It’s time to reconnect with our food
To play, have fun, create and nurture ourselves and the ones we love.
Stop taking food so seriously – it’s just food
Of course it’s important to our survival, but it’s time to drop the greed, indifference, guilt and shame and confusion that I hear so many of my clients associate with the food that they eat.
Whilst I’m on a roll… it’s also time to dump the negative attitude that we have created for ourselves towards food, where it’s almost seen as the enemy.
It’s time to remember that food is about love, nurturance and connection
Today we have so much access to food we have almost forgotten how important it is to us and what it really is.
In the West food is everywhere. We walk into any supermarket and we are greeted by rows and rows of food, well actually let’s be honest – most of it is food-like substances. But never the less, we are surrounded by items that we can eat.
Whether you’re re-fuelling your car or picking up a paper, you can fill your stomach too and pick up something to munch on, often with very little thought.
We have cultivated such an indifference to food that we eat and run, rather than dining and savouring the food that has been grown or created for us.
When I ask people what food they think is healthy, I’m often met with a blank or confused face.
‘erm… this week I think it’s fat-free, or was that last month, maybe, sugar-free, or was that low-carb, or is that the same thing??’
We live in a world where novelty food has taken over from real food, in fact many people even ask me what I mean by the term ‘real food’.
To me real food is food that:
- Comes from a plant and that was not made in a plant
- Did not need a focus group to create it
- Wasn’t made in a factory that requires people to wear hair nets
- Contains ingredients that my grandparents would recognise
- Is made of food that I would find in my kitchen
For many years many scientists have been trying to isolate vitamins and minerals to discover the ‘secret’ to health but the truth is they are no closer to finding the answer.
In fact we are in worse health than ever before. We might be living longer, but we are living longer with a poorer quality of life.
So this is my theory…
Nature is amazing.
Just look around us. Nature creates everything in perfect harmony. Everything has its place, it all works together and nothing is wasted.
Now here’s the thing… Most of us have forgotten that we too are part of this magic process of nature.
Yes, thankfully we live in houses with central heating and dishwashers, we have the luxury of driving to places in our cars and we can fly around and travel the world if we wish.
But just because we live separately from nature and can adapt to comfortably resist her seasons and travel further than our ancestors who would have walked, doesn’t mean that we are separate from her.
Just as creatures in the wild survive and thrive on the bounty that she has created for them to feed on, some on plants and some on flesh, why would we be any different?
When we eat whole foods, in their natural form we are being nourished by all of the goodness that nature has intended for us. In a way and with a synergy we have yet to discover and understand.
Just as humans can’t be reduced down to elemental components, I for one know that I am more than my parts such as a liver, a heart and some minerals, why would we think that any other part of nature could be?
For me there is some magic that makes me work as a whole and guides me throughout my day, some synergy that makes me more than flesh and blood.
Why would our food be any different?
Yes, fruits and vegetables contain vitamins, minerals, bioflavonoids etc but I believe that each fruit, vegetable, nut and seed is so much more than that. There is a synergy that has its components work together perfectly. A synergy that when eaten in its whole form supports our bodies in a way that science has yet to catch up on.
The food you eat literally creates you from the inside out.
Fresh and vibrant food creates fresh and vibrant bodies, whereas bland, stodgy foods creates bland and stodgy bodies.
So next time you find yourself reaching for a packaged food-like substance that carries a hyphenated health claim (low-fat, sugar-free etc), stop and ask yourself if you want to eat real food for real people that will connect you to natures health and vitality or if you want to eat fast food that is fake, cheap and easy…
