Friday, August 2, 2013

Naturopathic Doctor Visit

Today I went to a new doctor, a naturopathic doctor. I have taken an interest in natural medicine and I wanted to learn more about the profession, so I set up an appointment with Dr. Melos.
My parents only grudgingly allowed me to do this. My dad says I should do it because "I'm already healthy." My mom only let me do it because insurance pays for it.
During my check-up, Dr. Melos said she had some "articles that she has written over the years" she gives to new patients, and I expected it to be approximately two or three pages. But she gave me a full binder with a beautiful green and pink cover that read "Living Well Naturally" and sixty pages of information! I have read up to page 25, and read it all over again, and then went back to certain pages and read those again. It's a lot to take in.
There were lots of detox cleanse diets offered in the binder, one for each season. I also learned all about liquid vegetable fasting, and I got really interested in it. I want to try it.
I also learned more about raw foodism. I read that cooking food kills the enzymes contained in it. Enzymes allow the body to digest the food put into it, and when it doesn't get enough it takes some from the emergency storage in the pancreas to compensate for the lack. I got kind of afraid because all of the foods that I have always thought to be healthy actually weren't as healthy as I thought, like cooked vegetables. I just thought veggies were veggies. It's kind of like the feeling one gets when she watches the NutriBullet infomercial and is told that she isn't getting the maximum health benefits from her food, even if her food is supposedly healthy food.
The human body is just extremely complicated and intricate. There is so much more to it than calorie intake and outtake. There are so many organs and so many vitamins and minerals and nutrients to react with those organs and each other. And there is so much more to healthy eating than calories and nutrient counting: there are so many factors such as eating certain foods with certain others, eating at certain times of the day or year, preparing them a certain way, eating them within different amounts of time from harvesting.... It makes me scared. There is so much to know, and no human being has figured it all out completely, let alone me. Will I ever solve the great mystery that is my ideal diet for optimal health??

No comments:

Post a Comment