Statistics and news’ articles about food and obesity in our world today are regular features in our media – for instance:
- “The World Consumes More Than 11 Million Pounds Of Food Every Minute Of Every Day – 2014.” (1)
- Overall, roughly a third of the food produced in the world for human consumption is wasted per year, which is 1.3 billion tonnes. (2)
- “Worldwide, obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese.”(3)
- “Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese.” (4)
It may seem that our world is bountiful in some ways – and certainly in my life we have more variety of foods than we did before the 1960’s. We have countless books, videos, TV shows, internet sites all about food, recipes, cooking, and even eating disorders and obesity or dieting – and in many of our health systems we have healthcare practitioners such as dieticians and nutritionists to support us. We also talk about food a lot in our daily lives, in our homes, and in our workplaces.
Why then is so much food wasted? And why are we already in an overweight and obesity crisis worldwide?
One of the things that strikes me is the type of education we have about food in our homes, families, schools and workplaces. I am not here saying it is all bad, but if it was ‘hitting the nail on the head’, these statistics would surely look different.
What if we were raised to understand the truth about food, around what is needed, the addictive nature of certain foods (e.g. sugar), right down to our relationship with food; the process of eating, from the way we shop, to preparing food, to the way we eat it, why we eat it and looking at our ideals and beliefs about food. Food is a deeply revealing and important study for us all.
Animals in the wild eat only what is needed, yet we as humans – who claim to be the most intelligent species – eat so many foods that aren’t good for us, we buy food we do not eat and waste it, and we eat in such a way that we become overweight, obese, developing diabetes or other ailments and conditions, seemingly seeing these things as ‘normal’ today despite the shocking statistics e.g. in the rise of obesity. Why is this?
I don’t know about you, but whilst in my family home we ate reasonably well-balanced meals (meat or fish and two veg, always freshly cooked), and my mother taught me to cook and prepare food, and at school we did have cooking lessons, I was never taught that eating is purely to truly nourish the body – and whilst I was taught about calories, and not to overeat certain foods (e.g. salt, or certain fats) – I was also never taught that the way you eat today is an investment in how you will feel tomorrow: eat poorly, under eat, or overeat, and you will feel the knock on effects later that day or the next day.
More so, our physical body actually knows which foods truly nourish it and which foods deplete or burden it. And whilst I have felt indigestion, or got tummy ache after eating certain foods, or felt sleepy or bloated when eating gluten or a runny nose when eating dairy for instance, it never dawned on me to listen more to my body about what it had to say about food and nourishment – and I kept on eating those same foods day in day out, despite the obvious symptoms they were causing.
That raises a few questions for me:
What if we were taught from an early age, or educated in our schooling, about the true value and purpose of food, and that it is purely to nourish the body?
What if we were shown that there is a ‘cause and effect’ of food so that we can learn for ourselves how to listen to our body as a marker? And if we were supported and encouraged to experiment for ourselves from a young age – to feel for ourselves the impact of foods that make us sleepy, foods that make us bloat, and foods that feel truly nourishing?
And what if we were educated to live in a way that it was normal to use our body as a daily barometer of our wellbeing – ‘The Body Is the Marker of All Truth.” Serge Benhayon (5)
Given the exponential rise of illness and disease in our world today and in particular the rise in obesity (3) (4) and diabetes (6), isn’t it time we started the conversation… to talk about these issues and our attitudes towards food? Only when we understand and build a true relationship with food will the statistics on obesity and diabetes, and on related issues such as food waste, be different.
By Jane, London
References:
- Thomson, J.R. (2104) The World Consumes More than 11 Million Pounds of Food Every Minute of Every day. Huffington Post. March, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/18/world-food-consumption_n_4978947.html
- Endfoodwastenow.org (2013). End Food Waste Now – Facts. http://www.endfoodwastenow.org/index.php/resources/facts
- World Health Organisation (2016) Fact Sheet – Obesity and Overweight. June. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/
- World Health Organisation (2014) Fact files on obesity. May. http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/obesity/en/
- Serge Benhayon. The Practitioner. Sergebenhayon.com. http://www.sergebenhayon.com/the-practitioner.html
- World Health Organisation (2016) Ten Facts about Diabetes. April. http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/diabetes/en/
Further Reading:
Food Choices – From Eating for Taste to Eating to Nourish
6 best ways to lose weight authentically (hint: it doesn’t involve fad diets or gym memberships)
What is living medicine?
