I have never been able to digest milk or eat gluten without bloating – this has been true my whole life.
We were forced to drink milk as children because it was believed at the time that we needed it for growing. It always made me gag and I felt sick. Likewise, my stomach always blew up into a big hard bloated ball whenever I ate gluten. I did this over and over just ignoring my body and how I felt and the whole time feeling horrible for many years, until I couldn’t keep doing this to myself any longer – I stopped eating the gluten and stopped drinking the milk, again common sense from listening to my own body.
The point is that I began listening to my own body as a direct result of my association with Serge Benhayon. I became more aware of how my body felt after I ate certain foods. Listening to my body made a lot more sense to me than the food pyramid, which tells us cheese is ok everyday, as is milk and certain glutinous grains. If they are so good for us, then why do I feel heavy, bloated, lethargic and sick after I eat them?… Yet, when I stopped eating them I felt lighter, brighter, more energised and balanced.
It became clearer and clearer what I could and couldn’t eat the more that I listened to my body. I realised that what I need to eat may be different to another person – even within my own family. If I fall asleep or I don’t feel well for example after I eat something – is it not common sense that the food may not be agreeing with me? This is no different to having fish and breaking out in a rash – we know this to be an allergy or an intolerance to the food because it is something we can clearly see.
I have never felt healthier than I do today since honouring my body and choosing not to eat the foods that I have discovered don’t agree with me including eliminating dairy, gluten, yeast, caffeine and alcohol from my diet. As a result I have more energy, I feel more balanced, clear headed and my body feels alive!
by Deborah
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Being forced to eat what we don’t like is no fun. And I know sometimes we think we ‘love’ some food and drink that actually do not support our body, but I guess that is also a part of medicine – even to indulge in poison and experience its consequences, so that we will eventually reconnect to our body’s wisdom.
Where do we go when we talk food, you lose some, you get opinions off others and then most possibly don’t even care. To see how we are with food and what it’s become can be quite amusing when you stand back and look at it truly. This is not to be critical of some or supportive of others but more to say when we are talking food we need to take care not to be owned by it. There are many diets, shows, books etc out there explaining what we should do and shouldn’t do but very few hand the reigns back to you. Very few start first at the being and don’t move from that point but what are our strengths or value here. I mean if you truly want something to change what is the best way to go about it? You see from this article and many now like it that we have always truly listened when there living experts on the case. When people are delivering something to you that is not telling you to change or telling you how to change but presenting how they have made a change and then you choosing what to do next. Remember from young, what was the most effective way for you to learn? For me it was always grounding myself and my experience in an actual true lived experience and not just running off with the first headline.
It is great to start seeing that the so-called healthy foods we have been lead to believe are healthy are in fact just another push or marketing strategy to sell us products that in fact are of little to no benefit and are actually undermining our health and well-being. Behind any corporation, sugar, grain, dairy, cereals is a lot of money at stake and a lot of stakeholders – blinding themselves to the truth of what they are pushing through greed, and blindness and complacency on the part of the consumer who chooses them to deliberately numb and drown out their disquiet. Lots to consider.
This is a great and simple example of how easy it is to know which foods are supportive for us and which are not, it is the simple way of observing and being honest with what we are observing and then make the choices that are necessary.
This sentence I can relate to . . . “I began listening to my own body as a direct result of my association with Serge Benhayon” . . . as I did also and as I have tried every diet under the sun in the last 45 years from fasting to raw food, from a vegan diet to a vegetarian diet with lots of carbohydrates such as – rice, pasta, bread, sweet potato, corn, beetroot, carrots, and parsnips and loads of fruit – and once I actually listen to my body my diet then became very simple and the quite the opposite of the food I once thought was ideal. My body thrived more returning to eating fish and lamb with lots of greens and no carbohydrates, no salt and no sugar. It makes perfect sense to listen to our body and our body loves us back when we do.
