| Obesity levels are rising to over 67% of the US | | | | One of the other challenges of modern culture is the |
| population and children are also developing health | | | | over supply of food in the environment and the lack of |
| problems reserved for the over 45 population. In | | | | the need for food considering we don't move as we |
| Europe, obesity is also a rising problem and countries | | | | used to. Reconnecting to YOUR body's natural ability |
| such as Italy have introduced the SLOW FOOD | | | | to understand what it wants is perhaps the most |
| movement. The Slow Food movement is both a | | | | important skill to learn in order to avoid being |
| resistance to fast food and a practice of enjoying | | | | overwhelmed by environmental factors in your food |
| home cooked food with family and loved ones in a | | | | choices. |
| calm environment. | | | | The first step to get back to some sense of what |
| I remember the first time I went through an American | | | | your body wants is to follow the Italians and slow |
| drive through and experienced what I had only seen | | | | down. Think about the reason you may choose a |
| on TV. It was 1997 and I was a tourist from Australia | | | | convenience or processed food. If you are choosing |
| in Colorado with a group of new American friends. We | | | | food because it's there, "you don't have time", "its |
| had one day on the road to see as much as possible | | | | cheap", understand your choices are creating your |
| and it was getting late. In a flurry to get back to camp | | | | future and your children's future health - or lack there |
| we pulled into a drive thru (even the word "thru" is | | | | of. |
| shortened!) the driver yelled at us and then yelled at a | | | | Education about what foods are supportive for you is |
| box and suddenly some sort of wrap was on my lap. I | | | | a gradual process. Sensing what foods are right for |
| laughed to myself as I realized I was truly in America | | | | you will change throughout your lifetime as the body |
| and no one else in the car understood how foreign the | | | | chemistry changes. If you have an obsessive |
| experience was to me. | | | | attraction to unhealthy foods then take a step back |
| Convenience foods are so taken for granted in the US | | | | and see if you're actually craving some other sort of |
| that the alternative is seen as inconvenient. Marketing | | | | emotional need or high. Highly processed foods act like |
| and food supply companies have done everything to | | | | sugar in the body and sugar is just as much a drug as |
| make junk food and processed foods more easily | | | | alcohol. |
| affordable, available and "fashionable" than real food. | | | | Reintroducing fresh fruit and vegetables is the most |
| So when do we start to take the time and make the | | | | important step to reeducating your taste buds and |
| effort to fight for the right of good old fashioned fruit, | | | | brain to the body's more balanced response to what |
| vegetables and whole foods? There is the impression | | | | to eat and how much to eat. In traditional medicine, |
| that time is the aspect that you have the least choice | | | | fasting and abstinence from food for a short period |
| over in modern American culture. | | | | was also a good way to re-calibrate the body's natural |
| What to eat has become a hot topic with the popular | | | | response for nutrients. You can try short periods of |
| press pushing one new diet after the other. Marketing | | | | abstinence from a particular food to test how you |
| by food companies attaches emotional and "feel | | | | react to that food when you reintroduce it into your |
| good" vibes to products. | | | | diet. Most importantly, start finding ways where you |
| When food becomes a fashion, an emotion or a | | | | have MORE choice over what food you have |
| choice made by a fad diet, there is a disconnection | | | | available, so you have whole foods you enjoy that are |
| from the hunger centers of the brain and the body's | | | | good for you. |
| natural response for nutrients. | | | | |