The human face of sugar addiction
821 Comments
We are taught that food gives us energy, so how come everyone is not energetically rushing around rather than the sedentary existence of many in front of a screen?
Just recently I had a greater understanding of just how sensitive we are as human – beings. We are able to sense energy that surrounds us at a very deep level. When we are first born we do not see so well but we do sense the world around us and over the years we dull our sensitivity and one way of doing this is through food we know which foods dull our awareness so that we can get though life. So is it possible that those people who are over weight are actually very sensitive people who live in a society that sub consciously attacks anyone who shows this natural ability to be sensitive to their surroundings? And if this is a possibility then why do we do this ?
If we looked at one day lets say Christmas or any day that is considered a celebration and take a deep look at how we feel after that meal and the over-riding tired-ness or sleepy feeling / siesta period would we not say I am not going to do that again!
I feel this needs to be taught in our schools ‘What if we were raised to understand the truth about food, around what is needed, the addictive nature of certain foods (e.g. sugar), right down to our relationship with food; the process of eating, from the way we shop, to preparing food, to the way we eat it, why we eat it and looking at our ideals and beliefs about food.’ Along with this for companies to take more responsibility of what they put in their foods and the foods they produce but then this comes down supply and demand and if it is demanded then it will be supplied.
Could it be all that is needed in a super market is a green grocer / frozen fruits and vegetables and a butcher / fishmonger, with specialty items in True-health food section or shops? And is this not going back to the way it used to be before big business and profits took over!
Jane you are onto something as we can all learn to listen to our bodies more and what it is telling us especially and initially when it comes to what we put into our mouth. At present is almost like we are starving and we eat what-ever, when-ever we have an opportunity and have the rational to back up our patterns of consuming foods even though we are lacking the most basic health markers.
“Food has become a medication” much misunderstood but true, many use food as a salve to soothe the effects of life’s hurts and disappointments. When we don’t realise our greatest medicine lies within, we reach instead for the fridge door or kitchen cupboards.
It is incredible how blindly we continue to consume so much that is detrimental to our health and also staggering that we waste a third of the food we produce each year – that is an enormous amount of resources that are going into producing food that will never be used. A complete overhaul of the way we produce and consume food is long overdue and a great place to start would be with children and encouraging them to listen to what their bodies communicate with them but for that to happen we need to recognise how far we have strayed from our connection to our bodies’ wisdom that it never ceases to communicate with us patiently waiting for us to be ready to listen.
I feel some children and adults do listen to what their body is communicating to them, but they have a bigger trigger to numb this communication, and so will eat to try and silence their body and what it is saying.
I agree with you Helen. Recently a well known large supermarket in London had all of its fridges break. For about 3 days there was hardly any food in the shop. When I spoke with an assistant to ask her what did they do with all the food she said they threw is away!!!!! Crazy when we have people using food banks and are scraping by with what food they can afford that the food was not passed onto to people who could use it. Such as waste and also shows the lack of connection and communication with the community that we currently have.
Food has become an indulgence so it is no wonder obesity has increased in our society but food and the variety of food we have today is not to be blamed but the relationship we have with ourselves and the need to overeat to comfort ourselves as opposed to eat to nourish the body.
What is not considered is that it is our relationship to food and other substances in life which are not really talked about. If we understand that way that we eat and also what we eat can change our awareness of our feelings and connection to life, then we have the possibility of choosing differently.
There is nothing like the personal experience of knowing how and which foods have a detrimental effect on our bodies. But this so often gets ignored or overruled so many times by those that think they know better because they have evidence to say otherwise. There is nothing like anecdotal evidence to portray the absolute truth of how something affects us.
I find it always interesting how that when I eat out for example in a restaurant versus when I make a dinner at home the nourishment of home-cooked food far outweighs the dining out experience whatever the cost of the meal or however fancy the restaurant. Nourishment comes from preparing, making, cooking in the quality of love; a love that you can always taste when it’s there and also when it’s not.
What is truly nourishing is developing a relationship and connection with our bodies that is self-caring and self-loving.