We are misguided in living in a way where the mind is considered more intelligent than the body. We drink milk because it has calcium and then don’t even pay attention to how the body responds. I’m not even sure what the minds intelligence can say about why we need to eat gluten, yet so much of the world does without considering the impact on the body – the impact from the body’s perspective and not the minds perspective of how the body should receive it.
The body is always giving us the cues as to what is supportive or not for us, yet it seems we don’t always want to know. The body is so honest and when we truly listen it lovingly lets us know.
As we gain more expertise and knowingness by studying our human bodies optimal function and ability to heal it will be very interesting in years to come to see what science will be saying about our consumption of particular foods, how they affect our body, as well as what the actual suggested dietary guidelines will be.
When we are brought up under a belief that we must eat everything that gets served, we often end up not being able to accept let alone appreciate our body’s response to certain food, and even try to ‘cure’ the reaction, instead of eliminating the food that doesn’t agree with our body. This goes so well with the belief that there is something wrong with us and we need to be fixed. To say ‘no’ to certain food out of self-love is actually quite a big thing considering how much of ideals and beliefs it had to fight through on its way out.
That is a great point Fumiyo, imagine all the wasted time ‘trying to cure the reaction’ rather than dealing with the cause. This could be said about many of our aliments and yet we have the answers closer than we may realise.
Thankfully I was never forced to drink milk at home even though I lived on a dairy farm! My mother didn’t like milk and neither did I as every time I was given milk at school I felt sick. I gave up all dairy products and many other foods before I came across Universal Medicine but it was Universal Medicine that gave me the answers, the wisdom that I had been looking for, the confirmations that what I had been feeling in my relationship with many foods were in fact true and supporting my body and wellbeing even though many people thought I was cranky!
As a young child I was constantly ill with bronchitis, pneumonia, bronchiectasis, all illnesses where my body was making an excess of mucus, dairy clearly never agreed with me as it still does not today.
Where do these false ‘beliefs’ come from, they do more harm than good?
Our body is always communicating, but we often ignore and override its loving messages.
Listening to the wisdom of our body allows us to choose foods that support and nourish us rather than foods that are dulling and harming to us.
Learning to listen to the many messages from my body as to how food and drink effects my body and how I feel is one of the simple but wonderful teachings I have learnt from the presentations of Serge Benhayon.
We notice the allergic reactions our body physically has in response to some foods and drugs but we are not so observant sometimes of the intolerance’s of how they make us feel and undermine our bodies in more subtler ways.
Yes very true, that which is not visible on the outside should count equally if not more. As in this case shows how important it is to not look for this information known about food and diet, but to listen to our body and feel what it needs, is way more beneficial, as it is our body that digests the food.
Our bodies are just so clear with us, yet we are persuaded that there are ways around it. Kids in the US recently refused to drink the milk that was provided to them free at school, they just didn’t like it. Because take up rates were so low, they were then offered chocolate milk which had been taken out of the school because it was unhealthy a few years previously! Go figure.
It’s amazing how many people continue to eat what their body is telling them they shouldn’t… just because it is believed to be healthy in some way…. willing to ignore all the signs to the contrary based on the latest research or newspaper report. The importance of listening to your body is paramount… it has a profound understanding of our needs well beyond our current understanding and the ability to bring us to our knees should we choose to ignore it.
It makes so much sense to me that we should ‘consult’ our bodies about what we choose to eat. When I was growing up in the 1970’s there was a lot in the news about hunger and starvation. Today, I understand we have a bigger problem with obesity worldwide than we do starvation. Our bodies are communicating to us and revealing something about our choices. Are we only to listen when the problem is at a point that it cannot be ignored – or maybe beforehand when it is easier to deal with?
Our diet is meanwhile including so many unhealthy food options that for most people it is really hard to tell what they are reacting to, it takes a lot of eliminating to actually find out how many foods we are reacting to and it is shocking to realize, how much we eat that will lead to some form of discomfort if not illness and disease.
To stop eating gluten and dairy helped me to get rid of my asthma and for me this is the best and cheapest medicine ever – why should I eat gluten and dairy again – this would be really self harming.
This was true for me also, Deborah. I now have great faith and respect for the messages I get from my body.
