We discount how we do feel in favor of how we think we should feel, at least according to the latest nutrition claims and advertising on that box of “Frosty-O-Jumbos” or even “Specialized Healthy Nutrient-Brand”.  

This summer Mark Bittman raised a ruckus when he wrote about having discovered, half a lifetime after it started, that the cause of his pharmaceutical-grade heartburn has turned out to be dairy.  Suddenly, he’s eating hot sauce and anchovies to his heart’s content, and it matters not one bit whether dinner’s at 7 or midnight.  Mark Bittman, a respected cook, foodie, food journalist, and columnist for The New York Times, has received so many responses that he can’t publish them all.  He reports that approximately one-third of respondents have discovered that they, too, have been able to heal their bellies by removing dairy from their diets.  It’s not just heartburn, bellyaches, constipation, or other gastrointestinal symptoms either.  Lots of folks have reported that symptoms related to their respiratory systems — including asthma, earaches, sinus infections, and even mouth sores — have also gone away.

This is all rather extraordinary to me.

Here we have an entire country filled with people who feel kind of sick, for one reason or another, and they have no idea why.  That’s pretty wild by itself, but it’s just half the story.  The other half of the story is that we continue to accept as dogma (truth) all kinds of food-related information, even in the face of significant evidence to the contrary.  We experience distressing symptoms, and then we ignore them.  We are influenced, encouraged even, to ignore our guts, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

It’s not dairy in particular that concerns me.  In fact, it might be dairy for me, and wheat for you, and processed corn-based products for the next guy.  What bothers me more is the fact that so many people are eating items that make them feel badly, and they aren’t making the connection.

When I was a little girl, I once got sick to my stomach shortly after eating a chocolate bar.  I did not eat another chocolate bar for many years.  Since then, I have more than made up for it.  But that’s not the point.  The point is that my brain made a connection.  

Think about the expression, “Trust your gut.”  This expression has a rich history.  If something seems not to agree with you, don’t eat it for a while.  See what happens.  See how you feel.  Allow your brain to make the connection.  Trust your gut.   

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Follow Dr Sukol on Twitter @RoxanneSukolMD and follow her on Facebook at Roxanne Breines Sukol.