Tip #431 Nutrition Nuggets; What Goes Up Must come down?

    I'm a fact girl. Knowledge is exciting to me. Well, I guess I should clarify that - knowledge that is not related to physics is exciting to me. Yes, I know that laws of physics affect us in immeasurable ways all day, each day. I get that, I just choose to ignore it.  So, you can imagine my surprise to learn that we can magically alter the laws of physics while recovering from illness. Huh? Yep, we can. You know that saying "What comes us, must come down...?" The group Blood, Sweat, & Tears (from the 60's) even made a song called Spinnin' Wheel out of that line. Well, they're wrong. I said it alright. They're wrong! Okay, well, maybe they are not wrong exactly, but there is a small loophole; what comes up doesn't have to come down! Save your protests please, I promise that I am not an anti-gravitite (not even sure if there is such a thing!)!
     In all seriousness, of course we can't really alter any of the laws of physics, but what we can do is challenge some of our assumptions about how we manage the illness that so deeply affects us and our loved ones. Instead of continuing to blindly follow the crowd, and/or accepting the status quo, we should periodically reevaluate the assumptions that we make about everyday topics that now trouble us. For instance, with respect to nutrition we all make one very large assumption: what goes up (into the mouth), must come down (out the other end).  That's how we get nourishment. For that matter, we also say that "a moment on the lips (what goes up), a lifetime on the hips (must come down)!" That's how we get more than nourished :)  Either way, we've established a pattern of the food having one purpose - moving from the top to bottom, just like the song. That's it's job and that's how it works. Well, that's fine. But here's where the wheels fall off -  many of us make assumptions that because something works in a particular way (has a job per se) that that is the only way it can ever be.
     A few years ago my sister B. (brilliant woman) challenged my top-down assumption. Just because you can't swallow, it doesn't mean that you can't put food into your mouth, taste it, chew it or suck on it, and then spit it out. [NOTE: Again, always check with your medical team members before making any changes to your routine. The information herein may not apply to your particular situation]. There are many people who are diagnosed with medical conditions that affect their ability to swallow, and as a result many express unhappiness with their quality of life. So, I suggest that when illness compromises quality of life, we should attempt to reevaluate the standard assumptions that surround that area of our life.  Something like eating is such a social practice in our society that if the person recovering could participate in the social event by eating something (and there are very discreet ways of spitting the food out into a napkin for example) while the others are actually eating, their quality of life would improve.
     I know that such a suggestion sounds so simple and, maybe it doesn't seem like a big paradigm shift to you at all. Maybe you've got all of this figured out already, and if so, that is fantastic! However, the first time I heard it  I felt silly for having never thought of something so simple that made so much sense (especially such sense of the common variety!). People recovering from strokes, certain types of cancer, and infections who are not able to swallow properly (this is called dysphagia) could enjoy a much greater quality of life not only by being able to participate socially as above, but simply having the opportunity to enjoy tasting their favourite foods (or any foods) each day. Eating is such a huge part of life. Even doing small things like moving dinner into the living room (if that is the only room where the one recovering can be) can make a huge difference in quality of life. By doing that, even if the one recovering is not eating, they are able to participate in the meal, and the banter that occurs during the meal. I do realize that this is not rocket science, I really do. But, we have so many ingrained perceptions of what our activities of daily living are supposed to look like that it seems easy to lose sight of the small ways in which we can challenge those ingrained assumptions and monumentally improve our quality of life as a result. Just remember, you have the ability to improve your quality of life. We all do. And that, well, that's a fact.

Happy assumption challenging!