Many of the health care systems, like hospitals and community care givers are having to adapt to a growing population of people who are becoming obese, with larger beds and chairs, scanners and other machines, as well as special training on how to manoeuvre and take care of a person during their hospital stay. This is all in response to what is happening with people’s bodies, with our bodies. And while I do not feel that anyone is to blame, I am concerned that as we continue to think up better and better ways of managing the situation, the real causes are perhaps not being addressed.
It seems that we only scratch the surface when it comes to being educated about healthy food. As you say, we are not educated in the types of food that are addictive, or why we want to overeat, binge eat or even gulp our food down and then there is all the cultural associations around food that we uphold which may not actually be supportive for the body. To get deeper with this topic and how our relationship with it affects our vitality, wellbeing, the knock-on effects that we tend to ignore is a very needed thing.
If as a society we got this one single thing right – the effects would be enormous.
We clearly are not eating to nourish our bodies for the potential of our Soulful beingness to shine through. It in actual fact feels like we are doing the opposite, that we are deliberately hindering our living true potential. Food has become a medication, a form of entertainment and an addiction in order to escape from the emptiness we feel from not living in honor of who we are within. If we were taught and fostered from a young age that our bodies are the marker and truest guide to knowing all that is true, then our relationship with food would be naturally honoured as one that supports true nourishment for our body, as medicine.
A really supportive sharing on food and its effects on us that we are not taught and the addictive nature of so much being added to it . The reality that we are what we eat and how we eat is very real and so it is easy to see the healing power of food and our living way in life working with us and our health and well being from here.
Jane I was listening to a video talk on food and genetics and was amazed just how much of the worlds illness could be transformed by adjusting our food, something I’m sure we all know. What I love here is that we have to look beyond just what we eat to heal the reasons why we turn to foods. That transforms insights into a living way that is medicine.
The whole education system could be overhauled to be based on teaching children self care, including nutrition, cooking and respecting their bodies. It’s necessary to teach children knowledge so they can work and contribute to the world as adults, but what’s the point when we have tired, unwell and overweight bodies, and the misery of not knowing our value and worth? If we only use self care to function but are unable to care for ourselves in a way that supports us to live truly vital and joyful lives, then we need to reassess how we parent, educate, and care for human beings.
If food and true nourishment was taught, then we would have to look at all that does not work. That would mean we would have to change… this we do not want to do. We want to hold onto all our comforts (that are in truth poisoning us) with everything we have got.
A rather glaring omission from our education both at school and in the home is to listen to the wisdom of our greatest teacher, our own body.
I absolutely agree – and the nourishment we need from food also changes day to day, according to our work load, and things going on in our lives and whether it’s a quiet week and we need to eat lighter or a busy week and we might need to rebuild at the end and how our bodies are feeling etc. There is so much detail we need to each personally feel into to know the exact nutritional nourishment we need at any particular time.
There is so much about food and the way we eat it, that does not support true nourishment. We are not taught about the need for flexibility depending on what we are living day-to-day, how our health is and what our bodies actually need. Instead, (I also include myself here) we often eat not to nourish, but to comfort and dull what we don’t want to feel. The end result is that our bodies have to cope with the double whammy of the un-dealt with emotion and the food that wasn’t needed.
Yes Jane, what is missing in our education system is the connection between food and our relationship with the body eg. we are told vegetables are good for us and eating x amount of vegetables per day prevents a particular illness or disease but what if that particular vegetable made us feel bloated and our tummy uncomfortable or the way in which the vegetable was cooked eg.it is recommended that we steam or lightly cook a vegetable but this way of cooking has an adverse effect on the body making it unsuitable to digest for whatever reason then that particular food is not going to support the body. We need to be educated to take responsibility for the food we eat and the impact food has on our body.
Does our relationship with food reflect our relationship with life? That nothing matters beyond the moment, so there is no need to pay attention to foods and how they feel in our body.
There is so much research on the harm of gluten and dairy on the body – why is it that we are still teaching the food pyramid in schools which has been shown to be nothing short of a lie?
There isn’t true food education in the world – which really should be our own bodies and how we feel after eating certain things, but humanity is at the point where we are numb to feeling the effects of foods. Serge Benhayon has delivered the quality behind foods, what supports the body and what dulls it, makes it racy or congested. With this wisdom, I am becoming much more sensitive to what foods support me and it is a very enjoyable journey.
