Is Your Food Really Food?

 

Don’t Eat Anything Your Great-Grandmother Wouldn’t Recognise As Food!

I saw this pic recently and thought, That’s so right!

My own great-grandmother lived to a beautiful and delicate age of 100 years old! The bulk of what she ate came from nature: out of the garden, off a tree, grown on the farm and made at home.

She ate good food, took good care of herself and lived a long, often hard, but satisfying life.

I can’t help but notice the difference in food quality between our grandparents time and now.

They ate fresh fruit and vegetables as standard. Much of our modern day food is not even food at all – it’s a quick fix for our blood sugar levels.
The bulk of an average American diet is filled with processed, packaged and ‘food-like’ substances.

Portion sizes have grown bigger than our bellies and we’re so caught up in the stresses of life that we have lost that vital connection between mind and body wisdom.

Obesity, heart disease, illness, and stress-related conditions like depression and anxiety, are overtaking our once fairly healthy nation. The future generations are headed for early death or lots of pain and suffering if we all don’t start paying attention to what we put into our mouths.

There’s so much confusion these days on which “diet” to follow: atkins, paleo, Mediterranean, south beach, sugar detox, weight watchers, intermittent fasting, vegan, vegetarian, raw food, high carb, low fat… the list goes on!
I am a firm believer in listening to your body. In it’s infinite wisdom, the body is always listening, adapting and speaking to you – we’ve just forgotten how to listen to it and allow it to guide us.
Our body has evolved and adapted from the food sources around us down each generation. However, that hasn’t automatically meant continued good health, like many of our ancestors when living off the land.
With our modern diets of processed foods, genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and chemically altered packaged foods, the seasonal and varietal nutrition that was once our ancestors staples, has now become replaced by practises designed to  grow produce and livestock fast, and create larger profit margins for increasingly deceptive demand.
The easiest option is to simply eat real food.
That is, food you can either pick, pluck, gather or grow.
Another important factor is to eat when you’re hungry – hunger is designed to advise the brain that nutrients/fuel/information is getting low and the body needs replacement energy to then inform itself what needs attention next. It’s quite an important function that’s driven by a hormone. There’s also another hormone to let you know you’ve got the nutrients so you can stop.
If you’re eating highly processed and refined foods, your hormones become confused and can’t quite communicate the right messages at the right time. You end up feeling hungry even when you’ve eaten, which fuels cravings and over eating tendencies.
When you eat food, listen to your body.
  • Recognise true hunger and eat accordingly
  • Slow down and enjoy the smells, tastes, textures and aromas of your food. It’s called pleasure. Enjoy eating.
  • Give your gut time to signal your brain that it’s got what it needs. This is different for everyone but approximately 20 minutes.
  • If you practise the above two points, you’ll know when you are comfortably satisfied to stop.
  • Notice if your body feels comfortable, bloated, satisfied, sluggish… notice what your body is doing with the food you are feeding it.
  • Observe any signs and signals of whether your food choice is nourishing your body or inflaming it.
  • Let your body decide what it can effectively process and what is too difficult in trying and make your food choices accordingly.

 

And most importantly…..

This Weekend’s Chronicle Lift Out Features Yours Truly!

Did you grab your copy for a free basic raw chocolate recipe?

Have a wonderful week!

Viki  xo

By on May 26, 2013   /   Food, Healthy Eating