PROBLEMS WITH DIETS

Hello all,

I want to address a serious issue: diets. I posted my first post the other day on TMS Wiki about the website sarnoclinic.com and was criticizing this website for mentioning nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants) as being linked with arthritis.

I should no longer criticize this website as any site promoting Sarno's techniques should be applauded. Still...

Diets are really a major societal and health problem that is fully sweeping much of the world. There is so much powerful evidence in favour of every edible food under the sun being totally complicit in all ailments, pains, planetary pollutions and more. It is truly a wonder that anything on earth can eat anything at all without the planet exploding instantaneously!

When you look at this through 'the Sarno Lens', as my wife Brandie says, then all evidence that says that foods cause illnesses and pains is a bunch of bullshit (which is excellent fertilizer for first class fruits and veggies- no joke- Bull Shit has grown some of the highest quality melons, carrots, and snap peas that our family farm has produced, and grown by our daughter who was 10 at the time!)

I just last night posted my big healing journey with Sarno's methods and the craziness that beset our family farm the past couple of years. It is sad to say that the 'BullShit' garden that grew such deluxe produce was swept from our Nicola Valley by a mighty flood in November 2021..... Sad but true.

Anyways..... I have definitely had a long history in buying into every diet and food restriction and have in my past made countless recommendations that food was making people sick and have probably been complicit in a bunch of psychosomatic symptoms with all sorts of well meaning folks.

Prior to 2020, before I knew of John Sarno's methods, I was an absolutely wreck of symptoms. The only food that I could eat had to be grown by my family on our organic farm, or had to be organic and wheat free. We had to prepare it ourselves (we grind our own flour for all sourdough bread and baking, we raise our own chickens, cows, goats, and turkeys for meat, milk and eggs, we raise all our own vegetables and fruits in our organic orchards and gardens) and there is no doubt whatsoever that our diet has been absolutely top notch first class and probably of the caliber that the King of England eats though is produced by our own toil and sweat!

We still eat all this great food and wouldn't change it. However, if, before using Sarno's methods, if I ate any food at any community function, or in a restaurant, or cooked by friends and family, I would be sick and ill. Anything from bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and- more often than not, full blown migraine headaches with all night vomiting totally accepting that if I died in that moment I would be okay with it because I was feeling so downright horrible!

Over the years I have avoided hot peppers, tomatoes (though skinned and deseeded I could eat) all wheat products, the bran sifted from grain, coffee, alcohol, non-organic food.... etcetera etcetera.

I have taken multi day fasts, eaten vegan and vegetarian diets, or nothing but fruit for days. My wife and I operated a completely organic on farm bistro where we produced all the food and delivered prepared organic meals to folks in Vancouver.

I am a chartered herbalist having taken a course that allows me to make and sell and prescribe herbal remedies.

I have recommended flax seed oil and gluten free diets and the importance of soaking nuts and grains before using and that some species of cows milk can give you every ailment under the sun (to the point that we intentionally sought out our amazing Jersey Milk Cow Tina who was worth all the nutritional misinformation, and who's milk makes deluxe cheeses and lattes and yogurt, and who was airlifted off of our farm during the 2021 floods- check out Tina the Flying Cow on youtube)

After achieving great success with Sarno's books in 2020 I have been able to eat anything that I have desired or even undesired to eat with no problems anymore. I don't get stomache pains, lethargy, diarrhea, constipation or any symptoms in regards to food I eat. If there is some especially stressful situations going on in my life then I may experience some symptoms, but I know what really causes these symptoms.

After our farm was half destroyed from the 2021 floods and we were forced to evacuate completely for 5 months, then could only access our home by helicopter or hiking for a further 3 months, we were cast out into the big world to experience all of the stuff that would have absolutely killed me pre-Sarno.

Suddenly, without our farm, we were shopping in grocery stores and eating in restaurants (we did rescue some of our veggies, wheels of hard cheese, beef, and eggs from the farm- the rest was abandoned to the wild animals to feast upon- tens of thousands of dollars worth of food and animals!)

We were buying milk and dairy and bread and conventional food and really, experiencing no problems due to the food (we had enough problems with dealing with our wrecked farm from afar!). Foods that would make me sick have no effect on me anymore. Hot dogs on a stick- no problem. Fast food cheeseburgers- no problem. Ice cream- no problem.....

We are way back on track at our farm now and eat all of our own food again. Eggs and sourdough bread and salad and homemade bacon (from a friend's pigs) all cooked in butter for breakfast every day. Strong lattes after our second chores. Fruit and yogurt. Homemade cheeses and meats and glorious salads and homemade baking with fresh ground grain and honey and our own whipped cream. Chicken and french fries- on and on.

There is no doubt that we eat like kings and queens and princesses here on our farm and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Still- being out in the big world and shopping in grocery stores I was blown away at the quality of the food available, especially after 20 years of not really shopping in grocery stores. So much of the quality is first class and so available in this part of the world (as in nobody dropping bombs on anybody in North America)...