Makes sense Deborah. The body knows what the mind is quick to forget.
It is common sense really isn’t it but we are so bombarded by and get caught up with what the next great thing in food is and what ‘research’ says we should or can eat, that we lose touch with what we innately know.
Love the simplicity and common sense in this blog Deborah. When we keep things simple, truth can be felt. The simple truth here is that when we take the time to listen to the messages from our body, we know exactly what food harms and what food supports. And we are all equal in this, since we all have a body!
The whole point of a healthy diet is to feel healthy! We get this mixed up with following guidelines and ticking boxes of what we’ve been told is healthy, putting our trust in something outside of ourselves and ignoring the body. As a result, a “healthy diet” can actually make us unwell. Listening to the body is so simple, yet we overlook it. Awesome blog Deborah and kudos to Serge Benhayon to reintroducing the common sense of observing and honouring the body.
The title of this blog is great. We can view it as a question that gives our power away or one that empowers us. If we look outside ourselves for the answers then there are too many conflicting ideas and suggestions but when we ask our own body this question there is only one answer. Our body will always provide us with a true answer. How do we listen for these answers from our body? By paying more attention and to become more aware of how we feel in our body with everything we consume.
It totally makes sense Deborah. What you’ve shared shows us how important it is for our health to listen to our body with regards to food, exercise and pretty much everything. Our body will guide us to make loving choices.
Thank you Deborah. I too detested the milk we were obliged to drink at school when I was a child but I was good at ‘doing what I was told’ so held my nose and drank it. This doing what I was told by others stayed with me and I listened to others about what was good for me to eat, or not. It was not until I attended presentations by Serge Benhayon that I took responsibility for myself and became more discerning about how my body felt when I eat or drink certain things. I now listen to what my body tells me and the more I listen the louder it speaks.
How much misery could be avoided if only we listen to our body giving us signals after signals rather than complying with the food pyramid or the latest dietary fad. The simple wisdom offered by Universal Medicine has simplified my life and given me back vitality, energy and zest for life.
Your approach just makes so much sense Deborah. I too ignored signs in my body that it wasn’t too fond of some of my food choices but I liked how they tasted so I persisted! After becoming very overweight and unwell, I had to take stock and finally let go of the foods like gluten, dairy, grains and sugar that did not agree with me. My body slowly came to the party and blessed me with improved health, energy and clarity in my mind. Now when I think of crusty white bread and butter (used to be a favourite) I know the short taste satisfaction is not worth the consequences in my body so the choice becomes an easy one to say no.
I loved cheese, yoghurt and sourdough bread and ate it most everyday. I wasn’t noticing any of the effects when I ate it. I was aware that bread and yoghurt were the foods that I was eating for comfort. As I started to make changes, I started to feel lighter, literally and my energy levels started to be more constant through the day. The beliefs we have around food are there to allow us to override what our body is clearly saying to us about the food we eat and we can use any excuse to justify what it is that we eat. My eating and food choices are much more simple. I don’t feel like I miss anything at all. How could I? I am eating now more to nurture and support me rather than feeding my need for comfort.
Nice and simple Deborah, really feel what effect different foods have on you and act on what your body reveals
‘Listening to my body made a lot more sense to me than the food pyramid’…. Considering this statement alongside the ever increasing food intolerances that many are struggling with at present, it will be very interesting in 20 years to see what dietary advice scientists and modern medicine will be giving us.
As a kid my diet was in the main part gluten & dairy, meaning cereal, milk, cheese, bread, pasta, cakes, pizza…
Every morning I woke and blew my nose constantly for a couple of hours, I was always constipated, and only went to the toilet a few times a week (no.2). I thought this was normal, until I was in my late 20’s! Looking back at old photos I was bloated since my teens, and then in my early 30’s I became very skinny (ribs sticking out) and could not put weight on no matter how much I ate (still eating brownies, coffee, chocolate, cheese, pastries…).
