Insects know of foods that heal.

[Guest guest]

Grubs fight parasites with food

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Tiger moth caterpillars have been seen medicating themselves to treat a nasty

influx of parasites.

The caterpillars develop a fondness for certain plants to fight a parasite

infection

 

Scientists found the caterpillars' sense of taste actually changed when they

became infected with parasites.

Instead of avoiding certain alkaloid plants, the caterpillars actually developed

a fondness for them.

This change in diet helps to beat the creatures' parasite infection, the

researchers report in Nature.

 

The finding is slightly unusual because often when animals change their

behaviour following a parasitic infection, it is to the invaders' benefit.

"It is a new and surprising kind of interaction between organisms," said

Elizabeth Bernays, of the University of Arizona, US.

"When parasites change the behaviour of their hosts, it's usually to their own

advantage."

 

Read more at;

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4722233.stm

 

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I have read of traditional healers who often allow patients to consume unusual

food as per their cravings when they are sick. Ayurved Dr. Shivkali Bhattacharya

wrote in an article that he was once horrified to see that a traditional healer

had allowed a typhoid patient to consume "panta bhat" or left over rice from the

previous day with water, little mustard oil and onions,

 

 

that the patient intensely craved and cried for. The healer's contention was

that the body often sought out the food and taste that was required for healing.

Dr Bhattacharya warned against this solution though he did say that the patient

recovered in a very short time.

 

I think this aspect merits discussion.

 

Regards,

Jagannath.

[Guest guest]

I have to say I totally believe this. There are

several times where i've had this work for myself as

well. Not just in times of illness but also in times

of health. But quite often we are either trained or

lulled into tuning out these signals and overtime our

awareness to hear our body speak out is decreased:

 

Some observations:

 

1. Kids and especially younger ones push off food

when they don't want to eat. Parents typically see

this as a sign of lazing to eat food or undeveloped

taste buds, but in most cases if you change some

aspect of the food being fed, the child will willingly

eat (there are exceptions, however this isn't a norm).

 

2. From a very early age, we are encouraged to

overeat thinking that "rolly-polly" babies are cute

and should eat more to provide growth spurt.. not true

again, the chubbiness only comes at the cost of extra

AAM and increased load on the extremely supple

internals of the child.

 

These taught-habits of ignoring the bodies needs carry

on into adult-hood. We see these in the following

manner:

 

1. Finishing off half a plate of food when we feel we

are full (imagine the consequences over a period of

time).

 

2. Eating at a particular set-time even if the body

doesn't ask for it

 

3. Eating foods that are unseasonal

 

4. Eating foods because they taste "oh-so-good" and

the body doesnt' want it at all, but we tune that out.

 

5. Eating things that our tastes crave (eg:

chocolates, coffee) that our body complaints about

(initial headaches, getting too hyper, etc, but

ignoring these symptoms)(i'm a big chocoholic myself)

 

6. Not eating something that our body's asking for,

this is much harder to identify for us now, since we

are given sucha plethora of palpatable choices

 

just my 2 cents.

P.

 

--- Jagannath Chatterjee <jagchat01 wrote:

> Scientists found the caterpillars' sense of taste

> actually changed when they became infected with

> parasites.

> Instead of avoiding certain alkaloid plants, the

> caterpillars actually developed a fondness for them.

 

>

> I have read of traditional healers who often allow

> patients to consume unusual food as per their

> cravings when they are sick. Ayurved Dr. Shivkali

> Bhattacharya wrote in an article that he was once

> horrified to see that a traditional healer had

> allowed a typhoid patient to consume "panta bhat" or

> left over rice from the previous day with water,

> little mustard oil and onions,

[Guest guest]

But quite often we are either trained or

> lulled into tuning out these signals and overtime our

> awareness to hear our body speak out is decreased:

>

This is a very good subject. Children will tend to eat a fairly

healthy diet unless they spend too much time in front of the tv

watching cereal commercials or unless someone forces them to eat

something they don't want.

 

When my daughter was small, I was a truck driver and she learned to

take eating out in restaurants for granted. It is hard to get a lot of

really healthy vegetables and fruit in many truck stops, so I would

stop and get vegetables and fruits from fruit stands or grocery stores

and make a big deal about how delicious they were and how they were

grown-up food. She believed me and would always ask for them, because

what she would see in restaurants is people giving their children the

"kid's meal" which was usually a hamburger or fried chicken and french

fries. She notices that now and thinks that she is the first to point

that out that people take kids out and feed them junk but expect them

to eat properly at home.

 

Now, she is 17 and has a weight problem, but it is not from what she

ate as a baby, but from the medications for her bipolar disorder and

her depression. I think she has prakriti of pitta-kapha and both of

them are aggravated. She is very short-tempered and wants to sleep all

the time or argue the rest of the time and was born that way. Now if I

can only get her diet right as she gets older....It is harder, because

she constantly craves carbs and fried foods.