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 Keep, Phd, MPhil, MSc, FCIPD, MIC, CMgr, FCMI, London, UK
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
885 Comments
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.
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.
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.
Here here Lieke. Many years ago I searched high and low for advice, from books, from practitioners for dietary things – but in all of that I never actually asked my body – and at times I was following dietary fads and my body was suffering from them.
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.
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.
Absolutely agree Otto. I know if I have made a poor or dishonouring food choice my body shows me loud and clear, and then recovers very quickly when we deepen our honouring and truly listen to it. The learning we get from this is brilliant.
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.
Healthy eating has been and still is such a lie because the world sells us all manner of sugar and fat laden things under the label of healthy eating. People can be drowning in sugar, fat and preservatives and they believe they are looking after themselves. Listening to the body is the key in all of this, for if we feel the outcome of these food items that are mis-sold as healthy, we will soon discover how they feel if we are prepared to pay attention.
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 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.
Listening to our body as a marker or guide for how, what, when, how much etc to eat is truly simple and works – our body is equipped to know what it needs we just need to be wiling to listen to it, and this is something I find there is a never-ending refinement of… It’s not that we can’t be aware of recommendations or nutritional advice but being aware of how our body responds to different foods gives us the marker that lets us know what works for our whole body and being.
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.
I agree Sam as regards to the foundations in daily living. It is a great place to start to turn our life around and to support us if we look at our daily living choices which include not just food, nourishment, but also hydration, exercise, rest, sleep, etc.
“….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?
Well said Elizabeth. Core foundational education for healthcare professionals could be all about their own self care and self regard and getting to know their own body first so as to understand others more, and so as to be shining role models and examples in the healthcare system of what is possible.
Leadership through inspiration and example is the only way to truly instigate change.
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?
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.