When it comes to eating healthy there tends to be a need to vilify something. We group certain foods into categories as “good” and “bad” and think it somehow will help us determine what exactly it is we should eat in order to be healthy. This grouping can actually cause some damage.
First, it can make us focus on the bad – like that sugar filled treat we know is a detriment to our health – and remind us of what we can’t have, instead of all the good we can have. And second, and perhaps more important, when we start to pay attention too much to all the rhetoric about what is good and what is bad as suggested by all different kinds of sources, we in large part lose trust in ourselves to know what really does works.
And to trust our body and its infinite abilities to balance itself for wellness.
The body wants homeostasis. We make it hard to obtain.
A major enemy in the quest for wellness is the lack of credence and understanding we give to our own body’s abilities.
And to get that balance we have to give the body a chance and I know we do that with real, honest-to-goodness food. I hear a lot of talk on line and even with clients about this study or that report that takes a perfectly good food (in it’s real, unaltered state) and demonizes it – all for the mighty dollar. We do it all the time when we talk about meat.
These marketing gimmicks and “special reports” are not an accident. And we need to really listen up and question not only the source of such material but the potential reasons for such reports.
We are being duped.
I promise you.
And people stand to make a lot of money by this duping. But worse, it causes us to question the basics of what it means to eat and live healthy. It keeps us scrambling for answers, questioning the wrong things, and creating an enemy that is frankly unnecessary.
Good food – real food – is *never* the enemy for our body. It doesn’t cause unhealthiness, only contributes to wellness. If you take something real, like an apple, and confuse it with a fruit bar “containing apple” that is “natural”, (when in fact there is nothing more than 4 different sources of refined sugar and processed carbs) you’ve been duped.
Stick to eating real food, question how food is made and manufactured, and make conscious choices about what to eat and why. Your body will reward you.
When it comes to food and health, it’s basic.
If you are eating real food – no labels, no preservatives, no processing – you are giving your body real nourishment. Period.
Real nourishment allows your body to do its job: to breath well, think clearly, move with some ease, sleep soundly. Real nourishment found in vegetables, fruit, fat, good sources of lean, sustainable protein feeds your body and brain, and balances your your body so it can do it’s job of healing, if necessary, and functioning optimally.
I don’t know anyone really who doesn’t want the energy to do good, be good and feel verri well. I dare say we all want it.
And we deserve it.
Being healthy does not have to be complicated. Keep it simple!
And pay attention to the persuasive messages that confuse you and steer you away from the truth.
They are the real enemy.