Since cutting out gluten, dairy, chocolate, caffeine and alcohol completely, my body weight has settled at what is normal and feels healthy for me, I sometimes have sneazy mornings, and I can relate it to something I ate, and I go for a no. 2 pretty much every day. I can still get a bit bloated if I over eat, but again the reason is clear. I feel steady throughout my day, focussed and full of energy with out the need for stimulants.
I had already begun to make the connection that certain foods did not support me, but it was the clear presentation from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine that inspired me to make the full commitment to cut them, which really allowed me to feel the difference, and have no desire to eat those foods again.
I was raised as a kid from a cheese and butter producing grandpa. Milk was on the table daily. Dairy has now been off my diet for over three years and my body is very appreciative of this! Recently I was trying to havesa quite sugary food. I couldn’t deal with the sugar. Every spoon of food that was too much I would drop the fork immediately. This was showing me, that when I am truly connected with me – there’s only a little amount of food I need and can handle. Sometimes life doesn’t always reflect back to me the love that I am, and I use food to compensate. So even having removed dairy, caffeine, and some other foods – food is still a big deal. It’s actually showing me where I am at.
I’ve heard of all of the side effects of gluten and dairy but it was only after reading this article that I recalled what my childhood was really like. I remember having problems going to the toilet and wondering why my belly would bloat up like I was pregnant. I also had ongoing nose and throat infections and runny noses. This went on and off until my early twenty’s when I started to explore how foods effected me. Since cutting out gluten and dairy in the last 8 years I have barely been sick or had a runny nose, and my digestion is much much more flowing. Nobody told me to eat like this, I was just inspired to stop and listen to my body and how it was reacting to different foods.
I also used to pay a lot of attention to the food pyramid. By doing it, I bloated like a pig too. I no longer do. My interest now lies on the real pyramids (in Cairo) and what they teach us about we human beings. My overall health is much better now than I am off gluten and dairy.
Hello Deborah – For me the path with food has been one of feeling what it does to me energetically. With alcohol for example I realised that it made it hard for me to be fully myself both while drinking but more so it made me dull and sluggish the day after, I couldn’t just jump out of bed to have fun and I wanted that more than anything else. So with food it’s a similar thing. Some foods make me feel slow and heavy while others make me more alert and sharp minded so there I have a choice. I admit that I still choose foods that affect me in a negative sense and it has to do with me trying to control how much lightness I choose to have in my body. Maybe a topic for another blog but it’s interesting how we can use food to control how much joy we want our bodies to be ready to handle.
It is so extraordinary how loud our body is when we choose to listen to it that it is hard to believe that I grew up never contemplating this as important or even an option… just blindly eating things because everyone else did. But when I choose to listen, my body clearly knows more about what it wants or doesn’t more than other people’s belief systems about food ever could, so thank you to Serge Benhayon for this simple presentation on listening and honouring what we feel, it has forever changed my relationship with food and with myself for the better.
Our bodies never lie, it is we who choose irresponsibility by not listening to the often very loud messages.
It is so great to finally understand with Universal Medicine, that there is no such food as “you have to” or “you are not allowed” as many religions and diets impose. Just using the body as a marker – can there be anything simpler than that?
Your blog was a good reminder, Deborah of how over many years I ignored completely anything my body complained about. I was so focussed on what I was putting into my mouth that my body didn’t really get a say – I just ploughed on regardless of the consequences – which I now see as extreme arrogance. Now, with humility – and Serge Benhayon – I have become more connected to my beautiful body and what it is telling me – and I love it! To at last have found that by having a relationship with my body and honouring it I can now feel the more subtle messages that it is continually giving me! Life feels more complete now that my body is getting a say.
Simple and true Deborah!
I had a similar experience Alex, with sugar, actually several times, and like you it was also good bye sugar -and dairy and gluten. That said, I feel the importance of your last sentence, ‘We need to give our body a chance to speak to us and not choke it with an onslaught of (over-)indulgence’. Our bodies have much to tell/share with us, more than we know; thus it is wise to deeply care and honour our physical vehicle, the body.
