Did you know that your food choices can affect every single aspect of your health? Your mood, your sleeping patterns, long-term conditions (yes even that one you've had for ages), and more. Whether one's diet causes ailments all on their own or simply highlights symptoms, consuming certain foods on a regular basis can worsen all kinds of health problems. Quite often these reactions are in response to additives and chemicals in the food we eat. What makes tracking the culprit down difficult is the wide range and variety of symptoms that can manifest. Each person metabolizes ingredients completely differently. While one person might have aches and pains, another might experience a rash, and yet another might suffer from inflammation or digestion problems.

The variety of possible causes and myriad of symptoms can make tracking down the causes of these issues difficult.

The key to sorting out what's causing what is to pay close attention to your body. You are far more in-tune than any doctor or dietitian can or ever will be with your body. By focusing on what's hurting, or what's changing after each meal, you can gain a better understanding of what is negatively affecting you and how you're feeling

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How to Get Started

When setting out to look at your eating preferences and their effects, start by evaluating your habits. How healthy do you eat? What substances do you consume most often? And how do you feel after each of them? How about after you eat bread? Candy? Boxed or fast food? Greasy or spicy foods? Next, keep track of your symptoms. Write down how you feel directly after each meal, as well as an hour or so later. As the body begins digesting what you've consumed, you're likely to take on new symptoms – whether good or bad – and keeping a detailed list is the best way to recall how each meal worked for or against your body.

Over time, you will begin to notice patterns. If you have neck aches, problems sleeping, moodiness etc. you may notice that each symptom is worse after a certain type of food.

This doesn't necessarily mean foods are your only cause for aches, but it does mean you can help diminish symptoms by eliminating various ingredients.

You can also talk with your doctor or a nutritionist about what you're consuming. Just remember that medicines count too.

Why Meals Might Work Against Us

With all of the advancements that have taken place through farming and food production, our meals were bound to see some changes. The problems come, however, when we are fed ingredients that our bodies might not know how to break down – because they are too new or too foreign. Many attempts at creating a "low fat" or "low calorie" alternative to many of our favorite foods just end up replacing fat, sugar and salt with many various fillers and chemicals As one nutritionist put it, our diets should be seen as a chemistry experiment, not a bank account – just because we put something in with zero calories doesn't mean it has zero affect. (Just that it's not adding direct calories.) Substances such as artificial sugars, etc., are most often are made of chemicals. While they are tested and considered "safe" by the FDA, everyone metabolizes them differently. What has no effect on one person might have extreme consequences for the next. .

This is why what we choose to eat must be a personal responsibility – keeping track of each meal, and what you're putting into your body. That way when you see ingredients listed on a label that aggravate your food related aches and pains, you can make sure to avoid them. And, over time, by eliminating your biggest triggers, you can keep your body working efficiently and lessen food related issues. Pains can be reduced, better sleep obtained, more stable moods, and so on.