Folks come into counseling offices for any number of reasons. Maybe they’re having a tough time in relationship, or their weight, or a substance issue. Sometimes, they’ve learned that offices are a safe place to just get things off their chests or to figure out how to get unstuck somewhere in their lives. And sometimes they have issues that they have not found release from elsewhere. But in all cases, for further information and for legal purposes, these folks have to fill out the inevitable paperwork.
Intake forms are pretty much generic with names, dates, birthdates, addresses, insurance information and nature of the visit or “chief complaint”. They also often ask general questions around families, lineage, work and medical histories, medications list, and whether or not they’ve ever been to counseling. All this information allows the counselor to get a wider view of the person’s life without having to painfully excavate it when the client is really there to talk about something that is bothering them. In the long run, this all makes sense, and everyone seems to understand that they’re all on the same page.
There are three questions we usually don’t see, however. “What have you eaten today?” “What do your usual meals look like?” and “Have you ever been diagnosed with any kind of food allergies?” These are really important questions.
There is a ton of evidence that suggests that we are what we eat. We have all had the experience of too much caffeine or sugar and how we feel afterwards. It might be worth exploring how our relationships with ourselves or others are the same or different with different food groups or what time of the day we eat. “The timing and contents of meals, as well as the consumption of certain individual nutrients, can have subtle and occasionally dramatic effects on mood and behavior, according to a series of new studies described at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week.” (https://www.nytimes.com › 1982/11/17 › garden › how-diet-can-affect-mood and behavior)
Food allergies can be significantly related to anxieties, depressions, and altered behavior. “Behavior challenges can result when someone reacts to a food to which he or she is intolerant. If someone has a glass of milk and the body begins to product cytokines, the resulting inflammation in the brain can lead to meltdowns, irritability, anxiety, depression, brain fog and more.” (https://blog.brainbalancecenters.com › 2014/07 ).
In the future, there may be a lot more of these kind of questions as we all become aware of ourselves, inside and out. Who knew that certain foods, times we eat, or whether we are paying attention to how we eat could subtly alter not only our experience but those around us as well?
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