Deborah, I love your sentences: “Listening to my body made a lot more sense to me than the food pyramid”. Yes, it is important that we as human beings are starting to trust our bodies again . . .
A very practical blog, on the benefits of listening to the wisdom that our body shares with us, in relation to which foods supports it, and which foods deplete it.
It was a very practical blog and this is all Serge Benhayon presents, feel and act on what feels right in the body
I saw a gorgeous little 1 minute video last week where Serge Benhayon shared: “Food is not only what gives us nutrients and some form of energy for the day, it is also what is making us very sick – so we need to have a very, very healthy relationship to be able to be healthy with food.” I couldn’t agree more as in my experience developing a healthy relationship with food has made an enormous difference to my life and wellbeing.
Thank you Deborah for a great blog. I found many years ago that dairy products made my stomach feel bloated, and more so when sugar was included, so I happily gave these up. The body is very wise in what it feels is good for it and what is not; if we only but listen!
Such a great blog Deborah. When I was younger I has the same experience, noticing that milk and wheat were making me feel bloated and I so began to not have them as much. But as you said, because they were considered the basics for a healthy diet I preserved with consuming them. Eventually I became more serious about omitting them from my diet as I began to suffer from severe re-flux in my 20’s. However still I relapsed into eating them occasionally again. It wasn’t until I began to attend Universal Medicine presentations that I began to develop a loving relationship with my body, through which I chose to honor how I was feeling after eating milk and dairy, and everything that I consumed. And so I can completely agree with you when you say – ‘As a result I have more energy, I feel more balanced, clear headed and my body feels alive!’
We observed that our daughter came out in eczema whenever she had too much dairy, well before hearing a word Serge Benhayon said on the subject. When we took it off the menu, she has never suffered again… but continues to have a sensitive body that makes clear statements about what is, and is not right for her.
At first I know this has been difficult for her, but over time she has come to see her sensitivity as a blessing as her body communicates effectively with her about what it will and will not accept.
Serge Benhayon presents the same… some things for us to consider, maybe experiment with for a week or two, to see just how our body feels. We are simply being asked to listen to our bodies, and make choices based on what we find.
That is amazing Simon. I know a few people who struggle with eczema and have try different medications and ointments without much results. What you share here says a lot about the benefits of listening to our bodies. Eczema seems like a difficult symptom to heal yet by cutting out dairy was the answer for your daughter. So, what does that tell us? Food can be our poison or our medicine depending on what we choose to eat.
Great blog Deborah, I also remember having the little carton of milk at school but unlike you I liked the taste but since attending the presentations by Serge Benhayon, I have come to realise over the last eight years is that even though I may like the taste of something, it does not mean that it agrees with my body and that I had become a master at ignoring the signs my body was giving me.
Since paying closer attention to my body it has become clear that there are many things such as alcohol, gluten, dairy, yeast, peppers, potatoes, vinegar, and sugar which give me physical symptoms ranging from a headache to bloating.
Now I listen to these signs and am finding my energy levels have increased and my health has improved.
“I call it the ‘gluten belt’, and being gluten free was not so simple at first as I had to learn how to feed myself from myself, instead of just eating what was there to eat and accepting the authority of the food pyramid over my own body’s authority”. Beautifully expressed Peta, I am sure so many can identify with this too.
I call it the ‘gluten belt’, and being gluten free was not so simple at first as I had to learn how to feed myself from myself, instead of just eating what was there to eat and accepting the authority of the food pyramid over my own body’s authority”. Beautifully expressed Peta, I am sure so many can identify with this too.
The similarities between all these comments seem to point in the same direction…that the confirmation of what is right or wrong with our food choices simply comes from our bodies. I lived with what I used to call the “blub-blub” belly all my life having absolutely no awareness at all that it was caused by my diet…I just accepted it as part of me as no amount of swimming seemed to shift it. Eventually, as age caught up with me I slowly started to feel that if I had pasta one night, I couldn’t follow it up with bread/toast the next day….and so the journey of listening to my body began.
