Just How Much Proof Do They Need?

A post from one of my migraineurs today initiated the most amazing reaction in me. I felt angry at people and sad but amazingly, also quite happy when I read what she wrote. With permission, I copy-pasted her comment. This was in response to others posting their anger at how demoralizing it is that when most doctors hear about the Stanton Migraine Protocol(R), they roll their eyes; when the migraineur tells them that they are migraine free, they still want to prescribe them pain killers even though they have no pain. And they never ever ask about what they eat.

Why does the world not see that food is medicine and while food can cure, it can also kill?

People are so addicted to their beloved foods, that not even seeing their loved-ones heal, become healthy and happy, can convince them that they should try the same. Here is the migraineur’s comment:

The thing is that a person has to hit their rock bottom in order to want to change. I hit that bottom years ago but unfortunately this protocol wasn’t available yet and then it took me a few years to discover it after Angela started this group. In the meantime I did try every pill they offered me, I was desperate!
Think of an alcoholic, they can be forced into treatment but you can’t make them work the program. Something has to take place in that person in order for them to want to change. I feel it is the same for any ailment that can be controlled with food and healthy lifestyle vs some pill.

I have shown this protocol to numerous people over the 3+ years I’ve been here, and have given away 2 copies of the books but to my knowledge only 2 have joined, and neither is active if they are even still here.

My husband is very supportive but is totally unwilling to give up his grains, starchy and processed foods, and sweets. I’m really tired of trying to help him. I can’t make him change when he can’t see the value for himself. He is borderline, if not full blown, diabetic with heart condition, high blood pressure and obesity. His latest blood work showed high BG and poor kidney function. He was on lithium for about 20 years and the nephrologist said that it has damaged his kidneys. He also suffers aura migraine with and without pain. He lives with me, sees my improved health, and yet is unwilling to change.

My sister flat out told me last visit that “You can’t live and be healthy without eating fruit and vegetables.” Her Hubby told me that if he eats bacon it will kill him yet he will eat an entire bowl, think large cereal bowl, of dill pickles because it stops leg cramps and also will eat 2 apples or other fruits at a time. He had his first heart attach at age 40, now 71, has had several bypasses, is on his second pacemaker, has Ehlers-Danlos, peripheral neuropathy, and T2D. He avoids animal fats and eats lots of pasta, bread, and fruits and veggies, not a lot of meats.

I do get very frustrated but have always held the belief that I can’t change anyone but me. It did make me angry at first and sometime it still makes me a little crazy but I can’t fix anyone else, I can only tell them what has worked for me.
Meanwhile, my PCP keeps telling me how excited she is for me because she has watched me get off of so many medications and regain so much health and stamina. My friends keeps telling me how much healthier I look and my 48 yr old daughter keeps telling me that she likes the new me so much better than the angry old me.

Yes, I want to shout from the rooftops and tell everyone that they don’t have to take pills to get rid of their ills. And every opportunity I get I do share this with people but I can’t get angry anymore as it only serves to cause me stress. So I just bite my tongue when someone tells me that this woe [way of eating] can’t possibly be healthy or that “everyone is different so this protocol can’t work for all migraineurs.” We can only do so much. Keep sharing with others in the hope that some day they will be receptive. Until then you can only help you!

The Seriousness of Food Addiction

Food is addictive–some foods are more addictive than others. Some elements in foods are very specifically addictive. Wheat, for example, contains gluten, a protein, which

“…can be degraded into several morphine-like substances, named gluten exorphins. These compounds have proven opioid effects and could mask the deleterious effects of gluten protein on gastrointestinal lining and function. Here we describe a putative mechanism, explaining how gluten could “mask” its own toxicity by exorphins that are produced through gluten protein digestion.” (from here)

The addictive elements are typically associated with those foods that are ultra refined, such as sugar, all sweetened foods, all grains–especially anything made with their flour–and juices. Basically anything that makes the sugar fast-absorbing is addictive. And, as you can see in the long quote above, just about everything listed are such fast-acting sugar foods–including all grains.

Food addiction is a serious problem because it makes us sick. All living creatures in the animal kingdom eat for sustenance to assuage their hunger but don’t eat for the taste or for fun. Most animals will eat anything in order to stay alive and consume as many calories as they need to live. The over-consumption of calories (particularly empty calories, where nutrients are scarce, if any) causes serious problems.

Hibernating Humans?

In the animal kingdom there are a number of species that spend several months hibernating, and so these creatures don’t eat or drink for that time. The way they can survive without eating is by building up huge fat reserves (by over-consumption of calories) and some even get full blown insulin resistant (type 2 diabetes), bears for example, while eating way more than what they need for daily sustenance. Insulin resistance in nature’s way of helping the animal put enough weight/fat on to be able to survive the harsh period of not being able to eat. Seasonal insulin resistance is not unhealthy but chronic insulin resistance is. Hibernation reverses insulin resistance and bears awake each spring healthy and skinny.

But do humans hibernate? Do humans need to pile up a ton of extra fat to the degree of ending up with type 2 diabetes in order to survive the extremes of winter? Nahhh… they sit and watch TV a bit more during long winter nights, and they keep on eating.

The diseases associated with such eating are numerous–some are listed above in the long quote from the migraineur. If you had followed my posts on Covid-19, then you know that metabolic-diseases predispose a person to a much worse case of Covid-19, potentially fatal, than those who are metabolically healthy. Metabolic disease is not only about preventing high sugars but it is a loss of your life at an earlier age with a miserable long death. Controlling what you eat is about saving the health of your life. 

So What Does It Take?

What does it take to convince those people who have such disturbed eating that even seeing a friend or a spouse completely recover from all ailments as a result of changing her diet still aren’t willing to change? Just how strong is the pull of the wrong food? Very strong.

Big Food Industry wins. The problem is that Big Food Industry harms people and so they are reducing their very customers! Of course, the sick then get passed to the Big Medical Industry and Big Pharma, both extreme money-making industries. At every turn, these people are losing out and giant industries make millions off their suffering. They remain blind to this because of the taste of food their are addicted to.

I hope these people smarten up before it’s too late: before a stroke, a heart attack, or the amputation of a toe or a foot. I wish they would turn around in time to enjoy life for real and not just the food.

What will it take? Perhaps, as the migraineur noted in the above comment: they too must hit rock bottom to change. Let’s hope it’s not going to happen too late!

Comments are welcome, as always, and are moderated for appropriateness

Angela