The indulgence of food of all various kinds that are available, is quickly becoming a world wide addiction in the developing countries, how disgusting it is that part of the world throws out more food than what is available to those facing poverty and starvation. If we understood the true purpose of food and ate that way the huge food industry would definitely shrink, and so would obesity and food related diseases.
It has been a revelation to learn that we get most of our energy from the quality of how we choose to live day-to-day not from the fact of eating. The more gentle, unemotional and steady I am the less food I want to eat. The more toughened, emotional and in a state of flux I am the more I want to eat. To feel this has been fascinating. I can also feel how much I can drain and dull myself with certain foods.
“Food and True Nourishment – Why is it not Taught” – and also what is not taught is the importance of being in connection with oneself and with one’s body … and then understanding it; how it works and communicates to us to develop self-relationship. Because if we are nourished in this way, by this relationship, we would select foods that match that nourished level of already digested vibrational care and love.
There are some things… So blatantly obviously out of balance in our society and this is certainly one of them
I feel that our body naturally knows about nutrition and about how much we need and how often. Could it be that we are not willing to listen to our body because it means we would have to live more responsibly?
There is a lot of glamour around food. Food preparation, food ingredients, food presentation, tastes etc. So it makes sense for how hard it can be to educate on the real purpose and meaning of the different foods.
If I had been taught how to truly nourish myself I wouldn’t have needed to live with the levels of exhaustion that I have. What we eat and the way that we eat makes such a difference to the level of energy we have in our bodies.
Like you Jane I had cooking classes at school but nowhere in those classes was any education regarding the quality of the food I was eating, was it nourishing my body and how to tell if my body couldn’t deal with it. It’s crazy really when you consider that we take so much care to make sure we put the optimum fuel in our car but not in our body.
Yes, we are so far from that at the moment that it will take a while to put such considerations on the table. Sadly we now need to contend with vested interests wanting to keep the status quo because it suits corporate income as opposed to considering the health of the people first and foremost. Yet they can only justify the supply if there is still a demand, so perhaps by educating and starting this conversation demand will dwindle and supply will have to respond.
There is so much misinformation out there about what it means to have a healthy diet or what constitutes healthy food. Much of the so called ‘healthy food’ is more sugar laden than a piece of fruit and packed with preservatives and additives. And even if we think we’re eating healthily, if there’s any part of us that is eating to match a picture in or heads of how or what we think we should be eating, instead of eating what our bodies need and feel, then this is also an abusive way of eating, that is soon reflected back to us through our body.
When we use food as a reward or a comfort we disregard the effect on our body but when we eat and drink as nourishment for our body we are aware of the responsibility of nurturing our whole being.
Currently food is widely used as a form of comfort in our society and from reading the stats it is clear that this is affecting many lives. ‘…2.8 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese.’ When we truly listen to our body, it is very difficult to abuse it with food as it will guide us to eat in a way that nurtures our body and our whole being. So, it is worth listening to our body to nurture it instead of abusing it.
With the ridiculously vast variety of foods that are available in our civilisation today we are clearly not eating for nourishment and sustenance alone. Food has become an indulgence, an entertainment even an addiction, highlighting that we are desperately needing to ‘fill’ ourselves up with something. Take the indulgent food away and what are we left with, could it be that we feel the lack of love in our lives, that we feel for ourselves and with others, or the lack of connection to who we are and the abuse that we allow yet know deep down is not who we are? There is much for us to explore and much for us to re-learn about how we can live the true potential of who we are with the vitality that we are designed to live.
Beautifully expressed Carola. We use food along with many things to complicate and mask the emptiness we often feel from living with lack of love. When we reintroduce love back into our lives I feel this would change the way we treat our body and change our relationship with food.
Filling our emotional needs or rewards with food is a short term highlight and satisfaction. But what compromise do we accept in our body by having, only for a couple of seconds, a beautiful taste in our mouth? Is it truly worth it?
Understanding our relationship with food, the impact it has and the far reaching effects on our long term health and wellbeing, is one of our responsibilities as members of society. We simply have a duty of care to ourselves and the wider world.