Soon after, I connected to Universal Medicine and I heard the word ‘gluten’ and all the dots joined up! I now understand why there are so many bloated bodies out there, I call it the ‘gluten belt’, and being gluten free was not so simple at first as I had to learn how to feed myself from myself, instead of just eating what was there to eat and accepting the authority of the food pyramid over my own body’s authority.
Thank you, Deborah and all who have added real life experience (comments) to this common sense antidote of a blog. It is an antidote to the indoctrination we have all received about food; about what is ‘healthy’ or not, what we should eat or not, with no mention of a responsibility to listen to our individual bodies to know what will really work for us!
I still see teachers telling children “drink your milk it will make you strong”…It’s amazing to me that any of us are able to consider otherwise at all, even if our body is doing all it can to inform us what is really happening in there!
I read on an information sheet at a dentist surgery that children should drink milk to keep their teeth strong. Interesting that, many people are intolerant to dairy.
Loved reading this blog Deborah for the wisdom it contains: our bodies know best if only we would ‘listen to our bodies’ and the clear reactions/messages our bodies give us when we eat something that our bodies do not like or need.
Great blog Deborah, since listening to Serge Benhayon present on listening to what our bodies are telling us my life and health has changed dramatically – he did not tell me anything I did not already know, I just simply before saw my body as a huge inconvenience rather than the fantastic truth-teller it is.
I too honour my body and choose to not eat foods that I had previously discovered didn’t agree with me.
Before attending talks and courses by Serge Benhayon I had found gluten and dairy definitely did not suit my body, and so had cut them out of my diet – to an extent that suited my comfort. For example I allowed myself foods with dairy in occasionally as I seemed to get away with it; but all I was doing was ignoring what my body still told me. Serge Benhayon has brought greater understanding to all that was at play with my ‘playing games’, this understanding helped me to fully honour my body and what it clearly tells me does not suit it.
I felt for over 20 years that I needed to give up gluten but it was only with the support of Universal Medicine that I was finally able to do it and instantly felt better. Thank you for sharing your experience and I can relate to all the benefits you have found from listening to your body and what you choose to put into it.
Me too Helen, with the support from Universal Medicine I started to understand about truly listening to my body. I took more responsibility for myself and started to make more loving choices.
I Love what you say here Deborah – you make it short and simple but there is much here for the reader. I can so relate to milk being forced and I hated cold milk at school and the smell of it but was told I was small size and underweight so I needed it to grow.
Even though I was a super skinny child and teenager I had a belly which I now call a bread belly. That was it – bread, cakes and biscuits ALL had gluten and this was the bloating. The thing is I was addicted so no diet ever worked or lasted. I really was a one minute wonder with zero attention span when it came to diets.
What Serge Benhayon gave me was a simple understanding of the Why.
Why did I love fresh cream, yogurt, bread and cakes and why could I not stop eating them even after feeling it was harming my body. This understanding led me to stop eating gluten, dairy and other foods that my body was ‘allergic’ too.
I felt so good inside and had so much more vitality and today I continue to refine and review everyday what I want to eat with the utmost respect to my body. I don’t always get it right and I am a ‘work in progress’ but boy oh boy it feels great to live this way.
I loved reading your blog Deborah – it reminds me how much has changed with my body and the foods I eat as I have listened to my body more. It’s a work in progress – my body is very loud when I ignore it and I feel so much more vital in me when I’m honest and truly listen.
For most of my adult life I was overweight and regularly attended weight watching classes where they told us how much of anything to eat or not eat. And yet my weight went up and up until I weighed over 15 stone (95 Kg). Now, 9 years on, after giving up alcohol, gluten, dairy, yeast and sugar, I find my simple diet of lamb, fish and green veggies keeps my body in trim shape. I now weigh a trim 9 stone (57 Kg) and my vitality is far greater than it was, even though I’m older.
Wow that’s amazing Carmel. I have also seen friends struggle with dieting, being told what to or not to eat and it seemed very restrictive. But by listening to our body we know naturally what to eat and by honouring our body we can feel so much more vital, energised and healthy.