I love to eat.
I don’t just love to eat, it’s another level for me.
I love to plan a menu, to shop for the food touching and smelling produce (have you ever noticed how some tomatoes smell like a tomato, and some smell like nothing?). I love to feed my family & friends, as food is actually a love language for me. Eating clean, nourishing, seasonal foods is one of the ways that I show love to myself and yes….there are definitely times that the foods that I choose are far from “clean”, although those occasions have become fewer and further between.
To drive home how much I love to eat (as if I need to elaborate any further), I’ll actually go to Italy…just so I can eat!
Why? What possible reason could there be to fly all the way to Italy just so I can eat pizza, pasta, bread & pastry?
The simple ‘why’ that I have to offer, is because the food in Italy is clean; eating foods that contain gluten here in the US make me instantly bloated and lead to inflammation, while those in Italy do not. This is not a psychosomatic reality, but an absolute truth.
Our food is treated with chemicals from seed, more chemicals in the growing, farming and processing, more chemical ingredients to preserve, more chemicals in the packaging…..it’s insanity. The is so much toxicity in our food that it’s no wonder that obesity, pre-diabetes & diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, osteoporosis, and so very much more can result from not only over eating, but especially from what you eat. I can’t tell how how many clients and students struggle with health issues that can be corrected with not just how much they eat, but what they’re eating. You can eat a very low calorie diet, but if your food is ‘dirty’, lacking nutrition and fat, the issues will persist.
We have been taught that reaching for a processed, non-fat yogurt is healthier than one that is full fat with far fewer ingredients. This is so fantastically incorrect…our body needs (healthy) fat!
Did you know that our body needs cholesterol; especially our brain? Did you know that there are recent studies showing that healthy (HDL) cholesterol is a primary factor in preventing Alzheimers opposing past beliefs that cholesterol causes Alzheimers & dementia!
Are you shocked by these claims, believing “our government would never encourage ‘healthy eating’ initiatives that aren’t actually healthy!”?
Check out this ‘Food Compass’ by the Tufts School of Nutrition, funded by millions of taxpayer dollars. It comes from a nutrient profiling system which provides algorithms to assess the healthfulness of foods based on the nutrient composition and was rolled out during a conference focusing on nutrition, health & hunger hosted by the White House in September, 2022.
A nutritious whole egg (YES! Eggs ARE nutritious) fried in butter (YES! Good, clean organic butter IS nutritious) is at the very bottom, far below Frosted Mini Wheats, Lucky Charms, Canned Pineapple in heavy syrup, Almond M & M’s…what the actual f*ck?
I used to love McDonald’s! Oh my gosh…Chef Boyardee Ravioli was my go-to comfort food when I was feeling unwell as a kid.
Let me tell you, that you could not pay me to eat that shit now.
Can you imagine that our children are fed that garbage in schools as if there’s anything of greater value in this world than our children and their health.
Why don’t schools offer Home Economics programs any longer? Why don’t schools have community gardens and grow/raise the food that they feed our children?
This information is sickening, quite literally. Fortunately, there is a fair of information being published to debunk this “most comprehensive, science-based nutrient profiling system to date”, but UNfortunately, you’ll have to search to find the information.
So…with this nonsense guiding and educating our society on what to eat for health (starting with our children in schools), what are we to do? What do we eat? Are we really supposed to eat full fat foods? That goes against everything that we’ve learned!
I’m not going to dive into the whats, how’s and why’s of government involvement in what we eat (ugh….what our children are fed in school….again, it makes me cry); it’s pointless. I prefer to move from a place of getting educated, and then claiming my super power of choice!
I would also like to clarify that specific eating styles such as vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, Paleo, Keto, etc are not necessarily comprised of clean options. As a matter of fact many of these eating preferences contain primarily processed foods. Have you ever looked at the ingredient list of vegan meat substitutes? It’s literally disgusting made primarily of highly processed, inflammation ingredients. Do you eat this stuff because you’re an animal lover? Cool! But how do you think the processing of these foods impacts the environment? We need to think and look beyond our values.
I’m not trying to take a shot at vegan/vegetarian eating, not even close. What about Keto? Sure, you’ll lose weight and do so quickly, but eating a high fat diet of factory farmed chicken, topped with a brick of cream cheese and a bag of frozen broccoli does not equate to clean eating.
Weight loss is not a benchmark for eating clean, healthful food.
Circling back around…What does eating clean actually look like?
Well….first off, clean eating means ditching our delusions. The first stop in health and wellness is quality of mind and exercising our will-power (for gods sake…meditate!); the second stop is to make simple swaps or additions to your diet. It’s not initially easy but as you set and achieve baby step goals, it becomes infinitely easier and the alternative becomes a non option.
Start to shop organic. It’s more expensive and with the cost of food these days, it means eating less which is a good thing, especially if you are over weight which has been proven over and over again to be extremely detrimental to ones health.
Some additional tips include:
*beginning to add one dark green vegetable to your diet each day
*learn about inflammation causing foods; simply ask Google “what foods cause inflammation” and then look for them in ingredients
*read ingredients and choose foods with minimal ingredients, only ones that you can pronounce and are familiar and devoid of inflammation causing ingredients
*choose one staple meal that you eat on the regular and seek ways to make it clean
*participate in a simple, convenient, self-guided program to learn what to eat and how to prepare it such as my ESM2 (eat. sleep. move. meditate)
21 Day Lifestyle Program
We cannot depend on anyone but ourselves to provide healthy, clean, organic foods to fuel our bodies, minds & even our energetic system. Things need to change. We must choose to change. If you want to stop feeling like shit, mentally emotionally and certainly physically, I implore you to reconsider making the doctor your go-to and begin to adopt clean eating.
My friend, this is indeed an urgent call to action.
Scroll back up to the picture at the top of this post….I’m eating pizza and drinking a glass of wine! Re-read the very first line of this post…
“I love to eat!”.
What I am suggesting here has nothing to do with deprivation, but has everything to do with indulging in, savoring and loving every delicious bite that you put into your mouth. What I am suggesting is flexing your will-power muscle (exercised through meditation) and choosing foods that not only taste good, but feel good in your body, mind, emotions and energy.
Choose YOU!
Choose to not only nourish but to worship your body!
My beautiful friend, you are worthy!
I send you love and great big hugs…
xxxooo,
Cher
