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doctors that she should experience one to twenty years of relief from the surgery.
    At twenty-nine, she began a more natural process of managing her health that seemed to work, at least temporarily. Her regimen included daily doses of slippery elm, white willow, aloe vera capsules, oil of oregano, iron, and vitamin B12. She gave up alcohol, and started to pay more attention to her diet. This lifestyle change worked better than anything she had tried before, and the effects lasted for about a year before her chronic symptoms came back, coinciding with a series of stressful situations.
    As I write this sentence, at the age of thirty-one, she is debating those steroids.
    She is always exhausted, because she averages about two hours of sleep per night due to her inability to rest properly, something that is also symptomatic of Crohn’s. She is always in pain, which has led to chronic stress and low self-esteem. Among other ideas, she has recently had a specialist make the ludicrous suggestion that she eat only processed baby food! She is completely confused, and at a loss for inspiration. Recently, Kim discovered that she was approved for a new type of drug, administered via bi-weekly injections. This “miracle” medication will cost her $1200 per injection, unless she can get a government subsidy for it. That’s $2400 a month, more than double her monthly mortgage payment.
    Kim’s doctors have never suggested she follow a restricted diet plan, rich in quality nutrients. She has met with numerous specialists over the years, and none of them have ever recommended making a lifestyle change that included stress-relief strategies, dietary improvements, exercise, or anything else that could help her without painkillers, steroids, or major surgical interventions. Drugs and surgery are all she can ever remember being discussed. She even admits that when she brings up the possibility of a more holistic treatment, her doctors become dismissive and even angry with her.
    Why is the obvious question of food quality often left out of the initial diagnosis when it comes to digestive disorders? It’s confusing, and, unfortunately for those suffering, it’s the norm.
    The situation with Kim has left us both feeling that there is something incredibly wrong with our current healthcare system. In a structural scheme where surgeries and medications come before common sense and dietary intervention, and where the average general practitioner in the United States completes only about two credits worth of nutritional training in their entire university career, 68 what do we have to lose by taking our precious health into our own hands, and begin walking a road of healing by simply altering our own eating habits?
    When we can’t fathom food as being something that directly affects or has the power to change our digestive health, what does that say about our relationship with it? When did food get put on the backburner as the answer to digestive health, never mind health in general? Why are we so relentlessly obsessed with turning to medications, whose results are typically menial at best, and whose side effects generally greatly outweigh any possible benefits or relief?
A Quick Fix?
    We live in a world that is sympathetic to our vices, and offers help in the form of a veil. We are significantly sicker now than ever before. We seem to have lost a lot of what originally got us here to begin with. Lives used to be lived for our families, our happiness, good friends, and good food. What words do you associate with these ideals?
    I’ll bet the average American, without even knowing it, thinks of an Applebee’s when supplied with these images.
    We need to get back to close families, outdoor recreation, breathing deep, slowing down, and eating fresh food that is even a little bit supplied by ourselves. It’s sometimes hard to remember that the correct answer is most often the obvious one. Need to loseweight? Eat less, eat better food, and exercise