accumulation of plaque inside the coronary arteries blocking the normal passage of blood. Initially, our body, detecting irritation in the arterial wall and inflammation, patches the damage. If things work as they usually do in nature, the irritation would pass because the same chemicals that turned on the genes that directed the deposit of cholesterol also turn on genes that would make the person reject certain foods and move to another location. When the nutrients finally get better, the irritation would stop and the cholesterol patch would be reabsorbed. But modern man stays doing the same thing for years and the plaque keeps growing, until the mechanism of survival, as perfect as it was designed, turns out to be the cause of the worse problems and death.
What is diseased is not the heart. Coronary artery plaque is actually the perfect response of your arteries to try and survive the way you eat and live.
My burning question is, ‘what did humans eat when they were in their original wild habitat, only guided by instinct, geography and season’? Whatever that diet looked like, let’s call it “Instinct Diet’. Since our genes are so slow to change, they still think that the nutrient analysis when eating the Instinct Diet is the most optimal one, and it also should be the diet that contains everything needed for all the body functions to operate at their best. The more we can approximate the nutrient mixture that we expose our genes to, to what they would have been exposed to if they were still living in those times, in the original environment they were designed by nature to live in, the better chances you will have of restoring your body’s natural ability to heal itself. Food and supplements are the tools we have to make that happen. Yes, supplements may be not as you find food in nature, but fridges, boxes, jars and cans ain’t either. Supplements are a less natural tool that may eventually allow us to live in such an unnatural environment as an apartment in NYC.
Don’t ask your doctor if you have any diseases. Instead, ask your doctor “What Is My Body Trying to Survive?”. The answer is not only more likely to show you the truth but also could save your life…
- Posted by Dr. Alejandro Junger on October 2, 2009 at 8:30 am
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Tagged as: chemicals, diet, genetics, health, nutrients, nutrition
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I have always had a bit of an aversion to the term ’survivor’. I wouldn’t consider myself a Crohn’s survivor for sure. Overcoming any great challenge, healing from any horrible (or even minor) illness or disease is a huge accomplishment. Surviving any chance of not surviving is huge. Living though is so much more than just surviving.
Meghan,
what I meant is that the physiologic and chemical reactions which are characteristic of Crohn’s disease are not that your body doesn’t know what it’s doing. Your cells are just trying to survive. In Chron’s, your immune system is attacking your own intestine. It is not doing that because your body is defective. What is defective is the way we humans stopped living in natural conditions that cause damage of certain organs. For example, the damage of the good bacteria and the disruption of the intestinal walls end up exposing the immune system in the gut to food surfaces ( antigens) that normally it would not see. The immune system recognizes surfaces. When the surface of anything is detected, if not matching the list of surfaces known to be oneselve’s, an attack is mounted. If the foreign surface being attacked is similar to the surface of some part of our body, this body part can get attacked. These are the autoimmune disorders. Your body is attacking yourself but only because it is trying to survive by attacking foreign surfaces that may be dangerous.
You, your attitude, your ideas, your personality…. that is something else. While your cells are attacking foreign surfaces as a survival mechanism, your attitude may be different from what you call a survivor. Some people are heroic, others are inspiring, yet others feel and act like victims.
I talk at the cellular level. Your immune system, designed to help you survive, got confused by being exposed to surfaces that nature could not have predicted it would. The disease is not what is happening as Chron’s. The disease is the living conditions that ended up with the destruction of our intestinal flora and dysruption of the intestinal wall’s tight pass control and thus the exposure of the Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissue ( GALT ) to antigenic surfaces that confuse our immune system to attack our own body part. And you may not even know it. It could be chlorine in your shower water, mercury in your fish or mascara, the bactericidal ( antibiotic) in your dishwash,…..or a combination.
Thank you so much for this post. I have been diagnoised w/ celiacs and candida of the intestine. yet I still eat sugar, dairy, gluten at times ‘because I can’t give it up;. This post hammered home what i am doing to my body. What am I making my body survive. Thank you so much. It may just save me from painful bouts of health problem and mental discontent.
Thanks so much!
This post made me think also, of the food addictions that our society has come to have. Me included, and Michelle, above me, and I know tons of other people, display characteristics of food addictions. How can we get back to thinking of food as ‘fuel’ for our body and not ‘enjoyment’ as much. When the scale tips towards the enjoyment side, people seem to develop food addictions. What are your thoughts? (I really enjoyed the post, thinking of how simple life must have back then– at least in the food area!)
Thank you!
they are not mutually exclusive. when you are fit and vibrant , you crave fruits, vegetables, not stimulants and sugar.
And when you start learning all the great recipes out there for sugar free, wheat-gluten free, dairy free, chemical free everything, you see that even the worse eaters find their taste buds dancing when fit and given good recipes like those.
Oh my! Thank you.
