Health & Happiness

This week in my adventures of social work studies, I did a single case study experiment on myself (as did the rest of my cohort). I chose the wacky idea of only eating alkaline foods based on the alkaline-ash-diet for three consecutive days. My hypothesis was that I would be able to lower my acid levels according to the pH strips that I had.

There seems to be more and more awareness around cancer awareness and prevention. One of the connections to this is that cancers seem to not be able to live in an alkaline body and seem to thrive in an acidic environment. In current media you can learn more about it in documentary "Forks Over Knives" or in the book The End of Illness by David B. Agus, M.D.

While my experiment was a test in more ways than one, my results were surprising and inconclusive. I spent half of this week feeling hungry but had a lot of energy. I probably slept better and woke more refreshed having taken out coffee and pretty much all sugar (besides fruit) out of my diet. Normally when I get super hungry I get cranky but even though I felt hungry every few hours, I did not get moody :) The only strong feeling I had was that I missed flavorful foods. I got pretty bored with my combination of vegetables with no sauces. The other surprising thing was that as each day passed of very diligent work in not eating anything I felt like, my pH levels seemed to get more and more acidic! While I'm sure the health benefits were still great, it was not reflected in a more alkaline bodily state. One of my friends said, maybe your body was still getting rid of all the acid from how you have always eaten. I could have done this test for longer....but self control is still a work in progress!

When I started eating without consciousness, I honestly noticed a difference in my energy. I noticed I ate more than my body felt comfortable with. I could feel this in a tired, lethargic kind of way throughout the day.   At my work we had a gourmet food and wine event which raises money for the non-profit. No one can deny that health and happiness often go together but what is easily forgotten is both of their links to FOOD!

This is an area that is also of more prominent concern in the area of social work as well as social policy. Many schools are changing their cafeteria menus to have organic healthy meals. Schools are also incorporating gardening curriculum into their classrooms. California's Prop 37 is a hot topic on labeling genetically altered foods so that consumers are able to be conscious about their food. As we know from ecological systems perspective...everything is connected. Food. Health. Happiness. Food.