Yes it is a great message to give that we do know what to eat, what not to eat… we know it exactly if we listen to our bodies. The thing is that we learn that food advise comes from outside of us, from books and on the internet and if we are really lost we have to visit a dietician and nutritionist to support us. I am not saying this is wrong but I feel we should be more empowered to know we do know these things inside out ourselves because of the fact we have a body which is responsive to food and everything we do in life.
I am very aware of the effects of food but I still on a daily basis choose to dull this awareness.. I wonder what it would be like if I nailed food for one day and honoured my sensitivity and awareness. I don’t think being super-aware killed anyone.
So true Arianna – the ‘hiding’ of the true ingredients in food will one day be exposed as one of the all time biggest scandals – dwarfing anything around cigarettes. With so many lies being told, all the more reason to only listen to the only truth-teller in the equation – our bodies.
I just watched a documentary about Sugar. There was a plethora of fascinating stuff in it. But something that really stood out for me was the speed at which the body recovered when the presenter cut sugar out of his diet. Our bodies are incredible and amazing and, if we start to make responsible choices, will rapidly start to return to their natural vitality.
Our bodies are true miracles- I agree! On the other hand, the fast recovery of the body gets misused by many as it is the perfect excuse to continue consuming food or substances, that does actually harm instead of nurturing us. Because they know and play with the fact that after a certain while the body will recover.
In the animal kingdom food is used to fuel the body, in the human world its used as a reward , its used as a bribe , its used to impress people, it has also been used in blackmail , its also been used in punishment and a lot of this expressions are seen in advertising. So the education need to start with the adults and works its way down.
I used to believe that a little bit of everything was a good thing. There are 2 problems with this way of thinking. One is that it completely ignores the body’s communication, the other is that I never really knew what a “little bit” meant. I feel this is the same for the majority. A “little bit” is purely subjective and different for everything.
“More so, our physical body actually knows which foods truly nourish it and which foods deplete or burden it.”
This is a true way of education because it comes from the truth of the person, if kids were honoured, in their response to food, this would be a starting point of truth education.
I agree it would be invaluable to be taught from a young age re the purpose and value of food and nourishing ourselves, ‘to feel for ourselves the impact of foods that make us sleepy, foods that make us bloat, and foods that feel truly nourishing?’ With the understanding, and feeling the impact food has on us, we are free to make new choices.
The current reality of how people often use food is that it is used like any other illegal drug, in that many people numb themselves by eating heavy glutinous foods, stimulate their nervous system with caffeine and sugar, and over-eat to dull their senses. We have all used these techniques from time to time to not deal with an underlying issue, but in my experience the effects of food/drink used in the wrong way has similar impacts as many illegal drugs on our body.
“Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese.” (4) ”
This is very incredible to think, we are the being with the highest intelligence and 2.8 million of us are overeating and killing ourselves.
I agree that this is an astonishing statistic. But it is important to look much deeper than just the notion of ‘over-eating’. We are living in a way that separates us from our innate vitality and joy and thus we crave the ‘highs’ of food to compensate. This need from us combined with the incredibly scientific and purposeful way in which food manufactures (or should I call them drug dealers) deliver us that exact ‘high’ means that it is much more complicated than just ‘over-eating’ and until we look at it with a full understanding we will just keep going around in circles, getting rounder!
To be taught about the true value and purpose of food, how it is for nourishing us would be an invaluable teaching in schools.
Great call to look at the responsibility we have for all aspects of our relationship with food, buying and preparing it, consuming it for nourishment and then listening to the messages our body feeds back to us so that we can constantly refine what is required.
As there has recently been research done with restricting the diets of those with diabetes with encouraging outcomes in the reversal of the condition it shows what is possible when we become willing to recognise what we are doing not just to our bodies but also to the planet.
A little bit of what you fancy is the general method used concerning what we are taught around food, we have nutritionists saying some sugar and loads of carbs work, we have yoga teachers saying this pose is good for a hangover.
We have to get real concerning the message we get around well-being and discern for ourselves what is true for us, we need honest accounts of what food supports and the difference between what we want to eat and what actually supports our bodies, this can also come together if we begin to appreciate caring for ourselves.
