Diet – Desires and Aversions
How what you eat can help lead to a homeopathic prescription
Listening to your body and eating according to what you desire can be beneficial to provide your body with the nutrients it needs. Often in today's world, we don’t do this so much, there are many things that get in the way of this.
One of the biggest factors for many people, is eating processed foods. The excess salt, sugar and additives in processed food will interrupt the neural pathways that allow us to trust our taste buds to give the appropriate signals of what our body needs. It has been discussed in many places how the chemicals in processed foods can trigger areas of the brain that induce eating more of this type of food. Food manufacturing processes actively research which chemicals do this This can over-ride satiety signals leading to over weight and obesity. Natural foods may be perceived as less palatable in the presence of these unnatural flavours.
Another aspect in modern cultures is altering diet in a manner that is perceived to be more healthy. This may be adopting a gluten and dairy free diet, giving up red meat, becoming a vegetarian, a vegan or a carnivore only. There are so many types of diets around now it is bewildering. I have met so many people who abruptly change their diet one way or another according to what someone has told them.
In homeopathy, the Repertory has vast lists of symptoms relating to desires and aversions in food. These symptoms may help a homeopath to arrive at a remedy match for a client.
Some examples of remedy and food associations
Aethusa cynapium – has a strong aversion to milk and dairy products cause aggravations [also Natrum carbonicum]
Alumina – desires dry food such as dry crackers
Antimonium crudum – has such a great desire for cucumbers it is considered a strong keynote. There is an aversion to sour food
Antimonium tartaricum – has the desire for sour fruit
Argentum nitricum – has the most intense desire for sweets in the materia medica with often detrimental affects on the person. This can even can affect a newborn baby whose mother ate a lot of sweets during her pregnancy!
Calcarea carbonica – this remedy has a strong desire soft boiled eggs, this is a calcium rich food and the remedy may help the body to assimilate calcium more effectively. There is also a strong desire for sweets, some say this is because the body needs more protein.
Causticum – desires smoked meats
Natrum muriaticum – has a strong desire for salt and may apply salt to their food so that the food looks white! Sodium balance is necessary for fluid balance and Nat-m is a remedy to think of when there is fluid accumulation in the lower legs.
Pulsatilla – has an aversion to eating meat fat yet desires cream, butter and ice-cream
Rhus toxicondren – has a great desire for milk and may drink 3 litres a day!
Tuberculinum – also drinks lots of milk but no where near as much as Rhus-t
There are certain combinations of food desires that help focus a prescription on a particular remedy
Veratrum album – desires lemon and salt. Prof Vithoulkas says that 80% asthma cases can be cured in children that ask for this combination, of course other symptoms need to fill the complete picture.
Strange desires can lead to a remedy prescription as well.
Tarantula – eats indigestible things like sand
These are only snippets of the type of detail available in the homeopathic repertory and the many volumes of materia medica available. So artificially controlling diet negates all of these useful symptoms. Simply listening to our bodies and eating intuitively can be beneficial of many different levels. In the simplest manner, it allows our bodies to direct us to that which we really need to nourish our bodies. In a body that requires balancing, these desires and aversions help direct a practitioner to help your body to heal.
Bibiography
One Man's Meat Is Another Man's Poison by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride https://www.faim.org/one-mans-meat-is-another-mans-poison
Lecture notes IACH course with Professor George Vithoulkas
Kent’s Repertorium Generale; J Künzli; Barthel & Barthel Publishing; 1987
Disclaimer: This information is supplied for educational purposes only. Sources include published literature and anecdotal experiences of myself and other men, women and animals. The information is not intended for the treatment of any particular individual person or disease. If you are suffering any particular complaint please consult professional help.