I’m seeing first-hand how everything you said makes perfect sense! I’m my own science experiment, so to speak, and what you said has been borne out time and again, for me. Since I’ve gone nearly 100% “sugar free, wheat-gluten free, dairy free, chemical free everything” (caffeine-free, too), I’ve suddenly become flooded with energy! My thinking’s sharper and quicker and I’ve unbelievable amounts of stamina. When normally I’d fall asleep around 9pm and awaken naturally around 4am, now I force myself to bed at midnight and STILL am awaking at 4am—rarin’ to go, no less! The best part? I have lost, very quickly, all cravings for the “bad stuff.”
My husband’s not far behind me, and I have to say: You’re 100% correct when you said “even the worse eaters find their taste buds dancing.” I fed him a vegan chocolate pudding, last night, that has an avocado base; he LOVED it! If HE can enjoy the changes, this meat-loving, finicky man of mine, ANYONE can.
What all this tells me? …that I’m feeding my body what it LIKES. What it needs. Substituting a CLEAN diet for a mainstream version is freeing my body’s resources from battling the pollution to actually getting back to its purpose of powering and sustaining itself to its maximum potential—so it and I can hang around this earth together for a far longer time than otherwise.
Dr. Junger, I hope you find a way to take your message around the world, and that everyone has their ears perked… Listening to your advice will change their lives, too, if they allow it.
Julie sent me here…after 58 years of intensely caring for others, I am retiring from volunteering and care giving and searching out what makes me healthy. I can see the difference in my husband and children when I took the time to help them with gluten intolerance and asthma/allergies.
My doctor’s are saying I waited too long and have caused too much damage to my system….I am attempting not to eat away my tiredness and exhaustion. I am believing if I keep on keeping on – I will heal and find answers
Today I need to forgive myself for eating a whole bag of chips yesterday to get energy – yikes I have to say they still tasted great after 8 weeks of vegan raw.
I did purchase 12 free range chickens for my husband from a local CSA….He has asthma and Celiac Disease and his body seems to really thrive on this chicken?
Nutrients as the gene’s periscope to the outside world… Wow. What an important and fundamental concept. I wish all blog posts one sees these days had such profoundly big ideas.
I agree that the body has a vital responce system and begins to process and react to not only what we eat but what we breath in and ingest and live around. Here is what I think is interesting about your blog. First of all.. how many thousands of years back are we looking for a disease free and a less active disease life. I realize we have an epidemic of all different kinds of diseases stemming from our change of life since the industrial revolutionot to mention the technological age. However we have to remember that the number of humans on this planet has escaladed as well. We as humans have survived and out performed in all areas.. We have over come disease and malnutrition to be a thriving race.( Now I am not saying we dont have some serious problems) Here is what I am getting at. When you look at molecular biology and see the gene responce, I wonder how different it is in today’ surrounding then in the past. I hope this does not sound like I am differing with your opinion because I am not. I just think you posed an interesting hypothosis and it got me thinking. We are what we eat.. and we are what the plant consumes, the chicken and the water.. what an intriquing post. Thanks. Callie
<333 Well said
I am the ONLY person who finds everyday life…esp. with those whose beliefs in health/healing/nutrition opposed to mine….exhausting? Tell me, HOW can I deal with the everyday torture, with NO money for a fancy “detox” and NO support? Hate to sound so down, just tired of suffering in a marriage where my “other” makes fun of my need for health, when Little Debbies are so much more “fun” to eat! ***sigh***
“Tired of fighting” …
Becky I was copying this blog for a friend and saw your note.. Oh love.. dont get down. Those little debbies may taste good now.. but the fun sure wears off when they make you sick. I know it is hard to be fighting everything all the time. Sometimes you just have to regroup call an audible and get you head straight. It will not always be this hard. I love the way the folks on this sight keep thier minds on the beauty and joy of the simple things. Eating an apple is a lovely thing. It is crunchy, and sweet and feels like fall or lunch on the playground at school.. it can bring back a flood of happy thoughts.. Just take it one day at a time and remember that others may never share your desire to eat this way but you can enjoy it and make it your private little decadence. And look on the forum for ways to save money on the lifestyle.. you can get in there and make it happen.. It seems so expensive when you are beginnig but it evens out. I am keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.. Big hug for the big sigh. Blessings. Callie
Great article. I’ve been vegan (with a local/organic focus) for 15 years and am extremely grateful for that choice. I have, however, been thinking more and more about the concept of eating for genes. What triggered it is that my father, from Irish/English ancestry, has thrived on a meat and potato diet, despite being a drinker and smoker. I often joke that a similar diet would probably make my genes happy, given that my ancestors didn’t indulge on coconut and avocados–even in the summer. Do the types of foods matter, then, or is it more a question of staying in touch with the environmental and seasonal needs of the genes?
This is a very thought provoking blog. It makes me wonder though about our own evolution and how that has factored into things. Obviously, thousands of years ago man had a much shorter life-span, and they weren’t free of disease. Wouldn’t thousands of years give our genes time to respond?
jae, keep me posted if you try the potato irish theory. i would.