Hmm, using our body as a daily barometer is something that would give it all away. We so avoid doing this and so often overwrite what our bodies are communicating because our mind can justify our behaviours or simply allow us to not see or notice the impact of our choices.
Having just come through the Christmas period and have observed the yearly panic, aggression and last minute rush in the supermarket as if there are food shortages. It does seem bizarre that for one day we stock pile to the hilt and massively overeat.
I agree there definitely needs to be more awareness and education with food and the addictive nature of it etc especially education within school. Shocking statistics and makes me feel what a greedy world we currently live in. That alone tells us something is desperately wrong with how were are living that we can have increased obesity yet at the same time people still starving.
What if we were taught from an early age, or educated in our schooling, about the true value and purpose of food, and that it is purely to nourish the body? Well for starters so many health problems would be avoided and people would be living in a way that allowed them to be true to themselves and by not numbing the body with over eating or the wrong foods, the bodies messages would be loud and clear.
Jane, it is so common for us to do this and yet reading it like this makes me realise how crazy it is; ‘it never dawned on me to listen more to my body about what it had to say about food and nourishment – and I kept on eating those same foods day in day out, despite the obvious symptoms they were causing.’
Wow imagine where society would be now if we had all had an education that fully covered healthy eating and how our thoughts and movements affect us. For sure we would be in a much better place one that had less suicide less depression and less loneliness. Get our foundations right – sleep, healthy eating and positive feelings and we have all the rest covered.
“….the way you eat today is an investment in how you will feel tomorrow…” – brilliant Jane, agree, and the simple elements to foundation: what we are today we build for tomorrow..
I was with a group of health professionals yesterday and the amount of chocolate/cake/salt etc that was consumed was enormous. Surely nutrition ought to be an important subject in the education of health care professionals?
I agree Elizabeth. However, maybe there is an element of us not wanting to know too, as that means being asked to look at what we do eat?
Leadership through inspiration and example is the only way to truly instigate change.
Imagine being taught that the way we eat, the quality of our movements and what we say all can impact on whether we truly nourish ourselves or drain and exhaust our lifeforce.
If we get the foundation of eating well right in our early years this can support us throughout our life time in so many ways, get this wrong and we will be forever playing catch up with our own evolution.
It is shocking to read the figure of so many who are dying from being overweight or obese. and it is sad too, because each person has left behind people who loved them, and this is revealing, because to feel the love that is there for you is actually very fulfilling.
“…and at school we did have cooking lessons, I was never taught that eating is purely to truly nourish the body” -agree Jane, they were the same for me too… i remember home economics classes being bland, boring, functional, one size fits all, and as a result dropped the class as an option as soon as i could. Food can be medicinally nourishing and magically interesting when it’s used to support the body in its harmony and flow… and delicious when that’s consumed.
“What if we were taught from an early age, or educated in our schooling, about the true value and purpose of food, and that it is purely to nourish the body?” Such an important lesson to learn. Questioning as to why I feel hungry when I know I can’t truly be so gives me an opportunity to nominate how I’m feeling. The ‘hunger; then disappears! |Magic!
It’s true Jane, we can eat driven by our emotions to indulge and distract ourselves from feeling what we don’t want to feel or, we can eat to nourish and fuel our body.
It is clearly evident that our bodies are not coping with the onslaught of food that we are submitting them to. The explosion of obesity, diabetes and other food related illnesses that we are experiencing today is sending us a strong message that we are on the wrong track. For not only are we championing and advocating indulging in overriding our senses and the communication from our bodies but we also continue to consume foods that are known and proven to cause us harm. Our current understanding and relationship with food and our bodies is not supporting us to live with the optimum health and vitality that we deserve. As you say here – ‘Only when we understand and build a true relationship with food will the statistics on obesity and diabetes, and on related issues such as food waste, be different.’ For there is far greater vitality that we can be living with and it begins from developing an honouring and loving relationship with the truth in our bodies.
If we were taught from an early age, or educated about the true value and purpose of food then we would see an entirely different society to what we currently see.
Food to be used purely to nourish the body. As opposed to eating to drown our emotions, to numb or stimulate us away from our awareness. That our sensitivities need not be attacked by feeding the body substances that make it feel sick. These conversations are much needed in the world today.
