The Bio-Individuality Myth: Are Our Food and Lifestyle Needs REALLY That Different?

If you’ve been following natural health industry for any time now, you’ve probably heard the term “bio-individuality”. In short, it is the idea that each of us have unique food and lifestyle needs and we need to figure out our specific nutritional and lifestyle requirements to truly thrive.

Now, while each of us are completely unique like snowflakes, we also are very much alike. The foundation of any human body and it’s ability to operate effectively is going to boil down to the optimization of it’s systems, and the organs, glands, tissues, muscles, and skeletal structure that operates within it.

For example, within every human body there will be digestive, immune, hormonal (endocrine), nervous, lymphatic, circulatory, respiratory, skeletal, renal, and reproductive systems. Operating as part of those systems are organs and glands like the liver, kidneys, gallbladder, pancreas, thyroid, and adrenals. Save some key differences in the reproductive glands between men and women, all human beings have these systems and major organs and glands, and depend on their proper function in order to be healthy and symptom free.

So when we talk about bio-individuality, is there really a biological uniqueness that makes our food and lifestyle needs remarkably different or is our resonance with different foods and lifestyles more hinged upon the warping of these systems and their supporting cast, due to rising toxicity and malnourishment?

Let’s use the most famous food sensitivity, gluten, to analyze this concept further.

Is it the gluten, or…

Perhaps the most famous food example of bio-individuality is gluten, which we encounter mostly from wheat products. Some people have intolerances, others sensitivities, and some appear to have no issue with gluten at all. Is this due to their inherent bio-individuality or something more to do with the wheat, how it’s produced, and the weakening of our digestive system due to multiple toxicities, infections, and general malnourishment?

First of all, consider that most wheat products of today are highly hybridized and have had an increase from 14 chromosomes to 28 in their make up, which makes your body produce antibodies to fight inflammation, eventually causing gluten intolerance and autoimmune diseases like celiac. In short, the gluten (protein) in the wheat of today has been dramatically altered and has little comparison to the wheat your grandmother used, which is causing your body to react unfavourably.

Secondly, consider that direct application of RoundUp (glyphosate) to wheat fields just prior to harvest has added a layer of toxicity to conventional wheat products that has shown to disrupt gut function and increase permeability of the intestinal wall, which also can result in various autoimmune conditions (such as celiac). This has been done for over 20 years, and the practice continues.

Lastly, consider that if you have had your digestive system severely compromised from toxic, processed foods and medical treatments like antibiotics, that you may no longer have the digestive infrastructure to properly digest gluten, even if it comes from organic, ancient grain wheat. Since very specific enzymes and probiotics are required for such a task, and things like antibiotics can completely wipe them out, you can be let short-handed in the digestion department which will ultimately cause pain, inflammation, and sometimes a severe allergic reaction.

So if you are gluten free, and your friends aren’t because it doesn’t seem to affect them adversely, is it because of your natural biological differences? Or is it less a biologically inherited condition, and more the result of the deterioration of systems, nutrients, organs, and glands that are no longer able to assimilate the construct of wheat? If your body was largely free of toxins, completely nourished, and not otherwise bastardized by conventional agriculture and doctors (through medications, treatments, and surgeries), would it be able to properly assimilate a pure form (your grandmothers version) of gluten?

I believe it would, which would prove that our uniqueness is less about our natural biological differences, and more to do with the destruction of our food and bodies which dramatically alters our natural resonance with certain whole foods.

Bio-individuality is really a moving target

As we move through life, we encounter different stressors and situations that can compromise our chemical makeup and put us in a situation where we have unique nutritional and lifestyle needs. However, that doesn’t make us biologically different, in the sense that we are operating from a different owners manual than the human being beside us. We simply need to adjust our intakes and lifestyle to bring us back to the highly vibrating individuals we were meant to be. This will change for many on a yearly basis, so your “bio-individuality” in that sense is a constantly moving target, that you need to adjust in accordance to your nutritional and mental needs during different periods of your life.

Genetics play a role, but…

Of course, we are all born with a natural genetic blueprint that makes us biologically unique, but that doesn’t dramatically alter our basic food and lifestyle requirements. It does make us a bit different in appearance, however (eye, hair, and skin colour, for example).

The only real threat to dramatically altering our basic biological needs are genetic abnormalities that are occurring right from birth. These situations can create more unique requirements for the child but these profound genetic alterations are often a result of a significant toxic burden that is present while the baby is in the womb, not natural genetic differences.

To illustrate this point, in 2009 the EWG conducted a study testing the umbilical cord blood of 10 babies for toxic chemicals. The tests found more than 230 industrial pollutants across the ten samples, and those toxins that were found in every cord blood of the ten newborns were lead, mercury, and PCB’s. These are some of the most toxic substances to ever enter the human body, and will interfere with the proper function of every system, organ, gland, muscle, and tissue it may touch.

So these toxicities can go on to affect their individual needs and requirements due to the break down of systems and their operating parts that no longer have their original “factory settings”. Is this really a natural biological phenomena that will require them to have different food and lifestyle needs, or a man-made imposition that has broken their base functionality?

The good news is our genetic make up can be altered through nutrition and lifestyle practices. So while there may be a part of the genetic code that is not negotiable that can create some subtle and natural biological differences, there is wiggle room to alter rogue genetic abnormalities in a way that results in a “reset” to their original factory settings. Then the food and lifestyle requirements can become very much the same.

This is why the THRIVE Academy is so effective.

What every human being requires is really quite simple

In a perfect world, on a healthy planet that has not been ruined by the short-sighted goals of greedy men, our needs are largely the same and we really don’t need a much different approach in order to stay healthy and happy.

In this world, we all have a need for sunlight, clean water, and grounding. We all require the same spectrum of nutrients, as well as love for ourselves and others. We all flourish from a daily connection with nature and “source”, from where all well-being springs. And if we can embrace these things daily, and avoid the physical and mental toxicities and malnourishment that has reached epidemic levels, we will find out that the only thing really that different is our sex and the physical expression of our bodies, along with our unique personalities (spirits) that come with it.

So before you go looking for a new diet and lifestyle plan to suit your perceived biological needs, consider that you are not that different, you have simply “lost your way” and just need to plug back into the nutritional (largely plant-based) and lifestyle principles that have served the healthiest people in the world. Sure, there can be some aberrations in tuning back into your original and healthy frequency from “dis-sease”, but if you free up the power to heal through pure, easily assimilated, and nutrient dense food, as well as pure, loving thoughts that cultivate a more positive mindset, you will surely reach your goal if you stay the course.

Fore more information on how you can overcome your unique health challenge using a fundamental healing and lifestyle approach, visit the THRIVE Academy.

Sources include:

EWG.org

Greensmoothiegirl.com

Healingthebody.ca

Healingthebody.ca