Health Fads vs Timeless Wisdom

Georgia Gibbs,  Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine Practitioner

Modern society lives for an extreme, 1L of celery juice when you wake up, skip the red meat, cold plunge your heart out & don't you dare break your fast early!

If you’re familiar with my story, you probably know I had a long journey of healing.
A journey that started at 22 and led to me spending most of my 20’s trying to find the ‘fix’ only to flick through every health fad you could imagine. I was bloated, anxious, exhausted, losing hair, with chronic acne and gynecological issues, so it was safe to say, I was desperate for anything that could help. I now see my clients trying the same fads I did. I am deeply passionate to help others bypass the noise and wellness money pits to align with rituals rooted in wisdom that have stood the test of time. 

Let’s explore what I tried and what actually stuck.

THE FADS

IF IT’S ‘JUICEABLE’, JUICE IT

Here’s the thing, vegetable juice cleanses contain high amounts of antioxidants, yay, which sound great but also contain huge amounts of oxalates, not yay.

Oxalates are plant compounds that can increase the likelihood of Kidney stones; they’ve been linked to chronic vulvodynia, gut issues & allergy-like symptoms. I started getting mystery symptoms like those above and eventually realized it was all the ‘healthy’ stuff I had been eating. When we look at our ancestors' plants were foraged, cooked or used for medicine, no one was juicing beets, spinach and sweet potatoes, vegetables can’t naturally be juiced, fruit can, let’s observe nature and follow what is natural for her.

Another note on juicing, fiber is an amazing binder to clear toxins out of the gut and juicing strips these foods of fiber, one of their most beneficial compounds.  

THE WAR ON CARBS

Keto oh keto, you feel great until the keto crashes hit & your cycle goes haywire. Why can this happen? So many people claim to feel great.

As a woman of reproductive age, keto is a short-term band aid that can create more mayhem going forward. When you cut carbs and turn your body into a fat burning machine, you may feel great for a while.

You are starving the bad bugs in your gut, regulating your blood sugar and overall eating more nutritionally dense higher calorie food.

During Keto my rosacea flushes decreased, bloating subsided and energy improved but, fast forward 3 months and I started noticing changes in my cycle, lower body temperature (a key diagnostic tool for fertility & ovulation) and overall feeling really really blah. Why? Because carbs are our bodies best friend for down regulating stress, lower stress, lower cortisol and better thyroid & sex hormone production.

Do I think it’s a bad idea for a month? No, do I recommend it long term, no and if something doesn’t stand the test of time, it’s a fad to me.

FOOD FEARS

Red meat is bad, vegetarian, pescetarian, vegan, white meat, no red meat, I truly tried it all when it came to diet. The reason I tried so many ways of eating was because I believed red meat was the problem but, then all meat became the problem, then lentils, chickpeas, grains, sugar and the reductionist dieting continued, at one point it felt like no food was my friend and I remember feeling so stuck.

What I realized was, my gut was the problem and therefore everything that caused irritation was too. I ended up doing carnivore for a month as a gut reset, the result, it massively helped and allowed me to stop focusing on food and focus on healing, I committed to slowly adding foods back in and now there’s nothing I avoid, it took time but was well worth it. The truth is, red meat is a superfood staple in my diet but, it’s not everything, the goal is to tolerate & enjoy the widest variety of ancestral foods possible.

WATER BUT, BETTER

Alkaline water, well, this really did turn into a pet peeve. The belief that we can change the acidity of our body through drinking alkaline water is a myth.

Water is naturally alkaline; nature creates water around 7-8ph. The thought that we can “out smart” nature is human ignorance.

When we drink highly alkaline often mineral barren water of 10 pH or so all we do is potentially upset the balance in the stomach. In Chinese Medicine our Stomach needs to be warm and acidic to transform and begin the breakdown of our food, the acid also protects us from bad bugs that we could ingest and helps with absorption of nutrients. Drink water the way nature intended, from the spring, 7-8 PH, we can’t improve evolutionary perfection.

THE WISDOM

I realized that “quick fixes” don’t exist, it comes at a cost and it’s never a long-term solution.

Here are the rituals I adopted that in the long term healed my symptoms, addressed the root of my imbalances, and overall became part of a lifestyle that created lasting change.

• I replaced alkaline water with mineral rich spring water, I realized the mineral density within the water and the natural structure of the water was what really mattered, just water as nature intended.
• I ditched the restrictions around diet and embodied a whole food ancestral nutrition approach rich in animal foods, cooked vegetables and grains prepared the way our grandmother would, as well as fresh fruits and herbs. This has become so much more than a diet; it has become the way I see health and healing, rooted in history & ancestral practices, practices that have stood the test of time.
• As my gut healed, I started incorporating more cooked vegetables & fermented foods. This became an important ritual to continue to restore and support my gut health and overall gut diversity.
• Adopting ancestral medicine, herbalism is the people's medicine, our original medicine. Herbalism is every human being's birthright. Since the beginning of time when our body needed support, we turned to mother nature and consumed herbs to rebalance and restore the body.

Since becoming a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine as well as a patient of the medicine for the last 8 years my health has transformed. What I realized is, nature isn’t instant and in a society of quick fixes we choose fads because of their convenience, a convenient band aid. Herbs aren’t always quick, but they’re truly remarkable if you have the patience and commitment to align with them and come home to your body.

Understanding that we can’t out supplement, out herb, out eat a body in a constant state of stress, we can take every adaptogen, consume consistent carbs & protein, get enough minerals in and sleep well but we’ll always be working to put out a fire we’re igniting ourselves. Embodying a mindfulness ritual has been key (and free) to my healing journey. Regulating yourself is an incredible tool when connecting with others; it strengthens your connection with yourself and balances your body. This allows these other healing tools to support you rather than, day in day out, putting out fires. Whether this is meditation, breathwork, journaling, movement or yoga, it’s the most essential tool of them all.

Fads come and go, this is because they don’t have the roots to make lasting change, trust what our ancestors have trusted, trust what nature offers, release the quick fix mentality and trust in the innate healing powers of your body when given the right tools.

Feeling inspired? Try the root up, ancestral-based approach to healing, read our article about Foundational Health here and begin your ancestral healing journey.

Georgia, Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine Practitioner

References

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32381601/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38911445/

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.921738/full