If I don’t eat well my whole out look on life suffers, I become moody and have less energy. It makes such a fundamental difference to eat healthy to absolutely all areas of our lives therefore it is imperative we receive the true education around this subject which when we get it right will support us throughout our life.
Our excessive and rather indulgent nature with food reveals more about our lack of true honesty and rather stubborn and arrogant attitude than it does about our lack of intelligence. We all have the smarts to know when we are over eating or not yet we stubbornly continue to eat more than we need or eat the wrong foods. We are not dumb but maybe we are deeply sensitive and on some level “need” food to ‘protect’ or rather dull ourselves from what and how we truly feel.
Just imagine if we were all so in touch with our bodies that we only ate what we needed, bought just enough to do this, and kept staying in touch with our bodies in this way. The world’s supply and demand of food would be extraordinarily different.
Most of us live from meal to meal – what sort of quality of life is this when our highlights of the day is all about food?
Why do we not live in such a way where we eat to nourish and support our bodies? It would suggest that we stopped listening to our bodies and are driven many times by our ideas and beliefs or strategies to protect ourselves from negative emotions.
We seem to be slipping further away from having a healthy relationship with food and our bodies and yes our health stats are indicative of this… when I view my body as a vehicle I am more practical and respectful about the care of it, just as I am with my car, ensuring that it can support me to get about.
Great analogy Matilda. As we don’t feed our cars with the inappropriate fuel to make it work, we can’t eat what sickens us to be healthy.
I know myself how something that tastes good and is considered an ‘every now and again’ treat can end up being a daily pattern. It is is so very easy to fall into negative eating patterns when we A. do not have true healthy role models , B, are not told the importance of food on our physical and mental health and C. do not look at the real cause of why we eat certain foods. Without true education of this vital subject we are all left floundering.
I remember years ago when I was taught anatomy and physiology (with a new age slant), that food only gives a certain percentage of our nutrition, I had no idea what the presenter was talking about (and I still don’t actually). But what I do know is that the way we move, breath and thus live can be extremely nourishing. The way we move through our day connecting back with our body and staying present with ourselves can change health and well-being immeasurably.
Thank you for this reminder – that is so true
Eating well is the absolute foundation if we want to have true joy and true success in our lives get this right and we have the building blocks for everything we could need.
Until we humans (the intelligent beings) get to realise we are creating “junk food” and then eating “junk food” nothing will truly change, the illnesses will get worse and worse. There should be no need for education of our children, it should just be a learning. Perhaps we could learn from our “not so intelligent creatures” on how to do it. Eating is a learning for each person once each person learns this, then children will have a knowing of what is already built into their body.
It is really interesting, and very much to the detriment of our health and wellbeing that food has become so much more than the nourishing necessity it is and has become (many centuries ago) a symbol of wealth, affluence, celebration, comfort, reward, punishment, indulgence, fun etc… By loading it with all these other meanings we have lost sight of its purpose and that is to support our body, our vehicle of expression, to be harmonious and express to the fullness of our potential to the best of our ability.
2.8 million dying every year of obesity is extraordinary statistics. Even though there is a lot of research and evidence on what nourishment is and why we need it. For me it feels that this is not really being looked at and shared so it is accessible to anyone at any given moment when they want to take responsibility for the health of their body by what they put in it.
When I was growing up food soon became all about the taste and sweetness of it – though I remember that when I was very young I would at least listen to my body when it was full and leave my plate in whatever state it was. So it is at that moment when a child is still very honouring of the body that true education like you described Jane would be super beneficial. Because without the confirmation of how great it is to leave your plate when you had enough and not eat things that don’t feel good in the body, at some point you give up (at least that happened for me) and join the eating for pleasure that many people do.
When the food industry is truly studied and deeply observed one would see that the only reason false information about food can be so easily advertised and propergated in some cases as legal truths which they are not (such as sugar and fats) is because the masses are swallowing the lie hook line and sinker. In effect to have a true and loving relationship with food one must be very willing to be open and responsible with how they are with food.
Very true, we can’t blame the industry solely because they are supplying a demand. So why have we demanded this in the first place? Looking at why we want sugar, salts, fats etc helps make sense of the bigger picture.