The biggest thing holding everybody back from enjoying all of the great food is their minds! Truly, we fear and criticize foods and blame foods for everything under the sun due to this theory or that, or this scientific study or that.... When you toss in the emotions, buried rage, and look at it all through 'The Sarno Lens', then all of these convincing studies seem like pure hokum, or bullshit.

Furthermore, there are even more huge problems with all of these convincing arguments against eating food. There are currently huge political forces going against farmers all over the world. No kidding, most farmers in North America are totally scared shitless that they are going to lose their food growing rights, or are going to lose all of their customers (people who eat food) because of policies that restrict what food they can grow and raise.

There are folks out there who think that the best solution for food and nutrition are to be found in giant pea protein production facilities. I love peas- I have fond memories of shucking them with my grandma. We grow delectable sweet snappy peas on our farm, and we used to make sprouted pea falafels at our vegetarian restaurant that were pretty good. But as a food to replace meat, milk and eggs- no thanks.

Poor chickens and cows and pigs who may face being relegated to animal sanctuaries or sent to extinction- animals falsely accused of so many problems, yet who just enjoy a good life as much as any creature on earth (and obviously a good life involves natural foods and sunshine). If people all start believing that good foods that folks have been eating for as long as folks have been around are causing all of their ailments, then farms and animals and bakeries are all in trouble.....

Anyways, I hope that all of you folks reading this post here on the John Sarno page are talking heavily to their brains about all of the bullshit in their lives and can start living better and eating all of the fine food that we're blessed here on earth to be able to enjoy!

Happy Healing,
Michael

 

Eat food that feels good for you. We all have our own particular comfort food- and it is probably truly linked to times when we felt safe and taken care of- especially when we were kids and somebody was looking out for us.

If food scientists tell us that this food or that food is bad for us- how do we really know this to be true? If our emotional lives aren't taken into account, then how many scientific studies on nutrition can ever be accurate? If we put drops of purified ingredients onto petri dishes of cells and watch what happens under a microscope- how the heck can we relate that to human health?
Are our digestive systems really so delicate? I don't believe it one bit- despite all of the pain and suffering I experienced with my digestion prior to using Sarno's methods.

We eat and drink what we have in front of us, it drops into our bellies where acids and muscles break it down and give us nourishment, and we move it along down the toilets... Around the world and through history people have eaten and drunken whatever was available (and there's probably been plenty of digestive distress along the way....) and our species has continued along. People in concentration camps have survived (and died) eating whatever scant food was available. Some people suffer digestion problems, some people don't. Some people can eat this, some can eat that, others can and others can't.

There is way too many holes in the diet and nutrition world to offer up any perfect conclusions. Basically because there aren't any to be had.

If we can totally deal with all of the buried rage that has been festering in our subconscious throughout our lives- through talking to our brain that we know all of our pain and symptoms exist because our brain is trying to distract us from our ugly old buried rage, that we know this to be true, that the gig is up and we're onto our sneaky old brains- then I am convinced that we can eat whatever food we want to eat without ill effect.

This is my experience.

As for portion control- that's another issue- and is obviously a big problem unto itself. I also know that I eat all food groups in a high quality form, and that foods that once made me ill no longer make me ill- so really, I'm only going on my own experiences. I would honestly experience five alarm reactions from any food from any restaurant or public function before John Sarno- migraines, barfing, diarrhea, constipation, chills and shakes..... This doesn't happen anymore.

I can eat food again with great gusto and gratefulness once again (like when I was a teenager with an 'iron stomach'). I have always loved food and I love it even more when other people have prepared it and I know that I am fortunate to be alive and enjoying it in good health.

I shake my head with all of the past meals and foods that I didn't eat in the past, because of all of my supposed food allergies and intolerances.

My food issues created great strains in my family, and out in public and with friends- what a pain in the ass!

What's the best success with Sarno's methods? Read his books front to back and front to back again and again and again. Turn your back on all of the faulty recommendation about pain, posture, excercise, the correct way to lift, etc..... Talk to your brain about all of the super enraging stuff that you have been dealt in your life and continue to have to deal with because of simply being alive.
Look at every possible symptom as a form of distraction that your brain is giving you to distract you from your buried rage (even a song stuck in your head when you wake up or one nostril clogged in the morning- songs stuck in your head are obviously the most benign of symptoms, but they still mean there's something brewing under there...)

Don't stop doing this work. Don't wait for a quiet time to write things down or sit in silence- THESE MOMENTS MAY NOT COME WHEN YOU WANT THEM TO!!! If you can talk to your brain about your whole life history while you're out and about every day, you can do a heck of a lot more brain talking. And honestly, it seems that there comes a point where you've talked to your brain so much so constantly for so long about how you really truly understand that all of your symptoms are psychosomatic and you don't need them anymore, there seems to come a point where you actually aren't talking to your brain as much anymore..... You still need to do this, but maybe not so much so regularly, though definitely when life's stresses pick up- as they do....

Happy Healing