Food has become a total commodity and not something that is there to support us being in physical form
We seemed to have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous now, where a good lifestyle is all about creating and eating amazing creations of food dishes. Moving from eating to nourish ourselves to a form of entertainment and a past time which delivers emotional fulfilment.
Having spent the day recently in school with teenagers I have been surprised at how unhealthy many of them are, the impact of poor eating can be seen in many ways not just the physical, many of the teenagers I spent time with had a lack of vitality and zest for life. Could it be that what we choose to eat has a greater impact on our mental health then many care to notice.
Thank your Jane for starting the “conversation that we need to have”. There would also be other benefits for everyone in more awareness of what we eat and that beside the waste factor we would have more savings. Then there is the thought of the waste that could instead be going to those in need and not landfill.
Quite often the need for comfort can outweigh the obvious benefits of listening to my body’s messages. But this can only last for so long because eventually the messages become so loud and clear, making the choice to listen that much more necessary. And this is perhaps simply how we learn, through the varying degrees of the loudness of our messages as we pick and choose which ones we will listen to and which ones we will override. Constantly developing our sense of self and of what works.
How amazing it would be if we were all taught from a very early age that “the way you eat today is an investment in how you will feel tomorrow”? I feel it would be revolutionary, paving the way for a population that would be living with a much greater quality of health and health statistics that are nowhere as shocking as the ones you shared. I am going to take this with me today and take the time to observe whether I am considering that the food that I eat is an true investment in my life.
Thank you Jane I like this part “Animals in the wild eat only what is needed , yet we as humans – who claim to be the most intelligent species ” Think about it this ” intelligent species ” creates junk food and if this is not silly enough we even sell it , eat it and market it . It makes one wonder .
A healthy diet is essential if we want to have real joy in our lives, if we just eat junk then soon or later our emotional and physical health suffers.
Or we could turn it around and say that our emotional health is what is determining what we eat. When our emotions are choosing the foods we eat, they won’t be choosing what our body truly needs, but what is needed to keep the re-action going.
This makes me question how intelligent are we if we choose to over eat to a point where it is slowly killing our body. When we connect to the intelligence of our body it guides us as to what to eat, when and the nourishing quantity. It is when we ignore the intelligence of our body that leads to illness and disease.
‘The way You way today is an investment in tomorrow’ Absolutely brilliant. Love it!
with 2.8 million people a year dying of obesity, surely this is the writing on the wall that governments must be able to read despite the ongoing reinforcement of institutions like the sugar industry to keep the old status quo.
For a long time I judged supermarkets and shops to put so much bad food out there. And they do. But it is us, people who are demanding it. Supply and demand.
And very rightly so, nobody gets educated about what food really means, and how it can serve or not serve us in our lives. Education should start with our parents, and be supported by education.
Only this morning I heard on the radio that a survey was done and children thought cheese came from plants!!! This alone says we are not talking and discussing about food, nutrition, health and well-being enough as well as far too many processed foods being eaten.
Wow! That really does indicate just how far removed from reality we are. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and our children so at the very least we can make a clear choice. Next comes the quality of the choice and the honesty about reasons why we choose to eat what we eat.
That even one person in the world is dying of obesity is a sad indictment of our society’s relationship with food. Our body does know which foods nourish us and how much to eat yet we are still not fully listening to the wisdom within.
What is really disturbing is when one reads of how things like the sugar industry in America conducted a relentless PR program to get the population to change to sugar from fats, and how sponsored scientists eventually became the head of the whole American agriculture Department. When we choose to feel into what is actually going on in this world it gives us the opportunity to actually empower ourselves to be who we truly are by making our own decisions and our choices.
In the past I ate a vegetarian diet because it thought it was good for me I knew dairy didn’t agree with me so I cut it out and also sugar, these days my diet has changed as I connect to my body and feel much more the effects of certain foods on my moods and vitality, it is a continual learning of listening to the wisdom of what the body shares and making loving choices.
Over the years I have eaten to comfort, to soothe, to socialize/for entertainment, to fit in, to be good, to show appreciation, for an ideal way of being [as a woman], as opposed to nowadays eating for myself, to nourish and support my body towards a vitality aspect. When we eat for the body not the mind or emotion, not only do attitudes and buying decisions when it come to groceries change, but so does the body and shape too, and with it our personal or self-relationship.